Just Rambling again

I've been thinking about resolutions since this is a new year and all. Seems like that is the thing to do, the new year comes and everyone is writing up a new resolution. So I thought about writing up one for myself on here but then I got to thinking....

Does anyone actually accomplish any of the items they listed on their resolution? It seems I never seem to accomplish or even touch half of what I listed on my resolution. Seriously, I get so excited about the new year and I start imagining all the new things I'd like to do, for example, new talents I want to develop, or a bad habit I want to get rid of or new good habit I want to work on, blah blah blah.

See, every year, I put on my list, read my scriptures more faithfully, get at least thirty minutes of some sort of exercise workout into my daily routine, lay off the caffeine, again, blah blah blah...then come at the end of the year, I usually notice I've only done part of my list.

The first of this month, our family got together and toasted our last bottle cider to everything each of wish for the new year and then we gathered around in a circle and knelt in prayer. Usually when we do a prayer in circle like that, it means that someone would start the prayer, say something, then squeezed the hand of the person on their right and that person added something to the prayer and then squeezed the hand of the person next to them, so on and on til we get to the last person and that person say what she/he wants to say and then close out the prayer. The kids were very thoughtful in their part of the prayer, they each pray for each other, extended family member, parents and friends.

When it came for my turn...know what I prayed for? Only thought that stuck in my mind...P.A.T.I.E.N.C.E., yep, I prayed for Patience. So I've decided that will be my number one goal for this year. I will learn to have more patience. I have noticed that the older I get, the less patient I become. You would think that someone who has kids and are constantly around kids would be the most patient person in the world, but no, not me. I get impatient with my kids, my hubby, friends, even strangers. I seem to have little patience any little thing, even traffic light especially when I'm dropping my kids off to school, or when my kids are not moving fast enough in the morning to get ready for school...or if I tell one of the kids to do something and they seem to be moving too slow for my taste.

So yeah, Patience is definitely my resolution for this year. I figure if I focus on this one aspect of my life and actually master it, I just might be able to accomplish some of the other things I've been trying to accomplish for years, who knows. Maybe, just maybe, if I've become more patience, I might be able to get some of my mental list of things to accomplish for this year crossed off too...I think.

What about you? Do you write a resolution each year and do you actually accomplish what you listed? I would love to read what you have.

Anyways, today is Cub Scout Den meeting. I will be having at least four nine-year old over at my house this afternoon and I'm going to try my hand at some simple wood working activity. This should be interesting. Did I ever mention that I am actually loving being a den mom?(well, they don't call it that anymore...it's Den Leader, now). I do..it's actually more fun than I thought it would be. These nine-year olds are such fun to work with, no whining, complaining and they are so NOT picky when it comes to activities.

♥ always,

Forgive me Miss Blogger

My Dearest Blog,

If I can compose songs ♫♪ in your honor or even spew some Shakespearean love tragedy story for you, I would, to express how deeply sorry I am for neglecting you for so long. But alas, I can't make anything rhyme nor can I sing in the right tune. All I can say is I'm sorry, so sorry..

If it would help may I just say that life caught up with me and have been dragging me through all kinds of traffic?LOL Would you even permit me to tell you what's been happening to me these last few months? You would? Oh thank you...you are the BEST!! ☺

So where do I even begin....oh gosh. Well, first off, I am really excited that Christmas is upon us. I just ♥ Christmas, not the gift getting or the hectic shopping part, more of the feeling that I love about it. I love what Christmas represent and it seems people are a bit more sweeter and kinder this time of year. I love the feeling in the air that Christmas season brings, the beautiful music that comes with it. I could sit and listen to Christmas music all day long. I especially love that my kids would sit at night with all the regular lights off and only the lights on the Christmas tree is on, they would even forgo watching TV or playing on the computer just to sit in front of the tree and talk story. And of course, don't forget the baking smell pastries. (OK, so I haven't been baking anything yet nor has my daughter but still, just the thought of it...*****sighs*****.) And oh another favorite, me making Christmas cards to send to families and friends. I've got loads of fun card ideas and I'm thinking I will be showcasing them as the days draw close to Christmas. (I think even you, Miss Blogger will forgive me of my trespass once you've seen my creation..right? *wink, wink*)

Our Thanksgiving this years was great as always. We spent it with friends at a potluck, OMG, the food. There were so much food and in so many variety, I can honestly say that everyone stuffed themselves like a turkey. And as customary, there were dancing too. That was supposedly a means to work off some of those food we stuffed our face with. So there were lots of eating, visiting, dancing then eating visiting and dancing again. And to close the day off, we had karaoke in the evening. Talk about a bunch of stuff turkeys gobbling into the mics, that was a sight for sore eyes...LOL. (I guess I should count myself lucky that none of those at the party reads my blog, even my family or I would've gotten an earful from that last line...don't tell OK? LOL)

Oh and I forgot...we celebrated a very important birthday this year...a milestone. My son Daniel turned 8 in August so he was baptised.
(He's the one with the candy leis...I think he's more excited to delve into all those candies, lucky kid. LOL) It was a very special occasion for him. I couldn't be prouder of him for making such a mature decision. Since the beginning of the year, he's been reminding me that he's turning eight this year, to make sure I mark on my calendar for a baptism date for him. (Aww, my little baby boy is all grown up and making adult decision...proud of you son.) Talk about birthdays....my Stephanie celebrated her 19Th birthday this year. OMG, I have a practically adult child in my home. What the heck happen?..it seems like it was only yesterday that I came home from the hospital with a pink bundle in my arms and look now she's all grown up. That was practically how old I was when I got married....I am definitely getting old. (Father Time, you need to slow down, my kids are growing bigger and bigger every time I blinked.)

Speaking of which...just before the summer ended, my hub and I went on a camping trip. A scout camping trip, just the two of us along with a bunch of other old people like myself, up on the mountain for two weekends without any kids to speak up and played boy scout for two weekends in a row. I tell ya, it was the absolute best. Just us the old folks, a bunch of trees and tents in our oh so cute boy scout uniforms...no kids in sight. No peeps from any little voices and oh the peace and quiet. Traffic noise was completely unheard of too. And I've learned a ton of useful things mostly on how to be an effective, fun and oh so wonderful scout leader. A greatest tool I picked up which I try using each day since then is the evaluation of self called Stop, Start, and Continue. Basically, every night before I go to sleep, I have to evaluate myself, check what I've done or have been doing throughout the day, month or year, whichever you prefer, but I stick with day(less stressful if it's on a small scale) and decide what I need to stop doing (in this case, stop procrastinating on just about anything, for example), what I need to start doing (I need to start blogging more...you get the picture) and what I need to continue doing if I am already doing good at it (continue smiling, just to make it easy, but you get the picture right?). We did this as a group tool at camp so I just adopt it to use it on myself...my hub who is always thinking on a larger scale is involving the rest of the family. It's a working progress.


