Laura in California!!!!

So, here she is!! Laura took quite a long trip to get to California, but she finally made it to the land of Sunshine, yummy eats, and an awesome family who seem to be spoiling her! Who else gets to go into such a posh / "chi-chi" purse store and get to ride in that purse? Niiiiccceeee!!!

It also looks like Laura got to sample some of the yummiest donuts that California has to offer! The best thing to wash that all down with: milk! Milk is so important to growing strong muscles, teeth and bones so drink up!!

I'm sure there are even more exciting things that Laura will share with us that she has gotten to enjoy and experience, can't wait to hear from Miss Laura again!!

Laura's so excited!

Laura and I did our normal thing..we ate (yes!! Sweet! It's Tropical Smoothie for breakfast!! Woohooo!!) we hung around, I worked, she found Chris' game boy...

She checked out our Hula Show line up for May...

Laura found my...ok Ani's Alvin and the Chipmunk's hat....

Well, then she found out she finally gets to take a trip to California to see her buds...Auntie Christina, Uncle Aaron and their girls!! WOOHOOOO!!!

I look forward to hearing about all of Laura's adventures in CA Land w/ her "host family"!!! How exciting for Laura! So I sent her on her way w/ many hugs and kisses, a cd w/ some hula music to share w/ Auntie C...Boohooo!! I'm going to miss her!! But, she'll be back full of all kinds of stories about the fun times she's had!!!

Always be safe...

No matter what you do, when you are in a vehicle: use your safety belt. No little person, grown up person, babies or anything should be in the car, truck, etc without a seat belt on. There are places where a policeman can pull you over for not having your belt on. That's not cool, but an easy fix, if you would just put it on. Here's Laura running around town w/ me...
God is always there to protect you, but you have to help him by following the rules and use the belt He created to put around you!!

We still tired...

So, the kids all got back together after their time on Spring Break spent with their respective parents...Did we mention the 3 hours of sleep. Whew..going to school the next day was tough on the kids...I had a hard time focusing at work..Laura was just as happy as a clam, though! It's important, no matter what, to get plenty of rest. It's hard, sometimes, when there are special occasions where it is difficult to do so. So, you do your best. If you can help it, you get the rest you need, but sometimes you cannot and you just do your very best with God's help!!



God's help sometimes comes in the form of a car ride around town!! Take these moments and use them to your advantage!!

Laura's friends leave for Easter and Spring Break...

Booohoooo!!! It's always sad to see friends leave, even if it's only for a little bit! Ani left to see her dad in Missouri on Easter day and Chris and Sierra were gone to see their mom in Ohio that week, too. Zoe was still in Virginia, but was hanging out w/ her family...


So, the kids are back! The Chris and Sierra took a long ride from OHIO to VA and spent the night at my house! We got to pick up Zoe the next day (EARLY!!) THEN we went to get Ani at the airport..I think we all had about 3 hours of sleep. Maybe Zoe had more..but I know I was beat. Laura was just excited to see everyone coming back together!!

Woohooo!! It's ANI!!! Laura's jumping for joy!!!



There is nothing like Miso soup on a cool and rainy day! Then, to celebrate on top of all that with some sushi....What a great way to enjoy each other's company and welcome everyone back!!

Laura and Chary in an ordinary day...

So, today (Actually March 28) was kind of a regular day. Which is great! There's always so much to do and not enough time to do it in. It helps when you have kind of a regular day! So, we were in the kitchen when Laura kind of chilled out a bit...
As you can see, Laura was just so Laid Back while I made my lunch! What a nut! I picked her up and hugged her, she's so cute. And hugs are a good thing! Check out my BFF shirt from my BFF Christina! Hollah out to you in CA!! Ho!!!


Back to the computer, my desk..the mess and some yummy South Beach Pizza!! I like to look at my email, look at my work, look at ads...

Laura likes to look at sales sheets and ads, too! She likes bargains just as much as I do! Hey, if you needed to get it, you may as well get it for less money. Sometimes you may have to wait, you may see a coupon, or sometimes you don't really need it like you thought! But, it's always fun to look at things.
So, here it is an ordinary day...but a nice day! You can still have an adventure even when you don't leave your home. You can take the most wonderful trips through reading books, drawing, writing stories...Ahhh...we love those kinds of days....

Cookin eggs w/ Laura, Kai, and Auntie Chary

Welcome to the Laura and Kai cooking show!! As always, it's a pleasure to see you all! Today, we will be cooking a simple meal of fried eggs!

First, You need the following items:
special egg pan
special egg flipper
eggs
olive oil
a big smile
your parent's(or an adult's) help

The next thing you will need to do is to ask your parents to stay right by your side as you turn on the stove. We happen to be cooking on a Gas Stove so you can see the flames below the pan.
You have your parent or adult turn it on, place the pan on top of the heat and put a little oil in the pan. This time, on Auntie's stove, it's a good idea to use the back burner because it is for smaller pans.


Kai likes to crack the egg himself, so his Auntie Chary took the pan off the heat and Kai made the perfect crack in his egg using the edge of the counter. Then, he put his thumbs in the cracks to open the egg up and slowly plop the egg into the pan.


This is when Auntie Chary put the pan back on the heat.Here's the best part of all: Eating! (Did I say we love to eat?) Kai and his brother, Keoni wanted fish sticks w/ their eggs. Sure, why not Auntie's fine with that! Rice, Eggs, and fish sticks: YUMMMM!!! The boys said their prayers and devoured all their food! Laura loves a clean plate, too!

