Happy Holidays

HAWAII

DAY 2

On day one we just walked along the beach. It was nice and relaxing. We went to all the shops and looked around along the way.
On day 2 though we went to the flea market. It is meant for tourists. You can pick up stuff for everyone a lot cheaper than in the stores. We spent until early afternoon there. I even bought another suitcase there just to hold all of the thing that we bought. We got hoodies for all the kids, everyone has three shirts, we got shorts for the boys, dresses for Michaelle and I, and Tsenu got a Hawaiian shirt that buttons down.
After the flea market we went hiking in the rain forest to the waterfalls. I have never been in a place more beautiful. We were told the only thing that can bite us there is the mosquitoes. Whenever everyone else makes it, remember that the mountains are the most beautiful part of the island.

DAY 3

On day 3 Tsenu and I went on a submarine ride. Talk about a view of the island I never thought that I would see. It was amazing!!! We went 120 feet under and saw sea turtles, a shark, and more tropical fish then I thought I would. They warn you that the sea life cannot be made to come out for us.
After the submarine we went on a sunset cruise. The view was spectacular. We had dinner on board. I never thought that the etiquette dinners the young women made us sit through would pay off. But they did when I sat down to a table with three forks, three knives, and a fork and spoon at the top of the plate. The food was disgusting! Oh, I mean it. If the rich eat like that I know why they are thin!! Tsenu and I decided that the cruise more than made up for the food.

DAY 4

Tsenu and I went to the Polynesian Cultural Center. We had the best time. The villages had performances that were both educational and funny. After spending the whole afternoon traveling from village to village we went to a luau. There was all kinds of traditional foods. Some were great and others weird; like chicken long rice. After the luau there was a big show. It had dancers from almost all of the islands. This final performance is were the fire dancers were. The center is something that has to be experienced, it is hard to describe.

Day 5

Tsenu and I had our own car and on day 5 we made use of it. We drove around the entire island. First, we drove as far west as we could go and then turned around. There is a section of road that the locals said washed out years ago. So you cannot actually make a full circle. Then we drove up through the middle of the island. After that we drove east all the way back around. We got on Highway 3 to finish our tour.

Highway 3 sits high on the mountain and has the best views. I wanted to go on it to see the stairway to heaven. They are metal stairs that stretch from the bottom of the mountain to the top. They go up along a ridge. A local said it is a public stairway but if you fall your dead. I thought the view from far away was fine with me.

Day 6

Tsenu and I went to the USS Arizona and on a tour of the Missouri. The navy officers take you out to the Arizona and back again. It is military land so you cannot go off on your own. Then we went to the Missouri. You are not aloud to take any picture until you get there. They do not want anyone photoing the base. Cannot image why! You also cannot take any bags with you of any kind; no diaper bag, purse, camera bag, or backpack. Tsenu and I seemed to be the only ones who got the message because everyone else had bags with them. They had to check them into a bag check in place or leave them on the bus.

The tour was fun but not the most fun we had. Tsenu have decided the Missouri and Arizona should be done the first day and everything else after!
Day 7 we traveled home. I was sad to see the last of Hawaii. Even though this trip was supposed to be my trip, Tsenu enjoyed himself as much as I did. I know everyone is thinking of course he did. But I have been asking to go for years and Tsenu has always said if I want to go, go on my own. He never wanted to step foot in Hawaii. He thought the humidity would kill him. He found out very quickly it is not as humid as he thought. Plus, neither of us have seen any place so beautiful and green.

Fall Leaves

Tony, Michy, and Hann decided to play in the leaves today while I was making dinner. I caught them through the window without them knowing it. They were so fun to watch!
The kids made a huge pile of leaves. They even used the rake to knock as many leaves off the tree as they could get and Tony brought box fulls from the backyard. Then the three of them took turns burying each other. They would shoot out of the pile as soon as their whole body was covered.

After that they had a huge leave fight. They took huge arm fulls and just bombarded each other. It was raining leaves for a solid 45 minutes in my yard.