And oh...did I mention? I am taking a class @BYUH. It's a Religion slash Relationship class and I am taking it with my hub. It's been a very eye opening and full of very useful information class. It's not a hard class. I am planning on going to school once my little Katie's started Kindergarten so I thought I'd get myself reacquainted with the classroom. I have been having a lot of fun and the professor totally ROCKS!! I think I'm going to stick with one class at a time til Kaitlin starts Kindergarten next school year. I gotta tell ya, it feels absolutely weird sitting in a classroom with kids my daughter Steph's age and it's been interesting.

Anyways, I know dear Miss Blogger I've practically bored you to tears with my attempt at this apology but I just thought I should at least explain a bit of why this lack of blogging all this time. I will definitely START blogging more and seriously STOP abandoning you like this again. DEAL? Will that be enough for you to forgive me? Please pretty please? ☺

Mahalo Plenty,

Eclipse and Some ramblings

So, my two girls and I went to see the movie Eclipse on opening night here in our own little comunity. Yes, we waited in line(but I hear we had the shortest line compared to all the other theaters out there in the US of A). Let me just say that we(meaning our family) don't usually go to opening night..don't particularly care about waiting up for mightnight showing and waiting in line for movie, but my daughter Jen wanted to go and she paid for mine and Steph's tickets so it's not something I could pass up. Plus, my girls went to opening night of Iron Man 2 and they said they did trivia before the movie started and it was fun so they wanted to see if they would do the same thing for Eclipse.

I gotta say, I think I had more fun before the movie than during it..LOL. The workers walked around asking questions from the book and rewarding anyone who answered correctly with candy. They even had some door prizes that they were giving away. Two of the door prizes were the life size cardboard pictures of Edward and Jacob. No, we didn't win any prizes but a friend of my son won the life size image of Edward. So he called up my son Chris to go over and take the picture off his hand. Chris thought it would be a really good idea to get reactions out of his sisters.

First night we got Edward, he waited til his sisters went to bed, then he snuck in their rooms and stood Edward up by their beds. Yes, I think you can imagine the reactions when they first opened their eyes to see a man standing in their rooms...LOL. Jonathan has then joined in on the fun by placing Edward in some parts of the house where when one walks in the door, there's Edward about ready to launch at you. Stephanie has attacked Edward more often this week, she's lost count of it. She has even thrown Edward out the window but he kept coming back in the house(LOL).

(This is the exact cardboard image we have at our house right now.)


Now here's the funniest part of the whole thing....both Chris, Jonathan along with their dad are on a Boys Scout camp this week, they left Sunday evening and will not be back til sometime Saturday or Friday. So, Edward has been scaring us girls. I moved him to stand by the back door and every time the girls got up from the living room to walk to the kitchen, they would jumped back a step and muffled a little cry and then of course, a few seconds later, they would clutch their chest because for a minute there they thought someone was in the house...LOL. Jen kept thinking her dad had come home and didn't bother to announce his arrival(yeah, the pasty white complexion of Edward could easily be compared to my hub's skin complexion..LOL). I think I've more than once had my heart jumped a few times yesterday everytime I exited the living room to go out the back door. I guess maybe our family may be a little twisted sense of humor because we all enjoy scaring the wits out of each other. I can almost smell a bet going on in our house about who would get scared by Edward life size cardboard image the most.

Which reminds me....I actually like Eclipse way better than New Moon. I am glad that I was able to go with my girls on opening night and the line was worth the wait. My girls are already thinking for the fourth movie, instead of watching it in Laie, we're going to hit up one of the big theaters in town. I need to re-read the fourth book, it's actually my favorite one of them all. What about y'all, did you see the movie Eclipse and what did you think about it?

BTW...happy belated 4th of July. Hope y'all had a great 4th of July weekend, ours was very quiet, just the way I like it.

Rambling Again

My goodness, it has been a week since I last posted. It's not that I don't have anything to say or write about, I'm just too lazy, I guess. Yes that's it, I'm too lazy. I can't seem to bring myself to stick with something for long lately.

That reminds me though, I'm a walking-thinking-non-stop type of person. From the minute I opened my eyes in the morning til I fell asleep at night, I have thoughts swirling around in my head. Sometimes I'm awakened by my thoughts yet I am unable to put them into words. Then again, maybe it's a good thing because if anyone read half of the thoughts I have, they'd run and hide from me..LOL. But enough about that.

Last month I was called into the Bishop's office and offered a new calling. I was extended a call to serve as a Bear Den Leader in the Cub Scout Program. Anyone who knows me, know I always jump at the opportunity to carry out any calling, doesn't matter what it was, I'm always ready (well, as ready as I can be). Yet, for the first time since I became a LDS, I actually hesitated. I actually told the Counselor to give me a time to think on it.

What he said to me when he extended the call was that they know I can do the job, those boys would be better served with me being their leader, but they don't know if I have the time. Well, in my thoughts and I think I even told him..."Hmmmmm, I have all the time in the world since I'm home and it's not whether I have the time, I can make time but I'm just not sure I can do this calling or if I even want to." It actually took me two weeks to get back to him and accepted the calling, I even have to call my dear friend Swirl and freaked out on her (she used to be a den leader and still in Cub Scouting program and she loves it) to ease my worry.

Seriously, I don't think I've ever had a calling that freaks me out more...even when I was called to be a Branch pianist as a 16 year old after taking piano for only six months and had to mess up on some keys here and there...nope, I saw that as an opportunity to practice my new found talent. Nope, not even when I was called a District Assistant Clerk when I was 17 and I was given the responsibility over the finance, a teen who had never earn a wage to be suddenly handling a budget like that, nope that didn't even phase me in the least bit. Or when I was called to be a pianist for RS when I first moved into this ward..again, I would literally screwed up on the song but even that didn't matter to me. Or to teach RS(have I mentioned how intimidated I am to be in front of other adult let alone teaching them a lesson which I'm sure they know more about?) which I wasn't as freaked about as I thought I would. I've lost count of all those different callings I have done, some hard and others easy but I took them all with the same attitude.."I will do my best and give my all and yes I'm ready to serve now."

