Halloween 2011

My entire team got into the spirit of Halloween today for our students. We all dressed up as puns, literary characters or idioms and the kids had to guess what we were. We got pretty clever. We had two costume changes and some examples were Russ taping a quarter on his back (Quarterback), Trish dressing in black with a stamp on her (blackmail), Terry's shirt that had ears sewn on it (I'm all ears), Desiree with hair coming out of her tank top and wearing a flower pot on her head (Harry Potter) and me wearing peppers on my shirt (Dr. Pepper). No one guess that costume, but they did my first costume. I wore a pig mask Makaela had made in school and wrapped myself in a blanket (Pig in a Blanket).

After school I got the girls dressed (Makaela was Rapunzel and Mia was a ladybug) and we headed over to the Weidas for the second annual Treat or Treating Gala. This year our group grew considerably with the addition of the 2010 babies.

 Some costumes were shared so we had a replay of the Little Mermaid, the Strawberry Fairy, and the Ladybug and all the kids looked adorable. This year the parents didn't dress up, but we were pretty busy chasing after little ones.The kids really were lazy trick or treaters. They rode most of the way in the wagons and it was more of a work out for the parents. Mia got the royal treatment the entire time (of course she can't walk so we had no choice :-)

Our entire gang

Fall Festival at the Park

A new park opened up recently, but they just added a dog park (just in time for us to move...great), so they had an animal themed fall festival. Makaela got to ride the pony, pet goats, a pig, rabbits and bounce in the bouncy house with her friends. It was nice to get out for a bit and have some adult conversation too.

Makaela in the mini petting zoo



Makaela looked a bit unsure getting on the pony

But she warmed up really quickly

Need Some Prayers

A friend of mine is very sick. She is one of my best friends and perhaps my "oldest" friendship. Caroline and I have been friends since before I can remember. Our moms used to bowl together so by age 2, we were meeting up at the bowling alley's babysitting room and soon after, her mom starting babysitting me. Her home was my second home, her family, my second family. Right now she is in a coma after suffering a cardiac arrest and it is very difficult to be so far away from her right now. She has an amazing little 3 year old daughter and for the past 36 hours, I have been praying that she will wake up fine and be reunited with her daughter and her family. It makes me realize how grateful I am for my family's health and realized how precious life is. Caroline is only 33 and she has so much more to experience. I'm not sure I could have been the person I am today if I hadn't had her in my life. Please say a prayer for her.

Here are some oldies, but goodies- This one is from a party we went to. The cardigan I was wearing was a "borrow" from her sister's closet (we were constantly getting into trouble from "borrowing" from her sister's closet). This one was from our second skiing trip. We took the gondola up but didn't get off on the right stop so ended up on a black diamond. We had to shimmy down on our butts b/c we couldn't handle the slope. At one point the ice was so bad we started spinning (even though we were on our butts) and couldn't claw into the hill fast enough. Ski patrol helped us down, but we were already to a point that we didn't really need them. Just love Caroline's blue outfit . She was also in my wedding party, and really stepped up to do the maid of honor duties (my sister was only 16 and was sick the night of my wedding). Caroline carried my make-up, was constantly fixing my dress and even held up my dress when I needed to go to the bathroom (yes, TMI, but that was how close we are).

And here are our girls together:

Top Ten Reasons I Am Ready For Matt Hoffman to Be Home

I got to have a nice long Skype session with Matt today and found out he only has three more days in Iraq! Problem is, the closer we get to his homecoming, the longer the days seem to drag out. Meanwhile, I have come up with my top ten reasons why I am ready for Matt Hoffman to come home.

10-I want to be able to sleep past 5:30am at least once per month.
9- I want to be able to work on my own work (grading, lesson planning, research, etc) without feeling like I am neglecting my children.
8- I want to be able to close the door when using the bathroom.
7- I want to have a glass of wine (or 2) with my husband so I don't feel like a pathetic loser for having a glass by myself.
6- I want to be cook a meal for someone whose tastebuds extend beyond chicken nuggets and peas (well, at least I should be happy my kids eat peas).
5- I want someone to regard my chest for more than its nutritional value
4- Can't wait to pass off some of my role of exterminator and handyman- I will gladly resume my chef and maid roles as long as I don't have to deal with bugs or nails anymore.
3- So I can say "Tag- you're it" when Mia has a particularly foul diaper :-S
2- To resume date nights on the couch with brownie sundaes watching "Grey's"
1- So my girls can give their dad real kisses without a computer screen and 11,000 miles getting in the way.

