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).

sleep

This morning around 4:15, I remember hearing Will in the bathroom shaving and seeing the light on. He had one of his clinicals today at Hawai'i Medical Center East, in Honolulu. Since he had to be there by 6:30, he tries to give himself a little over an hour to travel the 20.02 (according to mapquest) miles.

At 5:10, the house phone rang one quick ring, but it woke me up again and I picked my head up off the pillow confused by the dark room. I realized that Will must already be gone, but couldn't figure out why the phone had rung. In that moment my cell phone rang and it was Will. He says "I locked my scooter keys in the scooter and I can't go anywhere." I asked him where he was and he said he was in the garage and he had already locked the door so he couldn't get back inside to get the spare scooter key. So I hurried downstairs and opened the garage door. He came in as I was already headed back upstairs and said "Sorry..." I said, "It's ok" and went straight back to bed knowing that since I had to get out of bed that there was no way I was going to be able to fall back to sleep. I've been that way since Brinlee was born. If I have to get out of bed for any reason after about 1:30 or 2 am. I am awake for hours afterward.

So I tossed and turned for about 45 minutes and then at about 6:20, I had just started to drift off again when I heard Tatum fussing over the monitor. GRR! I hurried in so that she wouldn't wake Asia and it turns out that she couldn't find her little blankie. I found it, gave it to her and hurried back to the bed again to try and get 20 mins of shut-eye before having to get the other girls ready for school. NOPE! Not even 30 seconds after I layed my head down. I heard Asia and Tatum giggling at each other and then Brinlee yelling at Mariah to stop taking the covers away (they share a king size bed). UGH!

I got absolutely NOTHING done today. I was so tired that I couldn't think straight. When I put Tatum down around 11:30, I layed on the couch and Asia wanted to watch High School Musical 2. I usually give her the choice of laying down with me or watching a movie. She mostly always picks a movie and watches quietly while I nap. NOT today! Every 10 minutes she was whining for something or other. When I finally fell asleep (not sure how long) the phone rang. Oh well....it made me get off my lazy behind and clean the kitchen. I do feel better. I guess I must have gotten a little sleep. Sometimes a "power nap" is all I need.

Brinlee ~ Student of the Quarter!!

Brinlee came home with an award from her school that she was the student of the quarter, for last quarter. Her teacher told us that one student is chosen from each classroom each quarter. They are presented with an award in class from the school's student counselor, Mr. Chung. They also receive a certificate for a free pizza from Papa John's. I think Brinlee was more excited about that than anything!
This is what her teacher said about her and how they choose the student:

"The teacher selects the student of the quarter based on certain criteria ~ being responsible for their learning, completing their work on time, being kind to others, etc. I chose her because Brinlee has shown me that she can persevere in those areas. I am so proud of her. We all cheered when our counselor, Mr. Chung, came to present her with the certificate and pizza certificate. Congratulations!" -Ms. Uytingco.

The TOE saga continues...

First, can I just say that feet are so nasty to begin with and then my kids think they are Hawaiian and run around without their shoes all day long. So, Tatum's toes are looking much better, but Mariah and Brinlee are now having issues. On Saturday, Mariah was outside playing (without her shoes, HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL THEM!!) and she says she stubbed her toe on a rock. It sliced into her big toe pretty good and then on Sunday she kept complaining that the skin kept catching on stuff making it bleed again, so Will clipped it off. (YUCK!)

Before the skin got clipped

after

Then, yesterday, Andrea Allen came and took Mariah and Brinlee with her kids to our pool while I finished cleaning and put Tatum down for a nap. She came back about an hour and half later with Brinlee bleeding from the toe. She said that Brinlee scraped it on the rough ground around the pool. It looks like she took a pretty deep chunk, though. Probably because her feet were prune-y and wet and that made the skin really soft. Pretty GROSS! They both wore socks and tennis shoes to school today! HA HA HA!

It looks even more icky in person when you can see how deep it really goes

There are still no toenails, but looking SO much better! you can kinda see in this picture that she is finally breaking that 4th tooth through on the bottom! She has 4 on top and now 4 on bottom and I just noticed today that she has a molar on each side in the back starting to come through on the bottom gums.

Tatum's Funky Toe

On Wed, the 23rd of January, we were having a meeting at the Detton's house and Tatum (we think) got her toes stuck under the opening door. She was bleeding from her 2nd toe over on her right foot, but it didn't bleed for long and she seemed fine.