Not so with this Cub Scout calling. Why is that, you ask? I've actually thought I would be lucky enough to never be in Scouting even with four boys(ahah, the joke's on me). So why is this calling different for me and why even now I'm having serious doubt about ability to do it? I'll tell you why....it's because the thought of having little boys, three or more all in the same age, just the thought of them in the same room totally wears me out. All those active energy of theirs, I seriously don't know how to deal with all that energy. But I have four boys, how did I deal with that, you're wanting to know? Well, it's like this...my four boys are different in age, different levels of attention and activity so therefore I can focus on each one of them individually..see?

I am not a very active person. My level of activity or exercise is walking up and down the stairs for my daily chores, run to the grocery store and walk up and down the aisle, stand at the kitchen sink to wash dishes and the occasional running of the vacuum across the floor...you see what I'm saying? Take a very inactive person and throw some very active boys her way to keep them doing something fun yet informative and manage to keep their attention for one hour and tell me if that is a good match. Oh yeah, I was informed it's an easy calling since it's by the book. Everything is in the book, I don't have to try to come up with something creative or fun to teach them...well, I've looked through the book, I can understand all in there but I am still as clueless as ever. Do I keep them indoor focused on the project in hand first then take them outside and have them run their energy off or do I have them run their energy off first then on to the lesson on hand? Which one do I do first? Yeah, we meet in the afternoon, right after school so I know there's no way they would want to be indoor doing some lesson, they've already been in school for six hours...but if I have them outdoor working off their energy, they'll be too tired to even bother with the lesson later. Yes I know, some of you this is piece of cake, you probably can't figure out what the fuss is all about but this is still a dilemma for me.

So last week, we had our first meet. It went well. The Primary needed help coloring eggs for their Easter egg hunt so our den was recruited to help out and that was what we did last Thursday. Which worked out great because while the boys were coloring eggs, I went through their books to see how far along they are on there. Yesterday was supposed to be our second meet. I forgot to call them on Wednesday to remind them to come but I did call yesterday morning but nobody showed up except of course my son(my son Joey is the one in this den). Yes, my first failure as a new leader. A bit disturbing, it doesn't do good at all to my confidence but that's ok...I've resolve to do all I can to make this calling the best one I've done so far...after all, I'd probably end up doing this calling til way after Danny came and went. So I went to Round Table last night, learned a few new things and next Saturday I'm going to the Leadership Training all day meeting. Who knows, I'll probably end up liking Scout more than anything else and will probably be sad to leave it when my time ends :)...hey, I'm trying to think positive here.

So yeah, this my most recent challenge/or adventure(take it anyway you want) that I'm having now. Other than that, it's been pretty quite here since we've gone to court with our neighbors. I'm happy to report that after I posted this post, we've resolved our issues with our neighbors, don't know how long this peace and quiet will last but we're enjoying it all the same. We are not all the way there yet where we can chat up with our neighbors but at least they're leaving us alone so that's a real plus.

By the way...Mother's day is coming up and I'd like to send all of you who follows me, even those who don't follow but are interested, a genuine Mother's Day card made by yours truly and the ladies in my card swap group. Interested, send me your physical address through email, aighty?

Have a great day and if you're going out tonight with your SO/hub/BF...be safe and enjoy!!

God bless with all my aloha!!

Just Rambling again

These past few weeks, I've been doing a lot of blog surfing and blurking. I've found so many interesting blogs to read and it was easy for me to get lost in those blogs reading that I find I've practically spent the better part of my days blogging...well, more like reading blogs.

Whenever I come across a new blog or when I'm reading a comment on a blog and I find the commentor's comment witty, funny or even have some well meaningful thought around it, I would click on the commentor or you could say I follow the commentor back to his/her blog. And the first thing I would check out first is the profile...I always find it a fascinating to read who the blogger is so I just have to read the profile.

Anyways, as I was saying, these few weeks as I've been surfing all over the blogosphere and reading the profiles of the bloggers, I find that most of the bloggers disclosed in their profile that aside from everything they do, they are aspiring writers. Aspiring, now that is an interesting word. I'm sure if I actually dig deep, I would probably find that majority of the bloggers are aspiring writers, I mean every blogger is doing mainly that...writing, no? But what do they really mean? Do they mean that one day they might become famour writers or is blogging a way for them to build up their talent to become some famous writers. If you ask me, I think everyone who does blog is doing a pretty good job of writing.

Well, except for one thing though...I do not like this writing stuff. It's weird because there are so many things I would like to do or would like to become when I was little growing up but being a writer is totally not one of them. Kind of ironic because I love to read, I've mentioned that before already. But when it comes to writing...that's a whole other thing entirely for me. See, to me, writing requires a lot more work than anything and it seems to be a very moody thing to do.

Let me tell you why writing is not really my thing or why I would never ever, even if my life depend on it, write a book or put anything I write in an article. First off, my hands seem to have a brain of their own, completely not in coordination with my head. Sure I can sit and think of the most amazing and incredible to tell, yep, I can spin a tale like no other but if I was asked to write it down, it will totally come out completely wrong and boring and all jumbled up like I'm doing now. (Seriously, I have a really good post in my head, I can picture and imagine every little word I want to write but now that I'm actually writing it, it's just not coming out the way I want it.)

Part of this writing problem of mine is that since English is not my first language, the thoughts I have in my head are usually my native language but I am living in an English speaking home and country and majority of the people I associate with are English speaking people. So I have to do some translation of my thoughts in my head from my native language to English. Because of that, sometimes the translation gets lost on the way...you know from my the brain to the tip of my fingers, the same fingers that do the writing. And then when that happens, I almost always ended up with some of the worse written words in the history of writing. Now that I think about it, I am starting to see why I never get the best grades in creative writing.

And what is the point of this post, you're asking? Well, not a whole lot except that if this blog is constantly stagnant phase, know that the owner trying to sort her thoughts out to make them come out halfway decent for a post...LOL...but of course I remembered that this blog is created mainly to release the constant movement of thoughts in my head. If the posts written sounds like they're all over the place, chances are that that is exactly how they got released from the fingertips...LOL. This is after all a rambler's blog so most of the post might be just that too, just ramblings with not rhyme or reason for them.