Can't wait Matt!!

Uncle Mikey- Superhero

Makaela had a field trip today to the Kapolei Fire Station and I guess the teachers were prepping the students for the trip because this morning before going to school, she was telling me she didn't want to "stop, dop and roll" and kept repeating it over and over. She was also repeating, "Uncle Mikey- firefighter-superhero!!" It was so cute that I texted my brother, dad and mom this. Dad replied, "Did you video it?" At 6:30am, that was not going to happen, but I made it a point to videotape our conversation about the field trip when she got home.

Picnic Dinner at Ko'olina

Now that I'm officially done with my dissertation, I feel like I can actually do things again, so we met up with Katie and the kids for a picnic dinner at Ko'olina. We were a bit worried it was going to rain, but luckily, the rain stayed away so we could enjoy our night. It was kind of hard to wrangle the kids to eat an entire meal, but they had lots of fun running around (or in Mia's case, crawling around) which made the moms quite happy because that made bedtime that much more easy.

Zack was adorable with his sunglasses at dusk.

As we were leaving we got a glimpse at the new Disney hotel all lit up, but it was nothing compared to how beautiful the lagoon was. Made me think about how lucky I am to live here and how sad I am to be leaving.

Making the Most of Season Passes

Headed to the waterpark once again- I am determined to get my money's worth. Needless to say Makaela had a great time and Mia is getting a bit too brave. She kept crawling deeper and deeper and then looking all shocked when she was choking on water. Of course she looks adorable doing it though.
And of course, we got to hang out with our friends who always help make the day brighter.

My spiteful dog

While my mom sends packages to spoil the girls (and occasionally me), she always includes goodies for my canine children. This time, however, she forgot to send treats for the dogs. Apparently Bailey was so irritated that he took matters into his own hands...or paws.
I caught him trying to eat Makaela's Halloween lollipop- plastic and all. And look at that smug face he was giving me when I was scolding him (with camera in hand of course).

Katie's Turn

Steph and I headed down to support Katie in her defense today. We got there a bit early and headed over to the bookstore to purchase our gowns, caps and HOODS!!! It was so nice to buy our graduation supplies...expensive, but good.

Katie did wonderfully in the defense. I kept jotting down notes to ask her about later because I found the theory so interesting and so applicable to teacher education. Time flew by and before we knew it, we were outside waiting for the deliberation. Once again, "Congrats Dr" was uttered and we had three Drs standing there. It was such a proud moment. We had been through so much together and here we were...all finished (or in Katie's phrase- phinished :-)

Then it was off to celebrate at Indigos once more. Guess this is our research celebration spot. Great food, great company and great martinis.

After a few martinis, we were planning our consulting firm and all the grandeur and money it would bring in...with three innovative, intelligent and influential women, who wouldn't want to hire us? Tentative name of our consulting firm: "Charlie's Angels", with Matt Martin starring as Charlie. LOL

Olivia's party at the Waterpark

We have season passes to the Waterpark, so when Olivia was having her bday party there, we were all about it. It was so nice to be able to let Makaela run around with her friends and splash around. It was also wonderful to be there with many adults; it gave me a chance to leave Mia there with friends so Makaela and I could go on some rides. It was so much fun- I was never able to go on slides with her because I was either pregnant or had Mia and couldn't take her up. It was honestly the most fun I have had with Makaela in a while. I also got to go on rides with both my girls and get someone to take pictures of us (thanks Weidas).

Pumpkin' Patch

We headed out to the Pumpkin Patch again this year to meet up with the Martins, Staffaronis and the Weidas. This year was a bit different than last year though because we got to go pumpkin picking with the marvelous Miss Mia this year. Last year it looked like I was hiding a pumpkin under my shirt and now Mia is able to hold her own pumpkin...my how fast a year goes by. This is a picture of us from last year, but conveniently Makaela was covering my belly (and Mia). Makaela did the honors of searching for the pumpkins this year (of course) and she was very ambitious.

This year, like last year, Makaela got to do some fun bonding time with her friends and her Uncle Brian.

