I inspire myself....

Wow, I can't believe I haven't posted since March. Anyway.....

Last week when I went to Hilo to pick up the boys from their summer vacation with Grandma and Papa my MIL had a scrapbook out that I had made for her. I must say, I was surprised at how cute it was. Who knew I was so talented.... LOL. At first glance I thought that it was made by someone else.

It was a little 6x6 album half the album was about kazu and the other half was about kala'i. It was a little book about their favorite things. The list included their favorite foods, toys, tv shows, games, people, animals, books and so on. It inspired me to make a current book. So since it's the start of a new school year. I think I'll try to make one every year. Granted, I've only made oh, 3 pages this year, this is a tall task.

I think I've forgotten how important scrapbooking is to me. I recently took my scrapbooks to work to share with a new employee who also scrapbooks. I forgot how much information, quotes and memories that I've missed recording. It really struck me when my co-worker pointed out how much we paid to quarantine the dogs when we moved back to Hawaii. I could honestly say I wouldn't of had remembered otherwise.

So here's to me inspiring me. And all the soon to be future scrapbooks. Cheers!

Back to work....

Sigh, I've been off this week since Tuesday. It's been so nice spending time with the boys and getting to do things around the house that I just haven't had the energy to do.

Target

The first Target in Hawaii opened about a month ago. Since I don't like crowds I waited til the excitement wore down. I forgot about how much more I like Target than Walmart. The picture of Target is mostly for Morgan.... see how much it's changed out there. We also hit the new and peeked in Petco.


Kites:
Kazu made a list of things that he wanted to do during Spring Break. Flying a kite was on the list. It was a nice windy day when we went out. The boys had so much fun.


Zoo:
Not on the list but mom forgot that the Children's Museum closes early, 1pm. So we hit the zoo. It was a great way to get the boys tired. Funny thing is Kala'i said he didn't remember his experience of going to the zoo. It was a nice day. Kala'i said he could swing on the money bars like the monkey's, yes he can. The tiger cubs were out playing. They were cute. Kazu took all the pictures of the animals. He took the picture of the cactus for school. He's writing a paper and wanted to take the photo to school as a part of his project.

Whole Foods:

I want to say they opened their first store in Hawaii about a year ago. I could be wrong. We finally made it out there and love it. It's a far drive but worth it for Duke and I, we love all the fresh produce.

Crafting:

I've also had a little time to make a craft or two. I made something for my desk at work. I'll have to post it when I'm done.

Next Week:

Continue cleaning

Ice Palace

Children's Museum

Leap 'n Lizards

Chuck E Cheese

Beach

Haunama Bay

A doctors appt

Sears maintance on the appliances.... Yikes I need another week vacation.

Bribery... works every time....

Bribery: is an act implying money or gift given that alters the behaviour of the recipient.

So since we moved into the house almost 2 years ago, Kazu always ends up in bed with me. I've tried the let him cry, threat, take things away and finally gave up. Came to the conclusion, that he'll try and sneak in bed no matter what. At one point, he would just come into the room and sleep on the ground. I got the usual, I'm scared, I think someone's going to get me lines.

Well, why didn't I think to bribe him. Last weekend we were at the mall. We stopped into his all time favorite store, Game Stop. He wanted a game I said no. He asked dad, and dad had the brillant idea: I buy you this game you need to stay in your own bed at night. Voila, no problems since.

Geez, why didn't I think of it sooner?

Lego...

My boys LOVE lego. Kazu in particular is really into lego. I, on the other hand, have a love hate relationship with Lego. I love the fact that it allows the boys to use their imagination to build anything they can think of from a simple airplane to the most complicated space stations. I love all the new cool lego pieces. I love it when they make lego in cool colors. I love that a new set will keep the boys busy for HOURS trying to put it together. Yes, that's my list of loves, I haven't decided if it out weigh's the list of hates.

I hate stepping on lego especially since we have wood and tile floor... OUCH! I hate that a new set costs so much. I also hate when they clog the shower drain. That being said found this cool website called Lego a day. This photo, however, seems too close to home.

Down Memory Lane

Since we've gotten our stuff out of storage it's been a trip down memory lane. This photo was taken in our senior year of high school. Crazy! Yes, it was the 90's. I was a size 0, I had puffy hair, floral print clothes and my waistline was actually at my neck. It is fun though.






