2015- so far not so good

Do you ever have moments in your life where nothing seems to be going your way? Times where, everywhere you look, there is another enormous mountain to climb, another huge trial being put in your path. Well let me tell you... It's incredibly overwhelming.

2015 was supposed to be our best year yet. I would graduate from school (and hopefully find a job), Heath would be graduating from ASU and start applying to pharmacy schools, and hopefully, if all went as planned, we would be starting our family. But recently it's seemed like everything is falling apart.

{Forgive me if I sound dramatic. I'm the type of person who stresses way more than I should, and right now I'm extremely emotional, so I apologize}

Trial #1: In early January, we found out that we had to pay two grand out of pocket for Heath's school this semester. We didn't want to borrow any more money from our parents, since they have already helped us so much financially, so we decided to set up a payment plan and hope that it all worked out. And thankfully, with His help, the payments turned out to be affordable for us.

Trial #2: My car battery went bad. Normally that wouldn't be a huge deal, but Prius batteries are extremely expensive, like $3500 expensive, and we were expecting ours to last another 70,000 miles. Since we've been living mostly off our savings, we had no choice but to ask our families for some financial help. We are very blessed to have parents who care so much for us and are willing/able to help us during our financial troubles. Fortunately, a family friend was able to get a rebuilt battery and installed it for us, which saved us (and by us, I mean our parents) SO much money.

Trial (scare) #3: Our crazy dog, Jack, ate his chew toy. Chewed and swallowed 3/4 of a squeaky, plastic, toy bone that I knew he would tear apart... Probably shouldn't have bought it for him in the first place. He gave us a real scare. We thought it would block his digestive tract for sure, and surgery for those types of problems can be upwards of three grand. After having our car in the shop and trying to figure out how to pay for our new battery, surgery for Jack was simply not an option. Turned out that Jack chewed the toy into small enough pieces that he was able to pass it without any major problems. But he sure gave us a good scare.

But this week, Heath and I have been trying to work through the biggest trial we've yet had to face in our marriage.

Trial #4: On January 17th, we found out we were expecting our first baby. Heath and I have wanted to become parents since we got married. The timing was finally right, and after a few months of trying we were finally able to conceive (sorry, TMI). We were so excited that we told our families that day, and against our best judgment, told a few of our close friends even though I was still so early. We were just so excited! We couldn't hold the good news in! But on Saturday, January 31, I began to have some bleeding. By Sunday it was very heavy... definitely not normal for a first trimester pregnancy. I knew it wasn't a good sign. We spent Sunday morning at the ER, desperate for some answers, and though the results required follow up, the news was not good. Today, February 4, we got confirmation from additional tests that we had lost the baby. Heath and I are devistated. Our hearts are completely broken. The sweet little baby that would have joined our family did not have a healthy body, and it was not Heavenly Father's plan for us to be given one of His sweet spirits quite yet. We have felt so much love and support from our family and friends who have helped us through this hard time. We are so thankful for each and every text, phone call, and prayer that has been sent our way. We are still trying to find the good and the blessings that will come from this experience, though we know they will come. Hopefully we will soon be given another opportunity to start our family.

Hawaii- July 2013

I am so bad at keeping up with my blog... but our Hawaiian vacation this summer was amazing!! We spent a little over a week on the island of Kauai, and then about 4 days on Oahu. It was the most amazing vacation. But unfortunately, two weeks before our trip, my dad had surgery on his broken ankle and developed a blood clot in his leg on the plane ride there, so he was pretty limited to only snorkeling. Poor Dad. Guess we'll just have to go back so he can do everything else with us ;)

On Kauai, we snorkeled with turtles and schools of fish, sailed on around the Napali Coast, kayaked up (and down) a river, and went hiking to a secret waterfall. It was so pretty there... it can be hard to imagine that Hawaii looks like it does in the pictures, but in fact, that is exactly what it was like. It was like living in a postcard. On Oahu, we  hiked to a lighthouse with my mom's cousin Dejon, hiked a mountain ridge with cousin David, where we almost died of heat stroke, visited the temple, luau-ed at the Polynesian Cultural Center, and spent precious time with relatives. I wish we would have had more time on Oahu. There were so many more things that I would have liked to see and do.  But I have to say, out of everything we got to do on your vacation, one of my favorite things about visiting Hawaii was getting to see where my mom's family is from, and visiting with my awesome relatives. P.S. I apologize for all the pictures, but I had to include them.