So, now that I've at least released this rambling for the day, I feel my head lighten up a bit and looks like I've released some chaotic thoughts out of my head and it's now ready to be organized again so next week I've got some fun and creative crafts to show off. And I've got a really cute Valentine post to share with you guys.

Nonsense Ramblings (Parents Lie to Their Kids)

I can't seem to be able to put any coherent thoughts together to make a perfectly sensible post lately. That's why my blog has been sitting here post-less. I guess I can say I have completely come to a hump in my blog writing. It's not that I don't have things I want to write...I have loads of thoughts and things I want to write about, I just can't seem to organize them well. I wonder if that is hint of some form for me. Maybe I do need to organize my life or my home so that my thoughts can get organized too, uh?

So, I was watching "Malcolm in the Middle" the other day and it got me thinking about something. The mom in the show was trying to get the youngest son to get rid of his teddy, he's had it since he was a baby and to her he was too old to keep cuddling up with a stuff toy. And of course, the teddy has been used so much it's practically in rags. The mom used all kinds of clever ways she can think of to get the son to throw that teddy away but to no avail. She even threatened him, bribed him but nothing worked. Finally she sat him down and told him that she needed to wash the teddy because the stuffed toy is soooo dirty it's loaded with germs. And if the son doesn't let her wash the teddy, he would get all those germs on him and get sick and die.

That freaked the son out and he finally relented. The mom was happy because she now was able to get rid of the teddy. But her plan backfired on her because now her son has taken her germs-causing-sickness-that-would-make-him-die ploy seriously that he practically doesn't want to leave the house anymore to avoid any contact with anything that would pass germs on to him. He even wrapped himself up with plastic covers from head to toe and every time he come across anything on the floor, bugs or anything else that moves, he freaked out. Now the mom has another problem on her hands..how to get her son to stop being so scared of getting sick that he avoided pretty much everything. Anyways, it was gross because he saw something black on the floor and he freaked out big time so his mom came in and picked it up off the floor and told him it was only raisin. He didn't believe her, said it was a bug and so to prove it to him that it's an harmless raisin, she put the thing in her mouth and chewed it up and swallowed it. That snapped him out of his phobia.. it was actually a bug but of course there was no way the mom was going to tell her son that.

Anyways, that got me thinking....parents do lie to their kids. It's sad but true. We, parents, spend our days raising our kids and instilling honesty in our kids but yet we do lie to them, I would say all.the.time. I know there are reasons we lie to kids, most of the time we lie to protect our kids. As a kid, I always believed anything my parents told me. I found out as I grow older that most of the things they told me were not actually true. Like for example, they told me that if I ever said a bad word, my mouth would grow some fungus on it and fall off. (Yeah, I know, you're laughing at me and thinking how gullible I was to believe it.) I did believe them, kept me from ever saying a swear word even though there were times I wanted to badly..LOL. Of course I know that wasn't true, it was just their way of keeping me from swearing.

And Santa Clause...we all know every parents tell their kids that Santa Clause is real, the tooth fairy and the Easter bunny are all real. Keeps the kids on good behavior. How about the monster under the bed? My hubby even told me how his grandmother would keep him and his siblings in line when they visit her by telling them that there's a monster that comes out to swallow up kids when they misbehave. My mom has told me that too...especially if I wanted to play with my cousins {who live right across the road from me} at night that a monster comes out to snatch up little girls and eat them for dinner just so I make sure I'm inside the house as soon as the sun sets. (Yep, I learned that wasn't true as soon I got older and tested that theory out.) I was a really naive kid so I totally believed anything my parents told me or any adult told me. I realized as I got older, those were just their technique to make me behave and obey them. I could go on and on but it would be too embarrassing, you know..LOL.

So, now I'm a parent and I try to do that...darn kids of mine are too smart for their own good. They never believed any of those things. Ok, yes, I did tell them Santa Clause is real and they did believe it for a while and actually figured it out when they get to a certain age. I am just glad that the older kids were nice enough not to make me and hubby look like total liars by telling the younger kids that Santa Clause is sooo not real and that Santa Clause is actually Daddy, that's why mommy was kissing Santa Clause under the mistletoe...And that the reason that mommy seem to be always tired and sleepy on Christmas morn was because since she was Santa's helper and that her Santa is a procrastinator so he usually procrastinate his Christmas shopping til the night before Christmas to do shopping and make his helper stay up all night wrapping gazillions of presents. And that when the tooth fairy stumbles around in the dark to leave a dollar bill under the pillow to replace the detached tooth, he most likely would make a mistake and leave a five dollar bill instead of a dollar bill and that when there are more than one tooth waiting under the pillows, coincidentally daddy would come home for lunch the next day because he's lost all his money under those pillows that night before playing tooth fairy...

So, tell me..if I lie for the benefit of my kids or to teach them something, does that make it ok? Aren't I breaking one of the commandments about lying? If most of a parenting teaching method revolves around lying, why do we then punish our kids for lying?

See, I told you guys, my thoughts are totally jumbled up. I'm just trying to get rid of them so I can make rooms for other thoughts who's trying to make their way in...LOL.

Cheerfest and STUFF

The last couple of weeks were spirit week for Kahuku High & Inter. School. Kids have spent these last few days doing all kinds fun things at school and of course they have a home game this Friday...Kahuku vs Kaimuki. So, last night was the cheerfest....a tradition that has been carried down for a long time at Kahuku. The High School spent a couple of weeks in the evenings to come up with a cheer for each grade and practice will the night of Cheerfest and then got together to show off who has the best cheer. I don't know if there are other schools who does this.

My son, Chris, is a Freshman this year and decided that he wanted to attend the cheerfest. Jen decided to attend it this year too, she has missed out two years before and I guess this year she finally decided to get out of her comfort zone and do something different. I was a little surprised that both Jen and Chris wanted to do cheerfest this year only because the last two years I've been trying to get Jen to do it (the cheerfest is only for the high school kids) and she never showed any interest. Usually my daughter Steph was the one who took interest in any school events (hmmmm, I wonder if Jen was a little intimidated being in the shadow of her older sister....since she started attending Kahuku, the upperclassmen and staff only recognize her as "Stephanie's little sister"). And of course Chris, my son who never really cared for outdoor or big crowd kinda deal so I was really surprised that they both wanted to give this cheerfest thing a go this year.

