I've Conceded --- For Now

Every time I try to upload a picture, I get this message:

“http://www.blogger.com/upload-image.do” because the server where this page is located isn’t

responding.

We have a mac. Anyone with some answers, please let me know. It is driving me crazy.

I went today on everyone's blog to catch up and was feeling left behind in the blogging world, since I haven't been keeping up to date. So, to remedy this hopefully temporary problem, I will be using the PC .

Grrrrrrrrr. Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

This kinda gets you in the Christmas mood. Merry Christmas everyone!

We're having issues

We have a new computer. So naturally, I'm still trying to figure out how to do things. For some reason, it is not uploading my pictures so that I can put them on the blog. I think I have an idea of how to do, so wish me luck because there is a TON of stuff I need to put up here.

Twilight Saga: New Moon

Do you hear that? -------- It's the millions of fans screaming "thank-you" to Chris Weitz for his adaptation of New Moon from the book to the silver screen.

I first heard that Catherine Hardwicke was being replaced by Chris Weitz, I'm sure I wasn't the only one singing "halleluljah". I'm sorry, but Catherine Hardwicke was too cooky for me and her interpretation of Twilight was off. She missed the mark and gave us a shell of a story. Do I hate the Twilight movie --- not entirely. Do I want to start a petition for a redo of Twilight with Chris Weitz at the helm? ----- You betcha.

Knowing that I have no clout whatsoever in the world of moviemaking (to say the least), I will digress and focus on the movie at hand ---- New Moon.

It was awesome and I loved it!

New Moon is the slowest read of all the books, but the movie was great! I watched it and realized at the end, I did not have any complaints really (ok, maybe one, that vision that Alice had was a little weird).

Just from the trailer alone, I could tell that Summit had stepped things up, from the director to the special effects ---- this movie would at least be better than Twilight, and so it was ---- 10 x's better!

The story flow compared to the book was great, the acting was believable. My favorite scenes were mostly the break-up scenes: Edward and Bella in the woods, Jacob and Bella in the rain. I loved the reunion of Edward and Bella. My favorite line from the movie though was given by the wolves, which by the way were spectacular. I really did feel like the earth was shaking when I saw them. If you want to know which quote, text or email me ; ).

You always hear that the book is better, but when the credits rolled, there wasn't anything that I felt was left out or missed. The New Moon movie was the New Moon story.

Randy enjoyed the movie as well. Unfortunately, being that this was Jacob Black's story ----- he (meaning my husband), among many others are chanting TEAM JACOB. That's ok, I still love him.

We'll be revelling in the hype of New Moon for a while, but I'm sure the countdown for Eclipse has begun. My 9 y.o. is already asking when are we going to see the trailers for Eclipse. Yeah, I want to know too.

SURPRISE!!!

When Leigh suggested that we throw a surprise birthday party for Kara, I was excited at the idea. We had never done one before. I knew Kara would not expect it. With the help of my good friend Jen, we were able to pull it off.

We did it on Veteran's Day --- the day before her actual birthday. We really wanted to make it a surprise. We arranged for Kara to hang with her BFF for the afternoon. Her friends from Activity Days were invited. We had everyone meet us at the pool at Turtle Bay. Then we waitied. Jen (Emma's mom) walked the girls to the pool. We waited. As soon as Kara walked through the gate, we all yelled "SURPRISE!!" She truly was. The look on her face was great, she was shocked and surprised. She even dropped the plate of cookies she was holding.

There are the girls hiding in the pool just before yelling, "SURPRISE!"

The rest of the afternoon was spent swimming, eating pizza, cake & ice-cream!

The birthday girl enjoying the party.

Kara and her friends swimming. They swam for about 2 1/2 hours. They only stopped because their parents came to pick them up.

Getting ready to blow out her candles.

Her "Hello Kitty" cake that I made. It's very amateur (don't look too closely those of you professionals), I know, but it was fun. At the end of the day, Kara declared it "The BEST birthday ever!!"

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KARA!!!

