Is It a Special Day or Not?

Today, fifty years ago, Hawaii became a state of the United States of America. I thought it's kind of exciting and should mean more since Hawaii was the fiftieth state and it is its fiftieth anniversary, it would be a big deal and the island will be ringing with its celebration but so far, nothing, zip, zilch, Nada, not even a peep about this special day.

If any of you know, Hawaii or people of Hawaii can really throw a party. People here look for any excuse to celebrate anything, from the most minimal thing to the biggest thing. So, I was thinking, wow, I will be probably see fireworks, people hanging out at the beach or park, barbecuing and all that jazz but like I said already, zip, zilch, nothing at all to commemorate this momentous occasion...a memorable day in history.

As I was wiping sleep out of my eyes this morning, I heard the reporter broadcasting on the news this morning her happy wish to the Hawaii for its fiftieth anniversary but along with her well wish, her crushing announcement that Hawaii will not be celebrating or doing anything to recognize this significant event of its history, there will be no celebrating Hawaii's anniversary today so as not to offend those Hawaiians who support the sovereignty movement since they believe that Hawaii sovereignty nation was taken illegally....(are you kidding me people?). But get this, instead of recognizing its joining the US, there will be a gathering of people at the Iolani Palace in Honolulu to recognize Hawaii as a Sovereign Nation instead of a state in the US of A.

I can't even begin to express the feeling I have about this turn of events. I don't see what US done to Hawaii that is soo awful that there are actually people out there who are so adamant that their old Kingdom be brought back, that they would claim that the Hawaiian islands were stolen from them and that their Kingdom was overthrown unjustly. Sad part about all this is that not all the Hawaiians are in agreement with this....there are actually those Hawaiian bloods who are for Hawaii being part of the US and don't care very much for Hawaii going back to it monarchy status. Quite frankly, Hawaii has benefited so much from being a state of US.

I do would like to know though...if US never set foot on Hawaii and never made Hawaii one of its state, would Hawaii be the thriving place that it is today? Would their industry be this successful? There are other Polynesian islands like Tonga whose govern by a King, how is that island doing? Are they as thriving and successful as Hawaii is today? A definite NO to all of the above questions. But that's already in the mindset of some of the people here, they are totally adamant about reinstating their Kingdom so I guess I will just wish them the best of luck.

If you ask me....I was and will always be grateful for all that US has done. I've come from a place where the US influence has been a great benefit and has been a positive impact for me, my family and my whole country. And I'm not just saying this because I'm married to an American or my kids are American. Of course, right now because of the lack of better judgment on the majority voters who put a very sly snake for man as President whose very good at giving speeches and leading this country to its present economic hardship, I still believe that US will always be a great nation and that the values that the country was founded on were most commentible.

So with this mind, I just want to give my shout-out to Hawaii...the state of Hawaii and to all those who feel the same way I do....Happy 50th Anniversary!! May the Lord above bless you with all the bounteous blessings and may you be continually a safe haven for me and mine and for all others who seek to make a home with you.

God bless and love always,

A Little Sunday Thought

Good morning all....

I am preparing my lesson this morning for my Beehive class and it so happens the topic for this lesson is on DATING. Because of the age group of this class, I think this lesson is great one for them. There are a lot of outlines and great ideas on fun dating and this lesson mostly focuses on group activities. There are a lot of really neat quotes on here but I'm going to put this one that I like the most....

"My beloved young people, you should be serious-minded. Life is not wholly for fun and frolic. It is a most serious business. You will do well to grow up as children, associating with both girls and boys for those first years. When you get in the teenage years, your social associations should still be general acquaintance with both boys and girls. Any dating or pairing off in social contacts should be postponed until at least the age of 16 or older, and even then there should be be much judgment used in selections and in the seriousness.

"Young people should still limit the close contacts for several years, since the boy will be going on a mission when he's 19 years old. there should be limited contacts and certainly no approach to the intimate relationships involving sex. There must never be any sex of any kind prior to marriage." by President Spencer W. Kimball.

I am actually excited about his lesson because my daughter, Jen, just turned 16 last month. Since she's totally interested in boys, I think this lesson is just the thing for her.

Anyways, while I was preparing this lesson, I remembered a short essay I wrote in one my Religion class way back when I was at BYUH, when my oldest daughter was a baby at the time so I was able to attend some classes back then. I can't believe I actually saved that paper. The paper is entitled The Ten Commandments of Dating.

I know the image is kinda unclear so click on it to see it clearly. I will be taking to church with me today and show this to my class as part of the lesson today. As stated on the first paragraph, this is written for my children and their children, this is my view on the subject so I know some of you who read this might not agree but it's ok with me.

Anyways, just thought I'd leave a little something for this beautiful Sabbath...hope all is well with you all. Take care and God bless!!

