QT w/ Ma

Ma's been living with us for the last 8 years, and never before have I seen her with painted fingernails.  But lately, that's been her obsession....and I love it because it's quality time we get to spend with her. 

It all started when she got sick the last time.  She was in the hospital for quite a while and everytime the doctors or nurses would come in and check her leg to make sure the blood was flowing correctly, she would get embarrassed by her toenails.  Keep in mind that she is almost 89 years old, so of course it's normal to have old brittle nails....but she was embarrassed by hers.  It was actually cute to see how much she'd blush or laugh her little embarrassed laugh whenever her toes were exposed......hahaha.....Ova would always joke with her and tell her not to worry about it because she was old, but she didn't care what he said.....she was embarrassed!  I asked her if she wanted me to go home and get some fingernail polish and come and paint her toes and her fingers.....she immediately said YES, and was very excited about it!!

Ever since she's been home, we've been keeping her fingernails pretty and colorful!!  Sau leka, Ova's little brother came over, went in Ma's room and painted her fingernails red.....she loved them!

She kept her nails red for about a week, and then she saw the new color I just put on Lautala.....it was like a bright orange/pink color and she asked me if I could paint her nails that color.  I went to the store and bought some nails polish remover and took off the red so I could put on the new color!

That color lasted about a week too, and then she saw this natural looking color with a golden/shiny tint to it.  Tea found the bottle from her coupon shopping and painted her own nails.....Ma saw it and loved it.  She asked me to change her nail color again to the one that Tea was wearing......it was funny because she asked me to do it when I was on my way out the door to the gym.  I told her I would do it when I got back home....she said ok, but I could tell she didn't want to wait so I told Ova to wait and I went and got the nail polish remover and paint.  I did her nails really quick before I headed out.  She was so happy!

I love Ma.  I am very blessed to have her living with me.  I'm very blessed that my kids know her and are so close to her.  I know she is getting older, and she has had a lot of medical problems lately, but she's a fighter and she's still so strong.  I count these little moments with her, even though they may be small, as a huge blessing and something I will always be able to look back and remember when someday she's not with us.  I've learned a lot from her.....she's one of the most spiritual people I know.  Even though she's almost 89, she still reads her scriptures or church books every day.  She teaches the lesson in our FHE when it's her turn and she prays all the time.  She's a great example of faith and love.  I am blessed.  I am grateful.  I love her!

Rewinding a little....

So I totally skipped my whole blog about Easter this past year, shame on me!!  It's not so much the Easter egg hunts that I wanted to blog about, but I didn't want to leave out the QT my kids got to spend with their cousins and Aunty Siosi! 

Siosiana is Ova's little sister.....she's really his first cousin, but she was raised with them so she's the little sister.  We love her to peices!!  She's the best Aunty because she is ALWAYS thinking about her neices and nephews.....never fails when a holiday rolls around that she has some kind of game or activity planned for them.  This Easter was no different.......she texted all us mom's and made sure we didn't have any plans for our kids....cause she was coming over!!  It was even sweeter too because the Vegas cousin's were here!!

The activity she had planned with the kids was to make caramel apples.  She showed up with everything you can think of to put on the apples, she went all out!!  But before we started making them, we all ate dinner together because she bought like 10 pizzas, breadsticks, and soda.....she really is the BEST!!

She had all the kids go outside and play while she prepared all the stuff for them.  Thanks to Uncle TiTonga, he organzied a soccer game to keep the kids occupied while we were inside getting ready....

Aunty Siosi & Uncle Sau preppin the apples...

A wide variety of toppings to choose from...

Thank you Aunty Siosi........you're the best & we LOVE you!!!

Springtime??!!

The weather in Utah is so unpredictable.....and this year it seems to be even worse.  We're already in the month of May and have only had a couple warm days without snow or rain.....people keep saying we're going to go straight from winter to summer and skip spring....the way the weather has been acting, it looks like that really is true!!  haha

There was finally a warm day and you better believe we took full advantage of it.  We packed up the kids and took them to the park (along with everyone else in the neighborhood)......it was like 65 degrees and everyone was enjoying finally having some warmth!

