THANKSGIVING!

Brinlee in her pilgrim hat she made at school :D

I know I posted a blog already after Thanksgiving, but I realized that I didn't make mention of anything about what we did.

I had already been planning on making our traditional Thanksgiving dinner like I have done in the past. I always prepare a turkey and everything. The first year we were on island, we had Ame Frank and one of her friends from the singles ward and our missionaries over. Last year, we were in the middle of moving to our new place, so we had it here with Jason and Jeanette Johns (and Hannah) and Colby and Trisha McGary (and Noah). We hadn't moved any furnitre in, but the old place was full of boxes and all torn apart (plus this place has central air :-}) . So we decided to have it here and the Johns brought a folding table and chairs.

Well, this year we didn't have any big plans, so we decided to invite the missionaries again. The Sunday before Thanksgiving, Kapua (Kai) says to me at church that her parents are off island and her sibs are going with their in-laws and she wanted to take advantage of being able to have Thanksgiving with us since they always get together with family. So we decided to go to their place and since I had already bought 90% of the stuff I needed to make everything, I just made it here and took it there.

Keli, Kapua (background) Kauwe and Keli's husband.

There turned out to be a pretty good size bunch there. It was the 6 Kai's and our 6. Then Kauwe's Dad and sister, Noweo, came (his mom was outer island), then one of Kapua's sisters, Keli, and her husband came after they went to his family's house. She claimed she wanted a "real" Thanksgiving dinner because her in-laws always have a bunch of "wierd Filipino food". HA HA HA!!! She was being so funny! It was so fun to see her too, because she had just given birth on October 24-ish to their first baby, a TINY little boy with massive amounts of thick black hair!!! He is so precious! They named him Desi.

Taylin, Noweo, and Naysa/Kauwe's Dad/Kristy, Desi, Tatum, Will, and Aleena

Anyway, we were all excited for Tatum to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner, being the little "garbage gut" that she is, but she was so miserable from having had something with dairy in it the day before Thanksgiving, that she didn't want to eat anything. . Plus she just whined and fussed the ENTIRE time.

One of Tatum's (very) short lived happy moments... CHEESE!

The food was great and the company was excellent and I couldn't have planned it better myself!

You'd have thought they were settled in to watch some football (NOPE, just posing)

stuff

(originally posted): Sunday, November 25, 2007

stuff
Current mood: content
Category: Life

I keep meaning to sit down and post a new blog, especially when one of the kids says or does something funny that I want to remember later on down the road. I think it would have been really fun to read a journal that one of my parents kept that talked about cute or funny stuff that I did as kid/baby. Especially now that I am a parent, I could have compared the similarities and differences between myself and my kids.
Tatum hasn't been feeling well for the last several days. It started when she was caught carrying one of Asia's milk cups around that still had milk inside. I don't know if she actually drank any, but that same day we had company over and we popped popcorn and she got some when the bowl was left down. So I don't know if it was the butter on the popcorn or if she actually drank Asia's milk, but nevertheless, she has been wheezing and coughing up a storm since then. We have been giving her treatments on the nebulizer, which helps, but she is miserable. She hasn't been eating well at all either. Plus, on top of that, I think she is teething. About 3 weeks ago, she finally cut the 4th tooth in the front, and then last week, I noticed one of her molars (the top right one) poking through! (???) She barely had 3.5 teeth in the front and already cut a molar?! That's a first for my kids. They are all really slow to get teeth, but never a molar this early.
A couple of nights ago, Tatum was sitting in her high chair, picking at her food and she belched the loudest man-belch, I've ever heard from such a little thing. Then she just sat there staring blankly at us for a few seconds like "What was that?!" We all started BUSTING up and she looked up and pointed out the window like, that came from outside, not from me! The girls were in stitches! They thought that was hilarious!
Asia is starting to communicate like a little girl now instead of a toddler and she says the funniest stuff! She got the movie "The Little Rascals" for her birthday in October and so now she goes around saying to everyone "You little Wascals" and "You DOINK!" Her favorite movies right now (besides Little Rascals) are "Snow White" (her favorite princess), "Anastasia", and "Barbie in the Nutcracker". She watches them every single day. She also loves to get into the play makeup. She always goes for the lipstick first and will sit forever just rubbing it around and around and around her lips (she does this with chapstick too). FUNNY GIRL!
We suspect that Brinlee has her first crush. She won't admit it, but she talks an awful lot about this boy in her Kindergarten class, Ammon Olayan. He is also in her class at church. Two nights ago, she was begging to have a sleepover with one of her friends, but all of them were busy with one thing or another. So she was desperately trying to think of other friends and then she asked if Ammon could have a sleepover (in all innocence, of course). I had to explain to her that it is not appropriate for her to have a boy for a sleepover, she could not understand why, but I assured her that someday she would understand. OH BOY! It's staring already!!! *sigh* (I remember having a crush on Tyler Doman pretty much since we had pre-school with his mom at their house when we were 4. I chased that poor boy until we were in 6th grade!!!)
A lot of Mariah's friends are getting baptized lately. We have one this afternoon for Liana Kai. We drove to La'ie last Sunday for Abby Shumway's one. Mariah is very anxious about her own and already wants to decide on the program and such. She is still deciding whether or not she wants to get baptized at Temple Beach or at the church building. She turns 8 in February, but we are waiting until Will graduates in May to baptize her since most of the family is coming from the mainland then and can be here for both. Her 2 closest friends at school (and church) both just moved over this past week (Trinity Wheeler and London Price). She hasn't been back to school since they both left. It's going to be a little shock for her.
I am busy sewing, sewing, sewing right now. I made the mistake of telling someone at the girls' Hula Studio that I made the girls Halloween costumes. So I got roped into helping sew performance costumes for Hula. *SIGH*!!! I am also making the girls pa'u (Hawaiian skirts) for our Christmas pictures this year. I hope I can get everything done in time.
Will got called into the bishopric 3 weeks ago. It's not entirely what you think…he is the executive secretary, but right now is starting tithing settlement time and so he has been extra busy trying to balance that and study for finals. Only one more semester to go!!!!!! He graduates May 13. The girls finish their school year on June 5, so we will be flying home on the 6th. YAY!!!!

