I've never been a girl scout. I hardly even heard about it as a kid. And as I got older I thought to myself that I didn't need Girl Scouts because in our church we pretty much covered everything in our Young Women's organization that the Girl Scouts covered. We had girls camp every year where we passed off all kinds of survival skills and spiritual enlightening exercises. We set goals in 7 "values": faith, divine nature, individual worth, knowledge, choice and accountability, good works and integrity. Those pretty much cover everything in life if you think about it. So I never needed girl scouts! And as a mother, I continued in my belief that my daughter doesn't need to be a girl scout - she has Young Womens at church!

Well guess what? I am finally a girl scout! It's true. I have a new job for those of you who didn't know. I work for the Girl Scouts of Hawai'i. And in being hired by the girl scouts, I actually had to become a member. And now I'm forced to admit, that girl scouts is a fantastic program for girls. (not forced like it's in my contract to state this, but forced by my own realization!) And any girl that becomes a girl scout will be a better person for it! The more I learn about girl scouts and all they stand for, I'm more impressed. And I'm saddened when I think of what I missed out on. And what my daughter has missed out on.

Here's the Girl Scout promise and law respectively:

The Girl Scout Promise

On my honor I will try:
To serve God and my country,
To help people at all times,
And to live by the Girl Scout Law.

The Girl Scout Law

I will do my best to be
honest and fair,
friendly and helpful,
considerate and caring,
courageous and strong and
responsible for what I say and do
and to,
respect myself and others,
respect authority,
use resources wisely,
make the world a better place, and
be a sister to every Girl Scout.

Now don't you feel inspired to be a better person just from reading that?

I do!

Home again, home again jiggety-jig

It's good to be back in a routine again. Though I thoroughly enjoyed my time in AZ! I really had fun practically every day I was there. When I first arrived in AZ we spent a few days in the Mesa/Phoenix area. Camille was going to see "Wicked" with the Griffins so we needed to hang around awhile. One of these days we (Sarah, Rae Lynne, Camille and myself) went swimming at my niece, Danika's house in Scottsdale. My sister Tracy was there too - but I don't think she got in the pool (why not - it was blazing hot, you need water!). That evening we went out to dinner with all the Neerings that could make it. It's always fun for HUGE groups of people to go to dinner. We ate at BJ's (I think that's the name of it.) We had really yummy food followed by sinfully delicious dessert. At dinner I got the first glimpse of Brian and Lori's new house! Another day I had lunch with a very dear friend, Kelly Rae Turley, that I haven't seen in over 20 years. I introduced her to the yummy goodness of Rumbi's Island Grill.

When they all went to "Wicked" I helped babysit at Jill's house. I played "SlapJack" with my great-nephew Carter. He won. The next day (Saturday) we headed out to Thatcher where Camille will be attending EAC (Eastern Arizona College) for the next 2 years. But before we left we had lunch with my siblings at Souper Salad. My mother wasn't feeling well so she stayed at Jill's. Then I took her directly to Tatcher. We did stop in Globe to get some protien in her. She felt better after that.

Once in Thatcher I stayed with my mother. I hadn't seen her house yet, so I did a lot of snooping around. Mostly I needed to check her stash of fabrics to see if there were any quilt-worthy fabrics there. I found a few. So of course we had to purchase more fabrics to go with the few we found to complete a few quilt tops. Now she has more fabrics in her stash . . .

My hair has been waiting very patiently to get it's annual cut and color. It's actually longer than annually, but at least I got it done. And I must say, I look fabulous! Thank you Jen! Oh yeah, that's the 1st quilt we made, the one I promised I'd make for Jen. So we got that put together. Then I made 2 other tops while there. What was I thinking?

Scott joined me in Thatcher about a week later. His sister's joined us for the 24th of July celebration. They like to search for the spooky stuff. So of course we tried to find the 'glowing headstone'. No luck. Then we checked out a spooky abandoned house (me from the comfort of the truck while the crazies actually looked inside the house!). We took pictures! Then we went back later and realized a door was now open that wasn't when we were there earlier. The next day was the parade. I wanted kettle corn. The kettlecorn makers were S L O W. So by the time I got my beloved kettle corn, the speedy parade was all but done. Dang it! Stupid kettlecorn. We chose not to hit the BBQ, we hit El Charro instead. It was a good thing - the BBQ ran out of food. Sarah and Rae Lynne went home after dinner.

