Thankful For ...#1

Sometimes in life it is easy to just feel bogged down. It is easy to just go through and be negative and complain about every little mess up. And lately, I have been noticing myself doing this. Now, I have always been accused of being dramatic and I believe most of the time I am joking- there are times where I make life to be this huge dramatic experience, when in fact it's pretty normal- if not excellent.

I thought to keep me in check I would try to do a weekly thankful for section just to remember to be positive. Now, I don't want this to be some cheesy segment where I bore you to tears, but just some small things to help us remember not to get so bogged down.

I think this is important to remember because sometimes life just sucks. Sometimes we are so busy it feels we are at hyper speed at all times (especially being students and working and coaching and whatever else we have on our plates)- but sometimes it's good to just slow down and find one thing to smile about.

This week I am thankful for my husband Mr. Matt Ho- now I am always thankful for him- but for the last three weeks we have been on holiday and have had tons of time to just hang out with each other. And it's been a blast. When we first started dating, many people were surprised because we really are nothing alike. (I will have to find some pictures of us in high school for you to see the extreme difference.) I am extremely OCD, controlling, type A, neurotic, and any other word you can think of to say bossy. Matt is the opposite- completely. He has ADHD, laid back, nice to people, and any other word you can think of to just say easy going. We are opposite! And while most were surprised and maybe a little confused about us being together I gotta say WE WORK. And we work well. Now this last year has not been a full time picnic, but it has been pretty close. We have fought, we have cried (okay I have cried), we have laughed, we have paid rent, grocery shopped, done laundry, went on date nights, and anything between- and I have loved every minute of it (except for maybe when Matt moved the car without telling me and I wandered around campus crying trying to find our car- that was not enjoyable!) But the point is this last year, while different from how I originally planned my 2011, was awesome and that's because of Mr. Matt Ho. I am so thankful for the humor, the love and the awesomeness he brings into my life.

I hope I did not bore you with my rambles of my thankful for segment, but I really just felt I needed to say something positive!

(Please don't be worried about this picture- he really is happy- really!)

The Newest Member of the Fahey Ho Family

Don't get too excited... or worried for us- the newest member of our family is not actually a person, but a thing. The last month I got some graduation money and we got some Christmas money so we decided to buy ourselves a big present. And we decided to buy a camera. Now we were given a camera last Christmas and we love it, but we wanted a more professional camera to start learning on. Well, Matt wanted to learn- I don't think I have the patience for learn how to take good pictures. To me if it is not crooked I am doing good and let's face it even that can be fixed with photo shop!

So Matt and I bought a Canon Rebel T3i and so far so good. We have not taken any pictures yet; Matt is still busy reading the user manual. While this was a larger purchase, we felt good about buying it- plus we got it on sale so that's always good. I will make sure I put some of our pictures up soon.

Hawaii Times: 2007-2009

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Happy Christmas

All The Happiness Christmas Card

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Do You See What I See

The other day Matt and I were watching SNL and Robyn was the featured artist of the week. While she was performing we noticed a little something.... something we found a little funny.... I will show you!!!!

Mele Kalikimaka Y'all

This is our second Christmas as a married couple! Last year we were able to spend Christmas in Georgia, but this year it was too expensive to fly home ($1000 per ticket!).

On Christmas Eve we went to Matt's Auntie Annie's house and had a little lunch with this Hawai'i family. It was nice to spend a little more time with his Hawaii cousins and to be with the Ho's and the Grahams. Then we headed over to my family's house- the Johnson's. These are the nicest people ever! I love going over there because it helps Hawaii feel a little more at home. Whenever I am homesick, being with the Johnson's helps cure it fast. So they had a huge Christmas Eve dinner and Santa came by- it was great fun! Matt and I even got drafted into helping set up the decorations. We stayed way too late, but it was worth it! When we got back to Laie, Matt and I exchanged pjs and watched A Christmas Story (our little tradition!).

In the morning, Matt and I opened our stockings from Santa. Then we cooked breakfast. We decided we wanted to start making Christmas morning breakfast. This year we invited our friends- David, Nana and their son Josiah to eat breakfast with us. I didn't take any pictures, but we had a lot of fun. I figured I didn't like to spend Christmas without family so I made sure another family-less couple was able to have a little company!

(Santa gave Matt the Star Wars Cookbook for Christmas! Please notice these one of a kind stockings my mother-in-law made! We love them!)

We went to church- we only had sacrament and it was a really good one. It was great to just focus on the Lord and what this day is really about. After sacrament- our friends Zach and Julie stopped by to grab some of the hygiene kits to take to India. They are going to be going for three weeks and working with orphanages and other humanitarian programs (this is a program we hope to go with in the summer)! Anyway, I can't wait to see pictures of the kits in India.

We opened our gifts and had a blast rocking out to Justin Beiber's Christmas album (well, I enjoyed the music- Matt just suffered through)

Matt and I did pretty well this Christmas- I think we went a little over board, but we didn't get to go home so I felt okay with spending a little money on each other! Our loot included all of the Harry Potter movies on blue ray, a kindle fire, a Xoom tablet, Toms shoes, and a few other trinkets! Plus, our families were very nice to us!

After presents, I made sweet potatoes. This is a dish my Abuela and Papa always make for Thanksgiving and Christmas and I love it!!!! I have only made once- a couple of years ago- so I was a little nervous. And this year, I grabbed the purple sweet potatoes so I got a little nervous- but they turned out great! I am so happy I can make them close to how my Abuela and Papa make them!

Then we headed back up to the Johnson's house and had dinner with them and hung out. It was a great Christmas. I wish I was able to have flown home, but this was a great experience!

The Island of Hawai'i (The Big Island)

After graduation my mom, Matt, and I headed over to the Big Island for a mini vacation. This was pretty exciting- I have never been to one of the outer islands since living here and this was a great trip and little graduation present! It was great to have my mom there and to spend a little more time with her before she left for Georgia.

Hawai'i is where the active volcanoes are and the black sand beaches. We left Monday morning and got back Wednesday evening. It was short but sweet!

Our first stop was at the black sand beach. While we were there we were able to see the turtles!

The Kona Temple was also on the island and it was nice to stop by and see it!

On our first day we drove up to Hilo and saw the volcano- usually tourists can drive a little further and see some lava- but the lava flow had shifted and we could not drive that far.

This national park is called the island of Refuge. In the old system, if someone had broken one of the laws and were about to be killed- they could try to make it to this place and be pardoned. It was really neat to see and I would recommend stopping by if you go to Hawai'i- but please be respectful! This is sacred ground.

Donkey Balls is a candy company- they make all sorts of chocolate sweets!

On the last day Matt and mom got henna tattoos!