1 little, 2 little, FIVE little Elliots!

HALLELUJAH PRAISE THE LORD THEY'RE HOME! A week and a half ago Carrie came home to Hawaii with Mykah and Jackson. So awesome to see their family finally complete! A first family photo:

What a happy beautiful bunch. Colin loves to be a big brother and help. Maddie didn't waste anytime showing Mykah around the girls room, being sure to point out the closet and all of their pajamas they get to share. Gracen (who is half Jackson's age yet almost twice his size it seems) just loves having more people to chase, cups to drink from, and how there's too much going on to always have an eye on her. Mykah and Jackson are absolutely precious. Mykah is quite the livewire who wastes no time to run and jump into my arms when I come home. Jackson also is the biggest (figuratively, of course) cuddle bug who looovves hugs and kisses. He'll sit in my lap for the longest time and you just can't say no to his tooth-ish wide mouth grin, or adorable puckered lips looking for some love. Oohh I just love all 5 of them like crazy and look forward to watching them all grow together as a family. 

Work is getting better now that things are picking up. Right now it gets busy, but not too busy. Stays consistent which makes the days go by faster. However the next two weeks are known as hell peak because everyone should be receiving the rest of their tax info. We'll see how I feel about things then. I have this one precious old lady who I can't wait for her to come back tomorrow for me to finish her return. She's in her 80's and asked me if I had any grandparents and when I told her none were living, she all but adopted me on the spot. I can't wait to be a funny old lady (I can wait, but you get what I mean). That reminds me that I need to find a rocking chair somewhere...when I frequented Windy Gap I got lots of practice rocking on the porch, but since I've moved across the country I've been slacking.

So now it's time to tell you about my new adventure yesterday! Marlene (temporary roomie) leaves for Spain tomorrow, so yesterday I had the day off and her uncle took her, Megan and myself diving to spear tacos (octopus). So awesome. It was an overcast day so there were 0.0 tourists and we had flat island and the surrounding waters to ourselves. This was my first time snorkeling and after working out some disagreements with my gear, I was loving it. We brought an underwater camera and so I'll add pictures. Uncle found an octopus who was home and even though I did more cheering on and supporting than actual spearing I totally felt like an amazon woman or something. Later when uncle was cleaning out the insides a vicious green head eel (I think he called it a green head...I don't know, uncle just said you don't mess around when they're near) came out of nowhere since he smelled feeding time. I got a picture of it and escaped with my life so no worries. We popped out it's teeth/beak which comes in two parts. Megan is and artist so can we say FRIENDSHIP NECKLACES?! I don't know if I'm still even friends with anyone I've had real frienship necklaces with before, but I now see the foreshadowing in that they came in the shape of a broken heart. I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure Megan and I will be the only ones with octopus teeth necklaces. Thinking back, there was that one summer I was working at camp in Florida and Spike sent me a "Best" sweatband where she had the "Friends." We're still friends. I still have that sweatband somewhere.

After our adventure we went on a little hike to some ww2 bunkers where we introduced Marlene to the jumping picture. Lots of those. On the way down, naturally I slip and fall and of course there is a perfectly placed rock right under my left cheek (I'll let you figure out which cheek I'm referring to) and nailed it perfectly. I know I have plenty of padding, but I do not have buns of steel so you can imagine how this hurt. I couldn't help but say the first thing that came to mind (again, use your imagination). There is now a giant black/blue/purple splotch. TMI? Maybe. Probably. But every time I sit or lie down I am reminded of it and blogging is to be somewhat a reflection of my thoughts. Well I think I'm bruised as hell and it hurts. To top it all off, after looking at pictures I realized the shorts I was wearing are completely unflattering from behind and nobody has ever bothered to tell me this.

As usual, Yogurtland helped make things a little better and all in all, a good day. So, until next time something worth my mom reading about happens, aloha.

I wish I didn't have to wait until April for Glee

This sentence is about as exciting as the majority of my time at work right now.

Since the IRS has officially started accepting returns, business will continue to pick up which will help the days go by faster. I've only been full time for 2 weeks but I've already found myself singing "everybody's working for the weekend" by Tuesday afternoon. I've noticed that I'm getting paler and fatter (I don't think I'm fat) from sitting all day every day. I even worked out a few times this week after the kiddies went to bed. Marlene has been a good coach.

