Like My Grandma Would Say....."Ili le Pu!" ;)

Sound the trumpets! Send out the Alarm! I walked two laps... Woohoooo! Yipppeeeee! ;) It is so out of the ordinary for me to do any form of exercise, that in my mind's eye I can totally see my grandma putting her hand to her lips in the motion of blowing a horn or a trumpet. That is what "Ili le pu" means, to blow a horn or a trumpet signifying some great event LOLOL It is usually said in jest or with playful sarcasm. My grandma had a funny sense of humor, and that was one of her favorite lines :)

I actually cannot believe I walked today. I am glad I did. It was two laps around the small circle at BYUH, but it felt like such a far distance to me. I was just going to do one lap, but Coach K's pamphlet about walking in Laie says that I should at least start off with 10 minutes a day for the first week and gradually increase the length and amount of my activity. I did not think it would take me 10 minutes to walk one lap, and I was right. It took me ten minutes to walk two laps. I'm happy with that. I am actually just happy that I did something! "Toot Tooooot!" :)

What a GREAT Day!

I love my nephew :) This is a picture that was sent to my phone the day he graduated from elementary :) But this post is not about him or that day :) This post is about today. I had a GREAT day! I tried to think back to figure out why it turned out so great. The only reason I can think of is because I prayed :) I know yeah! Hallelujah! I love the Lord. I love my Heavenly Father. Today I had my morning prayer and it felt wonderful and amazing! I am not good at praying. I have gratitude always in my heart, and I know that all I have is from Jesus Christ and my Heavenly Father, but I know they need me to express it sincerely with love and humility out loud :) This morning I prayed, and throughout this day I have had such a great sense of peace and well being. It was wonderful. I have to challenge myself to keep it up. I love being prayerful. But I am not always. I should say I am not mostly :) I know the Lord knows me through and through, but I also know I still need to pray and humble myself before Him and my Heavenly Father.

Kahuku Graduation 2009

I had not planned on attending Kahuku High and Intermediate's graduation ceremony. I was just planning to make it on time to give leis to our family and ward members. I am glad I was able to witness the ceremony. It was so refreshing to see young people excited and exuberant with anticipation for a new chapter in their lives. The air was charged with so much "love energy" that I could not help but feel touched in my heart with joy and love for everyone there. It was just amazing to see so many people from different walks in life all gathered together to celebrate these young people and their accomplishment.

It was so awesome to hear cheers from groups here and there as graduates' names were called to accept each diploma. It was beautiful. Some people were so overjoyed that before the student's name could be properly announced air horns were going off. I understand the joy and excitement, but it was kind of sad because we could not hear the name that was announced.

One student really stood out for me. He was one of the 14 valedictorians. His last name is Roper. He expressed himself very well, but at the end of his speech he acknowledged and gave thanks to our Savior Jesus Christ for helping him and supporting him throughout his life. He acknowledged that it was through the love and support of his Savior that he is where he is today. In this day and age where it is taboo to acknowledge church within state it was so wonderful to hear this young man's heart felt gratitude for his Savior. I was so touched I had tears in my eyes. I felt so uplifted and grateful for the strength, love, and gratitude this young man expressed to and for Jesus Christ.

It was a good evening. I went to support others and left having received spiritual upliftment and joy.

Peace

Last week I had attended a peace benefit with dear family and friends. At a single adult conference on May 1 I had been moved by Ema Billings's work for peace with Israeli and Palestinian children. I felt I wanted to do something to help, so I volunteered to sell 11 tickets for a peace benefit she was helping to organize.

Eleven was the number of tickets she had on hand. I had excitedly thought, "Sure, no problem! Everyone will want to buy at least one ticket and support world peace!" (I totally felt like Miss America) LOLOL I was sadly mistaken. LOLOL She gave me the tickets on May 1, and by mid-May I had only sold four. Three for my sister and me and one for my cousin Lil. It was not that people did not want to help, but there was just too much going on in their lives at that time.