Growing up ---- as a Mother

Today I was napping, while my kids were watching TV. Randy had taken Leigh to her volleyball tournament.

Sooooooo . . . . . . I was a little bit alarmed when Kara woke me to ask me where the baking soda was. (Very puzzled look on my face).

Mom: Why do you need baking soda Kara?

Kara: For the Triple Chocolate Quick Bread I'm making (of course).

Hmmmm.

Mom: Why are you making that? Mommy did not give you permission to do any baking right now.

Kara: Well, I'm bored. So where is it?

(At this point, I'm so tired because I had worked the night before, I explain to her where it is and then doze back off to sleep). She comes back again to ask me another question (don't remember what it is). Then I realize she said chocolate.

Mom: Kara, did you use the bag of chocolate chips that we have?

Kara: Yeah, I needed them for the recipe.

Mom: Oh Kara, we were going to make chocolate chip cookies out of those. Well, I needed them.

(Big sigh of resignation from me). Kara marches back off into the kitchen. I lay there thinking, "I'm afraid to go into the kitchen to the possible horror of mess." I calmly get up to check on her. She's in there stirring away at a concoction that looks more like a soup gone awry than a quick bread batter. (Another sigh, the kitchen's not too bad). I walk away and come back.

The concoction looks more like cookie dough now.

Kara: I added more flour because it seemed like it needed it.

Mom: Kara did the recipe ask for more flour?

Kara: I don't know. There's a lot of things in this recipe I didn't know. Like what does 1 slash 2 mean, and the other numbers?

At this point, she's done throwing all the ingredients together. I think trying to explain what "1 slash 2" means was a mute point. I try not to look alarmed and think, "Well, this should be interesting." She put it in a bread pan, helped her with the temperature settings and baked it. When it was done baking, it actually looked pretty good. I was honored to have the first taste. I'm sure the recipe was not followed to a "T" to say the least, but it did taste good. Kara was very proud of herself and so was I.

I was happy for my daughter's little accomplishment today, as well as my own. I'm not perfect by any means, but I'm getting better, I think especially in the patience department. I still lose my cool sometimes, but I do feel that I've gotten better about not getting worked up over little things and letting my kids enjoy their creativity, instead of focussing on the big mess that was made.

Here's a little secret I've found (which maybe many of you already know). I find when I don't get impatient and upset about situations like this and just praise my kids for the creativity part, they are so much more willing to help with the clean-up part. They are also more humble about the reprimanding part about the rules that were broken, and do follow the rules next time around.

I love growing as a mom. It makes me appreciate my kids so much more!

*** I did take a picture of the last piece of bread, but I am having trouble uploading from my phone.

Not Forgotten!

I'm sure those of you who do check our blog site once in a while have probably thought we've bitten the blogdust with this one.

No, not really. I've just been extremely busy to say the least. That busy? ---- Yes, that busy.

Anyhow, I am going to try to catch up with the month of October and get November started, as we've already had things going on. Bear with me.

Hopefully, I can remember October (LOL!)

Super Raider - Kara's turn to be by herself

We've kicked off the school year with a good start. The first month in and Kara was chosen to be a Super Raider for her class. She was happy this time to be the only one in our family for the month of August. Last year, she and Micah were Super Raider for the same month.



Congratulations Kara ------ keep it up!!!

Happy Birthday to our Favorite Dad!

Today was my hubby's birthday. Many funny things were said by my kids when dad's birthday was coming up. Upon discovery of his birthday being on a Sunday, one exclaimed that "we need to get him a Jesus tattoo." I know, a little irreverent, but funny. When hearing that Randy was turning 41, another of our precious children commented, "Awwwwh. He's growing up."
His birthday didn't turn out the way I had planned in my head (we've been EXTREMELY busy to say the least). One of the reasons why I love him, is that it didn't bother him at all. Leigh made him breakfast in bed. The kids made him a card. Randy's leaving on a trip to Seattle for a conference, and he's been asking me to come along. Well, after looking over things, I figured I would be able to go. So Happy Birthday Dear!

