I love Elder Fiso! Manuia le Kerisimasi ma le Tausaga Fou, Daniel! :)

So my family just went to see Wreck It Ralph for Christmas Eve.

[tradition]

As we were driving to the movie theater, we were talking about how my brother and his wife had already seen this movie twice with their kids.

I thought, "I mean, I love movies, and I've seen movies multiple times in theaters before [PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN], but now that I don't have money flowing out of my ears, I don't think that there's a movie that could come out that I'd be so captivated by that I'd pay $10 [basically] to see again."

And then we sat down in the theater.

Of course,

who am I?

Oh yeah- that would be me.

IT'S A DISNEY MOVIE.

I was totally entranced.

It made me laugh,

it made me think about crying

[oh yeah- that would be me],

it made me want to be a hard core, bad-A racer girl

(means I gotta learn how to drive a stick... but I can do anything)

[oh yeah- that would be me]

and it totally and thoroughly reminded me

that I am and forever will be

a Disney Girl.

:)

Needless to say,

[but we always say it anyway]

I LOVED it!

And I would totally go see it again. :)

but let's be honest,

I don't have adequate fundage right now to go see many more movies.

So cross your fingers and let's hope that I get to see it again on a date. ;)

bahaha :)

life?

life is good. :)

family is better. :)

Manuia le Kerisimasi, ma le tausaga fou.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. :)

 ps: found this little golden flower on the ground outside of the theater. ...it was cute, okay? ;)

pps: IT'S A WHITE CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) :) :)

This is why I wake up in the morning. :)

So I'm sitting there in Sacrament Meeting on Sunday

scratching Marissa's back.

It's Testimony Meeting.

This girl in my ward goes up to bear her testimony,

and she's talking about her family back east

(zai Niu Yue...? I think?)

[Google Translate that- it's Chinese. :)]

in Hurricane Sandy.

Her family was sitting a few rows ahead of me.

She shared a story about her little nephew and how he prayed for the family's safety back east.

She said that he prayed for a force field around them so that they would be safe.

Come to find out later, the family had been protected,

and they had power, when others around them didn't,

as if a force field had been around them.

She told us that her nephew's prayer had been answered

and that a "force field" really was there!

Her nephew,

who was sitting a few rows ahead of me,

who must have been about 3 or 4 years old,

instantly perks straight up at this thought,

eyes wide,

mouth forming an "o" in surprise,

and looks at his grandma (the girl's mom) in SHOCK.

His prayer was ANSWERED,

and his force field was REAL. :)

It was the CUTEST thing

I have ever witnessed

in my life. :)

 

Part II

My 17-yr-old brother has a friend who was diagnosed with cancer last August.

I haven't personally met her,

but I've heard great things about her,

and I started following her blog.
(which I highly recommend reading, btw)

She is one of the most beautiful, amazing, strongest girls I have ever seen.

I look up to her.

She is a shining light to me in my life,

and she doesn't even know it.

She's a light to many people here!

I have the highest respect for this beautiful girl.

She runs cross country.

There was a 5k in her honor in my hometown at our high school.

My sister-in-law, one of my older brothers and his wife, my sister and I ran the race.

We're not really runners,

(though bro, bro's wife and I used to run in the mornings)

but this was for Rachel.

Let me tell you,

that this was one of the most amazing experiences of my life.

Yes, we all finished the 5k without walking.

Yes, it felt amazing to achieve that.

But the most amazing part was being there

with hundreds of other people

all united

for Rachel,

who also ran the race

and finished just before bro and I. :)

I don't even really know her.
She's been to my house,
she and my little brother have spent countless hours together,
and I read her blog.
But she has a special place in my heart.
Please keep her in your prayers.

I love my family.
I love my Heavenly Father and my Savior Jesus Christ.
And because of this:
life?
Even when life is HARD,
life is good.
:)

Becoming a True Disciple

Dreams come true, ladies and gentlemen. :)

October 17, 2008.

3:34PM

New Orleans Square, Disneyland

I met Captain Jack Sparrow. :)

Happy Anniversary, Captain Jack!!! :)

Yo Ai Lo'u 'Aiga. :) (Spanish, Chinese, Samoan)

Dating.

dating is the worst.