We have pictures of friends who we no longer get to see because we have moved. Like this picture of TJ, Blaine and Benji =) friends of ours from Houston.

And as we go through these photot's we're reminded of all the things we did prechildren. Here's a picture of me on Duke's Harley. Don't fear though, I'll spare you of the HOT pictures of me in my swimsuit. Yes, times have changed now I only swim with a full body wet suit... LOL

As I go through these photo's I'm reminded of how much I haven't scrapped. I'm excited to see the photo's that I have to scrap. But most importantly, I'm reminded to keep taking pictures to preserve the memories.

Wow...

I didn't realize it had been so long since I posted. Here's a picture of Kazu blowing out his candles for his birthday last month. Of course, he got help from Kala'i

Here's a picture of kazu feeding the Chinese Lion some money for Chinese New Year. It came into our store, probably because of all the money kazu was giving it... hehehe

Kazu and Kalai on Valentines day, very early of course, since I worked that day. Kazu got a couple of wii games and Kala'i got a walle toy.

Hmmm

It's always interesting to pick up the camera and find photo's on there that the kids took. It's fun to see the world through their eyes. There was a day when there was pictures of the dog's butt, like 15 pictures.

One day we stopped at Ala Moana beach park before an appt. We took these pictures.

Laie point....

During Christmas break the boys went to Hilo with grandma and papa. It was the first time that Duke and I were without kids, since Kazu was born, for an extended amount of time. We missed them terribly and after a few days didn't know what to do with ourselves. One day we drove around the island and hit our favorite spots. Duke also took me to Laie point, I hadn't been there before. We took this picture ....



It reminds me of the ole days when all our pictures were quite boring and didn't include any huge mishaps like Balmex in the hair or chocolate all over the kitchen or toothpaste on the floor.

Tooth Fairy the thief....

Kazu is convinced that since he can't find some of his toys the tooth fairy is coming into our home and stealing his toys. It never dawned on him that he may have misplaced it.

Wanted

Tooth Fairy carrying around some lego, trucks and pens

Kazu....

He's lost quite a few teeth. Poor guy seems like he's missing more teeth than he has. He lost two more since this picture was taken 2 weeks ago

Made these today....

I was off today and went into my scrapbook room for the first time since Aug. I made these little tablets for kazu and kalai. Kazu has been interested in drawing and kalai is learning to write his name. I was inspired from Leah Fung's website. They took literally five minutes to make.

Pictures at the beach....

I took the boys to the beach on Friday after school to take pictures. It was a spur of the moment thing. The only rule was that they could not go in the water.... you can probably guess how that turned out. Here are some pictures. I hope I didn't post the one we plan to use in our Christmas cards.

Baby shower....

We had a little baby shower for Morgan and a little going away thing for Jill who moved to the big island. Here's a picture of us.

This is Jill

It was a cupcake theme of pink and brown. I made the invites, place cards, menu's, games, thank you notes.

This is the diaper cake Reyline made... so cute.

Wedding gifts....

I'm in search of a wedding gift for one of the girls who work with me. She's getting married tomorrow and I do not have a gift. Duke and I would normally give money. However, everyone at work says giving money is bad. I don't know why especially when this girl returns EVERYTHING. She got some hot chocolate from a friend at Williams and Sonoma and returned it to the store when the girl was working. She has no shame. She has asked for money for her wedding and hasn't registered anywhere. Her husband is working in Iraq, private contract, for a year. She is living at home with her parents until he returns for good next year. She doesn't have much room for anything now. That's part of the reason that I was going to give money. Then how much money do you give? I know you're supposed to buy a gift that'll at least cover the amount of your meal at the reception. Duke says that no matter what I get she'll return it and if you give money it's never enough. I have been working with her on a VERY part time basis for the past 2 years and we chat occasionally when we are not at work but we do not hang out or anything. And since I tend to over do it on gifts I'm asking....

So in your experience what is your favorite gift to give at weddings?

Family fun

We had a chance this weekend to go out as a family. We hit a couple of parks where the boys enjoyed playing on the jungle gym. We also made it over to Kaka'ako park where we ending up sliding down the hill with card board boxes. The boys had a blast and made a bunch of new friends. If you haven't ever tried it you should. Find a steep hill, flatten out a cardboard box and slide down the hill. It works best if it's just a little wet. I used to do it a lot as a kid.

