Terminal

I thought we were in for a long trip. I had no idea.

We flew standby last night and listened as one by one the people in our group were called to get on the plane. Then Li's name was called and they told him it was the last seat. He, of course, told them he wanted to stay with me and the seat went to someone else.

So we found ourselves stranded at the airport at 2 in the morning with our new best friend Vaughn. We discovered a beautiful garden and then the very nice security man came and told us we needed to leave. He directed us to some rock hard benches and showed us where we could buy some $8 sandwiches and $6 hot dogs. I opted for the $3 muffin instead.

We tossed and turned on the benches for a few hours and then decided it was morning. The highlight of the adventure, for me, was that we found free internet. Somehow that made it all better. We left the airport to get some cheaper food, catch a dollar movie, and then came back to get in line. Hopefully we make the flight tonight. Ironically I always wanted to fly standby.

When I was writing this post in my head it was so much wittier. For some reason my brain just isn't processing information as well as it normally does.


Does anyone know why my picture uploaded sideways? Maybe I have become one with my blog and it automatically orients my pictures to match my upside down life?

Summer Lovin'

I guess I never told the blogging world about our summer plans. Li and I will be summering in Orlando, Florida. Li will be selling security systems and I will be doing something cool that is yet to be determined. (Maybe Disneyworld?) We are pretty excited about our move. We are a little less excited about what it is going to take to get there....
All this stuff and a whole bunch more needs to be packed to move or put in storage somewhere. Everyone who knows me knows I LOVE to pack. (That explains why I am blogging right now and Li is asleep.) And then comes the red-eye flight to Arizona, the layover in Phoenix, the training in SLC and the DRIVE to Orlando.

It's just an all-expense paid road trip, right?!

peace like a river.

I know it is easy to make things look and sound good on the internet. Everyone's life can seem blissful and perfect on their blog. That is why I need to clarify: the happiness that I feel today is the real kind, not the kind where is just looks like I'm happy because I said so on my blog. Here's why.....

1. I walked barefoot to yoga with my ipod and my "the power of peace" shirt and felt like a true yogi.
2. Everyone around me is stressing about finals and I don't have to take anymore. Ever.
3. I get to see some of my family this weekend.
4. I have an amazingly patient and supportive husband. When my load gets too heavy and I'm about to drop it, he just picks it up and starts carrying it, without being asked and without asking for recognition.
   
5. I have been trying to learn to cook for about 4 months now. Yesterday I invented a soup that, while it is most likely nothing special to you, it is special to me, because I like it and I made it up myself.
6. When I first started my job I basically HATED it. Nobody at work liked me and I didn't have a clue what I was supposed to be doing. Today they had a pizza party for me and bought me a cake that said Thank You Jen.
   

I'm so content today that even though I just spilled the aforementioned soup all over myself, and all over the floor I didn't feel the slightest urge to throw a hissy-fit. That's happy.

What are you happy about today? Leave a comment and share the love.

Murmur Not

This morning I stumbled upon a treasure left behind by the late and great Elder Neal A. Maxwell. I love to get wrapped up in the intricate ways he weaves his words.

Here are a couple of gems from this talk.....

• How can it rain on the just and the unjust alike without occasionally raining on our personal parade?
• Letting off steam always produces more heat than light.
• Murmuring can also be noisy enough that it drowns out the various spiritual signals to us, signals which tell us in some cases to quit soaking ourselves indulgently in the hot tubs of self-pity! Murmuring over the weight of our crosses not only takes energy otherwise needed to carry them but might cause another to put down his cross altogether.

I love digging around in old conference talks. Have you discovered any buried treasure lately? Leave me a comment if you've found one that is fun or cutting or inspiring or otherwise worth repeating.

A letter

Dear Bicycle,
We miss you very much. We don't know why you left us. We don't know who has you now and we are afraid that they aren't taking good care of you. Are they? Are you okay? Please come back to us. We promise we will ride you every day and put air in your tires and grease your gears. We love you. Please come home. Please.

Love,
Jen & Li

All growd up

You probably don't know it but I didn't post that last video. And no I am not being cyber-bullied. It was Li!! I'm so proud of him for his first post on our blog. Seriously, I am.

Logan, the Sky Angel Cowboy

I don't know if you've seen this yet but you have to check it out. Its a recording of a boy who called from Nevada to a Christian radio station in Houston sharing with the host a lesson he learned from God. I love it, I absolutely love it.

Move Over Rachel Ray

Li slept in this morning and I thought I'd surprise him with some pancakes. We are too cheap for Bisquick and we are out of eggs so I spent almost an hour on the internet looking for a recipe that didn't require egg. I finally found one and I was so proud of myself as I mixed it all up and quickly poured it into a pan. I even remembered to turn the burner on early so that it would be ready to go. As soon as it was starting to sizzle I remembered that, in all my excitement, I did not remember to grease the pan. What follows is the sad result of my mistake.


