Maui In A Nutshell

So I originally made a blog to keep everyone updated on our life in Maui. Well, I really failed miserably at even putting up one post! So here is take number 2, hopefully I will do a lot better this time.

So in a nutshell Kevin and I have been living in Maui for a little over 6 months now. We were originally living on the property where I had my internship. Let me tell you, never live where you work, it is not a fun thing to do. It would have been nice to leave work and actually leave. But anyways our first place was a little hut and I mean little. For the first time living with someone it was very difficult at times. Our hut literally fit a bed and 2 built in shelves. We also had an outdoor bathroom and shower. Our kitchen was in a detached building that was the size of a box. If anyone knows me, I am not one to "rough" it so I was pretty proud of myself.

Kevin got a job for a non profit called Community Work Day. They are based under the program Keep America Beautiful. He is the Project Manager and does everything from recycling to beach clean ups. He even went over to the island of Lanai for 2 weeks to do a big recycling program there. I think it is amazing what he is doing to beautify this island. You wouldn't believe what people dump on the sides of the road. http://www.cwdhawaii.org/

I also work for a non profit called Read Aloud America. For all my Project YES! members, the woman who hired me was a former AmeriCorps Project YES! member... what a small world! Anyways the program promotes reading for enjoyment and bringing families and the community together. I love this program and we just started up yesterday at one of our 2 new schools. I could go on forever about it so here is the link about the program... http://www.readaloudamerica.org/

My internship has ended and it was definitely an experience to say the least. I did a lot of work and learned a lot of what I am capable of doing for myself. I teamed up with the Orchid Salon at The Four Seasons and put on a gallery show for the photographer I interned for. It was a great success and the artwork will be up for at least 6 months. I decided through this internship I would be a good art consultant. So we will see where that takes me!

Back to our living arrangements... we were moving on up in the hut world and were promoted to the gardener's hut aka the Sugar Shack. This also meant we had to take on the garden. This hut was a little bit bigger and nicer. We had our own kitchen and bathroom and even a washer and dryer... although the dryer set out socks on fire a couple of times.

In the midst of all of this my family was able to come for Thanksgiving. It was so great to see them and to get away from work and the hut! We covered almost the whole island and had such a good time. I was definitely sad to see them go but I knew I was coming home in a couple of weeks for Christmas.

For the New Year Kevin and I decided we needed our own place to live. So along with the New Year we have a new house and I have a new (paying!) job. I am working at The Mercantile, which reminds me of a mini Anthropologie. I am currently being trained to be the Manager which I am really excited about. I also love all the people I work with!

So that is pretty much what has been going on in the past 6 months. But I can't forget to say how much Kevin and I LOVE Stand Up Paddling. It is so much fun and is such a great workout. Kevin is becoming a very good Stand Up Surfer as well... I on the other hand not so good. But we also have joined the canoe club and practice starts Feb 8th, so we will see how that goes. I will try to be better at keeping everyone updated more regularly. ALOHA!