I’ve discovered the best thing ever- Peppermint Hot Chocolate from Starbucks! It’s absolutely heavenly! You have to try it!

Went to a luau last night. It was pretty cool, but I don’t think it’s as fun when you know what’s going to happen down to the jokes they’re going to tell and the songs they’re going to sing. At least I didn’t feel bad going to the bathroom in the middle of a song I don’t particularly like. =) But there’s two parts I never get tired of- the excellent food and the fire dancing guy. He is the epitome of coolness. Seriously. I caught the whole thing on our camera. I’d put it here, but a) I have no idea how, and b) it would ruin the coolness of it for those who will be going to that luau.

Not much else has been going on other than me staying home while the rents and Grampy go do stuff around the island. Right now they’re going to the airport to see if they can upgrade Grandpa’s plane seat or something like that. I’m staying home, as usual. I like being home, and I hate going out and doing pointless errands. Plus it’s quieter and I can do -or not do- my homework in peace.

Ugh, homework. Lately I haven’t had the willpower to do anything concerning school. All I want to do is lay around and do nothing. But I can’t take time off school because I’m going to when Dave, Melissa, and Tara come. Just got my science book in the mail yesterday, so that means lots and lots of science to make up for last month. Whohoo.

I’ve been in a blah mood a lot of the time recently. I just don’t care about anything. Hopefully this will go away soon.

Yep. I’ve had WAY too much sugar today. First a Mt. Dew Code Red, then we went to a Japanese seafood restaurant that had a seafood buffet (which was pretty good, actually) and -get this- a chocolate fountain. It was one of those fancy mini fountains, but instead of water flowing in it, it had melted chocolate! I was officially in heaven. I must’ve dipped like at least 10 different fruits in it. And this chocolate wasn’t your ordinary milk chocolate. This stuff was the good stuff; dark and creamy. Mmm! (I apoligize for the no doubt growling stomach you now have.) I’m in a descriptive mood. Chocolate excites me.

Okay, off the subject of chocolate. The hula dance show thing was neat, but it was about the same as the luau is. I actually like the food at the luau a lot better, and the show, too. The only real difference is that the host guy was more annoying and the tables were indoors and up closer.

Thanksgiving was nothing short of awesome! My friend Arlene (she’s the one who has really reached out to me and included me in her circle of friends) and her family from church invited a whole bunch of people who don’t have any family in Hawaii to eat Thanksgiving dinner with them. We went, and I think there were about 10 families there. It was so much fun just to hang out and chat with girls my own age, along with Arlene’s older brother George who likes to hang out with his sister’s friends for some reason. He’s like a male version of Kristi, and he cracks me up. Anyway, the food was delicious. You know how it’s the Hawaiian tradition to cook a pig underground for several days for luaus and stuff, right? (If you don’t, oh well, you do now!) Well, instead of cooking a pig underground, Arlene’s family cooked their turkey underground. I’ve seriously never had such good, tender, juicy turkey! I think I must be hungry or something; I’m putting way too much detail into the food descriptions. o_0

Yeah, I have a few new friends from church. That church is really awesome. Really. So here’s short descriptions of some of the girls and guys at church that are either in the girls’ Bible study or in youth group:

Arlene- She’s my age, and probably my closest friend here. She’s the one who introduced me to everyone, and who has been patiently putting up with me following her around like a stray puppy on Sundays and Wednesdays. She’s homeschooled, too, so hopefully that’ll be good for doing stuff together on weekdays in the future.

Kelsey- Heh, I get a real kick out of Kelsey. She’s hilarious. She’s very extroverted, and reminds me a lot of someone I know… *cough*Tara*cough*

Megan- Don’t really know her that well, but from what I gather, she’s really involved in the church. She does sign language every couple of weeks or so during the praise and worship. I also gather that she and Arlene are really close friends.

Elizabeth- Again, don’t know her very well, but from what I’ve seen, she’s really nice and seems to be friends with everyone.

Tia- She’s a little younger than me, I think. She seems really nice as well, but again, I’d say we were more aquaintences at this point. I’m hoping that’ll change, though.

Angela- She’s the same age as Tia, and the two of them seem to be very good friends at the least. I know Angela a little better because we babysat some kids for some of the moms in Mom’s Bible study class together.

Daniel- I don’t know him very well, but he hangs out with Arlene a lot, so I’m getting to know him. He’s very friendly and has been very nice to me.

George- He’s Arlene’s older brother. I’m guessing him to be around 17 or 18, because he has a job and he’s really tall. George cracks me up.

Umm, I think that’s all for now. I can’t think anymore. My brain hurts because it’s like 3:00 A.M. I stayed up late just because I felt like it, and because Fridays are the only days I get to stay up past 10.

Wow, my paragraphs are getting steadily worse as I’m getting steadily less coherant. I’m using words like “really nice” more and more. I usually try to avoid those words at all costs, but I’m slipping in my sleepishness. (I was going to insert a cool word there, but I can barely think of it, much less spell it!)

I’m rambling, so I’m thinking it would be a good idea to sleep now. Tootles!

