And the subbing continues... :)

I'm sitting in a 4th grade classroom right now, and the students are quietly writing thank you letters to the submarine crew that they visited on Monday.  :)

The more I sub in the older classrooms, the more I can see the appeal of the upper grades (I used to think my block buddies, Kristin and Cheryl, were crazy for their grade choices!)  A few months ago, I wouldn't have believed that I would actually like 4th grade!  I think a lot of my aversion to the higher grades was the fear that I wouldn't be able to explain a math concept to the kids--because I didn't understand it!  haha.

So far I've only subbed in preschool and 4th grade....talk about extremes.  But I still love the little kids, and would prefer a younger grade over the older ones. I don't know that I'm strong enough for special education preschool, which is the only type of preschool that the public schools here offer.  I've only been in a sped classroom 3 times, and parts of it seems like I could do it, and then I encounter a child with zero communication ability whatsoever, and I get a little intimidated!  I'm not saying no to it yet, but I haven't looked into how much more schooling a sped endorsement would be...or how much more money it would cost.  But its definitely still an option at this point!  :)  The kids are more difficult, but you do have WAY less of them, and they are still my favorite age at this point.

I had made the decision earlier this month that I wasn't going to take a job at Kamali'i, even if they offered me one for next year.  I was thinking I wasn't quite ready to "commit" and to take on the responsibility of my own classroom.  But then the preschool teacher here told me that he was pretty positive that they had a Kinder opening for next year, and it made me think a third time about my "decision."  I really don't think I could turn down a Kinder opening, especially since it's what I've always wanted.  And some teachers wait years to get into the grade that they want! 

After the last time that I talked to the principal here about potential jobs, I went ahead and applied for my Hawaiian teaching certificate.  From what I understand, all I have to do is get my Washington credentials transferred over.  But the website is a little confusing, so who knows!  The gals in the office said a lot of states don't transfer over the teaching test scores, and that I may have to retakes the PRAXIS exams over here.  I really hope not, because not only did the WEST tests give me a lot of anxiety, they were expensive!  And to actually get my teaching certificate here, I have to pay $240!  Oye!  Cross your fingers for me!  I hope that everything will just transfer over and I won't have to do anything besides write the state of Hawaii a fatty check.  :) 

Well, back to teaching.  Update again soon! :)

Andrew & Lauren's wedding

I know this is supposed to be a Maui blog, but my brother-in-law getting married is pretty damn important! :) We flew home last week, saw family, and attended a beautiful wedding.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures during the ceremony, and then my wonderful little sister may have left 2 giant fingerprints across the lens, therefore voiding out a majority of the pictures taken...haha. Its okay, the photographer was awesome and the pictures I've seen so far are beautiful. :)

Here are the few that turned out fabulous, plus an amazing dancing video. :)

Bear & Dad

Justin and Little Todd

Little Todd And Grandpa

Sarah messing around with the camera

The only non-blurry picture of me...haha.

I know this picture is blurry, but its soooooo touching.  :)  Mother/son dance!  :)

And the dancing begins...

And because this video makes me laugh forever, here is Little Todd dancing with his mama.  This video will be held until Little Todd gets married!  :) :) :)

Up West Maui and beyond

Last week, Justin and I headed up the west side of Maui.  Ka'anapali is big, tourist city on that side of the island, and is home to multimillion dollar condos galore.  There are supposed to be some pretty awesome beaches here, but we didn't stop.  We wanted to keep heading up, because there are some pretty awesome sights beyond "civilization."  Near the end of the road (where the arrow is pointing), the "world's best banana bread" can be found.  I really enjoyed exploring this side of the island, though the drive at points made me incredibly nervous.  (You'll see why when I get to the pictures!)  :)

The first stop for us was supposed to be the Two-Tiered Tide Pools of Honolua.  We never actually got there...lol.  We pulled off the road, and followed what we thought was the correct path, but didn't actually end up anywhere near it.  But I'm pretty sure we could see it from where we ended up.  And the views were pretty anyways!

Justin peeing off a cliff.  Because he thinks he's cool.  :)

First trail we took attempting to find the two pools.

Pretty sure those are the pools.  Not only were we far from them, but I think the high tides would've made them dangerous

View of the awesome coastline

Next on the agenda was the Acid War Zone hike that eventually leads to the Nakalele Blowhole.  The Acid War Zone is a space along the coastline that has had slammed by billions of tons of sea water, and the salt has eroded away the rocks in ways that seem surreal.  The guidebook named is the war zone, and comments on the fact that movies should be filmed here.  It definitely seems like a scene out of Starship Troopers.  :)

A mini blow hole on the way to the big one!  :)

Close up on an "alien" rock

Justin checking out an acid rock

Once through the war zone, you come to the Nakalele Blowhole.  I swear everytime I turned the camera off, a massive amount of water would come shooting through the hole.  And when I would turn the camera back on, little baby poofs of water would come through.  Haha.

After the blowhole, we hiked back to the car and continued on to the Olivine Pools.  I've been wanting to see the pools since we got here.  The guidebook compares them to Queen's Bath in Kauai, but says they were better.  Unfortunately, I don't know if its because of it being early Spring or because the tides are crappy, but the pools weren't nearly as awesome as I had expected.  I think we'll have to head back to them in the summer months and check them out in all their splendor.  :)

The Olivine pools

Other folks checking out the further pools

Ash deposits from when island was young and volcanic--erosion reveals these splendors to us!  :)

From the Olivine pools, we had to make the decision of making the trek back down through Ka'anapali and down into Lahaina.  Or, we could make a dangerous, but much shorter trek and end up in Wailuku in 12 short smiles.  I'm glad we ended up taking this route, even though the roads were terrifying!  :)

The road was quite literally one car wide.  There were spaces where you could pull off, but a little further up the road, there is no space, AND there is a giant cliff on the left hand side!  :)

Narrow road doesn't even begin to cover it!  :)

And of course!  A frickin' school bus decides to come towards us while we're coming down!  I held my breath the whole time it was passing us!  haha.  Though at least it was closest to the cliff!  :)

Shortly after the school bus, we came to the little fishing town of Kahakuloa.  See the map at the beginning of the entry to see where the village was located.  Here, we purchased "The best banana bread in the world," as well as some kick ass coconut candy.  Julia, the gal who owns the banana bread stand, sat in a little green stand at the end of the village road.  The bread and the candy were awesome, though I don't know if the banana bread was worth the life threatening drive it took to get there!  lol.  I'm not really sure why I don't have any pictures of the village.  Maybe I was still freaking out from the trip, or maybe I was in awe of how cute the little town was, and how secluded it was. 

Julia's banana bread stand--you can purchase it online: http://www.juliasbananabread.com/id27.html

The rest of the drive wasn't nearly as treacherous, and we did stop at the Turnbull Studio and Sculpture garden, which was actually incredbibly cool.  The sculptures were pretty awesome, both inside and outside the studio, and the main guy is obsessed with giraffes, so I took tons of pictures of them for my sissy!  :)

Go Cougs!  :)

Badass bird getting ready to scratch your face off!  :)

A bronze giraffe sculpture

Well that was the trip!  :)  The road pops you back out into Wailuku, where we stopped for some awesome Vietnamese food before heading home.  :)