Busy weekend!

Wow what a jam packed weekend we had. We started off with thanksgiving. I knew I should not have blogged about the Turkey Trott because as it turned out both me and my friend who I was running with came down with severe colds and were not able to run. Well I suppose I could have run anyway but I would have totally wore myself out and I had allot going on and no time to be any more sick then I already was. So we went to our friends house for a large gathering with so much great food. Our contribution was a deep fried turkey, home made apple pie (times 3) chocolate chip cookie bars, and sweet and sour meat balls. It was so good. Right after dinner we all whipped open the black Friday ads and started mapping out our route. We came down with a master plan and by then it was already 3:3pm. I had a photoshoot scheduled for 5pm, so I had to go home and get my stuff ready. I was shooting a family reunion and it was the only day the whole family would be on the island together. It went surprisingly well. There were 15 people and 7 of them were young children. I was really dreading it but I actually got some great shots. So I tried to get to bed early Thursday night but of course I could not fall asleep. Before you knew it my alarm was waking me up at 4AM! I jumped out of bed, threw my hair in a ponytail and drove to pick up the rest of the girls. Our first stop was Circuit City. We arrived to a line over a mile long, so we decided to divide and conquer. I dropped two girls off at CC and I went on to Toys r'us. Luckily there I ran into my next door neighbor and was able to cut in line. However when we got closer to the door I decided I should follow someone out to their car so I could grab there cart. Well by the time I got back my friends were already inside and the security guard would not let me through. I was so mad and frustrated. I fought with the lady for 30 minutes and finally she gave up and let me go threw. I am sure she just wanted to shut me up, but hey what ever it takes. So when I got into the craziness, everything I wanted was already sold out. So I just said forget it and left. My friends had the same sort of bad luck at Circuit City. The thing that sucks about black Friday in Hawaii is that for the most part there is only one of every store so everyone is at the same place. Not only do you have the people that live here, but the people who are vacationing here, plus all the surrounding islands come to our island to shop. So can you say too much competition. Anyway from there we went to Best buy, where I got some games for the kids, and a few movies. After that we headed to Lowes and I got a ceiling fan and some cute little storage bins. I got new runners for me and Ben at sports Authority, some toys at Kmart, and then headed to Costco where I picked up 5 2GB compact flash cards for my camera and more toys, and all the food for Londyn's B-day party! From Costco I went home unloaded everything and was at Ashley Furniture by noon. They have recently shut down here and were opening the doors at noon for and everything must go liquidation sale. My friend got a new leather couch and love seat and I got a tall bar table with two more bar stools which match the 4 that I already have. I got an awesome vase to go on that table with some flowers, a picture frame and a large plate stand all for $200. We were there for like 5 hours and we kept dealing with this one guy. He took a few hundred dollars off my friends couch set and threw in the two $125 bar stools for free. He so wanted us! jk! So this brings us to 8pm Friday night. Remember we started at 4am. That is one full day of shopping. I was exaughsted by the time I got home and was sound asleep by 9:30pm. At 4:30 am pop went my eyes and I was up for the day. I could not for the life of me fall back asleep so I got up, read some blogs, cleaned my house, got everything ready for Londyn's party had a shower and once everyone else trickled out of there rooms we got ready and left by 9am for Londyn's beach birthday party.
It was the perfect day at the beach. W e could not have asked for better weather. All our friends were able to make it and we had a great day! Here are some pics!













We got home about 6pm, unpacked ALL her new toys and cleaned out the play room so we could make some more room for them. I was in bed early again after a fun filled day. Sunday morning I had an all day Photoshop workshop and the University of Hawaii. It was from 9-4 and it was a great class. I learned so much new stuff, and really got a better understanding of photoshop. From there I had to drive directly to church for our very first launch service. It went great and I was amazed at how many people were there when I pulled into the parking lot. It was such a blessing to see all of our hard work and planning and God's will pay off. After the service we went out to eat at Chili's came home got the kids to bed and crashed ourselves. What a weekend. I don't think I sat down once. Now it is Monday the kids are back in school, aside from Addison who is at home with a fever. Oh did I mention that through all of this all of our kids have run a three day fever. Luckily there are no other symptoms, and all of our friends have already had it so we did not have to worry about spreading germs.

I have two more photo shoots booked for this week, and last night I got a call from a couple wanting to fly me to the Big Island to take their wedding pictures next Wednesday. How exciting! Ben says I am so international now! Well happy Monday! Oh by the way I am sure you have all heard but they are calling today Cyber Monday and if you go to cybermonday.com all the online stores a re running there own sort of black friday special and are having free shipping as well. Go check it out if you still have Christmas shopping to do!