eight-year-old humor

Simon: Don't spell booger!

Everett: Why? It's a snotty word?

Return of Computer = pictures

Yeah....we got our computer back from the Police - thanks to Aaron. Our pictures were erased, but they were still in the recycling bin so we were able to recover them and download them onto our external hard-drive. The computer was also locked and Julia was able to find a way to unlock it on-line. It is still running slowly, but now we can update our blog and post some pictures. So here is a nice picture of the kids at the beach.


[diving at Liz's B-day]

Diving is awesome. This is a picture from my favorite dive so far. It was a really beautiful spot. My gear is on the way and I have met even more divers lately so I should be getting out a lot more pretty soon. Not to mention that with Carol gone Jay is available to go almost any day.

Simon v. The Librarian

Simon recently had a conversation with our friend Naomi at Moi's birthday party. Naomi, of course, was trying to convince Simon that reading is a good thing because it makes you smart . Unfortunately Simon disagreed, at least on some of the finer points. The conversation went something like this:

[Simon running to catch a wave w/ kickboard]


Naomi: Do you like to read?

Simon: Yes.

Naomi: Reading makes you smart - huh.

Simon: Well...reading doesn't always make you smart. Sometimes it makes you dumb.

Naomi: No, reading can't make you dumb.

Simon: Yes it can. If its not true. Like if a book is non-fiction and it says that dinasours are still alive. If it was in a fiction book that would be alright but if it is in a non-fiction book it wouldn't be true so that would make you dumb.

Naomi: (Im not sure if she actually spoke at this point or if she just stared at him in shock and with the realization that a five year old had just presented her with a perfectly sound argument about why books can make you dumb and that he was in fact right - not the best moment for a librarian).

Simon: [cute little knowing smile].

I dont know if I got the conversation exactly right but that is the gist of it. Darn kids. Hopefully Naomi keeps pushing book reading on our kids. We know reading books does make you smarter....well....most of the time.

[Beach at sunset]

[Ila]

A lot of people have asked about our dog, Ila. He is doing much better now. However, we let him hang out with the local dogs for a few weeks and now he has mange again. We are going to get him cured of it again and he will be an inside dog only - mainly because mange freaks me out, but also because no one wants to touch the dog and so he gets very little attention.

Alright lest you think that it is all play and no work. I put a picture of the view from my office in here. The rolling surf and swaying palms make it really easy to concentrate while at work.

[view from office]

Thanksgiving & BND

We had a wonderful time at Liz and Markus' Thanksgiving Umu - good friends and good food, mmmm. We couldn't have asked for more!

Today I'm back at work. I had heard that in the past the governor has sent out a "surprise" memo giving people the day off as a paid holiday, but this year he didn't because he's trying to cut government spending. It's a good goal, but I wish I didn't have to work to further it!

I think it's the first Friday after Thanksgiving that I've spent working in my life so it's a bit unusual. It does make it very easy to observe Buy Nothing Day. Of course, simply being in American Samoa makes every day Buy Nothing Day since it's hard to find anything you want to buy! I complain about it when I can't find certain things, but in many ways it's nice.

weekend fun, but not for Clif

It was an interesting weekend. Clif got bit by some tropical bug - literally. He woke up Friday with a small bite on his arm, 3 hours later it was a big red swollen crater with a red blotch around it and a red line going up to his armpit, 3 hours after that it was even bigger and he had a fever of 102 and was pretty out of it. That's when we went to LBJ to see if we could track down a doctor. Luckily, we spotted a friend of ours, who also happens to be a doctor, on our way in who could see Clif (thank you, Matthew!). I've heard that getting in to see a doctor can be quite an adventure. Fortunately, it wasn't this time! So Clif stayed home and slept all weekend and took antibiotics while the bite got bigger and the crater in the middle got deeper... ew. Yesterday it finally started to look like it was healing.

The kids and I didn't do much. We watched some movies, went to Faga'alu for a little while, and went to the pool, but mostly we took it easy. At Faga'alu, Everett was going to get to go scuba diving - when he found out he was so excited and started dancing around! But before he got the chance, we had to leave for his friend's birthday party. He wanted to dive so badly that he was willing to miss the party, and it wasn't until Melanie told him that she was sure he'd get to do it another time that he would leave!

We're looking forward to a Thanksgiving umu tomorrow - happy Thanksgiving to everyone we won't see there!

Sharks!!!

