Christmas

Merry Christmas to my siblings aka the Lurkers:)

Christmas was nice here. We spent Christmas Eve just hanging out with the family, baking for the next day. Then Christmas day Rick and I got up at 5am to put the turkey in the oven and went back to sleep on the couch until 9:30am....don't hate just wait until your kids are old enough to sleep in!

We opened gifts and chilled until some friends came over. Then we ate and watched movies all day. It was a good relaxing day filled with love and friends...I just missed my family:(

Yesterday was our real adventure.....the entire island had no power for about 9 hours...about 7pm last night all the power went out when four transformers were hit by lightening...which caused an overload on the rest of the equipment. Talk about dark.....when there is no electricity on the island....wow it was realllllyyyyy dark. The kids played Phase Ten by lantern light and Rick and I went to bed. We got power around 3am...there are parts of the island who still don't have power!

How was everyones Christmas?

Love

Jill

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Good Morning

Amester.....what instrument does he play? Does that mean your a groupie? Not much going on here either today is my office Christmas party:)

I talked to dad yesterday he sounded sad...I hate living so far away....don't suppose I could talk you all into coming to live here? I did look at a beautiful house in NH that is twice the size of mine for half the price of mine online the other day....with 5 acres...sigh

Amy sent me the pictures of the sub visit, Rick just has to check them for security issues and I can post them. I plan on working on it next week:)

Off to work...love you all

Jill

I thought we were suppose to sign our names at the end of a blog we write(JILL). Nothing new here except Ben had a show tonight. He's in a band with his best friend and another guy. It's really far away and there's suppose to be bad weather. He said it went well. But nothing else is new. AMY

I know you were here.....

I see that all of you have visited the page but have not written anything today...what's up with that? Not much going on here...flash flood warnings and flooding everywhere. It has been pouring for days.

Britt is at a bball tournament after taking her ACT's this morning. The other three are playing outside in the rain and Rick and I are getting ready to go to the church and check for leaks.

Love you all and miss you much:)

Jill

Birdaflickle!!!

Birdaflickle is a word made up by the chiefs at Ricks last command....is a form of cussing I guess you could say.

Anyway that is how I feel today.....it has been pouring out all day today. We have flash flood warnings and winds of 45 mph...it took me 2 hours to get to work.....

Anyway love you all....

Well Amy....

Rick deleted them all off the hard drive by accident...but thankfully they are all stored on photobucket...I will you email you the log in ...I have to transfer them

pictures?

jill, can you please hurry up and send everyone the disk with the pictures. i'm going through hawaii withdraws and i need pictures please. AMY(happy rick?)

I need...

A better picture of cole, tony and nino together:) Also please sign the blogs rick stresses out when he doesn't know who wrote it:)

aww

very nice and festive

Don't freak out

I'm playing with the blog:)

i think the picture looks awesome. the blog was good too. amys place is huge, very nice

Nice job bro....

I think you did an awesome job on the picture and the blog. I can't wait to get a copy of the picture so I can print it and frame it...I really like it:)

i think you did a good job with the luau ronald. one thing you forgot to mention was you misplaced sunglasses that some how ended up in your pocket!!!

The Hawaii Family Photo

Here it is, Sorry it didn't come out as clear as I hoped, but I will get copies out to everyone.

Luau 3

Alrightly then, I'll take on the task of attempting to follow the big sis's stellar blogging talents . . .

Pretty much a Griswold-free evening (almost) . . .

Paradise Cove and the Krieger's meet . . . the night started off with only one problem . . . missing Rick, so he missed the photo when you walk in. But it happened to be a really funny moment, when some how Big Jim missed the two "native hawaiian's" that accompany you during the photo, one of which is a rather attractive femal that more than likely was at least making mild contact with Big Jim during the photo itself. When they moved away from our little group Big Jim gasped in wonder and dissapointment (from the fact that he was that close to such a beauty and wasn't able to enjoy it).

Well it was a new experience for the parents and they both took full advantage, and I was especially suprised and happy to see Jim taking part in the local flavored beverages (watered down as they may be, they are still tasty).

