Cub-O-Ree

This morning the cub scouts in the stake had an activity called "Cub-O-Ree". I was serving double duty at this activity. I went as a den leader and was also asked to be the official First Aid Person. There was supposed to be two us at the First Aid Station, but only I was able to make it, so I was more the First Aid than the Den Leader. That was fine by me. That meant I got the snacks they had on hand for the staff as well as my own tent with a cot. Seeing as I was sick, that cot looked really cozy, but I resisted. Anyhow, enough about me.

Tyler and my bears had so much fun at this activity.

The theme was Olympic games.

They played several different sports. My personal favorite that the adults got to join in was a local game they play here called "Sham Battle". What is it? Well, kind of like a complicated game of Dodge Ball.

The ominous clouds that hovered all morning finally gave way. Run boys run! (Notice I'm not out there. LOL).

We ended a little early, which was fine. I think the boys (me included), were tired and ready to go home. As far as my First Aid Station duties ---- out of about 50 or 60 boys that were there, only 1 injury.

Guess who?

Seriously.

Are you even surprised?

In case you're wondering. It was a soccer ball to the face. Results, a REALLY bloody nose and a fat lip to go with it.

Mac vs PC

Warning, this is a RANT! All you PC owners and lovers, do not be offended or take this personal but I HATE PC's!!!!!!!!!!!! We aren't able to get our hands on a mac until the summer. In the meantime, we thought we would just get the available PC to use. It is driving me CRAZY! I didn't appreciate my Mac until it's passing (sniff, sniff). Every time I try to do something, it seems my husband has to come and set up something, or disable something to allow me to view or post. Grrrr! I have no idea yet how to upload my pictures (thus the picture of my hubby and I on the blog banner, it was the only thing available). My biggest problem that is causing me the most grief is downloading music from iTunes! Because our ipods are sync'd for a Mac, if we sync it to a PC, it will erase all our music. I won't even share how much music is on there. Those of you who know me well, know that I can't run without my music. I have music on my ipod currently, but I love to download new stuff all the time. I'm gearing up for the Great Aloha Run in February, and I'm hoping I will be able to download some music by then. Aahhh! Wish me luck.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite times of the year! Getting together with family for that big holiday meal. We all met up at Julie's house for the yummy holiday feast. Julie did the turkey and it was soooo good. She brined it. I'm gonna have to try that.

We brought dessert and salad. Leigh made an apple pie all by herself from scratch. It was really good!

I wished that I had taken pictures of the kids playing "Uno Attacks". I learned that game from Jess. We bought and showed all the cousins how to play. They loved it and played it over and over and over again.


Food, family, and fun. What more do you need.

Kara's Baptism/Birthday

Today, my 3rd baby was baptized. I remember when I had just had Leigh and was thinking that it was going to be a loooong time till she gets baptized. Here I am already having this experience with Kara. Yesterday, there were news reports that we may have flash flooding today. I was worried, wondering if we just postpone the baptism altogether. Through many prayers, I'm sure Heavenly Father was listening and spared us the flooding. There was lots of rain however. We had everyone that was capable in our family, participate in the program. I was able to watch from the side and be ready for Kara with a towel. After she came out of the water, she had a big smile on her face. Kara said the water was cold, but that she felt good. We quickly changed and was back in the chapel. Leigh sang a wonderful song entitled "Today on My Baptism Day". My friend Terri (who now lives in Wisconsin), sent me the music via email. Her sister had written the song. It was wonderful and Leigh did an excellent job singing it. Thank you again Terri. Then it was my turn to give a talk. By that point, I felt a little harried (I think that's word I want to use). I was doing so many things, I was thinking to myself, why didn't I assign someone else that blessing. That's okay. I didn't mind speaking at my own child's baptism. I gave the talk on the Holy Ghost and was able to share with her my own experience with receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. I know Kara was listening and taking it all it in. We finished with the program and walked over to the cultural hall for some food and games. BYUH catered the food. They did an excellent job with decorating her cake. There were about 35 people there, so I was thinking that maybe I ordered too big a cake. Everyone loved the cake, they kept going back for more. We went home with only 6 pieces left. The highlight of the day was breaking open the pinata. Kara went home a happy girl, thoroughly enjoying her day. As for me (big sigh), I'm glad it's over. Hopefully, by the time it's Micah's turn, I'll be a pro. Congratulations!! We are so proud of you for making the decision to be baptized.

