1. I do not call myself a photographer, but just one that is interested in photography. But as such, my friend Sonya invited me to assist her in photographing a wedding this past Saturday. And it was a blast! I love a good excuse to take pictures, and even though Sonya got to do most of the creative work, I got to use a Canon Mark II and learn a few tricks. I'm so looking forward to taking the summer to learn about aperture, and exposure, and composition, and using a flash. Thanks for inviting me Sonya!

P.S. Can you believe she is self taught over the course of a year? http://sonyaruthblog.com/

2. Since work will take my laptop in a few weeks, and our desktop was used by cavemen, I drove allllllllllll they way to the Apple store in Raleigh to buy a MacBook Pro. I feel so cool. Next on my list: Photoshop and an iPhone 4. As a technology facilitator it's my job to keep up with the latest tech tools right? Totally justifiable.

3. Sometimes you have to dance around your room to a Cake song. Sometimes.

4. Is it Summer yet? I must think I don't have any responsibilities because I'm not going to bed at a decent hour. Who wants to come visit and stay up late talking, rocking on the porch, and keeping me company?

5. 12 more days as a classroom teacher. It hasn't sunk in yet.

6. 2 months down! (9 to go?)

Today's List

1. Our friend Steve stopped by last week to help push my car out of the carport. He popped the hood, looked around, and put it down. The car started! I wouldn't have thought of doing that. Now, if I could just get rid of that pesky "check engine" light. Thanks Steve!

2. I'm totally winning at care packages this deployment. A box of books, dvds, and honey mustard pretzels was VERY well recieved. Hilary: 1, Deployment: 0. I hope Adam has time to shop for my birthday on this first port call. I like care packages too!

3. I keep telling myself I just need to hold on until the end of this school year. I just need to make it the last few weeks. Finish up with the kids, pack up my room, make it to PA for a Summer retreat. I am plodding on through, miserably. I just am so looking forward to having time. Time to sleep, time to enjoy being home without working on school, time to enjoy life. I want to sweep off the porch and sip lemonade. I want to take walks on cool evenings. I want to sit down and read a book. Cover to cover. And I want it to take less than 8 months to finish. Mostly, I want to sit down and take some time to myself without feeling guilty. Without feeling like I should be making a flipchart, or writing some plans, or researching for lessons, or grading papers, or....I just want to be done. I just want testing to be over, and grades to be final, and my room to be packed, and to have just one second to breathe. I just also want to finish strong, to finish as a professional, with a good attitude, and leave this school and leave the classroom on good terms. I don't want it to be that "I quit", but that "I am moving forward". I'm just over it. I'm done. Done with behavior, and paperwork, and...all of it.  And then I realize it. "This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it". I need to rejoice in each day. If I gloss over the parts that are hard, I'll miss something good. I might miss the lesson. I will not get any of those days back. Rejoice. Breathe. The days won't go by any faster by wishing them away. This is the day that the Lord has ordained for us, let us rejoice that He has given us a day to do good, to produce fruit, to glorify Him. Let us take every opportunity to it's fullest extent. Let us be content and recieve God's joy. Perspective.

4. I'm in a love triangle between me, my microwave, and my DVR. If there was a fire in my house and I could save only one item, I'd die of smoke inhalation before I could decide which one to take. The stove is getting a bit jealous though, I think it's in cahoots with the empty refrigerator.

List 5-15-11

1. The annual air show has been taking place this weekend. My neighbor Paige and I decided to go on over. There was a pretty specific reason we wanted to be there. Because today we rode in a Huey. It was Awesome with a capital A. I got a little taste of what my husband gets to do. The pilots even banked and rolled a bit for us. It wasn't exactly as cool as a cobra, but they weren't giving any rides in those. Thanks Paige for making me come with you!

2. My flowers are blooming, my herbs are growing, and some animal keeps digging in my pepper plants! Everything is in containers now except the hydrangea, ready to be taken to the new house (still on base), whenever that may be. Now I'm just wondering how I can get that hydrangea bush to the new house too. I really do love it's color and blooms.

3. The next five weeks are going to be extra challenging as I wrap up the school year with my students. Testing, conferences, packing up the room....I'm very unmotivated and not looking forward to dealing with most of it. The school year is completely consuming of all my time and energy. But I won't be at it much longer. 5 more weeks as a classroom teacher and I am DONE.

4. I am DONE because.....I have a new job at a different elementary school as a Technology Facilitator! If I could invent my ideal job, this would be it. Supporting staff, teaching them how to use technology, making technology tools for them, and working PART TIME. Out of challenging circumstances this opportunity arose and only because of certain circumstances did my principal put me up for the position. One answer to a prayer of many months and to the question "Why?"