This was the first time we'd taken Lautala to the park....and I thought she'd be scared to go down the slide, but she was not even a little bit scared.  She laughed so loud as Ova would put her at the top and let her go, then run to the bottom of the slide to catch her.  She loved it!!  I, of course stood there watching them and taking pictures.  We stayed there for a couple hours playing on the slides and swings, and then we went over to the basketball court and played a little game of b-ball with the kids.....Ova solicited a few random kids that were there and split them into two teams.....my team, and his team.....it was so much fun.....and my team WON!!  hahaha

Anyways, that nice weather didn't last long....cause the next day it was snowing again....but at least we got to spend a little quality family time together the one day it was warm!!  :)

Isn't this just the cutest picture ever!!  I love that I captured her puckered lips and closed eyes....so cute!!  :)

Twins!!

Ok, so I never really thought Lautala looked anything like me......from the day she was born, everyone, myself included, thought she was a lighter version of Ova.....but then my little brother showed me a picture that completely changed my mind.....he was going through an old box of pictures at my moms house and he found a picture of me when I was 1 year old........OMG, she is my twin!!  She even cries like I did.....hahaha  so crazy!!

Life's Lessons...

Isn't it amazing how much things change when you get your priorities straight?  A couple months ago I could have sworn my life was falling apart....everything that could have gone wrong, was....and I didn't seem to know what was going on.  Ova lost his job at Dannon, that was the biggest heart-breaker.....Dannon was a HUGE blessing for our family and losing it hurt alot.  Honestly when I heard about it, I felt like it was the end of the world (I know that sounds super dramatic, but that's what I felt like at the time)  With Dannon becoming a union company, they are fighting to get him his job back, but there's no time frame on how long it could take to get an answer.  So we just wait.  Also at that time, Ova and I had been arguing a lot....over stupid things that didn't make any sense.  I found out I was pregnant around Valentine's day and we were so excited.....but a couple weeks later, I lost the baby with what would have been one of the worst miscarriages I've ever had (and that was my 4th one)....I was devastated....Something was not right.  I felt like we were doing fine, and I didn't understand why these negative things were happening.  Then I read a quote on one of my friend's blogs and the light went on in my head....this was the quote I read:

"When we put God first, ALL other things fall into their proper place OR drop out of our lives.  Our love of the Lord will govern the claims for our affection, the demands on our time, the interests we pursue, and the order of our priorities."  -Pres. Benson

Ova's schedule at Dannon was Sun-Wed from 6am-630pm...that meant that he NEVER went to church.  I was really good about taking the kids to church every Sunday at first, but then I got lazy.  We missed a Sunday here and there or sometimes we would be late.  I always complained that church was too early (9am) so I just brushed it off as not a big deal if we were late. (Keep in mind that I usually work at 4am or 5am and I'm never late for work)  My mindset was completely in the wrong place and even though I look back on it now and see how crazy my thinking was, during that time I didn't think anything of it.  With Ova not going to church, his spirituality went way down.....and instead of me picking up the slack....unfortunately so did mine.  I'm so ashamed to actually admit to that because we're both returned missionaries, we both have strong testimonies, and we both know what is right.  Ova started drinking kava again and I would find us fighting all the time because he would go a couple nights a week and stay out all night.  I was not happy.

I'm so grateful for Makai.  He truly is a blessing to our family.  He was the one that was constantly reminding us to say our family prayers and to have family home evening.  He's the one who helped me every Sunday to get ready for church by packing Lautala's diaper bag or helping Mone get dressed.  He's got such a strong spirit, and more than once he's helped me to do what I know I need to do.

