Pay It Forward

Jeannie at Jeannie's Happy World is having a Pay It Forward on her blog and I've decided to participate in it. It's actually cool because I will get a chance to get surprised totally kewl hand-made stuff from her...ok so it's kewl because 1)I love surprises and 2) I adore home-made/hand-made stuff.

Home-made/hand-made stuff? Yes, that's what I said. You like them don't you? Yeah, me too. So, here's a game to get and receive some goodies. The first 5 people to leave a comment on this post, will receive, at some point during the year a handmade gift from me.

The catch is that you must participate too. Before you leave your comment here, write up (or copy and paste) a pay it forward post on your blog to keep the fun going. Then, come back, let me know you are going to play. Remember that only the FIRST FIVE comments will receive a gift from me, so be quick!

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:
1. I make no guarantee that you will like what I make. But, I will try my best to make sure that you do.
2. It will be done this year (hopefully sooner than later).
3. You will have no clue what or when it will be. Please make sure to leave your e-mail address too so I can get a hold of you.

So what ya say? Wanna play?

People who followed the rules and is playing the game the way it should be:
1. Amanda
2. Lexi
3. Crash
4.
5.


Looks like I still need more people to fill up the five spaces..so hurry up and play!! LOL

A Weekend Mishap (Katie's new do...lol)

Look what my daughter did to her beautiful curly hair!! Last night while I was gone with my teens to attend Youth Fireside, my daughter Kaitlin decided to play beauty shop and cropped off the hair on the left side of her head. Apparently she decided she needed a hair cut and since no one was available to give her what she wished, she decided to take that job upon herself. When I came home last night, I thought something didn't look right on her. And that was when I noticed that practically half of the hair on the left side of her head had been cut off.

When I asked her what happened to her hair, she flat out told me the truth, that she cut her hair. Not only did she cut that side off, but she also trimmed off the bottom part of her hair....looks too perfect a cut for a 2 1/2 yr. old to pull that off. I have my suspicions about this hair cut but so far no one has admitted to anything and she was very adamant that she cut it herself.

I know I know, you're looking at me and probably screaming at me about how and where she got the scissors from. I honestly can't say where she got a hold of that thing. I have my stuff put away but I guess it's not really out of her reach. Yeah, that's part of my Neglectful Parent Syndrome confession that I was going to come clean with on Friday but didn't get around to. In my defense I can honestly say that she wasn't on my watch when this happened. I left her in the capable hands of my hubby..the sperm donor...who's supposed to be watching her while I was gone. After all I was only fulfilling another part of my mommy duty by taking my teens to Youth Fireside and attending the fireside as part of my calling.

I'm a bit bummed about this because her hair has finally gotten to the point where I can french braid it and she went and did that. She has such beautiful curls....(sighs deeply). Now my dilemma is trying to figure out how to fix the other side to match the side she cut off but do it in a way that she doesn't come off looking like a boy.

This is what other side looks like. Poor beautiful curls...oh well.



This is a picture of her before her haircut. Her hair was long enough that I could put it in pony tail, braid it and just at the point where I can french braid it.

Here she is again with her lopsided hair-do..lol. Look how proud of herself she is of her accomplishment...ahahah. She doesn't seem too bothered by the fact that her hair looks absolutely ridiculous and lopsided....sheeesh. Now, I'm kinda curious and need some input from any of you...how would you go about fixing this problem? Do I just chop the other side off to make it even or do I just leave her hair the way it is now? I know if I do cut off the other side to match them up, she will come off looking like a boy...can you imagine the stink eye people are going to give me once they see her? Those who know me will think I'm too cruel to do that to my daughter...the ones who don't know me will think I'm one of those weird moms who go around dressing their boys up in girls' clothing..lol.

Anyhooo, this is my little ramble for this beautiful Monday morning. I need to get off now and go outside and sit in the sun for a while...we've been having rainy and cloudy weather more than the usual for Hawaii that I actually miss the sun. But before I go, let me direct you to the Mormon Mommy Blogs for some great give-away prizes. Just click here to take you there or scroll to the very top of this blog and read my directions on how to get you there.

Mahalo and God bless!!

Here's to you to ponder!!

I've been preparing my lesson for my Beehive class and I needed a little inspiration to help enhance my lesson so of course I've been cruising in the cyper world. I've come across this and love it so much, I thought I'd share it with you.



Hope you have a peaceful Sunday!!

Look how creative I can be.....

