Doctor appointment today

I had my 2nd dr appt. today with Dr. Goh. It went well. I am 15 weeks now. I had to take Asia and Tatum with me and that's always a gamble as to whether or not they will be good. They weren't awful, but they weren't angels either. Asia kept opening and closing the cupboards and drawers in the room we were in. Tatum kept squawking and laughing at Asia. The dr. was being good natured about it, but I could tell that he was getting just a titch annoyed.

I told Dr. Goh that 2 of my sisters (Paula and Megan) have both recently been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease called Hashimoto's Disease. With that also comes hypothyroidism. Oddly, my mom had a portion of her thyroid removed when she was in her 20's due to hyPERthyroidism. Dr. Goh said that he definitely wants to get me tested.

I also told him that I'd been having this nagging dry cough for a couple of months and I told him what happened last night. He checked my chest and throat and looked in my mouth and said that he suspects I have some kind of bronchial something or other (he used a name for it) going on. He prescribed an inhaler to use 3 times a day until the inhaler is empty. He said he'd check me again at my next appt.

Then I asked him (MAN, I am a basket case) if he had ever heard of Burning Mouth Syndrome. He said that he had, but never treated a case.

I have had this thing ever since we got married almost 10 years ago where my mouth feels really "hot". It is almost like I have a fever raging on the inside of my mouth and tongue. It gets so bad that it makes my face sweat. I have always just tolerated it and never thought too much about it. Well, I don't know if it's getting worse, or I am just not able to tolerate it as well with this pregnancy. A few weeks ago it was so bad that I wanted to cut my own tongue out. I was home alone with the girls and I was going crazy, so I decided to find out once and for all if this is just in my head or if there is someone else out there that has the same thing. So I searched on the internet for a good couple hours trying to find something about it. I searched on "Why is my mouth hot?" "Why does my tongue feel hot?", etc. Mostly the searches turned up information on cayenne peppers and other crazy stuff. Then I happened upon this medical site and there was a tiny blurb about something called BMS or Burning Mouth Syndrome. I almost leaped for joy when I read the symptoms.

When Will got home, I asked him if ever remembers me saying sometimes that my mouth is hot and he said "yeeeaaaah" (almost like he wanted roll his eyes and say oh brother, what now"). I said well I think I have Burning Mouth Syndrome. Long story, short.....he must not have believed me that there is something called Burning Mouth Syndrome so he went upstairs and looked in one of his nursing books (unbeknown to me) and sure enough there was a paragraph in there that talks about BMS!!

Dr. Goh said that he would do a little digging and see if he could find anything out about it and asked if I would do some more research on the internet. They also scheduled my official ultrasound for April 26!! I don't have my hopes up for a boy (well, maybe a little. LOL!) Will and I have both already expressed that we think it's another girl. Here a few pictures from the early genetic disorder screening that I had the other week. I was 13 weeks at the time and I asked the tech if she could tell gender and she said she looked, but couldn't really see anything.

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a rough night

Last night around 9:45, I was feeling super hungry and the only thing that really sounded good was the leftover green salad in the fridge. After I ate it, I took my prenatal vitamins and I took 2 Tylenol because my right arm had been aching off and on all day.

During the 10 o'clock news, I started feeling achy and nauseated. I decided to go to bed, but I could not lay down because it just kept rising in my chest and throat. Finally, I propped up on several pillows and fell asleep.

Around 1 am, I woke up with one of my frequent night time dry coughing spells and came downstairs to get a drink. I ate a piece of wheat bread which usually helps to settle the tickle in my throat. I was down here for about 15 minutes and decided that the water and bread were not helping, so I took a cough medicine tablet. I laid back down, but about 10 minutes later, Mariah came into the room and said she had a scary dream. So I held her and rubbed her back for about 5 minutes and then helped her back to bed. At about 1:45, I started coughing again and couldn't stop, so I came back down to get another drink. Before I could get one, though, I started throwing up GRR! I HATE throwing up. I never throw up in my pregnancies. I was up for another 1/2 hour and then finally went back to bed and slept.

Now I get to go and baby-sit at YOGA. oh joy.....

