Pearls of Wisdom

There’s this elderly local Japanese man who’s a faculty legend on campus where I work. We run into each other regularly at the gym/pool during our lunchtime workouts. I haven’t seen him as much lately because I’ve been doing most of my marathon training at 5a so I haven’t been at the gym during lunch. But this morning I was hanging and needed to sleep in so I ran 5 miles at the gym after which I got to have a short chat with my dear friend, Dr Furuto.

The reasons I love this man so much are, first, he’s a tough math teacher and I never had to take a class from him which I’m eternally grateful for because I’m a sloth when it comes to math. And second, because he has no reservations about speaking his mind and says the most alarming things. If you’ve gained some weight, he’s there to point it out for you. If your husband has gained some weight or his hair is going white, he’ll point that out too. Some people who have no ‘filter’, are brutally honest and uninhibited by political correctness can tend to grate on me but this guy is genuinely caring, intelligent and humorous and has the happiest smile when he’s imparting his wisdom I believe he doesn’t see his how his words often cross the lines of propriety. And third, because he just says the darndest things that make me laugh.

I should have started writing these down a long time ago because there are just too many to remember but some of my favorite pearls of wisdom from the past include:

One day at the pool about a decade ago, “You know, they check out swim shorts at the cage you could put on over your swim suit.” In my mind I was thinking, “So you’re telling me my thighs are offensive to behold and should be hidden beneath shorts while I’m swimming laps??” but I just thanked him for the information and sadly started wearing the shorts so as to not offend. I have since decided my ‘flab’ looks better when it has a little more color so I usually ditch the shorts and let it all hang out.

A couple years ago he came into the gym while my friend Kathy and I were on the treadmills. He pointed out to Kathy that she was looking a little heavier than me so she might want to speed it up a little. We laughed and told him she probably shouldn’t do that because she was pregnant at the time. We were still chatting as we were heading back to the locker rooms, he paused outside the door so I went ahead and opened it and walked in followed by Kathy. He immediately scolded us for not respecting our elders and opening the door for him. Apparently chivalry is dead. I wasn’t aware that this muscular, fit, feisty guy was in need of women to open the door for him. Now I know.

It’s not enough to ask where my regular workout partners are if I’m on my own, he has to add in the reason he believes they need to be with me. “You know <> is looking a little hefty lately. She should really come run with you.” Thanks ‘coach’ – I’ll be sure to tell her.

Today’s pearl of wisdom, “You’re not a petite girl. From behind you could look like a man… with a hoodie on.”

I love to egg him on until I get a nice juicy insult out of him. Then I merrily take it back to the locker room and laugh about it in the shower. I also love that there is someone in my world who has the ability to stick their foot in their mouth more frequently and more spectacularly than I do.

Zana was the “Super Raider” selected from her class for the month of October. We got to go congratulate her at the school assembly on Monday. So proud of her.

The 2011 AYSO soccer season ended 1.5 weeks ago so no more practices or games this year. Yay!

She’s still dancing with Oriata and they are in another busy season with 1-3 performances weekly – on top of 3 practices weekly. The show has expanded and now she’s also dancing Hawaiian, Maori and Samoan numbers at special events. It’s a lot of work keeping up with her schedule and making the costumes for each show.

Someday I’ll look back and be grateful she got to have this experience. For now, I’m ready to pull her out until she’s able to weave her own fresh ti leaf hip bands and flower haku leis or until the leader decides to listen to the parents and let us make nice reusable fake accessories. That’s my little drama. Moving on.


Got one of those dreaded calls from the school nurse and had to go get Zeth’s head glued shut on Tuesday 11/15. The teachers & Ginger all say it was Ginger’s teeth that accidentally dug the hole in his scalp. He said he can’t really remember what happened but he thinks he scraped his head it on a tree. But for some reason, Ginger feels badly about it and delivered an enormous cow balloon at home that night to help cheer him up. Zeth seemed pretty unaffected by the whole incident and I haven’t seen him shed a single tear over it. I am very concerned about oral bacteria spreading after seeing what happened to my sister’s nephew who had a similar incident last summer and ended up with a horrible infection on his cheek. Ginger was just fine which makes me believe maybe it really was the tree and not her that snagged his head. Hard to get a true picture out of a couple of frolicking 4-year-olds with no witnesses.


Zeth sat nervously and quietly held my hand in the doctor’s chair while they cleaned and glued the skin back together then he just wanted to go home and snuggle a while after which he wanted to go to Costco. Maybe the wound went a little deeper than we thought. Costco?? Turns out, he wanted Danimals yogurt drinks we got there once (never mind they sell them 3 miles from home at our local grocery store – they’re much cheaper at Costco an hour away). I needed to go shopping anyway and since I was conveniently suddenly off work for the rest of the day with him, we went shopping. Three days have passed and his head seems to be healing quickly – too bad he had to miss his final 2 swim lessons of the year this week.

