23.

First. I'm sorry I have SUCKED at keeping up with my blog this past almost 2 months. Freak! I promised to keep up.. well, school kicked me in the face there. Instead of doing a bunch of back posts right now that I actually have a few minutes to blog (actually I don't I have soooo much homework, but I'm procrastinating it...) I am going to do my birthday/thanksgiving post. It was a day (weekend) to remember and definitely one for the books... and my blog.

So my birthday really started out at about 4:30pm on the 27th when I got a call from the post office to come and grab a perishable package that I had to pick up right then, cause they were closing... So I run over and grab it and what does it have in it but 50 little baby cupcakes! You're kidding? Nope, my girl friend Tierra had had them shipped over from Manhattan. She did not want me to go without cake on Thanksgiving/my birthday.

Next. A few minutes before midnight on the 27th. I had just gotten out of the shower and was in my towel when we decided to "ring" in my birthday with the song "Bossy" by Kelis and have a naked dance party... Right at midnight, that best friend of mine, Kathryn face timed me and was dancing  "Go Shawty.. it's your birthday..." as I answered the phone. You're kidding. Nope. 3AM Utah time, and she was sure she was gonna be the first to tell me Happy Birthday... She was... right after Marissa's big hug and happy birthday after our naked dance party.

Next. As I'm standing there face timing, Marissa goes, "Kristina... There are people yelling your name outside! Put some clothes on..." What the crap? Kathryn tells me to call her back afterwards... I put on some clothes and head outside. We get to the front gate and there are Maori girls everywhere and a bag of goodies on the ground. The girls go, "Are you Kristina?" I tell them yes and they say, "This bag is for you..." I was look out and go, "Who's in that black car?" A girl says, "A kid named Adam... you don't know him, your friend had him do a secret delivery for you..." WOOOOOOW. As Marissa and I were walking upstairs, I look at her and go, "Did Kathryn do this?" She goes, "Yep... we've had secret combinations..." What the crap? These two! So the first treats... A diet coke (Kathryn calls it my hussie drink...), cheese and crackers and chocolate mochi ice cream (best thing ever!). Obviously I called her right back and she was like, "Well... I had to be there somehow!" Who is this girl? If that's not a way to start your birthday, I don't know what is.

We went to bed soon after and were up by 7:30. Marissa had rented a car for my birthday, cause she's the best!! We had a few minor mishaps getting it in the morning, but it was alright. We opened presents, which consisted of a bunch of fun stuff. Including tons of chocolate and cookies and other things like, things college kids hate buying... mascara, body wash, lotion, etc. Also, um, probably the biggest surprise was definitely the new pink iPhone C my little brother Aaron sent me!! You're kidding? Nope. It was crazy. I opened it and was like, "You're kidding!!!" It was awesome. We then   went to breakfast in the caf for a quick breakfast of bagels and pears, and then headed over to grab the car by 9:30am. I was getting calls all morning and was really feeling the love, ntz. So thanks for all of those.

We then headed up to Sunset Beach on the North Shore and went and walked around the Surf Competition area. They are currently having the Triple Crown Surf Competition here, which consists of 3 different competitions over a certain period of days. Right now they are having the "Vans World Cup of Surfing" up at Sunset, and so we went and checked it out. They weren't actually doing the surf competition, but we went up, took some pictures and went shell hunting! Oh, we got cool shirts too.

We then went to Ted's Bakery and Marissa got me a pumpkin pie (for my birthday cake). Then we ran back to Laie and changed real quick before running over to the Aloha Ballroom where the ward had put on a big Thanksgiving luncheon for us. We had all the traditional stuff... As well as rice, orange chicken, and other random Asian food, haha. It was funny. The mashed potatoes were not nearly  as good as my Aunt Catherine's, and the sweet potatoes were not so hot either. Literally, like they weren't even warm. I could complain, but hey, let's be honest--at least I was being fed. So I wasn't too worried about it. It was definitely just different from being home. During lunch, Marissa mentioned to our Elders Quorum President, Justin, it was my birthday and it happened to be another girls as well. So they made us stand up in the front and middle of everyone while singing happy birthday, it was fun... I guess if you're into those things, haha. Just kidding, it was sweet. The bishopric started to do Karaoke afterwards and it was hilarious...

We ran out of there pretty soon afterwards and headed down to Lanikai Beach. It was beautiful! We got there right before 3, and it was super sunny. Backtrack for two seconds, all I wanted for my birthday was for it to be sunny... THAT'S IT! And I got my wish (and so much more!) I couldn't have been happier. So, Marissa and I played on the beach for a couple hours before heading down to the Maka'puu Lighthouse and hiked out to that. I love lighthouses so much, and just think there is something so magical about them. It was only a mile in and a mile back. We headed out at sunset and it was pitch black at 6:30pm when we were heading back down the mountain. Good thing it wasn't a far hike, because we both got kind of freaked out.

We got in the car and her phone had about 2% left and mine had about 15%. We didn't have car chargers and we were both hungry. So she suggested Zippy's (because I love it) and so we headed down there and got some Katsu Chicken and Macaroni Salad before heading over to Ala Moana for Black Friday. We had been hearing that Macy's opened at 8pm that night and we just wanted to go and hopefully charge our phones. Well we got there and couldn't find plugs anywhere, as well as the place was a mad house!! Seriously crazy. We looked around and then saw a Starbucks and I knew they'd be plugs in there.. However the line was so long and out the door that we said screw it and kept looking. (Oh, we had brought our wall chargers with us...) Also, the deal was, my phone battery was now like 5%, because we were having to use them for GPS, and we knew we couldn't get home without them, seriously. So we continued walking around the mall when we found some plugs that worked! (Seriously, we found multiple outlets along the way, but all were turned off... who does that?) So we sat down and charged out phones for a bit and then headed out.

