A day well spent..

As I have mentioned many times we are in the heart of visitors season here at the Griffin home and with that you do not get a lot of alone time or Family time.. I have never really been one for either of those always preferring to have "company" join us but with time I have learned to enjoy and relish these moments and get a little crabby and selfish in wanting more of it. That being said I love having visitors here but for those that know me well this totally throws me off my "schedule and Structure " and leaves me feeling very vulnerable and out of control. Ahh, yess Control.. I must have it or I completely shut down. I am learning to cope with it better than I have in the past but man it is hard. What makes it worse is I am beginning to see these traits in my children.. Especially Carson..I have to laugh when I see him get flustered or off his "schedule" its almost like a mini panic attack.. His eyes bug out and he takes deep, I mean really deep, long breaths. It is hysterical for me to see till I realize it is so me. Lord help that child he has no idea what life holds for him with anxiety like that. Ok.. back to my point.. last Friday was one of Mike and Jens last days here visiting and we wanted to take advantage of the day. Jon took the day off.. ( yes, I said it and you read it.. he actually took a whole day off!) We went to the gym and worked out together, which I love doing with him, to me this is very sexy.. We then met Mikey and Jen and went Hiking. We drove into town and hiked Manoa falls. I have done this hike with friends and I knew it was a good, but fast hike, but this particular day was humid, hot and muddy.. It was really slippery with thick, fresh mud..which made it fun and hard..Once we got to the falls, Mike saw a path to another trail, I had never done it and had no idea how long it was or how long it would take. Right off the bat I was out of my element. It was steep, very slippery, muddy and left me feeling unsafe. We went about half way to a beautiful Banyon tree and then realized that it was bunch of switchbacks that seemed narrow and steep.. For the girl who is afraid of heights I was so hoping someone would suggest turning around, and thank god someone did.. We headed back out and back down to the car.. From there we headed to the guys favorite bakery for Chocolate drop cookies, empanadas and doughnuts. This was painful for me as I crave sweets and well non of that is gluten free or "Clean" for that matter so I just watched and tortured myself as they devoured their treats. Once we made it home we cleaned up only to head back out. This was the first time had left the kids with a sitter since we moved. Yes, 14 mths of no dates.. well, we have had one but we are so homebodies now.. Anyways, we left the kids with Sonja, my Gf Julie's daughter and we headed back into town. We went to one of our favorite restaurants "Hula Grill" and walked around Waikiki. It was since to sit and have an adult conversation and nice meal without feeling rushed or like I had to make sure my kids were on their best behavior. I enjoyed my company and the fact that I was dressed up, had make-up on and actually did my hair. It was reminder to me that I love getting away with Jon and feeling pretty. Now I did have a moment between hiking and heading back out where my tummy hurt and I was so tired that I just wanted to stay home ( once again Homebody) but once we got out I was so happy to be out with great company. We have become such a close little family that I hate leaving this kids, even if they seem to love it, but I realized how much we need it. It is not necessary every weekend like we used to do but once a month would not be bad. Once we got home I thanked Jon for spending the day with me and let him know I looked forward to more days like that, as long as I am in control of course.

What a week...