" 'For I know the plans I have for you', declares the Lord, "Plans to prosper you and NOT to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future."" Jeremiah 29:11

5. That verse is currently written on my bathroom mirror. I've needed it.

6. I've been driving Adam's X-Earth since he left. A. Because I like it, and B. Because my "check engine" light is on in the Sentra and I haven't wanted to deal with it. Things have been so crazy around here, I forgot to start my car. For a month. Now it's dead. Luckily, a friend is coming tomorrow to push it out of the car port and jump it for me. Oops?

A Slightly Different Kind of List

1. I know it's been a while. Over the last two months I've started blog entries, but haven't been able to really find the words to say what has really been happening around here. So much has gone on. Good and bad. Blessings, all of it, no matter how hard.

2. How amazing to be in a community of wives who serve each other in the smallest and biggest of ways! I am so glad for my friends.

3. I miss my husband SO much. I don't know if I've ever missed someone in such a way before. And how amazing is he? So amazing as to be lifting me up and encouraging me from half a world away. He's practicing his spiritual leadership and I am so glad for a husband who can pick up where I leave off.

4. In all of this, I've seen how God is answering prayers and teaching me. Things had to happen this way. I've felt many emotions, but I've always felt a sense of peace too.

5. Last week I visited my brother, Greg, and his wife, Kim, in Rhode Island. We went to Boston, Cape Cod, and of course, around where they live, Newport. It was so nice to be in civilization. (I needed a break from Jacksonville) and see New England. The one downside is that Spring is fog season up there. So even though we drove down the coast of Cape Cod and walked the shore of the bay by the Newport Bridge, I couldn't see a thing. I knew it was supposed to be beautiful. The bridges, the cape, all of it. But I couldn't see past the fog. As we drove over the bridge, I could only see the part of the bridge we were on. Not behind us, not ahead of us. That's how I feel right now. In a fog. I can't go backwards. I can only go forwards. But I can only see the part of the bridge I'm on. I have to Trust God to help me to the next step, because when the fog lifts it will be beautiful. I know He's made it that way. I know He wants me to depend more on Him. To be fully dependent on Him. And I know that's why He's made things happen this way.

6. Adam is deployed, so he couldn't enjoy Boston with me. Greg insisted that I bring Adam with me next time.

7. I might consider becoming a Sox fan after an amazing tour of Fenway Park.

8. I'm saving the tour for when Adam is with me, but I did see the Mayflower and Plymouth Rock.



9. I threw responsibilities to the wayside and tried to enjoy the end of Spring Break by visiting Beaufort, NC. It just so happened that the wild horses and dolphins were enjoying a day there too.

10. I've always loved the ocean. So vast and deep and blue. It always puts things in perspective. I'm but a powerless speck of a human when compared to the power of the sea. It reminds me of God's omniscience, omnipresence, power, and peace. It puts me in my place and I relinquish the control I never really had. Oh, how happy I am to live near the sea.

A Very Random List:

1. This morning there was an email at work that on March 2 we would be having a Ben Franklin impersonator at our school to share the "Magic of Reading" with the kids. In response, I immediately broke out in laughter imagining the day going something like this: http://www.spike.com/video/office-dwight-vs-ben/2818200

2. While reading about Mary Breckinridge bringing much needed medical attention to the people of Appalachia, I intended to emphasize with my group that there were no hospitals. When asked why a mother and baby might have died during childbirth, (I was looking for "because there were no hospitals") one student responded "Well, maybe the baby was really big and it was kicking, and...." Maybe this isn't the book for seven-year-olds?
I laughed quite hysterically about that one on the way home.

3. Last night I was thinking about all the tiny things I can take to the Lord in prayer. I chose to pray about a roach I thought I might find in my house.

4. I laughed out loud to myself as I remembered: Life is too hysterical to be taken too seriously. No one gets out alive anyway.

5. I realized a roach's purpose in life: To make me brave.

7. My wonderful husband ordered my favorite chocolate from my favorite store in California, Chuao. I have a box of 25 "Firecrackers": Caramel fudge with chipotle chile and salt coated with pop rocks and then coated in chocolate. A-maz-ing. (Too bad the Marine Corps thinks that Valentine's Day should be celebrated in the field.)

8. Adam has been with his new unit over at Camp Lejeune since December. He loves it. He talks about it all the time. Alllllllllllll the time. I now make him spice up the convo by using everyone's call signs in lieu of real names. I also assigned this rule to my friend Jenn, when referring to our husbands. Conversations are now dabbled with names like "Slick", "JoeBob", "Cooter", and "Mouse".