For Christmas, along with my gifts she made me, my Mother-in-Law sent me this cute little tin-can with a little note asking me to make something for her. She loves getting pictures of her kids and grand kids so I was always looking for creative ways to make pictures of our family to send to her as gifts so I don't just send plain pictures. One year I made this cute little album in a can, where I took pictures of our family and using an Altoids tin can, I transfer it into a cute little album. It was just the perfect gift for her because she can carry it with her wherever she goes and when she wants to show off her son and his family who live in Hawaii, all the has to do was take that little tin album out and show them. It was such a hit that this year, she sent me this tin can you see here. And a little note telling me to make another one for her since the kids are older and there's a new addition to our family.


So, that's what I did. I took the tin can and with a little more creativity, I turned the empty can into this work of art...brilliant, uh?

Here's the tin again, closed. (She loves cats so the lid is perfect, I don't need to do anything to it.)


This is what it looks like when it's opened up. I was supposed to have a picture of my hubby but I didn't get around to taking any recent one of him, but will do that before I give this to my MIL. The next moving picture shows what it looks like all finished. I still need to put a picture of my son Chris on there. He was also missing when I was taking pictures of the other kids.


The first page is supposed to be where my hubby's picture goes, then mine, Stephanie, Jennifer, Christopher(picture missing), Jonathan, Joseph, Daniel, and then Kaitlin.


Here's what it looks like when I pull the pages of the album out page by page. Pictures of hubby and oldest son are missing from this album. I have to teach the Beehive class tonight on how to make this pull-out album so I was a bit pressed for time.














This is what the whole album looks like completely pulled out. I used ribbon and gold brads to attach the pages together. It was a such a fun thing to make. I still need to put some embellishments on each of the pages.


My MIL's birthday is the first of May and also with Mother's day coming up, this is just the perfect present for her. Since she is coming to attend my daughter's graduation close to the end of May, I still have more time to keep playing with this to make it even prettier. I might change the pictures altogether.

So what ya think? Love it? I know, I love it myself so I just might make one for myself soon with just the kids. If you would like to have one of these, leave me a comment telling me your birthday and I will make you one....you can decide on what colors you want and whose pictures you would like on it....see, I'm very generous that way.


(Becky{mom}, if you read this, call me and tell me what you think of your gift. Better yet, leave a comment telling everyone what a wonderful daughter-in-law I am..eheheh.)

Happy Birthday, Son!!

Meet my son #2, Jonathan. Yesterday, we celebrated his 12Th birthday. Because it can be very costly to have seven birthday parties each year for all seven kids, we've started a tradition in our family. That is on each kids' birthday, the b-day kid gets to pick out his/her favorite food to eat and mom(me) have to prepare it to have as a special birthday dinner. I think it's the most clever and best idea ever because the kids completely love it and totally jumped at idea. As soon as we finish celebrating New Year, the kids started thinking about what they would have for their special birthday dinner. Of course, if it happens to be a Milestone birthday, then that particular kid gets to pick out what he/she wants to do..either a party, a day out with friends with dinner and movie, or go shopping or he/she picks out a place to go to hang out for fun, like Ice Palace or something, places we normally don't go to all the time.

So for Jonathan's birthday, he chose to have chili and rice...I know, I was surprise he would pick that for his special dinner. I guess it is her favorite dish or something so that's what we have for his b-day dinner. I baked the cake, no the cake wasn't made from scratch, and her sister Steph decorated it. She's the baker in our family so the birthday cakes usually falls on her to make.


Here's Jonathan's cake made with love by his mom and sister...awwww!!


So we had dinner and after that, we sang him the birthday song and presented him with his cake. He was one happy camper..lol.

Here he is with his cake just before he blew out the candles . Don't ask me what he did his shirt. Halfway through the whole thing, I realized that he's been shirtless throughout the whole time. Part of his 12Th birthday deal is he gets to pick a place or an activity he wants to do. He hasn't told us what he wants to do yet but I'm sure he'd like to invite several of his friends over for a party or go to Ice Palace. I'm going to leave that totally up to him.

I've decided that this Sunday I'm going to really make a very special dinner, something I'll pick out that I know he loves too because he will be advancing from Primary to the Young Men program. He will also be sustained as a Deacon. I get totally emotional when I think about my little boy all grown up and passing sacrament with his older brother in church.

Before I end this post, lemme tell you a little about this son of mine. He's in sixth grade now and will be attending Kahuku High and Inter. School next year as a seventh grader...he's really anxious to be going to school where the older kids are..lol.

I've mentioned this son in one of my posts before. He is the kind of person who takes things very seriously and he takes any one's words literally. If you tell him a joke, it'll take him a long time to figure out that he's just heard a joke. When he was little, he would tell me that when he grows up, he will marry me and buy me a big house..lol and take care of me. Whenever anyone would ask him who his girlfriend was, the answer was always "my mom". Adorable, uh? He's very loving and he is not ashamed to show affection in public especially to his mom. That makes some of my friends a little envious because their sons who are my son's friends and age do not like to be seen with their moms in public and to show affection in public? That's a no no.