We made it alive.. I feel like we have been running around with our heads cut off.. Between T's soccer games, C's soccer, school, friends and family its been a constant go go go.. The kids have been out of school at 1pm for the last 10 days instead of having 3 days off for confrences.. I prefer the hr early release to 3 days off.. It to me just makes sense. That being said we had our confrences and I am pleased to say all kids are doing great. I had all 3 in a row and they started with C. He is doing amazingly. He was always the class clown and still is but was more focused on being silly and funny then school and wow that has all changed. He is reading at a 4th grade level in fluency and comphrension and a few yrs ahead in math. He and another student who happens to be his little crush are being pulled out daily to go to another class for extra work to continue their progress. They are also being sent home with extra assignments and as much as I hate the extra work on top of his homework I appreciate that she is taking the time to push and challeange him and not let him ride it through. They grade on a letter scale here ME is exceeding, MP is meeting grade level goals, DP is approaching and WB is well below... Carson was very please to get all ME.. it would be like all 5's at home. Next up was Logan.. We were a little concened as he has not been as focused or driven at school not sure what is up but we think it is just "boy" laziness.. But once again he is doing just fine. He too got all ME's with a few MP's.. He has always been a fast reader but we have always questioned if he understood it all, and it is catching up with him. He is still ahead in fluency but his comphrension is not as far ahead.. Still ahead, but starting to catch up with him. So we are taking time now to read and go over what we have read to make sure he understands. Otherwise he is doing very well, I think he is laking some confidence these days in general and Momma is on the confidence boosting trail.. Maybe it is just middle child syndrome. Next up was T.. I do not worry about her. She is always on it when in comes to school, she ahs the drive and passion to be the best student and leader she can be. She was accepted into the Gifted and Talented program which is the IB prgram for our elementarty school and she stays and additional 1hr 2 a week for class. Her confrence lasted all of 5 minutes. She too got all ME's and her teacher has her doing spelling and reading at the 8th grade level. She is ahead in math as well and a peer leader for her class in this. Her teacher also has her reading from the HS books since she has tested out of the Elementary school level reading program. Her teacher runs their class in groups since they do not switch anymore for diffrent subjects.. She has a group for Exceeding, on level, lower on level and needing some assistance. T is in the exceeding group with 5 other students. Poor thing has atleast 2-3 hrs of homework a night plus GT work, plus soccer. But she manages to do it all and we are proud of her. She just truned in all her paperwork for the IB program next year at her MS and will start her interview process shortly. Her teachers gave her glowing recs and our fingers are crossed that she gets in. We are especially proud because she chose to give up and elevetive to do the program! SO as for schoool things are going great and we are proud of each one of them. It is obvious to us that when their life is successful they are much happier and willing to do more.. 

 T has blossomed in soccer lately scoring 4 goals in last 2 weeks and 2 assists in addition.( I had wrote this on friday and never posted.. she scored 2 more this weekend.. one was a true goal and the second was a awesome cross that was deflected in by the defense so she got the goal..)  She truly has become the leader on the field that they have been pushing her to be and it makes her feel good.. warm fuzzies all over..  Carson is playing end to end on the field and so much more aggressive than anyone out there He too has 3 goals and several assists. ( scored 2 more on saturday with an assist.. I think he was showing off for uncle Mikey and Auntie Jen..) We are now in search of a club as he has proved himself worthy. Logan and Carson both  start Baseball in the next month and all 3 have decided to run track this summer.. Busy busy but I would not have it any other way. To see them smile with pride in life makes my heart full.

Halloween

Halloween is amazing here. Everyone goes all out. All houses are decorated like it is Christmas. Lights, cobwebs, skeletons, tombstones and so on. Most people sit on their porch and hand out candy and the fact that it is 75 plus degrees makes it nice to see kids costumes and the millions of people out. We started Halloween on Monday with team bonding. Hawaii pacific university put on a trick or treat festival downtown with  bout 25 booths of games, a band, haunted house and free food. It was a blast. About 10 girls from her team and their families came. All 3 coaches were there and the girls had a blast. It was fun to see them all getting along and hanging out, and it is so obvious it is helping them on the field. The kids all left thanking us greatly for taking them and telling us how much fun they had. I loved it as we had never done anything like it. In Oregon there was that sort of thing for younger kids but this was very appealing to any age! All 3 kids went in the haunted house and J joined them.. C thought it was dumb, T was a little spooked and Logan was devastated.. He hated it.. poor kid!  

So when the day of  Halloween rolled around out bags were already half full from the festival.. We went with our neighbors Jacob and Lauryn and their mom Josie. We headed out around 6:15 and by 7:30 Carson was done. His bag was full and he wanted to go home and hand out candy. Logan and Jacob lasted another 15 mins and they too were done. T and Lauryn could have gone all night.. at about 8:10 we told them time to head home.. They proceeded to Lauryns to "trade" candy.. T finally walked in the door around 8:45 and was exhausted and a little spooked.  Many porches had people hiding and would jump out and scare you. T doesn't like that and it was obvious when she ended up sleeping on our floor that night. Poor kid came in our room at 1am talking about the people dancing in our hallway.. Not quite sure what that is all about, maybe our house is haunted.. but needless to say the grabbed a pillow and blanket and parked it on our floor. Halloween was a success we have 3.5 bags full of candy and I am hoping to throw 3 bags of it out! Not so the kids don't eat it, more so that I don't eat it!! I do not think many choices are gluten free or dairy free and somehow my little mind says "eat it" anyways, which always ends with an upset tummy for days.. I must have more willpower, oh but chocolate is soooo good!!

