Sickness and Card, oh my....

Our house has been boggled down with sickness. Two weeks ago my son, Jonathan, came down with sore throat and fever and I kept him home from school for three days. Then just as he was getting better, I came down with the sore throat, fever, ache everywhere and had to spent practically a four day weekend in bed. Most frustrating thing about the sore throat was that eventhough it was painful and inflamed, the doctor said there was nothing wrong with my throat. I took a throat culture and when the results came in three days, it was negative, no strep which was a good thing. My throat was hurting for seven days and I was told that I was congested so therefore I was given some congestion medication. As the pain was easing up, the incessant cough started...I practically spent a whole week coughing non-stop. It was ok during the day, but when nighttime fell, it was torture. I think I only have a total of 48 hours of sleep in one week so I spent most of my days, walking around the house like a zombie...nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing got done around here. I was sleep deprived.

While I was still feeling sick, my little girl Kaitlin was sick also, her fever was constantly on a roller coaster ride. Along with that, she was vomitting all over the place and running in and out of our bathroom, she had diarrhea..poor thing. Just as we were getting better, both Joey and Daniel came down with the same thing. Three days after they got better, my hub came inherited everything else everyone has had for past week or so. Gosh, it felt like a never ending cycle. As I'm sitting here writing, my Kaitlin is coughing, she's moved on to coughing while my daughter Stephanie is in here room with the same thing we've had so far. She's been sick all weekend so she's been sleeping most of the time. Oh yeah, for some reason, the sore throat has affected the taste buds of anyone who has contracted it. I think I literally went on a four day fast during the time I had sore throat. I was literally shaking on the fourth day that I decided to make some chicken soup and slurp on the broth. It did the job.

There are still two members of our household who haven't gotten sick for far and I pray they don't get sick too. Seeing how misery seems to love company, they probably might come down with something over the weekend. My son Chris announced last night during FHE that this Friday he's taking a girl to the school dance so I cross my finger he doesn't get sick by then. It's so cute, it is going to be his first official date..awwww.

So yeah, that's what's been happening in our household right now. I'll be glad when everything gets back to normal again.

On a brighter note, being sick sometimes has its advantages. Being sick frees up a person from his/her usual chores or duties for the time being, yet said sick person can still enjoy or do something fun for a change. So that's what I did, I took advantages of my break and play with papers..our card group had our meet last week so I made some cards. I wasn't able to take picture of the card I made for our swap but I made a card for a challenge that I participate every week and had my daughter take picture of it. It's actually going to be my valentine's day card for my hub. So here it is:

I know, that's a lot of red. And it looks simple enough. I love this image..it's become my signature image when it comes to my hub and I. I like using this image when I make a card for my hub...when we were dating, we were poor poor students so most of our dates were either at the beach or ended at the beach.

The next image is the surprise part. Everyone who knows me, especially when it comes to card making, knows I love 3-D or pop up cards. I would say I am obsessed with pop-up card. The picture you see above, that was what the card looks like laid flat. If you look closely, you will see that there's a little indented area where you pull on it and once you pull it, viola!!

It pops up and stands on its own. And of course, there's a greeting that was revealed. I wish I can say that this is all my idea but no...some other very clever and creative person came up with the idea. Like I said, there's a challenge that I participate in each week...the coordinators come up with a technique, give us the instruction on it and then challenge us to create one. I don't usually do all of them. I usually like to tackle the 3-Ds or pop up ones and the complicated the technique the better...as far as I'm concerned.

So there you have it folks. Hope you all are having a good week and that you're all healthy.

God bless and ♥ always,

A Little Long-Winded..lol

It's been a while, hasn't it? So many things have been going on and with school's out for the summer, all the kids are home and practically every electronic equipment we have in the house has been completely taken over by one kid or another. I've had a couple of busy weeks and the summer has barely started but I'm enjoying myself. We will be going on a camp this week Friday til next week Wednesday so looks like I might be MIA again.

Since I last wrote, Jen's back from her trip and I think she's picked up a little bug because she looked completely tired and worn out and has been sleeping a lot. Of course they had a really busy week trying to cramp in as much sightseeing and preparing for their debut in NY that the earliest if they were at all lucky to go to bed for them was at midnight every night and getting up at six or even earlier in the morning. She's doing great and now she's attending Summer school. I will be posting later on how everyone is doing for the summer.

Today I thought I'd post a really cute video that y'all might enjoy. A week or so before school was out at the Elementary School my boys attend, there was an artist who came and made a couple of murals at a couple of the buildings...they were beautiful. On one of the walls, all the kids at the school were allowed a day to go and paint their favorite sea creature and it was a fun day for them all. I was able to go for an hour to watch my son Danny paint his sea creature. But anyways, the end result, with all the classes coming in one at a time to paint...you be the judge of that. One of the parents took this video and posted on You Tube so here it is..............