Kazu also lost his front tooth. Mom messed up with the tooth fairy again. How was I supposed to know he was going to move beds in the middle of the night. The tooth fairy got the money under the right pillow but didn't take his tooth (she couldn't find it). I explained to kazu I left a note and asked that she leave it so that I could save it. Maybe I'll get it right by the time Kala'i starts to loose his teeth. Does everyone have a school picture where they are missing their front tooth?

We also saw a lot of weddings at the park.

Fruit, Vegetable or Ice Cream

Kala'i loves fruits and vegetables. When we go grocery shopping the kid goes crazy. He picks his own snacks and his choices usually include a carrot, broccolli, apples, oranges, bananas, grapes, strawberries, tomatos, cucumber, watermelon, pineapple, mango (we fight over that one) and lettuce. Yep, believe it or not he always takes a second serving of salad, lettuce and all, at the dinner table. I LOVE IT. On most days he'd rather have a fruit or vegi instead of ice cream or a candy bar. I have no idea how it happened but I'll enjoy it while it lasts. And yes, there will be a scrapbook page about this one.

Kazu on the other hand is another story. He does love some vegi's but nothing like Kala'i.

Oink Oink Oink....

and no I'm not referring to my previous post. Today after picking up Kalai from school we came across 6 wild pigs. They were on the median. I of course stopped to take a picture with my crappy camera phone and no good image. I then get out my digital camera and battery dead. I managed to get these two photo's. It was pretty cool. After watching them for a few minutes we were off to Costco to buy .... bacon of course.

It may be time.... the signs may be there

Sign 1

I get asked at work at least once every other month if I'm pregnant

Sign 2

Talking to a co-worker about the wii and she brings up the wii fit and says "you may want to try it, it looks like good excersie for YOU"

Sign 3

Kala'i on a daily basis says "Mom I love your head, I love your smile and I love your BIG tummy. You are beautiful" I can never decide how to react to those comments, it's sweet but does he have to call it BIG

I guess I've been in denial for the past 3 years 10 months about my weight or more so the last 2 years. I've tried to come up with a witty come back when asked if I'm pregnant I've been calling it baby weight but now that Kala'i is almost 4 it really doesn't fly anymore. In fact at work I got so tired of being asked if I was pregnant when this gay guy asked if I was pregnant I just smiled. He came in a year later and asked how was the birth and asked what I had.

I don't eat large portions and I don't eat a lot of junk food. I know its the exercise that's killing me. The strange thing is that in my mind I'm a lot skinner than I am. I've never had any weight issues infact up until I had kids I was a size 3. Thankfully, I'm still in the single digits as far as clothing is concerned. And its usually when I'm not wearing my hooker height heels that I get asked so lack of a good posture is probably making a difference, hmm does that sound like an excuse?

So what do you ask am I going to do about this? I haven't decided. Finding the time to exercise is the issue. I wake at 5:30am to go to work and get home from work at 6:30p then there's the nightly routine. I'm in bed by 9p. We could do what our friend Stacy and Jake did, get a bow flex, or an exercise bike but at this point I'm not sure even that is going to cut it. I wonder if I could have it sucked out of my gut and put into my boobs... hmmm.

Crazy couple of weeks...

We had a crazy week. My in-laws and Kazu were here the weekend before last. We had a blast with kazu and even managed to go to the water park. We decided to skip the beach due to the influx of jellyfish after the full moon. I wasn't in the mood to pee on my child after a sting. We miss kazu more than he misses us. I think he's heaven in an 8yo package.

Kalai, Duke and I had a nice 4th of July. We cruised around the beaches. Watched all the crazy people try to cram themselves on the littlest of beaches. Then we came home and had BBQ. We had an awesome meal. I think I'm still full.

We also attended my nieces baby shower. It was fun. It was at the beach. I don't get a chance to see them often so it was really nice visiting with them. I especially enjoyed being at the beach as we don't go nearly as often as we'd like to.