The three of them had such a great time in the leaves that I had dinner done before I had to call them in.

AFRO GONE

Tsenu has decided that he no longer wanted to grow his hair out. Apparently it was to much of a hassle.

So, yesterday morning at five o'clock he asked me to take a picture of his hair, since it would be gone soon. I was more than happy to oblige. I have wanted a picture of his bald spot since he started growing it.

When he asked to look at the picture his mouth dropped. Tsenu proceeded to ask me how I could have let him walk around looking like that. I just laughed as he went in search of a hat to wear to work. My, Husband is now mortified!

Last night at eleven o'clock Tsenu asked me to please shave his hair off. I am so happy that his hair is gone. I did not like the whole Afro idea to begin with. So, now Tsenu is bald and adorable once again. Except for the mustache he has decided to grow. I wonder how I can get rid of that now!

UFO

Wednesday October 24, 2007

I was on my way to the Family History Center to help with a group of youth when I saw an object in the sky. The kids and I thought that it was a meteorite. That was until it turned in the sky and started going another direction. I have not heard one word on the news of what it was and I cannot find it online either! My dear husband will not tell me what it is, even if he knows. That whole working for the government thing and not being able to talk about it!!

The object was very fast and had a huge flame shooting out of the back. I really hope that I find out someday what it was. For now it is my UFO.

Michy wrote this: I say it was the government playing tricks on us!

Finished!!!!

Online Parish Records

I cannot believe that I actually finished.

I am finally done preparing for the class at 12:30 am, the morning that I have to give it for the Family History Fair. I am proud of myself! I will never teach again, but I am proud that I am done and it will be well presented.


I actually put together 50 minute worth of information. Plus, I proved that you can track down a family. It is not my family. It was just the first name that I came across that I could find the parents and grandparents for in the same counties parish records.

Now I think I will go to sleep.

Everyone keep your fingers crossed that I do well today!

Peacock

Each month Michy has to read a book of a different genre. This month was realistic fiction. She read Henry Reed's babysitting service. She had to make a diorama or a shadow box to represented her favorite part of the book.
She chose to make a diorama about a camp out that Henry (main character) took Graig (a little boy) on. The boy kept waking Henry up all night. He thought that a dog was a wolf, a crow was a vulture, an owl was something(do not remember), and a peacock was a women screaming HELP because she was being murdered. I even read this book to the kids, it is very funny.

One of the ladies at church has a peacock and gave Michy peacock feathers to make her peacock out of. Michy did not even need to use one feather to make her peacock. So, now her and Hann can be seen running through the house with peacock feathers tied to them. It is cute.

I caught Hann in this picture making himself a funny looking eye.

A Phone Number, Please!

Tsenu called me at 7:00am and said that he really need a phone number that he had left on the desk; before we cleared out the library. I thought he honestly wants me to dig through all of this stuff sitting on the living room floor to find a phone number.

He really did want me to. It took two hours but I found it.

Now I am just thankful that the office is done being painted and in a couple of days I can put everything back were it belongs. I would do it today but all the books would probably stick to the shelves.

MUSIC

Yesterday, after church I decided to make a play list for myself. I wanted to have it so I can listen to the songs that I like. I have very eclectic taste.
The kids all came to join me on the computer, they usually join me in whatever I do. We all listened to music for the better part of the afternoon, I enjoyed that. Then, Van stated that they made better music when I was a teenager.
I thought "oh how sweet!" until Tony opened his mouth. He said yeah one of my teachers was talking about music from that time( I know the teacher). Van said what time is that Tony? Tony realized right away that he had once again stuck his foot in his mouth, he does it quite often.
The teacher that Tony is referring to is twice my age. I do like music from all periods of time but I hardly think that the teacher was referring to my time of music!
Some days!

Frustrated, NOT ME!!!

This has been an exact picture of me with the exception that I am A girl.

I am trying to get a power point presentation ready for the family history fair next week. Yes, if you are wondering I am teaching a class. On what? Online parish records. Sounds interesting does it not? No: well than I agree.