Boys are dumb.

No, I'm not in a heartbroken state or anything like that. Truth be told, I actually don't like anyone right now. I'm not dating anyone. I haven't broken up with anyone recently. I don't have anyone interested in me. There's nothing going on in that area right now.

I'm just living and loving life!

But I have something to say.

To guys: MAN UP. ASK GIRLS ON DATES.

My dating life has consisted largely of either me asking guys on dates (girls-choice dances) and blind dates (set-ups). I AM DONE.

It is not my job to initiate my entire dating life.

Guess what happens.

I'm sitting in Relief Society and they announce that the Elders Quorum is doing a dating activity thing and they want all the girls who are available on October 11 to sign up so that the guys can pick a girl from the list and take her on a date.

I don't have anything against going on dates.

But I HATE the way this was set up.

Boys will NOT ask girls on dates, so the GIRLS are basically giving their PERMISSION for guys to ask them out!

We're saying YES to the date before they even ask us!

Initiator: girl. again. 

AND, if that's not aggravating enough:

There are more girls in our ward than guys.

Not all of the girls are going to be picked for this thing either!

So here you have this group of girls excited to go on a date with some guy in the ward, and what happens if nobody picks them? That's heartbreaking! Not for me though. If I hadn't been asked, I wouldn't feel too badly. I'm USED to that. I'd be fine. But not all girls are so immune. It's like not getting asked to Prom. It SUCKS to have that opportunity, ESPECIALLY for those to whom it never comes anyway, and then never get the chance to take it! What about those girls who have signed up that won't get dates? What does that do to them?

This whole thing was not thought out well, in my opinion.

Thoughts?

life is still good.

I wish I was in Disneyland right now with my family. I've been craving it for weeks.

Dearest Lisa. I read your blog yesterday and wanted to hold Baby Alice.

I watched a tv show Thursday night called Elementary.

Sherlock Holmes deal.

Series premier.

Where I live, we have free cable. We just don't ever hook it up to our tv. I never watch tv, except for when I go home, in which case Sports Center dominates the screen.

 

I've seen more top ten plays than there have been contestants (and judges) on American Idol.

I haven't followed a tv show since Smallville and Gilmore Girls. This is fun. :)

 

I was doing Chinese homework while watching it, so I wasn't paying super close attention.

So the whole mystery thing... I saw it get solved in the end but I wasn't even trying to figure out the "whodunnit."

 

So I liked the show fine.

It's just the girl...

I like the Jude Law version of Watson WAY better.

I love Asians,

I loved Johnny Lee Miller (Sherlock),

but I'm not sold on Lucy Liu's Watson character.

 

But first episodes are typically not the best ones,

so next week should be better. :)

 

In the meantime:

Studying for tests/doing homework to the Sherlock Holmes soundtrack (with Mr. Law and Robert Downey Jr. just to be clear):

best. ever.

Rissa and I did that this morning and then went to take our tests

and we totally owned them.

BoMB. :)

 

Also,

I love my family. :)

weird picture to post after I just express my love for my family, right?

But I'm at work, meaning my options aren't as extensive,

AND,

my sister introduced me to this song and I became OBSESSED with it. :)

 

life is good.

family is better. :)

 

I have a favorite hotel, and that hotel is the Embassy Suites in La Quinta, CA.

I iz a collej stoodent.

And yes, I still get some joy out of intentionally spelling words horrendously and abhorrently wrong. :)

But as I was doing homework,

and falling asleep because I was up until 4:00AM (I wish you could capitalize numbers) this morning working on assignments for another class,

I somehow ended up at my blog.

I started reading posts from my high school days-

the days when I started this blog. :)

A flood of thoughts went and are still going through my mind.

However,
I found this post

and decided to re-post it. :)

For my answers from four years ago, click here. :)

Four Places I Visit Over and Over:
1: Work. yay.
2: School.
3: The hill by the stadium. :)
4: HOKULIA. :) :)

Four People Who Text Me The Most:
[yesh, I changed this from "Email" to "Text"]
1: Rissa. easily.
2: Twitter
3: Skweez
4: Michael (muh bro)

Four of My Favorite Foods (if you know me, you know how hard this is for me to pick just four)
1: My mom's cream of broccoli soup. :)
2: Pizza
3: SHAVED ICE. :) I'm counting it.
4: ummm... seriously, I love/eat everything... I'll sayyyyyyyyy... Oreos. good shtuff. :)

Four Places I'd Rather Be Right Now:
1: Disneyland
2: Lake Powell
3: Hokulia
4: IN BED.