Sorry the pictures are so dark. There are a couple of more I will put up later.

Twilight the Movie

So what did I think? Well, where do we start. Hmmm. From the very beginning, like how I got to this point in my life. My friend Jenny did that, so I that maybe I should do the same. Back in December of 2006, I had had surgery, and a friend, Terri, came by and dropped off some books for me to read since I was taking it easy. My husband had read the blurb and asked, "Are you going to read those vampire books?" I replied with, "What kind of books did she bring me?" I let them sit on my side bed table for 3 days. One of my kids needed to go to urgent care. Knowing the long waiting time you experience in urgent care, I decided to take the book. Let's just say that the wait time for my daughter's appointment wasn't long enough! I was ready to volunteer to let someone else go before us. I figured CPS wouldn't smile on that. That was a Saturday. I finished the book by Sunday evening. Terri had given me New Moon as well and quickly started with that. I finished that book in 24hrs. Yup, stayed up till 1am to finish that one, and was sooooo disappointed I had to wait 9 more months till the 3rd book. I visited Stephenie Meyer's website to get me up to speed with this new phenomenon taking over my brain. My husband wasn't sure what had happened to me. I finally explained that this was my hobby. UH Football was his, the Twilight Saga was mine! He really couldn't argue with that. I did scale back my passion, and made sure that they didn't interfere with family time.
I of course couldn't stop thinking and talking about them. I passed the books along and in no time, quite a few women in the ward were hooked. A lot of the men in the ward weren't sure what had happened to their wives. We advised them to get together and form a support group for each other. LOL. Some thought it funny, others didn't.
We finally decided to have a book discussion at my house. We had one for Twilight & New Moon together. After Eclipse came out, we held another one. While waiting for Breaking Dawn to come out, I had heard that Jenny Taylor was really into Twilight. I got talking with her about it, and her son about had a fit when he saw that Sis. Sasaki was into it as well. She and I have become great friends since then. I moved away from AZ since then, but she and keep in constant contact through texting, gotta keep the passion alive some how. 21 days before Breaking Dawn came out, Stephenie Meyer's website put out quotes from her book. Jenny and I texted about the quotes, guessing what they were about. Jenny recorded it all and sent me what we talked about. When we finally got our hands on the book, we had fun seeing how right or wrong we were. I have to say, at the book discussion Jenny totally guessed what the storyline for Breaking Dawn would be, no joke. She said Bella would have a baby and that Jacob would imprint on it. We all laughed at her and told her she was crazy. Who's the crazy now, huh Jenny. Other than when Jenny and I were texting about the quotes, the most fun experience I've had was when I read Breaking Dawn. What made it so fun was that during the reading, I was texting back and forth between three different people the whole time. It was awesome, I felt like I was reading it with them.
When I went back in September, I was able to have the last book discussion for Breaking Dawn with all my friends from the ward there which was so fun.
The movie. Well, the first time I watched it, it liked it but was disappointed at the same time. Being a die-hard fan, I think makes it hard to watch a movie adaptation that is not exactly like the book. I was able to see it again, and I have to say that I ended up LOVING it this time. I LOVE the soundtrack. Truth be told, I do love rock/alt music, along with the other stuff. I do have some Paramore and Linkin Park on my ipod. But I digress. As for the movie, in end, I must say, that despite some disappointments, I loved it! Favorite parts, baseball scene, being in the treetops, and the hospital scene at the end.
And just when you think it's over, the Twilight world sucks (no pun intended) you back in with the talk of New Moon. New Moon isn't due to be out till 2010. Heaven help us all.

Are You Even Surprised!

Oh yes, I went there. You know it's just temporary! The movie comes out in less than 12 hours and I had to do something. In honor of this great event, I even went so far as to make a shirt. Uh huh, that's right, you heard me ladies, I went there as well. My rhinestone creation is proof of my "passion" for the Twilight Saga. Some of my other friends have made shirts too "Dazzling since 1918" and "As If You Could Fight Me Off". I commented to my friend "Dazzling Since 1918" how our quotes kind of reflect our personalities. She said, yeah, mine says I'm real old (LOL). You know that's not what I meant Jenny. Mine just says that I have NO shame. LOL. When I explained to my husband that I was making a shirt, he laughed and said, "Make me one that says I brought a snack." LOL When he saw that I was seriously going to do that, he told me he was just kidding.
To top off this cool event, it happens no less, than on my birthday. Happy Birthday to me! I have never been more excited for my birthday than when I was turning 16! All right ladies. Let me know if you made a shirt and what it said. I even want pictures emailed to me. Have fun tonight!