Anyways, the Cannon Activities Center at BYUH was packed with all the parents, friends, siblings, aunties & uncles, and grandparents who went to show their support. It was crazy with all the noise. Chris didn't want me to miss it or not get good seat, he called me around six thirty (the thing didn't start til eight) to tell me I need to get there already if I want to get good seating because there are already people lining up to go in. Of course, I didn't want to end up sitting in the bleeding section, I had to listen to him so I got there around seven with Steph and Jon and got ourselves some really good seats.

The kids looked sooooo cute and adorable in their uniform. Each grade has a different shirt design and I gotta say those were really cool designs they have on their shirts. Exactly at eight, the Freshmen got up to do their cheer...judges were introduced before the performance and the kids were told that the judging of the cheer would cover creativity, unity, most fun and least put-down cheer. I know I am being biased when I say this, but the Freshmen did beautifully...their voices were in totally harmony and I could hear what was in their cheer and the moves...wowser!! Next was the Sophmore..there weren't very many participants with this group...they too did a great job. After them was the Juniors...my daughter Jen was with the Juniors...again another beautifully done cheer. They had some really funny stuff in their cheer and kept people laughing almost through the whole cheer. The Seniors were last, they also did a great job, too.

After the Seniors number...the Principal and her staff did a number. Ok, I forgot to tell you that the theme for school's spirit week was Remember The Good Times..and in light of the theme, coordinators decided to do a little memory for Michael Jackson, they played a medley of some his greatest hits. So the Principal and her staff got up and sang "We Are the World"...it was beautiful. They have some vocally talented teachers in that group. The kids were soooo proud of their Principal and teachers they got up and held hands while they swayed to the song..it was kind of an emotional moment. (I'm not a big fan of Michael Jackson but that song is one of my favorite....I guess it's a good thing he wasn't the only one singing that song.)

Finally the moment everyone was waiting for...the award time. While the MC waited for the judges to finalize their decision (did I mention that Elvis was in attendance and was actually the MC for the event? Yep, he did..LOL.) there were some side awards that needed to be given out. They had four awards they gave out...one of them was on the best poster/sign design and that went to the Juniors. The other award was on the t-shirt design and that one went to the Sophmore, then best attendance award that went to the Seniors. The Freshmen were give the best sportsmanship award. To tell you the truth though, the Freshmen had the best t-shirt design and the Seniors had the best poster design. But oh well...they want to be fair so every grade gets something. Then the moment came, there were drumrolls from all around the house....the fourth place went to the Seniors and that was because they broke one of the rules so they were disqualified. Third place went to the Juniors, it took a while to register for them that they came in third because they honestly believe that they would've won either second or first place and I agree with them. I think second place should be theirs. Second place went to the Sophmore and yep....the Freshmen won first place. They were soooo surprised (this is the first time in the history of Kahuku Cheerfest that Freshmen come in first) that they went wild in their cheering. It was really fun watching the look on their faces when they realized they actually won first place. It was absolutely crazy fun and I was very happy for them...they totally deserve to win first place, they actually put in more practice time than any of the other grades. They would literally skip their lunch period to practice and my son later told me that their leader worked them hard and was not that hopeful they would come anywhere close to second or even third. So, can you imagine how euphoric they all must have felt to come in first? My son was so giddy he rubbed it in his sister's face..LOL..rascal. Jen was not too happy that her grade didn't even make second place, she actually had her heart set on it. So brother and sister were bantering in the car on the way home, all in good fun though...she was a good sport in that she was happy she lost to her brother, she just wasn't happy that they lost to the Sophmores...ahahah...little competive wench..lol.

So on the way home, Jen was all just ranting on and on...she still couldn't believe they came in third and then out of the blue she goes: "hey guys, do I have a dumb face?"
I was like "what you mean by that? what does a dumb face look like?"
"Oh, I don't know, I feel like my face look dumb."

That brought a memory I had a teenager. I was invited by my friend and her family to spend the weekend with them. We had to go to the country side for some family get-together, some kind of reunion or something, big feast, lots of people. We had to stay at my friend's grandparents' house and they happen to have a woman from the Peace Corps living with them. One of the things my friends and I liked to do in those high school days is to try to learn as much English as we could so whenever we come across a foreigner, we'd strike up conversations with them. So my friend and I were standing around chatting up a storm with this this lady when I noticed that my friend's uncle was talking to my friend's mom and the whole time he kept looking at me. I later found out that they were actually talking about me. The uncle was asking my friend's mom if I actually understand what that haole lady was saying and if I actually know how to speak her language. My friend's mom quickly responded that not only did I know how to speak English but that I was actually the smartest kid in the whole high school (I'm blushing right now because my friend's mom was totally exaggerating) and you wanna know what the uncle said after that?

"Oh really, I didn't know that" he said. "She looks like she might be retarded or something."
How embarrassing. So when Jen asked us about her dumb face, I told them about this incident and she was really mad about that...she thought that man was very rude but since it's been sooo long ago, I thought it was actually funny.

So what does a dumb face look like? A better question would be, did I actually look like a retard, and if so, do I still look like one? Or maybe I just look more like an idiot and if that's the case, I could totally use it to my advantage. Can you imagine how many secrets and things I shouldn't have heard or learned because people would just pass me off as an idiot so they can say whatever they want to say in front of me thinking I wouldn't understand...seriously, I can actually work for the government and be a spy or even work for a company and be spy to that company to find out all their secrets.

{insert mad scientist laugh}

Keepin Up Tradition..lol

It's Friday folks and you know what that means? Yes, it's the day where I pour my heart out about my inadequacies as a mom. Julie is on a blog-cation right now so I'm going to try to keep her NPSA meeting going a little on my end. Plus, I'm just too down in a rut to come up with anything creative and entertaining. So here goes nothing:

Any of you moms ever actually looked forward to having a camping trip? Well, I do. Doesn't make sense because usually camping might require a lot of work, packing of camping gears, the hike or whatever...but camping here in Hawaii so much different. Camping is like going on a vacation.

Anyways, since we moved to our Ward nine years ago, our family has been going every year since with our Ward for Ward camp. I didn't use to like camping...all those packing, planning menus, hauling things to and from camp and all the camping gears...well, two years after this yearly ritual, I discovered something that actually make me like camping anymore. Seriously.