He's such a good big brother and he caters to his baby sister's every whim. It's been a real privilege having this son and raising him. Even though he's always the last one to get the joke, he's always making us laugh with his remarks. Even without thinking it, he says the darnedest and funniest things so right there you know you can never be bored hanging out with him.

So in honor of his birthday I want send a shout out to my son Jonathan. Happy Birthday, son!! It's been a real privilege having you for a son.

Happy Sunday

Hello all...I just want to keep the Spirituality going by playing a little video message every Sunday.



Hope y'all have a great Sunday!

God bless and LY!!

I've Developed NPS through my Obsession

{Julie at Youngbloods4ever is starting a new Friday special or section of her blog. It's called Neglectful Parent Syndrome Anonymous where she confesses about her obsessions that keeps her away from her parental duties. I just love this girl you know, she's got so much things in common with me and after following her blog for a little while, I've concluded that she and I are like two peas in a pod. She has the same weakness or obsessions I have, isn't that cool? So I've decided I'm going to come out of hiding and jump on her bandwagon and confess my NPSA..lol. If you want to join in on her weekly meetings, you can read her first post about this topic, just click {here}, it'll take you right there.}

Ok...hello!! Is this on? Hummmmp, hi...my name is Anjeny and I have NPS (Neglectful Parent Syndrome). I know I'm soooo ashamed of myself...lol.

I have a really bad problem with obsessions or passionate hobbies that I find myself buried so deep in them that I often neglected my children. I have a few of those obsessions but today I'm going to talk about one of them and that is my LOVE for reading. I read all kinds of books but what I love reading most are those fiction entertaining books, romance novels of any kind. The last book series I read is the Twilight series. I found out about the series a lot later than most of the Twilight fan populace but once I started reading the first book, I fell completely hopelessly in obsessed with it. It was so bad that I had to use doing laundry as an excuse to hide away from my family so I can read the books. I read all four books in about a week, maybe a total of probably eight hours of sleep for that week. Now if this is not a problem, I don't know what is.

See, I love reading, have always loved reading since I was a little girl. My love for books stemmed from my parents. We were poor so we couldn't afford a TV for entertainment so our family spent our evenings listening to stories my parents would tell us from the books they read. My mom's stories are usually from the Bible, she'd read a story that day and told us that night as a bedtime story. Then my dad would tell us a fairy tale story. They told it soooo well that I just couldn't wait to start reading so I can read those stories for myself. When I was old enough to read, they handed over their books to me to read. Once I've worn those books out from reading it over and over, cover to cover, I would raid my friends' houses to see if they have any other books to read. When I've exhausted their book source, I moved on to the school library. Of course the reading books we were assigned from school were not enough, my teachers sometimes got frustrated with me because I was constantly demanding that we moved on to the next book because I could never stick with their guideline to read a chapter or two in the book...I would just keep going til I read the whole book before everyone else did. Pretty soon my friends had caught on to my obsession so they started checking out books for me too from the library. Since a student is only allowed two books to check out at one time, those were not enough so my friends started helping me out with that. That's how badly I liked reading.

Well, when I became a mom, I wanted more than anything that my kids would develop this love of books like I did. When I got pregnant with my first child, I started reading to her in the womb. I was reading all the time, from romance novels, to magazines, to self-help books to the scriptures. But most of my readings are entertainment books like novels. My sweet mother-in-law and grand mom-in-law found out about this too so they too started supporting me on this hobby and whenever they read a book they like or come across a bookstore, I would be a getting a package in the mail with the books they found for me. So that was good because of course, there is really nothing wrong with reading.

The problem I have with this hobby is that I get so caught up that I ignored everything else in my life. My housework is forgotten, the dishes were filed up in the sink, the laundry file gets higher and higher, the kids are neglected, no food was made and they started fending for themselves. See, once I picked up a book to read and I get into it, I couldn't put it down. A normal person would maybe read a chapter or two, bookmarked their spot in the book and go on and attend to their responsibilities.

Me? I picked up a book and my response to the kids when they said, "mom, I'm hungry", "gimme a few more minutes or go in the fridge dear, see what you can find in there." Hubby comes home from work and asked, "honey? what's for dinner?" Me, nose still in the book, "hmm, oh dinner, sorry haven't thought about that yet, gimme a few minutes will ya?" An hour later, still no dinner. I would literally stay up til morning if I have to to finish the book before I would get up and started taking care of my other responsibilities. Talk about frustrations for my hubby....he would literally threatened to take the book I was reading at the moment to burn it...{Blasphemy!!}.