Another day Scott, Camille, Katie and myself took a road trip in the jeep. We started out wanting to see the old ranch that Scott's mom was raised on in Bowie, AZ. After steeling a pistachio from a tree we tried to drive to the ranch but the road was blocked off being graded. So we head to Riggs Cemetary. Then on to Far Away Ranch which was owned by some other ancestors of Scott. It's a beautiful little place. Then we were really hungry but couldn't find anything to eat until we got to Bisbee. We ate pizza. We wandered around an antique shop. Then headed up to Tombstone. Tombstone's pretty cool. After a full day of driving around, we headed back to Thatcher.

One day my brother-in-law John used his connections to get us passage to the Telescope on top of Mt. Graham! Not many people get to do that. It was a great day. Most of my family was there. The telescopes were truly amazing and awe-inspiring. A few people 'tossed their cookies' going up and coming down the mountain. We wanted to get peaches at the orchard on the way down but they were closed. We got roasted green chilis instead.

Scott wanted to spend a little time with his family before leaving to come back home. So Camille, Katie and I went with him. We took the opportunity to help Brian and Lori move into their big new house. We had a good time helping them unpack and get organized. There just wasn't enough time in our days to get everything in we wanted to.

Scott gave Camille a father's blessing before he headed back. She's a lucky girl to have such an amazing father!

Sarah and Rae Lynne brought us all back to Thatcher for my last week or so. This time we got to go out to Indian Hot Springs. THAT WAS FUN! But we really need to go back and spend a full day there. We went at dusk and though it was more spooky at that time - we wanted daylight to snoop around. Sarah and Rae Lynne found a new "happy place"! They went home the next morning.

The rest of my time was spent trying to finish the quilt tops I started. I finished just in time to head back to Mesa before I flew back home.

I stayed one night with my brother (sorry Russ for the lack of notice!). Then my sister, Tracy scooped me up. We spent the day doing a little shopping with Dalene. Lunch at Cafe Rio. Then a quick and tearless goodbye to my girl as she headed off with her Auntie Dalene to come back to Thatcher. Tracy and I headed over to my friend Kelly Rae's house for another visit. Kelly didn't have any of her pictures or photos on her walls - not sure how we got on the subject, but we did. I told her to bring them out. So we brought them all out and hung them all up before the evening was over. It may seem silly, but it was great fun to help her get her pictures on the walls and make her home feel more like a home!

The next day I flew home!

Red, White & Blue with Cowboys, Hippies & Freaks!

(I tried to add the video of the Hippies and Freaks and a little cowboy hula action and the bagpipes - but the stupid videos didn't post! So sorry you have to miss that.)

Who doesn't love the 4th of July? Ok, besides the rest of the world outside the United States! It's just one of those holidays that's full of fun, friends and family. And don't forget a parade!

(cue music) "I . . . luvaparaaaaade" . . .

Soooooo, we wake up on the 4th of July and hurry to eat breakfast and wake "sleeping beauty" to get out the door because they're going to close the street and we need to get close enough so the walk won't kill us and to find a good enough "seat" (though we stood the whole time). I think we did OK!

The parade took place in our neighboring town of Makawao (isn't that fun to say?) And Makawao is known as the cowboy town. WHAT?, you didn't know there were cowboys in Hawaii? Well, there are! And so our parade made me feel right at home with all the horses and cowboys. You'll see!

Enjoy the photos!

Some of the shops that were decked out for the 4th.

Now some, or maybe most parades start with a police car or fire engine . . . Not us! We started with a WOODY! I thought it was very fitting in Hawaii.

The beginning of the parade was a big processional of classic cars. I just added a few of my faves. Such as the one below was a fave because of how cute it is and I love the color!

Scott's dad used to have a corvette like this only I think it was blue. And a sailboat to boot! . . . Then he had a family - need I say more?

"General Lee", the Dolorian from "Back to the Future", "Herbie"

This is our neighbor/landlord in his classic truck pulling his restored Criss Craft boat!

Our little neighbor "Buddy"!

A park ranger riding a "Nene" goose.

I love how this horse was painted, very sparkly stars!

These are horses of a different color!

Miss Rodeo Hawaii! Yup, we got one of those too!

Sombreros! y caballeros . . .Aye chihuahua!

We even had the Shriners in their cute little cars!

Check out the pedi on that bull!

And to cap off the parade . . .

a gecko!It didn't take us too long to get out of the town away from the chaos. We decided to watch Transformers! It was awesome!!! Optimus Prime is on MY team.

Then we had lunch in the mall food court . . . sorry, but we were starving!

Then we watched some waves crash at Ma'alaea Harbor. We needed to kill some time until the drawing for the surfboard that Scott really wanted! But alas, it wasn't in the stars for poor Scott. No surfboard! Sorry honey!

So we headed home to follow the unwritten rule that's been around since 1776! That rule is that something must be grilled on the 4th of July! So we did what most red-blooded, true-blue Americans do and threw some burgers on the grill along with some corn on the cob! It doesn't get much better than that!