I'm working on some invites for a co-worker. It's turning out pretty darn cute! I'll have to post it when I'm done. The missionaries are also coming over for dinner this week. Sounds like BBQ again... LOL. You'd think that's all we ate. I'm actually trying to figure out what to do with all this pasta I bought back from Italy. We don't have any really good recipes except for a REALLY good spaghetti receipe.

Well, I'm off to bed. It's 10pm an hour and a half past my bedtime.

The price of paradise....

I took this picture on the way home from work tonight. I just love paying so much for gas. Duke and I are up to $960 / month for gas for our cars. Hmmmm, wonder if it would be cheaper for me to quit and stay home. At least we aren't on the outer islands. They are paying much more than we are. How much do you pay for gas now?

Going green....

I know it's the 'new' thing to do. Everywhere you go everyone is trying to be green. I appreciate that. I now have resuable shopping bags. Today while searching for Stacy's Y's blog I came across this...

Party Planning

Here's how it works. On June 21st, collect your urine in a handy dandy container of your choosing. Depending on how big your garden is you may want to enlist the help of family and friends. That's the party part. But it is optional for those with a shy bladder.Dilute it with water as per Sharon's instructions above (preferably some sort of grey water - perhaps using your saved shower warmup water) and apply to your garden. Voilà! Then check back here on June 22nd for a full report.

Now that's just nasty. Can you image a garden with the fragrant smell of diluted pee. If I wanted that I'd just let the boys go have at it in the back yard. It certainly would lower my water bill. I think I'll pass on this one. I sure home my neighbor doesn't pick up on this either.

My love of chocolate...

So as some of you may know I seriously LOVE chocolate. I honestly cannot understand why anyone would make a cookie and not put chocolate in it. I mean really! So imagine my excitement when I ran across this....

have to try it. It looks so yummy. Here is the receipe if you are interested....

Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie

1 unbaked 9-inch (4-cup volume) deep-dish pie shell*

2 large eggs

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, softened

1 cup (6 ounces) semi-sweet chocolate morsels

1 cup chopped pecansServe with ice cream (optional)
Preheat oven 325 degrees F.
Beat eggs in large mixer bowl on high until foamy.
Beat in flour, granulated sugar and brown sugar. Beat in butter.
Stir in morsels and nuts and spoon into pie shell.

Bake for 55-60 minutes. Cool on wire rack. Serve warm.Recipe from Nestle Classic Recipes, 2003* If using frozen pie shell, use deep dish style and thaw completely. Bake on baking sheet and increase baking time slightly.

An emotional week....

Wow what a week. It started off by the homecoming of one of my coworkers husband. He is in the Navy and has been away for over 6 months. It was such a touching experience to be there. Duke and I have never experienced a homecoming. We were there to take pictures. It was fun.

Kazu left to go to Hilo to spend the summer with his grandparents like he does every summer. It has been hard not having him around. He is so helpful, fun and loving and we miss him so much. Those two experiences topped off with a crazy customer has made this an emotional week.

Kalai and I have been going to the park. Here are some photo's. He's so different from his brother who within a few minutes knows he names of every kid on the jungle gym, Kalai plays nicely but isn't as socialable as big brother. We also went to Waikele to ride the trolley. We had a fun day just the two of us.

Fun to find old friends....

I often think of things and don't say them out loud. I often think if I had a ticker tape going across my forehead with my thoughts, how shocked everyone should be. I think I repent more for my thoughts than my actions. I guess that's a good thing.

I think I have some of the funniest smartest friends. Duke and I have met some pretty cool people. We've also moved a lot. Unfortunately, I don't get to keep in touch with friends like I'd like to especially since I went back to work. Today, however, was a good day. I stumbled upon a blog from a friend and I almost forgot how funny she was until I read her blog.

I stumbled across TJ's blog. We met when we were living in Texas. Her son and Kazu are the same age. It's nice to know I'm not the only one who thinks of certain things. I guess maybe now I can convince myself, I really am normal. At any rate, stop by her blog, I guarantee you'll have a laugh... click here

Cub scout recap......

Duke took kazu along with him to his first cub scout meeting. Kazu had so much fun. They had a short meeting then headed over to the fire station. Kazu was so excited and asked so many questions. He was the only one paying attention. He has already been to a fire station and had a private tour by a fire chief, ate dinner with the fire fighers, and got to see their trucks, the police truck, and the media truck so this wasn't anything new. I guess being a little boy and being inside a fire station is exciting no matter how many times you go.

