LoW's Awesome Give-Away

So LoW is having an awesome give-away on her blog. So far I think this is the first time that a blogger is doing a food storage give-away. We, Mormons are big on Food Storage and let's face it, now with the economy going where it is going these days, I'm sure Food Storage might come in real handy. I'm not saying that I've got years worth of Food Storage like most of the LDS families but I do believe in it. I'm just starting out so when I see LoW's give-away about it, instantly I entered myself. To win the stuff she has on her give-away would be a great addition to my fairly new stash I am just now building, so to speak.

To know more about it, you can just click on her name up there or click on her button on my sidebar and it'll take you right to her blog. I'm pretty sure you would like what she has on her give-away so don't pass this chance up. If you don't blog but would like to enter her give-away, all you have to do is check her blog out, comment on her give-away post and email her link and give-away to your friends.

So, what ya waiting for? Click here to enter her give-away. See, I've even made it easier for you. I've linked you right to her specific give-away post so you don't have to search for it when you get to her blog, I'm thoughtful that way, so if I were you, I'd click myself on over there.

Aight, I've done all I can for you..LOL.

On the homefront....this is the second week of Spring break for my kids. I'm still alive, my hair is still on top of my head, haven't lost it yet and the kids are still alive and kicking, I haven't buried them, YET, ahah. On a yipee note, hubby comes home tonight from his trip. Kids are really excited to see him home, I think they are more excited to see if he brings them a surprise. Me, I know he's bringing me something I told him to pick up while in Tuscon so I can't wait to see him....now how self-centered am I, you ask.

Sorry but a girl has to think of herself once in a while, no? LOL. Ok enough nonsense. I've been trying to post some pictures of my daughter's prom on here but some reason the computer is not uploading the pictures from my phone...I wanted to do some before-and-after pix of her hair do but doesn't look like I will be able to do that. So I will try again some more and if it still doesn't work, then I'll just post the ones she took from her friend's camera. {Oh yeah, that is one of the things I'm happy to see my hubby home for, he's the computer nerd so hopefully since he missed me so much (LOL) he wouldn't mind fixing this problem for me.}

Alright, enjoy your Monday and don't forget to check out the give-away on LoW's blog.

Aloha!!

Aloha folks!! I know it has been a week since my last post. It's Spring break and kids are home for two weeks. That means with all seven kids at home, every form of entertainment equipment we have in the house has been monopolized by one kid or another. Even my own computer has been taken over by the kids, truly sad for a mom to wait her turn to get on her own computer...eheheh. And I guess I'm just being in a lazy mode.

Anyways, just a little update. Since my last post, there have been some little happenings here and there. I posted last Friday about my youngest son's class presentation. Well, that Friday morning after I've posted my post, my hubby called after dropping the kids off at school asking me if I know that my son Danny was super citizen that day. That was news to me since no one has told me about it. My son has told my hubby that he would be and there was a Super Citizen Assembly that morning. I went through all my emails (I usually get emails from Danny's teachers almost everyday) and even went through his backpack (he's forgotten to take it to school with him that morning) and did NOT find any notes or letter whatsoever that would inform me that my son was super citizen. Since my son insisted that he was, I had to call the school. And sure enough, he was chosen from his class for the month of February to be a Super Citizen. This was around eight in the morning and the assembly would be starting in half an hour. I was so mad at his teachers but anyways, I had to quickly got ready and ran out the door. I had to stop and bought him candy leis and spent way more money on the leis than I would normally spend if I had made leis myself. I made it to the assembly on time and able to see my son go up on stage and received him award.
Saturday morning, our whole family made it day out dropping my hubby off at the airport to leave for the mainland on a business trip and a little visit with his mom. We spent the better half of the morning hanging out at the airport. Sunday was pretty quiet around here. For some reason, the kids were a little more cooperative than I expected, didn't give me as much of a trouble as they usually do every Sunday. Guess they must have felt sorry for me or something...LOL.

Monday was spent mostly playing. I think I actually slept in that day. The kids were just content to just lay around the house, playing X-Box, watching TV and playing on the computer. I even heard my oldest daughter laughing and hooting when she was challenging her brothers to a game on the X-Box. It was nice having all the kids home especially having her home with the rest of the kids and playing with them. She was always the one who was constantly gone doing one thing or another either for school or sport.