Yeah, looks like scrambled eggs huh? Funny because there are no eggs in our house and that is what got us into this mess in the first place.

Free Rice - Fight Against World Hunger

I am in love with Free Rice. I love learning new words. I love feeling like I am helping. I love feeling like my wasted time on the internet might not be such a waste after all.

P.S. Li and I finally figured out how to make a button on our blog, so you can just click the cute little free rice image and start feeding the hungry. You're welcome.

It really happened now.

Our wedding pictures are here!!

we are the champions

Last week Li's basketball team won the championship. One of the teams wanted a chance to beat the champions so they had an "exhibition game" tonight. And they won that one too. They are pretty much unstoppable. I absolutely love watching their games and am pretty sad that they aren't going to be playing anymore. Maybe someone else wants to challenge them to a grudge match?It is so fun to watch Li on the court, he is totally in his element out there. He gets the MVP award for sure. (Never mind the guy who tore his ACL last game.)

Scripture Power

I just finished reading El Libro de Mormon in March. Now I am wondering what to do next? Does anyone have a interesting way to study the Book of Mormon? Leave me a comment and let me know what you have done to get the most out of Mormon's book.

I'm a dork!

I didn't post the link.

hungry?

I love this site. You get to learn new cool words and help feed the hungry all at the same time. Yup, that's pretty much all there is to say about that one. Check it out, you'll love it.

P.S. I wanted to post this forever ago, but I wanted to make it into one of those cool links that is a picture. Can someone teach me how to do that? Does anyone know what I'm talking about?

every girl's fantasy

I came home from work the other day and this is what I saw....

In case you didn't catch it....that's a clean house and a husband making me dinner.

a few areas of expertise

Li asked me the other day what I like to do for fun. Seems like he should have known the answer to that question BEFORE we got married, right? But I didn't even know how to answer it. Since then I have been trying to figure it out. I've tried painting....
Yes, I know it is just a white pot. But I have spent at least an hour putting at least 6 coats of white on this pot and one day real soon inspiration is going to hit me and then you'll see.

But today my friend's boss asked our husbands to help her move to a new house. It was only supposed to be for a few hours and she was going to pay them. I didn't want to be home alone so I tagged along. As the day wore on into the afternoon and early evening we realized it wasn't a quick project, and that they weren't going to be making very good money. But I realized that I didn't care! I just like to be with people that I like doing anything.

When we got home Li fell asleep and I surfed the internet for awhile. But I don't like to sit still, so I grabbed my ipod and my longboard and decided to go for a skate with Yael Naim.

This picture probably just looks like a road to you. It is. But I have tried many times to skate down this road and always failed. I'm a sissy-pants.

Today I made it and I actually threw my fist up in celebration when I got down. Only to turn around and see some lady in a car who was all annoyed that she had to go slow behind me. So much for my fans cheering me on in my moment of glory. Sorry lady.

Hawaiian mornings and Indian nights

Li and I camped on the beach the other day and this is what we saw when we woke up.It was a pretty long and cold night ( I know, I know we are in Hawaii, but it really was cold. And plus in the middle of the night a big group of people ran down the beach jumping up and down and yelling in Hindi - I don't have a clue how Li knows they were speaking Hindi, but he swears that's what it was.) Anyway after a long night I think we deserved a good sunrise.

Li would like me to add that he knows how to say the following things in Hindi: you're crazy (for men and women), you're a monkey, you're beautiful, and hello. I'm glad he's got the basics covered in case we ever find ourselves lost in India.

I'm not gonna lie

Li and I spend a lot of time together watching videos on YouTube. If you haven't seen this one yet you need to.

Transportation on the island

Li and I have one bike, (My favorite bike that I have ever owned.)
one skateboard,


and one bus pass.


This is the way we go almost everywhere.

Even to church.

I'm going to miss this place when we have to leave.

A new way to look at money

Li had an idea the other day that I thought was so brilliant and so funny I just had to share. He decided that instead of discussing our finances and budgeting our money at home we should get dressed up in business clothes and reserve a study room at the library so that we could have a business meeting. He walked around campus in his suit all day and no one believed that was all we were doing. Everyone thought we were up to something (this is Hawaii after all, most people don't even change out of their beach clothes to go to class.)

We recommend the business meeting to everyone, it makes finances a lot of more fun. Contact Jen or Li if you'd like more information on how to turn your money discussions into a experience you won't forget.

We are silly. And I think I had too many hi-chews today.

Leprechauns in Laie

There were rumors of leprechauns running around Laie on St. Patrick's Day and we were lucky enough to get some rare footage.