((DON"T SEE)) The Golden Compass

(originally posted): Wednesday, November 07, 2007

((DON’T SEE)) The Golden Compass
Current mood: frustrated
Category: Religion and Philosophy

If haven't heard anything (except having seen the not too detailed trailers) about the new movie the Golden Compass coming out soon, you need to read what snopes has to say about it.
What I have heard is that the author of the trilogy is a devout atheist from Britain and has been said by many British critics that he is one of the most dangerous authors in all of Britain. People have said that his strong Atheist teachings WILL influence many young minds. He is a strong ANTI-advocate of the Narnia movie, which has strong Christian undertones. His movie is all undertones of Atheism and at the end all of the children kill God.

For more info, please do some research of your own on the internet. Someone said that this could be the push that some wondering kid needs to turn away from God.
Here is the link to snopes:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/compass.asp

my family

(originally posted): Monday, November 05, 2007

my family
Current mood: loved
Category: Life


Well, it's back to boring normalcy for a while. My parents and my sister, Megan (and her family) just left. They flew in on the 26th of Oct. Adam (Megan's husband) is in the Air Force and so they were able to catch a "hop" and come for free. They were anxious to get straight to the beach, so we took them to Ko'Olina. Everyone loved it! They were just so happy to be in the warm sun in October.

We went to the Aloha Stadium Swap Meet on the 27th, then that night we had our ward Trunk or Treat. It was SO LAME! The Primary didn't have anything prepared at all. It started at 5 pm, which, it's not even dark then, and then didn't have any activities or any kind of anything for refreshments. We looked cute in our Flintstones costumes though. There were a lot of really cute costumes there too.

They came to church with us on Sunday, which they found to be really interesting and unique since we start every meeting with a big ALOHA! I made a roast and mashed potatoes (as per usual) for dinner and then we played LIFE. It is always interesting playing games with my Dad. He isn't a real big game player to begin with, but he watched whatever movie the kids were watching the whole time except when it was his turn. I think he even ended up winning! LOL

Monday, I wasn't planning to go, but they had planned to do the North Shore thing all morning and then come back and go surfing at White Plains beach here on the Leeward side. Well, when they were planning their day that morning, Dad said he thought I should just go with (1/2 jokingly). So I decided to go and then mom decided to go. BIG MISTAKE! Everything took twice as long because we had all the kids and we didn't get back in time for my kids to come home from school. We started out by going to BYU Hawai'i in La'ie and to the bookstore. Then went to the Temple and wandered around and took pictures. Then we stopped at the McDonald's next to the Polynesian Cultural Center. Then we headed up over the north shore. We stopped in Kahuku to get shrimp from a roadside truck. It was good, but not worth the 15 minute wait to get it. Then we went into Waimea Falls where I couldn't get cell service to let Mariah know on her cell phone to stay with Aunty May until we get home. The falls was LAME! It was a 20 minute hill-y winding walking path "hike" (which the lady we asked at the info center at the entrance said it was completely flat. We asked since Mom's ankles are up for much walking these days) into a gorgeous lush jungle. Half way into the "hike" mom had to sit on a bench and wait because her body just couldn't finish it. The gorgeous trail ended up at a tiny waterfall. I was disappointed with it. Maybe I was a little annoyed too which clouded my enjoyment of it. Then my Dad insisted that Adam needed to jump off "the rock" at Waimea Bay, but I was too irritated to pile myself and the kids out of the van AGAIN. So we stayed in the parking lot while Megan Adam and Dad went down to watch Adam jump. He got a thrill and really enjoyed himself, but then it was off to find "turtle beach" at Lani's akea. On the way we stopped at the famed Ted's Bakery, but were all very disappointed with that as there were only a few pastries left to choose from, so we left empty handed. We couldn't find turtle beach and so we decided to head toward Dole Plantation. It was about 3 pm by this time and my kids had been out of school, and unexpectedly at May's, for an hour. The original plan was to stop at the famed Matsumoto's Shave Ice in Haleiwa, but when we got near, Will went to veer off the road to it and I shook my head N-O!! We needed to head on down the road and get the kids. Plus we were going to get Pineapple whip at Dole anyway. Dad was disappointed that we didn't stop at Matsumoto's, but by this time mom was EXTREMELY irritated with the entire day. I think her ankles were hurting her and she was annoyed with having been crammed into the van ALL DAY. So we stopped at Dole which is always fun. The Pineapple whip is always DELICIOUS! And it's dairy free, which is great for Tatum. After we'd all had our fill, we headed down toward home again. We got there at around 4:45 and the girls were fine, but I felt bad that May had to have them for so long on short notice (or no notice, really). We had spaghetti for dinner and then everyone except mom and I went swimming at the pool.

