Vada Virus

i absolutely adore my little sister.

My sister is amazing. She's one of the most creative people I've ever met in my life. She takes a plain jane and turns them into a Zombie Massacred Monster- sheer brilliance i'm telling you :)

That said...she sent me the most amazing (late) birthday box... obviously post marked Vada Virus (since that is her robot name)...besides the kick ass From Autum To Ashes shirt she sent me there were two things that made me cry as I drove to work.

A signed vinyl by Olafur Arnalds **droooool**

My mom & dad going Scuba diving back when they were about 25 :) She stole this from my granparents house...so shhhhh, no tell.

Atlantic (live at SXSW) by Givers from Big Ugly Yellow Couch on Vimeo.

The adventures of Rascal & Lois

After my last post, I couldn't sleep. One person kept flying through my mind and I had to let you know about him. This, my dear friends, is The Rascal.

This is us singing happy birthday to Zach when he was deployed.

The Rascal (I wish I could tell you his real name because it is seriously the most epic thing you will have ever heard in your life) was the first person I ever cared for when I worked for a company who served those with special needs. I was so nervous stepping into this world I knew nothing about but he gave me such a welcoming hug and we never looked back. We were together 5 and sometimes 7 days a week for 2 1/2 years and laughed so much every day I have some permanent wrinkles that I wear proudly.

The Rascal (which he calls himself "Rascal") renames everyone he meets with a name that truly suits them, mine is Lois but I assure you he knows my birth name as well as everyone else he has renamed...it's just one of his many fabulous signs that he loves you. I have to say the best renaming was my mother, Kathy, who he named Fay...we all call her Fay now and its awesome.

He would also verbally "poke you in the eye" "throw you in the trash" "and bop you on the head with a potatoe"...if you were lucky enough to receive one of these verbally, so help you god, The Rascal loved you... A LOT :)

I have never sang, danced, laughed, blown bubbles, & joked around so much in my life until I met this perfect, perfect person. We had such a flow between us it was nearly effortless in accomplishing our everyday shenanigans.

We stood by each other through so many good and not-so-great times, he was not just someone I worked with/for he was and still is one of my best friends. There is a love that developed between us that I can not describe other than we became family to one another. The Rascal was the first person I told when Zach and I got engaged...I don't think anyone had a more joyous reaction than he did.

The Rascal serenading me...I didn't rest on his shoulder often but my sister was quick enough to capture this moment and I absolutely love it.

I've never met anyone who didn't just love The Rascal. I was so honored to have gotten to work with him for so long...people were constantly asking me if they could "cover" any shifts for me...everyone wanted to experience his radiance and joy, I couldn't blame 'em; his love was infectious :)

Part of our countdown to the end of Zach's deployment. The Rascal was my home front Battle Buddy for the entire year of Zach's deployment.

"Tiger says RAAAAWWWRRRRRR"

The Rascal taught me more about living life than any college classroom had done. It pains me to be far away from him, to not see him daily...He is one of my favorite people on this planet. He has touched so many hearts its astonishing, walking around town with Rascal is like walking around with a celebrity- everyone knows him...he's just that cool.

I seriously wish everyone could meet him, he could teach the world so much about love.

"Dancing with Max"

I'm a picky reader...seriously...I can be a horrible little snob...the only other thing I'm a snob about is coffee and that's because I grew up with hand picked specialty reserve roasts in Kona- it's ruined me for life. But, when I picked up "Dancing With Max" by Emily Colson at Borders the other day I HAD to buy it.

This is by far the best 200 something pages I have read in a while (and I'm not counting the fact that I just reread the last Harry Potter book...again). I literally couldn't put it down. If I wasn't so darn tired and back to working I would have just sat for a few hours and read the whole thing at once...I tried to savor it but I couldn't make it last more than two days (booo). I even read it while I did laundry and made dinner...no joke.

This book is a story of an amazing mother and her brilliant son with autism. I can't even explain how inspiring and awe inducing their stories are. She explains her sons autism with such love, honesty, and eloquence you can't help but drink in every word. And her son, Max, is simply perfect. He's completely innocent and full of so much love you can literally feel it while you're reading.

They're faith in God and love for their church is so genuine it makes me feel like I need to hit up Palm Sunday Mass when my dad comes over this weekend (actually he's making me go with him no matter what but still). No matter where your belief system lies I can guarantee you won't be able to put this book down.

I told my mom, after I finished it and had to gush to her all about it, that "everyone should read this, it would bring such a better and non-complicated understanding to the special needs community".

So here's to love and inspiration. Here's to you, Max.