The next week on Thurs, Will noticed that her 3rd toe over on her right foot was all red and swollen. We thought it was weird that it took a whole week to show up AND that it was the 3rd toe over. We didn't think it was that toe originally.

Anyway, that Friday night we went to the Temple and the couples doing the child care at the chapel by the temple said that it looked really bad and we should take her to the dr. We looked at it when we got there and it had gotten all swollen and filled with puss. EWWW! So first thing Saturday, Will took her to the dr and he said it was a pretty bad infection and gave us some antibiotic ointment and and oral antibiotics just in case.

Well a few days later her 3rd toenail over fell off and it started to bleed again. I took these pictures last Sunday the 3rd of Feb and you can see that the skin is all peeling away and looking nasty. Well about 2 or 3 days ago the 2nd toenail over fell off too!! Poor baby! She doesn't complain about it, but she does pick at it relentlessly. UCK!!

sorry she's naked....she's still potty training

my analytical side

I have this need to analyze everything and try to figure out why things happen the way they do. These are my ideas for what took me so long to get pregnant. (NO LAUGHING!! hee hee hee)

For one thing, I did this retarded survey thing that supposedly tells you which months you can conceive which gender. This "survey" said that I was supposed to be able to conceive a boy from March until Dec of last year. Then Jan 08 is a girl and then Feb-Apr is boy again. Well, wouldn't you know that I conceived in Jan! GRR!

Another thing is that I have been doing some pretty intense working out and YOGA since about last March/April. This is about the time we started trying to conceive. The only other time I've had problems with a pregnancy was right before I conceived Tatum, I had a miscarriage and the only thing I could think of for a reason why was that I was doing Body For Life at the time and exercising religiously 6 days a week. So I had stopped exercising around Thanksgiving for no other reason than just being "too busy". Now all of a sudden about 6 weeks after that I am pregnant! I am guessing my "female" body doesn't like exercise! LOL! hahaha

The last one came from my good friend Shelley Detton. She, Will and I were chatting at church several months ago, shortly after the birth of her baby Hazel. And I told her that we had been trying. She suggested that possibly Heavenly Father was "making me wait" because he wants to send us another girl and he wanted me to be so desperate for a the pregnancy that I wouldn't care whether it was a boy or a girl. She was right! I was getting so desperate that I knelt down and prayed (again) telling Heavenly Father that I would be happy with either one. And here we are now!!

the background

This is so silly, but I really am torn. I like having a personal blog template that gives a little panache to my page, but these darn templates make everything so skinny and cut most of my videos and slide shows off. Plus when I added the template HTML, it deleted my stuff, which they call "widgets" (HUH?). The widgets contained my music, a slideshow and my link list. I was annoyed because then I had to go re-add all my friends blog sites, some of which I have wrong and can't remember. GRR! Any suggestions? Maybe I just need to conform and use one of their boring templates and be good with it.

Thunder

We just got through a pretty loud and wet thunder storm. It started a few hours ago. The girls are always uneasy in thunder storms, especially Brinlee. Each time the thunder would boom, she would plug her ears. So then Asia started plugging her ears, too. One of the times I told Will to look at Asia plugging her ears and she got all embarrased and yelled (I so wish you could hear her talking. You just can't get the full effect of her little twisted accent! LOL)

"NOT! It's Bwinlee! She scayow (scare) of da dwums!"

Then a few minutes after that, she says to me "Mommy, teow (tell) da boys stop hit da dwums, day scayoween (scaring) me".

Only in true local hula style would Asia think that the thunder was drums!!! HA HA HA!

It's official!

Soooooo, I FINALLY went to the doctor today and the result was +!!! YAY! We are so happy (well I haven't talked to Will yet, but we have already known it would be since I am late anyway) and just to answer your question...."Yes, we are hoping it's a boy, but will be just as happy with another girl." I think I have finally succombed to the idea that we are here to have all girls. Will has been fine with it. It's me that really really really wants a son. But we both agree that even if we did have a son already, we would still have more kids. So we aren't just having more kids in hopes of a boy. We really do want more kids!

misc pics and clips

Tatum and Will were jammin on the Barbie mp3 player.

Will jammin' to B-A-R-B-I-E!!

Tatum trying to figure out what's going on.

And then I caught Tatum trying to immitate her sisters in Poi Ball practice! LOL

Asia's hair cut

I decided to cut Asia's hair short again because it is starting to fall out in handfulls again. The last time this happened, it seemed to stopped coming out when I cut her hair off. The first thing she said when she went upstairs to the bathroom mirror is (in true Asia local fashion) "I looks like a muver" (mother) LOL! I was dying laughing. That girl pops off with the craziest stuff sometimes!