Well, not really... just one shark. We went snorkeling at Airport Lagoon on Sunday and I saw my first shark - a blacktip reef shark that was probably about 5 feet long, but it's hard to estimate underwater. I was a little scared at first, even though it wasn't big enough to eat me or anything, so I swam as fast as I could to Deepa who was out snorkeling with me. Deepa wanted me to show her where I saw it so we turned around to look for it! Six months ago I never would have believed that I'd voluntarily swim toward a place I had seen a shark just moments earlier! It was pretty amazing to see a shark in the wild - a bit intimidating, but still a very cool thing to see. Even better than the 2 unicornfish I saw at Faga'alu the day before - I think they are so funny-looking with the little horn bumping out.

The weekend before last we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves too. We went to Tisa's with a group of friends, three of us were celebrating birthdays that week so it was a perfect excuse to get babysitters and enjoy a night out. The dinner was delicious, but it was the great company that made the whole evening most enjoyable. The next day we went to a group of fales between Vatia and Ofono, in a small village called Amalau for Liz's birthday celebration. It was a great location - the guys went scuba diving, we bbq-ed some hot dogs and had a great time talking and playing in the waves. Then we hurried home, I showered and changed and headed over to Maliu Mai for a dinner and night of Polynesian dancing.

a career change

For the past six years, Everett has been certain that he will grow up to be an astronaut. He has tons of book about space, the planets, the solar system, and rockets. He has learned more about rockets and how they work than I ever have, and talked constantly about being old enough to go to space camp.

But this month he learned that one of our friends on the island goes scuba diving FOR HIS JOB. Everett's eyes got huge when we told him and he quickly asked, "What does he do?" After learning the answer, Everett has decided to make a future career change. He's going to be a marine biologist, even though sometimes he needs us to remind him of what kind of biologist he's going to be. Lately it seems that he can hardly talk about anything other than diving, saying things like, "I'm going to go to the Depths of the Ocean because that's the deepest part that people have been to. Except for the Trenches."

I just wonder how long this future career obsession will last. In the meantime, I'm sure he will learn a lot!

We are Finally Legal Lawyers

On Monday we were finally able to get sworn into the Idaho bar officially. So no more working as a legal intern. It took forever because Idaho's rules require that an attorney be sworn in within the state boundaries by an Idaho court clerk or judge. Idaho made an exception and allowed us to be sworn in outside of the state, but it was necessary to have a courtroom clerk do the actual ceremony (most states allow you to take the oath in front of any judge and get it notarized...which, as you can imagine, is much easier to accomplish).

Anyway, Monday we finally got the go ahead by both Chief Justice Kruse and the Idaho Supreme Court clerk. We got everyone together and had a phone conference where we were sworn in. Julia's friend Steve from the Supreme Court did the honors. He was excited to do it because his wife was born in American Samoa while her parents were teaching school here back in the 60's or 70's. He found out from CJ Kruse that her name is the name of a "beautiful flower," which he didn't seem to know.

We swore to be good and honest and follow the constitutions of the U.S. and Idaho. Then they strong armed more money out of us by making us agree to send in five dollars (I know its appalling) to get our certificates and it was over. Julia's co-clerk Thad (thank you Thad) took some pictures, which we may eventually post on the blog - if we ever get our computer back from the cops. I would like to send a big thank you to everyone that helped us out during law school. I personally really appreciate all of the help and support of my family. A special thanks to my mom for all of the baby sitting.

Thank You
CH

How wet can you get?

Simon (coming in from the rain): We got in right in time, huh?

me: Right in time for what?

Everett: So we're not super soaking wet.

Simon: Yeah, 'cause now we're just soaking wet.

today is my lucky day

I found three (THREE!) prizes in my cracker jacks at lunch, my kid still believes that the tooth fairy didn't come last night because she was busy with Halloween - for the 2nd night in a row (not because she's a total slacker that can't remember to do anything once the kids are in bed), and we didn't run out of candy last night for the hundreds of trick-or-treaters that came down our road.

Come to think of it, it's been a pretty good month. Clif and I managed to stay married for 10 years this last month, we maybe, eventually will get some of our stolen property back from the police now that they found it, and we got to go to Tisa's Tattoo Fest to see some really incredible Samoan tattos. On top of all that, tonight the palolo worms are supposed to be coming to the surface - which will be great for American Samoans, but doesn't mean much to me since it's just one more thing on this island that I won't eat.

(palolo nets left at the beach)

And, like I keep saying, eventually I swear I will get photos posted, but for now just boring old words. It's almost like one of those funny old-fashioned things with pages and binding. Except not really at all. (Updated with pictures now - ha!)