I was actually asked to teach this class months ago. You know what I told the person? NO WAY!! So why am I doing this? Because some people do not take no for an answer; no that would never convince me to give in to teaching a class that I know nothing about.

So, What Happened?

Glad you asked!

Well, the sad story is this: I was asked, I said NO WAY, she said please, I said No, she said please, I said I will look into it to see if it is possible to get enough information but I still do not want to teach, she said OK.

The end; well obviously not.

I told her one month later I looked up information and it was impossible to do. So my answer stands as NO!!

The END; yeah right not on someones life.

I was in a meeting at the family history center and someone else asked me: Can I get your outline for the family history fair. Conversation: I said what outline! I am not even in the fair, she said yes you are, I said no I am not, she said yes you are signed up to do online parish records, I said REALLY(now I am giving the person who asked me to teach a dirty look!! That I wish could hurt her, very badly!!)

The sad end to the story is: that by the time I was asked for my outline(which the lady asking felt really embarrassed about because she did not know someone else signed me up) it was to late to take my name off. The fliers, posters, and all the other ads were already made. So, here I am teaching a class that I do not want to teach and frustrated.

Then, while sitting here frustrated I was serenaded by Aisha's blog. It was singing La Ti Da by the Icicles and it just made me feel good; even about having no idea what to teach in my class. Maybe I can play the song on my power point and no one will care that they are not learning anything; hey just a thought.

Thanks for the music Aisha, I needed that!!

Mitt Romney

Tsenu sent me this to put on my blog.

He thought that it would make me chuckle and everyone else too. ENJOY!!

Weeds

I was driving into my driveway this afternoon and I noticed two weeds. The first is the flower and the second is the vine. The flower I do not let grow because it does no favors for me in return. The vine grows up my fence providing privacy and hey it looks nice while it is doing so.

But I noticed that my vine is growing not only up my fence it is growing up my evergreen.

I was just wondering why it is that weeds can look so beautiful and still just be weeds?

Museum of Natural History

Hann's class went to the museum of natural history today and I went with. These are some great things we saw.

Did you know that this would one day become the Buffalo? I like this guy!

I was not interested in the little guy up front so I do not know what he is. The one in the back is a giant sloth. Cool Huh?


The mammoth is always a favorite of mine. He could not fit into one shot with the tusks and all.

The kids had fun but they had the most fun just rolling down the hill.

After all the fun it was time to go home!! Nice Smile Huh?

Messages

For several days I have noticed there are messages on the bathroom mirror, when it is foggy. I finally decided to read the message and it said "the mirror is not available right now, please leave a message". Then yesterday while Michy was leaving the bathroom I went in right after and took this picture; it says " Hello the mirror is not here right now may I take a message".
I am never quite sure where she gets her ideas but they are cute!

Comic

I messed up on letting and wrote leyying in the credits; ignore PLEASE!!

Today Tsenu had to go have a kidney stone removed that was just getting bigger instead of coming out. Not the most interesting thing unless you are my kids!!

You see, Tsenu had a very early appointment to have his procedure done and the kids had to come with. It was to early for them to have time to make it to school. I decided that it would give them something to do if they drew a comic stripe of their dad's kidney with the stone in it. If you watch you will see what they drew and how sick and twisted the kids are!! At least they made their dad laugh.

A Dancing Cow

Michy had to make a poster for school about not making bad choices. This is what she came up with.

Making bad

Choices is like

a dancing cow,

it's just

WRONG!

She drew the cow free hand on the computer, printed it out, glued it to a large paper, and wrote
beside it. She came up with the whole thing on her own.
I am proud because all the rest of the kids in her class drew people smoking and said stuff like you should not smoke. I think she thought outside of the box.

Karma Again!!

This morning Tsenu asked me to go to the bank for THIS.