Tuesday dawned a new and fresh day. Dad, Adam and Megan (and baby Ellie) left really early in the morning to go to the Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor. My girls had the day off school for teacher inservice, so we hung around at home and let them relax and watch tv while mom and I cleaned up a little. Then we went and met them at Kmart in Waikele because they had a coupon out for a free bag of Halloween candy. So we each cut a coupon or 2 and got a bunch of free candy (mom style). That night we left Megan home with Adalyn, Ellie, Brinlee and Asia (Mariah and Tatum went to May's) and we went to the Temple for a session. It was FANTASTIC! I got a kick out of watching mom's and dad's reaction to the way our temple is set up. We made it to the 5 o'clock session and then headed for home. We stopped at 7 Eleven in Ewa to get the Bento plates for dinner and brought some to Megan.

The girls had a 1/2 day at school on Wednesday since it was Halloween and the day before Parent Teacher Conferences started. Mom, Dad and I went to watch the girls in their little costume parade at the school. It was really cute. My favorite costume was a little kindergartener dressed up as Dog the Bounty Hunter and his twin sister dressed as Dog's wife!! SO CUTE! That afternoon after Mariah and Brinlee got out of school, we went to White Plains beach to let the guys try surfing.

Mom stayed home with Adalyn and Tatum so they could nap. There was a Hawaiian Monk Seal sunbathing on the beach there and the girls got a real kick out of watching it lay there. They thought that was pretty cool. When we got home we got ready to go trick or treating, but in the mean time it started to rain . I was really stressing out for some reason. The hair color spray ran out and their hair was only half done, then our new camera didn't have a big enough memory for me to take any pictures so I had to use my Dad's to get some pics and I didn't take as many as I normally would have because I was irritated and in a hurry. Mom, Dad, and Adam (and Ellie) stayed home while we took the kids trick or treating in our neighborhood with May and her girls and Andrea Allen and her kids. It was SO FUN!! Once the trick or treating started everyone relaxed and got into it. The kids came home with at least 15 lbs of candy (cumulatively). CRAZY! We got caught in a couple of down pours in the rain. It made it feel like we were in OR, only it was still warm and humid. The girls hair color kind of ran onto their faces and costumes, but it was dark so no one could tell. Several people asked me where I got our costumes. I saw a lot of spidermans and princesses, but I didn't see ANY other Flintstones!!

Thursday we pretty much ate candy all day....JUST KIDDING! Well, we took it to the beach and ate it there! We went to my most favoritest beach on the entire island...Kalama Beach Park in Kailua. The boogie boarding was OFF THE HOOK! I can honestly say that we have not had better boogie boarding waves ever. Everyone got in the water (except the 2 babies). My dad is a glutton for punishment. He was out there forever and he was getting POUNDED! We all got dusted a couple times. Poor Brinlee got stung by a jellyfish twice. The Portuguese Man of War were out with a vengeance. I ended up getting stung on the top of my right leg and on my ribs. My mom got it on her ankle and we found a bunch of them washed ashore. It was crazy! We were there all day. We got there around 11:00 and didn't leave until 3:30. I think we may have stayed a little longer, but my girls had hula practice that afternoon. We came straight home and mom and dad came with me to watch them dance. Then we ordered in from Zippy's. It was actually really good. The only other time we had eaten there was when we first moved to the island and we tried it and thought is was NASTY! Then we went to Dave's Ice Cream for the best shave ice on the island!! Very satisfying!

Mom and Dad had a flight out on Friday morning and Megan and Adam started trying to get a "hop" out that morning. They didn't catch one on Friday or Saturday. I was actually really glad they got to stay a few days extra. We got to have some good down time just chatting and hanging out. It was really fun. The kids played and argued and teased as usual and we got to play games and shoot the breeze. They finally got on a flight on Sunday afternoon.
It was so great to see everyone! My parents are planning to come back for Will's graduation in May. I think Jackie and Mike and Jay and Chelsea are going to try and come then too. CRAZY TIMES!!

pooped!