Swiffer

Just thought I'd share. I found this website that has all kinds of tips about stretching the refills and pads and such for the swiffer. Not only can they be spendy, but the disposable stuff just creates more rubbish than neccessary. Here are 2 different links with good info and reviews on how others like the ideas http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf871775.tip.html and/or http://www.instructables.com/id/Hack-your-Swiffer-Sweeper.-Weep-Swiffer-CEO-,-Weep/

Anyway, the first tip that I tried was for the dry dust mop. The pads can be used on the "right" side and then turned directly over to be used in the exact same way with the same results on the "wrong" side. Not only that, but they can washed AND dried in your washing machine and dryer. I just throw them in with my towels (which I always wash on hot) and dried on regular heat. They come out a little fluffy looking but work just the same. I have washed and dried the same 2 or 3 cloths about 4 times, and they still seem to have a lot of life left.

The next thing I tried is refilling the swiffer liquid bottle. There are several different suggestions, but this is the one I tried. I took a pair of pliers to untwist the supposedly un-removeable cap. Just squeeze hard with the pliers and twist. Then I added some generic pine sol cleaner and water according to the directions on the pine sol bottle. The only problem I had (my own fault) is that I wasn't careful putting the cap back on the bottle to ensure that the orignial puncture holes were lined up the same. So the bottle leaks if left in the mop for storage. So I store the bottle upright, under my kitchen sink. It only costs me about $0.15 for the refill which is a HUGE savings from $4-$6 bucks for the refill bottles!
The other suggestions were to drill a hole in the bottom of the bottle (which is the top when inserted into the mop) and refill it with Pine Sol then purchase a cheap cork from Home Depot to keep it closed. I would imagine this idea would eliminate the problems with the leaking. And someone else used a large syringe with a needle to punture through the rubber to refill with Pine Sol.

The last suggestion, that I just tried for the first time yesterday, was using a bar towel instead of the pads. I went to mop my floor yesterday and realized that I didn't have any more of those annoying, expensive pads, so I grabbed a cloth and got it wet with hot water so that it would move easier on the floor and I totally feel like my (tile GRR!!) floor is cleaner than it has been in a while. I think it was the texture of the cloth that was able to get into the grout of the floor easier. I also felt like I wasn't dragging a dirt filled pad over my entire floor. I simply rinsed and wrung the cloth a couple times during mopping and it was great! Then, of course, you just wash and reuse!!!

Some of the other suggestions were that people make with, polar fleece and elastic, a fitted washable pad that fits around the entire mop head. There are patterns and stuff on one of those website listed above.

Baptism Preview

This past Sunday the ward did a baptism preview for all the kids that will be turning 8 this year. We left Asia and Brinlee with Andrea Allen and just took Mariah and Tatum. Tatum had gone to nursery for the first time that day, even though she is still 17 months, and she'd had enough trauma for one day.
Anyway, the program was really cute. They had several primary teachers and the presidency give small talks about baptism, confirmation, how the baptism will actually work, and then about scouts/activity days.
Mariah turns 8 on Feb 5 and that will be her first activity days activity. She is SO excited!
While we were at the meeting. Tatum was playing with the program that had a pencil sketch cariacature of John the Baptist baptizing Jesus. Tatum brought it over to me and was saying Deeshuh, Deeshuh. I couldn't figure out what she was saying until she pointed to the front of the program and said it again. I asked Will if he taught her that and he said no. I couldn't believe that she was recognizing Him, especially since it wasn't a real painting or photo. Then when I pointed to John the Baptist, she called him Daddy. LOL!!

pregnant??

((WARNING! Possible 'TMI' ahead ;>))

So this is probably going to be a long one. I have a lot on my mind about this subject and haven't told very many people (outside of my close friends here) that we have been trying to have another baby since, pretty much, last March. I stopped nursing Tatum right around then and had known for a few months before that, that I was ready to have another. I realize that this can be a sensitive subject and that I might end up sounding selfish, but....well.....you've been warned!

Now I know what most of you are thinking.....IS SHE CRAZY?! Isn't 4 enough? What is she complaining about? Well, those are ALL valid questions and I realized that yes, I might sound crazy and 4 is enough for most people and I don't have a lot of room to complain, BUT we have known since Tatum was born that we are not done having kids that we want at least 2 more and I am NOT getting any younger and I DON'T want to be 40 (even 35 really) and still having kids.