Tsnaumi...

While having a lazy Saturday night and just sitting down to eat dinner I heard a familiar sound from the tv.. Mind you it was the Tv upstairs, but I still heard that annoying "beep.. beep..beep" I told Jon that is what I was hearing and he blew me off..then both our phones and the ipad had a USA today Breaking news of "Tsunami warning" issued for Hawaii. We both jumped on to computers and starting seeing what what going on.. We also turned the Tv on downstairs and low and behold "beep.. beep.. followed by all the info we needed.. "We had plenty of warning to evacuate if needed. The warning was issued around 6 for a 10:28 wave arrival.  The sirens started going off immediately , followed but what we always make fun of in PDX and refer to as the news "winter weather watch" where its only the newscasters on TV for hours.. Since we have only been in one other warning which was cancelled right after being issued we found the news entertaining. We had already been drinking since the beaver game had been on so we figured we would stay put and when we saw the line up of cars to get out of Ewa Beach we knew we made the right choice. It was bumper to bumper for at least 6 miles to the freeway. Tatum had gone to scholfield army base with her friend Abby's family for some Halloween festivities and that was the only thing that stressed me out. It really is probably the safest spot on the island being that it is so high up and in the middle of the island per say. She called around 9 and said that they were on their way home and it made me feel a lot better. She got home and told us all about the traffic and that all the grocery stores, gas stations and restaurants were closed. The streets just below us were on mandatory evacuation and the police were going door to door and driving around with bullhorns telling people to evacuate. The boys were very scared and had a hard time falling asleep, to them the world was ending and it sounds like a lot of people thought the same. The gas stations were packed with people filling their cars up that many stations ran out of gas. The stores were packed as well and I don't think I could find toilet paper or water if I tried. Oh the joys of small island life! I finally went to bed around 11, T had an 8:30 soccer game and had to be at the field by 7:30 which meant we had to leave by 7 or so. Honestly, I was hoping that with all the pandemonium the game would be cancelled. But nope, we played on this am! Thank you to all of you who called, text or Facebooked to check up on us. I guess this is just the beginning of all the crazy natural disasters that may or may not occur down here in the pacific. But even with all the scariness, I would not trade this life for a second! I will tell you I got a thorough science lesson on a tsunami and so not what I thought.. Seems you are always learning something new!

Here Come The Griffin's...Duncan's and Bishops...

I am so excited as I type this post!! First off we start our adventure of continuous family on Halloween night. Jon's brother Mike and his girlfriend Jen will be staying with us for about 2 weeks. We are thrilled!! J is so excited to see his brother and the kids look forward to spending some time with their auntie and uncle. He has so missed his family and  he loves my family to death but this is very exciting and emotional for him.. it puts a huge smile on my face! Once they leave we get about a week to recoup and his mom Faye and my sweet nephew Olin come the day after thanksgiving and stay until the 10th of December. We are all so excited to see Mom as it has been a long time as most of you know Jon is very much a "mommas boy" and misses her dearly. We thought family visitors could not get better until my sister in law Leslie called yesterday saying she missed us and wished she could visit too.. She just "retired" from her job and is becoming a full time mommy to her 2 sweet boys. Since we never made it home this summer we have yet to meet her new baby Jimmy who was born in May. I told her that I thought the tickets were cheap at that point and she should look into it..thinking it would never happen as Leslie is so not an impulsive person.. But to my delight she called back to tell me she found cheap tickets and she and the baby were going to come a few days after Mom.. Can it get any better?? Yep, well fingers crossed her hubby Brandon will get to join them as well. I tell you we have missed them so much and I have been so disappointed that baby Jimmy is growing up and I have yet to meet him. In all honesty I was feeling a tad overwhelmed with all the visitors, only because I am a perfectionist and anxiety ridden, I don't know what the turning point was but I simply cannot wait.. I am trying to gather all the baby necessities, mattresses.. and so on. I love visitors, especially since we can just lay low and enjoy their vacation with them.. plus I am excited for them to see how happy we are and how much we as a family and as people have grown and changed.. Counting down days until  Mike and Jen get here, knowing that our time with them will be fun, relaxing and much needed... followed by a great holiday seasons beginning with the rest of the crew!

