Heftel Family » Family

cool mermaid makeup

Kawika Heftel — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 12:07:59 +0000

My wife is so creative! She made her sister into a mermaid for a school activity using just makeup. She created the pattern on the face by using a mesh bag that originally held mandarin oranges to create the pattern as she applied makeup to her sister’s face through it.

Yup, she’s pretty cool!

that’s my dog

Kawika Heftel — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 06:44:04 +0000

So the other day I was shocked to find my normally-well-behaved dog Miko up on a chair in the living room…

Silly dog! She had just been groomed and when she saw the clippers coming out again, she panicked!

halloween 2009

Kawika Heftel — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:05:41 +0000

Hey, we’ve been pretty sick around here (Shanae has the swine flu, more about that later), but we managed to get in a little bit of Halloween celebration. Here are a few pictures. The first two are Shanae’s sister Shayla, dressed up as a tiger. Shanae did all the makeup and hair and did an absolutely wonderful job. The last one is me, Kawika, as a punk-rocker with a mohawk! It was really fun. Shayla got to go trick-or-treating and had a blast! She went through a haunted house, and even found two houses that gave out giant candy bars! I always tried to find the house that gave out the king-size candy bars when I was little, but never was able to do it. Shayla has now fulfilled my childhood dream. Here are the pictures:

we are insane

Kawika Heftel — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 21:15:05 +0000

So, we are officially insane. We just added three dogs to our tiny little house! They are all black, female, standard poodles, and they are a-DOR-able!!! It really makes Shanae happy to have a dog again – a big dog – she was missing her dog back home. The one with a cast, Cosmo, broke her leg when she caught it on the fence while playing in the backyard. Zoey is the big one, she’s about a year old, and very sweet. Her poor tail is crooked, but it gives her personality. The other two are Cosmo and Miko. Cosmo actually belongs to Shanae’s dad and will be leaving with him when he finishes helping us remodel our house (more about that later). Miko is ours! She is an adorable fuzz-ball. We love our pets and even though they cause mischief sometimes, they make us happy and make our lives a little less boring. Cosmo and Miko are about 3 months old and will be the same size as Zoey when full grown. Here are some pictures:

Zoey! She's a sweetie

Miko is my little fuzzball

The gimp with her cast

You can see her better in this picture. She has a special boot on her cast.

new things in north carolina

Kawika Heftel — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 18:41:35 +0000

Okay, I promised a new blog post about visiting Shanae’s family in North Carolina, and now it’s time to do it. It’s been fun hanging out here, I’ve gotten to do a bunch of new things I’ve never done before. For one, I got to eat rabbit for the first time! And not just any rabbit:

This rabbit was hopping around in the front yard until my father-in-law shot it with a bow and arrow, skinned and cleaned it, and roasted it on the grill:

Yes, that is the same rabbit!! I wish I could compare to my father-in-law in manliness and sheer testosterone, but I’m afraid that will never happen. I’ll have to stick to hunting PHP/MySQL bugs in the thickets of server code. Here is how the rabbit looked on the table:

Rabbit kinda tastes like a cross between chicken and pork, with the texture of tough steak (most of the pieces were tough, and some of the pieces that came from the back cut of the rabbit were actually pretty tender). So there you have it – I have officially eaten rabbit.

Another new thing is I got to ride a riding lawnmower for the first time! It felt like I was driving a zamboni!! I’ve always wanted to drive a zamboni!! I felt like this guy:

Shanae thought it was pretty funny how excited I was to drive a riding lawnmower – her family has always owned them. I guess in Florida, push lawnmowers don’t count as “real” lawnmowers.

Garden 09!

Kawika Heftel — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 06:28:17 +0000

Any questions? Planting begins in May! Woohoo!

flatback and leather books

Kawika Heftel — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 20:33:35 +0000

This is a book I made myself in a bookbinding class with my lovely wife. It’s a flatback book – a book with a hard spine similar to many books you may buy commercially. I can’t believe I made something so cool! Bookbinding is neat, but takes many hours of hard work. The finished product is amazing, though! Below are pictures of Shanae’s flatback book:

Shanae is so artistic. She can take ordinary things and imbue them with artistry and beauty. I am truly blessed to be at her side. She took the already-cool book above and made a matching box for it, to keep it safe and protect it. Here are the pictures:

But coolest of all is her final project for this class. She made a leather-covered book to use for quotes. The edges of the pages are burned so they have a cool, blackened, irregular look. She used her awesome calligraphy skills to put famous quotes on many of the interior pages. Basically this book rocks:

kai’s second birthday

Kawika Heftel — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 08:43:28 +0000

My little brother Kai just turned 2! This picture is from his birthday party, he was simply adorable. So cute!