Worship Through Music

I got the opportunity to go to our stake center in Waipahu and sing with our ward choir in the Stake Worship Through Music program this evening. Our choir director in the Ewa Beach 2nd Ward is Nat Kamauu. She is THE BEST! We sang an arrangement of "I Need Thee Every Hour". It was really amazing! My favorite ward, other than ours, was the Newtown 2nd Ward. It is the Tongan ward of our stake and they sang "Redeemer of Israel". There were so many members of their choir there that they filled all 5 rows of the stand from wall to wall. They power-housed the entire song in Tongan. It was really cool.

Our stake does this annually and also has a Youth Worship Through Music once a year. I was able to participate in it last year when I was in the Young Women Presidency. That was really powerful. The youth put on the entire program and they even had to have a youth member play the accompaniment. It is so awesome to see the young members of this church getting so involved. I love it!

good morning

I woke up this beautiful sabbath morning with an overwhelming feeling of the spirit in my heart. I am not exactly sure why that is. Nothing significant happened during my sleep. I have been busily showering kids and fixing hair and I keep getting this warm swelling inside my chest for no reason at all.

I didn't want to forget the way that I feel, so I finished up the getting ready for church process early so that I could come and journal that quick thought.

I can't wait for General Conference this next weekend. It is sure to be a history making session with the solemn assembly and sustaining of our new prophet, President Thomas S. Monson. I know that he is a man called of God. I am anxious to hear his words.

Deal?.....or NO deal?

I auditioned at Pearlridge Uptown Mall for Deal or No Deal today. I waited in line for a total of about 4 hours, which wasn't too bad. Will kept the girls busy walking around the mall and watching DVDs in the van. The only bad thing is that (IDIOT ME) I forgot to put on sunscreen and am now a pretty crispy red color.
It was a lot of fun and I met some pretty interesting people while standing in line. I didn't get an immediate call back, but that guy that was on from Hawaii about 3 months ago was there and he said that it took a full year to get on the show. He was talking about his experience (he walked out with $260,000.00). I won't give up hope. I think it would be so much fun to go on that show! Will and Mariah were snapping candids throughout the day.

Mariah caught me eating a carrot in line outside

Mariah also snapped this of Brinlee in line outside

Us, FINALLY inside the mall with A/C.

Mariah's self-portrait

FINALLY at the judging table!!

waiting for my 15 seconds to speak

Trying to tell all about our exciting family and how we need the $$ for student loans =D

leaving with NO "golden ticket", but told that it could take up to a year to get a call-back

Easter 2008

After Brinlee's party wrapped up on Saturday, we let the kids go back out and color their own eggs.

Tatum had been napping during this part of the party and Mariah and Asia didn't get to color eggs with the guests, so they were all very excited!

We tried a couple different methods this year. They wrapped rubber bands around their eggs and colored them in one color and then took off the bands and put it in a different color. They thought this was SO amazing!

On Sunday morning, everyone had to shower before coming downstairs since church is at 10:30. I wanted to make sure I had enough time to do hair and dress everyone, plus get myself ready and get pictures before church started.

The favorite goodies from the Easter bunny were the Barbie's. Mariah got a talking/singing/light-up/glittery Ariel Barbie. Brinlee and Asia got the singing Gabriella and Sharpay dolls from High School Musical 2. Tatum, well she didn't get much. She can't have chocolate (or anything with any kind of dairy products), she's still too young for Barbie’s and I guess the Easter Bunny didn't know what to give her, especially since we are moving soon. SAD! Oh well, she was ecstatic with her jelly beans!

The Story of the Easter Outfits (by Mommy)
So, in February after Mariah's party was over, Mommy went on her regular search of the Easter dress. She was immediately drawn to the ivory, pink and chocolate brown silk duppioni dresses that Gymboree has this year. As soon as they came into our stores the 2nd week in February, all the girls went there and tried on for the right size. Though the matching pink patent leather shoes only came in Asia's size and up, Mommy bought them anyway, in hopes of finding one similar ones for little Tatum to wear.

Then Mommy went over to The Children's Place store and saw the most perfect black and white dresses there. She was already thinking ahead to Mariah's baptism and knew that when Mariah wore her white dress to church, she would like to have all the other family members in black and white. So she made a mental note and decided to wait until they go on sale after Easter, because who wants to wear black for Easter?! There would be plenty left.