Girls Day Out and Book Club

So I posted yesterday about going out to lunch with Crash, Swirl, Martha, and Swirl's mom and sister. We went to Haleiwa Eats, a Thai place in Haleiwa. We had a surprised visitor who joined us for lunch...she's a friend of Crash, she showed up at the town houses to drop her teenage boys to hang with Martha's boys and decided to come along. Which was a totally great treat because she ended up being the driver and the whole way to Haleiwa, she told us about her exciting life.

Meet Dolly, everyone. At the moment, she's staying here in Hawaii but she lives in Saudi Arabia. She also has a place in Utah. She spent the summer cruising across US with her kids in an RV. She wanted to get her kids getting reacquainted with their heritage.

Then they were in the pageant at Palmyra. If you're a LDS, I'm sure you'd know about this pageant...I haven't been to one but I'm told this pageant was held every year that portray the history of our church and about the Book of Mormon. I would love to go there someday and see this pageant...would be even more amazing if I actually get to be in this pageant. But anyways, back to Dolly...I was more interested about her life in Saudi Arabia. How totally adventurous and exotic to live in a place like that. She had so many amazing stories to tell about life in Saudi so check her out on her blog. She's hasn't posted anything lately but the last post she wrote was very interesting. She's trying to figure out how to work this blog features esp. the postings of photos, according to her to make her post more interesting but I gotta tell ya, she doesn't need photos at all...she tells the most amazing stories. It was a real pleasure getting to know her. And then she did the most generous thing...she paid for our lunch yesterday. How amazing is that? Thank you Dolly!!

So when we got to the restaurant, they told us the place doesn't open til noon..we got there half an hour early, we had no idea the place have a set time they opened. So of course, Crash with her camera, she just had to take pictures and who do you think ended up being her guinea pig? Yep, yours truly because Swirl was already at some shops in Haleiwa playing tourist with her mom, grandmom, sister and great-aunt and dad. They were to meet us at the restaurant but when we got there, they weren't there yet and Martha drove her own car and wasn't there either so that just left me under Crash's total photo power control. I know she has loads of totally crazy pix of me so if you want to see it, check her blog out for that. I am however going to post a few of the photos {I stole from her blog} here just for proof purposes. So here are a couple of us...

There's Crash & me on the left and Martha and me on the right. I'm not even going to say how much I hated the extra weight I put on esp. sitting next to these skinny ladies...lol.

Anyways, while we were waiting for the others to show up, Swirl's parents showed up with the aunt to inform us that Swirl, her sister and grandmom are suiting up to go swim with sharks. Pffffft, what? Swirl is swimming with sharks? Very brave girls. Their appointment with the sharks was scheduled for 12:30 p.m. and we didn't get seated in the restaurant til noon so they didn't have time to eat with us. They only had time to drop in and say hello and have us wish them luck that the sharks won't mistake them for their noon-day meal...ahahah.

Here's Swirl with her family. Standing, from left to right: Swirl's mom, Jane, her great-aunt and her grandmom. Sitting left to right: Swirl, her sister, Emily and Crash. Swirl, Emily and the grandmom are the ones who will be swimming with the sharks. Can you tell how nervous and the trying to so hard to hide it look Swirl and her sister are putting on there? I'd be a nervous wreck if I know that in a few moment's time I just might be shark's bait...lol. Naahhh, they all look adorable!!

Here we are....the lovely sisters with their mom; and of course, I have to insert my head in there just to let everyone know I was there too...lmao. Actually I had just finished telling Swirl and her sister that the sharks in Hawaii love white meat and they just might mistaken Swirl and her sister for the noon meal. I was trying to psych them out and I think it worked because the more nervous they got, the bigger their smile got...And look at Swirl's mom. Isn't she just darling? Always so supportive her daughters' risky whims..lol. It was a wonderful day out, eventhough Swirl and Emily ditched us for the sharks...lol.

After the lunch, I went home and made my son Danny his special bday dinner and managed to get everything ready by 5:30 p.m. which was a total accomplishment in my book. Our family hardly had dinner before six thirty but I have to get that done early yesterday because I have to go to bookclub. Remember I mentioned that on this post?

Bookclub was at seven and I was actually the second person who arrived at the hostess's house. This is actually my first book club and pretty much everyone in the group's also. The bookclub was held our RS president's house and she couldn't figure out if we should start it off with a prayer or not (it's her first book club too) so I suggested we pray since the book we read was more on a spiritual nature. After the prayer, she each lady to rate the book and tell a little why they rate it that way...1 being the least favorite and 10 being the most favorable. There were 12 ladies in all and only two ladies rate the book in the 3s...there were a lot of 8s and a few 9s. I love the book so I gave it a 9 rating. I love that even though everyone has their own viewpoint on the style writing for the book, everyone like the message the book portray and majority of the ladies like myself can totally relate to the book. I thought the book was written mainly for me. It's actually one of the books that touched me deeply and leave a great impact on me...it has made me rethink on some of my attitude towards life and attitudes toward to my husband and kids. There were a few shed tears around the room when each lady expressed their personal feelings about the book. No, I didn't cry although I did come close to but I've figured out to cut my thoughts short when I'm on the brink of shedding some tears.