Three weeks until my next marathon. Running 20 miles this Saturday. Just a little nervous about that. My 19 mi run 2 weeks ago was a challenge. Training is way more fun with friends and I’m doing this all on my own so I’m finding it hard to keep myself motivated and moving. Good test of my drive & determination. I forgot my earphones at work and couldn’t use my iPod for my long run last Sat. So I tried out the Pandora radio app on my phone and used it instead. I never run with my phone but I’m sold on it now. It’s awesome to have new – FREE – music to listen to which makes running so much more fun.


There are little highlights along the route sometimes like this moment near the end of my 12 mile run last Saturday. I wouldn’t have been able to catch this picture if I didn’t have my phone with me (and if my friend Callie hadn’t come along right at that moment to snap it for me).

I was reminded the other day as I was dragging myself through the final mile of a run in the hills and passed a guy in a wheelchair just how grateful I am to be able to run.

Fall 2011 Update

It's been a couple months since my last post. So much going on, no time to write.

The kids took swim lessons this summer (Zeth just started another session last week). So fun to see them getting better at the sport nearest to my heart. I am in training for another marathon in Dec and have been running a ton. Zeth and I celebrated birthdays in Sept. I was in charge of the Primary Sacrament Meeting program at church on 9/25 which was a lot of work to write parts for and coordinate all 127 kids in our Primary. Right after the program, I got home from church and my body unraveled immediately into a cold. Ended up with bronchitis and am just now kicking the final remnants of the cough that started a month ago. Being sick made our family vacation trip a little less pleasant for me but it's hard not to have fun on a cruise! We went on the NCL Pride of America cruise around the Hawaiian Islands 10/1-8 with another family and everyone had a blast.

Tonight I'm pulling everything together for the Ward Trunk or Treat at the chapel tomorrow so I'll just sign off and leave you with a couple slide shows from:

Zeth's 4th Birthday

and from our fabulous

Hawaiian Islands Cruise

Summer Wrap Up

"Kids, it’s bedtime. Go brush your teeth and go potty!"
Zana, “OK Mom.”
Zeth, “I don’t need to go shi-shi.”
Me, “I don’t believe you. You need to try anyway.”
Zeth, “Mom, that hurts my feelings you said that.”
Me, …?... giggling inwardly wondering since when do you know how to pull the ‘hurt feelings’ retort, kid? Being potty trained isn’t an absolute assurance of a dry bed in the morning with this little guy.

Making smoothies is a regular event in our home. Zeth requests chocolate-peanut butter smoothies almost every day even though he doesn’t normally end up getting one. Last Sunday morning Zeth said he wanted to make his own. OK, what do you want to put in it? “Peanut butter, ketchup, syrup, Cheetos and paper” was his sincere reply. I helped him make his smoothie with chocolate milk, peanut butter, banana, carrots & ice. He was in heaven, even without the paper, ketchup, syrup & chips.

We had a fun end of summer weekend with our 4-family inner circle of friends at a beach house in Punaluu.

Our Ward Camp was so early in the year (in March during the Spring
break) that the kids (OK, some of the really big kids too apparently)
felt like we hadn’t done anything really memorable during the summer
vacation. Enter Auntie Marie and her beach house connection. It was a really small, well-kept house but with a bunk bed, a bunch of cots and mats we managed to sleep all 4 families.

Outside, there was plenty of space for the kids to paddle (with only one broken oar and a bunch of improvisation) and play. Inside there was food, music, more food, cards, board games and no TV! This is the kind of bonding that makes unrelated friends feel like family.

Zeth is used to being outnumbered by the girls. Poor (lucky) guy.


I enrolled the kids in swim lessons and may I say, what a difference a week makes! After just two classes, the first week, we went to the community pool on Saturday morning, as we often do, where Zeth transformed from clinging on to me and the wall in apprehensive water tolerance to repeatedly jumping off the edge to me and dunking under longer than usual. When he touched the 4’ bottom the first time he came up all excited like he’d struck gold. Last week his teacher was sick and they had to postpone his class to a later date. He was in sobs & tears for a full hour upon receiving the news. With all my years of swim team experience, I still could not get him to try the stuff he’s learning from his swim instructors who are complete strangers. He’s just bouncing, bobbing and gliding through the water now and Zana is getting stronger with her stroke work in her swim group. I’m once again grateful for the village of helpers in raising our kids.

Zana started using an alarm clock recently. She’s in 4th grade now and it was time she started getting out of bed of her own volition more often. The first week she didn’t do so well. Actually she never heard the alarm bellowing next to her head at all but I believe most of the neighborhood did. I’d let it ring for 10-minutes before going in and silencing it. A few days of practice and just having her listen to what it sounds like while she was awake so her brain will register the noise and associate it with waking up, worked. The most interesting thing has happened as a result, she’s now waking up before her alarm and getting up on her own. Suddenly she is turning into a real natural morning person.