Fast Forward to the first week in March, Mommy is still looking for shoes for Tatum and can't decide what to put over/under the sleeveless silk dresses from Gymboree. She went on Payless.com and found the most perfect pink ballet flats that came in sizes for all the girls. So she scooped them up and took the patent ones back to Gymboree. By this time the Easter line had gone on sale and Mommy decided to get the matching silk half jackets to go over the dresses. To her dismay, once again they didn't have Tatum's size (SIGH!). What was she going to do with Tatum?! What could she possibly find to go over/under Tatum's dress that wouldn't severely under-dress her compared to the others?? So she decided to wait and see what she could find.

During her search, she happened into The Children's Place again and saw that there is only 1 (ONE) b&w dress left in the big girls size!!! Luckily it was Brinlee's exact size. She scooped it up and decided it would be better to pay full price than to wait and not get them at all. She had them call the other store and they said they had a few left. She rushed to the other mall and they had all the other girls’ sizes. She didn't want to spend that much, but couldn't pass it up, especially since she was told they were already sold out online.

During the week before Easter as Mommy was busy preparing for Brinlee's party and Easter, she was really stressing and trying to figure out what to do. Also, she hadn't found anything for herself to wear. She went in search of a dress for herself, which was a feat in itself since she is not quite ready for maternity wear, but not really fitting her regular size. She found a couple of dresses that would match, but couldn't find exactly what she was looking for.

On Saturday, after Brinlee's party and after we had colored our eggs, Mommy was upstairs putting everything together, but still had nothing to put under/over the silk dresses. The thought came to her mind that maybe she should just scratch the pink and brown and do the unusual with the black and white, especially since she had already found herself the perfect black and white dress to go with the others. This would eliminate the cost of 2 dress occasions, combining them into one. She was really hesitant at first and then realized that she hadn't gotten shoes to go with the black and white stuff yet. The pink ones she'd gotten for the silk just wouldn't do. So in her hesitation, she decided that if she could find suitable shoes that evening, then it would be meant to be.

After Brinlee's birthday dinner at Denny's we went to a couple of stores and found the cutest white slippers with glittery straps. They didn't cost too much and had the right size for everyone. They actually didn't come in Tatum's size, but they had some really cute little white sandals for her.

That was the decision. They went with the black and white. Very unorthodox for Easter, but well, I guess black and white is "in" right now.

While we were getting ready on Sunday morning, Mariah asks "why are we wearing *lip curled* "black" on Easter?" I laughed and said "You sound just like my mother!" She asked "Why?" I said "Cuz that's exactly what she always used to say.’Don't wear dark colors on Easter. Wear spring-y colors.'" LOL

Brinlee's Birthday

It's that time again. We had another birthday. I have been stressed all week with being sick and trying to plan the party and getting ready for Easter (I still don't feel ready).
I started last night by making the cake and then freezing it so that it wouldn't crumble when I cut it into an egg shape.

This morning, I printed out the blown-up clip art egg and tooth-picked it to the top of the 9x13 cake. Then iced it with purple frosting. I had 4 one half cups of sugar separated into baggies. I colored each of them with liquid food coloring to make pink, blue, yellow and green. It was so easy! I thought it was going to be a pain, but I just dropped 3 drops in each baggie and massaged it around until desired color was reached.

I used little stencils to make the decorations. Then I food colored coconut to look like green grass and sprinkled Easter colored M&M's on it to look like little eggs. It wasn't perfect, but Brinlee thought it was the best cake she'd ever seen (and that's all the matters, right?!)

The party went off without a hitch! When the girls arrived, we immediately let them hunt for Easter eggs in the yard outside our front gate. They were in heaven! There was only 4 of them including Brinlee and we had filled over 100 plastic eggs with Candy.

I had a table set up in the garage for them to dye eggs. I gave them each a 1/2 dozen and let them at it. We had tape and rubber bands to make interesting designs and they thought that was so cool!

Then we had lunch (mini corndogs and fries), presents and cake. For dinner she wanted to go to Denny's (???). She insisted that we tell them it's her birthday so after we ate they came out and sang Happy Birthday to her and gave her an ice cream sundae. It was really funny to see her embarrased by everyone singing to her and looking at her. Her face turned bright red.