Four Movies I'd Watch Over and Over:
1: The Sandlot
2: Heavyweights
3: Napoleon Dynamite
4: BABY MAMA!!! :)

Four Bands/Singers I Love to Listen To:
1: BRAD PAISLEY!!! :)
2: Imagine Dragons
3: Scotty McCreery
4: Enya :)

Hope Ya Know, We Had a Hard Time

I'VE BEEN ABLE TO EAT SINCE WEDNESDAY! sweet. :)

small secret:

 

I actually LIKE losing my voice.

 

I think it sounds cool. :)

 

I get called many things at work. :)

 

life?

life is good. :)

...cause my ride is better than yours. ;)

guys.

I can't eat.

Like at ALL.

Wanna know what I had yesterday?

7:00AM: Half a glass of orange juice. And by "glass" I mean "paper cup." aka: small.

(I LOVE orange juice. Only half a glass??)

7:20AM: One piece of bread.

12:25PM: A chocolate Cadbury cookie thing with carmel in it from Europe.

(yay for friends who just got back from Study Abroad!)

6:10PM: Shaved ice.

(Oh my DIVINE. Snow cones = the worst. Shaved Ice = Heavenly. :) Polynesians are the shiz. :) )

(ps: it was half pina colada and half blue raspberry with coconut. Next time you go, try it. It'll change your life. :) )

10:00PM: Grilled cheese sandwhich.

(but it also had tomatoes, italian seasoning, and a teeny bit of garlic salt. That is how you make grilled cheese sandwhiches. just sayin.)

That's it.

I am SAMOAN. I EAT. A LOT. But lately, eating has been a chore. But I (try to) eat because

1: I don't want to go anorexic.

2: I don't want my metabolism to slow down by not eating so that when I can eat again I won't get fat.

So in the meantime, I basically force food down.

This has happened to me before,

and I did get over it,

so I just have to give it time.

It's just kinda sucky.

I drew this at work for Greta at a time when a toaster struedel sounded so wonderful. :)

But still, you guys,

life? life is still good. :)



My Beast brings all the boys to the yard...

So the other day,

(actually, last Friday)

I was walking on campus

and saw these two EFY boys.

No, it's NOT going there-

I was not smitten.

However,

they made me smile SO BIG

because they were both walking along,

singing a song,

each with a ukulele in hand.

Sometimes I smile to myself because I know

that God loves me. :)

(especially when things out of my control get hard to deal with.) :)

life?

life is good. :)

I'm very sensitive to people's energies.

I like sunglasses.

I currently only have three pairs.

[Is that a lot?]

I intend to collect more.

cHECK iT.

Pair #1: Butterflies

On Wednesday May 12, 2010,

I got contacts.

Big step.

It was actually another pair of glasses that led me to this decision:

I got these for free at a basketball game.

BYU Basketball, you have changed my life. ;)

Once I got contacts, the first thing I had planned to do was to get sunglasses.

I think I had originally planned on getting white ones,

but then I saw the Butterflies.

Love. :)

Pair #2: THE B-A'S

my favorite. :)

I was at Buckle with my brother.

He was looking for a new shirt.

I fell in love with these bad-a aviators and a cowboy hat.

[cow...girl... hat]

[I think I feel a Johnny Lingo reference coming on]

I wanted both, but didn't want to spend my money.

Michael bought me the sunglasses,

and I bought the hat. :)

We refer to any outfit that includes these two wonders

as my bad-a outfit. :)

guys,

I'm actually a country girl at heart. :)

(ps: these aviators are the same ones on my cover photo on fb!)

Pair #3: Fake Ray-Ban's

My brother's wife's half birthday was about a week ago.

My brother wanted me to buy her these sunglasses for him so that he could give them to her as an inside joke.

