Update

Well, I officially suck at this blogging thing. Last night I watched an episode of House where the patient he was treating was obsessed with writing every aspect of her life on her blog and I guess it inspired me to update my blog considering I haven't done it since December! And it's now March! I can't get over that... Time sure is flying by but that's ok, I'm not going to complain about that. So here we go with an update in a nutshell.

I started school at the U and it was definitely a drastic change. It is a massive school that isn't a church school and it was hard to get used to. I really missed Hawaii and I didn't know anybody and to be honest, I wasn't liking it very much at first. I was just doing my own thing and going on with my life, not paying attention to anyone around me. But I can say that I have started to adjust and things are going good now. I still miss Hawaii and all of my friends out there, but you have to move on with your life sometimes. This was just a change in my life that I had to get used to and I'm starting to get used to it. I've met a few people in my classes and I'm getting in to the swing of things so it's not as bad as it was at first. Plus, I got a job so that's been keeping me pretty busy. It's at a place called the Corner Bakery Cafe and I'm a server/cashier there. It's actually really good. It has good food and I like the people I work with, for the most part, and it's fun to socialize with the people that come in. However, it definitely does suck sometimes, not gonna lie. But I guess that's the case with any job right? So school and work are still going good. Just going to class, doing homework, going to work, and going to sleep. That's my life right now!

An exciting thing that happened was the fact that I bought a car!! After 3 weeks of looking everywhere and dealing with car dealers I finally found one that I liked that fit my price range and was approved of by my parents. It's a 2008 Mazda 6 that only had 41,000 miles on it and I actually got a good deal on it so I'm happy. Now that I've driven it more I love it even more! That is what is pictured below. :)

This past weekend I got to spend some time with my 2 little nephews Braxton and Preston and that was a lot of fun. We built a fort in our front room after Kaelyn's mom's wedding (which was my idea haha) and then I got to spend some time with them before and after church. So that was a lot of fun. Here are some pictures. The first is us in the fort and the second is right before I left for church.

As for anything else, today is my 21st birthday and I can't believe it. I feel so old! Sometimes I don't even feel like I should be in college and I'm already in my 3rd year of school and I'm now 21! Pretty crazy... It's been a pretty good day though. Nothing too exciting happening. Just my awesome friends and family saying happy birthday to me, which is great! I'm going out to dinner to the best Chinese restaurant tonight, Asian Star, and I'm so excited for it! I can't even remember the last time I went there, probably in May for Dustin and Kaley's wedding dinner thing! Holy cow! So needless to say, I'm excited. My parents are taking me and my sister-in-law, Kaley, is coming with us too! It should be fun. Then Sunday is my birthday dinner with my family and we're having spatzle. It's going to be really good and fun to see everyone because Lauren is coming down for her Spring Break so it's going to be awesome to see everyone. I think that's pretty much about it! Hopefully I remember to take at least 1 picture of me on my birthday and try to remember to put that on here.

P.S. For anyone out there that's interested, Elder Zachariah Miller comes home in 8 weeks from today!! 56 DAYS!!!! The end. :D

Christmas Break

It's been awhile since I last blogged but not very many exciting things have been going on in my life. The Fall semester finally ended but the next semester is just about to start up next Monday. I did well in all of my classes so it was a big relief to finally get that semester out of the way. However, it was a bitter sweet feeling because with the relief of a semester coming to an end, comes the feeling of having to leave Hawaii for good. :( It was one of the hardest things I've done and it's still hard for me to believe that I'm not going back but a change will be good. Plus, who says that I won't be going back and visiting soon.

The break has been good. It's been fun to be home and spend some time with my family. I haven't done much of anything all break and it's kind of starting to drive me crazy because I don't have anything to do, but I guess I should enjoy the fact that I'm not stressing out and busy because it won't last. The weather has taken some getting used to but thankfully my mother bought me a winter coat so I didn't have to freeze for very long. Here is me and Lauren shoveling snow.

Christmas Eve was nice. This was the off year for my family's Christmas which meant all of the boring married siblings were at the in-laws so it was me, my little sister, and my parents. It was really quiet and frankly kind of strange but it was good. We went and saw Avatar which was AWESOME and I got to talk to Zach on the phone. That was soo good! He got permission from his mission president to call me on Christmas Eve because Christmas was for the family so it was so much fun to talk to him on Christmas Eve. He sounded really good and he's loving his mission and it was just normal to talk to him because he is so close to coming home (less than 4 months left now!!). Me and Lauren opened up our Christmas PJ's so we took some cheesy pictures in them.

Dustin and Kaley stopped by that night to visit and open sibling gifts. This scarf and gloves is what I got from them.

My dad got a marshmallow gun for his gift at his company party so when Dustin got a hold of it he was having a little too much fun. He was trying to shoot a pillow that Lauren would throw in the air.