I walked out of the house and realized something right away; That I should not have made fun of Tsenu's karma this morning and I LEFT MY KEYS!! I tried breaking back in through the door. It is the easiest way back into a house but then I remembered that I turned the latches around on the doors. Why? Well if I can get into my house so can someone else.

Then I remembered that I opened a few windows this morning to let the fresh air in. I torn this screen out. Do you think my husband is going to be mad when he comes home?

After I got the screen out which by the picture should tell you it was not easy; I had to find away to get myself high enough to go through the window. First, I tried the bucket on the porch. That was not working. Lucky for me it was garbage day and they come early to my street. I took the garbage can and flipped it up side down to step on from the bucket.

You know something, this may have worked but it could have been better. 1. I could have been wearing my jeans and not a skirt. 2. I could have not had thousands of books stack right under this window from painting book shelves. And yes we do have thousands of books, I am not exaggerating!

The bank teller asked me if I was having a good day. My response was that I was having a funny day.

Now I just hope that it goes to boring!

BAD KARMA

Tsenu, has the worst karma. I am not sure what he has done in his life to cause it but he has bad karma.

Last night Tsenu had a flat tire. I am not sure whether it is an almost blowout or someone slashed it. Plus, his car started ticking while he was driving home.
He let me listen to the sound and asked if I knew what it was. Yeah right, I know so much about cars. I told him maybe you made someone mad and they slashed a tire and dumped sugar in your gas tank.

So, does anyone know why a car would tick when you turn it on? Besides a bomb!

I do not think his karma is that bad.

Cub Scouts

This is Max.

Hann's Scout leader asked me to send a jar to scouts because they had a surprise. Surprise, I bought your child a pet and did ask you. Tsenu, does not like surprises. I thought he was cute.

Max would not eat anything the first day or the second; so Hann and I picked him out a friend. Micky named it Leper; no spelling error. She said Leper the kind that you touch and oh no your skin falls off. Weird child!!

Max finally ate that night and died! We think he ate to much. So, now we have Max Jr., Hann says if Max keeps dying he will name his fish Max the III and so forth.

Do you know how hard it is to take a picture of a fish?

And no telling me that Owen holds perfectly still for his pictures!

I am IT!

10 Years ago I: had three children, Micky was just a baby. We were poor because Tsenu was still in college. Tony was a holy terror; he used to give me nightmares. Van was in kindergarten and scared me to death on a weekly basis by leaving school in the middle of it. Glad that I do not have to go backward.

5 years ago I: had four children. Tony was past being a holy terror, thank heavens! Van was past thinking school was over and leaving early. Micky was in kindergarten and Hann was three and a half. Tsenu was teaching at the junior high. Life was great, at least for me!

1 year ago I: had six children; do not suggest it for anyone. I had ulcers for some reason, can not imagine why! I wanted to shut myself in a room and never come out. I will never go back!!

Yesterday I : I had four kids again!! Was sick as a dog with a fever, I have a cold. I did all the laundry, including washing sheets. I listened to conference, while I put 1x2 pieces of wood under shelves in the library. They need to be straightened from the weight of books. I painted the shelves a color called brownie. I really does look yummy! Made dinner. Put all the kids to bed, which means reading until all of them fall asleep. That only takes 1 to 2 hours depending on how good the book is; we do this every night.

5 snacks I enjoy: red seedless grapes, hot coco with milk not water, carrots, extra sharp cheese, and plain yogurt blended with raspberries, blueberries, and marionberries.

5 things I would do with a million dollars: Move to some place that I choose! Build the house of my dreams. Travel everywhere in the world that I want to see. Build myself a library fit for a castle with the rolling ladders and all! Make the worlds coolest swimming pool in my back yard!!

5 places I would run away to: Scotland, just because I have always wanted to. Ireland because there are no snakes!! A huge library that I had all to my self forever!!!! Italy to eat Italian food. And a deserted island to lay around doing nothing!!!!!

5 TV shows I like: No, laughing!! America's Next Top Model (never admit to watching), Amazing Race, Lost, NCIS, and Smallville.

