Progressive Dinner, Bowling and a Night at the Opera

Hello dear family and friends!

Daniel is staying busy as usual, but I am thankful to report he does have an adequate amount of downtime. I am glad to hear when he does, because a person could go crazy with that level of intensity all the time. He has been reading, watching movies with peers and just conversationally chatting with his roomie, as well as other guys. I am sure getting to know them personally has been a nice change from just knowing them at work. There are still no pictures to post because he doesn't have easy access to a digital camera. Last time we spoke he said he was going to try to take some and send them over. I will post whatever I get.

Saturday was a nice beach day. It didn't start off looking like it but Amaya and I decided to risk it and went out. Well, we underestimated the sun and we got sunburnt. The sun came out about 45 minutes into our outting. We had sunscreen on, but apparently not enough. It probably didn't help that we both fell asleep. We did find some great shells and enjoyed the great beach day.

That night we went to the Progressive Dinner and enjoyed ourselves silly. We started out at a couple's home in Kailua for salad and bread. It had an absolutly beautiful lookout over the town and there was a great view of the ocean. The company was wonderful. We moved on to another couple's home for the main course. The couple lived on base and I have one of their daughters in AWANA so it was good to get to know the parents. It turns out they are both from eastern Tennessee, right near my parents hometowns, and we hit it off instantly. Basically, dinner was the highlight of the evening in my mind. We had so much fun laughing and getting to know each other. We moved onto the last house together, Amaya, Brian and Cindy (the southern couple) and I. The last house we went to was phenomenal! We walked in the front door and the home looked like a museum. The house was much larger than it appeared in the front because it was built on a hill. Once you entered in, it was a maze of rooms, full of several works of art and just general loveliness. They even had an entire room for their birds. It had clear wire sealing it off from the rest of the home. In the bottom of the room was an indoor pond with Japanese kois and little turtles.

Tiramisu for dessert ended the evening on a great note and Amaya and I got a picture in front of the pool in the backyard. Unfortunately, it was dark and you can't see all the beautiful landscaping. The pool was like the cherry on top. The amazing plants and levels in the backyard were so peaceful. Basically it was a fantastic home. :)

Sunday morning brought another great Sunday School class with only a few kids because of the ProBowl in Honolulu. Sunday afternoon Jo, her sons, Amaya, and another 1/3 wife with kids and I all went bowling at the base bowling alley. I haven't gone bowling in quite sometime and it took a while for me to warm up to it again. We all had a good time.

Valentine's Day was very special because my husband sent flowers to the women in his life. He generously sent his mother, my mom, and me all flowers. I could brag on him forever! Thank you Daniel they are so beautiful! Of course you are my #1 Valentine, then the little boy in my AWANA group who keeps stealing kisses on my cheek. :) Haha...Too cute!

Tuesday evening I went to the opera with a music leader at Faith. She had been looking for someone to go see the opera with her and luckily we met up at the progressive dinner. The opera was Rigeletto by Guiseppe Verdi. It is a tragic opera. It was really good to go to the opera. It had been a long time since I had been to a live opera. It seemed like I was getting a steady diet while at school and this past year on the island I have been deprived. The opera season here is so short. Each opera runs one weekend and they only do three operas; so the season starts the beginning of February and ends the beginning of March. It is really sad because you miss out if you have a busy weekend. I guess they have a smaller audience here on the island and can't run operas for as long as I am used to on the East Coast. Thankfully, I caught this one and enjoyed it thoroughly. The highlight was the tenor in the role of the Duke. He had a warmth and brightness that was very pleasant to listen to. Anyways, I won't analyze the opera on here...to boring for most people.

I hope you all are doing well. I love hearing from all of you. Please keep praying for both Daniel and his older brother, Everett both deployed in the war on terrorism.

Many blessings to you!