Day #5
I am thankful for democracy. While I may not agree with what you believe, we are so incredibly lucky that we have the freedom to say what we want and vote for who we want to lead our country. It really is amazing. {fingers crossed for tomorrow!}
Mckenna: I am thankful that we won our robotics tournament!
Omar: I’m thankful that we don’t have school tomorrow!
On Saturday Mckenna had her regional competition for her robotics team. She has been working after school for two months with a team of students to program a lego robot. Finally it was time to see if all that work would pay off…
I had to take her to the local high school where the competition was taking place at 7:45am (love waking up early on Saturdays!) dropped her off with her team and then Omar and I had some time to go eat breakfast and he had a soccer game (to WIN, ’cause he’s awesome!). We ended up coming back to her competition around noon, just when the actual competing was going to start.
The competition, it was pretty cool!
It was pretty exciting. The teams went head to head with a two and a half minute time limit to have their robots perform as many programmed tasks as possible. There were three rounds and the highest score was the only one that counted. Mckenna had two different teams from her school enter, and only the top 5 teams get to continue on to state so there was a lot of pressure.
In the first round their robot didn’t do too well, they had a couple of mistakes and weren’t able to get too many tasks completed. Mckenna was pretty bummed at this point because their score put them in 14th place out of 19 teams. Thankfully there were two more rounds and her team did much better, getting up to 5th place. We then had to wait for the judges to tally the rest of the scores, there was a skit, a teamwork score, and robot design.
Well, Mckenna’s school did AWESOME! Both teams made it into the top five which means that both teams go onto state next month.
Terrible cell pic, sorry, if you look close you can see Shafterbots came in first and fifth!
Mckenna’s team also won a best design! This was a huge accomplishment and I am SO proud of her awesome team!
Go Shafterbots Silver!
So onto State! The teams are excited and determined to do just as well!
Oh and here is a bonus, during some downtime the (incredible!) A/V students at Moanaloa h.s. had the teams come down and dance. It was hilarious!
Day #4
I am thankful for our health. We are blessed to have an incredibly healthy family with no major issues. My grandmother recently had to have surgery and she is already back up and driving around. Your health is something you take for granted, and I am very grateful for it! (except for my jammed ring finger that I have a sinking suspicion may be broken…)
Mckenna: I am thankful that we are going to California.
Omar: I’m thankful that we got to go trick or treating.
Day #3
I am thankful for the Navy. Now, I don’t always love the Navy (especially right now) I am thankful that my husband has a pretty stable job and that we can live comfortably on what he makes. I am also thankful that the Navy sends us on 3-4 year vacations at some of the nicest spots in the world!
Mckenna: I am thankful that we live in Hawaii.
Omar: I’m thankful that we both won our things. (A reference to him winning his soccer game and Mckenna placing in her Robotics competition!)
We have officially hit four months of living in Hawaii.
And I am in love with this state.
Hawaii can be a difficult place to live. It is so very different than living on the mainland. It can be hard to not have every store and restaurant you are used to having around the corner. (No Olive Garden, Michael’s or Chik-fil-a!) Living here means that you are living far from family, at least a 5 hour plane ride away. It can be expensive, housing is expensive, food is expensive, we are on an island so you will pay more for everything. We are lucky to be able to shop at the commissary and exchange which offer a huge savings over shopping on the local economy.
But with all that it is still magical to live here. I will be driving and then all of a sudden see a gorgeous rainbow, a vibrant green volcanic range, or a stunning sunset over the beach.
We did come here with a bit of an advantage. After living in Spain for four years we learned to live without many of the American conveniences that people complain about not having here. Plus we’ve been living far from family. So when we moved from Rota to Pearl Harbor it was awesome for us! We had Target and Starbucks and T-mobile…
It is like most places for me, it depends on what you make of it. If you spend your time here complaining about how much you hate it, you’ll end up hating it.
We’ve had a great time getting out and exploring the island, learning about the culture and customs and eating!
Don’t get me wrong it’s far from perfect here, the DMV is a nightmare, the traffic is the worst, and the bugs are out of control. There are shady parts of the island, it sucks being 6 hours behind all my friends and family on the east coast (especially when your husband deploys!)
I have found some fun friends by stepping outside my comfort zone and playing football, volunteering with the PTA and getting together a FRG for the Paul Hamilton.
The only thing that would make it better would be if my husband were still here to explore the island with me!
Day #2
I am thankful for my husband. This man is the perfect man for me. Without pause he makes sacrifices that will keep our family safe. I have never met a funnier person. My husband is my best friend. My partner. Being away from him is one of those bittersweet thing, I realize just how much I love him and need him in my day.
Mckenna: I am thankful that we have a house.
Omar: I’m thankful I have a soccer game tomorrow.
Sink Or Swim 