2009 Mokapu Fitness Team - Skyler

2009 Mokapu Fitness Team - Chase

2009 Dive Competition

Christmas 2008

Happy Valentine's Day

I know, I know, it's been forever since I have written, and promised I would post every month! So, get comfy, and prepare yourself for a long read.

Skyler turned 9 in December and it wasn't the momentous event I hoped. I was expecting him to wake and magically be different (only a little)! He has been difficult lately, lying, getting into trouble at school, not having any friends, the only upside was his diving. He and his only friend then, was his diving partner Max..... two firecrakers they were! Unfortunately, diving was taken away with a new law passed, and HALO took over with an abundance. Chase and Skyler can be found playing for hours on end if we let them. After Skyler's b-day, Jeff informed me that his plane was flying to FTW, Tx for a couple days then a turn-around home 2 days before Christmas, did me and the boys want to go? Hell Yeah! After an awful longgggggggggg flight we got into fort woth after midnight in temperatures below freezing, and us three barely dressed past aloha wear. BBBBBRRRRRRRRR.

We enjoyed the whole next day with Miranda, David and Devon, Jason was spending Christmas with his mom unfortunately. The boys also got to see their old BFF's from our neighborhood, and Jeff and I had a moment of longing as we passed our home. It was a very short trip that was priceless, after not having seen my daughter in 2 years, I would have still done it for only 15 minutes! Christmas came and went very easily, and we spent New Year's hiking on what turned out to be the first clear and sunny day in months, and months to come in the near future. We hiked up to the lighthouse, and then drove around the island, we stopped at the Old Pali Lookout, and walked it for awhile. The views are incredible. On the first weekend in January, Skyler was able to complete his diving competition that he had been training 6 months for. His partner Max took gold in the 1 meter dives, and Skyler took silver. Skye took gold in 3 meter dives and Max took silver. It was an outstanding day, we were oh so proud. The month went by uneventful. We are now in February and we celebrated Chase's 11th b-day. He asked some of his friends to the bowling alley and then they camped out in the garage and played Halo all night. Jeff left the next day and has been in Georgia ever since. He sent me a lovely bouquet of roses and carnations, a balloon and chocolate...he certainly surprised me!

I have really condensed the past three months for you, and I hope it hasn't been too bad. We are trying to absorb as much of the good there is here in Hawaii before our time runs out, but really there hasn't been much to say. The boys are both well, getting good grades, and both were accepted for their school's fitness team. This is Chase's 3rd year and Skye's first. I will keep you updated on their upcoming meets. We only have about 3 months remaining here, and our future is still uncertain. I wish I had news to give, but as of yet we still do not know where we are going. Rest assured, we won't stay here!!!! Well that brings me to date. Please scroll through, for I have added new pictures, and video of Skye's diving meet, and Chase's school performance on his birthday.

Happy Birthday goes out to:

Jonathan Gastin Dec. 1

Skyler & Ryan Miller Dec. 6th

Gareth Gastin Jan. 1

Scott Croucher Jan. 4

Carol Miller Jan. 25

Chase Miller Feb. 10

Patsy Mann (my mom) Feb. 11

Michael Frantzen Feb. 11

Jaden Miller Feb.28 (I think??)

Thanksgiving in Paradise!!!!!

Happy Turkey Day,

We hope everyone had a wonderful day spent with someone or someones' they love. We spent the day quietly as a family and prepared an awesome dinner with 3 different kinds of dessert. It was a relatively quick month and now we are staring at Christmas before we know it. Jeff (crazy!!!) went out about 3 am to get with the masses waiting for the doors for stores to open at 5. He didn't find anything, but felt he had to stick with tradition. Christmas will be tight as we are trying to save for retirement, which is in 7 months.....woohoo! I don't believe there were any birthdays this month, but I will give a shout-out to my mom & Archie for celebrating 9 yr anniversay.

Love and miss everyone.

Happy Halloween

Happy Fall everyone~

Fall has come quickly and with it it has brought Hawaii's version of fall weather....rain, rain, and more rain. The boys got their first report cards of this school year and Boy! was it an eye opener for me!! Both boys were struggling and I had no idea,Chase is barely passing in Science, that didn't go over well with Jeff who has a degree in it, but unfortunately Jeff was away when this was going on. Skyler was moved into a new 3rd grade class, created due to too many third graders this year. Well during this whole transition and then after, he decided that writing down homework assignments and then doing them was TOO much, and thus chose not to. Let me just say it was 2 very LONG days off doing nothing but homework, those were the longest 8 hours of my life. Skyler went on his 1 of 2 field trips to have pumpkin farm, and I actually got to go to as an EA for another 3rd grade class. It was kind of cool seeing pumpkins and watermelons growing in Hawaii. Skyler is still diving and he amazes me with how far he has advanced, he and a fellow dive student (Max) are learning the steps to put a back somersault together.... the boys are working hard to prepare for a series of dive meets starting Jan 3, 2009. Chase is still being a bum, but that is due to Mokapu Elementary dropping the ball again and not getting their fitness team up as of yet, all other schools that we will compete against next spring have been in practice for over a month. Jeff was gone for Halloween, hopefully the last one he will have to miss. The boys had a great time, Chase was the comical version of the villain from Scream, and Skyler was a demented Jester. The neighborhood we live in now rolls out the red carpet for this holiday and at 5:59 there was packs of kids waiting to knock on doors. I ran out of candy after an hour and fifteen minutes in, WOW there were sooooooo many kids! During the long 4 day weekend, we went to my favorite spot on the island, bellows beach and the boys played sand snow ball fights, quite amusing.