I was lost and didn't know what to do.  Talking to Ova about the kava thing was like talking to a brick wall.  He didn't think anything was wrong with it because he was just hanging out with his friends.....but I saw how much it was affecting our family.  Me trying to tell him not to go would only make him more mad and we would fight even more.  I cried many nights when he would go.  Then I finally decided to follow Pres. Benson's counsel.  I went to the bishop.  I cried to him and talked to him and asked for his help, his guidance and his counsel.  That would turn out to be one of the best decisions I've ever made.  I had to take some steps to show Ova how much his kava habit was affecting our family.......because talking just wasn't working.  Ultimately, with a lot of prayer, patience, and persistance.....Ova was able to see where I was coming from.  He finally understood why I was so unhappy, and he was the one that decided to make a change.  Since that incident, he hasn't gone out with the boys to drink kava.  He made the choice that me and the kids were more important to him than his late night sessions with his boys......I'm so grateful he did!!  His boys still call him on the weekends asking him to come out.....and I don't even say anything to him anymore....he chooses not to go and it's made all the difference in the world!  He was teaching a lesson in church one Sunday and the lesson was on the word of wisdom.  He brought up kava because it is a big problem among the young polynesian men.  He said a lot of the guys in the class slouched down and covered their faces, because they knew they were guilty of it.  They asked him questions and he was honest with them.....he said "I realized I didn't want to lose something eternal for something so temporal".....I was so happy to hear him say that!

The Lord truly does work in mysterious ways.  Losing one of the best jobs Ova ever had has actually turned out to be a huge blessing.  Now we're going to church ontime every Sunday together as a family and Ova has a calling that he fulfills 100%.  We have FHE every Monday and family prayers every night.  Like I said at the beginning, it's amazing how much things change when you get your priorities straight.

Now I just hope and pray that the Lord will bless us with another job for Ova.....a job that will allow him to support our family and still go to church.  I know if we continue to do what we need to be doing, he will bless us!  He always does!

Mother's Day 2011

Makai, my oldest son is so thoughtful.........let me tell you why........

Saturday, the day before Mother's Day, Ova and I were sitting in the living room just hanging out with Filimone, Lautala and Ma.....Makai left with Tea somewhere and they'd been gone for quite a while.  I was half way dozing off when I felt these cold little hands come up behind me and give me a hug.  I turned around to see who it was and it was Makai with a BIG smile on his face and a boquet of flowers in his hand.  After he handed me the flowers, he handed me a corsage to wear to church on Sunday, and a gift bag.  In the bag was a card, and two dresses that he picked out for me from Ross.  I cried.  He totally made me feel special and totally made my Mother's Day.  He's such a nice and sweet kid and he's always doing thoughtful things for me.  I have piles of letters he's written to me and pictures he's drawn.  I'm blessed to have a son like him.

After Makai had given me all the stuff, and I stopped crying, he went outside to play.....Tea came over to tell me what went down earlier.  She said that when I was sleeping, Makai went and asked her if she had any money.  She asked him why....he told her that he needed some money because my wedding ring broke and the new one I had made my finger green....and he wanted to buy me one that didn't make my finger green.  (A diamond in my real wedding ring fell out so I just bought a fake one at Walmart until I can fix my ring).....I was so surprised that he actually noticed.  Tea told him that she didn't have enough for a ring, but that she would take him to the store to find something.  She said she let him pick everything.  They went to Ross to get me some dresses and Tea had picked a few out for me.  When she showed them to Makai, he made her put them back.  He was telling her that I wouldn't like those kinds of dresses, and he went and picked out new ones for me.  I must admit he did an awesome job!  Both the dresses he picked fit perfectly and I LOVE them!  He picked the flowers and the corsage.....he even picked the card and wrote in it by himself.  Tea said she cried too as she watched him so excited to be getting the stuff for me.  And in the van on the way home he thanked her and told her that when he gets older and gets a job, he would pay her back.  I love surprises and he totally surprised me.  Like I said earlier, I am so blessed to have a son like him.

The next day was actually Mother's Day.  I felt very special and loved.  I had to work that morning, but only from 4am-8am.....by the time I got home my husband had made me breakfast.....my favorite breakfast, a mushroom, spinach omelet with chedder cheese and green onions.....yummy!!  We went to church and when we came back from church I took a L-O-N-G nap.....can't believe how tired I was and I can't believe that nobody bothered me that whole time I was sleeping.  I woke up to a house full of delicious smelling food.  Just like every other Mother's Day, the guys went all out for us Mother's........we took all the food over to Ova's parents house and ate there.  So much good food and good company!