Remember how I said I want my kids to love reading too? Kids copy everything their parents do so I figured if I read in front of them, they would follow suit and start picking up a book on their own to read. I know they can read because I've read with them and have them read aloud for me. A couple of my kids are fast readers and had started reading really good while they were still in preschool. A couple of the other kids have difficulty reading but are getting better. But the twisted kind of fate for me, my kids couldn't care less about reading. Oh they will read if it pertained to their school or our family daily reading but other than, they would not pick up a book to read for fun unless I bribe them or threaten their lives.

So me being this bad with my obsessions, I was always looking for ways to justify my reading. I figured if my kids are reading and actually love reading, I would be able to read too and I did set aside time just for that. But they were not interested in that whatsoever. I got so desperate that I bribed them....I offered money for every book they pick up to read and even would do their chores for them. You think that work? Noooo, they actually said that they would rather do their chores than read and the money they don't really need....traitors!!

Like I said earlier, the last time I read a book was the Twilight series that was almost six months ago and I think I read Stephanie Meyers last book she wrote, "The Host" and then that was it. I am itching to get my hands on Heidi's book, Miss Delacourt Speaks her Mind. I think right now my hubby is a little contented because my nose hasn't been buried in a book lately but what he doesn't know is that this reading obsession of mine is still strong.

What am I obsessively reading, you are wondering? Well.......I am blogging, aren't I? That would conclude that I am reading blogs now...no? I am reading blogs. No only am I reading posts of bloggers on my blog roll but I am also reading the posts from their blog rolls. Some days, if a post from a blogger that drew my attention that day, I started reading all the other posts on that blog. I get up in the morning, get my kids ready for school, either I drop them off at school or have hubby drop them, feed my two year old, then turn on her favorite show and then I sit my behind down in front my PC and read blogs the whole morning. You see how bad I get with my obsession and that I have a problem?

Ahem....so there you have it folks....thank you for listening, I mean reading.

Have a great Aloha Friday.

American Idol Fans....Which Category do You fall under?

Who watched American Idol last night and the night before that? Better yet, who's a fan of American Idol?

I don't know if I'm an American Idol fan or not. I watch the show but it's not a show where I have to drop everything I'm doing right at the moment to watch or I schedule my life around like the Korean Soaps I watch. Last year I actually watch the whole season of American Idol, from beginning to the end. The year before was kind of off and on and the year before that. This year, I did watch the auditions but I think I've missed out on a lot of the showing. So the last two nights I decided I would just go and check out what's happening.

I've stumbled upon a few blogs who has done some reviews of the show and I think I even came across a blog who's boycotting American Idol...after watching the last two nights, I think I can understand why someone would want to boycott that show.

OK so yesterday I was driving my kids to school and was listening to the local radio station when the DJs were talking about American Idol. One of them was a bit upset, said she only watched the first two performers but was so upset at the results that she changed the channel and never went back to finish the show. So then the other DJ gave his feedback or review and he said that after watching the last few years' show, he had concluded that there are five different kinds of people who watch the show.

I find it very interesting, that's why I thought I'd blog about it and see where my readers fall under. I still can't figure out which group I fall under, I think I'm more on the last group. The five groups are as follows:

The first group is the CRIERS...these are those ladies who cries at any show they love and couldn't help but love what they see.

The second group is the Haters....These people can't stand the show but they watch it just so they can vote on the worst performer just to see if that person they voted for get to come back the next week. I guess there will always be these kinds of people who tend to make life more difficult for other people to enjoy anything.

The third group are the Weirdos...They watch the show mainly to see who has the weirdest hair, clothes, personalities and you can bet your money those are the performers they vote for whether the person has talent or not.

The fourth group are the True Fans...these are the ones who watch it because they really like the competition and to them it was a worthwhile entertainment so they voted for the ones who they think is the best performer and they want the best to win. And of course, they do take the time to find out as much information about each contestants as they can and even pick out their favorites based on the ability of the person.

The last group is the Methodical group...these are those who promised themselves the year before they are never going to watch the show again but come next year, they are watching it again. They don't really like the show yet they can't seem to stop themselves from watching nonetheless.

Now that you've read this, which one of these five groups do you belong under? Don't be shy, go in my comment box and leave me a comment. If you don't watch the show at all or don't give a rat's behind about it, voice it baby...lol. You want my take on the show? I don't know, I don't hate the show but I don't love it either. There's one contestant I would rather not see on there but he/she's there and apparently doing a good job so I will wish that person all the luck and may be best singer win.

There ya go folks, my very small take on the media world...LOL. Enjoy!!