So what ya think? Isn't that artist incredibly talented? What about those future artists of America? LOL...those are some talented kids!

Here are the pictures of my three boys' sea creatures they drew....I think these are to die for and I'm not by any means being biased at all..nope!lol.

Here's Danny's fish...I don't know what you call that thing. They were told to find a fish they like and this is the one he found in a book from his classroom...look how colorful it is.
Jen came along to see her brothers' fishes and decided she wanted to show them off...didn't she do a great job? LOL...She's always been her brothers' biggest fan and supporters when it comes to any small accomplishments they made...what a big sister. That would explain why she was dubbed "The Favorite Sister" and she wore that title proudly.

Here's Joey's sea creature...a turtle. He was soo proud of his drawing, he couldn't wait to show it off. {Good job Joey...I ♥ your turtle.}
Here he is, showing off his turtle...isn't that a proud "you like my turtle?" look.


This last one is Jonathan's fish. The yellow fish with the black stripes. He said he wasn't really sure what he wanted to draw when he started and when he was drawing his fish, the kids and teachers kept asking him if that was an angel fish he was drawing so he figure, what the heck, an angel fish it is..lol.

I ♥ all three sea creature the same...I'm just so proud of them. I guess they get this little bit of creativity from me, eh? LOL Hope y'all like my little show and tell today. And here's hoping your week and the rest of the week will be a great one for ya!

She's Singing her way to New York

My daughter, Jen, left last night for her Smithsonian & Carnegie Hall Festival trip. When I dropped her off with her group, she said she was so excited that the day has finally arrived that she couldn't sleep a wink the night before. And well she should be excited...it was a long almost two years preparation for this trip...all the practice on her part, the money spent and fundraising we had to do make the trip possible, I am so glad to finally got some exciting reaction out of her.

As I'm writing this post, they are in Washington, D.C. somewhere near the capitol putting on a show for Senator Akaka....Hawaii State Senator. The choir will be making their way to New York in a couple of days to attend the Carnegie Hall festival and our Ko'olauloa Children Chorus will be performing on Saturday. Any of you readers out there reading this who live close to New York or around there, go check them out. Their choir will be only one who comes with hula dancers so it would be worth it to check them out...just saying.

See, this trip of hers actually mean a little more to me than probably anyone else going on the trip because 21 years ago, I was about my daughter's age when I took the same route and gone on a trip like this. We went to Washington, D.C. on a Smithsonian tour too and spent a week there. It was very exciting to walk in nation's capitol and see some of the beautiful historical sight. After the D.C. tour, we went to PA to see the Liberty Bell...the choir is also going to see the Liberty bell...and of course, we visited Colonial Williamsburg to get a glimpse of early America and then on to New York. See, the significance? My daughter will be walking those same streets, same route I took at her age twenty one years ago. I know things have changed and there might be a lot of different changes but still, just the thought about her actually visiting the same sights I visited at her age...totally exciting.

One of the chaperones on the tour created a blog just for this tour so those of us who were not fortunate to join them on this trip can keep tabs of how their doing...right now there are only two entries on that blog but she will be adding more everyday or whenever the time permits. If you're interested, you can go here. I borrowed some pictures from their Spring and Winter concert so feel free to feast your eyes on them..lol.

(Jen is on the top..the second girl on the left. Click on images if you want a close-up.)



(The choir singing while the Halau dancers do the hula...Jen {one of the dancers} in the very back row on the far left hand side.)

(The KCC and Jubilate...Jen on the very top.)

(Jen & Jas, my friend's daughter, doing the hula.)

These are just a few of the pictures of the choir...I borrowed these from the new blog. Hope you enjoy this. Sorry I haven't been posting...school's out and kids are home and therefore, any visible computers in the house are occupied by them. Hope all is well with everyone and hope you have a great week.

♥ you all and God bless!!

My Graduating Senior...she did it!!

My 17 year old daughter, Stephanie, has finally graduated from High School this past Thursday. We are so happy and proud of her for completing this first step in her life and pray and wish her the best in whatever avenue she decides to pursue.

The past week has been really hectic making preparation for her graduation and preparing for my MIL's visit. We spent two days making leis and of course trying to squeeze in a little sight seeing and beach going for Nanny. As I mentioned in my earlier post, I was going to teach my mother-in-law how to make candy leis and staying true to my word, that is what I did the first two days she was here.


Here are some of the leis we made. Stephanie wanted to make at least thirty leis for her friends and I wanted every single member of my family plus my MIL and nephew who came with her to have a lei to present to Stephanie after the graduation. Have I mentioned how big of a deal leis are here in Hawaii? Here are some pictures of some of the leis we made...we made candy, ribbon and I made a special lei made out of money just for her.