The benefit was on May 21 so I thought to myself, "Who can I turn to for support and understanding. Who would be interested in purchasing tickets for a peace benefit out in town?" I stopped by my good friend and sister's house Debbie (Crash Test Dummy Diaries) and told her about it. She said it sounded good and would get back to me. I thought, cool, hopefully she wants one :) Later she bought two just to support me because she would not be able to make the concert. I was so touched and thankful. I called my brother Eteru and told him about it. He bought two, one for him and one for his wife. Again I felt so thankful. I called my dear friend and sister Lisa and she bought one, and a good friend from work, Juliana, bought one. By the time I was done I had sold a total of 10! :D Yes I was beaming and bursting with gratitude!

We decided to make it an evening together. After the benefit, we would go to MAC 24-7 for dinner. The benefit was good fun. One of my most favorite if not the most favorite auntie in my life was performing with the Nani Laie Serenaders, my Auntie Tino.


Auntie Tino / Nani Laie Serenaders! :)

Other performances were very nice and a local man, Terry Moea'i, was the best emcee! An Israeli peace practitioner, Elad Vazana, spoke about peace. Basically, we all have walls and wear masks. When we strip these away and our true souls meet, we realize we can be friends and live in peace. I really enjoyed those thoughts.



What made the benefit even more fun is that we won like half of the door prizes :) Okay not half, more like one third :) Each of us got to take something home. It was pretty funny and cool. The emcee was like.... no more prizes for the first row! :) Oh yeah, we had good seats too! :) What was really funny was that the emcee was the one drawing the numbers. He is from Laie and everyone he was drawing seemed to be from Laie too :) It was hillarious!

After the benefit, we went to eat at MAC 24-7. I just have two words to say, "Never Again!" The food was mediocre, but the service was what clinched the "Never Again!" pledge. Very very poor poor service! The company on the other hand was superb! Despite the poor food and very bad service I enjoyed the time I got to spend with my dear family. We hadn't seen each other since November 2007 before Eteru went out to Iraq. At that time we had all met to have a farewell dinner for him, so it was really very nice to all meet up and share an evening together.



The ride home was long. We got home at 1:30 am and we had to get up and ready for work at 5:30 am. Phew! That was hard to do, but so worth it! I look forward to more opportunities in my life to promote Peace! For Everyone! :)

Mother's Day Dinner Night :)

Two of our friends who are mothers. L-R Frankie and Tammy

I had a wonderful evening with my sister and friends. We ate at the Polynesian Cultural Center Ambassador Buffet.
It was deeeeeelicious! LOLOL So many ono kine grinds and no where to put it all.



This was my first plate followed by prime rib, mahimahi, macademia nut chicken, and some tasty desserts :) While we were eating we decided to go and watch the new Star Trek movie. It was really good and very enjoyable.



Here we are striking a Spock pose :) to everyone... "Live long and prosper!"

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Poi Oh Poi!

Nope, its not gray goop! or some old paste! :) Its island goodness at its finest! It is especially good with;
lomilomi salmon, hot kalua pig, or a nice steaming laulau :)

Just another reason why I love Hawaii! :) Mmmmm Sooooo Good!

Only in Laie :)

Yesterday I was sitting in my living room talking with my Uncle Nifo and the next thing I see are the hulls of the Iosepa racing across my windows. It would have been such a cool indoor shot, but my camera was far away :( I got up grabbed it and tore outside as fast as I could to snap these shots :)

Where else in the "western civilized" world does a vessel of this size and type pass nonchalantly through narrow little neighborhood streets? :) I totally love it. I love being a part of this wonderful community where I never know from one day to another what marvelous miracle I am going to witness. That is what the community of Laie is like; a place of wonder and miracles.

P.S. What is cool is that our street is "Moana" street. In Samoa and throughout Polynesia, moana means ocean.

Moana in the Samoan language means blue. It also means ocean.

When a Samoan speaks of the ocean he or she says, "Moana tele" tele meaning vast and moana meaning ocean or water. :)

I Cannot Believe I Am Forty!

It's like... where did the time go?

It seems as if just the other day I was 21... okay maybe 27, and then... BAM!

I am 40!

