Pictures from around our house...

Finally our house is becoming that quirky home that I always wanted. I've had some great finds at garage sales but some of the best things that we have are because my friend Summer actually talked me into. The dresser in the picture is made of a long lasting tropical wood called koa and I glanced at it but didn't think it would be in my price range so I didn't even ask about it. Summer however did and it was only $20. I made up a couple excuses why I shouldn't buy the pottery barn sectional that her mom found for me but she had an answer for every excuse. John adores this couch too so he encourages my garage sale n every Saturday morning. He plays with the kids, watches football, and cleans the house while I enjoy time shopping with my friend and her mom. Last Saturday we found this little red table and the people were asking $8 for it. Summer says quietly to me, "offer them $5." So I say "hmm kinda wobbley, how about $5?" Score! Then all the figurines, bucket, garbage can, pigs feet towel, and 1960's kids glasses we found in a ghetto area where an elderly lady was moving from. Those just made my day!

random pictures...

Forget expensive butterfly kits

The kids have been playing with caterpillars that are yellow, black, and white for the past week then they started noticing chrysalis' hanging on trees, fences, and then one on our pineapple plant. These chrysalis' are green with shiny gold spots on them, when they turn black you can start to see the orange and black wings and you know it will just be a matter of hours before the are out. Trent spotted this one that had just hatched and was gnawing on it's empty shell. It was amazing to watch it up close since it wasn't afraid of us yet. We watched it flap it's wings a few times then it had two trial flights before it was off. Guess we will skip learning about butterflies when our homeschool curriculum tells us too. Butterfly metamorphosis, check. (By the way these pictures are in reverse order.)

Some husbands bring home the bacon. Mine brings home da fruit!

The fruit that grows here is amazing. We have to look up fruit online to figure out what you can eat and how to eat it. John has been bringing home huge mangoes, bananas, avocados, guava, passion fruit, starfruit, limes, and now all kinds of citrus and the bumpy green one is called a sugar apple. We were just told that we can go to this lady's "yard" (orchard) and pick whatever we want. So there is much research needed before picking more. John says there is even a cinnamon tree there. The fruit is definitely one reason why I chose Kauai and it's been so much fun trying it all with our kids. Sevan even requests guava, I have to confess that when she says guava it does sounds similar to how she says gecko so you definitely have to take location into deciphering her language.

Garage Sale finds for our new home

This chair was free I just had to recover it, Tay's head board was given to us, I bought the pink flower tablecloth for Tay's blanket, $1 poster already framed, old green dishes for quarters each, and a Le Creuset pan for $10. I look forward to every Saturday morning for garage sale'N.

La cooka rocha, la cooka rocha!

Sorry for not posting for the past few weeks but I always feel like I have to post a picture each time and my camera battery died for a while but I just received my charger so we will be back in business shortly.

Anywho, my mom sent the kids a science book about bugs and we received it yesterday. I started reading it about 5 minutes after John killed a GIANT cockroach and we weren't even sure where this giant landed except we knew that we had a leg. So in this bug book it has a little section that talks about cockroaches. "Hey honey listen to this info about that little critter that we think you got...they can live without water for a week, go a month without food, and survive a week without it's head." Yummy, I hope we got more than his leg and head

These are like giant Yukas that send up a 20' flower.
Two different varieties of passion fruit flowers.

Beautiful wood of a guava tree, yummy fruit too!
Last but not least a coffee plant which has a sweet outer berry.

How to drink coconut water by Sevan

Okay, Sevan didn't teach us how to do his but she is just demonstrating it for the benefit of blogging. These were the things I was dying to know about when I first arrived and on day 3 we had a nice visit with one of the homeowners as he showed us what was ripe, how to harvest it, and even learned that the skin around the coffee bean has the most antioxidants. So here's how he served up the coconuts. He climbed up in the tree and twisted a nut off then used a machete to cut through the tough skin. After making a nice hole in it he then cut off a stem of a papaya tree to use as a straw since it is a hollow tree. He sliced open 3 nuts ranging in age and size so we could taste the difference. The large nuts were sweet and a little fizzy. After the milk is gone he then sliced out the meat which wasn't dry like the ones at the store in OR.

Answer to our prayers #1

My goal was to have an address and a place to lay our sleepy heads when we arrive, and now we have it! Here's some pictures of where we are heading. Thanks Kristy for the connection!

Dear Friends and family,
I want you all to know that John and I have decided to finally take a leap of faith. We have put our house up for sale and will be selling most belongings to move to the great island of Kauai. I listened to a sermon about Jonah last week and it spoke about Jonah not obeying God until he was really really desprate. He was stuck at the bottom of the ocean tangled in seaweed when a fish came and swallowed him up. Well, that is where we are right now. This has been a rough year for us with the economy and so many of you have helped us out with groceries, diapers, money, and just prayer. We deeply appreciate all you have done! We don’t know where we will live or work but we know that we will be together and we know that in doing this we only have one place to turn for our everyday needs, to God. From the time that John and I fell in love we have wanted to do something adventrous with our lives and the more kids we had the tougher it seemed to break away. Our kids are great and they will love this adventure just like us. It will be sad for us to walk away from friends, a great church that we finally felt apart of, and we will miss spending time with family.
This is something that we need to do. I don’t know how long we will be gone either. We are going back to the basics of life and starting all over. John is so talented in his work and with people skills that we will just go to every farm and construction site until we find a job and we might even be staying in a studio. I’ve found two great Christian churches and a Bible college so we can get hooked up with some great families. If we can’t make it work then I pray that you would accept us back as if we never left. Once we get on our feet we would love to have you come and visit us.
Sincerely yours,

Shannan Morgan