New Stuff

I put up a couple of posts. There are two. One is in Oct "Food Fest" and the other is in July "Honolulu Zoo". More to come.

Happy Birthday Kara!!

Our Kara has reached that milestone age of 8. She has watched her two older siblings get baptized, and has been anxioulsy waiting for this day to come. We decided to have her birthday party on the same day as her baptism (11/22). Kara was okay with that, as long as she was able to open some presents on her actual birthday.



Most people think of "shy and quiet" at the mention of Kara's name. What can I say, she is her father's child. LOL. Like her father though, she is the exact opposite of what the public sees. Kara is a fun girl, who loves to play and create. She loves to sing as well. She is also becoming quite the cook. Right now, she' s busy learning how to knit. Kara is very helpful around the house. She's also a very loving person, showing compassion towards those who need it. We love you Kara. Happy Birthday!!

Kakaako Waterfront Park (Veteran's Day Part II)

After visiting the memorial, we headed out for some other type of fun. We drove to Kakaako Waterfront Park. There they have these steep green hills. We joined the crowds with their cardboards and slid down the hills. It was a lot of fun. Even I went down a few times.

Hopefully, I will get some of the video footage up. Stay tuned.

My Attempt to Instill Some Patriotism (Veteran's Day)

Since becoming involved in Cub Scouts, I've gone to a few leadership training meetings. If you have a boy involved in the scouting program, citizenship is a big deal. I grew up in a foreign country mostly and have always been proud to be American. However, I don't think I fully appreciated what it meant to be American. Anyhow, through those meetings, I have felt motivated to teach my children what being an American means, and to help them appreciate our country's history and hopefully along the way, instill in the them a sense of patriotism (and pass of some achievements for Tyler's Bear Badge). I'm a multi-tasker, what can I say. I know this field trip would have fit better for Memorial Day, but I thought it was a good start in my patriotic endeavor. I took them to Pearl Harbor to visit the USS AZ Memorial. I have never been there until today. Before getting there, I explained to the children that we needed to show respect while we were there. Some of them had faces of "Hmmm, interesting" and others protested to even going. I decided that we were still going to go.

This is the anchor that was actually on the USS AZ ship. It is huge! Some of my kids thought I was kidding that that was a real anchor. Hard to believe huh.

We walked the grounds while we waited for our groups turn to take the tour. Behind them in the water is the USS Missouri. We will go back on another day to tour that.

Knowing that the whole tour would be 75 mins long, I made sure that we had a snack. It was a good day for ice-cream.

These are the tickets they gave you. On the back they have biographies of soldiers and civilians that were involved in the Pearl Harbor attack.

A dedicatory plaque on the grounds of the center.

Here's the facility you go to to wait to board the ship.

That's the boat we were waiting for to take us out to the memorial.

Finally it was our turn. Before boarding however, they take you into a theater to watch a 23 min clip about the attack with real footage. It was interesting.

We sat at the back, which was fun. Micah had fun watching the water behind us. Kara was a little nervous in the beginning.

Approaching the memorial.

I actually got scolded for taking this picture. I couldn't hear on the boat what they were saying about photography. Apparently, they didn't want pictures taken until you were inside. Oops.

This is the only visible part of the ship that you can see above the water.

More of the ship.

You can kind of see parts of the ship under the water.

In the memorial, they have this open area to view more of the ship. It is essentially a gravesite, so it was fairly quiet on the memorial.

The names of the soldiers who died aboard the ship. I think there are over 1000 (I think?).

The other side of the memorial, more of the ship.

I took this picture off the official website. This should give you a better appreciation for what we were seeing.

My two curious ones, trying to see the fish swimming around.

One last departing shot. It was a neat experience to see something so historical. I do have a respect for those serving our country and am very thankful for them. My brother-in-law was in Iraq for a year, and we're glad to have him back in one piece. I even have cousins that are in the mililtary. I think too, that my grandfather served in the Air Force around the time of WWII. (I'll check my facts later). After getting back and leaving the ship, Kara turned to me and said, "Mom, that was fun! I'm so glad you brought me. It was a good idea." Aaah. Score one for mom!