Then when he went to sit down on the back of his heels, he ripped his pajama pants that he just barely got from Kaley's parents that day.

Then Christmas was just fun and lazy as it usually is and me and Lauren both got sweet new phones so we spent all day playing with them and trying to figure them out.

All in all, Christmas was great and it's been nice to have a break. Next step, get back into college and find a job!

Eddie Would Go!

So this past Tuesday, December 8, 2009, all of us decided that we were going to quit college for a day because the epic Eddie Aikau surf competition was going to happen. For those of you who don't know who Eddie Aikau is, he is a legendary surfer from Hawaii. He was pretty much the best of the best. It didn't matter how big the waves were, Eddie would always paddle out and surf them. That's where the famous phrase "Eddie would go" comes from. One day he went on a trip with about 16 crew members sailing off to Tahiti. The winds and waves started getting crazy and the canoe cap sized. The crew was out there for a really long time and Eddie was trying to convince the captain to let him paddle back to shore and get help. The captain finally let him go and a little while later a rescue helicopter came and saved all of the crew members and the search for Eddie lasted for a week but he was never found. Some people say he's still out there surfing the waves because nothing was ever found. So if the waves are big enough at Waimea beach then they have the Eddie Aikau surf competition. The waves have to be over 20-30 feet and surfers have to be invited to surf in it. The last time it happened was about 5 years ago because the waves haven't been big enough. There were thoughts that it might happen on Tuesday so we all got up at like 6 in the morning and headed for the North Shore around 6:30. Many people signed up for the free online text that lets people know if it's going to happen or not. Our friend got the text that said it was on and we were good to go. Many people skipped work and as soon as they got the text they went running. Needless to say, I have never seen North Shore so packed before.

Here are some awesome pictures that my friend John Remington took of the competition. You can see how big the waves are by how little the surfers look on them. Look close! Brandon Long ended up taking first and Kelly Slater took second and I can't remember who took third... Sorry! But it was AWESOME!!!

~*Fall Ball*~

Well it's taken me awhile to blog about this but I'm finally getting around to it! On Nov. 6th our school had a dance called Fall Ball. It was at the Ala Moana hotel in Waikiki and the theme was "Once Upon a Dream." My friend, Spencer Scanlan, asked me to go with him and we decided that we wanted to go all out but look different. It said the dance was formal but most people there were dressed in really fancy church dresses so needless to say, we stuck out like sore thumbs. As soon as we walked in the door it seemed like every head turned in our direction and stared us down. He actually pulled off the prince outfit really well. He even sewed on some red ribbon to his church pants and had a sword. It was pretty awesome. As soon as he took off his belt that was over top of the shirt people were mistaking him for Michael Jackson though. It was pretty funny. Just wait till you see it. I didn't like everyone staring at me very much but I did get a lot of compliments and it was a lot of fun (besides the fact that everyone kept stepping on my dress while I was trying to bust a move on the dance floor).

Here are the pictures of us all ready to go, waiting for the boys to come pick us up. This is me and Alexis. Shout out to my roommates Becca, who was so kind to do our hair for us, and Ashlen for doing my make up. Thanks girls!!

All 3 of us excited and ready to go! Me, Alexis, and Danna

Our excitement slowly began to wear off because the boys were very late (like 45 mins late). These are our frustrated faces. Plus, it was getting so hot in our house, hence my dress is pulled up past my knees.

They finally got there! This is the whole gang (from left to right) Huka, Danna, me, Spencer, Alma, and Alexis

It took us SOOO long to find that stupid hotel! We were in the car for about 2 hours and we were driving around the hotel for about 30 mins. We stopped and asked 3 different people for directions and then we finally found it! We just parked in the mall parking lot and walked because we didn't want to waste our time finding the hotel parking lot. This is mine and Alexis's struggle faces. We were so happy to be out of that stupid car.

Just us girls in front of the decorations


The whole group again


Me and Alexis during our sweat fest at the dance. It was so hot in there!

After the dance we all went to Denny's to get some food/dessert and then they just took us home, because it was like 3 in the morning at this point. It was a lot of fun!

Reality Check

So I wanted to blog about an unfortunate event that I experienced last night. That way it's a way of journaling so I can remember my thoughts on it. Last night I had the sad chance of helping out in any way I could with a car accident that occured just right by my house. I live on Kamehameha Highway which is the busy road that people use to get around the island. Well, it turns out that there was this 19 year old kid who was driving somewhere with a 23 year old in the passenger seat and another kid in the back. He was going pretty fast as he was attempting to pass somebody. He lost control and hit part of the bridge and flipped and rolled the car. (the report says that alcohol was probably a factor). There were many people that heard the crash and went running. We didn't hear anyhting until the sirens started speeding down the highway and we ran outside to see what happened.

