today I love...

these lighting photos taken by a friend whom I miss so much, Noelle.

and this quote:

“I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails. I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp. I want to be there with grass stains on my shoes from mowing Sister Schenk's lawn. I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbor's children. I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed some one's garden. I want to be there with children's sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder. I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived."  ~Marjorie Hinckley

I found on Stephanie's blog, thank you Stephanie for the reminder.

and finally, this post found on Susan's blog, entitled:

ONLY IN HAWAII

After living in Hawaii for a few months, we've discovered a few things that make Hawaii unlike any other place.

Only in Hawaii...

Does the town's only grocery store not sell frozen carrots. Or Hawaiian punch.

Can you see a XXL string bikini in use on a regular basis.

Does the hospital have an outdoor waiting room.

Do you welcome the geckos inside because they eat all of the other bugs.

Can it be pouring rain while the sky above is still mostly clear and sunny.

Will you see people drinking hot chocolate and wearing jackets & scarves on the beach because it has gotten down to 60 degrees that night.

Can you pick out a tourist by what car they are driving.

Can you look at the 10 Day weather forecast and see the exact same prediction for every day.

Can you experience what we call "Aloha Drivers" who will slam on their brakes in the middle of the one-laned Kam Hwy, causing the 15 cars trailing them to screech to a stop and/or swerve onto the shoulder... just to let a single car turn onto the highway from a side street.

Can you buy a gallon of milk for over $7.

Can you take the wrong highway 3 times in a row and still have a way to get home.

Can you take your rotting food to the ward farm to feed the wild pig that someone caught, only to hear rumors of an upcoming ward luau featuring ground-cooked Kalua Pork as the main dish.

Can you get splashed by a few drops of a wave while driving in your car. 

Can you experience "vog," a type of smog that clouds the skies when the trade winds blow the volcano smoke over from the big island. 

Do all of the trees have marks in the trunk from people climbing them to get to the coconuts.

Does the grocery story become the most popular destination in town as soon as the sun sets.

Can you go to a Chevron with 6 gas pumps and have to wait in a line because 4 of the pumps have been out of order for months and nobody cares to fix them.

Do chickens actually cross the road (I always wondered where those jokes came from...).

Can you spend $8 washing a single load of laundry.

Can you whale-watch from your kitchen window.

Can you watch the hole on Kam Hwy get to be a foot deep before anybody fixes it - and when it does get fixed, you realize that someone just filled it in with dirt and it all washes away with the next storm.

Do you get to experience creativity at its finest through store names such as "Foodland" and "The Hair Cut Store."

Do you feel like you are driving uncomfortably fast as soon as your speedometer passes 40 mph.

Should you rewash your clean dishes right before use because you never know what just ran over them in the cabinet.

Thanks girls for all of these wonderful, inspiring posts :)