Aloha,
Well, we are back in the continental US and are so happy! We went through a little volcano activity, an earthquake and a near miss for Hurricane Iselle. To start things off, we had a blast in Ohau. We stayed at the Moana Surfrider on Waikiki. The kids surfed on Waikiki Beach (and could've done it all week), they had surfing lessons and surfed the North Shore (their instructor said they were good surfers-and really knew what they were doing! Glad to know all those surf camps in Galveston and surfing here in Texas actually paid off in a big surfing place like Hawaii).  We toured Pearl Harbor, which is always amazing! (My 3rd trip there and it never gets old!). We then packed things up and went over to the Big Island. OMG, if you haven't been there, it is an amazing place. Once off the plane and leaving the airport, it is nothing but lava fields, lava that is old and broken up. But, you can see ripples where it once flowed-truly an amazing site. And if you haven't heard, the Big Island is an extremely (weather/climate) diverse place. We traveled the entire island and went from sunny 85+*, hot skies (much like Houston, minus the humidity), to cool volcanos and 65*, through the mountains (dormant volcanos) and 52*, to cloudy rain forests. We stayed at the Hilton Waikoloa Village, (I put the seed in the kids heads that it'd be a great destination wedding location and even took pictures of them in spots that would make great wedding photos-LOL, ha ha, typical of me, RIGHT?). We had a 2 bedroom condo and I was never so excited to see a washer and dryer (thus I came home with all clean clothes-how exciting)! The Hilton is great, it has a great pool, water slide, lagoon, food, activities, dolphins (yes, the kids swam, kissed (on Emma's summer bucket list,  & danced with dolphins), etc. On Tues. we left, about 9am, for a day excursion to Hawaii Volcano National Park, stopped at Pu'uhonua O Honaunau a National Historic Park, a place of Refuge. It was Rob's favorite stop and a great historic place for Hawaiian native history. We went on around the southern tip and stopped at the most southern restaurant/bar in the US to eat. Went from there to the black sand beaches, very neat! And then the volcano, Kilauea Crater. It's about 4400'. above sea level and extremely cool. The steam vents were warm and hot and felt great with the cool weather, except they left you all wet.  All Nathan wanted to do was see lava and there was no lava flowing! We did the quick tour (2 hours worth). Went to the Crater overlook and WOW, what a site! The kids thought it would be a little tiny hole in top of the crater, but it's actually huge! We went into the museum to look around and heard someone yell, "it exploded!" We turned to see a huge pinkish plume of smoke or steam, coming out of the top. The guides said it was a wall of the crater that had fallen in and created that huge plume. They said based on the amount of smoke, it was a large piece. The USGS has a website that has cameras inside the volcano and it'd be about a week until that picture was up, so if your interested, we were there on Tues., Aug. 5th about 4:30pm (google USGS). That was the 4th time that event had happened that day, the time before was on July 23rd and before that it'd been 6 months-1 year. It is not a common occurrence and they think there's movement within the volcano. We then went on to the Thurston Lava tube, a cave that the lava flow created. We left there, went through Hilo back to the hotel. The road back home took us between Mauna Loa (worlds tallest volcano at 13, 679' but starts 3,000' below sea level, making it about 16,000') and Mauna Kea. We were going to stop at the ranger station there to see the stars from telescopes. We were told you can see the rings of Saturn. So, on the dark, lonely road, we waited for signs. The only sign we saw said Mauna Kea access road, no signs for (Ranger Station, Visitor Center). We knew we didn't want to travel the 13,000 feet up, so we plugged along. And, sure enough that was the road we needed. Oops, one stop missed, and weren't about to turn around. We were about 6600'. above sea level and it was a cool 52* outside! We traveled that road back home and got back about 9pm. With the approaching of Hurricane Iselle, we decided to cram another day of travels in on Wed. So, we went to an amazing beach, Hapuna-voted #1 beach in US several times and almost always makes the top 10 beaches in the world. Words can't describe the perfect beach this is! White sand, crystal clear blue, aqua, turquoise water, lava rocks, palm trees, truly amazing. We went through a cute town, Waimea-a cowboy, ranch town. On to the Waipi'o Valley lookout. Honestly the pictures with the kids look fake the scenery is so amazing. Finally we found a cheap place to eat! We spent $10 for 4 sandwiches, a burger, grilled cheese, tuna sandwich, and a BLT. And it was GOOD! And the kids wanted ice cream, so we spent more on 3 shakes than we did for food! And down the road to Akaka Falls. One of the tallest water falls at 422'. It is taller than Niagara Falls. This was very neat. And then back home and the rest of the day was spent in the sun!!  We didn't do much to prepare for the hurricane, Hawaiians told us that Mauna Loa usually tears up the hurricanes and they never make landfall. So a case of water and a few snacks are all we purchased. The next morning, Thursday, we all were jolted out of bed. I mean jolted-not fall, but shaken awake. I thought the hurricane came early maybe a truck hit the building? The girls came running to see what it was, Nathan simply rolled back over in typical boy style and went back to sleep. I went for a run after that and meant to stop at the concierge desk to ask what happened, but forgot. Later that day I found out it was indeed an earthquake. 4.5 magnitude and it struck in Waimea about 20 miles from us, about 7-10 miles below the ground. Some guests felt it, others did not. What an amazing feeling, it only lasted a few seconds, but something I'd like to never feel again. Been there, done that, check! We headed to the pool as the beaches were closed that day because of the hurricane. The winds were blowing all day about 20-30 mph. Once palm branches started falling at the pool nearly missing our kids and other guests, we decided to leave. We went on a walk through the lava fields and back to the hotel. The kids were excited to watch tv in their room, and actually eat dinner (waffles and whip cream) in bed!  YEP, breakfast for dinner in bed, first time ever and probably never again!
By 10pm, the winds were picking up and we went to bed. My morning, nothing, noda, nil, not a drop of rain and no winds. YEP, the natives were right, Mauan Loa tore up the hurricane. You could see the radar on tv with hurricane circulation (orange, purple, green-for those that see hurricane radars on tv) approaching the mountain and then nothing, from there green-just all rain. And it wasn't even making it to us. Hilo had some good winds and lots of rain, but where we were on the west side, the Kona side, nothing!
Thankfully and excitedly we made it back home Saturday afternoon!