5 things I hate to do: Scrubbing toilets, doing dishes, scrubbing floors, cleaning windows, and weeding.

Best joys of the moment: That my house is almost finished being painted, I am going to Hawaii in two months, Autumn is here because I love the rain, my kids are old enough that I have the time to enjoy every minute with them, and that I have a husband that likes everything I do.

People to Tag: I tag Sarah.

Home Coming Week

It is Home Coming Week at the high school. We all know that this week is filled with crazy antics to get the students school spirit up. I know about the football game, bomb fire, and pep rallies.

But I have never heard of running 75 miles. That is what the cross country team does for Home Coming Week every year. This year they started at Provo High school and ran all the way back here. They took turns in groups. It was like a relay, they passed a football to those that were taking over.

It still was a long grueling day, but these kids loved every minute of it. It took them 7 hours to run the entire way. I trailed along after I got the other kids off to school. The team ended the day by running flares into a stadium and lighting the bomb fire for the school. This is a day that Van will not likely forget.

Hann

In our house there are two groups of kids; the boys ( Van and Tony) and Michy and Hann ( called by their real names). That is just how we have always referred to them.

Last night the elders quorum president called. He said " I know that Tsenu will not be home for a while but can I borrow the boys to help move someone?"

I sent them off to help.

In the meanwhile I made dinner and Tsenu came home. I told him that he needed to go check on the boys, I did not want them walking home alone at night. Then I said, " Besides the boys have not even eaten dinner."

Hann, whom had been standing beside me the whole time, finally turned to me and said, "I am a boy too!"

After that he made his dad take him to go help move the lady so he could be with the boys.

Taking A Stand

My children's school sent out a questioner. They wanted to know how well they are doing, as a school. They asked for comments at the end about what we thought was important for our children's eduction. This is what I wrote to them:

1. I think that schools should create an environment that is conducive to learning. I know that teachers get frustrated but it never helps the situation to yell, belittle, or use profanity in class. Those that are watching and listening are affected by this behavior.

2. I think that P.E. should be brought back on a daily basis. It will give children a place to release pent up energy that they otherwise use to annoy teachers and cause problems in class.

3. I strongly believe that all children should be punished for their own transgressions and not for others. My children have continually had children in their class with behavioral problems, and will continue. I do not think that the children with the problems are getting any better with peer pressure; instead other children are being punished. I ask you to rectify this situation.
( If you do not understand this; our schools punish as a class. They think that if all the children get mad at the one causing the problem it will make the trouble maker improve their behavior.)

I even took my comments to the principals office. She said that I had three very valid points. She was going to talk to the staff about #1 & 3. Plus, she would like to do something about #2. She thought that it was a good point that if children released energy outside there might be less problems in classroom.

I am going to continue to keep an eye on the situation. I am hopping that things will change but I do not always trust that others will follow through.

Hamburgology

Michy named this blog.

Last night for dinner I made the kids hamburgers.

Hann asked me last night why is it called a hamburger?

Michy asked why is it called a hamburger when there is no ham in it?

The answer is really quite simple: because Hamburg, Germany made the first hamburgers. They were nothing like the ones that we eat now but that is still were the name came from. I looked up an answer on line for them. I do it for all of the questions I get from the two of them.

The funny thing is that Hann started this conversation and he does not even like meat. He and Michy are what I refer to as almost vegetarian, they do eat meat occasionally. Lucky for me they both love beans and other alternatives for protein.

Tsenu's Mid-life Crisis

See my sweet bald hubby! I like him like this!!

Now this is what his hair looks like.

We are remodeling the bathroom, ignore it!

Much to my dismay Tsenu has decided to grow his hair out. He told me Saturday. Our conversation went:

Tsenu: I am growing out my hair.

Me: Why?

Tsenu: Because I never have before.

Me: Oh, really.

Tsenu: Yeah, in my country it is a tradition to grow out your hair when you're dying.

Me: Yeah, RIGHT!

Tsenu:(laughing) You never know it could be!