My Day-out W/Some Fun Crazy Chicks

Yep, I had a great day yesterday, I went out with some really cool chicks who are crazily scary because they love blogging (more than my love of blog? Yes, blogging is like breathing for these chicks..lol.) so one has be very careful about what these bloggers might put on their blogs about one's self...lol. So who are these crazy chicks you ask me? None other the infamous Crash, Swirl & her mom, and Martha. Ok so Martha, I'm not too worried about, she doesn't like talking about other people on her blog..lol...the ones to really look out for are Crash and Swirl esp. with their cameras....I'm telling ya, these two ladies are obsessed with photo taking and blogging it..lol.

Ok they picked me (I had my little girl with me)up around nine and stuck me waaaay in the back of the van, Swirl drove since it was her car. Then they just proceeded to converse among themselves and completely ignored me....HOW RUDE!! (wink, wink) Luckily for Swirl, I am not the kind of person who gets carsick or I would've puked all over her car just to get her back for sticking me in the back like that...ahahah.

Psssst, lemme tell you a secret though....don't you dare tell them....what they didn't know was that the backseat is the best place to eavesdrop or spy on the people in the front. Do you know you can learn more about a person just by watching their hand movements and gestures when they are having a conversation? Yep, I've picked up ton of information just from sitting in the very back of the van and no, I am not sharing any of them, they are mine to keep and for you to keep wondering about especially if you are Crash, Swirl and Martha...lol.

Anyways, we went to the mall in Kaneohe, stopped at the Borders Books first. Now people, if you ever want to see Crash and Swirl in their elements, take them to a bookstore....it's like seeing a kid in a candy store..lol. Ok, so my hubby and MIL would probably say the same thing about me but hey, at least I can put on a really good poker face if I need to. We spent a few minutes checking the bookstore out and then on to the pet store. Oh yeah, while in both stores, Crash was going crazy with her camera, just clicking away at us...yeah and we were as helpless as though we were puppets on strings, she said "pose", we posed; "smile", we smiled; oh the different expressions she made us do just so she can satisfy that picture taking itch of hers...lol. After the pet store, we split up....some went to Sears, the others went to a bank...my little girl wanted to go to a toy store so I took her there. I was having fun just watching her playing with the different toys and asking me to buy every item she got her hands on but alas, I am too broke to accomodate her. So I took her to the playground they have in the mall.

At eleven we met up again at Arby's for lunch. So the conversation at Arby's was something to laugh about. We were talking about all these different stuff and one thing lead to another, the subject of blogging came up. I guess we were reminiscing about old posts that Crash had on her blog and the next thing I know, we were talking about my post on http://realworldvenusmars.blogspot.com/. If you've read my post, you will know what it was about, if not, you can click here to find out. It wasn't the best post to discuss when one is eating so right away, Crash has lost her appetite: she barely ate her sandwich she ordered but after talking about the post and then Martha bibed up about her husband and I think something along the line of stinky smell, Crash' hunger dried up like a drought...lol. She brought up the post, I didn't...lol. So she got up and took more pictures of us...again, she said do this, we did it, whatever she told us to do, we did without a word of complaint or murmur. Now the three of us are a bit worried about what pictures Crash would be posting on her blog and what her post is going to sound like. Oh we know for sure she is going to totally poke fun at us three so we decided each of us are going to write a defense post.

Just for the record, I didn't do any of those things she said I did...lol. I was a completely innocent bystander...lol. Since Crash was the one with the camera and the pictures, her post might be more believable because she has photographic evidence but this is my story and I'm sticking to it!!

Before we started on our trip back home, we made a stop at a grocery store so Martha and Crash could buy some brownies and yogurt drinks, I think that's what Crash said those things were called. Unfortunately the store were out of those items. I don't know what Swirl's mom bought, I'm sure the store had what she was looking for. On the way, I had my little Katie sing a little to entertain us to keep her busy enough to keep her mind off the fact that she's strapped down in a car seat and then she fell asleep after that.

Again the conversations were totally random....but was interesting nonetheless. I had a great time...it was really fun being out with these crazy fun ladies. Of course Swirl being my best friend and all, I already know she was fun and crazy but I got to know Crash and Martha more just from this outing. Crash is not just funny on her blog, she is funny in real person and she totally rocks! Martha even though she hardly says anything on her blog and her comments seem to be so serious, she does have a sense of humor. And Swirl's mom, she is one incredibly great lady.

Can I say I have the most wonderful day? Because I do....thanks Swirl for taking us. Crash, thanks for suggesting this day-out...I am sooooo looking forward to more outings with you ladies.

Happy Easter to All

I just want to wish you all the great Easter today. I love Easter..the whole event leading up to Easter, from Jesus' entrance to Jerusalem on a donkey to the passover suffer to the Garden of Gethsemane to His Crucifixion to His Resurrection. I love the message that comes with Easter, how much my Heavenly Father loves me enough to sacrifice HIS only Son to pay for my sins and Jesus' overwhelming love to take my place on the cross, to atone for my sin so that I can one day return to live with THEM again.

