whathappened

...its nearly christmas....so it is time to move on!!
recent haps....
Hallowing came and went like ichabod crane on a horse. laura sent us those classic scary stories to listen to while admiring our masterpiece of a pumpkin. we got so scared listening to 'em that we had to cut them short. it took too long to get to sleep- we had to hold each other and just when we were about to dose off one random light turned on in the house. we felt like a ghost was roaming around and didn't want the lights out. SCARY!! we prayed and were able to get to sleep.

the day after my birthday i found out that we had a miscarriage (oh yeah- we were pregnant for a little while). i had a D+C a few days after and have recovered well. to make things a little easier on my emotions we put a cute little christmas tree up and lights in our living room. i have had the tree up for about a month already and i love it. isn't it cute?
we are going to utah for christmas!! we leave in 15 days!! i can't wait to go home- i don't know what i would do if i couldn't be with my family for the holidays!! it will juano's and my first christmas together married!! this picture was taken last year around this time right after we were engaged.

after pealing ourselves off of the church sidewalk we dressed quickly in the car and walked the few steps to the temple. no one noticed us walk away from the church with our sleeping gear so we acted like everything was normal. we enjoyed another session and also doing a bunch of sealings afterward in the tiny temple.
as soon as we got out of the temple we all felt ready to start our next adventure. we stormed the pantry at safeway and hit the road. juano drove as i stuffed turkey and peperjack cheese sandwiches and flaming cheetos down his throat. it was kind of a lengthy drive but well worth it- we were headed for the south point and THE GREEN SAND BEACH!!
this was one of the highlights of our trip- we walked the windy walk to the fabulous green bay and swam our little hearts out in the beautiful water. this is juano's favorite picture of him catching a wave. it was really hard to leave but we were betting to bum a ride back so we ran to the top of the hill before some of the other swimmers hoping they would see us walking and have pity on us. a cute couple with a load of southern hospitality stopped for us. we all piled in the back of their rented jeep. what a ride. we thought we might roll over or worse a couple of times. we did it DAVE style.
after we brushed ourselves off and got comfortable in the car. we jetted over to the lava flow to see if we could get there before sunset. we didn't make it but got to see the glow of the lava flow for our last little adventure of the day. afterwards we went to the Hanza's-our big island friends for a warm bed on the rainy side of the island.

its about time i tell you about our trip to Kona. The temple has been closed here in Laie for about 8 months now so we haven't been to the temple since we got married. so time was way over due and the opportunity arose to fly to big island for a temple trip. tickets were 25 bucks each way! you can't get any better than that!! So we flew into Kona early friday morning and went straight to the temple. We did baptisms and confirmations which was pretty sweet because we were able to do the work for Juano's Grandma.
After that we went snorkeling. we asked a guy how the snorkeling was in that area and he said it was excellent. What he didn't tell us was that its a rough and rocky entrance and exit from the water. We chose the boat dock route of entry and just after a few minutes Juano cut his foot. I was pretty determined to check out the reef there and being the stubborn person that i am i practically forced him to keep swimming. we swam around for a while chased a turtle and got a few good underwater pictures. then it was time to get out. the waves were crashing pretty hard against the rocks and there were a lot of sea urchin in the rocks. for those of you who don't know- sea urchin are poisonous and have quite a sting. one of our friends pointed out a 'good spot' for him to climb up out of the crashing waves. inevitably juano was pushed and pulled by the waves which caused him to grab on tight right in a sea urchins nest. so now not only did he have a chunk out of his toe but also about 20 sea urchin spines in his palm.
while juano did minor surgery on himself- plucking out the spines, i paced around trying to figure out what to do with myself and felt completely responsible....
the torture didn't end there....
we found a beach park after searching for 45 minutes and showered and got ready to go back to the temple. we went to a session and after we got out we had to figure out where we were going to sleep. hotels in Kona are ridiculous so we ruled that out. we had already check online to see if there were any camp grounds. nada. we had heard that the beach parks were dangerous. we told the temple president after our session that we didn't have a place to stay...that didn't click.
so... our only option was the chapel next to the temple. we slept on the grass.....until the sprinklers came on at 2 in the morning. then we moved to the sidewalk. at least we had an air mattress. the Chisms had only a single sleeping bag. it was a night to remember.

