To the Love of My Life:

Happy 3rd Anniversary! I love you!

I gave Nate his gift last Saturday. Here he is enjoying the new weight set.

Two Months in Only 5 Photos

Well, since I've been terrible at posting lately, here's a brief photo update with a promise of another post to come shortly.

In February we finally got a couch! This futon frame was given to us by a member of our ward. Another friend in the ward gave us a mattress for it a few days later. No more sitting on the floor for us!

This is the beautiful spider orchid that a neighbor gave to me (also a ward member). Within two weeks all the blossoms had fallen off. I think I over-watered it at first, but I don't think it's actually dead. We'll see.

This is Nate thawing and separating a frozen block of 10 whole chickens that were given to us by a member of the ward for us to distribute to other ward members in the building. Since we didn't have room for 10 chickens in our freezer, we had to distribute them immediately and it was rather humorous. Picture me knocking on your door at 9:45pm in my pajamas and offering you a chicken.

Last weekend Nate and I had the wonderful opportunity to fly to Kona on the Big Island for a trip to the temple with our ward.

I seem to have unintentionally created a theme in these pictures. Yes, we love our ward.

Race Results

Wake up: 4:45am
Depart 5:15am

Make the 15 minute drive to the Aloha Stadium: 1hr 10 min

Miss the "last bus" at 6:00am and catch one at 6:33am

Arrive at the start: 6:50am

Gun goes off at 7am, finally cross the Start line at about: 7:15am

Official Finishing Time: 1:17:45

Walking Breaks: 0!

Pace: 9:33min/mile

Place Overall: 2,699/15,721

Place in my Category (Female age 20-24) 96/697

Aloha Stadium - the finish


Now you can play "Where's Deb?" in these action shots of the final turn into Aloha Stadium:

After the finish (check out my cool gear that Nate got me for Christmas and Valentine's Day: shorts, water bottle belt, and ipod with an arm band!)

Where would I be without my personal trainer? Thanks, Nate, I love you!

Race Day Countdown

Days left until the Great Aloha Run:
5

Race Length:
13k (8.15 miles)

Start Time:
7:00am

Number of Participants Expected:
22,000

Miles run since December 1 in preparation for this race:
103

Average Pace:
10 min/ mile (6 mph)

Goal Finishing Time:
80 ish minutes
(I ran 7 miles last Saturday in 68minutes, so I'm feeling pretty confident. Slow and steady may not win this race, but it will see me to the finish line! Though I did have a dream that I won it the other night...)

Wish me luck!

Trapped!

A bit of humor for the first post of 2010:

It was Sunday evening almost two weeks ago and we had just gotten back from picking our neighbor's daughter up from work (no, we didn't get a car, we picked her up in their car while the rest of them were on vacation) when we discovered we needed to run next door to ask her a question.

Now, our door knob had been giving us some trouble for a week or so at this point, nothing concerning, really. Every once in awhile the latch would just get stuck inside the door and we had to jiggle the handle to get it to come back out. We figured that eventually we would get annoyed enough with it that we would call the apartment managers and have them send the fix-it man with some WD-40 to take care of it. We did think it was a little curious that it was getting stuck because when we moved in they proudly told us that the door jamb was new and that the door had just been fitted with a brand-spanking new doorknob and a deadbolt! I think we're the only apartment in the complex that has a deadbolt.

So, I hopped up and went to the door to ask our neighbor the question. But, upon reaching the door, I couldn't get it to open. Kind of embarrassing to not be able to open your own front door, but no big deal. I blamed it on slippery hands and called in reinforcements, confident Nate could get it open with his man hands. No luck.

So we sheepishly called up our friend, Josh who lives a few doors down and asked him to come and let us out. Thinking "we are definitely calling in a maintenance request first thing tomorrow." Josh shows up with kids in tow and we have a good chuckle as we explain our situation through the window. Until Josh tries to open the door. Nothing.

Josh's wife, Julie, arrives home at this point and goes to tell the managers (who are also members of our ward) that we are locked IN our apartment. Oh, how I wish I could have seen the look on his face as she told him. No, this is not a practical joke; they really are stuck inside their own apartment.

