Fall fun

I have the most adorable nieces. EVER.

You need evidence?

Exhibit 1:
Exhibit 2:


(poor DH didn't realize that my sister was feeding the girls leaves until he saw the video!)


Exhibit 3:

From the mouths of babes...

Dear husband (DH) and I went out for dinner with some friends of his from grad school. They brought along their 6-year-old daughter. We asked her questions about her favorite subject in school (centers, where she can choose to bake), her favorite book (any Dr. Seuss book), and then about her pets. She sighed, and said she had a story to tell us about her pets. Dh and I readied ourselves for the drawn-out tale of a six year old. Here's what she said. She has a cat and some fish. Well, make that had some fish. Apparently, the cat ate the fish. She said, "It is a short story."

Life as a preschool teacher...

Story 1

So, the other day, G comes up to me holding a ball
me -Hey G, what's going on?
G - T won't share the ball with me.
me - What ball?
G - This ball.
me - Um, it looks like he's sharing because you have it.
G - Well, I took it from him.

Story 2
Girl comes up to me holding a doll.
me - Oh, that's a nice baby you have there.
girl - Yes, she's sick though.
me - Really?
girl - Yes, she has a fever.
me - I'm sorry. How did she get sick?
girl - She ate too much cheese.

Clearly, cheese is the beginning of all sicknesses.

Word of the Day

pau - finished, done, completed and sometimes very
"pow"

Are you pau with your dinner?

And know that each - and ' are very important in Hawaiian! Pau means finished, but pa'u is soot or inky or hard labor. Pāʻū is a skirt used in horseback riding or for hula, among other things.

Hotwings

One of DH's favorite meals is chicken wings with hot sauce. He LOVES them. There's a restaurant in Florida that offers such great ones that we go there twice every time we go down to Florida to see DH's parents. DH also has a recipe he likes to make at home that involves frying chicken strips and then dousing them with his homemade hot sauce. This, I have determined, when coupled with massive amounts of bleu cheese, is probably not the healthiest thing we've ever eaten. I found this new recipe and tried it the other night.

Everyday Food's chicken tenders with creamy honey mustard. Thanks Martha.

DH was horrified at the idea I would put Rice Krispies on his chicken, but he left to grab a few last minute ingredients and I snuck the required amount into the food processor. I also added a bit of yellow cornmeal.

Holy cow, they were great! DH made his normal hot sauce (based on Crystal and a few other ingredients) and we skipped the creamy honey mustard, but it probably would be great with honey mustard. For being baked, these came out absolutely spectacular. I liked them almost as much as our normal fried "wings".

HWotD

Today's word is akamai

Akamai - smart, clever, expert
"ah-kah-my"

I love that Hawaiian words often can take different word forms - sometimes it can be used as an adjective, others as a noun - it's just so wonderful!

Random pictures :)

Amy, here are what 'uli 'uli are... my new birthday present :) The bottom of the gourds have seeds in them and so they rattle when you dance. Roy and my hula sisters called me Julie-'uli-'uli, and that is where I got the blog's name.


Here is a picture of our condo's great room, taken from the dining room - I also got the picture frames on the wall for my birthday too. I put pictures I took of Hawai'i Island in the frames.


This is the rug we (aka DH) got in Turkey. It looks really good and he loves it a lot!
Edge of the rug

Other part of the living room/great room. Yes, the fireplace wall is blue! Our rug looks fantastic by the wall! I was watching Jeopardy with DH.


Here are the pictures in the 8"x10" frames...

Looking at Mauna Kea across Hilo Bay
One of my favorite Big Island beaches

The last one I am really attached to - it was the first silversword in bloom I had ever seen! Plus, it was so cool to be on top of Mauna Kea, looking over at Mauna Loa! We got to see some awesome stars that night!