It's not goodbye, but until next time...

We were just blessed to spend the last 10 days with my parents, a quick trip for them this time and the kids were not accepting of the short trip, as they are normally here for at least 2 weeks up to just over 3.... My poor parents were troopers and jumped both feet into our crazy schedule and life. They got to go to 4 of T's games, where she scored 3 goals and played out of her mind each game.. They went to C's soccer games, where he too had a few goals and it was their first shot at seeing him as an animal out on the field.. Logan is in lazy season as we call it around here but that's ok as it is giving him time to work on his surfing skills. Between 4 soccer practices a week with 3 being a 2 hour commute (at least) I am sure they were exhausted by the time they left. We were able to do 3 beach days last week, take them to Waikiki during T's practice and walk the boardwalk, show them some of our favorite restaurants, A little shopping at Ala Moana, who does not love a huge open air shopping center?? They saw the huge waves on North Shore, help celebrate T's birthday but most of all we got to spend some good quality time with them. The kids asked everyday "why do they have to go home" to which we always answered "grandpa has to go back to work" and quickly Carson pointed out that "grandma doesn't work she can stay.." We all loved every minute of this trip and it seemed different. They finally seemed a little more relaxed and in their element here..hmmm, maybe they are getting used to the Island ways.. This was the first time the kids have lost it when they left, they are always sad and shed a tear, but this time was different. Logan was inconsolable and hysterically crying. I felt so bad for him and his little broken heart. Carson cried a lot and tried every trick in the book to get them to stay. Both boys were very moody and out of sorts yesterday and said numerous times they missed grandma and grandpa. T is very different then them and not as emotional, but she was still sad to see them go, but I think she realizes that they will be back before any of us realize it. (hint hint.. mom!!) It was nice to have them here with us and to have them see how much more adjusted and easy things are here and how much we have settled in after a year. So now we enter the next 2 weeks with no visitors and  then Jon's brother Mike and his girlfriend Jen arrive on Halloween night for 2 weeks followed by Jon's Mom and my sweet nephew Olin about a week after they leave. We are so thrilled to be able to spend this time with everyone and be able to share the holidays with some of them, and hopefully my parents will be back here shortly after they all leave in December!! ( more hinting.. hope its working! )

We survived..

Tatum had her birthday party last night and it involved 6 girls sleeping over... Now we have done sleepovers in the past and we all know how they usually end.. Mom doing all the work and constantly telling the girls" please go to bed".. I am not sure if it is age or what, but there was none of that. Our intentions were to have a true camp out in the back yard with a fire pit and all, but we forgot the log for the fire pit.. Oops.. We did however get the tent up and BBQ for dinner.. The girls had a photo scavenger hunt and it was such a big hit they did it again this morning. It was funny to see them running around the streets last night with their lanterns and cameras.. I gave them a list of things to do or find and take a picture with. They had  40 mins to accomplish the list and off the teams went. Here are some of the pics

                                                              Find a purple flower

                                                                Find the number 12

                                                                  make a pyramid

  funny face by with ocean background.. was to late to see the ocean, but it is right behind them

                                                                Picture on a slide

                                                            Picture smallest to Tallest..



They girls watched a movie (50 first dates..)  and had brownies/ice cream instead of cake since T does not like cake and then headed outside to "hang out" .. they were hilarious to listen to and what was even better was the fact that they were all asleep at 12:30!! No one woke up till 7 and I didn't have to get up till 7:30 to start breakfast.. If only every party was smooth and easy like this..

                                                  T and her friend Lindsy from soccer

                             a great mix of school, soccer and our only friend from Oregon..

                                                Lauryn, Ari ( from soccer) and Lindsy

                                                                    T and Mykaela

                                        I just realized I think I only put 11 candles on.. oops

Everyone loves eggs, bacon, Cinnamon rolls, Portuguese sausage and fruit..