(originally posted): Monday, October 22, 2007

pooped!
Current mood: exhausted
Category: Life


Well, Tatum finally got another tooth, so she has 3 now **WOOT!** ha ha ha LOL. Yeah, she'll get 'um soon enough. Her hair is still orange. Looks like she is a perma strawberry blonde till it grows out. Poor girl.

Asia is still loving her hula classes. She is pretty bored during the day while the girls are in school, but I try to find things to keep us busy together. She like to help me around the house too. She is a particular little thing. Every last thing is sorted by color and she gets very upset if the colors are interrupted!

Brinlee loves her class so much. She spends about 2 hours after school recounting just about everthing that Ms. Uytingco (pronounced like YOU-TINK-CO) says. She is so very literal with everything. Like the other week, the teacher sent home a PE reminder and suggested that the children wear shorts and tennis shoes rather than a skirt or dress. Brinlee insisted that she had to wear shorts. I could not convince her that some YOGA capris or sweat capris would be fine. So I had to dig around in Mariahs clothes and in the laundry to find shorts! UGH!

Mariah loves her teacher, Ms. Maloney, as well. She moved here from Brooklyn, NY this past summer. She gave the kids a very interesting insight into the 9/11 attacks as she was only blocks from ground zero when it happened. She was able to explain it to the kids in a way that no one else could. She had a couple of friends that were in the tower and a cousin. All made it out, but one friend. Mariah seemed really touched by her account of the event.

I have been exhausted these past few days. I have no idea why. I think I am just stressed with getting my house cleaned and in order for our company. My mom and dad are coming this Friday. I CAN'T WAIT!! Adam and Megan (and Adalyn and Ellie) are trying to catch a "space saver" flight from Travis AFB to Hickam this Sat. We are crossing all fingers and toes that they will be able to get a flight. It's going to be so much fun! They will be here for Halloween, so they will get to see what it's like to trick or treat island style!! LOL

blog

(originally posted): Thursday, October 11, 2007

blog
Current mood: bored
Category: Blogging


Asia's bday came and went. She had so much fun! That was all I cared about. All she wanted was a party and party to her is cake and balloons and friends. So several friends from church came and we had mini ice cream cone cup-cakes. They were a hit. I was going to blow up the balloons and hang them around the pool area, but I knew the kids would just want to play with them anyway, so I put a little water in them before blowing them up and then just tossed them all on the pool. The water inside weighed them down just enough to keep them from blowing away with the trade winds. They LOVED it!

My friend in the ward, Shelley Detton, came with her brand new little baby girl (Hazel Fern) and their other 2 kids Eliza and Hyrum. Her sister is in town from OR and it just so happens that her sister, Trisha (Mendenhall) and I went to stake dances and girls camp and such together when we were younger. (I had never met Shelley till we moved here and didn't realize that Trish was her sister until I was at her house and saw a family picture ~ CRAZY!) It was good to see her. She has visited once before (while I was pregnant with Tatum), but we didn't really get to chat. So yesterday, she and I went to the beach together. She has 2 darling little girls named Riley and Ruby and then I took Asia while Will stayed home with Tatum. It was so fun!! We caught up on old times and she mentioned names that I had not heard in YEARS! It was such a trip! It was really nice to get out of the house and go to the beach and with only 1 kid. I didn't have to LUG a bunch of stuff. It was weird! I kept feeling like I was forgetting something. ha ha ha



I just got back from working out with May Wheeler at the Iroquois Point gym. It was great! I need a shower LOL........

Back online!!

(originally posted): Monday, October 08, 2007

Back online!!
Current mood: happy
Category: Life


Well, we have been back online since last Wednesday! THANKS DELL! They got us all fixed up in a jiffy! They even had someone come the day we received the new hard drive and install it for us. How nice. The thing that I am sick about is that Tatum's 1st birthday party pics were on that old hard drive and not backed up yet on discs . We had taken about 150 or so pictures that day. The only semi-comforting thing is that I had already created her bday slide at slide.com, but the bad news about that is that all the pictures on that slide show are only 40% of the original resolution. So we are looking into ways right now that we can get the data recovered from the hard drive.

Tomorrow is Asia's 3rd birthday (or gurpbay as she calls it). We are having a little party for her at the pool with a few of her friends from the ward. Nothing fancy, just swimming and cupcakes. She really wanted balloons too, so I dug out the leftovers from Tatum's party for her. She is thrilled! I can't believe she is 3 already! Before we know it, she'll be starting Kindergarten!

This past weekend was General Conference. I always look so forward to this semi-annual event. I love to get the fulfilling enrichment from our church leaders. The only talk that really stood out to me from the Sunday sessions (I missed the Saturday ones because I was selling our junk at Kai's yard sale) was Elder Claudio R.M. Costa. His talk was on families. More specifically on "The Family: A Proclamation to the World" document_ It must have stood out to me because that is the subject that I will be teaching in Relief Society next Sunday. I also really liked Sister Beck right after him. Of course, I always love to hear the voice of our Prophet (Gordon B. Hinckley). He is getting old. He is 97! He looks pretty good, but he is starting to "sound" old. His words are slightly slurred. It is exciting to see him each conference time to see that he is still getting on quite well.