Zeth is decidedly still a night owl and is a tough nut to get going in the morning. Evidence of this is their first day of school photos where Zana is bright eyed and ready to go while Zeth was literally sleepwalking out the door to his first day of the senior class at preschool on 8/1.






I have committed myself to running my second marathon this December. Last year’s marathon was totally unofficial so it was free which was great but it was also just a small group of us, 14 runners at the start to be exact. Only seven of us ran the full 26.2, the other 7 ran the half and stopped at the turnaround point at Waimea Bay. By mile six my running partner was feeling stronger than me and I was running on my own without a whole lot of moral support outside of my wonderful family waiting for me every 3-miles in the truck with water, snacks and muscle cream if I needed it. Without them cheering me on every third mile I don’t know if I could have finished the run. So with that in mind, I want my next marathon experience to be the full sha-bang: thousands of athletes pushing forward, crowds cheering, adrenaline pumping and a dollup of that enigmatic Aloha spirit on top. I’m running the Honolulu Marathon on 12-11-11.

Salsa & All Stars

Cravings can make a woman do some pretty strange things. If someone were to ask me where the new jar of amazing peach mango salsa from Costco is, I’d probably give them a blank stare and say, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” I’m just sayin. Sometimes you just gotta give in to the message your body is sending you or it’ll never leave you alone. I guess that’s why I’m probably going to listen to the new message my body is screaming at me right now and I’m not going to make it to Tahitian dance class tonight. Too much volleyball fun today during lunch & I’m already sore. Tomorrow I’ll go to Zumba but I’m not up for two-a-days yet.

Earlier this month, Zana’s Tahitian dance group, Oriata, got a regular gig at a local resort doing a 30-minute show in the hotel lobby every Friday evening at 6p. The dancers aren’t going to get paid at this point because that would just be a nightmare to facilitate but the experience & exposure the group is getting is priceless. They just started working on expanding the show to include Hawaiian and Maori (New Zealand) dances as well. Zana is a naturally gifted dancer – that’s not just her momma talkin either. I’m envious how quickly she picks up dances and retains the motions. It just comes naturally for her. I’m usually too busy helping with costume changes during the show to worry about taking pictures or videos but we’ll have some soon I hope.

Last weekend my friend Maeva & I took our kids to the current Disney boy-band "All Star Weekend" (yes that's the name of the group) concert at the PCC. First real 'mainland' group concert for either of our kids.

Zeth snapped this picture of us. He loves playing with the camera.



The kids had a blast. It was more fun watching our little groupies dancing & going nuts than the band, though they were decent, but it made me feel old as I walked out with a headache from the loud music being blasted over a sound system not designed for that kind of accoustical assault. Anything for the kids!


This month Zeth learned how to swing without being pushed, work a yo-yo, dance a Tahitian Paoti (the boys chicken-legs dance move) and untune a guitar. I'm not anxious for him to learn how to say 'adults' yet so for now I remain, happily, a 'redult'. Milestones.





Last month we finally bought our first real, new, matching dining room table & chairs. This was the next big furniture purchase on my list for the past decade that just kept getting pushed down the priority list. I couldn't be more thrilled that our family has started actually dining in the the highly neglected dining room on a pretty regular basis. I am so done with eating every meal on a bar stool in the kitchen. We just happened to find it on the last night of my dear sister's visit so she and Ram stayed up late and assembled the whole beautiful 8-chair set that night. I love the new look!

Miracles

This is one of those posts that should probably be labeled “TMI” due to the graphic nature of the tale but for my own benefit and for any of those who are interested, it’s a juicy story. If medical dramas aren’t your thing, I won’t be the least bit offended if you just enjoy this darling photo of our kids and then skip over this post.


The doctor started off my post-op visit by stating “You’re like a cat. You must have nine lives with all the emergency surgeries you’ve been through.”

This story unfolded on Sunday May 22, 2011. I prayed all morning for the pain & nausea in my gut to subside and for the strength to be able to go to church because after the two youth speakers, I was the only other Sacrament Meeting speaker that day and didn’t want to leave the bishopric hanging (good thing because 2/3 of our bishopric missed most of the meeting as they were at the bedside of a brother in the ward who passed away that morning); and because one of my Primary counselors was out with a cold and we had no music leader for the Primary. So I couldn’t leave my other counselor to run the whole show with all 60+ kids by herself if there was any way around it.

It was a miracle that somehow I was able to pull myself together and do all I had been praying for strength to do that day. My talk on parenting was very well received and I’ve even had a couple of people request a copy of my remarks - I’d call that a miracle. I went on to conduct the Primary meetings, filled in for the music leader and managed to keep a cool demeanor so very few people were aware of the pain I was in. After church I promptly collapsed back into bed thinking this is the worst PMS I’ve had in years. Sunday was Ram’s birthday and I felt terrible that I hadn’t done much at all to celebrate his special day but it was just beyond my ability that day.