Tuesday, we spent it doing most of the never ending piles of laundry we have spread out all over the house. And believe me, we still have long ways to go. I've never been so sick of a house chore as I do with laundry. There was always dirty laundry to clean and clean ones to fold. Seems like as soon as I thought I'm caught up, I find I have at least three loads waiting to be done. Sheesh!!!

Wednesday, we decided to make it a day at the beach. We went to Waimea. The weather kept changing, really sunny one minute and the next minute it was raining and windy. The little kids had fun playing in the sand and watching the big waves rolled up on the beach. I think we've gotten some of our stuff soaked from the rolling waves a couple of times. The older kids spent most of the time jumping off the rock into the water. They were having so much fun it was kinda hard prying them away from the beach. We had to make our beach day short because Jen and Joey had choir that afternoon. But Waimea hasn't seen the last of us yet...eheheh.


Here's our little princess enjoying the sand. She gets real kick out of rolling around in the sand to get sand all over her and then jumping onto the blanket I laid on the beach (and making sure I keep all the sand off) and spreading sand all over me and the blanket. The little rascal.






There's Danny checking in on Mom, LOL and Joey trying to keep warm. Everytime it started drizzling, he would run out the water to come wrap himself up in a towel to keep himself warm, the silly goose.

I didn't get a chance to take pictures of the older kids jumping off the rock. Because it kept raining and stopping and the wind blowing like crazy, I was afraid to leave my spot, the wind kept uprooting our beach umbrella so I had to sit there and kept from blowing away. As you can see, they looked like they had a really great time. We are definitely going back before the Spring break is over.

Yesterday, I took Stephanie to get her nails done. She's going to their prom tonight so she wanted her nail done. My friend Brandi will be doing her hair this afternoon. She's so excited about prom.

Last night, our Cub Scout had their Pinewood Derby. This is the first year for my son Joey and he was sooo excited about the Derby that was all he could talk about for the last two weeks. They had the race last night and he came in Second Place. He was so happy to have finally been able to go a Derby Race and have his own car race instead of watching his older brother's car race instead.

(Here's Joey at the race in his Scout uniform. Doesn't he look handsome?)

(Here are some of the cars at the race. The gray car right next to the yellow car is Joey's car. The yellow car was the first place winner and Joey's was the Second place. All the boys were so sweet, they were so happy for the first place winner, his parents are inactive so the boy came to the race with his inactive dad to the race and this boy has been in Primary for while but this is the first time he's ever been in the Derby. The kids had a blast.)

I was multi-tasking last night, videotaping the race for my hubby since he couldn't be at the race, helping out with the Beehive in the kitchen with their activity (they were making home-made pizza and cinnamon rolls) and managing the snack table. And taking turns talking to my hubby on the phone to keep me updated on what's happening. The poor guy wanted to be there but since he was still on his trip, we tried to make it look like he was there in person by having him on the speaker phone so he would hear what was happening. It was interesting. I think because of that multi-tasking, I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked and didn't really do a good job on the picture taking either. That is something I DO NOT, absolutely do not care to do again in the near future.

So there you have it folks. A little update on this week. I will be posting on Stephanie's new hair do later on tonight or tomorrow along with her all dolled up for prom. Now I need to get off and go see about what to make for lunch. Both girls are gone right now, Jen's babysitting for somebody today and Steph's gone with her friend to have her friend get her nail done today.

So have a great Friday folks and hopefully your weekend will be an easy one. Ta-da for now!!

My Little Guy's Ocean Animal

Meet my son Danny...He's six years old and in First Grade.

This month his class has been learning about animals in the ocean and the teacher assigned each kid to pick an animal that lives in the ocean to do a research on it and then present it in class. Here's my son with his poster. He picked EEL to do his presentation on.

He did his research all on his own. He loves playing on the computer so getting him to get online to research about his chosen animal wasn't too much trouble on my part. He was suppose to write facts about the animal he picked like what the animal eats, what structures the animal has on its body to survive in the wild, if the animal is a mammal, a fish, a crustacean, or an invertebrate. And everything has to be handwritten. He was to include pictures of his animal and he could get his pictures either by hand drawn, from magazines or books and even off the internet.

