Moving on to Bigger and Better!

Now that I'm married, I've decided that I shouldn't have a blog that's titled "Jena Marie, It's All about Me." So I started a new one, "Rollin' with the Rowleys!" Check it out. 2 is more fun than 1!
http://shaneandjena.blogspot.com

A Special Visit

I was so lucky to have Shane come visit me this week! We had so much fun seeing the island and playing for four days straight. It was so nice to have such a great break from school and work stuff. Even though we both are suffering a little bit now, it was worth it :) I have been here for almost two months now and I haven't been able to be much of a tourist yet, so I really enjoyed the time off. Kauai truly is such a beautiful place! Here's a little recap of our adventures... Sorry so long, it's for my journal.

DAY ONE: Kayaked up the Wailua River then hiked to Secret Falls and ate lunch there. Then we hiked back to our kayaks and visited Fern Grotto. It was such an exciting adventure, and not to mention a great work out going against the current and wind!!!

DAY TWO: Headed to the north side of the island to see the Kilawea lighthouse and the Hanalei Valley and Bay. I was obsessed with how the water crashed against the waves so I took a thousand pictures! It was absolutely beautiful but pretty windy if you can't tell...

Kauai North Shoreline

The historic Kilawea Lighthouse

Hanalei Bay

DAY THREE: Boarded a boat to go whale and dolphin watching and to see the Na Pali coast (the part of the island you can't drive to). It started out amazing... Whales swam within 30ft of our boat, and the bottlenose dolphins were right along the sides of the boat too. My dream however turned into a nightmare when I started feeling sick. In sum I stood at the back of the boat for the last 3 1/2 hours of the trip throwing up anything and everything inside of me. I can honestly say I have NEVER felt that sick in my life! It was so embarassing!!! Oh and not to forget poor Shane standing next to me, trying to help me. I bet it was even worse for him! Hense the reason you don't see any pictures of us on the boat ha!

Humpback whales- they were huge!!! It was super hard to get a picture of them though.

Valleys on the NaPali coast... Look familiar? Does Jurasick Park ring a bell?!

Finally after returning to solid ground all I could do was sleep, so the rest of our plans were kinda ruined. Somehow I managed to accomidate for a little bit (or rather a lot) of hula pie :)

DAY FOUR: Enjoyed a little of "hawaiian style" church and drove up Waimea Canyon to Koke. I was shocked, I had no idea what we were in for. The view was spectacular! "The Grand Canyon of the Pacific" as Mark Twain coined it.

Looking down from the top of Kalalau at the NaPali coast and shoreline

Valentine's Day Madness

So, it has been beyond busy around here the past couple of weeks. As you might imagine Valentine's Day as a florist is definitely not a very relaxing holiday. I found that out in full force this week :) This week alone I made nearly 100 floral arrangements, and put in 15 hr days in the shop. At times I honestly thought my legs were going to give out on me, however I made it through and I learned SO much from getting all that practice! Don't get me wrong... it was really hard, but I had a ton of fun. It was really exciting for me because I didn't have to be the delivery girl or the clean up girl. I was arranging constantly. I enjoyed seeing how my work was valued and of worth to Kalaheo Flowers. I felt like I was promoted this week or something :) I definitely grew a lot closer to the Kimuras after all the late nights we shared out in the shop. We had some pretty late nights and long laughs. Here's just a few of the arrangements that I put together this week.

The Hawaiian people LOVE the mainland red roses and baby's breath :)

I'm learning how to make the classic floral bow... it's funny how hard it is for me.

I never had a chance to make one of these in Utah.

Roses, roses, and more roses!

I'm in love with these flowers and the oriental style! These are some of my favorites.

Hybrid Esperonce roses... the picture doesn't do them justice

My first attempt at an oriental tropical

One of the little V-day arrangements that we made for the grocery stores on the island.

One of the many vans loads we filled with arrangements

Spring Baskets

This is Merv & Carol, my Hawaiian family. They are wonderful people and have been examples to me in many ways. They took me out to dinner on Valentine's Day after the craziness at the floral shop was over. We went to Duke's, a restaurant at the Marriott in Lihue. The Hawaiian atmosphere was so fun and it was right on the beach. I tried a new fish called "Mung Chung" I love trying new tasty foods :)

Hula pie anyone?!!! Oh my gosh to die for! Macadamia nut ice cream with chocolate and a fabulous Oreo crust. The pink one was a special V-day strawberry version. All day Merv told me he was ordering a slice of hula pie just for me, I found out why that was so funny when I saw the size of it!

I took a drive one day with Carol up to the north side of the island. This is Hanalei Valley, it was so beautiful up there.

Spouting Horn, the water shoots up pretty high when it is high tide. When I was there I could also so whales in the distance.

This is the orchid farm down the highway that we get our orchids from. I was fascinated by the sight when I first went there because orchids are one of my favorite flowers.

My Day Off at Poipu Beach

I worked 14 hours on Tuesday so I got the day off on Wednesday and I went to Puipo Beach. It was such a beautiful and relaxing day! I took a nap in the sun and went snorkeling. I hadn't ever done that before in the ocean so it was really neat seeing all of the brightly colored fish. I couldn't believe how close I was to them. I even touched a few! After snorkeling as I sat on the beach, I watched humpback whales jumping in the distance. It has always been my dream to go whale watching, so that was truly amazing! Then I finished the day watching the sunset. Honestly I'll work till 2am anytime so I can have another day off like that!

Watching the sunset

Aloha!

My life has taken a complete 180 for the next couple of months. Here's why...

I moved to Kauai

I am doing a horticulture/floral design internship rather than attending class

I am learning to dress for mosquitoes rather than snow

I live on a farm

I work in a WWII military barrack

My back yard is the jungle

I have a beautiful view of the ocean from the hill where I live

To make a floral arrangement I just go cut the flowers myself

I wake up to a "cockle-doodle-do" rather than an alarm clock

Rather than going to the grocery store I walk a few hundred feet and pick my grapefruit, oranges, tangerines, apple-bananas, avocados, macadamia nuts, and other fruits that I wasn't even aware of before I came here.

I work with and am surrounded by some of the most amazingly beautiful flowers. This is the first tropical arrangement I did by myself... How does it look?

This is the inside of the farm shop. To be honest, when I first got here I was absolutely mortified by the working environment! I don't know how such beautiful arrangements are created amidst such a mess, but some how it happens.

The past few days have been a wonderful adventure. I truly am living a beautiful place, and my new "family" Merv and Carol are the nicest people. I just can't wait till it gets warm this week so I can go to the beach!