a few more

Birth story to come, but time on the internet is at a premium. Sorry.

people with baby

Makili

We have not taken that many pictures so far. Blayne is recovering, and pictures have not been the top priority yet. Here is a sample. There will be an update from Blayne in a few days with the birth story and more pictures. His name has been settled on as Makili Bennett Matty. There were many names in the running for a long time, but this one seems to have stuck it out.

Flowers for Bunny

I hear Bunny is a fan of the flower pictures...so here are a few more, though not that awesome.

300 earthquakes

We didn't know it until we were leaving, but apparently the volcano had an active day the other day, and we happened to be there. 300 earthquakes in one day as the magma was draining from one chamber to another or something like that! The road around the crater was closed we found out after we spent some time at the Jagger Museum. We couldn't get near the siesmograph museum because there were so many people gawking at all the activity. We didn't even know that until the next day when we read it in the paper. The current eruption out of Pu'u O'o crater appears to have stopped, which is pretty big news around here. I told Raph that maybe lava will flow over the house that we almost bought, then he wouldn't feel bad about us not getting it.

Anyway, we're spending a lot of time staring at eachother, which has been just fine with me. The moms seem okay with it for the most part, though. I don't think they realized how serious I was when I said we didn't do anything, before they came out here!

Lost the race

These pictures have nothing to do with anything, but I like blogs better when there are pictures. Raph handed out signed copies of the one of him to his students on the last day of school. Very Napoleon Dynamite.

We're hanging in there. I officially lost the race. Both of my friends who were due this month had their babies already. Welcome Emma and Aila. Both girls. Both moms did great (good work Trisha and Melissa). I'm excited. I talk to them and I'm excited. it sounds fun. My mom gets here today so anytime after today would be fabulous. The sooner the better so that they little guy won't be too small to fly home and we can make it to Tom and Laura's wedding. This is the age of weddings and babies!

Raph was put in charge of naming the baby after we got frustrated about the whole process a few weeks ago. He is taking his responsibility very seriously. He won't tell me his ideas because he says I'll overanalyze them and whatever. He's threatening to name the baby Sherlock Homie G Matty. What a comic, huh! When we were in the doctor's office last week, they told me to take off my pants for the cervical exam and left the room. Raph's response as soon as they left was, "I wonder what their reaction would be if they came back and neither of us were wearing pants?" He does keep me laughing.

waiting

I know how you feel kitty. Work is done and the waiting begns. For the moms, for the baby, to go back to the mainland.



Sunday we spent the entire day at home, reading, cooking, playing cards, quilting, etc. It was lovely, though by three o'clock our tranquil time verged on boredom. I tried to fly a kite my mother gave me, but it didn't come with any string, so I improvised from my sewing box and still had no luck. Raph, my hero, came out to engineer the thing so it would work and we stood in the yard for quite a while waiting for the wind to be right, trying to tug that little kite into the air. All to no avail. So he ran around the yard with it instead, which cracked me up. The only thing funnier than that was when I taped the fart machine my sister gave me to the bottom of his chair. I swear I almost birthed the baby laughing so hard. Everyone needs a fart machine.




Yesterday we went for a walk in the national park at Kikuka puulani or something like that. A kikuka is an island of ground that is left intact when the lava flows around it, so it is older and has richer soil than anything around it. That could be symbolic, eh? Anyway, it was a lovely walk and though we tried hard to see the rare birds which the area is known for, we weren't that lucky. I'm not cut out to be a birder. I was hot, which I seem to be all the time lately. I apologize for so much belly in your face. I was fully shocked by the picture of me. I can't stop looking at that picture because I'm so incredulous that its me. And then I also am kind of disgusted by it. It's a wierd feeling. Soon that big lump will be on the outside.