So my son did his research with a little help from his older sister. His teacher gave him the pictures and he colored them all by himself. I didn't even help him at all with this project of his. I am so proud of him for doing a good job. His teacher once told me that he loves standing in front of the class to do presentation.

One time they did a little show-how-to do something, my son wanted to show his classmates how to make a homemade card using rubber stamps. {Looks like he's following in his mom's footsteps..lol.} Well, he came home, picked out a favorite stamp, his favorite color combination and asked me to help him make a card. When using two different color ink pad, I always make sure I washed off any ink off the stamp before I use it again in another ink and this son of mine, since he was very little, I used to let him stamp with me, had learned to do the same thing. He was very meticulous. Anyways, his teacher said he did wonderful job teaching his classmates that day. Talk about a proud moment.

As you can see in the picture, he looks like he enjoyed himself. Did I mention I am very proud of him? Because I do.

Anyways, today is Friday, last day of school for the kids then they will be out of school for two weeks for Spring Break. And tomorrow my hubby will be going off island for whole week on business trip and a little visit with his mom. I am going to be totally slave driving my kids these two weeks of their break, poor dears...eheheh. Nah, I'm just kidding. But we do need to do some serious spring cleaning, I can't begin to describe the filth that's accumulating in this house. I'm actually a little scared to go in my boys' room, I can't see the floor.

So have a wonderful weekend everyone.

A Little Creativity

This past Saturday our Monthly card group had another get together to swap card, create beautiful cards and just enjoy each other's company. Our theme for this month was on Celebration. Since last month and this month is Sell-a-Bration months for StampinUp, we chose the month of March to the month where each person can create any card they want using either recent Sell-a-Bration stamps or accessories or past Sell-a-Bration products.

I was the demo for this month so I chose to demo water color technique using SU's watercolor crayons. I think of all the inks in the catalogue, watercolor crayons are the only inks we haven't tried yet so I thought it would be a really fun technique to try.

This is the card I demo that night. I use one of the stamps from our Sell-a-Bration catalogue to stamp the outline of the flowers in Stazon Black ink pad and then using watercolor crayon, I color directly on the stamp and then spray a little water on it and then stamp it inside the outline. The ladies loved this technique especially when using the Aqua pen to distribute the ink evenly inside the outline of the flower and leaves. And of course, a card would never be complete without the use of ribbon and brads, as far as I'm concerned. Very simple, yet elegant and cute at the same time, what ya think?

Here are some of the cards that some of our ladies made. I am trying not to make a really long post by posting all the cards, there were five ladies who couldn't make it to our card swap so I haven't gotten their cards yet, so I've decided to feature some of my favorites on this post. I will be posting the rest of the cards on my card slide show on the left side bar if any of you are interested to see them all.

This card on the left was made by our thirteen year old member. She used one of our dye cuts to create this card and a five petal flower punch. Very simple too yet cute. She was really excited to try out the newest addition to the SU collection, the Big Shot. Good job Jasmine!!The card on the right was made by Jocelyn, Jasmine's mom. See how she recycle...she uses the negative cut-out from her daughter's cards (Saffron card stock) to add a little illusion to her card. Isn't that clever? I love this card, very brilliant Joce.


Brandi made this card. She used Elegant Eggplant ink pads to stamp the chandelier and the sayings on So Saffron card stock. Those are colors that are rarely combined but she used them and they look absolutely wonderful together. Who'd have thought uh? And look how elegant that makes. I just love that chandelier stamp. She even used a rhynestone brad on the chandelier. Loooove it!!