We LOVE you!!

New Moon Trailer

I did this last time when Twilight came out. Let's just say I felt the need to be consistent. The New Moon Extended Trailer debuted at the VMA's tonight. It was nice to watch it on my new flat screen TV in all it's HD glory! After watching it (maybe 20x's), it's obvious that Summit has stepped things up a notch, or two, or ten, with the quality of movie-making in the next part of this saga. Majority of people will say that New Moon is their least favorite, but Chris Weitz has definitely made it look exciting! New Moon comes out this time, the day before my birthday. Like I texted to my Twilight BFF (you know who you are), I'm probably one of the few people on the planet who can't wait for her 33rd birthday to come. Let the countdown begin (actually, you know that countdown started the day after Twilight premiered. LOL!). So, go ahead and watch it. It's all you got till November 20th, baby.

An Urgent Sunday

I found myself this afternoon in the Kaiser Urgent Care Clinic. Tyler had fallen on his wrist the day before, but didn't tell us till this morning that this had happened. It was swollen, he couldn't hold anything or rotate his hand. Sounds broken to me. After an XRay, no fracture. Whew! Dodged that bullet (a cast in Hawaii, is NOT fun!).


Tyler still has to wear a brace, till his wrist stops hurting. When he came home, he needed to finish his homework. We laughed out loud when he looked at us with that "Are you serious" look and said, "Don't I at least get a scribe?!". I felt bad for him, and volunteered.

Micah . . . . . . well, we are not quite sure what is going on with him. He had this blister on his leg (about an inch in diameter) on Friday. It looked like a burn. It had popped, we cleaned it and put an antibiotic ointment on it. By Sunday, it had doubled in size, including the area of skin sloughing off (sorry, don't mean to gross you all out). So I took him with me to get checked as well. We wanted to make sure it wasn't a flesh-eating bacteria. No, seriously, we really wanted to make sure it wasn't that. That doctor suspects that it is a staph infection. She gave us a prescription ointment. We shall see what happens. Where did he get it from? With him, there is no way to know.

This took up pretty much my entire Sunday, but I didn't mind. I'm happiest when I'm taking care of my family. I don't say that to brag at all, it's just true.

P.S. Lab results did say it was staph, but the infection is responding well to the ointment. He should be better soon.

Grandpa's Back!

Like I said, we are a stop on the way home for Grandpa! He came back, unfortunately, only for a day. So we just hung out.

He came bearing gifts as well. The kids loved it! My dad and I drove to Wal-mart to get a few things, picked up some Korean BBQ on the way home. It was good food.


We ended the night with a birthday cake. Tomorrow is Grandpa's birthday, but he gets on a plane tomorrow to go home. With crossing over the dateline, his birthday actually ends the minute his plane takes off. We decided to celebrate while he was here with us.


It is supposed to be a fish if you look carefully. It didn't quite turn out the way we wanted, but it was still delicious! We miss you and can't wait for your next visit! (Bring Grandma next time).

A visit from Pompa!

Some of you may already know that my parents are temporarily living in the Gilbert Islands. Along with overseeing the church facilities in the Gilbert Islands , my dad is also in charge of the Marshall Islands. The flight from the Gilbert Is. to the Marshall Is. is actually about 1 1/2 hrs. Unfortunately, there is no such flight. So, when my dad needs to go the Marshall Islands, he flies from there to Fiji, then to Hawaii, then to the Marshall Islands. Guess who he visits with in Hawaii?! -----Yay me!!


This past weekend, my dad stopped over and stayed with us. It was such a great visit. From the moment he arrived at our house Friday morning, he and I talked, and talked, and talked. We got some work errands done that morning, then I took him out to lunch. Micah joined us because he was home sick that day (poor guy). We went to Leilei's Restaurant at Turtle Bay Resort. The food was great! We got home, and my dad took Micah out, while I took a nap. When I woke up, the kids were home from school. We planned some menu items for dinner, then went back to the store with Pompa (one of my niece's calls him this), to buy the ingredients. Leigh and Grandpa made otai, while I made chicken enchiladas. Dinner was great.

