Yikes, green walls!

Nick Takacs did a good job painting the family room and office. He wallpapered the kitchen area, too. But when he was finished we realized that we didn't like the color at all! So, as you can see at the right, we had another painter come and "rag paint" over it. He actually used a mixture of pink, red and brown to kill the green. This is the half-done picture. The walls actually look gold, a mainstay in the "French Provence" look.

Decorating Update "during"

Here are some of our "during" shots. The family room and office looked like this for all of July and August! Ugh.

Heather Turns 22!

For Heather's 22nd birthday she asked for old Bing Cosby, Gene Kelly, etc. DVDs. We gave her 5 and Philip and Abby gave her 3 more. How fun! This weekend we will celebrate with Grandpa Stevens and the 5 of us.

I earned 6 new units!

As most of you know, I'm going back to school to finally earn by Bachelors in teaching and religion from Liberty University online. I am really enjoying the process. I wasn't sure I could still write a college level paper but I have and I am doing well. I decided to challenge the Teacher Pracitum course by showing proof of 20 years of teaching experience, plus numerous courses in the area of Special Needs. I had to write my autobiography, which was an interesting process. Well, I heard today that I met the challenge and received 6 units that I now don't have to take! Yahoo!

Grandma & Grandpa's 60th

Go to my blog before our Hawaii trip to read about the 60th anniversary celebration.
GS

2 Weeks in Hawaii Part 3 -Kauai

Heather and; I enjoy the leis Kirk got us at the airport in Honolulu.
(This is supposed to be the last picture)

It was fun to watch the rain falling in the distance; within 5 minutes, it was raining on us.

Here is the Kilauea Lighthouse on the North shore of Kauai.

Amazing scenery, wouldn't you agree?

We took a paved pathway from our condo area down to the private beach.
This was the view on the way down.

Kirk snorkeled here and saw many beautiful fish.



We paddled up to the sand and parked our kayak here. We found a cabana to use and stayed here for a few hours. We ate snacks and Kirk and I floated in the warm water. What a beautiful spot!

We kayaked up the Hanalei River to Hanalei Bay. Here we are going out to the bay.

This is one of MANY sunset pictures that we took from our patio.

This is what is known as the "Bali Hai" beach. This is where they filmed parts of the musical "South Pacific".

We rented a one-bedroom condo that had just been remodeled. It had granite counters and new appliances. We found it through Lynn Luttrell's friends at Remax Kauai. It is Pali Ke Kua #118.

Our condo on the North Shore was in Princeville. It was ocean front with a 270 degree ocean view. Here is a view from inside the livingroom.

Here are Lynn and I at church on Sunday. They attend Anahola Baptist Church. Lynn grew up at Granada and went to Kauai as a teacher for one term. She married Phil and they have been there for 32 years!

We spent a day at Phil & Lynn Luttrell's home in Lihue, Kauai. He works with Child Evangelism and she owns and is principal of Olelo Christian School. Kirk spray painted many desks while I organized her school files and mailing lists. Little Joey has been adopted by them and really took to Kirk. He followed him around all day, showing him his bugs and other interests. Kirk enjoyed his company. He came and sat by Kirk & I at church the following Sunday.

2 Weeks on Hawaii -Part 2 Hana

Kirk trekking to the waterfall.

This is the lovely road that we drove down every time we left our B&B to go somewhere.

A beautiful vista on the Road to Hana. We would recommend this trip to anyone going to Maui. The B&B is called Ala ania Ocean Vista. We found it on the web and were very pleased with it.

Here is where the waterfall finally goes to the ocean. What a beautiful area!

Here was our prize for the long hike. This waterfall feeds the "Seven Sacred Pools" (actually there are 24 of them).

You can see how red my face was! It was very humid. Kirk made me this walking stick from bamboo to help along the way.

Kirk and I took a 4 mile hike through the Bamboo Forest up to a 400 foot waterfall. When the wind was rustling the bamboo, it sounded like being inside a wind chime. Kirk said it reminded him of the bible verse about the trees clapping their hands to worship God.