I have never had problems getting pregnant in the past. In fact, with almost all of them, we have planned it out and been pregnant within a few weeks time. The only exceptions are with Tatum and Asia. I wanted to get pregnant with Asia in Dec '03, but didn't so then I got some ovulation predicters and got pregnant in Jan '04 instead. Then, I had one miscarriage in Oct of '05 and then was pregnant with Tatum by Thanksgiving. So it has been extremely frustrating for me not to get pregnant when I planned too. I was actually hoping to have given birth by now.

To back up to around March, I was talking to my friend, Kapua Kai, and she was saying that she and her husband had been tossing around the idea of having another one soon (they have 4 girls, also, all the same ages as ours, except their youngest is almost a year older than Tatum) and so I was all excited thinking that she and I would be pregnant together. Well, like 3 weeks later, she called and told me she was pregnant and then a couple weeks after that our other friend, Sheri Dano (who has 5 kids already) called to say she is pregnant too. They were teasing me because they were like, this is your idea and "Why aren't you pregnant already, miss wanna have a million kids?!" So the teasing continued for several months and my frustration continued to grow. We tried everything! I even got ovulation predictors for a couple of months in June and July and that didn't work.

By the way, Kapua gave birth to ANOTHER GIRL on Sunday the 27th of Jan.!! (Kezlee Chalei Kaomealani Kai). So I was kind of depressed, but there is a (MAYBE) silver lining. I'm not sure, but I might actually be pregnant FINALLY!!!!! I was supposed to start my period sometime a few days ago and I am rarely late. I am too cheap to go buy a test, so I just need to go to the Dr. office and do it all in one trip to make it official. I am trying not to have high hopes, but I think it's too late. I have really high hopes!!!

New Year's Cont.

I started that post a while ago, and then got distracted and realized today that it never got published. I have pictures and such to go with it so here goes.

We spent it with the Kai Family here in Ewa. I would have to say it rates right there at the top for the best New Years we've ever had!!! The fireworks were unreal. The kids started sparklers and ground blooms around 7 and continued until almost 11. They were in and out of the house too, but there were so many fireworks to light, there was no scrimping here. We saved all the big ones for midnight. We didn't stop lighting until about 1:15 am! The entire neighborhood almost looked like it was on fire. There was so much smoke! They told us at 4th of July time that it doesn't even compare to New Years and they were RIGHT! Some neighbors close by had some of those (illegal...shhhh) aerial ones that were really cool.

Tatum and Aleena were sound asleep around 11:40 and missed the whole thing. Which was probably fine by Tatum because she was a nervous wreck all evening. She was clinging and being so funny.

It wasn't cold out, but the kids got all excited when I told them to grab a jacket (from the dark corner of the closet) and then insisted on wearing them all evening LOL!

I have all these "posts" floating around in my head that I have been meaning to sit and put on here, but I've been so busy lately, I have barely been checking my email. I will try to get to it soon! We only have 4 more months and about a week left here. Sad and exciting all at once!

Dean's List

Will got a letter this week from the University informing him that he is on the Dean's List again! He was totally stoked. Only 3.5 more months of school and he is DONE!!!

In other news, my sister, Paula, called me yesterday to say that my nephew, Tyson, just got accepted to BYU in Provo! He is super excited and will go there for one semester before serving a mission. He puts in his papers in Aug. and turns 19 in Nov. Stay tuned....

Our New Year was awesome! We got the true feel of how it goes down over here. The fireworks are bigger and even better than you could ever imagine on the 4th of July! (well, at least where we were)

More Hula video clips

I know, I am slow! Here are a couple more video clips from their hula performances last month. These ones are from their Christmas performance at the Polynesian Cultural Center over in La'ie. Here's a link to my youtube account so you can view more video clips if you like.

Brinlee can shake her 'elemu (booty) pretty good, but Asia kinda dances to the beat of her own drum!!

(Brinlee is in the back row, kind of in center screen, Asia is on her left. Half way through the girl in front of Asia moves in front of Brinlee so you can see them both individually for a minute.)

This is the final act in the show featuring the entire studio dancing together. It is called Ua Mau and it's one of my favorite numbers! After they finish dancing they sing We Wish You A Merry Christmas and then give a warm ALOHA!

(Brinlee and Asia are in the blue and white outfits. In the foreground in the center is Liana Kai, Kauwe and Kapua's oldest daughter. When I pan across to Mariah in pink and green, She is on the very end in the 2nd row. Sorry the quality isn't very good.)