Then a fishing trip was planned. Tyler and Grandpa made some more trips to the store to get bait and other goodies. We were up BEFORE the crack of dawn on a Saturday morning ----- 4:45am to be exact! We drove down to Haleiwa and began our fishing adventure.

In case any of you have never seen this phenomenon, this is what it looks like outside BEFORE the crack of dawn (LOL!). Dark! The guys getting all their baits and poles ready.

Our novice fishermen.

Kara, handling some bait.

Here's what Micah caught (haha!). Nah, that's the bait they used.

Yay! The sun was starting to come up. Randy and the kids casting, waiting for that bite.

Here's what they caught. Any guesses? Leave a comment.


Randy and Micah getting their hooks prepped.

Granpa showing Micah how to cast.

I was trying to be "artsy" with this shot. I need a real camera.

Eventually, the kids decided to play with the bait. There is a barracuda in the cooler that Grandpa caught. Any guesses yet on what Randy and the kids caught?

The boys. Grandpa forgot to turn and smile.

We had such a great time! We went home exhausted and it was only 10:30am (LOL!). That night my dad and I stayed up talking. It was so fun. We went to church the next day. Came home and had a nice dinner. We watched home videos and then it was time for Pompa to go on to the next leg of his trip. We were all sad after he left. The great thing though about being a stop-over on the way over, is that we get to be a stop-over on the way back. Yay me!! Grandpa will fly in next weekend before heading home. We already have plans in the making.

A FHE lesson idea

If you are needing ideas for FHE, I've posted a few that we've done for the past couple of weeks on my other blog "had a moment to spare". You can click on it on the list to the left.

How Does Your Garden Grow?!

The kids have been asking to start a garden. We drove over to Ace, bought some gardening stuff, came home and began. The girls were having a good time planting the seeds.


This is what we found after two days!


Those are cucumbers.

Seeing this has gotten me more excited. Now I want to build a big planter box to put more vegetables.

UPDATE - She's Officially a Red Raider

This past week was tryouts for the Kahuku Intermediate Volleyball team. Leigh decided she was going to try. Friday, I picked up Leigh and she made the announcement that she had made the team! She doesn't know yet what position. I guess she'll find out at her first practice. Congratulations Leigh!

UPDATE - She will be "libero/defense specialist" (to me that's the same) if any of you were curious.

First Day of School!

Today was the first day of school. This day did come much faster than it did last year. I had fun all summer with my kids, but I am ready for them to go back. I think they are ready as well.

Micah is going to 1st grade. I think one of the fun things about a new school year is having a new school teacher. Well, when he found out who his teacher was going to be, he was --- slightly disappointed, then got over it. His teacher from last year moved up from Kindergarten to 1st and he has been assigned to her again. Don't get him wrong. He loved his teacher from last year, but I think he was more disappointed in the fact that it wasn't a new name, more than anything. Like I said, he got over it and is happy about it.

Kara, thankfully got who she wanted, along with her BFF. Whew, dodged that bullet of "why can't Emma and I be in the same class." Kara is getting braver and braver with life, and goes now into the classroom on her own, not without a kiss and hug of course. When Randy and I walked away, she was sitting next to this big boy and had the look of "(Grrrrr.) I'm not comfortable sitting here." LOL!

Tyler is the big man on campus now, well, almost. He's in 5th grade (that came way too fast). I'm especially excited because in this school, 5th graders start to be involved in the AVID program. Basically a program that helps kids be organized with their school work. He came home with a different attitude, it was one I hadn't seen before. It was an attitude of "I need to be organized". (Cue the hallelujah's).