Laura Locks and the three chairs...

One day, Laura was laying on Mr. Jody's Grandma's eggplate..She was reflecting on how cool it was with it's milky white glass and gold trim.."Oh how pretty this is.." she thought. "I wonder when Grandma made deviled eggs and for what occasions?"

"I can just see ladies in their pretty dresses, kerchiefs tucked into their sleeves, a pretty comb in their hair all talking about how nice everything is while sipping their tea.." Laura thought as she settled into another one of Grandma's egg dishes.

"I'm on top of the WORLD!!!" Laura laughed as she stood on top of my new dutch oven "I can see for miles and miles" Laura said.

So, we went to the store and Laura wanted to try out a chair w/ a soccer ball on it..."My, how hard this seat is, but I like the colors and stars and such.." Laura said.

So, Laura tried the next seat.."This is pretty, the color is just gorgeous, but it's just so..sooo..metal. I bet if I sat outside with it, it would get really hot!" So, she hopped off of that one...

"Oh wow!! This is so laid back and comfy!! I really like this chair!!" So Laura relaxed in the red beachy chair while...

Kai posed for the camera! Hey Batta Batta!!

Running around town..March 2008

It's amazing how much a person can drive in one day! What's really amazing is how many times you can end up in the same part of the city in one day, too! Strangely enough, I can go to that part of the city to take care of a list of things only to find myself back there to take care of some MORE things not knowing earlier in the day, that I would be there again anyway. The smart part of my brain would have liked to have known that to save on Gas..Anyway, here you see Laura checking out the grass situation at our friend's house. They are out of town (on an adventure of their own!) and they wanted to be sure the grass was not super long..it looks great!

Look at Laura! She's met another new friend!

Hot days and Frosty's are always a great combination!!

Talk about a Treasure Hunt!! We went through a good portion of all those boxes. Opened up and looked in and rearranged the stuff in the boxes, threw stuff away that were in the boxes, and on and on..We eventually found the important documents that were placed in the moving boxes by mistake! YIKES!! It took us 2 nights, but we got it done!! WOOHOO!! God is soooo GOOD~!
Woohooo!! We have TONER~~~!! This means we can print things from the computer AND make copies of stuff, too! Weehaaaa!!

Sometimes we have a hankerin' (southern for "craving") for something sweet..here is Laura with a Baby Ruth Bar..yummm...

It's ok to eat a couple of these things, but we don't want to have a tummy ache OR a tooth ache from eating too many things that are not good for you! Of course, the reason Laura is smiling here is we somehow ended up with Mr. Jody's Snickers bar..it was from OH and Mr. Jody and kids were still driving back to VA!

We were pretty excited when we were in OH that Mr. Jody's sister has a printer that could fit these little toner cartridges that I bought 4 of..guess what? I bought the wrong size for my printer..but they fit in her printer perfectly!! WOOHOO!

Heading back to ORF from OH

Baltimore Airport is super cool! Here we are at another section of it. It's got these cool little areas w/ a counter and stool that you can plug your computer into. Super cool..There are so many places to plug in your phones, ipod's and other electronic gadgets at airports nowadays!

We finally landed in ORF!! Home Sweet Home..ahhh...but we have to get our baggage first!

Traveling can be fun as long as we pay attention to where we are going, we get places on time, and we are polite to others..Laura loves flying on airplanes, going to different places is so much fun! We got to see an airport we never saw before, got to see people we like to hang out with..and meeting new people is a lot of fun, too!

Laura and I fly...

Here are Laura and I waiting waiting waiting for our flight to leave for OH..They always recommend you get to the airport 2 hours ahead of your flight...Well, what if the ticket booth and such aren't even open yet so you can check in your bags????

So, we make it to Baltimore cuz that's where you go when you want to go to OH after ORF! And we have some kind of 2 hour layover..how come I didn't notice that when I booked the flight? Maybe I did and decided that was a good time to listen to my ipod...

Wait...what's that noise? Oh..my tummy is rumbling, it's HUNGRY!!! After getting to the airport at 4ish just to stand there and wait for the workers to check us in...Subway made a pretty decent brekkie. We chitchatted with a lady waiting in line with us (I tried to get her to go ahead of us, we were getting a sandwich and she only wanted coffee) .

After Brekkie we went to our seat to take it easy. This airport is nice, but I was not interested in looking around..except...

to stop and grab some M & Ms...My 2 hour nap before getting up to go to the airport was starting to make my eyelids heavy! That's what I get for not packing quickly enough! Then Laura and I worked on my Bible study stuff. I told you how much I liked this particular study, right? It's way cool and the M & M's make it "funner", too!

Finally, we landed in OH!! Weehhhaaaaa! Max n Erma's for lunch YUMMMM and off we go!




Here are Sierra and Ali ..we were getting ready for the funeral....I think we ought to enjoy dressing up for occasions that are not just weddings, graduations, funerals, etc...
Funerals can be sad. You can see people being sad at them. If it's someone you didn't know very well, it's ok if you are not sad, but it's important that you are there to be with your friends or family who may sad because they miss their friend or loved one.



One little stop to Walmart for some tissues- everyone needed them! 3 boxes were used up!!



It's always great share stories about people you are going to miss and the fun things you did with them. It's also cool looking through their old scrapbooks and pictures that they saved! Here is Mr. J and his dad at the same age in their pictures! Mr. J's Gramma saved so many things that everyone could look back at and remember all the fun times they had.