Girls Day Out and Book Club

So I posted yesterday about going out to lunch with Crash, Swirl, Martha, and Swirl's mom and sister. We went to Haleiwa Eats, a Thai place in Haleiwa. We had a surprised visitor who joined us for lunch...she's a friend of Crash, she showed up at the town houses to drop her teenage boys to hang with Martha's boys and decided to come along. Which was a totally great treat because she ended up being the driver and the whole way to Haleiwa, she told us about her exciting life.

Meet Dolly, everyone. At the moment, she's staying here in Hawaii but she lives in Saudi Arabia. She also has a place in Utah. She spent the summer cruising across US with her kids in an RV. She wanted to get her kids getting reacquainted with their heritage.

Then they were in the pageant at Palmyra. If you're a LDS, I'm sure you'd know about this pageant...I haven't been to one but I'm told this pageant was held every year that portray the history of our church and about the Book of Mormon. I would love to go there someday and see this pageant...would be even more amazing if I actually get to be in this pageant. But anyways, back to Dolly...I was more interested about her life in Saudi Arabia. How totally adventurous and exotic to live in a place like that. She had so many amazing stories to tell about life in Saudi so check her out on her blog. She's hasn't posted anything lately but the last post she wrote was very interesting. She's trying to figure out how to work this blog features esp. the postings of photos, according to her to make her post more interesting but I gotta tell ya, she doesn't need photos at all...she tells the most amazing stories. It was a real pleasure getting to know her. And then she did the most generous thing...she paid for our lunch yesterday. How amazing is that? Thank you Dolly!!

So when we got to the restaurant, they told us the place doesn't open til noon..we got there half an hour early, we had no idea the place have a set time they opened. So of course, Crash with her camera, she just had to take pictures and who do you think ended up being her guinea pig? Yep, yours truly because Swirl was already at some shops in Haleiwa playing tourist with her mom, grandmom, sister and great-aunt and dad. They were to meet us at the restaurant but when we got there, they weren't there yet and Martha drove her own car and wasn't there either so that just left me under Crash's total photo power control. I know she has loads of totally crazy pix of me so if you want to see it, check her blog out for that. I am however going to post a few of the photos {I stole from her blog} here just for proof purposes. So here are a couple of us...

There's Crash & me on the left and Martha and me on the right. I'm not even going to say how much I hated the extra weight I put on esp. sitting next to these skinny ladies...lol.

Anyways, while we were waiting for the others to show up, Swirl's parents showed up with the aunt to inform us that Swirl, her sister and grandmom are suiting up to go swim with sharks. Pffffft, what? Swirl is swimming with sharks? Very brave girls. Their appointment with the sharks was scheduled for 12:30 p.m. and we didn't get seated in the restaurant til noon so they didn't have time to eat with us. They only had time to drop in and say hello and have us wish them luck that the sharks won't mistake them for their noon-day meal...ahahah.

Here's Swirl with her family. Standing, from left to right: Swirl's mom, Jane, her great-aunt and her grandmom. Sitting left to right: Swirl, her sister, Emily and Crash. Swirl, Emily and the grandmom are the ones who will be swimming with the sharks. Can you tell how nervous and the trying to so hard to hide it look Swirl and her sister are putting on there? I'd be a nervous wreck if I know that in a few moment's time I just might be shark's bait...lol. Naahhh, they all look adorable!!

Here we are....the lovely sisters with their mom; and of course, I have to insert my head in there just to let everyone know I was there too...lmao. Actually I had just finished telling Swirl and her sister that the sharks in Hawaii love white meat and they just might mistaken Swirl and her sister for the noon meal. I was trying to psych them out and I think it worked because the more nervous they got, the bigger their smile got...And look at Swirl's mom. Isn't she just darling? Always so supportive her daughters' risky whims..lol. It was a wonderful day out, eventhough Swirl and Emily ditched us for the sharks...lol.

After the lunch, I went home and made my son Danny his special bday dinner and managed to get everything ready by 5:30 p.m. which was a total accomplishment in my book. Our family hardly had dinner before six thirty but I have to get that done early yesterday because I have to go to bookclub. Remember I mentioned that on this post?

Bookclub was at seven and I was actually the second person who arrived at the hostess's house. This is actually my first book club and pretty much everyone in the group's also. The bookclub was held our RS president's house and she couldn't figure out if we should start it off with a prayer or not (it's her first book club too) so I suggested we pray since the book we read was more on a spiritual nature. After the prayer, she each lady to rate the book and tell a little why they rate it that way...1 being the least favorite and 10 being the most favorable. There were 12 ladies in all and only two ladies rate the book in the 3s...there were a lot of 8s and a few 9s. I love the book so I gave it a 9 rating. I love that even though everyone has their own viewpoint on the style writing for the book, everyone like the message the book portray and majority of the ladies like myself can totally relate to the book. I thought the book was written mainly for me. It's actually one of the books that touched me deeply and leave a great impact on me...it has made me rethink on some of my attitude towards life and attitudes toward to my husband and kids. There were a few shed tears around the room when each lady expressed their personal feelings about the book. No, I didn't cry although I did come close to but I've figured out to cut my thoughts short when I'm on the brink of shedding some tears.

And you know something? I also learned something from the ladies last night. That even though each woman has a different opinion about the book, I've learned that it's ok to disagree with someone else and still like that person...I actually drew closer to the women who gave the book a small rating because I've concluded that the message that was in the book touched each person differently at a different season in their life. It was really a great experience for me to see that even with different opinions there are still comraderie in that room. There was no judging at all...no one was pointing at the other for not liking the book or for liking the book so much.

All in all, I had a great time yesterday. I hope y'all enjoy this little excitement for me...I doubt I have any life to speak of so little outings like this excited the heck out of me...ahahah. {I kid}