"Hi, haole to you too!"- Rick from North Shore

I thought I would jump on the old blogger and give a little history of how the two sissies ended up in Hawaii (also pronounced Havaii).


It all happened close to a year ago from now. I came to visit one of my best friends from college, Brooke, for a week. I felt like God was calling me to move here (everyone says, "yeah right" to that... but for reals bra. At the time I didn't like Hawaii at all). Anyway, I miraculously found a job and stayed. That's the short version. Ben, Brooke's husband, was deployed to Iraq during that time, so I stayed with her for 6 months till he came home.


VISITORS
Then in February, I moved to the North Shore (holler). During that time I had many a visitors including my moms and pops, Nicole from Cali (what what), my favorite bro and sista-in-law, Josh and Amy, my sissy, J-Law (who wasn't really visiting me but was gracious enough to hangout with Jaime and I during "couple's night" and long enough to half-paint my kitchen "mellow" yellow. OK, not so mellow), Hil, Meish, Lisa, Hil again, and my parents again. Gotta love visitors especially when they bring one roll of toilet paper.


THE BEGINNING OF FOREVER
Jaime came out during my Easter Break. We had SUCH an awesome time. We went swimming in the ocean, walked to Foodland, and most importantly- took surf lessons together (holler). She kept saying, "Why do I live in Stockton and you live in Hawaii?" over and over again. For those of you who don't know much about Stockton... it was just rated the #1 City for Crime per capita in California (that means more crime than Oakland and South Central LA). Our week together was the beginning of what would end up being the rest of our lives. Hopefully. Although, I don't know if she would agree with me.


THE ROAD LESS TRAVELLED (for good reason)
Getting Jaime to Hawaii was a task. Probably because we overbooked our summer vacation. The week before we came back we (and when I say we, I pretty much always mean "Jaime and I"), moved her out of her apartment, unpacked all her stuff into my dad's garage, helped the fam throw a suprise party for my dad, drove her car to Oakland to get it shipped, and then packed for Hawaii the day before leaving. In retrospect, our busy schedule was a Godsend. I don't think Jaime would have made the move otherwise. In fact, on the plane with both hands on the armrests, body tense, she looked over at me and asked, "Am I moving to Hawaii?" And I said, "No, you ALREADY moved to Hawaii. We're on our way!"


UP TO DATE, NOT UP TOO LATE -channel 6 news Lodi, CA
It's been a week since we've been back. And it's been great. I would want to say that it's been the best week of my life but that would probably make my life seem pretty lame.

8/2
Flew in. Went to dinner with some friends.

8/3 OOPS
Got up WAY too early and went for a hike up in Pupukea .
Lost my car keys, apartment keys, and PO Box keys on the hike.
**It's not the first thing you want to happen after you've dragged your "used to a comfortable living sissy" across an ocean to live with you in your beat up bungalo (as Jaime likes to call it. Others prefer the word "shack." The latest name I've heard was "little beach shack can house"). But check out the view! This picture is taken in front of the apartment looking towards the ocean.
Anywho... losing your keys on that particular hike means that you have an additional 3-4 mile walk back to your bungalo (if you happen to live in my bungalo), on top of the 3 mile hike that you've just completed. But like the rest of my life, God was watching my back. My passenger side door was unlocked (which is highly unlikely seeing how I have a beep-beep car opener and locker). So we were able to use my cell phone to call a neighbor.

8/4 FIRST SURFING WOUND
We had the itching to buy surf boards so we went to Surf and Sea. Originally we wanted to buy Softtop long boards. They're super easy to get up on. But you also outgrow them fairly quick so we decided to buy the real deal. We decided to rent the boards first to make sure we liked them and felt comfortable on them.
It wasn't a good time or day to surf. It was low tide and super windy which makes the waves choppy and makes it harder to keep your balance.
Before jumping right in, I decided to talk to one of the local surfers to get the low down on the ocean, waves, reef of this particular area. He gave me lots of helpful advice.
One of the crucial points of the advice was "stay to the side, out of the way of the other (experienced) surfers." So, while we were out there, we stayed to the side where there weren't any waves. I cut into the middle but Jaime decided to paddle in. This is where it gets good.
As Jaime was paddling in, Sunset Suzy (our original surf instructor from Spring Break- she happened to be out there) caught a wave behind her and started waving her hand at Jaime. At first Jaime thought S. Suzy was telling her to get out of her way. But then she realized that she was telling Jaime to catch the wave. So Jaime freaked out, tried to catch it, and ended up falling off her board. The reef took a nasty chunk out of her foot, and scratched her up pretty bad.
We went home took a nap, played on the internet, went shopping... and before we knew it, Jaime's foot hurt super bad. We took a look and it was all red and swollen. We spent the next 3 hours scraping it with a brillo pad, soaking it in vinegar, digging at it with scissors... Her foot is still infected, but we're remaining hopeful since Jaime is unemployed with no health insurance.

8/5 JAIME GETS BRAVE
Despite her nearly life ending injury, Jaime and I went and bought our very own surfboards today! Holler at yo surf instructa!!! We took some pictures that make us really look like we're local... and that we surf.... but we're not and we don't.

8/6 TIMBER AND FAREWELL TO OUR FAVORITE PRESIDENT
We went to Waimea Bay with Jerry and jumped off the rocks. It was scary but fun. ***Note from Jaime: Jeni has a bad habit of screaming from the minute she jumps off the cliffs til the moment she lands. Not the kind of chick you want around when you are standing on the top of a cliff with your bikini on, hoping no one sees you.****

We also had a special visitor in town. Well, she was visiting our neighbor, Jim but we snuck her away every now and then. It was fun hanging out with Regan but she had to go back to start up her volleyball season. Can you believe she's a college coach? She looks so young... The MaryKay* products have done wonders for her.
*Talk to your local representative about the products Regan uses. Or, if you don't have a local representative, I happen to know one on the North Shore.

8/7 POOPED OUT
A neighbor invited me to paddle around Three Tables Beach to Waimaea Bay with him but then pooped out last minute. I went by myself and almost pooped too. It was scary! I thought a shark was going to get me and there's a section where there's no beach so no one can see when you've been attacked. So, I pooped out too. ***Another note from Jaime: Jeni made me walk with her to one beach so I could CARRY HER FLIP FLOPS from the first beach to the second. THEN she decided not to make the swim all the way around and left me worrying my head off on the other beach while she enjoyed the sunset on beach #1 for 15 minutes and leisurely made her way back to the bungalo shack. Hmmmm....***

8/8 SURF'S DOWN DUDE
Went surfing. No waves, choppy water, no fun. Love my board though. ***(Me again) She looks SO cool carrying it though! Too bad I have three holes in my foot or I could look cool too. But hobbling just isn't as cool as it used to be.***

8/9 JOB SEARCH CONTINUES
Jaime interviewed for a job today. It sucked. More information to follow.



Jaime thinks this picture is goofy and didn't want me to post it BUT... it's an old Elson family tradition, I couldn't help it. Our mom always made us stand on the front porch on the first day of school and she would take a picture of us. Besides, it's too cute not to post. Hey gurl!