These are just a few of the bundle we made. The ribbon lei on the right was made by my son Jonathan.

Most of the candy leis were made by my MIL..the kids call her Nanny. She had a lot of fun making those. That means I must be one awesome teacher..lol.



This is the money lei I made for her. This was my first attempt at making this lei and although it turned out great, it was a lot of work. The most tedious part was folding all those dollar bill to make them look like flowers.

I had 30 one dollar bills that I folded individually and two 10 dollar bills added. As you can add them up, this is a 50 dollar lei, I was going to fold all 50 one-dollar bills but I got really tired..lol. I love how it turned out and she loves it too.

This lei was made up of her favorite candies and they are bigger bars too, unlike the other candy leis.


Now, here she is...my High School graduate. This was taken just before the graduation. Isn't she adorable?





The presentation of the diplomas. She did it!!



There she is again...after the ceremony. See all those leis, we have to take some off so we can see her face. Those are some of the leis she got from her friends and friends of the family.

Oh yeah, we have to make the poster so all our friends can see where she was and come congratulate her. Our poster is very simple compared to the other posters...man, people really go all out for this kind of stuff.




And there they are, the proud parents of the graduate..lol. I have to say that I was very proud of myself because I didn't cry at all...I am such a wuss and I get totally emotional when my kids something I'm very proud of that I cry like a baby but for some reason I didn't cry at all, even though I wanted to. My first baby has gone and grown up on me. So one down and six more to go..lol.
{We ♥ you, Stephanie, so proud of you for completing High School.}

These are just a few of the pictures I can squeeze in here. I'm putting the pictures I have on a slide show at the top so you all can see. Enjoy and hope you all have a great week.

{My son Jonathan will be graduating from Sixth grade this coming Friday and on Sunday, my daughter, Jen is off to her Carnegie Hall/Smithsonian tour so if I'm MIA again, it's only because I will be held at gun-point to be at their peck and call to prepare them for their adventures...LOL.}

May Day and Banquet Post

Finally a post about the first of May. Friday, which was May 1st was May Day for Laie Elementary School. This is a HUGE event that the school kids put on for the parents. The coordinators picked a theme for that year, mostly the theme is different cultural dances and then they spent the last few weeks of April preparing the kids for. If any of you Mainlander ever ended up in Hawaii on May 1st, make a point to go see this show. This is one of those times where moms and dads get to see how incredibly talented their children are and quite frankly are so proud that they just can't stop talking about it...at least for me anyways.

This year's May Day was simply to die for...the theme is "We are the world" and they had dances from Tahiti to Old and New America, to England to Italy and on to Africa. The preschool kids did Tahitian and it was one of my favorites...to see those little three year old shaking their booties like that. The Kindergartners did a kind of an opera from Italy...every year the Kindergarteners class always put on the cutest. This year however, all the grade class did a beautiful job. I'm just going to post some pictures to show what they look like..at least my kids.

The First Graders did a Native America dance...there's my son Danny.


The 2nd Graders did Bollywood..my son Joey is in the back, I gave up trying to capture him on this darn camera.

Sixth Graders did a number from Africa...my camera has definitely worn out its usefulness, see how blurry the image is? Every time I try to zoom in the camera always ended up shaking, not me, the camera so I gave up taking pictures. Luckily my hubby was video taping most of the show.

I ran into a couple of my friends outside the theater with their kids who were in the program so I took pictures of them. Missing from this photo are Swirl's kids.
The two boys standing are Jocelyn's kids...the little boy is a Kindergartner with his Italian costume. The older boy was one of the MC..next them is their sister Jadelyn...they did England. Next to her is Ashley, my friend Belinda's daughter, she's in 4th grade and they did something America-ish. Then my three in the front...Joey with Bollywood costume, Danny in his Native America and Jonathan in Africa get-up....cute kids uh?

Here's one of just the boys.

The May Day program was in the morning and that evening was the Freshmen and Sophmore Banquet. My daughter Jen invited two of her friends over to our house after school to get ready for the banquet and I get to play hair and make-up artist. Ok, so not really a hair dresser, I just straightened Jen's hair out because she didn't like the way her hair look.

So here are some of the pictures after their very short hour of preparation. These two pictures are taken outside our house. Jen's friend's mom wanted photos taken since she wasn't able to help her daughter get ready.


(Can't really tell if Jen's hair is straightened out, she kept messing with it.)

Here are a couple more pictures taken at the school.



Here's Jen by herself. By the time I took this picture, she was so ready to get rid of me...she saw a few more of her friends that she was dying to catch up with but I was keeping them to take pictures. But hey, I took the time to get her ready, not to mention help her friends out and drove them to the school...I am entitled to take pictures, no? LOL

It was one hectic but exciting day. The kids had a great day...so did I.

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!!

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.