She got teal ones.

They had a sale.

I got white. :)

Funny story:

I had sent my brother a picture of the glasses to make sure they were the right ones.

He called me back and confirmed it.

At the end of the call, he said,

"Thanks, Ben."
Ben?

He was talking to someone at work.

Guess who picked up a new nickname? :)

_________________________

So I keep all of these pairs of sunglasses in my car.

If anyone wants to wear them,

I simply ask,
"Do you want Butterflies, B-A's or Bans?"

It'll be interesting to see how the next pair fits in.

haha- love random obsessions. :)

ALSO FLOWERS. :) :)

life?

life is good. :)

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!! :)

GUYS.

life.

life. is amazing. :)

I. LOVE. THIS. KID. :) :)

nephews. simple joy of life. :)

I like to dance.

I've always been somewhat extremely flexible.

Limbo?

I win.

ALWAYS.

except on Friday...

there was a guy that was INSANE.

CRAZY!

Wicked good. Better than me.

He won the limbo contest at our stake institute dance.

BARELY.

I took second.

And I wouldn't have a problem with this at all,

except that

this was a YSA stake institute dance.

YSA.

Emphasis on the SINGLE.

HE WAS MARRIED.

What the heck was he doing there??

It's not like he was a chaperone or stake leader or anything...

He was like our age!

I don't know for sure if he has any affiliation with my Young Single Adult stake,

but I'm pretty sure he doesn't.

And I'm pretty sure I should have won.

whatevs.

Perry would have wasted him. :)

 life?

life is good. :)

Food Network!!! :) MAJOR points if you read this whole thing.

...hhhhhi. :)

I've decided to come back to the blogging world!

My sincerest apologies for leaving... I actually love blogging

[if you can call it that- my posts are a little less than traditional. :)]

and I just got out the habit of keeping up any of the

THREE

blogs that I have.

What happened?

Well, for a while my absence was due to crazy busy-ness.

Heard that one before?

Take a small glimpse of what I was looking at:

FALL SEMESTER
 Mondays and Wednesdays:

6:00AM: Running with brothers and sister-in-law.
6:30 - 730: Get ready for classes. Usually just wore sweats or basketball shorts. Ate breakfast, gathered materials, tried to do something quick but not completely sloppy with my hair. Gotta impress the boys, you know? ;)
7:30: Walk with roommates to campus.
8:00: Flexibility Class (disclaimer... my classes this semester were fun classes... long story. basically I was in between majors and couldn't do much else.)
9:00: New Testamant (LOVED.)
10:00 - 11:00: Homework time. There was always a plethora.
11:00: Weight Training. Teacher was BOMB. :)
12:00: Living with Plants. yes. Living with Plants. Filled my GE biology requirement.
1:00-2:00: Homework break #2.
2:00: Bowling. So much fun in this class. :)
3:00: ASL (American Sign Language) LOVED!
3:50-4:15: Walk home.
4:15-5:15: Take a cold shower. Literally. After walking 25 minutes to and from campus, Flexibility (we actually did get sweaty in that class, though minimally), Weight Training, walking up and down a 105-step staircase four times walking to and from classes, and doing this all in 85 degree weather, you tend to get a little... gross. hence, sweats/basketball shorts. hence, cold shower (which was DIVINE) with blasted music. more fun that way. :)
5:15: Back to campus. Usually drove.
5:30-7:00: Samoan (LOVE THIS LANGUAGE!!!)
7:00-7:30: FHE (on Mondays)
7:30: Leave for work.
8:00-12:00: Work


The other days of the week were just about as marathon-ish, but these were my worst. And, if you can imagine, Winter Semester was WORSE. Absolutely a nightmare. I still took 15 credits, but my class schedule was actually a lot more consolidated. However, due to opportunities that opened up, I found myself working a new job from 9:00-1:00, (with running and an 8:00 class before that on Mondays and Wednesdays), class almost nonstop from 1:00-7:00 on Mondays and Wednesdays, 1:00-5:00 on Tuesdays or 1:00-8:00 on Fridays, and then work at my original job until midnight except on Mondays and Thursdays. And then Fridays I had Lu'au practice from 6:00AM-8:00AM. Then Saturdays I had Lu'au practice #2 from 2:00PM-4:00PM. Mix in planning activities for my ward in there with its respective meetings and responsibilities, and you get crazy busy-ness. There was one week in particular where I had 5 hours of unscheduled time. FIVE. THE WHOLE WEEK. (not including the few hours of sleep I was getting every night) I constantly had to be somewhere! I will NOT be doing that again.