We usually camp from Friday to Wednesday so that's almost a whole week. You know what my biggest dilemma everyday is? Trying to figure out what to make for dinner...even with a menu schedule or even if I already have an idea of what I want to make, it always ended up a complete shamble. Well, I figured out that at camp, my family is not soooo picky about what they eat. As long as I bring a lot of snacks and drinks, they will eat anything. If I actually decide we'll eat sandwiches that whole duration of camp, that's what we will be eating...no complaints from anyone, not even the hubby who usually makes a big fuss about dinner meal. In fact he insisted that I don't go through any trouble trying to come up with anything elaborate for dinner, he's all content with just having sandwiches as long as he gets to spend his whole camping trip at the beach.

So folks...that is now the reason I look forward with excitement to camping. For five days, I can feed them anything and they will be just fine. And not only that, but since there are other kids and adults around and most of kids are grown, I just let my little kids go off with hang out with their little friends and I get to enjoy myself, doing my own thing. All this time, my kids are actually thinking that I am making a sacrifice for them every year by taking them camping but they don't really know, do they? To them camping is the best time of the year besides Christmas because mom lets them eat all the junk food they desire and she keeps supplying them with that and even dad is loosened up enough to eat hot dogs which he loathe eating by the way..lol. AND.....only at camp that a mom can get away with letting her kids wear the same thing, be it swim shorts or a complete outfit for five days in a row without anyone giving you the eye...seriously.

As you can see, I have a such a great time at camp, exhausting though it may be, I am wishing we are still camping right now because quite frankly, I'm just too lazy to get up and do any mundane things. I think this year's camping week went by really fast, I barely got to bask in the glory of it all when it was time to break camp and come home. So now, I'm already planning on the next Ward camp coming up next year...isn't that crazy? In fact, I think I'm still in the camping mode right now because I keep thinking that the kids should just raid our cabinets and help themselves to any food they find...lol.

Ahem...aight folks, thanks for reading, hope your week is been great so far. Again, if you're in the mood to read some fun post, go here.

God bless!! and happy blogging!

Not much to write about today

I know I have been very inconsistent with my posts lately. I have no excuses that could make me look cooler for this total sporadic of my posts. I've been blogging, at least that's what I thought that was...I do stay online on blogland, but I mostly spend that reading other very interesting blogs out there.

And of course, life in general is very hectic for me. I've been trying to be a very good mom by dedicating most of my time to my kids since they are home all day and it's been fun. Where else can I get to know my kids all over again...

Anyways, I just want to update a little of my weekend.

Fourth of July was a great one....we were able to go to a block party and mingle with old friends and meeting new ones. And of course, food is always a great factor to a get-together. OMG the food...the people in Hawaii really know how to throw a party. I think I've gained at least five pounds just from eating on Saturday.

However, my little girl, Katie, got sick and I had to practically stayed up all night taking care of her. So both she and I didn't go to church yesterday...I was able to catch up on sleep since she was sleeping most of the day. I was actually in a great mood because I made a great dinner for my family...even made a new dessert, one that I've never made before.

Then my family came home after church yesterday and told me that one of ladies I know, her three year old son had fallen out of their two-story window and landed on the cemented sidewalk below and cracked his skull. He's now in the hospital...my heart goes out to the mom. Right now she's battling her own demons...she's been struggling with anxiety attack and now this. I think in the four or five years they've live here in Hawaii, they've moved at least six times that I know. Everytime they get settled in one house, the owner ended up selling the house so they ended up having to look for another place. And I have to tell you, I don't think I would be able to handle that kind of stress...they have little kids, the oldest is eight...can you imagine that? I guess that's what brought on the anxiety stress she has. Poor lady...I feel sooo bad for her.

My daughter Steph is volunteering this summer at the hospital where the little boy is at so she told me last night she's going to stop by and see how the boy is doing. I'm going to find out sometime today how long he will be at the hospital so I can go visit. I asked my hubby last night if the little boy is going to make it and he said yes but I'm sure there's going to be some major problem that will result from the fall. Can you just picture that? A three year old falling from a two-story window and a cracked skull? I shudder just thinking about it. I get usually very neurotic when my daughter or any of my kids get near our windows or the older kids climb a tree...now with what happened to the little boy, I think I'm on the verge of being paranoid now.

Other than that, everything is ok on my end. Katie's feeling much better, up and about in her old self, singing and dancing and just being her old cute, adorable unresistable self. Jen's attending Summer School this summer and I've mentioned already, Stephanie's volunteering at the hospital. All four boys are home, being mommy's helpers, and just enjoying their time at home. How about you all? How's your summer coming along so far? Hope you're enjoying the great summer weather...the sun is out and brightly about, I think I might take the kids across to the beach to do some kayaking.

If you're interested in reading something really fun this week, go here. I've mentioned this blog before, it's on my sidebar, Mars versus Venus, a relationship blog...I'm one of the posters on there. This week, the posts are extremely fun to read, the owner has decided to theme the post so this week's theme is Compatibility. You might not want to miss the posts on that blog...go check it out. I have a post I've written, I'm just not sure when it will be posted, maybe Friday or Saturday but every single post this week is going to be a "must read". There's a really fun post right now...it even comes with video of a real live couple so please go check it out, ok?

Aight, y'all take care and have a great day.

My Little Weekend Creation

So I've finally figure out what's been plaguing me lately. Yes, I have a visitor right now...you know the kind of visitor that visits WOMEN only and once a month? It seems before this visitor made an appearance, she would do all kinds of weird things to my physical and mental state that pretty much makes me the most impatient and the least kind person in the world. Well, now that she's actually here and I can physically see her (lol), I can deal with her...ahahah.

Well, now that I've at least come to terms with what's been plaguing me, I can put that to rest and move on to something more pleasant. I wasn't aware that this is a Memorial day weekend and therefore there will be kids underfoot another extra day so I will definitely use that to my advantage. My mother-in-law is visiting and will be here this Tuesday so I'm going to need all the extra hands I can get to help me put my house in something that resembles a bit of order before she gets here. I'm actually looking forward to seeing her..haven't seen in her in a long time and the kids are really excited to see Nanny.

