Waianae MENSA

My brother, Kervin, likes to send us emails or text messages about his "MENSA" kids' antics, proving that Waianae breeds a whole new level of intelligence. I'm going to start posting them because I think these jewels shouldn't be kept to ourselves. I think Mariko and all the other teachers will especially enjoy them. Here's the latest one.

One of my students from last years nerd class typed her five paragraph essay and double spaced it like her 10th grade English teacher said.......double spaced it after every word.

And that was a G.T. student. You gotta love Waianae.

Here's an older one.


"Mr. Oshima, how do you spell A&C?" that's what we call the Arts and Communications academy for short, A&C

Boo at the Zoo

Just one more reason to love living in New York. We've been to the Bronx zoo several times but we had to go see what Boo at the Zoo was all about. It was our first time taking the subway there which meant leaving the house at 8:45am (only 15min off our intended schedule) so we could make the most of the day. Sometimes I question my need to fill Israel's few days off with family activities when really maybe a quiet day at home might be more welcome. But who wants to blog about that? So poor Iz gets to trade a student day off with a daddy day on.

I'm very grateful the subway has not lost its allure for the boys. I mean, I guess even I still marvel that $2 can get you so far or that we're going under water but on the whole the subway has become a sorta dirty, pedestrian mode of travel. Yet I still enjoy it. I like watching people on the subway. I like imagining what they're lives are like or where they're headed and if they're happy about it. Of course the running commentary from Keahi makes people-watching less of a quiet sport. "Is this Clark St? Is Wall St. next? Are we in Manhattan, now? Is Brooklyn bigger than Manhattan?" fills our ears the entire journey.

It is so hard to get these boys to smile. Jarom only shouts cheese cat and Keahi makes faces.

We actually hit only a few attractions at the zoo and it was still a very full day. We finally saw the lonely bear waddling about. I gotta say, I was hoping for a sprint or a roar or something less teddy bearish but it was impressively big.


We went through the Children's Zoo which was Iz's first time. Honestly, we could probably just do that and Skyfari every time and the kids would be happy with the trip. The aligator got some ooooohs and I think Peterson was a bit frightened at first. Though it quickly wore off and he was giving it glass kisses by the end. We crawled through every possible tunnel and climbed every possible structure. But I think the tree slide was still the unanimous favorite. Though Jarom did enjoy hand feeding--more like hand flicking--the sheep.




No time for Skyfari this trip, but we made trick or treat bags, ran through a hay bale maze, stopped at a few treat stations, marched in a costume parade, went on a hayride sing-a-long,and the World of Darkness was a fitting end.




We stopped at a grocery store for some vittles and I got a bit nostalgic as we ate our meat pies. Grenada gains in happy thoughts the longer I'm away. The meat pies there were better. But I wouldn't trade New York for anything.

Your Kid Eats Glue?

Mine eats Superglue. Iz had asked me the other day where the superglue was but I had no idea since I've never used it. When Iz got home I informed him that Jarom had found it. And eaten it. I was making dinner and Jarom was standing on a chair looking over the counter while I preped the fish sacks. He kept eating all the green beans and bell peppers so I moved his chair back out of reach, not realizing that there was worse mischief on the counter behind him. His cries made me spin around and the sight of him clutching that tube in his crusty fingers with glue all over his lips and cheek was one of those horrible moments for a mom. At least you can't actually swallow the stuff and it doesn't adhere when wet so I picked off the clumps from his tongue, and scraped the rest off his face. I guess I was also lucky that he was so snotty cause most of it came right off and it was only his cheek that suffered any damage. I tried to get a picture of his reddened, scabbed cheek but it was blurry and then was pretty much gone the next day so there's no pictoral documentation of this egregious parenting mishap. And now the superglue is kept up, up, up, and far out of reach of little curious hands.

So here's a picture taken about 4 days later. Not too bad, right?

He Giveth and Taketh Away

Our weekend adventure to the farm was amazing and totally worth the expensive zipcar. It also helped that we used the car afterward to make a Costco run where I finally got us a printer for half off and on the way back scored several free items from people who had just finished a stoop sale. The little bookshelf, clothes hangers, and mugs sent a little thrill of satisfaction down my spine. I had just thought to myself that I should have checked freecycle and craigslist to find things to pick up since we had a car for the day when one block later I spotted the stoop sale. We've really been lucky about this kind of thing and I'm so grateful for the bounty and blessings of people's excess.

Fast forward to my triumphant return to unload my newest finds only to discover that we had been unintentional givers of free stuff as well. When we had returned from the farm and unloaded everything and gotten the kids undressed and all that important responsible parenting stuff, I had left both carseats at the top of our exterior steps to the basement. I had planned on going down to the basement from inside and bringing the seats in since I didn't have a key to the outside basement door. But I when I finally remembered while at Costco, I discovered I didn't have a phone and couldn't tell Iz. No big deal, I thought.

So......when I hopped out of my heavy laden car, I looked behind the iron gateway (without an actual gate to close) at the top of the steps, I saw only Jarom's carseat lying on its side. The person had apparently not found it to his or her liking and had taken Keahi's instead. It looked a little lonely and self-conscious at being cast aside. And poor Keahi cried out, "Who's the mean person who stole my seat?!"

I guess those Great Material Continuum currents are harder to navigate than I'd thought. (If you don't get the reference, tough, you non-trekers.)