So that was my school year, and summer has not been much different as far as being very scheduled. I do have LOTS more unscheduled time now, but my days are still pretty full. However, they are filled with fun things like rock climbing, baseball games, FHE, ward activities, work, Zumba, Institute, movie nights, and spontaneous fun times! I'm usually doing something, and it's usually something I love. :)

So. I am now incorporating blogging into my schedule of fun. Because I like blogging. And quite frankly, I need to come back to my little realm where I just spout off whatever the heck I want to without fear of judgment because

let's face it.

you all love it.

:)

And I love it!

bloggers,
it's good to be back. :)

what's green and has wheels?

...grass. I lied about the wheels. :)

I CAN FINALLY DO THIS BRAID!!! Learned this on Youtube. Took me forever. So. awesome. I love braids! :)

ladies and gentlemen,

life? life is good. :)

HOLY BLOGGER. I've obviously been gone for a while.

ROCK CLIMBING.

holy cow,

I'm obsessed.

Bouldering?

goodness-

it's a blast. :)

So I go to work,

get viciously waved at by people 

that make me smile SO big,

buy a Jamba,

sit outside on a bench 

underneath a beautiful tree with purple buds

and write love notes.

Then I go to work,

get a ride to my car by a beautiful loved one,

drive home on a gorgeous spring evening,

and go rock climbing with my siblings.

5.9 and V2 = my max.

makes me happy. :)

Pitching practice on the front lawn follows

until the sun goes down,

and then a chocolate cookie 

with Farr's vanilla ice cream on top.

Run-ins with viciously waving people again. :)

and all the while I can't help but think to myself:

(you know the words)

life?

life is good. :)

I took these a couple weeks ago,

but look at the gold on the branches on this tree! SO beautiful!

this is beautiful. :)

Good news! I'm not dead! :)

Not like I was anywhere close, though. :)

Dearest Bloggers.

I want to tell you about this little notebook that I've started:

[insert picture of book here]

Sorry, that'll have to do for now because I am at work

(when it's been 50 mintues and 43 seconds since your last call and you're off soon anyway, I say it's ok to blog. What else am I going to do? sleep, if blogging didn't keep me awake. bam. :) Don't worry- I don't abuse my internet access unless we are completely dead. like now!)

and I can't bluetooth a picture I could take with my phone of this book to this computer.

(or at least, when I wrote this, I was at work.)

So I'll put it in later. :)

But pretty much, I found this book at the bookstore one day and almost didn't get it.

But then I decided to.

It has a sun on it. :)

Sooooo I bought it. :)

Then I decided to put things that make me SO happy in this book-

anything that makes me smile REALLY BIG. :)

It's the best thing ever!!! I love this!! :)

I don't have much in it now,

but one day,

it's gonna be full,

and Imma have to go buy another book.

One day,

or some days,

it could lift my spirits when I need it,

or just want it. :)

One day,

or some days,

my beautiful kids could stumble upon it and

1: think their mom is crazy. cause I am. and

2: smile just as big as me. :)

but who knows? :)

I have letters/texts/notes in this book,

pictures,

scriptures,

and favorite things in here.

Even some song lyrics on the title page.

I anticipate adding much more.

Maybe some grass and flowers and even dirt or sand or rocks when spring/summer comes.

Maybe I'll even catch some sun inside.

don't doubt my abilities. Do you know who I am? ;)

Maybe I'll take apart a Hallmark card and add sounds into my book.

SWEET!!! I'm doing it. :)

Funny stories.

Songs.

Sweet memories.

I'll paint my lips with lipstick, or maybe even some chalk, or maybe even some real paint and stick my smile straight in there!

But this book will be tangible evidence of the happiness and blessings the Lord has blessed me with.

evidence that

life?

life really is good. :)