So here's a little something for you all to enjoy and think about on this special day!! LY!!

Exciting Week-end Experience

I had a great night last night. I attended my first Youth Conference dance as a Young Women leader. This week or should I say the three last days of this week is Youth Conference. They started out with registration, dinner and dance last night. As a Beehive Adviser I was asked to help with dinner and to chaperon the dance. It was a lot of fun and very interesting.

So registration and dinner started out in the Stake Center and then the dance was held at Turtle Bay. I dropped my daughter Jen and her friend who's sleeping over for the whole conference with my son Chris at the Stake Center at four p.m. came home, made dinner for the hubby and the four younger kids (hubby's assumed to role of babysitting for the night) and went back to the Stake Center at five. Dinner was great!! Daughter, Steph, was finishing up her last hours of service project for her Health Class at the clinic so she didn't get to the Stake Center til about 6:30 when it was time to board the bus to leave for their dance.

Once all the youth and most of the leaders left for Turtle Bay, our Ward's Young Women President, one her counselor and I stayed behind with couple of other leaders from the ward to clean up all the serving pans, trays and utensils and then load our cars with the desserts to take to the dance.

When we got to Turtle Bay, the dance had started and the kids were dancing up a storm. It was very interesting watching the kids dance. (I was really excited to be able to go so I can spy on my kids using my calling as a disguise.) So when we entered the dance room there was cluster of kids on the dance floor dancing and when I say cluster, meant it just as it sounded. The kids were packed together on the dance floor and quite frankly I couldn't figure out how they could dance like that being sooo close together like that and they weren't slow dancing, mind you.

The first thing I did was scope out my kids just to make sure they were in the dance room instead of roaming around somewhere else. I spotted Jen and her friend first on the dance floor...that's good, one down and two to go. After a slow sweep inspection, I found my son Chris (did I mention this is his first Youth Conference?) sitting in a corner as far away from the entrance door as he could muster, just sitting there looking as bored as he could possibly be. A ninety degree turn of the head a minute later, I spotted my daughter Steph sitting on chair too on the opposite end from her brother, just sitting there watching the dance. I was feeling pretty good myself then, all three are where they're supposed to be.

Now I don't know if this happen anywhere else on the island or on the mainland. That's why I find this interesting. You see while the kids were dancing, I noticed that the girls are dancing by themselves in their own group while the boys are doing the same thing in another group. There was no boy dancing with girl at all on the dance floor. So the other two leaders and I set out on the dance floor to try and put our clever heads to work by rearranging the arrangement the kids have made for themselves on the dance floor to have boys dance with the girls instead of girls dancing with girls and boys dancing with boys. I even pulled my son up, very reluctantly on his part, on the dance floor to dance with me. After the dance, I noticed that daughter Steph was still sitting in the same spot she was when I entered so I sauntered over to her try to get her to the dance floor. Boy, she was one grumpy teenager. She didn't want to dance, she's hungry and she didn't want to be there in the first place, she practically shouted it out to me. (Ok, so everybody had to shout if they want to be heard above the music.)

So I left her alone and went back to the refreshment table to help pass out the desserts. And the most wonderful thing happen, {well to me anyways since it was about my kid} my daughter Steph got off her chair when the refreshments was served to get her share. (We served banana cream pies, ooh yum.) She got seconds and after her second she disappeared on the dance floor and stayed there til the end. Two hours of dancing non-stop.

After the desserts, we kept ourselves busy trying to get the kids to dance with each other girl boy, boy girl instead of the boy boy and girl girl. We noticed that they would dance the way we want to them for like a few seconds and when we leave them, they go back to their original form. Tonight there's another dance and our Ward is in charge of it, so after seeing the way the kids just can't seem to break away from their same gender cluster dance, we have come up with a ton of ideas of what to do tonight to get them to dance the way we've been trying to get them too. And the DJ, he was no help at all, he kept playing fast songs so the kids did not feel the need to pair up the right way to dance. Three hours of dancing and he played only three slow songs. The whole idea behind the dance was to get the boys to dance with the girls not the other way around. Despite all that, it was a fun night and the kids did enjoy themselves.

We've come up with loads of ideas to use for the dance tonight, we even thought about bribing them too. Today, I'm going through my rubber stamps to pick out some small ones to take with me, we're going to be stamping the kids hands whenever they dance with the opposite sex and after they've accumulated a certain number of stamps on their hands, they will be allowed to have their desserts. They don't know about that yet so it would be really fun to watch their faces when we checked their hands for the proof..sneaky uh? We're also going to see about making the music to be on a ratio of 3:1, three fast songs to one slow song and we're going to do that, I think it's called snowball or something like that but we'll use some other word that fit the theme or maybe some Hawaiian word, to have the kids switch partners, partners as in boy with girl. I am really excited to see how it turn out.