Well, the kids are all in bed and I am going to try and catch up on a few things before we turn in.

no computer

(originally posted): Tuesday, October 02, 2007

no computer
Current mood: annoyed
Category: Life


I am so annoyed!! This will have to be semi-quick since I am using my friends computer.

Last Sat night I went to turn on the comp at about 10pm and it wouldn't load, then I got a blue screen and it wouldn't turn back on. (We have had this computer since we moved here in June 05). So we called Dell and we were on the phone for over 2 hours (until well after midnight) trying to figure it out. Well long story short, the hard drive is suddenly bad. Just like that! Will had used it for a paper earlier in the day with no problems at all. GRR! Lucky it's under warranty and they will just send us a new one.

It's amazing how dependent we can be on the internet. I use it for recipes and everything! Some of my friends I only keep in touch with via internet. I HATE not being able to just sit down and go to the internet for stuff. Luckily, my friend and neighbor, May Wheeler is letting me use hers a couple times a day to check my email and eBay auctions that I have listed right now. She just lives a few buildings down from us and I am so grateful to her!!

We should have our new hard drive in a couple days. I will post another update then.

hula

(originally posted): Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Hula
Current mood: hopeful
Category: Life


*I'll start with a side note: Last night after I posted my last blog, I was playing with Tatum and noticed she cut a new tooth sometime yesterday! Poor thing has been so fussy since last Sat. I took she and Brinlee to Dr. Torres on Mon and they both have a double ear infection. So the "One Tooth Wonder" is no more! She has the one on the top right and now one on the bottom left! (She still looks pretty silly! LOL)

Mariah and Brinlee started taking Hula lessons in Aug. at Kulani Dance Studio with Sue Eldridge from the Ewa Beach 1st Ward.

They have been loving every minute and got Asia begging to "go hula" too. So 3 weeks ago tomorrow I talked to Sue and she said that Asia could join the 3-5 year class with Brinlee, even though she won't be 3 until Oct. At Asia's first class, she was ELATED . I didn't think for one minute that she would stay in the 45 minute class and pay attention. But, all in all she did pretty well. She was so excited she could hardly sit still and get the moves right, but HEY, it was her first time!

Last week, she was a little bit restless, but still did alright, but I talked to Sue and she said that Asia is doing OK, but that maybe in the next few weeks the excitement will wear off and she won't want to participate anymore, so she said maybe next year would be better . Sadly, we won't be around here next year and so I was really hoping they could all get the experience for this one last year.

In the car on the way home last week, I told Asia that she would not be going to Hula anymore and she started panicking and I told her that she couldn't go because she wasn't listening very well to Aunty Sue. She was begging, "No Mommy, I pwomise, I do it...I WILL DO IT, puh-lease MOMMY!"

So I decided to let her try it one more week. They didn't charge me for this month anyway, so I figure, I might as well see if she'll really do it.

orange

(originally posted): SEPTEMBER 25, 2007
Orange
Current mood: amused
Category: Blogging


7:29pm

Two weeks ago today (on Tue, Sept. 11), I went to Wal-Mart to pick up the material and supplies that I would need to get started on making the girls Halloween costumes. I had decided to undertake the task of making their costumes this year and knew that with my lacking knowledge and skills in sewing, that I would need to get a head start. Along with the fabric and thread, I picked up the accessories, too, which included a can of orange color hair spray.

That night I was being goofy and trying to make the kids laugh, so I shook up the can of orange spray and said "Hey girls look!" (and sprayed a fine mist on the the top of poor tiny Tatum's head). HA HA HA!! We all laughed and the girls got a kick out of it. Well....ha ha ha.... Yeah, it will not come out. I took some pictures of her today and it is still as orange as orange can be. I have literally washed her hair day and night since then and it has hardly even lightened if at all. The last 2 Sundays at church and other places, I have had more people come up to me and say "Gosh, I never noticed how strawberry blonde her hair is!" (How embarrasing!!) Then of course I have to take 5 minutes to explain it...

The other thing that I was noticing is that Tatum still has only cut the one tooth on top. That other one has been on the verge for at least 3 weeks now. Today is exactly one month since she cut the first one and still no others. We have been calling her the "one tooth wonder". She looks so silly with her one white tooth sticking out in front. A true jack-o-lantern, just in time for Halloween! Little pumpkin head!

a quickie

Friday, September 14, 2007

a quickie
Current mood: rushed
Category: Life


We don't use our air conditioning very much. We usually wait until about 11 am or until we are absolutely suffocating in our house to turn on the a/c. We were told about a month ago that by doing this the unit actually uses more energy to cool the house down from such a high temp than if we just kept it at a constant temp all the time.