Duke was happy when he came home. He said about 9 boys showed up to their meeting but that none of them had uniforms because they couldn't afford it. There was talk among the troop of passing uniforms down that had been outgrown. It was so sad to hear that not one of those 9 boys parents could afford a uniform. We by no means live in an affulent ward. And this meeting really drove it home.

My wheels have been spinning on how to raise money to get these boys a uniform. Does anyone have any ideas? I want to call next week to see how much a complete uniform costs. I asked Duke if he could ask his company if they were willing to sponser some uniforms for these boys. Or if he could ask any of his former business clients if they could donate anything.

Feel free to email me if you have any ideas at the dukemelody account. I'd love to hear some of your ideas.

Aloha,
Melody

A new chapter....

Duke was just called to be Cub Master for our Ward. We are so excited. The boys are excited. I am excited too but have no idea on what to expect. I'd guess that knot tying, fire making and rendering some type of service was in our future but I have no clue. So if any of you are / were mommies of a Cub Scout or Boy Scout or wife of a Cub Master feel free to email me. I would have already emailed you in a panic had I not lost your email address =(

So here's to a fun new chapter for our family.

Aloha,
Melody

Pictures....

Capri
Capri

I had a nice long weekend off. We didn't do much. I was looking through the camera to print pictures to put up on the wall of the boys and came across more pictures from my trip. Not the best pictures but my pc crashed 2 weeks ago and I don't have any of my photo editing programs. I'll have to down load it soon.

Speaking of my email crashing can all of you email me your addresses and phone numbers. I lost all of that information. I need to send out thank you notes and don't know where to send it... =(

Well, sorry so scattered and short. I've got to get the kids to bed it's back to work tomorrow.

Aloha,
Melody

Another day at work....

So Reyline had this woman come into the store picks up a journal and asks "What's this?"
Reyline replied "A journal."
"Oh" says the lady. She puts down the journal turns around and picks up the book Eat Pray Love and asks Reyline "Whats this?"
Obviously it's a book Reyline thought but replied "It's a book"
"Oh" says the lady, still confused she looks at Reyline and asks "What do you do with it?"
"Read it" says Reyline, all the while thinking I wonder what kind of drugs this lady is on
"Hmph" says the lady as she thumbs through the book. She puts it down and walks out of the store

Yep just another day at work. Its kind of like the people who don't enjoy coming into our store because ALL our cards say the same thing... "legends say that hummingbirds.... " And when you try to explain what IS actually in the card they look at you like you are the illiterate one.

So off I go to work a 10 hour shift, wish me luck. And when I got hired I thought, It can't be that hard to sell a greeting card. I guess the laugh is on me, huh?

May Day is Lei Day in Hawaii....

Well, I'm about 8 days too late, but we celebrated today. It was Kazu's May Day program at school. The weather was perfect. His class danced to a song called "puka puka pants". Puka means hole in Hawaiian. He was fantastic. He especially did well at the part when he turned around and shook his okole (butt). (I now see what talent he got from me... =)) I was excited to record a video and post it here but he must have killed my battery yesterday when we opened mothers day gifts. At least I got some great photo's to scrap.








I have to say I was impressed with the program. It sure isn't may day like it used to be when I was little. There was the Royal Hawaiian band performing and even the offical Hawaiian Royal Court. It was fun. I also enjoyed the kindergarten performance. My friends little girl *J* is in the kindergarten and she was so cute!





Here are some pictures from my Mothers Day gift. The boys made it at school and I absolutely LOVE it. I really wanted to wait until Sunday to open it but they were so excited and proud of what they made they insisted I open it yesterday. Kazu made this card and a beautiful bead necklace. A necklace that I am supposed to wear whenever I'm with him =). He also made this card. I love the detail in it. He said he drew my hair like that because he loves it when I wear my hair down. He obviously loves my eyelashes... hehehe. He also drew in my favorite heart necklace that I like to wear to work and some flowers at the bottom.



Kala'i made me a dried flower sache. It's so funny he handed me the tissue wrapped gift and said "Here mom, it stinks" LOL Image my fear of opening the package. All night he kept picking up the sache and said "it stinks" LOL I love his little card and what he said.