Did I mention how much I love my new calling and how excited I am about being in the Youth program? I am, totally!! Today the youth will be doing service project at Turtle Bay, I won't be able to go help out with the morning activities, hubby will be working and I don't have anyone to watch my little girl but I will go later in the afternoon to help set things up at the chapel. So I need to get off here and go take my teens back to the Stake Center this morning; they're having breakfast there and then board the bus to get them to the designated place again. I will be updating y'all about how the dance go tonight and the progress of today's activity. Hopefully I'll remember to bring my camera this time, I am such a dunce sometimes.

By the way, if you haven't done it yet and would really like to win a prize, do check out Lilly's give-away, click on her name or check above this post to get you there. Do check out her blog, see what an amazing woman she is and help her out with her cause, aight? Thanks!! And have a great Aloha Friday!!

God bless!!

Cute Little Gadget

I was surfing the blogasphere and came upon this cute gadget through one of the bloggers on my blogroll. Of course, I was curious to see who made it...it is precisely something I've been looking for to let some of the people on my blogroll how much I love their blogs. It turned out this blog made this cute little button and it so happen they make a different button each month that goes with each month's theme.

So for the month of April, it's "Tell 'em you're a fan" of their site. Just what I wanted to expressed to the blogs I'm a big fan of. I've decided I'll pick three of you guys for today.....do know that this is extremely hard for me because I love all of the people on my blogroll so I'm picking the ones that I read everyday even when I was running late for something but I just had to read these blogs because somehow I get my fix from them...ahahahah.

So without further ado.....I pick:

Crash @ http://crashtestdummydiaries.blogspot.com/ for always making me laugh til my eyes sweat and my sides burn with her funny wits.

Shelle @ http://blokthoughtsnmore.blogspot.com/, she seems to speak to me, as though she was taking my thoughts out of my head and put them beautifully in written form, I feel we have so much in common.

Pat @ http://hammondshamsterwheel.blogspot.com/, I love the name of her blog, the title totally fit the description of what moms are going through everyday, that no matter how fast we run, it looks like we are running around in circles and our work is never done, always seems to keep going right back to where we started from. And I also love how she handles her struggles.

So ladies, grap this button and put them on your blog.

And then go and find the blogs you're a fan of and do this:

1. Leave a comment or an email for your favorite blogger telling them that you are a fan of the site.

2. Feel free to snag the image code to either present to your blog friend (you can get the image code from Sited and Blogged) or post on your site when it is awarded to you.

3. When you receive more than one fan, put the number of fans you have received under the image.

4. The more fans you receive the better!

So have FUN ladies!!

A Brag Post

Meet my daughter Jennifer. She's 15 and is a Freshman in High School. She is the second child born into this family of seven kids. Some of her interests are hanging out on virtual places like MySpace and Facebook, hanging out with friends, talking on the phone and entertaining her family with some creative jokes she may have heard or read somewhere. She's a very mild manner child but very expressive in her opinions. Her absolute favorite thing to do is singing.

In fact, she belongs to a choir called Ko'olauloa Children Choir and their choir will be leaving the island the second week of June to go to Washington, DC to tour there for a couple of days and then on to New York to participate in the Carnegie Hall Festival. There they will be singing their hearts out. It's been a real fun and hard year of fundraising to send these beautiful talented kids to participate in something so special and I'm sure the experience will be memorable one for them.

Anyways, the reason for this post and introduction is because I feel like bragging a little about this daughter of mine. As I'm sure most of you know, this past weekend was General Conference for our church. I love conference because I love listening to all the wonderful speakers with the message that each of them delivered.

And because we live in Hawaii and with the time difference, to watch the Conference live the first session comes on at six o'clock in the morning and then the second one comes on at ten.

I know, too early and I am not a morning person. Well, Jen got up on both days, Saturday and Sunday a little before six and watched both early morning sessions all by herself. I didn't wake up til seven to watch so I missed out on the earlier speakers. I was really impressed with her and so proud of her that I could not pass this moment up to come on here and brag about her.

Usually during conference, I was the one who would get up and roused people out of bed to watch but it's not that way this time around. I just love it when kids do things of their own free will and choice without being told. I think as moms when any of our kids do something out of the ordinary, we feel this overwhelming sense of joy and satisfaction and in some small measure an assurance that we are probably doing the right thing.