Monday, May 23 started out fairly normal. I’d been in such pain the day before I couldn’t roll out of bed. I was still feeling tender, dizzy & worn out but as I was preparing to take Zeth to school and go to work, the pain came rushing back and as I collapsed I knew there was something definitely wrong with me. I have serious reservations about calling 911, especially when I’m not sure what’s wrong with me but I’m glad I did. The paramedics took me to the local hospital where they determined I was about 6-7 weeks pregnant. This miraculous news shocked me since there was maybe a 1% chance of that ever happening again. It had been 11 years since our last ectopic “tubal” pregnancy and my one remaining embattled tube was so shrouded in scar tissue the last surgeon to go looking for it couldn’t find it. You’d think that after going through 4 ectopic pregnancies I’d have had a better idea of what was going on but the chances of it happening were so minimal that I really couldn’t conceive that I had conceived again. I seriously wanted to believe that the pain was just due to scar tissue breaking apart and that this would finally be the answer to our prayers as to where our next child will come from.

Twelve hours after my 911 call, two ambulance rides, two hospitals, two ultrasounds and five IV lines later, it was determined that it was another ectopic and I was wheeled into the OR around 7pm. As I was scooting from the gurney to the OR table, the tube with the baby in it ruptured and instantly flooded my abdomen with blood. The pain I’d felt before was nothing compared to the torrent that seized me in that moment. It’s a miracle I was on the table and within minutes they were able to put me out of my misery. They pumped a liter of blood out of my stomach during the 2-hour surgery which lasted twice as long as they had anticipated because there was a minefield of scar tissue to cut through in order to free things up as they proceeded.

Ram and I are still trying to figure out what the lesson to be learned with this experience is. I really haven’t even bothered to entertain useless thoughts of ‘why’ but I’m still trying to figure out the ‘what’ questions. What am I supposed to learn from this? What are we supposed to do next? These answers will come eventually I hope. For now we’re opening our minds to our options again and trying to follow the guidance of the spirit. I have felt the presence of angels comforting me and helping me recover. I haven’t been as sad about this loss as those in the past for some reason. I can only attribute that to all the prayers, meals, visits and messages that my supporters have offered on my behalf. (Thank you!!) And a huge MAHALO to my sister for leaving her family and flying out on a moments notice to take care of me. Can't even begin to express how wonderful it was having her here that first week after surgery. Being the recipient of so much love and service is extremely humbling. Maybe humility is the WHAT I need to learn better.

Zoom forward 4 weeks and I had a much more pleasant weekend experience to share. A childhood friend, Lori, found me on Facebook a few years ago and shared a touching story with me. I brought Lori to our Thursday afternoon Primary activities at church a few times over the course of 2nd thru 4th grades. Her family moved away to Colorado just as our friendship was budding and I was really sad to see her go. Her parents were not interested in religion but conveniently, the town they moved to just happened to have a thriving LDS population so Lori quickly found more Mormon friends there. Once she was 18 years old, she made the decision to join the LDS church and has been an active member ever since. She attributed her brief interactions with me at Primary as one of the foundations on her journey. Can’t tell ya how wonderful that feels.

So Lori and her darling family were here this week on vacation and after 30 years apart, we were reunited for a couple of brief visits during their stay. Our families went to the Polynesian Cultural Center together on Friday then they came to our church meetings on Sunday followed by a fabulous Father’s Day lunch at our home and a visit to the Laie LDS Temple. Being so far from where my life began, it’s easy to forget details about my past. It was so great to reminisce about happy childhood memories with her.

The kids all got along splendidly and had fun together (PCC was a big hit for everyone), our husbands seemed to enjoy eachother's company and Lori just feels like a kindred spirit to me. I feel so lucky to have a friend like her in my life again. It was such a spiritual boost for me seeing the happy fruit of my unconscious labor as a kid, just being a friend and sharing the gospel thru Primary. My cup felt really full this weekend.

April Fools

Last Friday morning Zeth did not want to wake up. I finally got him to speak, with his eyes closed, and the first thing out of his mouth was, “I love my big bed mommy. Can I take it to school?” He has a full sized bed so I naturally responded, “No, it’s too big to fit in my car.” He smartly responded, “I’ll help you! I don’t like the little mats in my class, I like my big cozy bed .” He really is a little BIG man already.

Last night I had 3 heaping loads of clean laundry lurking in my room so I gathered the family and organized a ‘family folding party.’ Loads and loads of fun. Napless Zeth had been up playing with friends all day and was as cranky as he could be until suddenly Zana provided distracting entertainment by putting some of Zeth’s underware on her head and declared herself ‘Unda Girl’. Sadly no picture, she’ll thank me for that later. The only difference between folding laundry and having a laundry party is attitude and happily last night it worked.