yesterday, we said goodbye to our little 10-day-daughter from japan. It was great fun to have her come and stay with us. we went ice skating and to the waterpark and of course the beach. She is from Aichi-ken somewhere near nagoya and she is only 11 years old. we could believe that a girl her age could leave her parents and come to live with perfect strangers in hawaii. she came with her classmates and english teacher. i taught three english lessons to the little group (3 boys and 2 girls) and it made me fall in love with teaching again. i love to teach japanese kids english because i know exactly what they are saying but still speak to them in english -har har har! (that is supposed to be the sound of an evil laugh). Yumeno was another girl that came with the group and the two of them became really good friends. they hung out a lot together which was fine because we are friends with yumeno's host couple- Arturo and Kirsten.
It was fun to play the mama and papa with her. she obeyed our every command just like a good little girl. and she loved my cooking!! that made me feel good. the only thing that juano really knows how to say in japanese is 'kokoro' which means heart so whenever he said it the girls giggled. they also told me that they prefer darker skinned boys over white kids. i stake my claim on juano. they were so much fun. a lot better at smiling for the camera under the water than me. HEY! i have to protect my contacts and i can't hold my breath!!

by a portuguese man of war.
which one of these do you think it was?
well if you used deductive reasoning and knowing that i am in hawaii and not i
n portugal you would guess the blue bubble above. i have lived in hawaii for about 3 years now and have always wondered what it felt like to be stung by one of this seemingly insignificant little guys- well my experience yesterday ended all my wondering.juano and i come to this beach often to go boogie boarding. we had just gotten tired of playing in the waves with the boards and started to play in the sand when the attack of the portuguese man of war occured. we thought we were really clever to make a little pool out of sand in which the water would spill into when the waves climbed up the beach. our little pool turned into a blue bubble trap. after one of the waves had subsided i felt something on the side of my leg between the two of us and thinking it was a stick or piece of ocean i started to grab for it. that is when i felt the sting. on my leg and my fingers. juano luckily didn't get stung because his shorts were protecting him. i wasn't so lucky. it hurt so bad!! a guy walking by noticed me writhing in pain and by the look on his face i could tell he had some experience with the little buggers. he said that it would be really painful for 20 minutes. well in my case it was over an hour. but i recovered. the sting didn't completely wear off for about 6 hours. i was surprised that such a little thing could could do that. reading up on it we discovered that you could even die from them...probably 1 in 100 million though- but still!!
just a day at the beach... (mountains anyone?)

we got our pictures from brynn this week and i just want to show you my favorites....there are many many more than this....

I started work a few weeks ago at Kualoa Ranch just a 20 minute drive from home in laie. check out this picture of the 4,000 acres of the working cattle ranch and tourist attraction. the thing I love about this place is the owners won't sell any of the land to developers, even though they have been offered millions for small pieces of it. they want to preserve the land and have actually found some plant species on the land that were considered extinct. It is an amazing part of the island in which many hollywood blockbusters have been filmed as well as the notorious TV series Lost.
anyway, so I work at the information desk in the visitors center. I just answer questions about tours and the surrounding area and check in guests and keep a big smile on my face everyday. I love my job so far! I get to use my japanese and play little tricks on the unassuming Japanese tourists. today a family came in and one of them spoke really good English so he was asking me questions and then translating for his family. they would ask him questions in japanese and then he asked me in english. When we finished up and they decided which tour to take the sister asked him where the restrooms were and I quickly replied in perfect japanese, "toire wa achira ni arimasu yo!" she just glanced at me with an incredulous look and turned to the direction of the toilet. nobody expects japanese to come out of a haole girl...hahaha!