I was going through the photo roll on my phone the other day and enjoying its contents immensely. I'm not a great picture-taker, but the one's I did capture make me smile. I hope they will make you do so too.
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| This is just what it looks like, a massive pile of pineapples. Believe
it or not, these are the leftovers from a dozen or other, much larger
piles we've had steadily sitting, dwindling, and then replenishing in
our carport for the past two months. Every ten days or so my grandpa
would disappear with my brother and come back a few hours later with a
truck bed full of perfectly ripe, sweet, and delicious pineapples. As
you can imagine, we all average about two a day, not including fresh
pineapple smoothies, jam, and pies that have been staples. Alas pineapple
season is at its close now, so no more of these Goliath surprises, but
mango season is right around the corner! |
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| sometimes people from the mainland ask me how my life is different here. Aside from "everything is more expensive", I really can't describe differences very well because it's just my life and most everything seems normal to me now. But this was one thing that made me smile and realize, "oh yeah, this is not something you usually see." This is a wonderful ward member of mine working out the pieces of a broom she is going to make by stripping single leaves from a palm frond of their hard inner core. Amazing. I didn't know that's what our broom here at the house was made of! |
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| some of my primary kids. (I love these kids!) we went to the beach as a primary activity during ward camp week and had a blast burying these gems in the sand. | | |
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| both of these pictures were taken while I was enjoying the beautiful Kapalua ridge trail to the north of where I live. Faka'ofo'ofa. |
One of my favorite things this summer has been the frequent text
messages from home containing funny stories and pictures of my ID fam.
these beauties came from my currently samoa-dwelling sister who kept me
updated on amusing antics with regularity. these pic's make me miss my family and everything a desert summer means: canal swimming, outdoor family movie nights, trampoline sprinklers, cool-evening lawn mowing, garden vegetable eating, backyard camping, and sunday afternoon sibling time while mom naps. Oh, and remember connor's affinity
for costumes? well he actually made each of those helmets from
paper-mache. I tell you what, this boy's a keeper!
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| cousins have been here visiting from CA. from right--sister, Lope and I on the way to an eat for a baby blessing. |
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| attached to a text message from a different sister in the words of M (cousin): "I love you Kasia. you're only the best you're only the beautiful you're only like me most!" haha. miss this little girl oh-so-so-much. how did I get so blessed to have such delightful relatives? |
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| sometimes I'm just driving and wake up to the realization of what I'm looking at. holla. |
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| new haircut. woot woot. |
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| for me there is nothing like flying that makes me feel closer to my Creator and more in awe of his handiwork. this is Oahu and Diamond Head (the big volcanic crater in the center) before landing at honolulu, where I went for a YSA conference a couple of weeks ago. |
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| at said YSA conference huki-ing (sitting on top of each other) to fit in the shuttle van to the church. from left--friend, brother, me, mom. all totaled we had 10 very large adults in a 7 passenger van. |
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| dad and mom (YSA parents in the ward too!) at conference dance. love them so much. |
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| I work there! |
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| cousins and total hams. :) |
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| haha, M and her friends from a picture text. |
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| received an amazing blessing+tender mercy when a dear friend from Vienna-days came to HI for vacation and ended up (randomly, but not really, you know?) staying at my resort while she was here. I introduced her to cliff house for some picture-perfect cliff-jumping and Ulalani's for shave ice. wunderbar. |
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| I know I look ultra-creepy but I had to show you this picture of my current boyfriend. I VT his mom and O. and I are in love. no matter who is cuddling him in that moment (and in a Tongan ward babies are ALWAYS getting passed around), when he sees me his eyes light up, he smiles, and he holds his arms out to come to me. heaven. love this child. |
Looking at all of these pictures and thinking about all of the scenes not captured on camera, I am overwhelmed. The Lord is so
good! When we put our trust in Him, there is absolutely nothing that He cannot do for us, and He will do it if it's right. Although life is not perfect and I
am
really not perfect, my happiness is at a ten. With blessings and tender mercies and opportunities to learn and grow abounding (not to mention the above beautiful things and people to look at), I really have great reason to rejoice!
PS- Coming soon: another book post!
