Na' Ka'ao

The Luau has come and gone. We had such a fun time. We ate dinner there... which included salad, macaroni salad, rice, chicken, pulled pork (which was super salty) and cake. Very yummy!! Ready for pic overload?! I don't remember what Island did what performance but the Islands were Hawaii, Fiji, Tahiti, Tonga, Aotearoa (New Zealand), and Samoa. We were in the 4th row and had great seats!! We even saw one of the guys in our ward performing. Can't wait for next year!! Oh and this year there was a fire dancer, so awesome.

Eddie making fun of my sister. She does that in every pic, o.k. maybe not every pic but 90% of the time. And she usually doesn't have her eyes all crazy.

Dane!!

Bye Bye D.T.

This is what the last standing Desert Tower dorms looks like. I have been meaning to take pics of them coming down but I kept forgetting. I figure I should take a pic before this last one is gone. I have never lived in them or even known anyone that has, but I know people I don't know look at our blog (which is totally fine) and thought they'd like to see what it looks like now. I think I heard they were making this area into a parking lot...but I'm not for sure.

Fruit Dip

I also forgot to mention I made fruit dip for the fruit Gma brought to Easter dinner. The recipe is from her long time BFF Jinny Wakefield. They were neighbors for like 50 years or something like that. O.k. I don't really know how long but it was a long time and 50 sounds good.
A few people have asked for the recipe so here you go:

1 pkg. instant vanilla pudding (small)
2 T. orange juice concentrate (frozen)
1 1/2 C. milk
1 C. cool whip

You just mix it all together. I did it in the kitchen aid but Gma does with a hand mixer. At first I was a little nervous, but don't you worry it thickens right up. Well like 5 minutes later.

This can be served with a fruit tray, or I have made it with a mixed fruit salad and layered it on the top. And technically you can make it sugar fee for diabetics like Gma. Also less calories...but who's counting after all those Cadbury mini eggs, jelly beans and chocolate bunnies?

Easter Review

This is what the Easter bunny left while we were at church. The one on the left is mine, candy and sewing stuff, the middle is my sisters with some much needed mascara and candy...and Eddie's is on the right, imagine that... 2 new ties and some candy! We lucked out!

The past few Easter's Eddie and I have been invited over my aunt and uncles. We love going over there to visit and hang out. This year I was in charge of dessert so I made carrot cake from scratch, thanks to The Pioneer Woman Cooks!. For her recipe click on the link...so easy and good!

(Pic courtesy of The Pioneer Woman Cooks! but it did look like that)

I also made deviled eggs as a snack. I love my egg timer I got from Crate and Barrel. You add it with the eggs and it gets darker for how done you want your eggs. I have never had a cracked or exploded egg since using it.

See how the egg timer is dark, for HARD boiled.

Obsessed much!?!

Eddie has as many ties as I do shoes! I thought I'd take a count since his tie hanger is full. Guess that is what happens when you have to wear a tie 6 days a week!

Happy Easter!!

Thank you mom for the peeps, See's candy and book. Thank you Oma for the decorative easter egg. And thank you Easter Bunny for my easter basket!!

YAY for Russell!!!

Congratulations Russell!! We are so excited for you!! It will be so great to have you down here with us.

For those of you don't know. Russell, my favorite brother in-law has been waiting to hear back from BYU so he could transfer from BYU-I to BYU for BYU's Environmental Engineering major and maybe Law School. So excited!! Keep up the good work brother!!

Best Marinade E.V.E.R.

This is the most tasty marinades I have ever used. We love to BBQ in the spring/summer. Last weekend we agreed with my sister that we would BBQ. Too bad this weekend isn't as nice as it was last weekend but oh well. I first started using this recipe for shish-kabobs but once tried it on steak and it was so yummy!! Marinating overnight is the best, but I have also done it the morning of a BBQ and it tasted just as good as overnight.

(Yes that is a bag of candy coated cadbury mini eggs...third bag bought so far this Easter season)

Best Marinate Ever

1/4 cup olive oil
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon flaked parsley
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

Seriously the best.

B-ball

Eddie's intramural basketball team had their last game tonight. We showed up about 15 minutes before the game and no one on his team was there.

Not sure if Eddie scored cause I was chatting with all the other wives. But I did get some action shots when I remembered to pay attention.

Lame...all the guys in the blue jersey wore matching white headbands...thought those went out in the 80's.

Maybe Sping hasn't Sprung yet

It's been raining and snowing flurries all day. So much for going for a nice spring walk.