And so the manager comes up to appraise the situation. He tries the doorknob. "Yes," we tell him, "we're sure that the doorknob is unlocked." We tried several different tactics, poke this turn that, shove a wire in there, poke it with a knife but to no avail. So, the window screen came off, followed by the glass louvers and in climbed our apartment manager. No one had any idea why the door was stuck or how to get it open again, so he eventually wound up tearing out the old knob and replacing it (why he had a brand-new spare door knob lying around, I don't know, but I am very grateful for it) as well as chipping away some of the door jamb so the bolts fit better. An hour and a half later we were freed.

Though I didn't like having to make our manager work on a Sunday I'm glad it happened when it did. Imagine how I would have sounded on Monday morning calling in to my new job to apologize for being late because I was locked IN my apartment!

Kuli'ou'ou Ridge Hike

Yesterday Nate and I went on an awesome hike up the Kuli'ou'ou Ridge. I consider it one of my Christmas presents from him. It took us two hours to get to the trail head via bus (including the slow down because we got on the 1 instead of the 1L. Oops.) From the bus stop it was about a half hour walk through a neighborhood to get to the actual trail head. Nate kept us entertained by quizzing my knowledge of local plants poking out of the yards - bougainvillea, ti, hibiscus, mango, noni, plumeria, coconut, and others. The sights and sounds of the forest were so soothing. It was wonderful to be away from the noise, hustle, and stink of the city. (Yes, Hawaii is beautiful, but sometimes the city just plain stinks)

At the beginning of our hike I could hear a small stream gurgling merrily out of sight. The air was heavy and sweet with the fragrance of wild flowers and the hill was spunkily adorned in springy ferns. We ran in to a few other hikers on our way up, but mostly we had the trail to ourselves, for our companion only the quiet rustle of the wind whispering gently to the rhythm of our plodding footsteps.

About halfway up the trail we met another couple who were on their way down, looking refreshed while we, sweaty-faced and panting, labored upward. We exchanged greetings and Nate asked, "There's a water-fountain at the top, right?" I didn't see the guy's reaction, but the girl just stared at him, her eyes wide with surprise, unsure whether or not he was serious until I started chuckling and the guy said, "Yeah, if it starts to rain. Then you can have all the water you want."

The top of the trail got quite steep and with the dirt dry and loose, we were left to scramble upwards. As we climbed higher and higher we could see the ocean stretching out behind us, a calm, bright half-moon of tropical blue. Eventually we could see a good portion of the leeward coast from Diamond Head around past Koko Head and Hanauma Bay.

At the top there was a sign indicating that the trail had ended and it was not safe to continue further, as there was an unsupported overhang and several thousand feet of air beyond that point. So we settled in to eat our PB&J and enjoy the cool breeze and the wisps of cloud blowing over from the windward side. These clouds obscured our view of the ocean on that side, which was disappointing, but they looked awesome drifting over the tops of the mountains only to vanish in the bright sun.

The view was incredible. The ocean stretched on endlessly, disappearing in to the glare of the sun on one side and barely peeking through in bits of shocking blue amid the swirling gray clouds on the other. It was definitely one of the most beautiful and rewarding hikes I've ever taken.

Me in a really cool tree


The mountain on the other side of the valley


Hanauma Bay as seen on the way up the ridge


Nate enjoying a break at the top


Me at the top.


The windward side of the mountains with the clouds.


Nate heading back down the ridge.

Finding My Rythm

I've been feeling the need to exercise and though I know it's just plain good for me, I've been lacking the motivation to lace up my running shoes and hit the pavement. So, on Friday I signed up to participate in the 26th Annual Great Aloha Run.

That's right. This is no measly 5k. This is 13k through downtown Honolulu to UH's Aloha Stadium. Approximately 8.15 miles. I've never run that far in my life. Let the training runs begin! Miraculously, my wee ipod shuffle that took a spin through the washing machine almost a year ago, has started working again. At least long enough for me to make it through my workouts. I'm taking that as a good sign.

So, if you've don't have plans for President's day (Feb. 15, 2010), feel free to join me! I could definitely benefit from a jogging partner.