This is especially true to me because this daughter and I have been at each other for a while with our difference of opinions. She being a teenager usually thinks I don't know what I am talking about or don't understand anything that is going on when I try to teach her what is right or wrong and try to guide her along the right path. I often feel frustrated with her because I feel that most of the time she just tunes me out when I am trying to talk to her so when she does something like this, it totally blows my mind and makes me all teary about it. It's moment like this that makes being a mommy all worthwhile. I am so very proud of her.

I'm not saying that we will never have any hard times with each other but at least now I know that even if she does appear like she may have been tuning me out when I am giving her advice or scolding her, I know she's listening and paying attention.

So there you go, my little ramblings for the day. Hope y'all are enjoying your week.

God bless!!

A Little Spiritual Tidbit

I've been trying to find something more on the spiritual side to post on Sunday so I've decided to post this video clip from last year's General Conference. Julie Beck is one of my favorite speakers. Whenever she talks, I would drop everything to hear what she had to say. I find I particularly like this talk of hers. I hope you all enjoy this video.




By the way, there's a cool new blog that Shelle and Andrea created that mainly covers relationships and I am one of the contributors on it. I've just made my first post on there today so if you want to check it out, click on the button below, it'll take you right there.



I'm sure you'd love what you read on there so enjoy!!

Another Give-Away

No, it's not my give-away silly. I am not that creative yet to do my own give-away although I am planning on doing one soon so be on the look-out.

One of the bloggers who follow my blog is doing a give-away on her blog. Amazingly this blogger is a Novelist. She's giving away her latest romance novel on her blog.

Many of my friends know that I am a big time lover of romance novel and that I love reading. So when I find out my blog friend Heidi over at Dunhaven Place is giving away her latest book, I just had to have it. I know there will be more people blogging about this book and how deserving they are of this book and yeah I do agree with them but I really really want to get my hands on this book.

But hey, I'm generous so I'm going to give you a chance to win this book also...wanna know how? LOL. Just click on over there and comment on her comment box for a chance to win it. I know a lot of you who visit my blog don't blog and are just curious lurkers so in the event that you are like me who likes to read novels, go over to her site right now and enter her give-away. Be sure to mention that I told you about her give-away.

If reading is not your thing, then check out the Mormon Mommy Blogs. Yes this blog is also doing a give-away. Remember from this post, I posted about my other bloggy friend's give-away? Remember how I said that we Mormons are big on Food Storage? Well, the Mormon Mommy Blogs is doing a give-away also on food storage. The items are actually from the same company that my bloggy friend LoW is doing her give-away.

See, I now have given you two chances from two different blogs to win yourself some food. Let's face it, we all love food, right? I don't mind winning me some food too. Anyways, for detailed information about the food give-away, click here to find out to give yourself a chance to win some food.

AGAIN......what ya waiting for? Click over here to win yourself a sizzling romance novel and over here to win yourself some food. You don't even have to scroll to look for the give-away....I am so sweet, I've made it completely easier for you. So go on, GO win yourself some prize.

Aight, I think my work is done here...now I need to get off and take my kids to the beach. It's their last day of their Spring Break so we need to go catch some waves or rays, whichever one strikes their fancy today. Later gators!!

My Daughter Steph on Prom Night

I have been trying to do this for the last couple of days but for some reason my computer is not uploading pictures from my camera phone.

I posted last week about my daughter going to her Senior prom and how I was going to post some pictures from that. I really wanted to post pictures of her hair do, the before and after but like I said, I am unable to get it off my camera phone. I do, however, have some pictures that she took herself with a camera she borrowed from her friend but no before and after hairdo pictures. So here are some of the ones I can gather up from her that she took herself. (If you want to see a close up of her face and hair, just click on the picture.)

A big MAHALO to my friend Brandi and her daughter Aubree for doing Steph's hair and make-up. You guys are the bomb!

These are the pictures taken before they left for the prom. These are the kids from our area who are riding in the same limo. There are only two couples in the bunch, this group decided it would be more fun to go to the prom as singles instead of couples.










(Steph is the one in light blue or aquamarine dress.)



(Inside the limo..man those limos are to die for.)











These are some of her friends she met up at the prom who had gone stag. I was not too happy about her not having a date for the prom and found out from a lot of the kids that that was what they preferred to do. That way they don't have to be stuck with one person the whole night. I expressed my feelings about this to my hubby and he totally agreed with my daughter and her friends, he apparently share their feelings about not wanting to be stuck with one person the whole night....well whatever!! But it was her night so it's ok, I guess.

She had a lot of fun that night so I guess if she was happy with it, then I am totally happy for her. I can't believe it, she will be graduating the end of next month. My little girl is all grown up and graduating from High School....makes me feel soooo old.

I asked her what she wants to do after graduation, she said she wants to get a job and work a little before going back to school. She doesn't want to go to BYUH and I'm not too happy about it so we'll see.