Ok so my weekend is going ok. I joined my friend to go do the "Relay for Life" at midnite on Friday and I found out that was a really neat and fun thing to do. We did an hour walk, I didn't count how many laps we did and it was great. I mean I killed two birds with one stone, I did a good thing for a good cause and I burned some calories...who said good causes supposed to benefit only the receiver? LOL

On a more creative note....our card group had our swap on Friday night and I was the demonstrator. I had a blast again, as always. The ladies love my card I made for swapping and my demo was easy, fun yet cute. My friend called me later to rave about how much she loved my card...I admit, of all the cards I made, the one I made this month is my favorite. And not just because it's cute and I had to combine at least two different ideas to create it but because of my daughter's graduation coming up in a few days, she was my inspiration behind the card. So do you guys want to see my card I made to swap with the ladies? Do you? Ok...here we go!


Isn't it cute? The owl is graduating...lol. Red, white and black is my daughter's school's color. The owl was made with different hole punches.

But wait, there's more...look closely, see what the owl is hiding behind him. Yep, when you lift the flap behind the owl, there's a little envelope where a dollar bill or even a gift card lay safely awaiting to be discovered...isn't that cute?

And then when you open the card itself, the sentiments are written in there, like this. (Click on the images to see it enlarge so you can read what it says.)

And for the demo, I did this card. Our theme was either Graduation card or Wedding card. I had to go with graduation because of my daughter. So here's another graduation card that I demo for the group...it was very easy and the ladies loved it. This is a money card...

You pull out the band in the front and then the card is then able to open. There's a little pouch inside where the money goes. Isn't it cute? I got this idea from Dawn at her stamping studio and if anyone is interested to see how to make it, go here. She has step by step video of how to make it. I love the versatility of this card, you can also use it for birthday, and of course wedding and any other occasion that calls for money giving.
Don't you just love it?

Anyways, doing something creative like this is such a big stress-reliever for me. My next project or at least for this week is making leis. I've mentioned before how leis are big here in Hawaii. People use leis for every occasion and with graduation in a few days, my daughter have a ton of friends she wants to give leis to so I can't wait to get started on them. I have three different leis that I will be working on...candy lei, the ever popular among kids, ribbon lei and money lei. A lot of work but a lot of fun too. That's why I'm so glad my MIL will be coming in a couple of days, she can help Steph and I make the leis and she gets to learn how to make a lei. Who knows she just might start trend when she goes back to Arizona...woohoo...lol. For this kind of creation I would gladly ignore my kids for a few days and I wouldn't mind that at all...lol....kidding. So, aside from this little creation of mine, this weekend is proving to be a peaceful one.

By the way...thank you all for the support and understanding as I was trying to ramble my thoughts out of my head..it's such a relief to be able to ramble on knowing there are people who care what one's experiencing at the moment. Hope you all are having a nice peaceful Memorial weekend. God bless!!

Another NPSA Post

Hello out there!! Is anybody reading me? LOL

Ok folks....I got a major/serious problem. Yes, you heard me, I have a problem. I have this totally awful habit of immersing myself in new obsessions that I tend to neglect everything else..for example my children.

These last couple of weeks, all I did was camp out on my computer. There are so many distractions on the computer that makes me practically spent all day, everyday for the last couple of weeks doing. What are these distractions? Well, for one, blogging. Not that I'm posting everyday or commenting on other bloggers' post but mainly reading. I was reading blog after blog and when I wasn't reading, I was playing games. One game I am totally addicted to right now is "Express"...it's one of those games that doesn't do anything for the mind but it does have speed factor, finishing a task before the time ends so that's what got me occupied most of the time when I wasn't reading blogs. Hubby saw me playing the game all the time and asked me one day if I was getting anything out of playing the same game over and over and I told him "no". He asked why play it then and I told him "just because". So you see, there's absolutely no useful reason for the game yet I can't seem to stay away from it.

So these past weeks, I get up in the morning, get my kids ready for school and sent them off to school with their dad. Fed my two year old, turned on her favorite shows and then planted myself in front of the computer. First I just told myself I will just check my email and respond to whatever needed responding. Then when that's done, I tell myself I will check my blog roll and see what the other bloggers have posted...so of course, since they have new posts, I just had to check them out. And hey, I've made it to their blog, they can clearly see me on their detector, so it would be rude of me not to leave a comment. So then when I am done with that, I'm thinking, hey I'll just play a little game and then get off....and before you know it, the whole morning is gone.

I get off and do a real quick pick-up around the house...not even sufficient to call that house cleaning but to me it would have to do for the time being. After I pick up the kids at school, I give them an hour or so to do their homework and off I go again..back to the computer. Kids are coming in and out of my room asking me what they can snack on. Can they eat so & so in the fridge or the pantry?...I give them a nay or yay answer and go right back to staring at the computer. Seriously, the poor kids are having to fend for themselves everyday because mom is not doing her duty. I am surprise I actually take a little time out to make dinner for them.