It is so jarring! The impact of the realization is both physical and mental. My body is now 40 (actually it is probably older than 40 due to health conditions and poor care) and my mind is in denial. It is not as bad as I make it out to be. I know it is another chapter added to my life. Being 40 is part of the journey. It is not necessarily a welcome part, but a part of life's journey still the same, and I can either embrace it and move forward with joy or I can wallow in self pity and lose myself in denial. If I lose myself in self pity and denial, then I may eventually lose track of time, possibly miss a decade of my life, and skip straight to my 50's. I definitely do not want to do that!

Being 40 is not a bad thing, its just that I am not the fabulous 40 I envisioned myself to be. My personal vision is still possible and I am not giving up. Each day I will strive to do something to improve myself. I will not stay stuck in a rut and not progress. I will prevail and succeed in my righteous endeavors. With the Lord, any thing is possible. I believe that. The hope and faith I have in that belief helps me to move forward. It enables me to continue to strive to do the work to be the best person I know I can be.

April Fools Day

I wish I was a good prankster. I'm really not. These last couple of days at work I have been hiding behind walls and startling coworkers as they walk by. It has been hilarious, but I need to stop. I don't want to give someone a heart attack, and I think I almost did the first time I tried it. I don't know why, but it is so funny to see someones startled and shocked response. Better yet if I can get a good scream out of them LOLOL Horrible huh? I don't know why, but it makes me laugh... all in good fun of course.

Yesterday at work I offered my training instructor lemon peel. I have always been taught to be kind and giving :) which I am not always, but I like to share. Anyways, she took a good sized piece and stuck it all in her mouth and had a real sour reaction. I didn't think anything much of it cause she along with our class had been eating these sour candies, and I mean SUPER SOUR. Sour on the outside, but if you can suck for a bit you get to the sweet candy. Well, my poor instructor thought that was what would happen with the lemon peel. She plopped in a good sized piece and began chewing right away.

She was really gracious about it. Another coworker told her she was. The other coworker said she would have spit it out the minute she realized how sour it was. I feel bad because I hope she doesn't think I gave her something sour on purpose to give her discomfort. I LOVE lemon peel. I just wanted to share something with her that we enjoy here in the islands. As I drove home I thought to myself, my poor instructor is never going to forget me, and not because I am a genius! ;) but because I introduced her to lovely lemon peel!

I'm glad my lemon peel sharing happened yesterday and not today, otherwise my instructor would have really believed it was some sort of prank. What was funny was, upon hearing our instructor had just had a lemon peel experience, most of my coworkers would say... "Oh that's good for when you have a cold," or "That's good when you get sick," or "It's great in your tea." It was being classified as an island remedy and although my teacher didn't say anything, I am pretty sure she won't stock up on any lemon peel when she leaves the islands. :(

Uncle Bill

photo courtesy of Mike Foley

Yesterday, I along with a multitude of people throughout the islands and from different countries paid our last respects and bade a fond aloha to "Uncle Bill," William Kauaiwiulaokalani Wallace III. He was and still is a very good uncle. I say still is, because although he is gone in the flesh, his spirit lives on, and though I don't see him; I know he is there alive and well in the spirit world.

I just wanted to take a moment to remember him. He accomplished so much in his life. He was a young 60 years of age when he passed away, but he had lived a very full and awe inspiring life. He was a lawyer, judge, professor, kumu hula, and a very loving father. If I know anything about Uncle Bill, it is that he LOVES his family, and although he has tons and tons of extended family, myself included ;) it is like EVERYONE is related to him... for reals :) He treated everyone as his family and everyone loved and respected him as such too.

Uncle Bill was one of my professors at BYUH. One thing that stands out the most from what I learned from him, is that it is very important to KNOW WHO YOU ARE. I was taught this from my parents, grandparents, church leaders, and friends. It is something I was taught is important as I was growing up and I understand that it is important, and in one of Uncle Bill's classes I had had a true "Ah Hahhhhh," moment.

We were reading through the book, Vaka: Saga of a Polynesian Canoe (a very good book for anyone interested in a good read about the populating of the Polynesian islands). Uncle Bill was generating a discussion of our reading assignment and rather than trying to explain what the author meant, he "did" it. We were covering a section about the importance of genealogy. Upon stopping and visiting an island populated with lethally fierce people, the main character was able to stay alive by greeting the islanders' with a chant of his genealogy. The royal leaders or ali'i of the different island kingdoms maintained strong ties by intermarrying. By chanting his genealogy, the main character renewed those bonds of family and was welcomed with open arms and love.