Here's a slideshow that Brinlee helped me put together.

Glow Putt

Today was Aleena Kai's 4th birthday. They had her party at Glow Putt in the Windward Mall over in Kaneohe. It was SO FUN! I didn't golf, but all the kids did, even Tatum gave it a try. She and Ryder Allen were sharing a putter. She got frustrated with not being able to hit the ball properly, so she stomped her foot, snatched up the ball and chucked it at the hole!! It was HILARIOUS!

There was actually quite a few people in our party. It was the Allens (Andrea, Skyler, Aspen, and Ryder), the Dano's (Sheri, Shayden, Dustin, Dayton, Braylin and baby Shysen), the Millers (Jean, Kiana, Kainoa, and Ikaika), and all of us including Will. Plus the Kai's 7 and all her family (except U'i). Kauwe's parents were there and so was his sister, Noweo. There was this little area off to the side in the back for party groups. We had pizza and such.

It was a really interesting place, it was completely dark on the inside with all black lighting. There were neon graphics all over the walls. Each hole was lined with neon pant and all the putters and balls were glowing too. It was really cool!

Our girls have never been golfing (they think they have because of the Wii...LOL), but they all had a GREAT time. Asia just kept wanting to go around and around.

Tomorrow is Brinlee's 6th birthday. She invited 4 little friends and I am going to help them color Easter Eggs. Then we will have an Easter egg hunt with plastic candy filled eggs. She is SUPER excited.

Easter Egg Hunt

Brinlee, Mariah, Tatum, Asia

Ocean Pointe HOA put on their 1st annual Easter Egg Hunt at Keone'ula Elementary School. They put on one grande event. There were 3 huge jumpers and one smaller one with a ball pit inside. They had a few game stations set up and the main event!

They were running on HI time, so it started about 25 mins late and the kids were chomping at the bit. They ended up having to split up the toddler group (age up to 3) because there were so many more than they anticipated.

Tatum was all revved up and ready to go. She did NOT want to wait. About 15 mins past the time it was supposed to start she started getting fussy. Poor girl just wanted to put some eggs in her bucket (and yes, it was a SAND bucket....what? We live in HI.... ha ha ha).

They ended up having a great time and the bouncers were a hit. This one was a Pirates of the Carribbean theme and had a huge slide.

Little Miss Thang was not having ANY of the bouncers. She freaked out when I tried to put her in one!
The Kai's were there too, I didn't end up getting many pictures of them. The oldest group kinda got the shaft. Since they had to split the toddler group. The 2nd group of toddlers "hunted" where the 4-6 yr olds were supposed to hunt. So the 4-6 kids "hunted" where the 7-11 yr olds were supposed to hunt. They let the 4-6 have about a minute head start, but by the time 15 seconds passed, the field was starting to get cleared out, so I gave Liana and Mariah the go ahead to go out on the field. A full 45 seconds later the chick with the bull horn said "OK 7-11's, GO AHEAD!" WHAT?! There weren't even any eggs left??? I was glad I went ahead and let our girls go. They were able to get a good bucket full.

Brinlee's Bday at School

Last Friday (the 14th) was the girls last day of school before the 2 week spring intersession. Since Brinlee's birthday is during the break, they celebrated in class that day. Her classmate, Joanne (whose party was at Ice Palace) also celebrated in class that day. Ms. Uytingco had told me that Joanne's mom was already bringing cupcakes, so I just brought little easter candies to let Brinlee pass out to the kids.

Brinlee and Joanne Saroca

That day was also Ammon's last day at school. The Olayan family moved to UT to attend BYU. Brinlee has said every day this week that she misses Ammon. Not only was he in her class at school and at church, but they only lived a few buildings down in our neighborhood, so they would play after school together almost everyday.

Brinlee and her "BF" Ammon Olayan

Keoneula Elementary Awards Ceremony

The girls had their awards ceremony a few weeks ago. Here's some pics and the awards!

Sorry the awards came out so small. I have been working on this post for like 2 days now and for some reason Photobucket is all messed up. They re-vamped their photo-editing tool and it doesn't seem to have all the bugs worked out yet. Maybe I'll fix it later =D

UGH!