So, do you agree that I have a major problem? If there is such a thing as an award for the Worse Mother of the Year, I will be the big time WINNER!! I would probably be wearing that title every year...don't you think?


~~~~~~sighs~~~~~~Yep, this is my NPSA confession for this week. I know most of you are disappointed in me but oh well!!

But I pinkie promise, I will remedy this problem of mine this week. I pinkie swear that I will start making a goal to limit my computer usage time and will only use my computer time wisely and spend it on more important stuff like blogging and that's it. If I promise to do that, will you stop looking at me like that? After all, I did confess my neglectful attitude already. If you give a poor girl a break this time, I will pinkie promise to come back next week and dazzle you with my mommy hood skillz....LOL.

Anyways, thank you for listening or reading, I feel like a whole load is lifted off my shoulder. Have a great Aloha Friday....on me!! LOL

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.

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.

This is The Way I Blog

I have been thinking about what to blog for today and after reading Heidi's topic for her post today, I thought it would be a great topic to post about it here. She has some questions that I find I really would like to address but that would take up all her comment box so what a better place to answer her than here on my own blog.

I just recently started blogging. I first found out about blogging from my friend Swirl and when she first sent me her blog URL, I wasn't really paying that much attention to it. I did not catch on then about what blogging really is, I would get on her blog and read her posts and then get off. But then she started taking mine and my kids' pictures whenever we get together and she'd be like, "I'm so blogging this", I started reading her blog not on a daily basis but two or three times a week. Then I started reading blogs that are on her blog roll and started getting a pretty insight on why people blog and I decided I could probably do it too.

See, both mine and my husband's family live far away from us and I am not that diligent when it comes to keeping in contact with them. Honestly, if my mother-in-law never bother to ask for pictures of the kids, I probably would have never bothered sending her any, that's how lazy I am. So the thought of blogging in order to keep family and friends updated on the happenings of my family's life was very intriguing. And then when I started blogging, I started reading some of the blogs on my friend's roll and even explore the blogasphere and I find that blogging is like a great out for me, for the lack of a better word for it. It's like I've discovered this playground or lounge so to speak, where moms or women from all over get together to find camaraderie and strangers in the same cause can find friendship... and I like it.

I've always said that housekeeping is not my strongest suit and I always feel like there is something seriously wrong with me. I mean even the lousiest housekeeper finds at least one thing that they like about housekeeping and that they find some kinda of satisfaction from like doing laundry or dishes, yet I am still trying to find one small thing that I can actually declare as something that I enjoy doing that resembles housekeeping. That makes me feel like I was wired wrong or something. But as I started blogging and reading different blogs, I find that I am not as alone as I thought or that I am not weird like I thought I am.

There are women out there who are struggling with this like I am and for the first time I feel like I am not alone at all and I feel this closeness to these bloggers. Now whenever I feel like I'm losing control of my life I get online, read some of blogs {there are a lot of blogs I like reading cuz they're fun}, I feel better and get back off again and ready to tackle my life again. There are so many people struggling out there that maybe I was too ignorant of before, yet are dealing with their struggles marvelously that it make me realize how grateful I should be and that my life is not as bad as I thought it was sometimes.

Another reason I give blogging a chance is because I do have thoughts that go through my head everyday. Sometimes these thoughts keep me up at night and even wake me up in the wee hours of the morning...yeah, my baby is not the only one that keeps me up at night or kick me awake in the wee hours of the morning...my thoughts are culprit too...LOL. So I blog to get things off my chest {you can see that through the randomness of the posts}, keep my family and friends updated and entertained a little on our life here, sharing & getting new ideas on my creativity and of course bond with other women out there who have the same common interest.

I don't have a set pattern on my post....I don't post everyday, I post when the mood strikes or I thought it's something worth blogging. I try to read everyone who's on my blogroll but I don't always comment on every posts I read. Sometimes when I see a post on my friend's blogroll that sounds interesting to me, I read that post. I don't usually leave a comment unless I feel comfortable doing so. If I read a blog that I either stumble upon or is on someone else's blogroll for the first time, I don't like leaving comments because I always feel like I was intruding on them. There are certain blogs that I read daily and there are others I read when I am not pressing for time. I have to honestly say that I love reading what people write on their blogs...some are really witty and funny and some are very insightful and helpful and then here are those who are going through really tough times but yet are very couragous enough to share how they are dealing with their life one day at a time. Do I feel pressure to read the posts of others? No, not at all. Like I said, I just like reading what people had to say. Sometimes like my posts, I read according to my mood. If I feel down and in need of cheering up, I read something witty and funny. If I feel like cheering somebody up, I read the blogs of the people who are struggling with something and try to leave either an insightful comment or a witty one to cheer them up.

I think there may be a connection between how many blogs a person reads and the number of comments a person has but quite frankly, I couldn't care less. If I don't get a comment on a post I write a certain day I'm cool with it...I know people read what I write and I don't want to hold that against anyone if they don't comment because even I read posts and not comment on them. After all, blogging is supposed to be fun and helpful to each blogger not meant to be a competition or made into a popularity contest.

So there.....my ramblings for the day!

It's Aloha Friday people so go out there if not in the blogasphere then out there in the real world and give somebody a hug or a kind word. I'll start by sending to all of you who are reading this post right now, whether you're a blogger, a friend, family, stranger, don't matter....here's a big cyper hug for ya but to make it more real here's what you need to do:

You can either stand or sit, no matter.

First, put your right hand over your left shoulder.

Next, cross your left arm over your right arm and put your left hand over your right shoulder.

Now, ready?

squeeze!!!

There ya go, from me to you!!

What Is This I'm Feelling?

I don't know what to do with myself today. I don't even know how to describe how I am feeling right now. Maybe somebody can describe this feeling to me. I don't want to come out exactly and say I feel depressed because there is absolutely no reason or cause to feel this way. And everything is going great here. Then again maybe what my hubby and kids are doing to the house outside is what's causing this feeling.

I had a great weekend, even a great week last week. I was in such an upbeat feeling, nothing was getting me down. I had loads of fun mocking Angelina Jolie {virtual style, of course} and blaming Angelina Jolie for everything on Friday...eheheheh.

Saturday I had a great V-Day. The day started out with me driving my daughter to her canoe race and talking to my MIL in the phone. I love talking to her, whenever I need a pick me upper, she is just the person to go to. Then we had a Ward V-Day breakfast at our chapel. My hubby and I had fun teasing each other about who's giving who the most candy with creative love tidbits to go with it. Then we went out to a nice Restaurant for dinner and movie afterward and then took me shopping. And of course, I spent Saturday doing absolute nothing and everything my heart desired.

Yesterday which was Sunday, the kids were on better behavior than their usual Sunday behaviors. Remember I posted earlier about how I was to teach a Young Woman class? Well, I can honestly and gladly say that I did a stupendous job if I do say so myself. My daughter who's in the class even paid me a compliment...yay!! So, would I say my Valentine weekend was great? Absolutely yes!

So, if my weekend was great, why is today so crappy? The sun is shining beautifully and I actually slept in this morning since there was no school. Why do I feel like I just can't seem to drag myself off of the couch to even go take a shower and go out to enjoy the sunshine?

Well, you know when there's a special occasion coming and you spent days ahead prepping for and looking forward to it with incredible amount of energy and then the day came, you did what you planned, enjoyed it even and then after that event, there's this overwhelming feeling of let down, like life is over and there was nothing to look forward to again? I don't know if any of you feel this, but I go through this every time a major event comes up.

Then again, like I said, maybe I should blame this feeling on the fact that my hubby and kids are outside happily painting our house the color gray....GRAY I'm telling ya. Isn't that the most boring, depressing not to mention the most puke inducing color to put on a house? It is totally adding a major damper on my mood to see that color covering my beautiful and peaceful beige color that we painted the house with before. So, I'm sitting in my clean white walls house that I spent last week cleaning blogging about my hubby changing my beautiful beige color of the outside walls into gray color.

His response when I asked him why that color was because he has two five-gallons of gray paint he bought at Home Depot that were on SALE. Sheesh, I suppose that totally justify turning the color of one's house into a boring color just because he saved a great deal of money on that particular paint. Why can't I be feeling down because I'm having a bad hair day?