Where things stand

I'm due soon - two to three weeks. The moms come this week. Today is our last official day of work, though we don't have any students - just lots of cleaning. (I'm actually taking a break from cleaning Raph's room.) While the stress of ending the school year will be welcome, I'm not sure what we'll be doing while we wait for the baby - staring at each other, playing cards, cooking, eating, walking, reading. Pretty relaxing. Maybe the baby will feel the difference and know it's time. We also won't have regular e-mail access after today so the blogging might be thinner, though as soon as the baby comes we'll try to get some pic on here. Who knows how many people read this blog anyway? Maybe I'm talking to myself most of the time, but I'm really speaking to my friends and family that aren't here. I miss you.

crater walk

This is the ancient pit crater right by our house, though as always photos really don't do it justice. A lone picture of pregnant me and Raph together. I think I look like my sister in this photograph. And our dear friend Dan, who is now en route to Poland. A last jaunt into the outdoors with him and a hearty vegetarian meal. The only way we know how to say goodbye.

little sausages and blow-up mattresses

Raph has been walking with me a lot lately. Ever since we saw the giant boars in the orchard on our drive home. The last thing that I want at 8.5 months pregnant is to be chased or gored by a wild pig. So he has been walking with me. Our road is an overground mess so each of us has to walk in our own tire rut for most of the way which works out fine, but when we got to the short paved section and could walk closer together, I reached out and took his hand. He looked down at my hand in a perplexed way, and I asked, "What's wrong?" "Nothing," he said, "your hand feels fat." What a romantic, huh? It is true though, both my hands and feet fill up with that extra blood volume. I had to remove my rings last week after a walk, when my fingers looked like stuffed sausages. And my feet, well they feel like blow-up mattresses. They get really stressed when I walk on them, as though the air is fighting to get out of the mattress when too many people are on top of it. Lovely little quippet of pregnant life.

Kindness

Yesterday I was late for the staff meeting, which was a mandatory Mexican fiesta. I had a student in my room, which I felt was more important than the taco bar, so I wasn't in a huge hurry to get up there. The security guard/ faculty Scrabble champion, Jay, came and picked me up on the golf cart, which surprised me, never having been allowed that luxury before. I asked her if she was coming to get me because I was late. She said, "No. Because your hapai (Hawaiian for pregnant)." So I jumped on and headed to the faculty meeting, got a big bowl of ice cream and settled in. Hardly had I parked my backside and started stuffing my face with ice cream and toasted coconut when I was called to the front of the room to receive gifts. I was truly overwhelmed with the kindness of my coworkers who made me this quilt and diaper cake. What thought and creativity went into this! Pahoa is a special place and we have loved our school.

Memorial Day Sky

Long weekends are great. Especially Memorial Day. After the long months with no break, that Monday seems like a Godsend. We cleaned feverently on Saturday, pretended to have friends and had them over for dinner, played some scrabble and lost. Good times. Sunday we got up and headed for the other side of the island. We stopped in volcano for sunny 70 degrees with wind. We ate lunch on the side of the road in possibly the most perfect weather ever! We snorkeled at Place of Refuge, one of my favorite places on the island. It felt great to be in the water. Then we ate and took a nap under the palm trees. I don't think that there is anything nicer than that. We meandered all around the island. This was the sky at sunset, which as usual doesn't do justice to how beautiful it really was.

The Reader

It wasn't too long ago that I was bribing Raph to read. Like a kid, I told him if he read three books he could buy a remote-controlled car. And he did. Then he became and English teacher. He hasn't stopped reading since he got here. He's read all sorts of things - classics, fantasy, adolescent literature, etc. His favorites are still Harry Potter and he's currently rereading the entire series to catch up again for the release of the new book this summer. Is this the same guy I was married to a year ago? Sometimes, he forgets I'm there, he's so wrapped up in his books. Be careful what you ask for I guess!

8 months big

A month to go. Here are some pictures of my big belly. Raph looked at me the other morning and said, "is it painful that way it sticks out like that?" Oh well. I still can't believe I'm going to have a baby in a few short WEEKS!

I've been manaically finishing projects since March. I'm almost done with the fifth quilt top since then but those have been sent to the quilter. This one is my niece's birthday quilt. Raph liked the dumb look on my face as I tried to stuff it in the box. What can I say? He is a horrible estimator of time constraints, and I don't do so well with spacial constraints, like how much will fit in this box.

A Long Day

I wish I had more time to share events in our lives. Not that our lives are terribly interesting. It's pretty mellow here actually. Work, make dinner, walk, play cards, snooze. That's pretty much our routine, but I have enjoyed the creation of these routines, the sharing of simple times and simple goals. "What are we going to eat for dinner?" That's a tough one sometimes. All and all I can't complain.