Back on New Year's Eve at midnight, we just had to step out our front door for a pretty good fireworks display. The air was so thick with smoke you could hardly breathe. As they might say here, it was "choke with smoke". EVERYBODY was shootin' off fireworks! So we figured we'd have a great show for the 4th as well. I mean, c'mon! The 4th of July is THE fireworks holiday! And we didn't want to drive all the way over to Lahaina for an actual fireworks show - it would be way too crowded, and with one road in and out - fugeddaboutit!

So we started watching a movie to pass some time . . . oh sure there were firecrackers here and there. We even paused the movie to go outside and look for some fireworks . . . .

NOTHIN'!

WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?

(note to self: Next year when you see the big boxes of fireworks . . . buy several boxes so you can put on your own stinkin' fireworks display!)

The Grand-Ma-Ma Comes to Town!

This is a very, very, VERY long post - mostly photos, of Grandma's visit. First we are just standing around waiting for her to get off of the plane. Of course she was in the very, very back, near the lavatory. So we waited a loooong time.

Finally! Aloooooooohaaaa!
Then we waited for her luggage . . .
And we always like to take our guests straight to a beach. We decided to take mom to Ho'okipa where you look over the cliff at the surfers below. She seemed to think it was just amazing!

My poor mother had to sit at home alone for several days before we were done with working and whatnot. But we finally were able to take her places and do the touristy thing. First we took her to the beautiful Pulehu chapel (the first LDS chapel built in the Hawaiian islands). Fortunately for us, it's only about 5 miles up the road. And I know I've said it before, but the missionaries get to live in that adorable little cottage in that back there.

Inside the chapel . . . the acoustics in here are so amazing for singing, so of course we started to sing "Come Thou Fount". My mother's memory is sketchy on so many things, but she knew the words to the hymn. It was wonderful!

We found mom a little hut in case she felt like staying long term! (This is in the Iao Valley).

Mom below the Iao Needle.

This photo was taken at "The Plantation".

A little beach time! Unfortunately, the one day that I talked her into donning her swimsuit and spending the day at the beach, I didn't take the camera. Oh how I wish I could have caught the moment she was plastered by a wave! Good thing I was there to keep her standing!

The next 6 photos are at the Lavender Farm in Kula. Very lovely place to visit. While there we enjoyed Lavender lemonade and Lavender brownies! Yummy!

We decided to spend a weekend in Hana in a cottage overlooking Hana Bay. Before settling into our cottage we grabbed some lunch at Hana Ranch Restaurant. These trees were outside. Those are orchids growing in the trees.

These lava rocks were right in front of our cottage at the edge of the ocean.

Scott precariously climbing over to the other rocks - though you can't see it, there's a big gorge he's trying to avoid that goes down to the water. Water that is violently crashing below!

View of one side of Hana Bay (taken from out on the lava rocks).

This is the view from our cute little cottage. The photo was taken from inside through the window. (the other side of Hana bay)

Watching the sunrise in the morning (east side of the island).

On the way home from Hana we decided to go the long way back around the other direction. Unfortunately, the water was not flowing for the waterfalls. And the cute little market that had the cute little goat, "Munchie" was also closed. But we did stop at this old church where we ended up getting a flat tire punctured by a sharp rock.

Luckily for us we had a shady spot to wait while Scott slaved away changing the tire!

The arch on the backside of Maui.

When back in civilization we stopped at the beautiful winery. This is a HUGE tree.

A little perspective to show you how big the tree really is. That's my little mama next to it.

Mom admiring these odd looking orchids (at least I think they're orchids).

And that's the end of this post! Whew - told you it was a long one. But at least there were lots of pretty pictures to keep you occupied!

Oh so divine! Oh so fine! Class of 2009!!!! King Kekaulike High School

The long awaited graduation day finally got here! I'm going to let the pictures do all the talking. You can tell how ecstatic she is by the permanently pasted grin on her face!

They released 9 doves for the 9 years this school has been around.

The chaos begins!

We are very proud of our girl! Way to go Camille - you did it!

Her friend Alex.

Her friend Leicey

I had to take a picture of this - you can barely see his nose! This is John Waikiki, he's in our ward. We were going to give him yet another candy lei and didn't even bother - where could he have possibly put it? I don't think he really knows who we are anyways.

Three generations!

After the graduation the graduates piled onto buses that took them to an undisclosed location for the big "GRAD NIGHT". It turned out to be at the Kamehameha Golf Club. They partied and danced all night long. She won a Da Kine back pack. We picked her up at 6 am the next day. She came home and slept all day!