For April Fools Day this year a couple of my friends and I dressed up for a ball – at work all day. I claimed the title of Ms. Tahiti Black Pearl. It was fun to pull out most of my black pearl collection and just give them all some fresh air time. I just can’t pass on an opportunity to dress up for a good cause.

Pizza Party & HOOOPS

It's a big basketball kind of day today. BYU men's basketball played in the NCAA DI Sweet 16 and BYUH played in the NCAA DII Elite 8. So we had a little pizza party and I did some damage... This is me with my 150 empty pizza boxes. I have to say I really prefer Domino's to Pizza Hut - especially their Hawaiian pizza.

BYU lost their game sadly. I'm still loving the JIMMER even though he didn't play his most amazing game today, still 32 points is better than I'd ever dream of getting!

However, BYUH WON thier game and will be in 'THE DANCE' for the national championship this Saturday. You are AMAZING!

GO BYUH SEASIDER MEN!!!

Look Who's 3.5

Three-and-one-half years of Zethfulness already!

Yesterday was Zeth's half birthday so we commemorated the occasion with ice cream sandwiches which I intended to split & only give each of us half of but the grumbles from the peanut gallery and the fact that half of one of those little treats would honestly leave us all wanting, so we broke the half-birthday rule and each got a whole treat.

Sister Surprise & GAR

Surprise!
I got home late Friday night to find my sister, “JB”, waiting for me in my driveway. It was a 3-day weekend and she works for an airline so using her flight benefits she can do this sort of crazy thing for next to nothing. JB got an early start on Thurs, spent 2-days trying to hop on a flight from SLC, flew to 2 airports then over the Pacific Ocean, and spent 3-hours on the bus out to my house then 4-hours alone waiting in my house which she sneaked inside of to come surprise me for the weekend. Best surprise I’ve had in years. I think the last time my excitement about a surprise peaked like this was during Zeth’s adoption process when we found out we had been chosen by a birth mother and again when we got to take him home. OK so Zeth's arrival was way bigger & life altering of an event but it was so wonderful to have a weekend of unexpected sister time and for the kids to get some new memories of their favorite auntie whom they hadn’t seen in a year.

It was very convenient to have JB there on Monday morning 2/20 to drop me and my crazy runner friends off at the start of the Great Aloha Run. With 10,000 more runners this year than normal, parking was an absolute nightmare but she took it on like a pro. I usually drive a carful of friends and we normally park at the finish then bus downtown to the start 8 miles away but having her drop us off at the start let us all sleep in an extra hour or two which was SO wonderful and it saved us from what would have been a disaster trying to find parking in time for the start of the race with so many extra cars this year.

The run went well but because there were so many more runners than normal AND because the race organizers tried something new with the thousands of military runners, I was unable to wiggle up to my normal staging area and was stuck mid-pack so I had to do a ton of zigzagging the whole race to dodge slower obstacles in my path. The change with the military was cool in concept; normally the military does a silent start 5 minutes before the real start. It’s inspirational & motivational to see them with their uniforms and banners all running and singing their cadences in formation. Usually they are long gone before the main pack catch up to them but this year, they had the entire military corridor (half the roadway) stop at mile three for abt 10 minutes then they started running again. I can only guess it was an effort to let more of the civilians have a chance to feel the excitement the military brings. I didn’t cross the start line until 10-minutes after the start but caught up to and ran alongside the soldiers for most of the race from mile 3 on. That just made the road 50% smaller since they were running in a solid corridor 4-5 bodies wide. If I had gotten there an hour earlier and was staged properly it probably wouldn’t have been so crazy. I’ll be wiser next year, even if it does mean getting on the road by 3:30a.

Despite the crowds, I’m happy to say I beat my best time again. This was my 11th year running the GAR and every year (except 2008) I’ve beat my own best time. Here’s a rundown:
2000 - 2:22
2001 - 1:40
2002 - 1:36
2003 - did not run because Zana was 2-months old and I was too tired
2004 - 1:35
2005 - 1:32:18
2006 - 1:32:01
2007 - 1:28:25
2008 - 1:28:36
2009 - 1:25:58
2010 - 1:23:25
2011 - 1:17:53

I don’t know how I’ll do it but I’m hoping to shave another 5-minutes off my time next year. Something about 1:12 just entices me. That means I’ll have to drop my pace from a 9:34 per mile average to just under 8:58. Hmmm. Anything’s possible – right!?

The rest of the Sister Surprise weekend, we spent as much time as possible at Sharks Cove, Matsumoto’s, Kua Aina, hosting our monthly FHE 4-family event and chillin at home with the family.