And now, 24 hours until my surgery. I'm good, I'm fine, I'm at peace. It is what it is, it's not in my hands, it's out of my control. This is God's territory. I have to let him handle it. He is going to hold the Dr.'s hands, he's going to take care of me. I know this to be true, I know he wouldn't ease my fears only to cause me pain. I may be naive, but I feel as though I'll be ok. I know it's going to hurt, but it'll be worth it to rid my body of cancer. And I don't do pain, so pain can suck it, this girl is going to fight the pain, fight the cancer and be on my way. I want my normal again and I want it bad!
Here is the bible verses that I will lean on today and tomorrow and all the days that come. "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your GOD will be with you wherever you go." Joshua 1:9.  And "Trust in the LORD with all your heart, on your own intelligence do not rely, in all your ways be mindful of HIM, and HE will make straight your paths. Prov. 3:5-6.

Thanks for all your prayers, support, well wishes. Pass them on to Natalie, Nathan, Emma & Rob. They need it too. The kids don't talk much because they don't want to think about it and be sad. But they are the innocent ones here, they didn't ask for this and in all honesty, I didn't either. But I don't want my burdens to be on anyone else. That's me, that's who I am. They need prayers and good vibes.

Tomorrow will come early, it's ok, I'll just act as if I'm getting up for boot camp. I'll just be going to a different workout. My surgery is at 8am. I have to be there by 6am to get ready. Dr. Fitzsullivan will start with mastectomy, then remove my first row of lymph nodes, test them. If they're positive, she'll remove the rest and Rob (before I'm out of surgery) will know whether or not I will have to have radiation. The final pathology won't be back for several weeks and therefore I won't know about chemo until then. Dr. Gordley will come in once Dr. Fitzsullivan is finished and he will start the reconstruction process. Hopefully I'll be out by lunch and I'll be in the hospital a day or 2.  Rob is instructed to post something once I'm out of surgery. And I'll catch everyone up on every little single detail once I'm lucid!

Thanks again for everything, everyone, I love you all and may God Bless each and everyone of you in your own daily struggles!