Today seemed long though. My belly, though big really hasn't affected my lifestyle too much, though this week it has started to get kind of crampy and sometimes my students think I'm in labor because I'll grimace as the baby deals a big kick or blow to some part of my body that isn't used to kicks and blows. Yesterday there was a huge fight outside of my classroom. I liked that I didn't have to get involved due to the baby. It was a mess. Six girls rolled out of the stairwell all throwing blows and hurling obsenities at eachother.

We're all in the countdown here. 15 days till the end of school (only 7 with my rotten juniors who I only see every other day). 5 weeks till the baby. 4 weeks till the moms come. a few projects to get down before our lives change forever. We have to come up with some final name ideas, which is still a hard thing for us. I'm not telling our ideas anymore (now that we've started brainstorming again) cause I really can't have somebody ruin a name for me by saying, "Oh that name sucks," or "I know someone with that name..." I'm just not going to say; please don't take offense. The truth is we're not decided at all.

I'm ready for a weekend or something. The kids are crazy and though pregnancy supposedly makes you mellow, I can only stand so much. Luckily for me, many students are being suspended at this point for fights or whatever, leaving the rest of us some peace occassionally. I can't wait to go home and sew. And sleep in on Saturday. And go for a long walk.

camera phones

We got our first camera phone this year. We actually think it takes fairly good pictures. Unfortunately we're not so good at downloading them in a timely manner. Here are some shots of visitors this spring, that we didn't post earlier.

Isaac at one of my favorite restaurant on Maui, Pizza in Paradise. Unfortunately you can't go there hungry because it takes over an hour to get your food. Maybe that is why the food tastes so good. You're soooo hungry by the time it comes that it tastes that good. And Isaac and Raph and another favorite Maui spot, Cliffhouse. We tried to go there on our most recent trip and it was totally shut down because they were tearing down a hotel. I was bummed.




in the bosom of Kiluea Iki crate, my cousin Julie, her friend Rachel, and my aunt Jean. Good hike.



This is what happens when you go to the beach on our side of the island. Weather comes. In any case, I love the way they have planted thousands of palm trees here to try to create a nice beach, since the last one was destroyed by lava.



Here is Dan chewing on sugar cane and Cara on a hike. Soon everybody but me was gnawing on the cane and Cara tried to take some home with her.

Raph and the Volcano

Raph took our teacher/mentor/friend Terry out to the lava on Friday night. As a nice surprise they didn't have to go very far to see it - exactly one mile from the car. So they had plenty of daylight to take pictures. Pretty cool. This is all surface lava, and this particular kind of lava, pahoehoe, is smooth and runny as you can see. They had a lot of fun lighting sticks on fire and throwing things into the fire to watch them burn. Boys.

A day in the life...

This happens more than you think. Have you seen a more beautiful shade of green?

Shocker

So I am aware I have a belly. I mean that's part of being pregnant. Raph took some pictures of me yesterday to put on my blog. And I downloaded them and started looking at them. I had no idea I was this big!




We attended our first childbirth class this week which was extremely entertaining. Quite an aray of people. The girl on our left was one year out of high school. Her boyfriend, who works for Dollar Rent-a-car, was very excited about how his boss told him that when the girl goes into labor, he can take any car on the lot to drive up to the hospital. He spent 10 minutes sharing his options - a Hemi, a Crossfire, etc. Meanwhile the girl tells us that she has been seeing midwives up in Waimea (which is kind of far from Hilo). I asked her why and she said because she wanted a female doctor. Fair enough, right? But then she goes on and on about how a girlfriend of hers had a baby and a male doctor. She told the doctor she did not want him touching her down there, not even during the delivery and he did! She was outraged. Anyway the couple on the right were full-on making out the whole class - gropinng and wow. Then there was the Hawaiian entourage int he corner, pregnant Piilani, with her sista and her sista's twin 5-week olds and her auntie.




Anyway, I chose flattering pictures of myself. Maybe I should post a huge one too just for kicks...tomorrow.