It all went so quickly and Tuesday morning she was gone back to her normal crazy life. I love that I have a sister who will take that much time out of her life and go to such great lengths to spend it with me. Mahalo JB!! You're da bestest swister & auntie! No tears at her departure cause I'll be seeing her later this month in Denver when she'll be keeping me company during a conference. YAY!

Love, Gratitude & Accountability

Another one of my peers passed away this morning. Niu was in his early 40s with five kids ranging from K-12th grade. He seemed perfectly healthy, was playing basketball before dawn at the church then wasn’t feeling well, laid down on the court and died. Makes me ache for his wife, Tamara, and I’ve been wondering all day how she can possibly go home and tell any of their kids and especially her 5 year old son daddy will never be coming home again. Heartbreaking.

Attended a devotional this earlier week where the topic was centered on love and relationships. The message was directed towards singles but a couple points hit home; mainly, in dating, do your homework, don’t assume anything, don’t take anything for granted and be clear about your needs & expectations. The best way to avoid an abusive marriage is to avoid marring into one. Choose your love & love your choice. That last part has been hard for me lately. The man I love today is so different from the man I dated and chose 18 years ago. The same goes for me as a wife. I’m not in an abusive relationship by any means. I luckily chose a gentle man, a very easy-going, gentle man. Still, it feels like I’m being held accountable for my choice a lot lately. I hate to think I’m growing into a nag – but honestly, sometimes I am.

I read an article in the Ensign last month about relationships and the grapefruit principle. Basically a young bride started noticing certain irritating traits not long after the honeymoon wore off. She kept a list of things her husband did that bothered her then one day scheduled a talk with him to go over some concerns with their relationship. She went first bemoaning how she disliked the way he ate grapefruits like they were oranges rather than cut in half with a spoon like ‘normal people’ eat them. After getting that off her chest she let him take a turn. He looked her in the eye and said “There’s not one thing I don’t like about you honey.” Meeting ended.

I am aware of how critical I am of my husband and how often I wish he would change this thing or that. Sometimes it is so hard to accept him for who & what he is and not think about what I’d like to change in him. Today I was reminded just how grateful I am to have a loving husband who apparently adores me still despite my frequent rants and grudges. I know I can’t change anyone but myself. I know that, so why do I spin my wheels trying to find ways to make him into the man I want him to be when I’m so obviously never gonna achieve that goal? I got some serious accepting and humbling to do. Just don’t tell Ram that. *wink*

Pep Talk

I haven't been sick really but I’ve been sucking on a lot of cough drops this month. Tis the season for my annual congestion and nagging cough. I love that Halls has added something fun to their wrapper printing this year. Each drop has a little ‘Pep Talk’ printed on it. It’s the perfect thing for any self-pitying sick person who needs a little reminder that this cold is temporary and you are bigger than your illness. In case you’re feeling a little down, here’s a little reminder from your Canadian friends at Halls:

You’ve survived tougher.
Nothing you can’t handle.
Get back in there champ!
You got it in you.
Dust off and get up.
Elicit a few “wows” today.
Be resilient.
Don’t give up on yourself.
Be unstoppable.
Take charge and mean it.
Don’t try harder, Do harder!
Inspire envy.
Seize the day.
Keep your chin up.
Conquer today.
March forward.
Go get it.
Don’t wait to get started.
Get back in the game.
Get through it.
Don’t waste a precious minute.
The show must go on. Or work.
Get back in the game.
Hi-five yourself.
It’s yours for the taking.
Push on!
Put a little strut in it.
Go get it!
Tough is your middle name.
Nothing you can’t handle.
Impress yourself today.
Flex your “can do” muscle.
You can do it and you know it.

Seriously, if this list doesn’t make you feel better, you need something much stronger than a cough drop to cure you. Try jumping off a volcano for example – or at least ‘the rock’ at Waimea. No kidding, taking that flying leap is the most effective nasal irrigation you can invest in. One jump off the rock cured me of a 3-month long cold last winter. Of course there are other ways to flex your ‘can do’ muscle but we won’t get into that here. :)

Kindle Insanity

Kindle
I’m getting recognized for Fifteen years of service at BYUH this year. Every five years we get a benchmark recognition and gift of our choice. For Christmas I really only had two things that I seriously wanted on my list and the Amazon Kindle e-reader was at the top of that list. Second was a dining room table & chairs so we can get rid of the old garage sale hodgepodge we’ve had for the past 12+ years. But that’ll have to wait a while longer. However, much to my delight I learned today that for my 15 years of service award I can select pretty much anything our Bookstore can order (within a set price range) so I was thrilled to put in my order for a Kindle this morning. Now begins the 2-month wait until the big Faculty & Staff Spring Fling dinner where they hand out the prizes. It’s like waiting for Christmas all over again - but better!