So we set it at our normal temp of 80 degrees and left it on 24/7. Well I got our electric bill last week and the bill went up almost $75. Which doesn't seem like a lot, but when you are already paying around $200 a month...it's a lot! Anyway, so to try and recoup some of that money we aren't using the a/c at all and we are not running the dishwasher (which was being run AT LEAST once a day) either.

I would say that in the 3 full summers that we have lived here, August, Sept and October have proved to be some of the hottest months of the year. BOO!!!!

I am not that mad. I know it was a dumb thing not to think the whole thing through before turning on the a/c 24/7, but I was talking to several of our neighbors and they keep their air at around 73-77 degrees and their bills didn't seem that much higher than mine??? So I figured if we kept ours around 80, then we should be fine! Oh well...I guess I'll just sweat off that last 10 lbs I've been trying to lose!!! ha ha ha

So since it has been so hot in our house, every time we turn on the computer, the fan in the tower starts to race like the whole thing is gonna blow up, so that is why I haven't been on the computer lately. This is just a quickie to say I am still alive. =D

teaching

(originally posted): Monday, September 10, 2007

teaching
Current mood: calm
Category: Life


Yesterday I taught my first class in Relief Society. I was released from my calling in Young Womens a couple of weeks ago. They called me teach the 2nd Sunday lesson in Relief Society now.

So the first topic that I was asked to speak on was The Law of Chastity. I was very nervous to take on such a big subject on my first time, but it went off ok. There was a lot more class participation than I could have hoped for. It was great!

The interesting thing is that the sub-topic that got the most response was about pornography. I was talking about how society's definition of pornography has changed over the years, but that the church's stance on it remains steady and constant. The dictionary definition of pornography (from dictionary.com) is this:

obscene writings, drawings, photographs, or the like, esp. those having little or no artistic merit

It seems that we have become so desensitized to seeing such obsenities everywhere that it just doesn't have the same shock value that it did when we first saw it.

Having children that are out there in this society now has really brought the seriousness of it to the forefront. Mariah and Brinlee are very vulnerable and all I can do is teach them at home and hope they will make their own good choices. I trust them, I have no reason not too. It's everyone else's kids that I don't trust (no offense). Being a parent is so rewarding, yet so stressful!!! (on so many levels).

On another subject, Will started his new semester last week and is loving it so far. He is doing his peds/O.B. rotation this semester. He is doing peds at Kapiolani Women and Childrens hospital right now. Next month he will do his OB/Gyn rotation at Queen's Hospital (where I delivered Tatum). He was in some surgery on a 4 month old baby today. He called me at lunch to tell me all about it. He is so funny...like a kid in a candy store. He loves that kind of stuff!

The kids are out of school again today for a teacher work day so we are just cruisin at home. Might go to the pool later. It's been hot and the kids are getting cabin fever!

dah~daaah

(originally posted): Thursday, September 06, 2007

dah~daaah
Current mood: blank
Category: Life


Tatum just started saying "ta-da!" (like dah~daaah) yesterday. It is so cute...Asia keeps saying it over and over just to get Tatum to repeat it.

Last night we threw together a last minute girls night and 6 of us went to Chili's for food and gab. It was Nagmai Keli'i, Arlene Colon, Jean Miller, Kapua Kai, May Wheeler, and I. We had a really good time, except for the extremely bad customer service that we received. It all started with a floatie in my water and when I (politely, I might add) called the waitress' attention over, she picked up my glass and stood there examining it before she was like "Oh, sorry" and walked away with it. I really didn't give it a 3rd thought, but in the back of my mind I was thinking "what, you don't believe me that there's a floatie in there?".

After everyone had arrived, they ordered what they wanted and service went downhill from there. The black beans were cold for Jean and Arlene, so they heated some more and brought it out separately, then the manager came to apologize. That was nice. Then Kapua's brownie mountain volcano thing-y didn't "ooze" like it was supposed to and there were hard spots in the brownie. Then Jean and Arlene got one too and same thing only the "hard things" were harder in theirs. So when the waitress came, they mentioned it and she was standing there examining it like she needed proof that there was something wrong with it. Oh, I'm sorry, did the rules of customer service change and I wasn't made aware? What happened to the customer is always right?? She should have been like "Oh! I am so sorry, I will take care of this for you right away". Instead she stood there and looked at it like they were just being melodramatic! By the time all was said and done, everyone was a little irritated and embarrassed (why we were the ones embarrassed, I'm not sure). That manager should have seen the situation and been like, "I'm so sorry for all this, let me take care of it for you", This was the Chili's in Kapolei. We said we would go to the Waikele one next time, but 2 of the 6 said they had worse experiences down there! So I guess it's Wendy's next time?!! HA HA HA!!

my journal

(originally posted): Tuesday, September 04, 2007

my journal
Current mood: cheerful
Category: Life


Ok, so here goes....

Tatum celebrated her 1st birthday somewhat Hawaiian style on 8/24. We had a get together at our pool and there were about 50-ish people there. She totally dug into the cake. It was so much fun to watch her go to town on it. (I have a birthday bash slide in progress).