Today is the first "official" day of the girls 2 week spring intersession and so far it isn't fun. I totally lost my voice on Saturday night. I have had this nagging dry cough for like 2 weeks from allergies. The VOG has been so thick here lately and it's been hanging around for weeks. I have never completely lost my voice and it is SO annoying! My kids can't hear me. They keep shouting MOM! and I am answering them a million times, but they can't hear me. I would scream out of frustration except that I can't. GRRR! Asia has been the worst. The 2 older ones get that I can't talk, but she just keeps whining and calling for me from upstairs or the other room and can't hear me answering her so just keeps getting louder and whinier.
Will is in class all day. He left at 4:30 this morning and class isn't out until 4:50 and then takes over an hour to get home. UGH!

Updates and OUTdates

sheesh! I have had all these pictures and video clips on my hard drive for months and well, I guess it's Christmas in March! Enjoy.....it's gonna be a long one (hee hee hee)

The girls each got some movie money (from each of the cousins that had their names) and we took them to the Dole Cannery Theater on Christmas day to see the movie 'Enchanted'. They each also got some cash to get whatever they wanted at the snack bar. They LOVED it! Even Tatum sat through most of it.

The day after Christmas, we were all hanging out in jammies all day and Asia was totally jammin on her "ipod" (her Barbie Girls mp3 player) while the others were playing with Daddy's new toy (the Wii). Watch!




Mariah helped me design this slide for her 8th Birthday. We had a family celebration on the 5th and then she invited a few friends to McDonald's the next night. The thing referred to as 'Coconut' in the slide show is the bear she made at Hana'i Bear (similar to Build a Bear) at Taylor Moore's birthday party the month before. *eyes-rolling* LOL
The following week on the 12th of February, she got to go to her first Activity Days activity with Sister Colon. She was SOOO excited! They made Valentine's heart shaped cookie lollipops.

I think everything else is pretty much up to date. I am trying to keep up with the pace of these 4 bouncing children!! We'll see how the next few months go with the move coming up and all.

The Church of Jesus Christ

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints produced this video and I thought I'd share. If you want to know more about the featured magazine called The Ensign, just click on the title of this blog post and it will take you there. If you want to know more about my faith and church visit lds.org, or you can ask me!

Tips on pumping gas

Snopes is still trying to determine if this is true or not. I don't know, but it's worth a try. Gas is nearing $4 here on O'ahu and has surpassed the $4 mark on outer-islands!

"I don’t know what you guys are paying for gasoline…. but here in California we are also paying higher, up to $3.50 per gallon. But my line of work is in petroleum for about 31 years now, so here are some tricks to get more of your money’s worth for every gallon.

Here at the Kinder Morgan Pipeline where I work in San Jose, CA we deliver about 4 million gallons in a 24-hour period thru the pipeline. One day is diesel the next day is jet fuel, and gasoline, regular and premium grades. We have 34-storage tanks here with a total capacity of 16,800,000 gallons."

• Only buy or fill up your car or truck in the early morning when the ground temperature is still cold. Remember that all service stations have their storage tanks buried below ground. The colder the ground the more dense the gasoline, when it gets warmer gasoline expands, so buying in the afternoon or in the evening….your gallon is not exactly a gallon. In the petroleum business, the specific gravity and the temperature of the gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, ethanol and other petroleum products plays an important role. A 1-degree rise in temperature is a big deal for this business. But the service stations do not have temperature compensation at the pumps. Unlike service stations, here where I work, every truck that we load is temperature compensated so that every gallon is actually the exact amount.
  
• When you’re filling up do not squeeze the trigger of the nozzle to a fast mode. If you look you will see that the trigger has three (3) stages: low, middle, and high. In slow mode you should be pumping on low speed, thereby minimizing the vapors that are created while you are pumping. If you are pumping on the fast rate, some of the liquid that goes to your tank becomes vapor.
  
• One of the most important tips is to fill up when your gas tank is HALF FULL or HALF EMPTY. The reason for this is, the more gas you have in your tank the less air occupying its empty space. Gasoline evaporates faster than you can imagine. Underground gasoline storage tanks have an internal floating roof. This roof serves as zero clearance between the gas and the atmosphere, so it minimizes the evaporation.
  
