the meaning of Ohana

first and foremost…..if you look right above…you might notice my new header.

My friend Sara over at Sadie Olive designed it up for me after i mentioned the fact that it had been almost

18 months since i’ve updated the blog header so she took it upon herself to help me out.

I think the mason jar cocktail on the beach pretty much sums it up.

Hello monday….nice to see you.

I used to me a Monday lover.

{not to be confused with an everyday lover}

Sunday would roll around and i would think to myself….it’s almost sunday night and sunday night means

Mad Men is on…..and i love that….but it also coincides with Hawaii Life on HGTV…..and since we don’t have dvr

{god forbid i write this out loud……}

we watch television in real time around here …

WE WATCH TELEVISION IN REAL TIME AROUND HERE

there i wrote it……

hate me but you don’t need to feel sorry for me…..

because having anything extra like the once loved dvr

is out of the question….end of story.

Back to the real story though….

check check

sunday evening rolls around and i have to pry myself with fine boxed wine

to stay up till 9 pm because we are on real-time here….

{and a good 6 hours behind the East Coast in case you were wondering}

to watch my beloved Mad Men…..but that is not what i’m here to talk about.

I was telling you all about how MAYBE

JUST POSSIBLY

that come Sunday………… i’m thinking about Monday.

why?

Because monday is a school day.

Is it wrong to love a school day i ask you???

Is it hate the sin but love the sinner?????

or hate the sinner but love the fine boxed wine???

{now before you go all holy on me and start in on the ……”i’ve homeschooled for 243 years and i wouldn’t

change a thing ….and i love mondays because i can be around my kids even more and did you know my kid

can count to 28 and he’s only 14 months we still co-sleep with our 16 year old who is actually taking college courses

at the local college….}

Not anymore though……we are going onto week 2 here in Hawaii of our 2 month summer vacation….

and normally i might mind….but we’ve had family in town this last week….so when i looked at the clock

and noticed that it’s Sunday evening and i wasn’t having heart palpitations……

it meant my family was doing a good job of helping me forget that it is indeed summer vacation and the kids

are home every single day for 2 months straight.

every

single

day

{i’ve been known to call summer here in Hawaii…….GROUNDHOG DAY}

wake up

pack up

go to beach

come home

shower

go to bed

REPEAT FOR 60 DAYS

……..

Please don’t think i’m complaining…..but when you live on a small island and really can’t afford all the

camps that are offered everywhere….it really does turn into GROUNDHOG DAY.

{and i refuse to admit that my 24 year old cousin who is staying with us right now just came down to tell me

that she would like me to catch the cockroach that is running around Lola’s her room……

yes…..i refuse to admit that summer is here and there might be cockroaches the size of 3 year olds living amongst us}

nothing at all.

I once painted a wall in chalkboard paint while i watched Bill Murray reenact Groundhog day on the tele.

Last Wednesday i had gotten a phone call from one of my friends back home in Illinois

telling me that there was a moving truck in front of our home.

I haven’t gone into the full detailed summary about our house back there……but as you know

the tenants had stopped paying rent……

and we were in the throws of trying to get them evicted.

It’s not pretty nor is it easy or cheap or anything.

A lot of alcohol was consumed over the month of May…..i kid you not.

We’ve also had a lot of company this last month and it’s just hard to sit down and have a normal discussion ….

and needless to say it was just stressful all around.

I swear if we got one more note from our neighbor letting us know that our yard looked like sheet…

well….

i mean seriously?

We know.

Thank you very much.

Two years ago we were on beginning of what we thought was going to be the best year of our lives….

we knew we had a chance to jump into something that a lot of people wouldn’t think twice about.

and the best part was that we landed with both feet on the ground.

Yes we realize that even though one set of feet didn’t have the monotonous corporate job….

and the other set of feet didn’t have the weekly flea markets and girls nights out….

what we did have was each other.

with a different type of life….

even though we wouldn’t forget the old one.

We were ready for it…..and all of its challenges.

We found out on Friday that the our tenants had finally vacated our home….

the same day we got notice from the city that they had stopped paying their utilities as well.

As i sit here and write our story about our ups and downs…..i also realize there will always be people that

feel the need to cast judgement and tell us how we should be living our life.

Case in point: neighbor back home who actually emailed us and told us that it was time to stop dreaming

and come back to the “real world” and take care of our yard that was overgrown with weeds.

I kid you not.

I wasn’t even going to write about this but now that i’ve had a few glasses of fine boxed wine….

my fine dignity is flying out the window.

How were we to know our tenants would stop paying rent?….

and we are at the mercy of hope and process servers.

We had originally moved to chicago because the company that Bryan was working for had moved us there from Colorado

for his job. It wasn’t a happy move…but we did it because we wanted what was best for our family.

4 years down the road the same company laid him off.

We had made amazing friends….

the kids had made amazing friends….

we loved our house…..

but we never loved the frigid winters.

We never gave it a second thought after Bryan was let go to not do something else with our lives….

and yes…

we miss our friends…..and the kids still talk about their life in Illinois

…..it was 4 years of some of their best memories…..

Halloween with the neighbors…..

the annual Christmas white elephant exchange….

wonderful Lincoln school…..

book club….

Trader Joe’s and crashing wedding receptions.

The list goes on and on……..

And we know the friends from back home that will be life long friends……

they care about us no matter what.

Because the lifers will always be lifers.

word

and life goes on.

So….take it all in….because life is so short….that we know.

Life is for living…..wherever that may.

You have to do what is right for your own family….and this is what we felt was right for ours.

{even though there may be weeds and the grass is taller then the boy who mows the lawn…..}

and who knows…..you might have a cockroach in a jar sitting in the kitchen because your cousin made you

come up to her room in the middle of the night to catch it…..

just make sure you don’t catch it in a jar that you plan on drinking out of at the beach just like the header up above….

because that is not real life.

reality check

it is real life.

This is real life.….

and we love it.

{Photography was done by the wonderful Bryce Covey}

……………….

“Ohana means family. Family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten”

-Lilo Pelekai. Lilo and Stitch