Family Ledgends

Heath and I have been fortunate enough to spend the past 7 days vacationing on the beautiful island of Kauai with my family. We absolutely love it here! Tomorrow we will be leaving to spend the rest of our vacation on Oahu, but I must say, I'd rather stay here! It's paradise. The weather, the mountains, the beaches... everything is perfect. This island in particular is very important to my family. My mother's mother was born here, along with her immediate family and most of their ancestors (making me 1/8 Hawaiian!). Tonight we were able to have dinner at my Great Auntie Noreen's house, with her and her husband Paul. Even though we have spent the week doing so many fun things, tonight was probably one of my favorite moments of our vacation. I have found that family lineage and heritage is extremely important to the Hawaiian people, and that being a part of Hawaiian ancestry is something to be proud of. Tonight during dinner, Auntie Noreen and Uncle Paul told us story after story about the wonderful people that I am so proud to be related to. I feel that it is crucial that I record these stories so that some day I might be able to tell my children about their relatives. Forgive me if there are holes in the details of these stories... I'm definitely not the story teller that they are, and I'm going off very simplified notes I took on my phone while they were talking. I tried to get every detail I could so I could keep these stories alive! (read all the way to the end... my favorite story is very last).

MY GREAT GRANDPA OHAI

My great grandpa Ben Ohai (my mother's mother's father) was an extremely great man. Growing up we would go visit him in Norwalk, California, in his little old house across the street from the 99 Cent Only Store, with his broken down trailer in the driveway. He was a fantastic bowler, an amazing pianist, and one of the funniest old men you would ever meet. When he was in his 40's or 50's, he had a brain tumor, and when it was removed the nerves in his face were damaged. One side of his mouth has been stretched into a slight smile for as long as I have known him, giving him a crooked mouth. But that is only one of the things about my grandpa Ohai that I will love forever. Tonight, I learned that he was an extremely smart man. He was a fisherman, a pilot, and a musician. He always had tons of television sets in their house that he would fix. When he was younger he built a satellite receptor so that he could steal the satellite reception from the next door neighbors. He was the first person in the world (according to my Auntie) to fly a plane above the ocean in search of schools of fish, so he could tell the boats below where to go. Grandpa Ohai was in California when World War II broke out, and the government wouldn't let anyone fly back to Hawaii, forcing him to stay in California. He worked for the army as a pilot testing new planes for the war. This was actually where he met my great grandmother. She was working for the army at the same time, although I'm not quite sure what her job was. Grandpa Ohai was also a music major at BYU. He had a difficult time playing what was written on the paper though. He found himself wanting to wonder off the page and continue the song in his own way. He could play almost any instrument. My Auntie remembers him playing the trumpet, the guitar, the bass guitar, the ukulele, and of course, the piano. In Hawaii, his family owned a night club that was purchased to help their grandmother, Tutu Lady, pay her bills. My grandpa Ohai would go to the night club and just sit and play the piano. My auntie said they would be there for hours while he played! But apparently everyone loved it, because the club was pretty famous on the island of Kauai.

MY GREAT GREAT UNCLE LEO
(This is where the stories get good)

Sadly, I've only met my Uncle Leo (Grandpa Ohai's brother) a few times. But I wish I have had more opportunities to know him. He has had quite the life! Uncle Leo was a fantastic athlete. When he was 17 years old, he would swim across the ocean from the island of Maui all the way to the island of Molokai, 30 miles away, dragging a net of fish behind him so that he could sell them and send his brothers to college! On Molokai, they would throw the dying donkeys off of the cliff into the ocean, causing the waters to become extremely shark infested. Yet he swam through the waters fearlessly, because the shark is the Ohai family guardian angel, or protector. He once killed a 350 lb. fish when he was spear fishing, setting some famous record on the island. All he had was a mask and a spear- no breathing apparatus. The fish was so big, that he had to wrestle it for an hour after he stabbed it to finally put it in a position for others to hull out of the water. When he would run out of air, he would swim to the surface, take a breath, and then go right back down to try and drag his fish out of the water. One time, when he was fishing on his boat, the rope for the anchor got caught on the propeller. He had to swim under the boat to cut the rope out. While he was down there, a deformed, strange-acting shark that had been following the boat started circling around him. When he started to swim to the surface for air, the shark all of the sudden attacked him. To make a smaller target of himself, he went from a vertical position in the water to a horizontal position, facing the shark, and stuck his arm right out, holding his knife as the shark was about to bite him. His arm was all the way inside the shark's mouth, but the knife must have stabbed him real good, because the shark never bit down on his arm. Instead, it just backed away. The shark's teeth still cut up his arm though. When he got back up to the boat, he smeared vapor rub all over the cuts and rapped it in a towel until they got to shore. He ended up getting hundreds of stitches.

MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE UNCLE LEO STORY

I've heard this story many times in my life, but I've never been told all the details until tonight. As I mentioned before, the shark is the Ohai family protector. Ohai's don't kill sharks (except for when they have to) or eat them. This particular story shows just how important sharks are to the Ohai family.

When my Uncle Leo was in his 40's, he was flying his plane from Ohau to Molokai, with about 45 miles between the two islands. He was flying his little one-engine,  two-seater plane, when all of the sudden he heard a loud bang, and then saw the front propeller spin off and head right into the ocean. He landed his plane on the water, but the plane started sinking right away because of the weight of the wings on the top of the plane. He barely had time to open the door and get out before it was too late. He swam to the surface, took a quick breath, and then swam back down to the sinking plane in an attempt to get the emergency raft, lifejacket, and other supplies. But it was too far down. He was only able to make it to the wing of the plane before he had to swim back up for another breath. Leo was 5 miles from the coast of Oahu, and knew he had to swim. He knew the ocean so well though that he knew the currents would take him away if he tried to swim the 5 miles back to Oahu. He knew he had a better chance swimming the 40 miles to Molokai. So that's exactly what he did. He knew the general direction of the island, so he stripped down butt naked, and shoved the shreds of his underwear up his nose as plugs. It took him 2 days to swim all the way to Molokai. The police had given up the search for him, thinking that he was dead. But the sharks helped him, and he survived. They swam with him all the way there, and would rub up against him to keep him pointed in the right direction. He was so tired that, at the time, he didn't even care that they were pushing him. He just kept swimming. Noreen remembers receiving the article of a news paper about his supposed death while they were living in Germany, which she still has to this day. Leo's brother, Ben, my grandpa Ohai) knew that Leo wasn't dead. Even though he was missing, Ben said that he knew he was still alive. And sure enough, some horse back riders found Leo when he reached the shore and took him to safety. Leo says that when he could see the waves breaking on the shore of Molokai, he was only a few hundred yards away, yet he was so exhausted he felt he wouldn't make it. He said it felt like the ocean picked him up and spit him back out onto the beach. I can't even imagine what his experience must have been like!

Est. 8.2.2012

I wish I would have thought to start a blog when Heath and I started our lives together! But since I am starting almost 10 months into our marriage, I've decided to give a short summary of our newly wedded life thus far... I guess I'll start at the beginning!

Heath and I first met on February 1, 2012 when we went with his sister Haylee and a few of their friends to Mesa Frozen Yogurt. At the time Haylee and I were in a special education class together at ASU, and she was the one who suggested Heath and I meet. After creeping on his facebook and noticing how undeniably good looking Heath was, I quickly agreed that it would be best if we got to know each other. Heath and I got along right away when we met, and I instantly felt comfortable around him. I wasn't afraid to by myself, which is kind of abnormal for me. I got his phone number (because he had left his at home), and texted him a couple of days later. Long story short, we hung out a couple of times, he asked me on a date, and the rest is history!

Many people might think that our relationship was very fast moving, and now that I look back I would have to agree. But when you know, you know! I knew after only dating Heath 2 weeks that he was the one I was going to marry. My best friend Karsyn nearly had a heart attack when I had told her that, but both Heath and I had felt the same way and were already talking about our future together. Heath proposed to me three months later, on cinco de Mayo, at the rock climbing gym we had gone to on our first date. We were then married 3 months later, on August 2nd, 2012 in the Mesa, Arizona temple.

Marriage has been amazing so far! We've had some unexpected trials, but even though it has been hard at times, it's so worth it. I love being with him everyday, and I am so grateful that he is my eternal companion.