Insanity
This morning I went to my second Insanity workout held at our chapel at 4:45a. Not familiar with Insanity? It’s the latest flavor or bust your butt super high intensity aerobic workout craze sweeping the nation. My first experience last week was fun. I learned that a novice like me who is basically active & healthy still should show some restraint when starting something new and should definitely not push herself during the ‘around-the-globe-jump-squats’ series! I thought I was up to the challenge and wanted to get enough bang for my buck after hauling myself out of bed in the middle of the night so I pushed it a little harder than I should have apparently. I pretty much felt like an overstretched jellyfish by the time I got home. By the time I got out of the shower, my calves cramped up and I couldn’t walk normally for the next 4 days.

So a week later I’m back to normal, had a couple good runs on the treadmill Tues & Wed to work out the rest of the kinks and was back at Insanity at 4:45 Thurs morning. It went much better today. I was actually listening to my body and respecting its boundaries better this time. Lots of squat moves today but I modified and went low intensity more frequently and still got a great workout. This time I can feel the effects a little higher up my legs but it’s a good feeling.

Today at work I did an update for a new employee named: Chan-Ting Kao. I love the Chinese and their awesome names.

Marathon Momma

Yes, it's a whole month after the fact but I just have to give this topic a little individual attention because it is too big an accomplishment for me to not mention it. I was waiting until I had at least one photo from someone to post. I finally nabbed some pictures so I’m not putting it off anymore.

I am now officially a marathoner!
I ran my first marathon on Saturday, 12-11-10, from the Laie Stake Center (next to the Temple) to Waimea Bay and back. That's me in the bottom right corner, pre-race. It was an unofficial marathon and there were only 14 of us who started, 7 finished at the half way mark (Waimea Bay) and 7 did the full (back to the Stake Center). It was a full 26.2 miles and I did it in 5:01. Sadly my goal was to beat 5 hours so I’m planning a rematch.

However, I learned a few things on my first attempt that will help me the next time. I definitely won’t be spending the entire day before my next race decorating the chapel for the Ward Christmas Party. I definitely won’t be eating a ward party buffet menu as my pre-race fuel. I won’t be partying and staying up late the two nights before my next attempt. I won’t be taking such frequent or long water & stretching breaks every 3-6 miles to try to 'save myself' for the end of the race. I’ll remember to pack more than one Power Bar energy gel for the race. I’ll experiment with some different fuel options including bananas, peanut butter, oatmeal and apparently Snickers bars during my training runs to see what gives me added benefit. Most importantly, I won’t forget to keep Tylenol and Albuterol in my sports bag!

Since there were very few people involved, there were no cheering fans on the side of the road – we were running on the side of the road actually, so there wasn’t a lot of adrenaline pumping encouragement. It would have been much less fun if I hadn’t had the support of my very own road crew in the truck waiting for me every 3rd mile. It was very convenient to have someone there to carry my flashlight, water, gels and Vaseline. It was even more helpful to have the encouragement of my husband and kids. The finish line photographer missed my big finish so we reenacted it 20 minutes later once I'd had a chance to cool down. But this is pretty much what it looked like at the end.

Anyone interested in joining me this year, I have a feeling I’ll be having a rematch this Dec. There are no official non-Sunday marathons on my island so I’ll have to figure out how I’ll get my first official race under my belt sooner rather than later. I am loving how all the running I’m doing has started to reshape me. Anyone wanting to trade some size 10 clothes in exchange for my old size 14 wardrobe, I’d be so happy to swap some bargains with you! Despite being in a kind of recovery slump with really infrequent workouts for the past month, I’m hooked on running and eager to keep pushing myself now. Today I ran 4mi in 36 minutes. I’m starting to focus my workouts on speed for my next event, the Great Aloha Run, on 2/21/11. It’s only 8mi and I’ve got my mind set on speeding up this year and really knocking down my finishing time.

Christmas to Baptism

Some Christmas Memories from 2010

Ram’s cousin, Teva, was visiting with his wife & daughter the week before Christmas. Dec 24th was their daughter’s 6th birthday so we met them for lunch at Ala Moana Ruby Tuesday’s then spent the afternoon hanging out & shopping with them. We stayed in town just until after sunset so we could show them the Honolulu City Lights display at the capital. It was beautiful as always. The kids had fun getting to know each other even though they couldn’t understand one another.

Christmas Eve, despite telling myself I’d be done early this year, I stayed up pretty much all night being a Santa’s helper wrapping and prepping things. Zeth got a really cool Radio Flyer scooter for Christmas last year but it’s made for 2 year olds who need help with balance, has built-in speed controls (tight axels) and restricted turning radius so he prefers using Zana’s old pink butterfly scooter. I decided it was time the old scooter got a makeover to match Zeth. So at 2a I was out on the lawn spray painting the whole thing silver with several coats of paint. Once it dried, I gave it orange tiger stripes. The new look works and Zeth loves it. He also loves his new free-standing basketball hoop. He got a new remote controlled car from Santa but something must have gone wrong at the seasonal mall kiosk where Santa found it because it has a doesn’t work for some reason. Major bummer.