Now that she is one, we finally turned her car seat around. She weighed in at her dr. appt last Fri (8/31) at 20 lbs. 3 oz. JUST ENOUGH! PHEW! (For those of you that don't know. Babies have to be 1 year old AND 20 lbs before you can turn their car seat around) I am always so happy when they can see the world from the forward facing view. And I can see them better for that matter.

She is getting so much more talkative lately. These are the words that she can say so far. Mama, Dada, Hi, Wiah (Mariah), baw (ball), dah-ee (doggie), buh-buh (bye-bye), nah nah (night, night), uff-uff (ruff-ruff), daychoo (thank you), ba-ba (bottle or cup), uh oooo (uh-oh), hmM (huh?), wha (what?), boO bOo (peek-a-boo). She has attempted to say baby, but it comes out all screwy still. HA HA HA! I guess only a mom can understand the baby's first words. LOL

Also, when you ask her "How old are you?", Her tiny little index finger pops up and she grins. She plays the typical patty cake and peek a boo. But the cutest thing she does and I LOVE IT...she hums in tune to the radio or tv. I was shocked the first time I heard it. The kids were listening to Backyardigans and she went into this funny little baby kind of falsetto voice. It was so funny! I busted up laughing and then kept playing it over and over so that she would keep doing it! She also loves to dance.

She can walk and has taken several steps, but she is seriously the biggest scaredy cat! When I put her in the walking wings, she is practically walking laps around the sidewalk all by herself. She doesn't even realize that I have let all the slack out on the wings and she is just going. But once she realizes that no one is helping her, she sits straight down. Little scaredy baby!

So she finally cut her first tooth on Sunday morning. It is the top right front tooth and the left one is so close to coming through. I thought it was unusual for babies to cut the top teeth first, but I was looking back at my other girls and how old they were and I noticed that Brinlee also cut her top teeth first. So I guess it's not that unusual. LOL! She has been pretty fussy though and had a terrible runny nose. She woke up last Thursday with big green goobers in her eyes. So I took her to the dr (the girls just started with a new pediatrician in Kapolei called Dr. Naro Torres and he is SO AWESOME!!!) and he said that she has fluid and infection in her right ear and that her left ear had such a big hard chunk of wax (HELLO?! That's what I have been trying to tell her old dr...DUH!) that he couldn't see her ear drum. So he gave us antibiotics for her ear infection and drops for her goober-y eyes and wax-y ear. So she is finally getting better. Poor baby!

Well, Mariah is 7 and in 2nd grade. Her teacher is Miss Maloney and she really likes her. She was so happy to find out that one of her best friends from church, Trinity Wheeler, is also in her class from She loves to read Junie B. Jones books and if she's not on the computer, you can usually find her face in a book. She is a good helper after being prodded for a minute. She tries to be a good example for her sisters, but sometimes needs a gentle reminder. *eye-rolling* She is definitely a little drama Queen in her own right!

Brinlee is 5 and in Kindergarten. She has been waiting for SO LONG to go to school! She bounces out of bed excitedly every morning and gets ready for school. She loves her teacher Ms. Uytingco (pronounced (you-tink-oh) and I love her too. She has been so good for Brinlee. I was so worried that she wouldn't get a teacher that engages her. But no more worries. Ms U. is FAB! Brinlee loves to sing and both she and Mariah are taking hula lessons. It is hilarious to watch them try and dance Tahitian style!! They try so hard to shake those little hips! LOL

Asia is almost 3 (in Oct). She is just so full of...well...everything! She is miss drama Queen, local kine, full out ornery BUCKY! LOL (when she was 2 months old we were getting ready to go somewhere and I had just gotten dressed. When I picked her up she spit up all down my back. I gasped and went to call her a Turkey Butt, but it came out Bucky Turk and the name stuck...she's our one and only BUCKY! LOL) She loves to "help" with Tatum, but is sometimes too much help. She is learning to take herself potty now that she is tall enough to reach the potty. And that is a little interesting for a germ-phobe such as me. I have learned to let it go and realize that hands and bodies can be washed and I just keep the Purell handy!!!

Well, the girls are now reeking havoc on the house and are in need of their night bath. I will write more later.

p.s. This is so fun! I never realized how theraputic it can be to write (or type) stuff down.

blahg....blahg....blahg....

(originally posted): Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Blahg....Blahg....Blahg....
Current mood: contemplative
Category: Blogging


I just wanted to note that I decided to start using my blog space as my personal journal. I am not a terribly private person, so I have not chosen to make my blog private. That having been said, I will be writing my thoughts and about excitements and my kids and my life. I want to have some kind of record of it so that my kids will know about ME and what I was thinking at each stage in their lives. I have been so bad about keeping a written journal since I got married and I wish that I had a record of my thoughts from my pregnancies, deliveries, moves, etc. Also, our parents have been asking for updates on what the kids are up to and this just seems easier than writing each of them individually.

If you have emails from me from the past that you think would be a significant addition to this record, please forward any and all! THANKS A MILLION!!

SURPRISE!!!!!

