Pacific Aviation Museum

Dad, this one's for you.

A few weeks ago, Manu and I had our first big adventure together, just the two of us.  Saturday, September 24th was Smithsonian Magazine's National Museum Day, so many museums offered free admission.  So Manu and I packed up and headed out to Ford Island in Pearl Harbor to see the Pacific Aviation Museum.

When we finally got in to the museum (after a shuttle ride, a diaper change, a feeding, and another diaper change) we saw some great planes.  Dad, I thought of you a lot while I examined the different planes and Manu examined the inside of his eyelids.  So, here's some of the cool stuff we saw:

I didn't get many pictures of the really old planes in the first building because the light was bad.  This one is a F-4F3 Wildcat from the 1940s.

North American F-86E Sabre from 1947.

This is an ultralight plane.  It was tiny!

Curtiss P-40E Kittyhawk I (1942)

McDonnell Douglas F-15A Eagle (1972)

Grumman F-14D Tomcat (1970)

Convair F-102A Delta Dagger (1953)

SH-60-B Seahawk

Some of the planes you could climb up and get into or see up close.  It was a pretty cool museum.  Wish you could have been there, Dad!  Hope you enjoy the photos!  

Mormons and Politics

Yes, that's right.  I'm joining the fray.

First let's take a brief look at the politics side:

There has been a ton of coverage in the news lately about Mitt Romney and how his membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints effects his abilities as a potential presidential candidate.  This coverage seems to have exploded in the last few days after Pastor Robert Jeffress declared Mormonism to be a cult.  


There have been some great responses to Pastor Jeffress' ignorant remarks including these articles:


Don't judge candidates by their faith (by CNN's William Bennett.  Thanks for pointing this one out, Katie)


Latter-Day Sins (subtitle: Why don’t we challenge anti-Mormonism? Because it’s the prejudice of our age.)


Anderson Cooper and Robert Jeffress interview (video)

I'm a Mormon.  I may or may not vote for Romney.  If I do, it certainly won't be because we both belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  It will be because I like his political stance best.  By the same token, I'm going to give Rick Perry fair judgment based on his politics as well.  I'm not going to discount him as a potential candidate just because he is a member of a different faith.  This is what I'm getting at - it just doesn't matter.

Bennett summed it up well in the first article I linked to by saying, "To the right and left alike, we are in the middle of a grueling presidential campaign season. It behooves us to despise and reject all forms of religious, and racial, bigotry. Politics are about policy and deciding whether a candidate shares your views of the founding principles of this country -- life, liberty, and the rule of law -- which men and women of all different faiths can agree upon."

In the video above, Jeffress is directly confronted about his remarks on Mormons.  Jeffress then explains that by "cult" he meant "theological cult" wherein a church looks to a man instead of a divine figure as the founder of their church.  He also describes the Book of Mormon as a "newer, fresher revelation."

This brings us to the second portion of this post.

I'm a Mormon.  I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Jesus Christ is the founder of my faith.  Joseph Smith is a prophet just like Moses, Noah, and Abraham.  I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, my Savior and Redeemer.  I believe the Bible is the word of God.  The Book of Mormon  does not replace the Bible, but is a companion to it.  It is "another testament of Jesus Christ" and witnesses powerfully of His divinity.

If you want to know what it's like to live in China, ask someone who lives there, not someone who only once saw a picture of it.  If you want to know what Mormons believe, ask a Mormon.  We're your friends and neighbors and would welcome your questions.  Ask me, I'm a Mormon.  Or visit mormon.org to learn more.

Foster Botanical Garden

Nate and I have decided that we need to get out and appreciate this beautiful little island we call home before we find ourselves having to leave and never getting to do all we wanted.  (FYI: This is not a moving announcement)  So we've instituted "family days" on Fridays when Nate dosen't have class as days to get out and see stuff together.  

So for our first family day, we went to a botanical garden here in town.  It was beautiful.  Such a lovely piece of nature in this bustling city.

Here we are at the gardens with Buddah.

The orchid garden was my favorite, I didn't even take photos of anything else.  These flowers are amazing!

This one is not an orchid.  It's a bromeliad.  

This is also not an orchid, it's called crown of thorns.  

 There was a random camel at the garden.  So naturally we took pictures with it.

Two Months Old!

Two months old!  That's right, Manu is now two months old!  I had the startling realization that October starts this weekend.  My brain has been stuck in July this whole time, and for some reason I expected the rest of the world to stay there with me until I was ready to move on.  But you didn't.

The good news is I'm catching up.  Manu and I are getting into a routine of sorts and out of the apartment.    So, I have a few photo posts in the works to show you what Manu and I (and Nate too!) have been up to lately.  But since yesterday marked two whole months since my dear Manu was born, this post is for him.