Uncle Bill went on to chant his genealogy, five generations from the past to him in the present. I totally felt "chicken skin," and not cause my chinese sign is the rooster :) LOLOL. All the blocks of information I was taught growing up clicked right into place. He then went on to display his skill as a kumu hula and demonstrated through dance. I was totally amazed. He was such a beautiful dancer and chanter. He could have easily done that in his life and been renowned for it, but Uncle Bill chose education and the law and those of us who were his students have truly been blessed.

His lesson was further instilled because he assigned each of us to do the same with our own genealogy. We had to start from five generations back to us in the present and we had to get up and present it to the class. I felt very proud being able to do that. With each generation I recited I felt the mana of who I am, who I came from, and that they and I are one and the same. It was a very powerful personal and wonderful experience.

I remember him for this and for the love of family that he always shared with me. I know he is in a better place. I know he and Auntie Niki are reunited again in love and joy. We who are left behind are the ones suffering the loss of a great man and a good loving caring leader, while those in Heaven joyously welcome him home.

I love you Uncle Bill! Thank you for all that you have done for me!

Alofaaga e le Mavae, Siana

The Magic is Within Me.

Why does it take some of us forever and a day to realize that all we ever want to be in life is within our grasp?... We just have to believe and do the work... "I" need to believe and do the work. I know, the hard part is doing the "work."

It's been two and a half months since I have really been online. I was going through withdrawals, :) I needed to do my taxes, and so last week Saturday I signed up with Hele Wireless. :) Now I am online, I have completed my 2008 taxes, and I am trying to get my online groove back. :)

I just watched "Kung Fu Panda." I told myself I would never watch that show just cause I did not want to pay to watch anything Angelina Jolie is in (so dumb but I hate what happened in that love triangle). Well a friend and her daughter came by today with the dvd and the next thing you know I am watching it (at least I didn't have to pay to watch it :). Anyways, it is a good animation movie, I did enjoy it, and I walked away with the message that, "Within each of us individually is the secret to unlocking the all encompassing power of the universe." :)

Presently, and throughout this whole past year, I have been reading a lot of fantasy books. I really enjoy books about magic and dragons, other worlds and other peoples, and I have come across some really good books. One of my favorite authors is Raymond E. Feist. His stories deal with a lot of magic where good is pitted against evil. In one of my favorite books of his, "Prince of the Blood," he introduces an interesting character into his sagas, a wizened old man whose name is Nakor. Nakor possesses a lot of wisdom and power and yet he is famous in Feist's books for saying, "There is no magic." It is a recurring line throughout his books and I have always understood it to mean that the power for overcoming evil or getting the quest done is not left for some vague or nameless magic to do, but for each of us to do with the wits we have been blessed with and by the sweat of our own brows. I have read and thought about that line so often that when a similar thought presents itself, that line, "There is no magic," comes to mind.

Today, as I watched "Kung Fu Panda," and heard Panda Po's father tell him... "There is no secret recipe," I totally thought of Raymond E. Feist's line... "There is no magic." In "Kung Fu Panda," the sacred dragon scroll containing the knowledge of the all encompassing power of the universe was a blank reflective scroll where the person reading it could see nothing but his or her own reflection, meaning the power of the universe is within each individual :) and works according to what we truly believe of ourselves. There was no secret ingredient in Po's father's noodle soup but because people believed there was, it made them believe the noodle soup was more delicious. In Feist's books, there are beings of power and magic, but the ones making the sacrifices and completing the important quests were regular everyday people like you and me, so in that sense there is no magic.

What I truly believe, is that in life, all power comes from our Heavenly Father. He is the magic, He is the secret ingredient, and with faith and belief in Him and our own belief and confidence within our individual selves to do what is right, and to do His will in righteousness, eternity is our oyster and anything is possible.

The Magic is within me, and if I believe in the Lord, believe in myself and do the work, I can accomplish anything.