The Hike

Two summers ago Adam deployed. Obviously, I went to Hawaii.
I have sweet friends who let me come stay and visit. I had a wonderful time and really want to visit them again soon. And not just because they live in Hawaii. Because I really miss them. (Yes, Val. Your recently emptied house again reminds me of when you lived there and I stopped by pretty much twice a day. And it will always be YOUR house. Until this summer. When they tear it down. We'll save that for another post.)

On my first full day there, Emily and Dorothy took me on a hike. I had been looking forward to it ever since we left the beautiful mountains of Southern California and moved to flat Eastern North Carolina. I powered through my jet lag, woke up, packed some water, and we left around 8 am. The mountain they took me to was Olomana:



Yes, the peak is hidden by the clouds.

Now remember, I had lived in flat NC for about two years. And my efforts to go to the gym are feable at best. I mostly enjoy nice strolls through the neighborhood. Or the mall. So as I faced this mountain whose top I could not even see, I figured "This will be easy, right?". If this chicken can do it, so can I.




Apparently, chickens and wild boars are common sights on these hikes.

 We walked up the road and to the start of the trail. There was mud and red dust that apparently is from dried lava. It was cloudy and drizzly. A hurricane was coming through, although, except for the clouds and drizzle, it didn't have any bite. As we made our way to the summit I stopped to take pictures every once in a while. We soon came to this point:


Gorgeous. Beautiful. I'd never seen anything like it. I was anxious to move along and get to the top. I was having a great time.

Of course, then things started to catch up with me. The hike became steeper. The trail was narrow. The elevation continued to climb. Remember how I mentioned I had been living in flat North Carolina? Remember that I do not like the gym? Remember that jet lag? There were quite a few times I needed to stop and catch my breath, sit down, and drink some water. I'm pretty sure Dorothy and Emily were going to get sick of the breaks. I thought maybe I should send them up without me and I'd meet them on the way back down. The hike didn't get any easier either. At parts of the trail there were ropes. Yes, actual ropes tied to trees. These were to help hikers climb the ROCKS. Steep rocks. Yes, in more than one location.

Ok, so jet lag, out of shape, recent inexperience hiking, oncoming elevation sickness......But I had to do it. 1. I knew it was going to be worth it. I knew the view at the top would be extraordinary. I so needed a picture of it! 2. I really, really, desperately needed to pretend that I was not out of shape and that I could, in fact, keep up with my jogging, moutain climbing, living in Hawaii friends.

So I kept on.

And I made it!



Now, I'll make a small confession. This is only the second summit. The third was at the top of another HUGE rock to climb STRAIGHT up with a loose rope. I made it halfway up and remembered that I'd never been rock climbing before in my life. Luckily, Dorothy was too scared to climb the rock too. We let Emily climb up and look around.

The hike back down was obviously easier, but still a bit tricky manuevering down the rocks we had climbed. My reward at the end of the day was this delicious Hawaiian dinner prepared by Emily:

And this quote from The Hiker's Guide to Oahu which labeled this hike "intermediate to expert" with "danger: high":

 "Olomana is the craggy, commanding mountain windward of Nu'uanu Pali. The steep, narrow climb to its three peaks demands concentration, sure feet, and little fear of heights. From the summit is a panorama unsurpassed in Oahu."

I recalled this hike a few days ago in a conversation with a friend. She was talking about how maybe God had given me vision for the future and I'm just climbing the mountain to get there right now. And though I'd really rather take a leisurely stroll to get there, I can't deny that it will be worth it when I make it to the top.

I also recall listening to a wise, life-experienced woman talk about the mountains in Colorado. She mentioned a mountain range she had wanted to see the other side of. A friend had taken her in a small plane, I believe, over the mountain range to see the other side. And do you know what was there? More mountains! She was reminded that in life we always want to make it over the mountain we're on, but when we get to the other side, there will just be another mountain to climb.

Though life seems to be one more mountain to climb after another, I have hope that each mountain we climb is worth it. So I guess I'll keep on climbing.

Snow Day

There's nothing like found time. That extra five minutes in your day. Or an extra 2,880 of them.
School was cancelled Monday and Tuesday.
I used the time wisely. As did the hubs, who ventured out into the snow with me and my camera.
We walked until our toes and fingers were numb. We rushed back inside to dry clothes and hot drinks.
I reveled in the beauty of the day. There's nothing like found time.

 This is for the birds!



 I will miss being walking distance from the river when we move.
(I've been editing in Picnik these days.)



 Catalog shot?

There are still traces of fall in the south as winter pushes it's way in. 

I could almost forget completely the world of assessments, lesson plans, and report cards that awaits me tomorrow.

"Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;

Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow."

Psalm 51:7