I love my family very much and am very blessed to have them!  Hope all the Mother's out there had as great a Mother's Day as I did!! 

Mother's Day GNO

Top:  Pola, Marie, Me

Bottom: Leka, Leslie, Mom

Every year for Mother's Day, my sisters and I all get together with our mom for a sort of Mother's Day GNO......just a time every year that we can get away from the husbands and kids and spend some much needed girl time with each other.  This year we met up on Wednesday at the South Towne mall to get mani/pedi's......they had a special going on where you could get the deluxe pedicure for only $20.....that included wax, hot stones, massage, everything was included......it was so much fun!  Pola wanted to get her nails filled, so she did that while the rest of us got pampered in the pedicure chair.

Marie letting the hot wax mold to her feet.....felt so nice!

My beautiful toes.....hahaha

And our finished products....we all went for bright colors, with the flower of course!

Pola's animal fingernails.......ROAR!!  hahaha

When we were done with our mani/pedi's.....we were trying to decide where to get some dinner....as we walked out of the mall, we saw the Texas Roadhouse right there in the mall parking lot.....yummy, that sounded so good!!  We all agreed that that would be the spot!  Their food is DELISH.....if you've never eaten there before (and you're a steak or ribs fan) you've gotta go there!  There food is amazingly delicious!

Before we went into the restaurant, I surprised them with a little homemade treat......caramel apples dipped in white chocolate and oreos, or in white chocolate and cinnamon/sugar! 

After dinner, we wanted to catch a movie......we all ended up at the District with tickets to watch the new movie Water for Elephants.  I didn't really know what to expect from the movie, never heard of it or the book the movie is based on, but honestly....the movie was awesome!  There were some parts in the movie that pissed me off, and some parts that made me cry.......but doesn't all those emotions in a movie mean the movie is good??!!  I really liked it!  Crazy to think it was based on a true story and to see how life was back in the times of the great depression.

After the movie, it was almost midnight so we said our goodbye's and headed home.  It was a successful and fun night with my mom and sisters. 

I love these women so much and am constantly reminded of how grateful I am for them.  They are always there for me whenever I need them, and they love me unconditionally!  I'm so grateful for my mom.  She's been working ever since I can remember.  My Dad owns his own construction business, and so at times when his business wasn't doing so well, or when it was winter and there was no work, she always stepped up to the plate and did what she needed to to support our family.  I don't know of a woman that works harder than she does.  She's been a great example to me of hard-work and dedication and also the importance of going to school and getting a degree.  My sisters, Leslie & Marie, are the best mother's....I watch how they are with their kids and I try to learn from their examples.  Leslie is constantly running around from dance to gymnastics to anything and everything to support her kids.  She's such a great example to me of motherhood.  My little sister is too!  I honestly think her role in life was to be a mother.  It amazes me how she can take all 6 of her kids (all 9 and under) to church and have them all sit reverently and listen.  I have a hard time with my three....but she's got six and one on the way.  I admire both my sisters very much and am grateful for their love and examples!  My little sister Leka is the best!  All the kids love her because she loves them so much.  She's the Aunty that always gets down on the ground to roll around with the kids, she plays hard with them just as if she was a kid herself.  She cleans and cooks, she never complains.  Love her!  Then there's my sis-in-law Pola.....who just found out she's expecting.  Yay!!  I've been blessed with such wonderful women in my life and I am grateful!

Finally.....a break!

I feel like I've been running around like a chicken with it's head cut off. 

It's 10pm and I just got back from taking my last final of the semester.....I can't even tell you how happy I am that I am officially done with these classes. 

Trying to juggle being a wife, a mother of 3, working, and going to school full-time.....is so hard!!  I'm glad I get to take a break for a couple weeks......then I'm right back to the rat race!

Hopefully I only have 2 more semesters before I transfer up to the U to finish my degree in Business/Accounting. 

It's been a hard and stressful road, but I know it's worth it and that if I just stick with it I will be able to bless my family and help out financially!!