Makaela's Latest Meltdown

Makaela was chatting with me one minute and then suddenly burst out into tears. When I asked her what was wrong, I could barely get a word out of her. All I could understand was "no college". When I finally calmed her down, she started telling me that she didn't want to go to college...ever. I was aghast and wondered if my disseration and all my "homework" had forever scarred her and immediately felt horrible. Upon further questioning, I found out that she didn't want to go to college because she never wanted to leave me. When I asked her where she heard about college (again, trying to see if I traumatized her), she said that when Max went to college, Goofy was so sad and she never wants to be as sad as Goofy- she wants to stay with me forever. So two things came to mind: 1) Yes, I didn't ruin her- the Goofy movie did and 2) I wish I had this on video to play back to her when she is 16 and swears she hates me.

Finally, the dissertation is done...and yes, this is a long entry because it covers almost 6 years of my life

The last few months have been insane. Being that I have been in the doctoral program for almost 6 years, with tuition rates on the rise and our impending move, I really needed to get the dissertation done. I also really wanted to graduate with Katie and Steph, so I went into turbo mode with my dissertation. I took the entire summer off to write and I am soooo proud to say, I did it. Mom came out to help me with the final push in September- although the paper was done by 9/9, I had many, many revisions and she helped out with the girls, with the cleaning, cooking, etc, while I sat up at night working on the paper. However, I was able to turn in a finished copy to the entire committee the day she left. Since then, I have been working on revisions as they came in from the committee and worked on the presentation as well.
A copy of how thick my paper is

I was a basketcase over the presentation because no matter how much I read my paper, being that it is 211 pages, I couldn't possibly memorize everything. I even went so far as to make myself a flipchart cheatsheet. I practiced about 5 times and each time I did, I couldn't get below 40 mins (it needed to be 20-25). I got some great advice from Steph and Cory about which topics to gloss over and headed in.

Honestly, the morning was great- traffic was awesome- I got there in 35 mins, Bon Jovi was on the radio and I found sweet parking right away. I took it as an omen. I brought in my bags (I brought in food- if people are eating, they are happy, right?) and set up in the extremely small room. The room did freak me out because it was so small and I would literally be standing right next to my audience.

Katie was the first one to arrive (thankfully it was a supportive face :-) and she set up her iPad and her computer so that my parents and Steph could Skype in to watch my defense. I didn't expect this, but once I say my dad on skype, I kind of felt more comforted- like, "My daid is here, everything will be okay", but regardless, I did ask Katie to turn the computer to face the board and not me because I didn't want to be distracted. Katie also did a last minute quiz and asked me to rehearse answers to the questions I thought the committee was going to ask, so we rehearsed. Everyone else filed in and it was a cramped room. Two additional faculty members joined us (mind you, I had no knowledge of who they were, but the table was so crowded, they opted to sit away from table).

I started to give my presentation and oddly, I felt confident. My advisor, Donna, told me that she would notifiy me at 15 mins left and then at 5 mins, but I never saw the 5 min notice (not even sure she even notified me). I saw many heads nodding and never once, had to refer to my notes. I caught two errors on my presentation (the first one, no one seemed to notice, but the second one, I knew one committee member was going to "ding" me on), but otherwise there were a lot of "aha's" and head nodding. When it was time for comments, the committee said they had minor editing issues. Rhonda (SPED professor) asked me to add only 2 comments into the entire paper. Paul (middle level professor) gave me some comments that I had already put into the revisions, so I was able to answer him and the three other committee members either didn't talk or said things to support me at that point in time (one gave me revisions later). The questions asked where supposition questions, like , "What would you envision this at the high school level?" or "How would this look like if the PLCs were comprised differently?"-these were all opinion questions- nothing that reflected immediately on my paper, my study or my presentation. They asked many opinion questions and because they were opinions, I felt comfortable and confident in answering them. At one point, my outside committee member (Steve) asked something about where teachers find time and if they get "off time" to meet and while I thought this was an innocent question, Paul, professionally, went off on him about how teachers don't have "off time" and that it was a bad assumption that the public makes about teachers having so much "off time". Poor Steve had to apologize, which I didn't think was necessary, however, I think it prevented Steve from talking anymore.