Temples at the Farm

Last week I got the brilliant (no that's not sarcasm) idea to take the family up north to pick apples from an orchard. I'd never gotten to do anything so mainlandish as pick fresh fruit for a fee. So I looked around at rental car agencies in the area only to discover that they had drop off times on Saturday around noon and were closed on Sunday. Because I'm not smart like Nadiya who told me about her method after the fact, I didn't look at agencies an hour out of the city in order to get a cheap weekend deal. Instead I went with Zipcar which while more expensive was awesomely convenient. The Zipcar people at the Manhattan office were friendly and helpful. I know. NYC. Surprising. One girl gave Keahi a rubber frisbee which we later had fun with zooming around the house. I'm still a little unsure about the whole using your zipcar card to open the car. Does that mean anyone with a card could open my car while I'm away? Or does only my card work on this particular car during my reserved time? Hmmmm. Anyhow, picking up the car went smoothly since it's in walking distance of the house--another plus for living in Park Slope. The one snag was my ever slowing gait due to my oven-shrunk shoes giving me heel blisters and numbing my toes. Note to self: do not dry sodden sneakers in the oven even though it works for Israel's shoes.

So we loaded into the tiny Rabbit car named Rita (yes, actual name--not picked by us)with enough books and activities to keep the kids occupied for 2 two hour trips. The car ride went mostly smoothly except that the kids didn't grove quietly to the jazz music as Iz had hoped. It felt wonderful to see country again. Thick forests sprinkled with fall colors and "tall, tall mountains" as Keahi called them. I told him we'd go to Alaska someday and he'd see what tall and big really meant. We saw some deer along the way--though Keahi missed it because according to Iz all he could have seen were deer-like blurs at the speed I was going. I do love the open road with no cops in sight.

As we got closer to the farm (Lawrence Orchard Farm), Iz and I talked about how hard it would be to decide where to live permanently in the event that we somehow didn't end up back in Hawaii. There are so many beautiful places. After the cramped living in the city, we kept getting space envy looking at all the large properties with their manicured lawns and two car garages. A swing set in the front yard? Is that a soccer goal? Yeah, as much as I love the convenience of living in Brooklyn, I do long for open spaces and the privacy of living anonymously. I can't wait to not hear people walking, repairing, talking, washing, and other private activities through the thin walls of our cubicle apartments. Divisions like walls are really mostly for show and you have to train yourself not to hear things.

Soon we arrived at Lawrence Orchard Farms. Rolling hills covered in fragrant ripening fruit.

We picked up a wooden wagon for the fruit and the kids and set out on our first apple adventure. Keahi kept jumping out of the wagon to pick dandelions and Jarom couldn't keep his fingers off the rotting fruit on the ground, but it was a joyful family outing.


We let the kids munch on a decent apple from the ground--really, they've got to expect that kind of thing--and picked ourselves some huge Fujis and Granny Smith apples. We couldn't find any pears and were distracted from our goal of peaches, but we did manage to get sweet and hot peppers, an unintended eggplant that Keahi picked too quickly for us to stop, corn, one tomato and pumpkins.

I'm sad we missed out on the hay bale maze and the horse-carriage rides but maybe another time. The boys enjoyed feeding the swans in the picturesque pond/lake. I called it a pond but Keahi said ponds were smaller.


The boys and I also picked a bunch of pretty fall leaves that I will hopefully make into wrapping paper for Christmas while Iz took pictures of the tire mountain, red wagon graveyard, and other not so pretty parts of the farm.






I am officially in love with autumn. I started out freezing in the chilly breeze in the morning but by the afternoon I was down to the first layer of clothes. I can't wait to see this place covered in snow when we (if we can afford it) come back to get a Christmas tree. Our first one ever. Yay.

Picking the Grapes---well, apples anyway

We didn't get any grapes though we did enjoy their sweet fragrance filling the air. As we walked by I mentioned that I'd never picked fresh grapes before and Iz contradicted me. He laughingly reminded me about picking imaginary grapes years ago in seminary class.

Flashback to freshman year in seminary. We used to meet in the GCB at BYUH in one of those classrooms with 4 tiers of table seating to allow students to view their instructor unobstructed. David Wade was our recent RM called upon to nurture our testimonies. All the Laie 3rd ward misfits were there like Leah Taala, Kimberly Miller, Sarah Underwood, and, yes, my husband Israel Temple. I think the lesson was on the parable of the servants in the vineyard or something like that. The "master" sent out servants to pick grapes and report back. As much as I might like to look back on myself during the high school years as mature for my age, this incident reminds me how immature and hyperactive I could be--but only that freshman year, of course. I don't remember much except that Leah and I decided to run along the tables, jumping to a higher tier at the end of the row while shouting PICK THE GRAPES as loudly and annoyingly high-pitched as 14 year old girls can get. Israel remembers running up and down the aisle steps but does not claim any part in the tabletop running or the yelling. Yeah, no one in that room would ever have imagined Israel and I married with 2 kids picking grapes together in upstate New York. It's amazing what can change over the years.

Singing with the boys

Keahi has always loved music and singing which made me surprised at Jarom's reluctance to sing anything. But recently he's shown more interest and requests songs now like "wheels bus" or tonight "Jesus Christ Baptized" and he's just barely starting to sing along. Keahi, on the other hand, sings readily and loudly. I do miss his little boy perfect pitch--not that he really sings off key now, more like he shouts/sings like all the other big boys. But I really love how he makes up his own songs or adds verses to things like Wheels on the Bus. Here are 3 extra verses.

The strollers on the subway go side to side...
The shuttle bus goes fast, fast, stop....
The rocket ship goes blast off....

I'm sure we're a joy to all the other passengers. Heck, at least he's not whining or throwing things, right?