I'm grateful for my husband who keeps pushing me when I want to just quit.....I'm grateful for my kids who know not to bother me when I'm doing my homework, but always seem to know when to sneak in and give me a kiss and tell me they love me, or bring me a snack.

I've neglected my blog a bit and I have so many things I need to post to get caught up.....I hate that feeling of being so behind!  Maybe if I sleep ALL DAY tomorrow and get caught up from all the nights of only 2-3 hours of sleep......I'll be refreshed and revived and motivated to get caught up!!

Until then........

A little ambitous...

I'm the type of person who loves to re-organize, re-arrange and renew.  I get bored with seeing the same thing every single day for a long period of time.....Even back in the day before I got married, when I lived with my parents, I would always move my bedroom furniture around, or re-arrange the living room. You could find me making some kind of changes to my room at least every other month.  It just makes me happy to see something new.....and makes me feel accomplished.....(silly I know...haha)

When I got married, it was no different.  You could constantly find me re-arranging or decorating or trying to fix something.......at the beginning of our marriage I used to solicit for Ova's help, BUT I've learned over the years to just do it by myself.  I always have a vision in mind of what I want to do before I do it, but everytime I try to explain it to him he can't see what I see and gives me that face that looks like he's saying "um, that's gonna be ugly"  I decided to stop asking him for his help, or even telling him my ideas because that face makes me mad......and he ALWAYS loves the ending result!  Since I love surprises, especially giving them, I figured that would be another way I could surprise him.  That way I'd be happy re-decorating and he'd be happy with the "new" whatever I did. 

We moved into our house a year ago and I've made a lot of changes already....painted the living room, hung the pictures, put up vinyl....etc.  But I never really did anything with our room.  Everytime I walked in there it was just white walls with mis-matching furniture and it was so blah..........SO, I made up my mind one day to re-do my bedroom.....here's what I did:

1st, I waited until Ova was at work and I went to Lowe's and bought some paint (dark chocolate brown) I moved the bed and dressers into the middle of the room, taped the windows and doors and painted the entire room.  It was so dark, but it actually made the room look a lot bigger.  I LOVED it!!  Ova came home from work that night and was so surprised because he had no idea I was doing that.  Since I painted the whole entire room, there were a lot of fumes in the air so I told him he had to sleep with the boys in their room that night.  While he was sleeping I moved the furniture around the room....put the bed on the opposite side of the room moved the dressers around....it was all coming together so nicely, I was so happy!  BUT the dressers were so off, they didn't match each other and they didn't match my newly painted room.....so I had another idea brewing in my head to re-do my dressers!  This project was so much fun!

This is the dresser that Tea has had for years and years....she got a new bedroom set and we inherited her old stuff.  I'm not a fan of the carved leaves in the dresser, but we've been using them for several years.  Don't know why I didn't think of this project before!  haha  This was the stand-up part of the dresser (with missing bottom drawer and all), and there's another dresser that matches it that is long.  Both peices have the same carved design.

This is the same dresser.... opened, it had a shelf in the middle that divided the top part of the dresser

My idea was to make this part of the dresser into an armoir to sit on top of the long dresser, and put our TV in it..... Since the bottom drawer of this dresser was missing, I thought I could use it as the place to put our cable box and dvd player.....I broke out the shelf that divided the top part of the dresser and pulled off the black rails that the missing drawer was supposed to slide on (that part was so hard....I must admit I broke a sweat struggling to get them off....haha)

I hated the design that was carved in so I wanted to change it.  I went to Lowe's again and bought some wood putty and I filled in the carved part of the dresser.  A little tub of wood putty went a LONG way!  I didn't know how many to buy so I bought 4 and ended up only using one so I returned 3. 

After the wood putty was dried, I sanded the dresser down........you obviously could still see the design, but when you ran your hand down it it was smooth and you couldn't feel the design.  The next step was to paint it.  I wanted to paint it black to match our bed frame, but before I painted it black, I had to prime it.....

The dresser primed.....ready to be painted black...

The primer dried pretty fast, which I was so happy for.....because I was able to putty, sand, prime and paint all in one day.....I bought new handles from Lowe's when I was there, the cheapest silver ones...here's my finished project.....I am SO happy with how it turned out! 