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

SURPRISE!!!!!
Current mood: surprised
Category: Travel and Places


I have the BEST hubby!!!! I just got back from the best anniversary present EVER!! Here's the story:

On Sunday, the 24th, our friends (Jason and Jeanette Johns), came up to me at church and were like "We have a big surprise for you! So after church, go home and change into something comfy and we are going to come and pick you guys up and take you to our house". (I had totally forgotten it was our anniversary this week)

So after church, we came home and changed clothes and noticed a couple of things were out of place. Then I noticed that Tatum's pack n play (that she normally sleeps in) was missing. Then I remembered "Oh ya! It's our anniversary this week....DUH!!" So I played along pretending not to notice anything missing. They came to pick us up and Jason started to drive. I was thinking that Will must have planned a night at one of the places we had talked about staying since we moved here. So anyway, we got on the freeway headed for Waikiki and I was like "Where the heck are we going?" Jeanette was like just hush up and stop asking questions. Then Jason took the airport exit and I was like "OK WHERE are we GOING?!!!" They all started laughing and I was like "Well, do I at least get to take my baby?? hee hee hee. Jeanette was like NOPE! She and all the others are staying with us. I was so sad for a second...I had never left Tatum for more than a couple hours, let alone over night....or 2 nights!!!

So cut to the airplane ride...We ended up on Kaua'i!!!!! I was SO surprised! Will has NEVER NEVER been able to surprise me. He's not very sneaky and I can usually tell when he is up to something, but I had NO IDEA!!

We stayed at the Hilton Kaua'i Beach Resort. It was right on the beach and we had a nice lagoon view. He treated me like a QUEEN! I felt so.....i don't know...happy, special, relaxed...everything!!!

We got to drive around the entire island and see some of the famous landmarks like Waimea Canyon and the Spouting Horn. We ate at this very romantic restaurant last night and the food was AWESOME! (called Keoki's and we HIGHLY recommend it) It was all open air and surrounded by lush greenery and waterfalls and torches. Our table was tucked into a corner by the railing and we could see and hear the water falling just a few feet away. It was PERFECT! Then we drove to the north shore this morning and saw the Kilauea Light house and drove through Princeville and Hanalei. It was BEAUTIFUL!

When we arrived home, the kids were jumping out of their skin to be the first to give hugs. Tatum was asleep in the car, but when we got home and she saw me, she clung to Jeanette like she was scared or something. She wouldn't come to me for a couple minutes, but then I just took her and she was cuddling me and kept pushing back to look at my face, like she was making sure it was really mommy! LOL

While Will and I were making dinner tonight, the kids were fighting and teasing and playing in the living room. We just looked at each other and said, WELL, back to real life! he he he We also both said that we feel so lucky! We have a nice air conditioned place to live and a car to get us places that we need to go and a relatively healthy family. We feel very blessed!!

I will post some pics of the trip in the next couple of days. I will also post more details along with the pictures. ;)

My Testimony

(originally posted): Saturday, March 31, 2007

My Testimony
Current mood: nervous
Category: Religion and Philosophy


This is really really really hard for me to do (though it shouldn't be). I am not usually one to express my religious or political views publicly. I am normally very private, ESPECIALLY with my religion. I sincerely hope that no one is offended. I ask you to please read with an open mind and know that this DOES NOT change who I am to you. This is who I have always been (even when I was confused). This is the way that my parents raised me and the way that I choose to live my life.

Over the past 18 months, the spirit has prompted me time and again to share with my friends my feelings about this gospel. I have continuously ignored or put aside this prompting for fear of being embarrassed, or worse, losing a friend. As I listen this weekend to the gentle voices of our church authorities testifying of their solemn witness of our Savior Jesus Christ, I cannot ignore this prompting any longer.

My testimony is simple. I don't claim to be well read on the doctrines of this gospel. I do know that its precepts are full and true. I know that Jesus Christ is truly our Savior and that some 2000 years ago he was crucified for the purpose of our eternal salvation. It is only through him that we will be able to return to live with our Father in Heaven once again. I know that the Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ. I have read it. I have received personal confirmation that its words are true and accurate. I know that it was translated through divine revelation by the prophet Joseph Smith. I know that he saw God the Father and His son Jesus Christ. I cannot express the joy this gospel brings to my life and to my family. We wouldn't be who we are today without it. I am certain that this is what makes us happy. I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that if you seek earnestly and prayerfully, you can know for yourself that it is true. I testify that these things are true in the name of Jesus Christ.

P.S. Do you ever wonder why we are here on earth? Do you ever wonder what really happens to us when we pass on? Did you know that a simple belief and conviction can allow you to be with your family forever, even after death? You can click on this link to get more answers www.lds.org or you can email me directly and I will do my best to answer your questions. willandkj@hotmail.com

explanation

I am in the process of transferring all my blogs from myspace to this blog. They will be left on myspace too, but I will not continue posting blogs there for journaling purposes, as I have been. Each post will have it's original posting date, current mood and title in the body of the blog.