I haven’t really had a good night’s sleep in three nights. My ceiling fan broke, so it’s either lay sleeplessly in the stuffiness of my room, or turn on an obnoxiously loud floor fan that blows the posters off of my wall. Ugh. Dad’s going to put a new ceiling fan in soon, so that’ll be nice. And hopefully tonight will be better because I’m so tired.

I’ve been doubling a lot on school in the hopes of getting a lot done so I won’t have to do any while Tara and Dave and Melissa are here for Christmas. It’s tough, though, and math just keeps getting harder. I think it’s amazing that no matter how much math you learn, it still gets harder. (I think another math session is in order, Dave.) We got my Civics book in the mail the other day too, so I’m doing double of that as well.

Went to see the Goblet of Fire on Sunday with Dad. I thought the people who made the movie did a great job picking and choosing which scenes to cut and which not to. I was a little disappointed that they didn’t put the Quidditch World Cup scene in, but there was enough to spark my imagination with how it looked. The only thing that particularly annoyed me was the Death Eaters’ outfits. I thought the pointy hats looked retarded and very not scary. But all in all, The Goblet of Fire is my favorite Harry Potter Movie yet.

Since Grandpa’s here, we’ll be doing all of the touristy things that don’t involve being out in the heat or walking a lot. That doesn’t leave much, but we’ve found things to do. We went on a sunset dinner cruise on the coast of Waikiki on Saturday night, and Wednesday night we’re going to a hula dance show at the Hale Koa. Then, on Monday, we’re going to a luau. It’s kind of fun to go and do all of the touristy stuff again. I’d never been on the sunset cruise before, and I’ve never been to the dance show, so new things for Leah.

Guess that’s it. Mom and Dad are going to bed now (at 9 o’ clock!), so I am being kicked off of the lappy.

Well, everything is pretty much back to normal. Got me a new purse (which I always carry with me and never leave in the car) and ordered some new CDs online that should arrive any day now. In the meantime, I’m getting pretty tired of listening to Aladdin and Veggie Tales.

School has been very… time-consuming. Math is okay right now since I know what I’m doing, but it takes so long! I spent such a long time on it today. Too long, in fact, because I can’t hear the words ‘function’ or ‘absolute’ without immediately thinking math! and getting a mental image of a graph.

Nothing much has been going on, but Grandpa’s coming tomorrow, so that’ll change. We’ll be goin to all of the touristy stuff that doesn’t involve a lot of walking or heat while he’s here, which means a lot of drives around the island and a couple of luaus. I’m hoping to get Mom to take me to the arcade tomorrow before he comes for a round of DDR, but the prospects are looking ever bleaker.

Oh, who else can’t wait for November 18th?! I am soooo excited for the Goblet of Fire to come out!!! For all of you who can’t wait until the movie, check this out. It’s the Amazing Bouncing Ferret scene, the best thing that’s ever happened to Draco Malfoy! Okay, enough Harry Potter dorkiness from me.

Just so you know, I’m not really in a writing mood tonight, but I thought that I should let you guys know that things are going better. Hopefully I’ll be in a writing mood next time, but ’til then…

Guess what? Mom and Dad and I spent a great day driving around the island, and we spend the afternoon sitting by the ocean and watching the waves. Sounds like a perfect day, right? I suppose it was, but the evening was the part where everything went wrong.

So we went to a beach in Waianae, one that was literally at the end of the paved road and had very few people there. (We’d heard all these stories about the locals not liking us- Howies is what they call us tourists and visitors- but we didn’t really care.) We were just watching the waves and having a great time. We watched the sunset until it went behind some clouds. Contented, we headed back to our rental car, dusted off our feet, and left. I noticed that our cooler had spilled on the floor, and that our trash bag was on the opposite side, but I didn’t think anything of it.

We were almost home when Mom noticed that her bag was missing. We didn’t worry about it, figuring it was in the back seat. Well, it wasn’t. We got home and searched the entire car, but it wasn’t there. We also noticed that our beach bag had spilled all over the trunk. Then it hit me. “Oh my gosh,” I yelled, “where’s my purse!?” It wasn’t there, and neither were my CDs, my science and civics books (along with all my civics work from the beginning of the year to now), or Mom’s bag.

Suddenly everything made sense. We’d been robbed. Some idiot[s] broke into our car and stole all of my CDs, Mom’s bag, and my purse, which had about $30 and my military I.D. card. Mom had to call our landlady, Winnie, because our house keys and our other car key was in her bag. Now we have to get our locks on both changed, because our house keys had our address on them. We called the police and they sent someone over to ask us what happened, but he just said that things like that happen all the time, and that we shouldn’t have left our valuables in the car in the first place, and that there’s not much chance of us getting them back.

Mom and Dad say we’re lucky because they didn’t steal the car, they didn’t steal Mom’s wedding rings (which were in the glove compartment), they didn’t steal our two cell phones (which were laying out in the open), and I didn’t bring my other CDs, which they most certainly would have stolen.

But still… Right now it’s very hard to believe that we’re lucky. I can’t ever remember being this furious and feeling this helpless at the same time. I just can’t believe it. And, get this, they even stooped as low as to steal Mom’s quilting book, and Dad’s dollar bill that was between the seats in the cup holder place. They just don’t get any lamer than that.