Leigh is now in the 7th grade! All of 6th grade year and summer, she was worried about going into Intermediate School. When questioned why, her reply was that the kids were scarier there. I told her there was nothing to worry about. The day came to pick up her schedule. I think the excitement in the air maybe changed things because after that, she couldn't wait to start! She had her first day, going from class to class, figuring out where everything was, who was in her class, and what the teachers were like. I laughed when I read her schedule because she had 2 teachers that I had when I attended Kahuku HS. Also, (my roommates from college will laugh) she has a good friend of mine from college as her Science teacher (Kaniela Kalama). The first day of school when he called her name, he said out loud in front of the whole class, "I used to work with your mom." She said it was only slightly embarassing (LOL.) She came home happy declaring herself a "Red Raider" now.

We've been back in Hawaii for a year now and I feel that the kids have adjusted. Everyone is happy with life ------ for now (haha).

Happy Birthday Micah!

July 30th is my monkey's birthday. If any of you have seen my son Micah in action, you'll understand why I call him my monkey. He's the youngest of our clan and we all love him (though some of us won't admit it. LOL!). He is definitely always full of energy, he's smart, he loves to just play, he's a great helper and is a funny guy.
He turned six and so we celebrated on Saturday by doing what he wanted to do. When you're six, fun is just hanging out with your friends and family. He invited his two friends and we all went to the beach for the day.

Micah and his "brother from another mother" (That's what they call each other).

Tyler and Randy trying to catch a big one. It was pretty rough that day.

Kara enjoying the day.

Tyler and Randy did catch one! Kara using her "Vanna" skills to show the fish.

Tyler and Seth showing the little fish they caught.

So much fun!!

I had fun watching Randy help each of the kids fish.

Micah showing the "aquarium" they made for their catches.

My preteen soaking up the sun.

My son wanted a "spider-man" cake. So I used my internet surfing skills and copied this idea from someone. It turned out great and Micah LOVED it!


HAPPY BIRTHDAY MICAH!

Diary of a Busy Mom

Here was my day:

5:15 am - Alarm went off.
5:30 am - Rolled out of bed.
6:30 am - Went for my morning run.
9:30 am - Out the door with 4 kids in tow to pick up my 7th graders school schedule and get an ID 9i can't believe I have a child this old).
10:00 am - Swim lessons for all 4 kids (last day. YAY!)
11:00 am - Rush home to change all 4 kids & feed them lunch.
11:30 am - Out the door with the same 4 kids for an hour's drive into Honolulu at UH for Leigh's Volleyball Camp (last day. YAY!).
1:00 pm - Drop Leigh off and head to Bishop's Museum to entertain my other 3 kids for a couple of hours while we wait for Leigh.
3:30 pm - Done at Bishop Museum, head to McD's for a treat, then back to UH to watch Leigh play (BTW, we spent 20 mins going from gym to gym trying to find which one Leigh was playing in. Of course it was the last one that we looked in.)
5:30 pm - Get all 4 kids back in the van for another 1 hour drive back home (catching a little rush hr traffic as well).
6:30 pm - Finally reach home (after being in the car with loud children).

Can we say "busy"?!

Here are the pictures to prove it:


Swim lessons. Micah getting instructions. He loved swim lessons.

Due to Kara's shyness, we put her in private lessons. She came out of her shell and now swims like a fish. You'd be proud Aunty Sara.

Tyler learned what swimming was all about. He did have fun doing it.

Leigh loved swim lessons as well. She did great and improved on her skills.

Bishop Museum. The kids trying to pump the volcano display.

Kara trying to go down a not-so-slippery slide.

So cute!

Where's Arizona?! That's what the kids always ask when they see a map or globe.

He's one of those mutant 5 animals rolled into one creature.

Insect exhibit.


Tyler and Micah looking on at their Tongan heritage. The Bishop museum has many polynesian artifacts on display.

Leigh waiting for the serve.

Phew! All done! Leigh had fun though. Four days of volleyball camp. Each day was 4 hours long. I knew she had worked hard when I would pick her up and she was demanding to eat meat! LOL!


These two girls were her coaches. They both play for UH's volleyball team.

Micah posing for one last shot.

Busy? ---- Yes. I'll tell you a secret though (come close). I didn't mind at all and would do it again, because I love being a mom.



I think I'm gonna go to bed now.