December 2009

The Powell’s 95-099 Lauaki Pl.

Mililani, HI 96789 (808) 625-37832

pacconltd@yahoo.com

Something strange hap-pens when you hit 55 (something both Masako and I achieved this year) - time becomes something not to just pass but to spend wisely.

For the first time we are looking forward to holding the title “Grandparent” and will be flying to North Caro-lina to be with Megumi and her husband Nick as they wel-come their first child into the world. Kaoru and Akari will have already gone up before Christmas. It is an exciting time to celebrate the Advent of Christ and experience the advent of a granddaughter. Megumi spent a great deal of this year waiting for her hero-husband to return from de-ployment in Af-ghanistan. Being a Marine wife is giv-ing her new friends and lots of new experiences. We are proud of Nick and his dedi-cation in service.

It would be really great if they could be reassigned to Ha-waii! Megumi was able to come home a couple of times while Nick was gone—she got bigger every trip but proved the “pregnancy makes you even more beau-

tiful” line to be true. Kaoru took an

apartment in town with a friend to make it easier to keep up with school and main-tain a job on campus. She comes home on the weekends to another job teaching private piano lessons. She has been able to work with the University, be in-volved with the clinic tied to the Psychology Dept. (her Major) and coordinate her friendships and activities and still have a little time to say hi! to us. She will be going to North Carolina with Akari but returning earlier and jumping

on another plane to head for Hilo for the New Year celebrations at a friend’s home. I guess we have to get used to our kids having other places to go and other things to do… Akari graduated from

Mililani High School with honors! She has finished her first semester as a college stu-dent at UH Manoa and is en-rolled for the next. It has been quite a change from

High School. Classes with a couple of hun-dred students in them are very different. She is living with us at home (and hopes to be able to have an apartment in town soon) and is a delight to have around. She will be tak-ing Kaoru’s old job position on campus at UH next year while Kaoru moves over to a job with the Clinic. Even though they go to the same school, they don’t always see each other. Akari gets to spend some down time at Ka-oru’s apartment when she has a long break between classes.

Masako has continued

with school even though she just graduated! She achieved her Associates Degree from Leeward College and immedi-ately enrolled in West Oahu College to continue work on her degree in accounting. She studies most evenings and works full time with CSI help-ing the elderly and disabled with financial affairs and ac-cessing appropriate care.

We were able to travel to Japan this Summer with both Akari and Kaoru and spent an enjoyable 10 days in Ka-wanabe visiting Masako’s mother and sister. Mrs. Ho-

kazono is doing well and we plan to go back again this summer. in subjects com-pletely unfamiliar to you and in another language! Do I sound proud? You bet! She is a fabulous lady.

2009 has been challeng-ing for the world in general and we are grateful for what we have. My business has changed focus somewhat this

Merry Christmas Happy New Year

Gary and Masako

Akari, Masako, Mrs. Hokazono and Kaoru

Nick and Megumi Worth

Kaoru, Akari and Megumi

Page 2 MerryChristmas!

year as more people look to develop secure incomes in the face of economic uncertainty. I had a pleasant surprise when a book publisher signed a con-tract for a Children's book I penned a few years ago. It is being illustrated by a lovely young lady and should be out early next year. Look for “In That Land There Are Gi-ants!” It is written for chil-dren but will be appreciated and enjoyed by every adult. The Caregiver Foun-dation of America has grown quite a bit this past year and is on the road to being my more-or-less full time job. As Executive Director I am out in the community establishing support groups, writing arti-cles, giving talks and helping individuals and families with a variety of Caregiving services. We now provide daily money management services, family caregiving facilitation, em-ployer assistance programs, and senior home organizing services. If you check our website—

www.thecaregiverfoundation.com you will see what we do.

My dad came close to leaving us this year. He came down with a severe intestinal condition that landed him in ICU, extensive emergency surgery and a week of hospital bed care. He has pulled him-self back and is doing much

better. The Church at Sunset Beach is benefiting from him stepping back in as Pastor. Mom tries to keep everybody happy and coordinated. She will be turning 80 years old this next year! She continues to be a vital resource for not just our family but scores of people locally and more via the internet. My family tries to have dinner with Mom and Dad on Sundays—we gave up going during the day because of beach-headed traffic.