We managed to get a movie too, but I've yet to figure out how to make it post. Maybe Li can figure it out. Check back soon! Oh and has anyone seen Darby O'Gill and the Little People?

Catch a wave and yur sittin on top of the world.

There are a couple of longboards living at my house right now and I am really stoked about it. I haven't really been surfing in about 3 or 4 years and I was really scared to go out. Li and I planned to go early the other morning and I purposely didn't wake him up because I was too afraid. Yesterday we took the boards out just to play. As soon as I jumped in the water with my board a huge grin of sheer joy appeared on my face. I love surfing!


We just paddled around at the beach across the street from our house. There was very little chance of actually catching a wave. But what a blast we had pretending!! I love the feel of the water and the board underneath me. I love to sit on it in the middle of the ocean. I love to lay on it and feel the sun on my back. I love paddling and splashing in the water. I love trying to catch waves. And if you get one.....WOW!! But if you don't. I still love surfing. And I love Li who got me out and cleaned off our boards when we were done. Not to mention the fact that he carried most of the weight on the way to the beach. Longboards are heavy!!

I want to share some things I love.

And of course, I love my husband. Except I think he is going to eat me. We always joke that he is fattening me up so that I can be his next meal, but I'm starting to think it might not be a joke. The other day he met me at the door when I came home from work. He asked me how I was and I said tired. So he picked me up and carried me to bed and told me to take a nap for 20 minutes. I asked why only 20 minutes and he said dinner would be ready then.

He makes the best chicken I have ever eaten, added some potatoes cooked to perfection in butter (he is from Idaho, he does potatoes well) and handed me the biggest strawberry milkshake I have ever had in my life to wash it down.

Don't worry, I shared with him. I can't be eaten right now, I haven't learned to be still yet.

Fight Homelessness

Hi from Jen and Li…we're building and you can help!

From Jen…

When I moved to Hawaii I did not have a place to stay for two or three nights. It was a terrible feeling to spend all day long trying to figure out where to sleep at night. One night I nearly had to sleep in a car!

I was fortunate to have good friends who always helped me find a place to stay. Still, it was terrible. It was unnerving to shower at a different place every day and not have a place to keep my clothes and other belongings. Lucky for me, this was not an issue of not having money. I simply needed to find an available place. And even luckier, I only experienced this "homelessness" for a couple of days. Many people in the world are not so fortunate.

Homelessness is an important and compelling issue to me and this summer my husband and I have decided to do something about it. Starting in May, Li and I will take a term off of school and join a team of volunteers from Habitat for Humanity. We are going to the Dominican Republic to build houses. I am excited to start our work!

From Li…

Like Jen said, many people in the world do not have a place to call home. We are very grateful for the blessings that the Lord has given us, and we can't wait to go down to the Dominican Republic and help build houses for families in need. I personally can't wait to return to the people and the place that I made home when I served there as a missionary. I am truly grateful to be able to go back. I am excited to introduce Jen to the wonderful people in the DR, and even more excited to work with her to build houses and help the families there build a foundation for their future.

Many people in the Dominican Republic live in houses made of wood, palm trees or discarded materials, which are roofed with rusty corrugated tin sheets. In many cases, there are two families living in one small house, and it is not uncommon to find grandparents, parents and children living in the same room and sharing beds.

From Jen and Li…

Habitat for Humanity is funded by the volunteer builders and other donors, and they have asked us to raise $3,000 (which includes our airfare) by March 19 to join this build season. We are working hard to put aside money for this trip, but we need your help. If you would like to "build with us" by contributing to our goal, please mail a check today to: Jennifer & Li Kane, 55-672 Naniloa Loop, Laie, HI 96762.

Your donation will help end homelessness by allowing us this opportunity to build a home for a very deserving family. Let's build!

Jennifer and Li Kane

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For more information about Habitat for Humanity you can visit their website at http://www.habitat.org/gv/default.aspx

These things come in 3's, right?!

I pulled out one of my favorite pair of heels to wear to the temple this morning and the buckle broke. I was sad. Then I remembered that my favorite earring broke last month. And the biggest trauma of all, our hard drive broke.

Actually, I don't know if broken is the proper terminology to use for a hard drive. All I know is that we had to get a new one and that we no longer have any of the pictures, movies, papers or other things that we had stored on our computer. This includes all the pictures from our honeymoon, and tons of movies we made during family home evenings. The moral of this story is.......BACK UP EVERYTHING. I'm serious. And don't say I didn't warn you if you don't.

The good part about this story is that Li said he'd help me pick out some new earrings, we are going to try to recreate some of the pictures we lost, and maybe we will even get another honeymoon out of the deal!!