We were asked to leave and as I walked out by myself I was in shock. Questions like, "Is it really done?" and "Did I answer everything right?" ran through my head. Katie came out after and gave me one of the best compliments I have heard in a long time and said, "I have never seen you more composed. I am so proud of you" and here I thought I was a basketcase. I knew I was wrenching my fingers through the entire presentation, but I guess the rest of me looked composed. We literally talked for 8-10 minutes and I saw a shadow through the door. I couldn't concentrate on what Katie was saying because I just thought, "OMG- they need me to come back in to ask me more questions", but when Donna came through the doors, she was holding a lei and I just felt like crying. She said, "Well, congrats, you passed Dr. Hoffman. That was the quickest deliberation I have been in, in a long time."

When it was time to come back in, they invited Katie back in (which usually isn't the case because that it when the candidate gets the critical feedback), but when they asked her to come, in, I knew everything was going to be good. I think that I had beaten myself up for so long (and this was a result of the many revisions), that I didn't know how to handle the praise. They talked about how great my presentation was and how impressed they were at how much I had learned. A few of them talked about how I was ready to be published and how I needed to present at conferences (what every other PhD is supposed to do to get noticed). Paul mentioned that I had come a long way from my sketchy prospectus (which caused him some doubt in my abilities) to a paper that he only had minor comments on. He actually said my writing was good. Helen (the research guru) said my writing was clear and concise and felt that I explain my design study well (of course she was also the one to suggest it). She had some formatting revisions for me, but no member asked me to do any additional research or major changes. One of the faculty members that was just an audience member hugged and actually kissed me goodbye and afterwards I found out from Donna that he wants me to write up a policy brief so he can submit it to the state on behalf of UH for policy change. Donna actually said, "we need to do this. This will add to your curriculum vitae." When I told her I didn't know how to do a policy brief, she said, "well I guess we still have some work to do then- you need to publish this." As we were leaving though, she said to me, "I know you are moving, but I hope you don't go back to the public school system." She mentioned that universities would wonder why I went backwards instead of moving forwards with my college level career. An interesting thought, but in a world that involves mortgage payments...I'm not so sure that works.

So now I am left with many questions about my future, but I am so glad the dissertation is something of the past. When I got home, Matt had flowers delivered that said, "Dr. Hoffman- I knew you could do it. Love you." Yes, I had that warm, fuzzy feeling inside for the rest of the day.

Makaela Singing

Makaela got a CD of Disney songs and we listen to it in the car. Here is her latest version of "A Whole New World" from Aladdin. I love how she interprets the songs :-)

No, I'm not running a nudist colony

Poor Mia has had a terrible case of diaper rash. It is probably due to teething, eating new foods and her knack for pooping during naptime, but she had such horrible sores, I needed prescription cream for it. For a few days, after picking her up from daycare, I would strip her down and let her "air out". All I can say is, I am very thankful I have laminate flooring and a functioning washing machine.

Mamas' Day Out

Monica found an amazing deal for an entire spa day at the Mandara Spa in Hilton Hawaiian, so as a treat for being such fantastic moms (not to mention such overworked moms), we all bought the package and organized a spa day. We started with mimosas at 11am, had a massage, an oil scalp treatment, a body scrub (and my...what an interesting experience that was), a facial, some more fun beverages, a dip in the pool, gorged ourselves on hummus, cheese and crackers, then off for a dip in the hot tub, and then off to the sauna. Yes, we were very indulgent indeed. As always, we had great converstations, laughs, got caught up on gossip, chatted about Desperate (which used to be our girls' night show) and got to relax in the sun without having to chase down toddlers. It really was a perfect day and we continued on into the night with dinner at Kobe. I know I have written about this before, but looking around the table, I am in awe of what amazing friends I have (and also the ones who moved away), but I am so grateful God led me here to meet these caring, fun and crazy people who really have become my extended family.

11 months!

Yep, it's that time again to tell you that Mia is growing up entirely too fast. She now eats more than Makaela at dinner time and eats everything she can get her chubby little hands on. Since last month, she has popped three new teeth, bringing the total up to 5 and it looks like one more will pop out any day. She hasn't started walking yet, but practically runs on her knees. She has also taken to climbing...on everything. I watched her prop a book up and walk up it in order to climb up the book case to reach the radio. And, she likes to dance. When Makaela turns on her radio, she stands up, holds onto to something and bounces to the beat. She can also turn on the charm in an instant. She has definitely learned how to bat those long eye lashes :-) Oh and the biggest news...she now says "Mama".Here is video of Makaela and Mia playing peek-a-boo