This is Sister Dixon's card. If you look closely, you can see all the stitched marks she made. She used a gel pen to make all those stitches to make it look like a quilt. Who said that stitched quilt squares are only meant for fabric. This card even though may look simple, took a lot great deal of time and love to make. All the little squares are punched out using square punch and then glued on individually and then she used the gel pen to draw all those stitches on. A lot of work on just one card so imagine making that same card fourteen times...that was how many cards she made for the swap. LY Sis. Dixon...love this card.
The next card...the one we always wait til last to pass around, was made by our very creative and talented Kathy...I mentioned before that all her cards she made, there are a story attached to each one of them.This one she said, it was inspired by one of her scrap book pages she made for one of her grand daughter. Look how she used a ribbon to make the stem and leaves of the flower, very creative. Now I gotta tell you a little about Kathy. A few years ago, she was called as our RS homemaking Counselor and I was the RS secretary. At time, card making was big thing for me, still is, so I was always looking for people to either host card parties for me or join my group. We had a Presidency meeting one weekend and I have a SU party that I was hosting and demonstrating so I just casually invited all three ladies to come if they have time. So, she came along with the RS President, I gotta admit, she was the one I least expect would even show up. It turned out she was looking for something her mom could do to pass the time in her old age. But then when Kathy came to my SU party, it turned out to be something she really loved doing. It was always nice seeing how she incorporate all the technique and products not just in making cards but everything else she touches. And it's soo cute that her hubby is her biggest fan, the most supportive husband, whenever he travels for business, he always stop at a craft store and buy her something to add to her neat collection.

Of course, I can't just end it here without showing you my card I made. I am always into making fun cards, maybe because of the fact that my kids are my main critique and users of my creativity, I have to make cards that they love. Seriously, whenever I am creating a project, as soon as I am done with it, I would take it to each of the kids to ask for their input. It's actually a great way for me to find out what colors are more interesting to each kid. So here's my card...I borrowed this idea from Dawn.


I used the same stamp set that I used for the demo to make my flower but in this card I didn't use the watercolor technique. Looks very simple and kinda bland, isn't it? The fun part of the card is that you slide the yellow half of the card like it showed on the left. It's kinda like a "surprise!!" card. Very cute, very simple yet something a kid would spend time playing with...sliding the top back and forth, like sliding a door open and close, no?

My kids love this card, so do I. It's a bday card, can't wait to see which one of the kids is going to claim this one for his/her friend.

Our hostess was so cute, her whole theme for the night was St.Patrick's Day. The food were all green, we had green veggies, green salad, green chicken enchiladas, and lime-ade for drink. She even made green hats made out of papers and filled them with any green covering candy she could get her hands on and stacked those hats on a pyramid on top of her table. And then she printed up some Irish proverbs, curses, prayers and even lullaby for us to pass the time while waiting for the late-comers. It was absolutely wonderful. I regret that I forgot to take my camera with me that night....again.

Hope y'all like this little creativity. Enjoy!!

My First Moving Violation

I got my first speeding ticket this weekend, Saturday between five and six o'clock in the morning. Yeah, it took me three days to finally get used to the fact that I've got my first moving traffic violation. The officer who pulled me over said I was going 50 in a 35 mile zone which I totally disagree. I could have sworn the speed limit was 45 so if I have to follow the rule to the letter, I was actually within boundary...I think.

So what was I doing getting a ticket so early in the morning you ask? Well, my daughter Steph, has her last canoe race for the year. I was taking her to Wahiawa {which is about an hour away} to catch her bus that would take her team to the race site. Just before I reached Haleiwa, I saw the flashing light in my rear-view mirror so I pulled over. And that's when I got my ticket. It kinda happen so fast that it took me a while to realize that I was given a ticket. And darn, that was one expensive ticket....as if I have money to just throw away like that...sheesh.

And the nerve of the guy, after giving me a ticket, he had the nerve to warn me about wild pigs being spotted on the road, like I care. He just slapped me with a ticket of more than a hundred dollar and he thought I would care that there were wild pigs on the road?

Just too bad that I totally lack the ability to sweet talk myself out of the ticket. Oh well, I guess that's just fate. Hopefully after I pay for the ticket, my slate will wipe clean and I don't get that on my record....we'll see. Other than, everything was good. Got to spend the rest of Saturday going places with the family and doing absolutely nothing.

Hope y'all have a good weekend.

A Little FYI!!!

I have been thinking about doing this post for a while and today after getting an email from my best friend and mentioning something that's been on my mind for a while, I've decided today is as good a day as any to post this. Now this post is not by any means to discourage or to be made to sound like a whine or complaint because in all honesty, I do love where I'm living right now.