• Another reminder, if there is a gasoline truck pumping into the storage tanks when you stop to buy gas, DO NOT fill up–most likely the gasoline is being stirred up as the gas is being delivered, and you might pick up some of the dirt that normally settles on the bottom.

Hope this will help you get the most value for your money.

DO SHARE THESE TIPS WITH OTHERS!

Feeling better

I am exactly 12 weeks along today! I have been feeling a lot better these last 10 days or so. In the beginning when I very first confirmed my pregnancy, I was SO SICK! Will and I agreed that this has been the worst one for sickness so far. I was literally nauseated every minute of the waking day. I couldn't eat and even worse, drinking water was enough to put me over the edge! I initially wasn't taking vitamins (I know, I know) because they typically make me sick when I do take them, so I wasn't about to make the nausea worse.

Well, about a month ago, I decided to try some different brands and flavors of enhanced water. This was on a Saturday evening and I woke up the next day, Sunday, feeling better than I had in weeks. In fact, I didn't really feel sick at all and then I began to panic! I thought OH NO! Those mild cramps I had in the night were just the beginning. I totally thought I was going to mis-carry again. By church time, though, the nausea had begun to set in again and the cramps had subsided, so I was somewhat relieved. Long story short....the more of the enhanced water I drank, the better I felt and the easier it was for me to eat. So I surmised that part of my problem was probably dehydration. Then, that following week, I called my "old" OB (Dr. Oh) and asked them to phone in a prenatal vit. prescrip. Once I started taking the vitamins (at night), I started feeling TONS better!

I had my first OB visit with my new dr (Dr. Goh) on the 27th of Feb. He is A~W~E~S~O~M~E!!! I am SO mad that I didn't find him before with my last pregnancy. I had such a horrible experience with all 4 (that's right FOUR) of my doctors in Tatum's pregnancy, that I was ready to give up on the island medical system. Anyway, he was totally interested in my birthing history, he asked a ton of detailed questions. He listened and answered all my questions and concerns with genuine sincerity. He is so GOOD! (FYI: since we are moving in June, my plan is to go back to Dr. Fox in Vancouver. I went to her in my pregnancy with Asia. I love her, too, she is GREAT!)

I am due September 24th and I have my first scheduled ultrasound on the 25th of this month. I guess they offer an early ultrasound now to look at the neck and head to earlier determine birth defects. It is optional, but for me personally, I know that I would never terminate a pregnancy over a birth defect, but I want to be able to prepare myself and my family well before the baby arrives.

We will be able to find out the gender sometime in May, just before we move from here!!

Ice Palace

I always have these ideas for blog posts floating around in my head for days and then when I sit down to post one, my mind is blank. (HORMONES!)

Brinlee got invited to a birthday party for her classmate, Joanne, at Ice Palace. So I decided to let Mariah tag along since this would probably be the only time they would be able to go there. Neither one of them has ever been ice- or roller-skating, so I knew it would be an interesting time. Luckily, they had those little walker looking things that little kids can push around on the ice to keep balance. They have an area marked off from the main path for beginners so that they don't get run over.

They were both gung-ho and ready to get their skates on, but as soon as Brinlee came within 2 inches of the ice, she backed up and said "I don't want to do it!" I didn't have skates on, so I couldn't go on the ice. I put her little "walker" on the ice and helped her hold it. She was shaking her head no and trying to back up, when this cute little girl came up and asked Brinlee if she wanted help. She didn't wait for an answer she just grabbed the "walker" and started pushing it with Brinlee hanging on. It was GREAT! Brinlee did one round and then said "Mommy, I pau". So I let her come off the ice for a few minutes and then she saw Mariah going in circles and decided to try it again. She got out there and started cruising! She LOVED it! I think she even ended up lapping Mariah a couple of times.

At the end, Mariah said she tried it for a minute without the "walker", but fell too many times. The best part was as we were walking out Mariah says "Mom, why do they have to blast that music so loud that we can't even hear each other talk. Geez, my ears are still ringing." HA HA HA!! I was totally laughing and she couldn't figure out why.

I have some pictures to show, but it's late and I will upload them tomorrow (or probably Monday since I am trying not to get on the computer as much on Sundays).