So many things have transpired this past year, some challenging and others uplift-

ing but through eve-rything we give thanks for having you in our lives. May 2010 bring you and your family close-ness as never

experienced before, love even stronger than you thought possible and a peace that truly is beyond understanding. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Gary and Masako Powell

Another year gone by so quickly. Really, this time it went by ex-tremely fast now that I think back on the year. I went from spend-ing my Christmas in Berkley and New Years on Lake Tahoe with

my Dad’s sister, brother-in-law, my cousins, their grand-mother, and some of their family friends. It was a lot of fun, we ended up going snowboarding, cross-country skiing, and sledding along with just roaming around Reno, Berk-ley and the Lake Tahoe area. It was major fun, let’s just say that when it comes to sledding Emily and I are the team to be beat, but when it comes to snowboarding…I’m definitely no natural, who-ever said that surfing and snowboarding are similar was very mistaken. All in all, the trip was extremely fun and I love winter weather in the Berkley area, not too cold but cold enough to see your breath. I was a little bummed about not spending the holidays with my parents, sib-lings and grandparents but it just meant that I got a double Christmas. I graduated from high school this year as most of you know. The hype leading up to graduation and prom and just getting out of school before the underclassmen,

made senior year go by so fast. Graduation practices were much longer or seemed much longer than the actual graduation ceremony. But it was really fun, Project Grad especially. We went to Aloha Tower Marketplace and hung out there. There were celebrity impersonators, Frank De Lima, Natural Vibrations and a DJ the whole night. There were pool and fooz ball tables set up, moon bounce things, a mini theater, just a lot of stuff that we could do. For my cousins’ bat mitzvah’s they both had this really great DJ

and he was the DJ for project grad. That night was a really good night; it was a lot of fun and excit-ing. This summer, we went to Japan again. This time we stayed mainly

in the Kagoshima area in-stead of going all over Japan. But we still did a lot of wan-dering and going random places we haven’t been. We went to Miyazaki and went fishing, at night. Supposedly we were supposed to catch a

lot of flying fish but appar-ently it wasn’t the season for them or something. My mom caught one fish that we

Page 2 Merry Christmas!

illustration from

“In That Land There Are Giants”

Akari, the CC Lemon ad girl with Kaimon Dake in background

Akari Graduated!

Mom and Dad at Pupukea

weren’t expecting to catch and the guy driving the boat caught one flying fish. Ka, Dad, and I were unsuccessful in the fish-ing department. But it was still fun, we did lots of sight-seeing, like usual. Spent a lot of time with my Obaachan and took her to the aquarium and zoo. I started college at UH Manoa this past fall. Col-lege is a lot different from high school, obviously. I like it, but none of my classes had homework and only graded based on midterms and finals. I’m not good at taking tests so I’m not sure how my grades are going to come out. But I like being able to make your own sched-ule, I don’t like being a freshman so you get the last pick of classes though. But I like the whole college experience, commuting every day is a pain in the butt though. I don’t know how my mom’s done it for the past year or so. Most of you should know, I’m going to be an aunt!!!! Ka and I are heading over to North Carolina this Decem-ber and ac-tually…we’re proba-bly there while you’re reading this. We’re hoping that that she gives birth while

we’re there. Ka’s going back to Oahu on the 28th and getting right back on another plane to Hilo and my par-ents are flying up to North Carolina on the 31st. I get to be my sister’s personal slave for a good 20 days, but I guess she deserves it being pregnant and everything.

Well, that’s been my past year in a nutshell. I wish you all a wonderful Christmas and New Year!!

Alena Akari Powell

Hello! Everyone,

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! The past year has been crazy busy, but fun nonethe-less. I have to say, the

main highlight of the year was Megumi getting preg-

nant!! I can’t wait to be an aunty! Ahem. Aside from that, we had our

an-nual trip to Ja-pan,

which was adventure filled as always. We spent a lot of time with my obaachan, went to the zoo (where, unlike last year, we got a picture by the African animal enclo-sure that had animals in it!...see the picture), went to the aquarium, a rocket launch/research center, a couple of fireworks shows, a shochu factory, and did a lot of shopping. I’ve begun my year as a col-lege junior at the Univer-sity of Hawaii at Manoa and am now halfway through. Aside from the mundane sets of classes I’ve been required to take, I was able to help out in a children’s Center for Cog-nitive and Behavior Ther-apy as an undergraduate assistant this past semes-ter. I really enjoyed learning from the grad students and my supervi-sor, Dr. Mueller. Outside of school, not much has