We then moved on to the games . . . the spearing chucking was really funny . . . all the big brawny men lamely attempted to hit the mark (Ben was close), but it was Amy only who looked and connected as if she had a clue. Tried a few other games with equally lame results.

One of the best pictures of my sisters (in my humble opinion) I have ever seen took place during the fishing ceremony, which is one of my favorite parts of the event . . . I enjoy anything that invovles tradition, heritage, or history . . . and of course it is perfectly timed to be framed by another perfect Hawaiian sunset. Watched the Pig out of the hole ceremony . . . cool but not the highlighted of the show . . . . . . Then Griswold luck stikes.

"Hey look how beautiful the sunset is out there . . . Let's go take some pictures . . . Mom and Dad why don't you guys go first . . . oh poopy I don't have my flash so you have to hold while the camera collects light . . . alright Rich and Jill you next . . . Amy and Ben your up . . . ok Mine and Jen's turn . . . Ok honey we have to stay really still . . . OUCH . . . OUCh . . . you ok . . . yeah fine . . . that really hurts . . . just take the picture" Well it happens that some how we awoke a decent size red ant hill . . . they awoke during everyone else's photo and then decided that JJ's foot looked appetizing. She must of had 20-30 all over her foot and ankle and crawling all over her shoes . . . seriously what are the odds. But alast she is a trooper and we moved on . . .

Dinner came and I believe every one enjoyed their food . . . Ben wins and has official slot in the Paradise Cove clean plate club . . . our waiter was great . . . with the number of people and therefore drink tickets, we were over extended and he brought a plethora of drinks for the show.

During which Crazy Jim and Ellen were annouced for celebrating their 40 years of marriage!!! YEAH JIM AND ELLEN!

I do beleive that the Paradise Cove Dancers are the best on the Oahu. I have seen a few live and a bunch via travel shows, and they are good! Part of the show includes audience participation and Jim and Cole got up and did the Hola, during which it appeared they enjoyed themselves as much as we did watching them.

We collected ourselves and moved toward the exit, where Jim spied a couple of native Hawaiian's, of the female gender, posing with guests that where leaving. He some what patiently waited for his turn and then litterally dove at his opporuntiy to get a photo, which he did with one of the largest smiles in human history.

Those ended another great night with Krieger Family (Adults, in age at least)!

I love my new apartment...

Hello everyone! I just wanted everyone to know how much I love my new home. Especially because it's more like a home and we have different rooms. We finished packing late Sat. night. Got up early Sun morning to a cloudy sky. Well of course being a Griswold...as soon as Ben got back to the apartment from Uhaul, it started to sleet outside. Cole, does that sound familiar? When I first moved into that hole, in April, Cole and Tony helped me and it was snowing and sleeting. In April? Really?
A couple of Ben's friends helped us thankfully. I stayed inside most of the day cleaning so I didn't have to deal with the elements outside..hee hee. I didn't plan that one at all, really I didn't. It took me a lot longer than I though it would, so did the moving. Ben and I didn't realize how much stuff I actually had. And that's with moving boxes all week long.
Once everything was in the new place, I got to the bedroom right away to make sleeping space. There were clothes all over the bed, and dresser drawers all over. I moved really quickly, put clothes in the closet, and most of the drawers back where they belong. One casualty, one of the drawers wood split off. Not a big loss, it's not the best made furniture but I've had it about 8 yrs. Nothing a little wood glue won't fix(hopefully).
Monday I did the kitchen. Talk about a big kitchen. I had almost everything put in place and looked around. Then I decided to move all the food and dishes around. Then I was happy. It was Ben's friends birthday so I made a huge thing of baked ziti-Yes Jill, I can make other food but this was the easiest thing to make with the amount of energy I had. And besides, everyone thought it was really good. Anyways, I love the kitchen, gas stove, dish washer, tons and tons of cabinets, good sunlight, hardwood floors. Now I can make Cole some pumpkin pie.
So, once we have everything in place, I want people to visit. You will actually have your own room. You won't have to stay in the living room. Oh yeah, we're gonna have a library too.
Love and miss everyone one of you!!
amy