(You can still see the design on some parts of the dresser....I guess the paint absorbed differently to the putty than to the dresser.....but my idea is to buy like a flower vinyl to put on the dresser to take away from the old design you can still see.....that project will have to wait a little bit)

After the room was painted and the dresser complete, I put my vinyl up

Made a little picture collage on my wall

I wanted to dedicate a wall to Ova's music so I asked my sister to make a sign using photoshop (since my computer was still broken) we just used a quote by Bob Marley, I printed and framed it.....then, I went to a guitar store and bought the guitar hangars and here's how his music wall turned out

Here's my new room!  Such a huge change from white walls and mis-matching dressers.....I LOVE IT!

I still have to paint my other dresser black, and change the handles.....and then I'll be done!  I'm a little ambitious, I know!  :)

Money well spent!!

So if you made it through my last post (super long, sorry!)   You'll know that I had a little incident with my camera..... Ova says it's my fault, I blame Mone....but what happened was that Mone was drinking a red gatorade while we were watching the show at the PCC....he was done drinking so he put the bottle in the backpack, without the lid screwed on tight.....well,  my camera was in the backpack!  I didn't notice anything was happening until I felt my foot getting wet as we were walking from the show to the car.....as soon as I felt it I started to panic....stopped and grabbed the backpack and grabbed my camera out of it.  It didn't turn on.  The digital screen on the back of the camera was wet, you could see the moisture inside the screen..... NOT GOOD!!  I was freaking out....I took off the lens and tried my hardest to dry it, but it wouldn't turn on.  I was thinking that maybe if it dried overnight, it would turn on in the morning....no such luck.  My camera was BROKEN!!  :(

I had a Nikon D40X, it was an awesome camera.....I used it all the time and I loved it!!  I got it for Christmas back in 2007 and have used it a lot through these past 3 years........I remember when Ova and I went to the store to get it, they were trying to sell the warranty to us, and normally I would just decline it.  Ova kept telling me that I should get the warranty, but I was super hesitant because the camera was already so expensive.  He ended up talking me into it and we paid like an extra $130 for 5 years coverage, the kind that covers everything, I specifically remember her saying that even if I took it to the beach and got sand in it, they would cover it......I totally thought that was the biggest waste of money, but this little incident with my camera made me completely and totally change my mind!!!

The day we got back from Hawaii I dropped my family off at home and went straight to Best Buy to drop off my camera to be fixed.  They asked me what was wrong with it.....and I told them that it won't turn on because gatorade got spilled all over it.  They wrote up their little report thing and took it from me and told me they'd be in contact.  Not even two days later I got a call from the Geek Squad telling me that they were unable to fix my camera, but since it was under warranty I could come in and get another one.  I was just thinking that they would give me the same camera......BUT they stopped making the D40X back in 2008 so they had to find one that was comparable....I guess the camera specialist person was on lunch break or something but the other people that were there covering for him didn't really know which camera to give me.  They asked like four different people and none of them knew the right answer.  There were two cameras there, one that was pretty much around the same price that I paid for mine back in 2007 and one that was hundreds of dollars more than I spent.  The worker asked me how many megapixals my old camera had and I told him 10.4.....the camera that was about the same price only had 10.2, so he made an executive decision to not downgrade the megapixals and to give me the one that costs a couple hundred dollars more than I had paid back in 2007.  SCORE!!!  I walked with him up to the register and watched as he rang up this brand new camera....the register read $949....he entered my warranty information and I owed NOTHING!!!  That $130 we spent on the warranty was the best money we've ever spent!!  :)

I didn't really know what the difference was between my old camera and my new one, the D3100....so I did a little research online.  Every website that I ran into actually said that the D3100 was not and upgrade from the D40X, it's just an update.  But regardless of what the internet says, it's totally and upgrade to me!!  My old camera was 10.4 megapixals, my new camera has 14.2......my old camera didn't have a video camera on it, my new one has a HD 1080 video camera on it.....it's lighter in weight....and pretty much everything else is the same.  I LOVE IT and I'm so happy that Ova made me buy the warranty back in 2007!!