Some of my friends went down to see what happened and my buddy Amraa went down to see if there was anything they could do to help. As me and my friend started making our way down there, my friend Bryan told us to stop because he said that we don't want to see that. I won't go in to any gory details, but my friends said there was nothing they could do because the passenger was already dead and the others "didn't look good." So as we were walking back we unfortunately saw the families running towards the wreckage and heard the reaction when they saw what happened. I couldn't stand listening to that so we walked back towards our house.

We were just all standing around because we didn't know what to do with ourselves. My friends who had seen the accident were stone-faced and pale and we just didn't know what to do. We saw a short lady dressed in dark clothes flagging down cars on the freeway to get them to stop and turn around because they were closing down that part of the highway and wouldn't let anyone through. So that's when we found something to do. We got some flashlights and about 5 of us were flagging cars down and telling them to turn around and letting them know what happened. The cops brought us some flares to line the road with because they had to work on crowd control and such. The saddest part about flagging cars down was knowing every car that had family or friends in it. They rushed to a stop, got out, and just started booking it down the highway towards all the flashing lights and crowds of people.

We were out there till about 1:30 in the morning but they didn't open the highway back up till about 4. Needless to say, this was a very sad night and a HUGE reality check. It really makes you think about life and how no day is guaranteed. So many people go through life thinking, "it's ok, I'll do it tomorrow." or "I'll tell them I love them tomorrow." But what if tomorrow never comes? I know it sounds cliche to be saying things like this, but every day really is a blessing and you can't put things off. Tell the people you love that you love them because they could be taken from this earth in an instant. You never know what's going to happen to you or anyone else that you know or love so you can't afford to take things for granted. We get so caught up in day to day tasks that we seem to forget to tell people how much we appreciate and love them. So tell them that you love them, every day!

I know this is a really long post but just one more thing. It also made me so grateful for the knowledge I have of this gospel and what happens after this life. There are so many people out there that don't know what's going to happen to them when they die and they think that when their family members and friends die, that's the end and they'll never see them again. It's always hard to lose someone you love and care about, it's never going to be easy, but at least we have the hope of the after life and knowing that we will see those people again someday. Just like I never got closure with my Grandma Waite passing away. I wasn't able to go to the funeral and I still have not been to her grave site in Utah, but I know that she's happy with my Grandpa and that I will see them both again someday. I'm so thankful for that. I can't even imagine how bleak and depressing this life would be if there was no hope for an even better life after this.

Sorry about the wordy post with no pictures, I just wanted to make sure I wrote down all my thoughts and feelings to remember this in the future. Take advantage of every single day and enjoy the time you have with your loved ones and friends. TELL THEM YOU LOVE THEM EVERY CHANCE YOU GET!!

Twilight Obsession

In celebration of the latest Twilight movie, New Moon, premiering in exactly a week from tomorrow, I changed my blog background and decided to blog about Twilight! My friends and I are thinking about getting midnight showing tickets but there is only one theater left on the island that hasn't completely sold out of tickets and it's in Mililani which is an hour away. We still might go but if we don't go to the midnight showing, then we'll be going very soon after it comes out.

I don't know what it is about Twilight that gets me but I absolutely love the books and I can't even wait for this new movie to come out. I've seen every trailer and it looks so much better then the first one. I know that the movies aren't going to follow the books exactly but I still love them and I get a lot of enjoyment out of them. :) All in all, let the countdown begin! T-minus 7 days until the premier of NEW MOON!!!

Halloween

So I have to admit, normally I don't like Halloween. It just seems like a pointless holiday to me unless you're a little kid who gets to dress up as your favorite super hero and go around to houses and get candy. I stopped trick or treating when I was in middle school and ever since I just haven't really seen the point of it. However, this Halloween was actually a lot of fun. Everyone in my house thought that we should all dress up together as a group costume. I was a little worried that they wouldn't turn out but we actually looked pretty freakin awesome! We all dressed up as the characters from Peter Pan/Hook. We went to Wal-Mart in Mililani the night before Halloween to get some costume things and then started piecing everything together. On Oct. 30th we had a school Halloween dance that was a lot of fun and then on Halloween we just went to the volleyball game in our costumes (where I was on TV) and went to Denny's in Kaneohe. I couldn't find a green dress for my costume, because I was Tinker Bell, so we proceeded to buy green fabric and wrap it around and pin it in random places. It actually turned out really well! It was a lot of fun!

Since Rufio (leader of the Lost Boys in Hook) isn't pictured in our group picture below, we had to get a single one of him. Ivan Goldtooth isn't very good at making scary faces because he just starts laughing. This was the best he could do. :) But doesn't he make a freakin awesome Rufio!!

Everyone in the group. Starting from left to right Jessica who was Wendy, Becca was the mermaid, Michelle didn't dress up, Kyle was Captain Hook, Whitney was Tiger Lily, Alexis and Bryan were the Lost Boys, and then I was Tinker Bell and Em was thee Peter Pan.