** Visit http://emilycolson.com/ to find out more and to order this fabulous read.

All kinds of Butt

I had to go get another 3D ultrasound today and, like the last time, Reef was just not having it at all. He's also like that if I or my husband try to feel him...he swims away and hides deep in his lil home- I wouldn't want my house poked and prodded either so I understand his reactions. Anyways here are a few of the pics they were able to get of him, they totally blow me away.

He refused to put his foot down and roll over....this kind of thing drove the technician and doctor nuts, I just laughed.

He has a HUGE foot.

Not sure if you can tell but that would be a Reef butt on the bottom left side of the photo.

He also hid behind his hand and arm the whole time, poor guy was so annoyed.

I just love this one of him all curled up.

He has my nose & my husbands mouth...it's seriously crazy that we can actually see him already!

My little alien looking baby bot.

He's 1lbs 1oz and if I had more money I'd buy my own damn ultrasound machine and watch him all day long.
The doctor says he healthy and well, Normal...which is the best thing I've ever heard!!! Now if he would let me sleep and stop kicking me all night long  :)

Icelandic Genius

I first heard Olafur Arnalds in 2007 and never stopped listening (I always put big headphones on my belly so Reef can listen, if he's kicking the bageezus out of me this tends to calm him down). I would constantly listen to his music while I sat on the windowsill  of my dorm room in New York writing short stories while snow fell and fell outside until there was nothing but white and I had 20 pages of something to turn in completely inspired by his twist on classical music.

One day we were completely snowed in and campus had shut down. So, I did the obvious, and took a Taxi to the town next to my school and got my third tattoo (I'm keeping the name anonymous because the people there were rude & I would never go back). It is one that I absolutely love and really captures so much of my life in New York.

"Beauty of whatever kind, in it's supreme development invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears"- Edgar Allen Poe

That's nice and all, but what does it have to do with Olafur Arnalds? The birds are not my design or chosen randomly they are from the cover of Olafur's second album Variations of Static. He went on to keep the theme of these birds in his shows during his tours.

This 25 year old musical genius is from Iceland and constantly sells out concert venues. My sister was lucky enough to meet him and see him play in Los Angeles..I'm so jealous. Below is a three part short documentary about Olafur. I promise you, you will not be sorry you watched it and then went and bought all of his albums- it really is that good.

More Electricity

Electric beach edited all weird but I like to close my eyes and imagine it years ago.

I've found some of my most prized shells hiding at in the rocks here.

These memorials are old and barely legible, its a reminder of Respect for the ocean.

It was all kinds of ominous until everyone got in the water & I put the camera away, then the sun was out FULL BLAST.

Nothin like Dene, Pilot, & Matt to make it a perfect Saturday.

Zach surrounded by diving technological goodness...loggin all his epic dives.

oh, hello handsome.

We had a BBQ at our neighbors house this afternoon and the weather was basically to die for.

We spent today just doing who knows what...Zach went on an amazing night dive last night. I get seriously jealous every time he goes out because I can't and of course it's when I can't that they see a 5ft white tip reef shark, a tritons trumpet roaming around [very rare, especially at night. My dad's lived in hawaii his entire life & never seen them at night], crazy collector crab, & oodles of other sea life. Any who, we ended up hanging out at the dive shop until about 12:30am and didn't crawl into bed until almost 2am....I'm soooo not as errr energized as I used to be, especially being pregnant. So we slept our sweet butts in until about 10am, which is extremely rare but felt SO good, and spent the rest of the day in a sleepy fog.

I know, I'm a total creeper.

::Electric::

Today we made it out into the ocean for the first time in a while, especially for me.

We hit up our favorite spot- Electric Beach. It's located on the Waianae (whine-eye) coast of Oahu across the street from an electric plant, totally safe I promise. The electric plant pulls water in from the ocean to cool the plant & then pushes the hot water (still clean) back out through two huge (big enough to drive my Saab S9 Hatchback into) pipes that run into the ocean. This mixture of hot meets cold ocean is a breeding ground for plankton which in turn attracts schools & schools of fish. It is perfect for snorkeling, free diving, skin diving, scuba diving, getting your tan on, swimming with pods of wild spinner dolphins, surfing & stand up paddle boarding at the beach right next door. What more could you ask for?!

We did a day trip and then came back at night for a night dive. I get to play shore patrol because, well, pregnancy & scuba just dont mix (and I literally got all brand new gear as a gift from my dad the day before I found out I was pregnant!).

These pics are from my phone- sorry, I know, but i'll post better ones soon.