Whenever a person who doesn't live here find out I live in Hawaii, one of the top things they usually say is..."oh wow, you're so lucky you live in Paradise". I am listed on the Mormon Mommy Bloggers list "Sweeter Life". What is that mean? Does it mean because I am living in Hawaii or what others dub as Paradise, I am living the sweeter life? What is a sweeter life? Does it mean that if a person live in the land of mostly summertime, that person does not have any other worries or problems that those who live elsewhere has?

Do you know that there is a price for living in Paradise? Do you know that there is a huge cost to having sun all year round...well majority of the time anyways?

A few years ago, I worked as driver for the airport shuttle for BYUH. I took the job because it was fun and easy job...the hours of the job was very flexible esp. for a mom with kids who are still at home. I love the hours, they have different shift so I could pick the time that worked best for me and of course, I loved little break time for me. I also love meeting the new students that were coming or leaving BYUH.

Because it's at least an hour drive, sometimes I would strike up conversations with the students just see what their plans are either when they return home or what they're plans were for college. I often notice that there is kind of a pattern with their responses. The students who were leaving, when I asked them how they liked BYUH, oh they would carry on and on about how wonderful the beach is, the sun and how laid back life is here. But all that fun must come to an end and it's time to go back to reality. {How rude!! See me here in the van...I live here, does it look like I'm living some dream life or a fantasy life?} But of course, I usually kept my mouth shut and just let them go on and on with their plans. The kids who were coming {usually these mainland kids would come for just a semester, and usually during spring and summer term}, you can tell their excitement. The uppmost on their things they wanted to do....that was after asking me where would be the place to go surfing or hiking. Excuse me but I thought they were coming to BYUH to go to school. But of course, I was gracious enough to suggest a few great surfing places and a few hiking places that I know....usually something close to the school. It was good to see them excited about this place and sometimes I couldn't help but be excited for them.

But like all good things, there's also a bad side too. Like I said, there is a prize for Paradise. There is a huge cost of the sun. Because Hawaii is a such a beautiful and sought after place, tourism is a huge industry here. From tourism, comes the extremely high cost of living. Costs of homes and everything else here cost either twice or trice the cost of mainland living...ok so most of the mainland states. A friend of mine just recently moved here from Tennessee and we were talking on the phone and while were catching up on each other's life, she gasp and exlaimed,

"What is up with the price of milk here? I have to ask...does the cows here eat a certain diet that's different from the mainland cows makes the milk here to cost more?"

I couldn't help but laugh at that. I knew what she was talking about because just a couple of days before our conversation, I was the grocery store and when I came upon the milk, there were some guys standing there, pointing at the price of the milk, shaking their heads in disbelief. Yeah, the price of the milk was eight bucks a gallon. I was laughing on the inside when I saw them, I'm sure it must've been quite a shock for them. The lowest cost of milk is about five bucks unless they go on sale then it's around three bucks or so. So when my friend was going on and on about the milk, I was laughing, not that I was trying to be rude or anything. And that's not the only thing that the price can choke a person. Everything, food, clothing, housing....the cost is higher than mainland cost.

And the sun....oh you mainlanders are always saying, that us island dwellers have no cause to be depressed about anything since we live in the land of sunshine and all year summer. But does anyone know that because of how expensive things are here, the surest way to get a free activity is going to the beach? And hanging out at the beach in the blazing sun brings on sunburn and even lead to skin cancer? {And I'm not saying that we're the only ones who worry about cancer because cancer does not discriminate.} Yes, it's a great place in that the weather is great but it's got it's drawback in that from the sun, and most activities revolve around the sun and beach, sunburn is unavoidable. Oh yeah, we do use sunscreen but eventually the thing wears out and if one doesn't reapply, you can bet there will be sunburn.

The last couple weeks it's been freezing over here. Yeah yeah yeah....you're laughing at me saying, I don't know what freezing is until I've lived in a Utah or Idaho winter. Yes, I know what Utah winter is like that is why I am really glad I am not living in a Utah winter but at least you can go in your house and turn on your heater. There are no heaters whatsoever in Hawaii. You can file on all the blankets you can find in your house to keep warm but then a person will never be able to get up and do any housechores without dragging those blankets around. To keep warm sometimes, we turn on our oven. And if you're like me, your oven would probably smell crappy because more often than not, I forget that I've spilled something in the oven two days or a day before when I was trying to roast chicken or bake our last minute unplanned dinner....LOL. So who would want to smell a stinky oven all day long just to keep warm?