And you know something? I also learned something from the ladies last night. That even though each woman has a different opinion about the book, I've learned that it's ok to disagree with someone else and still like that person...I actually drew closer to the women who gave the book a small rating because I've concluded that the message that was in the book touched each person differently at a different season in their life. It was really a great experience for me to see that even with different opinions there are still comraderie in that room. There was no judging at all...no one was pointing at the other for not liking the book or for liking the book so much.

All in all, I had a great time yesterday. I hope y'all enjoy this little excitement for me...I doubt I have any life to speak of so little outings like this excited the heck out of me...ahahah. {I kid}

Birthday Wishes and Other Stuff

Aloha all....yeah, I've totally fallen off the blogging scale...who would've thought kids can actually take over anyone's life like that..hm.

Today is my son Danny's birthday, he turns seven so I just want to give a little shout out to him on his special day. He has made a request that every member of the family has to give him seven items each for his birthday which will add up to fifty six items..instead of asking for a party or one special gift like he normally does, he asked that the whole family come up with seven item each member to give him. I can only say I'm glad that he took mercy on us and told us, that each item has to cost only a buck..lol..the sneaky little brat. I can't wait to see what the other kids are going to do about his request. For his special dinner tonight, he asked for meat loaf and mashed potato with gravy. So Happy Birthday, Danny !! ♥ ya bunches sweetie!!

On some updates...kids are back to school again and I've finally gotten full control of my computer again so life of blogging will be back in session again. Not that I didn't enjoy my blog break because I did. I was able to catch up on some much needed love affairs...not that kind of love affairs, silly. I think I've mentioned before about how much I love to read. With the blog break, not by choice mind ya, I was able to catch up on a lot of reading. I finally read Heidi's book, Miss Delacourt Speaks her Mind...now that is a book to read if any of haven't read it yet. I joined a women's book club. The first book assigned was called the Peacegiver (another good-must-read book) and we're having our first meet tonight. There were also other books that I started around the time I started blogging and never got around to finishing so I was able to read them all.

And sleep..omg, SLEEP....that was another love affair that I was reaquainted with again..lol. That was I think the best part of the summer for me...I got to sleep in every day. No matter how late or early I went to sleep the night before, I was sleeping in the next morning. I had to take advantage of the kids not going anywhere in the morning like school and I even made sure that if there were any appointments needed to be seen to, it was set up for late afternoon. And I have to tell ya, it was good thing because since school has started, I've been getting up very early to drive to seminary and getting kids ready for school.

Speaking of which...my son, Chris is a freshman in high school this year so early-morning seminary is a total must attend class. Coolest thing is that one my friends who's also in my card group is the seminary teacher for his class. She's absolutely the best. She's already gotten the kids so excited about seminary, they don't even care that they have to go so early in the morning.

And my daughter Jen had her sweet sixteenth birthday the end up July and got a job working at PCC. For some reason, she's decided to take on some full load this year. Early morning seminary, work, online courses plus her regular classes. She's doing good so far and I'm crossing my fingers that she doesn't wear herself out before the school year is over. I don't know what's gotten into her but it seems like whatever it is has changed her into this very responsible person so I am not going to complain at all.

Then there's my son, Jonathan...he started middle school this year. He's totally enjoying the fact that he now attends the same school as his older siblings instead of going to a little kid school..that's what he calls elementary now..lol. To him, middle school is way cooler than elementary and everything is an adventure there, especially riding the bus to and from school. He no longer has to wait around on the playground for mom to go pick him up...awww, my little boy is all grown up.

Now, moving on to more fun stuff..not that talking about my kids isn't fun. The infamous Crash dummy is moving away. Can you believe it? She's trading in her sexy hot golden surfer dude boyfriend, Hawaii, for some uptight pale looking boooring dude named, Utah. She really must be a dummy to do that, eh? ahahahah...but don't tell her I said that. I'm meeting with her today along with my best bud Swirl and Martha for lunch today and sing our Aloha Oi to her. I think instead of singing to her and sweating our eyes out for her leaving, we should really set her pants on fire for abandoning us like that. Hmmmm, that's not such a bad idea...I'm getting more excited now to see her just thinking about all the abuse I can inflict upon her as a memory to take to Utah with her to show to all her Utards friends...lol. Naaah, just kidding, Crash. I lub you loads, ya know that right? I am sooo going to miss having the advantage of rubbing it into the mainlander's faces that we have our famous people magnet dummy living just down the road from me...Oh well. I guess I need to be nice and share, uh?

It really is good to be back to the blogasphere!! Hope all is well with you all. Happy blogging and God bless!!