been happening. I work during the week on cam-pus, and teach piano on the weekends. Oh, right! Mrs. Hirota, my ex-piano teacher, has retired. Un-believable as it is, she has stopped teaching, al-though she is still quite active in the studio. I was given the opportunity to take over some of her students and I took it, so I have a few young pupils of my own. Well, that just about catches you up to where I’m at right now. Final exams and projects and papers are finally all out of the way, and Akari and I are headed over to the mainland to spend Christmas with Megumi. The news has been talk-ing about a blizzard on

the east coast, so I am expecting snow…as I should rightfully be ex-pecting no matter what the weather report says. I’ve been singing “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas” since I found out we were going to the

The Powell Saga 2009 Page 3

Masako, Kaoru and Akari and Ueno

Kaoru and Akari with Oguri Shun

ostrich

Megumi and Masako

Page 4 Merry Christmas!

mainland and I expect it to pay off!

Enjoy the last ten days of the year! Ka

Merry Christ-mas and Happy (almost) New Year to you all!!! For a lot of us here in Jackson-ville, NC 2009 began with mixed emo-tions. 2009 meant babies making grand entrances, husbands deploying, friends moving, and ever present surprises around every cor-ner. In February, Nick and I moved from the apt of last year's bad luck streak and into base housing which has been a seriously welcome upgrade. In May Nick de-ployed to Afghanistan for 7 months, and to my surprise the day after he left I discov-ered I was pregnant! After a couple of extremely impa-tiently waiting for a phone call I finally got to tell a VERY excited Nick the news. Since I was still in "my husband just left for 7 months" and "my life sucks" mode it took me a little bit for the excitement part to hit. All that and the fact that

your body seems to immedi-ately know that once you see that little plus sign its time for the "fun" to begin. I soon discovered that apples and I would be taking a bit of a break, while things like green olives and salty seed became my obsession and only remedy.

It took me a little while to get used to the rare and short phone calls home that Nick got to make, but after a lot shorter than I was

expecting I found myself learning to not only cope but make good use of my time. I

jumped into the task of mak-ing our house "home" (what had once somewhat ade-quately filled our little apt did very little for our new place); attempting to get ready for a baby to invade...i say attempt because while cribs and strollers and car seats are easy enough to ac-

quire...I'm pretty sure there is no way to actually be READY for a miniature hu-man to arrive and

stay...forever...yikes...haha.

I also got to make a few trips home this year. It was so good to be back home with family and friends. After a couple of years of being a "grown up" it was nice to feel ALMOST like a kid again having mommy and daddy taking care of me! Though I'm pretty sure grandchild number one was who they were REALLY taking care of! Haha no, I even (you win mom...don't gloat though!) kinda en-joyed Saturday morning cleaning! I guess once you've been doing it by yourself for a while, going back to the 5 person team effort that gets the whole house shiny and clean be-fore noon is really not so bad!

The months varied be-tween dragging on forever and flying by...not so much to now...December, but to when Nick came home. Which was all I really cared about...I blame the dragging and flying on not getting to know when he'd be home. The military is fun like that...everything's a big sur-

prise! ooooo. yuck. Once we finally had a window to look forward to was the worst though. I seemed to get

rounder by every drawn out day so that by the time he was finally home, felt like an oompa loompa and was pretty sure I looked like one too, though people tell me otherwise...I'm still not convinced, and with

only about 3 weeks to go now I am ready to get this show on the road!

Along with doing crazy things like vacuuming my vacuum, being pregnant has made me even more absent-minded than normal...which is why I'm going to cut my portion of this year's news-letter short. The above cou-ple of paragraphs have sadly taken me a day each to crank out...So, once again, I hope you all have had a won-derful year. I think I'm

pretty safe in saying that next year's segment will go on for pages with stories of parenthood year number one. So be waiting! From both Nick and me, Merry Christmas and have a fan-tastic new year!

Megumi and Nick

Nick on deployment

Megumi at a surprise Baby Shower

Grandpa and the girls

Hanabi in Miyazaki