So I'm a happy camper today. I have great new photos to scrap. And in the spirit of May Day here are some pictures of plumerias that are growing in my yard. Happy belated May Day!

My favorite picture from SF

So this is my favorite picture from my trip to San Francisco in February. It is of my friend Yvonne and I at the airport. She is the crazy person who decided to help and fly out to Hawaii to train me a couple of weeks after I started. Poor thing thought she would be rid of me after that week. However, she has been having to put up with me and my brain farts for almost two years. She's been so kind even when I used to call her at midnight and ask the dumbest questions.

You see what she doesn't know is that I am secretly trying to pick up her accent. LOL. She's from Africa and has the coolest accent. I swear if I had that accent oh the custom printing I'd sell. Hehehe. At any rate I'm happy to have her as a friend. She is the one person who I know will be honest with me, even when I don't want to hear it. She also has the same love of dark chocolate and plumerias as I do. I'm mean really!

National Scrapbooking Day...

This past weekend was National Scrapbooking Day. Yep, a whole day dedicated to scrapbooking. Normally, I'd start the weekend out by getting up at 2am or something crazy like that and watch QVC to catch the latest deals. Then I'd rewatch it to see if there were any layouts that would inspire me, then I'd scrap. By the end of the weekend I'd come out with at least a few 'masterpieces' that would surely make our family scrapbooks.

Well, this year, I didn't do one scrapbook realated thing. I sat at my newly cleaned desk a couple of times, but mostly to clean out my purse. So now I'm determined to do something scrapbook related. So here's the plan:

1. Take lots and lots of photos
2. Print
3. Scrapbook
4. Share

Sounds easy enough. Looking back over the past few months except for my Italy/Greece/Rome photos I mostly have pictures of the store. Pictures taken for my boss who rarely gets to come down. I dread the day I'll have to tell my boys I was too busy working, and didn't have enough time for them.

It's been so long since I've scrapped and I miss it. I miss sitting with the boys and sharing a particular memory. I miss the excitement in their face when they hear a story about themselves that they haven't heard in a long time. I miss having photos to document our life, good and bad. I miss doing 4 bad pages to get one good one. I miss being ok with even the bad pages because I knew even then I preserved a part of our family history. So I start this month out with my plan: take photos, print, scrap and share. My goal is by the end of the month I'll have at least 5 pages to share. Wish me luck!

Vacation...

I just returned from a few weeks vacation. Went to Italy and Greece. Missed everyone especially the boys. We didn't have much time to do a lot of shopping but I did purchase a table and a murano glass chandelier. I can't wait til it comes in. Here are some pictures.









Will post pictures from Rome. Gotta run and pick up the baby monster from school.

Aloha,
Melody

More from my SF trip

Wilnyes Baby Shower, 50's theme



Wilnye at 6 months



Wilnye and her husband



Melody and Wilnye



Melody and Becky Virginia's wife



L-R front Virginia and Melody
Back Shannon A from SF Center, shirley (?), Wilnye, Emily from fillmore, and Sherilynn from Montgomery.



Melody and Kat from SF Center



Phillip left and Raese(sp?) from the new stores... not sure which ones, btw found out raese has 7 kids.



Sonia from New Montgomery during the hula hoop contest.



Melody and Ceaser from Stonestown... I think



Melody and Shannon A from SF center and her husband



Melody and Jacquelyne from Embarcadero



Melody and Octavio from Laurel



Melody and Eric from Burlingame



Burlingame Paprus CP room.



Burlingame Papyus cash wrap



Burlingame Papyrus from the front door.

San Francisco...

I went to San Francisco for a few days for work. It was fun. Here are some photos.



Lisa left and Virginia from Laurel Village



My friend Hsu-Lien and I at Embarcadero... We had dinner at OSHA.



Laurel Village Papyrus



Christine from Burlingame

Will post more photo's later

And finally the cake...

A few days late due to the whole family having the flu. Here's one of two cakes we are enjoying.



Can't figure out why, but he loves this cloth. He'll carry it around for a couple of hours.

Wow, he's 7!

And thankgoodness they are brothers. I don't know how I could ever come up with entertainment like they do....