Web Presence

My friend Benny Ron has been kindly helping me improve my "online image". Seems weird that a lot of jobs require this type of self-promotion. But in the spirit of marketing and social networking, I'd like to share with you all a little url.

www.aquaculturehub.org

I guess this isn't purely self-promotional because I'm promoting this website simultaneously. What I really like about it is right now, I'm the cover story! AND, I have a great caption: "Ephraim Teaching how to sex tilapia at the 1st Aquaponics Workshop in American Samoa 16feb11"

Do you need to promote yourself in your work? How do you keep up with this activity? (hint: the more hits this post gets, the more web presence I get.)

Two Dollar Beach

Our excursion to $2 Beach yesterday






All My Glory


This lovely lady is moving in month or so. Off to Rarotonga, Cook Islands. We'll miss them a lot.

Random Things

Hey all, just some recent photos to prove we're still alive, and random updates on us.

I'm still teaching 5-6th grade at our new school Ta'iala Academy, so I often look like this:

School is going really well. The students are really fun. My faves: In science we're learning about Space Exploration and the International Space Station. So cool! And in art we've been doing calligraphy.

Ella just got another beautiful puletasi made by our friends at Sunrise Sewing Shop. I got one, too, I'll show you later.

Ella is perfecting her Fifty Nifty States song, so she and Isaac are often singing, "Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut..."

She's one of those sponges that absorbs all information.

Here we're reading a story of a girl named Ella and her pet kitten. Could a book get more perfect? (Thanks Shellie)

Owen's cute as a button, although he's revving up for his two's. He repeats everything in two or three word bytes. He's learning colors and shapes and wild animals. "Lello tiankle" (Yellow triangle) "Alol, hoo hoo" (Owl, hoo hoo).

Isaac loves science. He often sits in on Ella's science class, since his kindergarten class ends at 11, and he has to stick around school until 2:30. Science yes, but for some reason he doesn't care for social studies. Maybe he'll be a scientist like Ephraim.

Apparently he can hold his breath for longer than Ephraim. A minute and a half.

I know what kind of mood he's in by how pretty I am. He informs me: "Mama, you're really really really really SUPER pretty" or "Mama you're NOT PRETTY!"

It reminds me of when I told my dad I liked my goldfish more than him. And he laughed at me.

Here are progressive photos of Isaac's haircut a month ago.

Ephraim's been totally busy running a successful workshop this week, among a hundred other things. But he took a break last weekend to swim with friends at the Maliu Mai swimming hole.

We just ordered some of Ephraim's favorite movies, so we've been watching Emperor's New Groove and both Fantasia's lately. Both are big hits. We also got Waking Ned Devine on Netflix. Hilarious.

I haven't really mentioned it, but I'm 7 months pregnant. Due middle of May. We'll find out next Monday if it's a boy or girl. We're all really excited about it.

That's all for now!

Dishes with Dylan

I love my husband washing dishes.

I don't love Bob Dylan.

But if a dose of Dylan helps get the dishes done, I'm all for Bob.

Thanks for being a dish-washing hero, Ephraim.

Isaac's New Skill(s)

Oh the fun things you learn when you're 4.

Wilma: the aftermath

Talofa everyone! We slept in this morning to find the weather fairly calm and we had thought it had past us completely, until we turned the radio on in the car and got better information. Here's the quote of the day. "American Samoa: the only place on earth right now that is in the eye of a cyclone." Here's a pic of where it was and what it looked like when we woke up.


Within an hour or so, things picked up and trees started blowing around like long-cut, soggy broccoli. We learned on the radio that Wilma would be heading northwest after pausing over us for a bit. Seemed odd since it was coming from the north when we went to sleep, but not unexpected. Once cyclones get around Samoa, it appears they constantly course correct until they hit us. I'm speaking from the experience of one decent cyclone season here, but that makes me an expert, right? Here's the historical and forecasted track as of now.

Notice the sharp right turn it took in order to pass straight over our island. I can't get over that. And then another turn right after it passed over us. I wouldn't be surprised if we woke up tomorrow and we're in the eye again!

The power went out sometime last night and was off all day, along with water, until around 6pm. Just in time for dinner and baths. So all in all, not too inconvenient or dangerous, except church was canceled and that's always a bummer. Anyway, we hope it doesn't hit Tonga too hard on it's way south.

Wiiiiiiiiiillmaaaaaaaaa!!!

Here we go again. We are currently in the depths of cyclone season. Here we have tropical cyclone Wilma. She, like most cyclones that come around Samoa, has been changing her mind regarding where to go. She was forecasted to make a smooth arc to the south below us but changed yesterday afternoon to go above us. Here is the current forecast.

Yup, Wilma should be passing almost right over us Jan 23 at 06:00 Zulu. Let's see... carry the one, correct for time zone, backpedal a bit and that's 19:00 American Samoa time Jan 22. That's this evening. Well, we can only hope the forecast holds for 50 knot winds and gusts to 70 knots. That won't be too bad. As for now, it looks like a calm and normal day and we're having pancakes for breakfast.