 

Remember this tiny little bundle?

Now he looks like this!  

To celebrate, Manu and I went on a walk at Ala Moana Beach Park.  As you can see, Manu was really impressed with the ocean view.

Manu and me at the beach.  

 Manu's #2 favorite place to sleep.

Manu's #1 favorite place to sleep.  (Nate was dressed up for a costume/ice cream eating contest at school)

I just realized that Manu is sleeping in the majority of these photos, it's definitely his favorite hobby, which makes for a very happy mommy.  He still sleeps really well at night; the last two nights he's gone 9 straight hours!

Here's the stats from today's dr. visit:

Length: 23 1/2 in.

Weight: 11lbs 12 oz

He also got a bajillion vaccines today in two shots and a little drink and after some initial crying, has taken it like a champ and is doing what Manu does best - sleeping it off.

Free Teachers' E-Books

Nate and I heard about this from a friend and thought we'd share.  It's a coupon for $10 worth of free e-books from Scholastic, and they're having a sale until Tuesday where many are only $1!  That's 10 free e-books!  They're all about teaching, so I hope all you teaching friends enjoy!  Neither of us are teachers by training, but we definitely found some neat things to get when we looked through the site this weekend!

p.s. The website is swamped and super slow, so you'll need to do this when you have a bit of time to wait for loading pages.

Here's where I got the coupon:

http://www.motherhoodonadime.com/10-worth-of-ebooks-from-scholastic-for-free/

Ick!

Let me preface the story of this post by saying that I hate cockroaches.  I think they're absolutely disgusting.  We have them in our apartment occasionally, rather more often than I would prefer.  We're usually quite good at changing our roach baits every three months, so it's not usually too big of a deal.  But, we've been a little distracted lately (something about having a baby), and haven't yet changed our overdue baits.

Usually if I see a roach that is mid-size or larger it is accompanied by a small shriek of disgust and a call for Nate to come with a shoe and get it.  At times I've even exchanged unfriendly words with the critters and made it very clear that they were not welcome in my home.

Last night I was putting away the dishes.  I opened up our utensils drawer (not the silverware drawer, thankfully, though they're all connected, so it only really makes a difference in my mind) and what did I see?   Yes, a mid-size roach scurrying toward the back all over my spatulas, ladle, and beaters.  Sick.

However, I was pretty tired by this point in the day and Nate wasn't home.  So, what did I do?  I closed my eyes, gave a shudder, and closed the drawer.

We need to get some new roach baits, post-haste.  And now, if you'll excuse me, I need to scrub out the drawers in my kitchen.


But, before you all decide to stop reading my blog because I post gross things about bugs, here's a picture of Manu to keep you coming back.  Some of you have seen this one before, but it's so cute I'm going to post it here as well:

Manu in his church duds.  He's wearing a tiny ie faitaga (basically a formal Samoan man-skirt.  Kind of like what Feki wears in Other Side of Heaven) that my mom made for him.

A Diapering Confession

During my pregnancy Nate and I stocked up on several different kinds of cloth diapers.  They were cute and would save the earth, but above all they were much cheaper for the long haul.  We were pretty gung-ho about it.

Then, I received a Costco-size box of diapers as a gift and I thought, "oh, that'll be nice to have around in emergencies or when I forget to do the laundry."  Then I started saying, "oh, I'll just use these until his piko (bellybutton) is all healed up."  Before I knew it we'd gone through the whole stinkin' box!  There were 216 diapers in there!

But, before we'd quite finished, another set of friends gave us a Costco-size box of diapers as a gift.  (Thanks, friends!)  So I kept using them, and using them, and using them.

Here's the confession:

I've been seduced by disposable diapers: by their ease and convenience, by the lack of laundry they add to my already exploding laundry basket.

When the second box ran low, we went to Costco and bought our own Costco-sized box of diapers.  I felt like I had to smuggle it in to the apartment before anyone saw it.

Here's the other confession:

We've used the cloth diapers for one day.  It was great - no leaks or explosions.  However, Manu was only two weeks old or so at the time and the cloth diapers just looked so huge and bulky I didn't think I'd be able to fit his little onesies over it.  Seriously they made his cute, tiny, little derrière look ginormous!  Oh the vanity!

Conclusion:

Will I ever use the drawer full of diapers I've stockpiled to save the world and save myself a bundle of cash?  Yes.  I really think I will.  Just give me a bit until I settle in to this whole mothering thing.  And until my little dear's derrière fits them better.  Then Manu will be rocking' the cloth diapers.