Zana wanted a cell phone and iPod Touch this year. She didn’t get either of them but she was thrilled with her new Razor Rip Stik, her remote control car from Santa which *does* work, her electronic piggy bank and a bunch of other gifts. However, the gift that stole the day was a Wii game console. I got a great deal on it second-hand from a co-worker who was getting something new this year. I wasn’t sure how well it would be received but we all played sports and games on it too long that day. The next morning Zana’s arms were so sore she could barely lift them. Need some moderation here.

It was a fun holiday but after all the gluttony of the day and getting everyone in bed that night it hit me just how badly I missed the point of the entire day. We didn’t spend any time celebrating Christ, didn’t read the scriptures or even say family prayers. We just fell apart. But sometimes it is this sort of bottoming out that snaps us back into shape so starting on 12/26, we reinstated our daily family scripture study which had been random at best ever since Zeth joined our family three years ago now. Now we all take turns reading two verses at a time. Even Zeth insists on taking his turn repeating after me, most of the time. Often he’s the one that’s being totally disruptive and driving everyone crazy, but we’re dealing pretty well and I think he’s slowly catching the drift of the new program. He would rather stay and be quiet with us than be alone in his room in time out. We’re getting there.

For New Year’s Eve, we went to the Wasson’s house to eat & light off a mountain of fireworks. It was the last time we’ll be able to do that for a while here, there’s a new city ban on the sale of fireworks in effect this year. So naturally the entire island went overboard and there were more smouldering heaps of explosives on the road than normal to ring in the new year. Normally I avoid the whole firework scene because, having asthma, the smoke kills me but I made an exception this time and am still paying for it 11 days later with my scratchy throat. It was worth it though, despite the rain, the kids had a blast playing with fire (I realize that just sounds crazy – but it is true).

Just for kicks, I uploaded two clips from 2009 & 2010 of the kids singing Twinkle Little Star. They were filmed about a year apart so its fun to see the improvement. But this one that wanders from monkeys to crocodiles is just random & cute.

It's been exactly one month since I ran my first marathon and I’m having a hard time getting back on my regular running routine. I have my annual Great Aloha Run 8.15 mi run coming up in 6 weeks. I’m sure I could run 8 miles with minimal training but my goal this year is to really improve my speed. So it’s time to get cracking but I’ve just been in a post marathon slump for the past month. Need a new training plan calendar on my wall staring me down every day.

Last Saturday Zana was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was a beautiful event. Zana and one of her classmates, Vaihinatea, had a combined program. I spoke on baptism; Ram baptized and confirmed Zana; our friend Jamie-Lynn gave a talk on the gift of the Holy Ghost complete with a huge box of gifts for each of them relating to the many roles the Comforter/Teacher/etc. plays in our lives. It was very sweet. But the most memorable moment for me was when Zana bore her testimony from her heart and got choked up. As soon as she teared-up, so did I. I looked around to see if it was just us but from some of the other wet eyes it was obvious that most people around us could feel the warmth of the Holy Spirit in the chapel too. It was just awesome that she got to have that first experience there right away after receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. (The first time I remember really feeling the HG was just before Christmas when I was 9.) Later that day I asked her about it and she said she just got this really warm feeling in her heart. She’s such a choice little spirit.

Uncles Henny & Adrian were the witnesses. Auntie Marie saved the day helping transport kids, running off the programs and breaking out her emergency sewing kit in the nick of time. After the services, we shared breakfast with about 35 of our friends at our home. Some of the families that came and supported Zana on her special day included the: Anderson, Wasson, Hite, Veras, Aiu, Pagador, Fiu, Brown, Bohnet, Requilman, Salanoa & Tia families.

Some of the lessons learned from the baptism, in addition to towels, undies and a dry outfit, a hair brush, a fully charged camera with a friend to frenziedly snap pix on it for you, be sure you bring a Children’s Hymn Book because the pianist may not have one and cupboards are usually locked, emergency items such as safety pins, scissors and even better, needle & thread. In my haste getting Zana out of the beautiful Tahitian double lined baptismal dress Auntie Maeva sewed for her, and into the adorable princess confirmation dress from g-ma, the puller on the zipper of the latter dress broke in two and her entire back side was exposed. Fortunately Auntie Marie had a needle & white thread which I used to sew Zana into her dress during the talk on the Holy Ghost and got her decent just in time. Disaster averted. It kind of reminded me of the old high school days when my mom was still sewing me into my ball gown she made for me as my date was waiting in the living room with my dad. It was not funny at the time and it happened more than once too.