On our way back, we stopped at the Startbucks in Kaneohe, because there was no-line there, and I really wanted some of their salted hot cocoa. Mmmh! We decided to go in, instead of the drive-through because it there was a couple cars in that line.. So we went in, grabbed our drinks, came out... and what happened? Well the car didn't start. You're kidding me. Nope. We laughed but were like, are you serious?? It was after 11 by now and we were both worn out! When Marissa put the key in, it would not make a clicking noise, so I knew it wasn't dead but I wasn't sure what it was. She called her dad and he said it may be dead, so we went back into Starbucks and asked for jumper cables and nobody had any... Whatever. So as we were walking out, there was a group of kids about our age. I asked them if they had driven and if they happened to have jumper cables, they said they didn't, but then told us that there was a security guard in Long's Drugs and he could probably help us out. The girl told us she knew him. So we across the street to Longs, went in there and found the security guard and told him what was up. He came over to our car and tried to start it as well, it did not start. Hm. So he said, "It sounds like the starter... but we can try to jump it anyway and hopefully you girls will just be able to get home." Wooooow! You're kidding. So he went and got his truck and jumper cables. There was a 2 foot median in front of where we parked and loooooong story short, we could not get the cables to reach anyway we looked at it. Marissa suggest pushing the car backwards and then pulling the truck around that way. A customer came out of Starbucks and asked if we needed any help, we told him the problem, and he said he would help us push it. I was helping the guys, and Marissa was sitting in the front seat to steer it, when she yells out the window, "Hey Kristina maybe we should switch spots cause I have more muscle mass than you..." Woooooow. Seriously, this girl and Kathryn have recently let me know I have chicken arms... What is that? Ridiculous. So I switch her spots and they are trying to push it when the nice (big) poly gentlemen helping us goes, "Do you have it in neutral?" I tell him no, cause we can't start it... but I can try, hold on.. So I go to turn it, to try and down shift.. and it STARTS! You're kidding me? Nope. The guys were like, "Guess it just took some rocking!" We all laughed and thanked them men both immensely. As we closed the doors I immediately gave up thanks to our Heavenly Father for helping us out in our time of need. We were then on our way home... Almost.

We had to pull across the parking lot and get gas, cause we were running low on that. So we pull over there to get it and we were both so nervous about turning off the car... But we did it. As we are getting gas, there were these super hot guys in a car right new to us. The driver looks over at us and says, "Hey ladies..." And then I heard him say, "Are you two doing good tonight?" So I replied, "Yeah we are!" He says, "Oh really, where?" Now I was confused, what? I replied, "Wait, what?" He goes, "I asked if you were drinking tonight..." Hahahahahahahaha, WOW. I replied, "No, no we're not... thanks though!" Then he's like, "Dang, well have a good night...!" They drove off, and Marissa looked at me and goes, "What did he ask?" I told her, and she goes, "Oooooh, I thought they asked 'Did you eat some turkey tonight?" You're kidding me!!!!!! I laughed sooooo hard! It was so funny. The car did start up, and we were off. Home bound and tired, we were home and in bed by 2am. Oh, not to forget once we got home, the girls all sung happy birthday to me (we lit the candles but it was windy outside.. and we didn't want the smoke detectors to go off in our room, they are really sensitive...) I made a wish and finally blew out those 23 candles... making it a "hole'y" cake (pie) and another great day for the books.

Well... Did I mention, my birthday lasted all weekend? It does. Marissa woke me up at 8am on Friday the 29th because the Surf Competition was on!! We hurried and got ready and ran over to the caf. We were going to catch the 9am bus up to Sunset, when our friend Justin called and said he wanted to go, and would drive! Sweet. Literally, right as we were running in the caf. So we actually took a few minutes to enjoy our breakfast, and then he came over and we headed up the way to the competition. So fun!! We got sweet airbrush tattoos, a bunch of other free stickers and posters, and we got to sit on the sandy beach and watch hot surfers do their thing all morning and afternoon. Seriously? Life doesn't get much better than that!

Last night was then the Rock and Roll Revival at the Game Center. Elder Cochran, one of the senior missionary's came and DJ'd the event and just played music form the 60's, 70's, and 80's music. It was fun and there was about 70 people that came. They even had the limbo... You know I was all about that, ntz! Also, just a p.s. the word, "Ntz..." Not an acryonm, it's a sound.... pronounced "uuuunnnnttzzz" Get it? Nevermind. 

Saturday came and it was a lazy day of finally eating some birthday pie, a few other treats, and then two of the roomies had their Christmas cheer performance during halftime at the basketball game. They killed their dance, and then, Ashley took me out to dinner at Seven Brothers (Marissa had a date!) Earlier in the day, a couple fun packages had shown up, which was so exciting. Just another special day added on to this already loooong weekend of partying.

Now it's Monday, and another package came. Ntz. Seriously, the love has definitely been felt. And trust, the hot pink laceyy'ness in the picture below are just the hottest "Wednesday" item of clothing I'll be wearing. Ntz. Also, thanks to the US Postal Service for SUCKING at getting packages to Hawaii on time, my birthday was extended the whole long weekend until today. I didn't mind having an extended birthday, but I'm sure the roomies weren't huge fans of all the birthday packages all over the floors and treats taking up the whole fridge for 5 days... Sorry 'bout it.

It was a great, long, much-needed weekend and I am so grateful and lucky to have so many people in my life that mean so much and show me so much love. I will be forever grateful for every single one of you and all you do.

Now to KILL these next 2 weeks. Let's do it. Until next time, kisses from the sea xoxxxx.

P.S. Count down for home as of Monday 2nd -----> 13 days!