So, if I am saying that I am freezing my buns off...I really am freezing my buns off...LOL. I am not writing this post to get some sympathy or to make it sound like a whining or complaint post, I'm merely trying to point out that even living in Paradise as most people see it has it's disavantages. Sometimes we don't have a choice in where we live. Don't get me wrong, I love living here but I would much prefer living someplace where I don't have to worry so much about how expensive even the basic needs are.

One more disadvantage of living here is that, I can't just get in the car and drive to my family's house or my in-law's house. If I actually want to see any of my family, the only way for me to do that is through air and of course that can be costly too. At least living on the mainland, you can just throw your stuff in the back of your car and cross the state line to go see grandma and granpa or mom and dad.

So if by chance any of us island dwellers or Paradise dwelling mommies ramble a little bit about how we might be bordering a little bit on the D word, as Crash would call it, be a little more understanding. Our fears, hopes and dreams are as real as those of you mainland dwellers.

With that said, I want to let you all know that I do love you all!!

This is my ramblings for the day, need to get 'em off my chest. If I ended up losing followers or offending readers...it is not my intention at all to be offensive. As I said earlier, this post is only meant to inform.

What a Sunday!

I am still trying to organize my feelings for today. Remember two weeks ago I post about putting my foot in my mouth?

{To see the whole post, you can go here.}

Well, today I got a new calling and guess what my calling is? I've gotten a calling in Young Women as the Beehive (12-13 year olds) Adviser. I don't really how to feel about this calling at all. On one hand I'm a little excited that I've finally gotten to be in Young Women but on the other hand, I'm not too anxious about the teaching part. I was kind of hoping I would be in one of my daughters' classes, like MiaMaid or Laurels but instead I am in the Beehive class. I don't know what to make of those girls, some of them were just in Primary last year and they were not very pleasant so I am hoping that maybe now that they are older, they might be a little more mature. On the other hand, I like the counselor who's over the Beehive class. So we'll see, hopefully I will be able to fulfill this calling...I think this calling is probably more for me, to get over my fear of teaching than anything else.

So of course, since it's the first Sunday, fast and testimony meeting so I bore my testimony along with the others who did. I am always a bumbling mess when bearing my testimony but I just felt it's something I had to do. I don't know why I can get up and deliver a speech or a talk without any hesitation or even any hint of tremor in my voice, but as soon as I start bearing my testimony, I am like huge mess as though someone has turned on a water hose in my eyes. Totally pathetic if you ask me. The rest of the meetings went by in a blur.

When church finally came to an end, I came home to find a letter my 15 yr old daughter has written for me and my hubby. I asked her what the letter was for and she said, they learned in their class to honor their parents so she had to write a letter to us to express her feelings and gratitude to her parents.

Here's what she wrote:

Dear Mom and Dad,

I'm writing this letter to tell you two how much I appreciate and love you guys! I know I always seem to give you guys a hard time. Especially you mom. With my attitude and my carelessness. I know how frustrating it must be for you to try to put up with me. But please know that I'm trying so hard to be a daughter that you can depend on. I'm trying to with all my might and all my heart. And I'm especially thankful that you're putting so much effort and money in to my trip. I would've never been able to do it without you. And Dad I'm so sorry for not helping mom out around the house. You work so hard trying to support our big family. I'm trying real hard to do my chores w/out being asked. And even trying to help teach Danny & Joey by being an example so they won't give you as hard a time as I do. I want you to know that I'm trying my hardest to be a daughter you can love and be proud of. I'm so thankful for all your love and support. I know you guys are trying hard so thank you. I love you, Mom. I love you, Dad. And thank you.

Love always, Jen.

Awww, how sweet. That made me tear up again. I guess she was listening after all. Who would have thought? All these times when I am telling her to do stuff and she was spacing out on me, she's been listening after all.

Hope y'all have a good day today.