Another good thing about my temporary roomie (there are many good things about her) is she surfs. So last Sunday we had a little "church-n-surf" sesh and I caught a wave or two on my own but Waikiki wasn't really helping much. So we just walked around Diamond Head and chatted. Tomorrow we're doing the same thing but going somewhere else where she said it should be better conditions for me. I'm pumped. Next goal: get up way early to go surf then be at work by 9am. Then I will be even more of an island girl.

Speaking of which, once I reach such goal, I've dubbed a term for myself over here...an "island belle." A combination of island girl and southern belle. Get it? Clever? No? lalalala I can't hear you. I think it is appropriate because I plan to regain my tan from September after Elisabeth left and learn to confidently surf solo while not abandoning my pearls, croakies, sperrys, and bows around the waste. Not to mention that out here apparently I have an accent. I tried to tell a few people I was a local haole (white person) but they all called my bluff.

In other news, to wrap up, Chris and Carrie are in Atlanta with Mykah and Jackson (their new kiddies!) and we are picking them up Monday afternoon here in Honolulu where the entire and complete Elliott family will be together for the first time. There will be pictures. There will be waterfalls from all of our eyeholes. Waterfalls of joy and love. It will be a beautiful thing.

Then I pick up Megan on Wednesday. She has been missed.

Some goodies: First, my mini-me. I was playing with Gracen and hear "I'm Kayleigh! I'm Kayleigh!" and turn to see this sassy thing:

New Year's Eve...or "the Day of Fireworks"

This time of year I will say with confidence that when it comes to per-capita fireworks sales Hawaii's top of the list. In our neighborhood, people about go Griswold-crazy with lights (and inflatable holiday-themed exhibits....who knew Santa flew in planes, rode merry-go-rounds and swings like at the fair? Not to mention the snow globe he skated in...). It isn't quite as much as the Griswolds, but compared to neighborhoods I've lived in before, it was quite impressive. Then there's the Elliott's. I forgot to take a picture but that is probably a good thing to save from embarrassment. On either side you have the works, then you look at our house in the middle. One night to appease Colin and Maddie, Megan and I attempted to put icicle lights on a palm tree in the yard and on our balcony. The ones on our balcony lasted about 5 hours and fell, never to be restored. Whatever, they had something to plug in outside so they were happy.

Another tradition during the month of December besides outdoor decorations, is freaking fireworks every night. Every single night at some point you would hear some neighbor setting them off. Sometimes aerials, then often the regular littler ones. This however did not prepare me for New Years Eve when fireworks and barbequing is a full day affair. All day it sounded like bombs being dropped in the Ewa by Gentry war zone. By the end of the night, there is a haze in the sky accompanied by the smell of gunpowder. 

On the morning of December 31, 2009. I woke up at 4:30am at Heather's after a few hours of sleep where their dog managed to finagle more bedspace that I. Heather, her oldest son (Braden, 6yo) and I went to join others for a sunrise hike to the top of Koko Head crater. It is on the windward (eastern) side of the island so after climbing 1000+ steps we made it to the top and saw the last sunrise over the Pacific of 2009. My final day of the year was a really really good one. Post-hike we met up with the rest of the Holliday family for an oceanfront brunch with banana-macademia nut pancakes. So Hawaiian, I know. I had a successful Target trip (where I only purchased what I went in there to purchase...this is probs the first time I've been in there and left without spending enough to cover their mortgage payment for the month). Heather basically found me some friends in my peer group so I danced the night away with a fun group of people. To top it off, every time I got into Julia (my truck) on that day, Beyonce was playing on the radio. New Year's Day was uneventful--I basically spent all but 4 hours in bed passed out/trying to give my legs (dead tired and sore from hike/dancing) a pep talk and reminding them how to put one in front of the other, etc.

Starting today, however, my 5 month Hawaiian vacation of paradise has come to its close. I started a job. I'll be doing taxes, so that's good in that it'll be me on top of things, but the idea of working in general is still something to get used to. The thing that will keep me going is that the software we use is TPS which means we print out "TPS reports." I just might have to watch that movie soon.

That's probs all I'll really have to report in the next few weeks until Carrie finally comes home with Mykah and Jackson! So in the meantime, I'm going to have to ask you if you could come in on Saturday...