Seriously!!

Every Sunday night after ward prayer for the singles we drive past this rhino. And every time I am like...man I wish I had the camera.
The above picture is without the flash. And below is with the flash, wasn't sure which would make the rhino look better.

How embarrassing and seriously do these people not consider their neighbors feelings? Maybe it is because our old neighbors used to have flamingo's and a bird looking thing made out of garden tools in their front yard , oh and don't a Nascar BBQ cover to match his Nascar jacket he wore everyday. Well they would keep their x-mas lights lite from October to about March and I was embarrassed, obviously. Every year they were all decked out, down to the lawn ...even had one of those snowmen in a bubble with snow shooting all around. When people would come over, I would just say...we are on the left of the house with x-mas lights. No questions on where our house was. Least this is just a HUGE rhino...maybe it's a big night light for their cat?

ZZZzzzzz....

Kidding!!! O.k. I am not. I think it has gotten to that point in the semester where you just want it to be over. I thought I would take a pic of what my classes look like. I was sitting in class so bored...I mean... learning about ECG's and how the SA node communicates with the AV node which then the electrical current then goes down the bundle of HIS (seriously who came up with this junk!) then from the bundle of HIS it then branches to the purkinje fibers...and bam!! The heart contracts. So interesting...I know!

This is my lab instructor...I hate when he talks because he does something funny with is mouth and I concentrate more on his funny looking mouth than the material he is trying to teach.

This is my lecture class...even more boring!! My teacher is new and there for feels she needs to teach us every little thing about physiology. She reads her power point word for word and is super smart a.k.a. socially awkward. Yes! I am the front of the class kind of person..the eyes are giving out slowly. So, if I want to see what's going on I sit up front.

Babysitt'in Fun!!

Last night I had the opportunity to babysit Eddie's cousins kids. They were so much fun. They are one and three years old and boy did they keep me busy. By the end of the night my arm was sore from holding the younger one. And if I walked away from her to help her sister she was right behind me. There were many times I was like, "whoa how did you get over here already or where did you come from?"

The older one and I read about 20 books and watched noggin (guess it's a kid's t.v. channel that is on 24/7). She is so smart! She was reading to me, which meant she way telling me the story and if I tried helping her she would say..."Shhh, your ruining it!" I had to laugh. So cute!

Eddie's cousins husband is from England and it was his 30th birthday so his mum (mom) and sister came out to surprise him. They met him at the restaurant. His sister, probably close to the same age as me asked me so many questions and it was so cute in her England accent. My favorite was why I was so brown?...I had to explain I went to Hawaii. Glad to know my tan hasn't worn off yet. Hopefully it will last until summer.

(pics are from my cell phone)

Megs, thank you so much for asking me so I could help you out and spend time with the girls. I had a blast!

Spelling Bee Champ

This video was shared with me a few days ago...really funny.

Song of the Week

Hey everyone,

Sorry it has been a while since I have been able to get on here and post a song for you. Life has been pretty busy with school, work, and church responsibilities. So, not much free time to give to the blog. Anyway, in case you haven't heard Jack Johnson came out with a new CD last month called, "Sleeping Through the Static". I have decided to share a couple of songs from this album with you this week. The first song is called "Angel". The second song, which is getting some airtime on the radio, is called "If I Had Eyes." I recommend picking up this CD.

More Hawaii pics

We finally made it to Costco to get our film developed from the underwater camera.

Making sure the flash is working.


Pic of Eddie


Cute little 'Ohana (family) of fishes

Scary puffer fish

Eddie went out with his Dad and saw a turtle underwater.
This last pic is exposed because we come from the digital generation and we had no idea we had to wind the film up. We are happy though we didn't lose any pics, just the last one on the roll got some extra color.

Spring has Sprung

Finally!! I know spring is on it's way when I see my tulip's breaking through. This is the third year they will have sprouted and I think I have it down. The first year they grew in great and were pretty, but at all lengths and at different times...some were early and some were late. Last year they all grew in around the same time...but I was too late to pick them and put them in a vase, most of them were well on there way to being dead. This year I plan to keep an eye out the kitchen window and make sure I cut them to have beautiful fresh flowers in the house. And maybe some for Gma. That fence is so hideous and I hate it. Every year the hornets/yellow jackets come back. Supposedly our HOA is switching out to white vinyl fences and I can't wait.

Naka'ao - Legends of Love

Every year Eddie and I look forward to attending the BYU Lu'au dinner and show. The show only cost $5 and for dinner and a show it is $17, cheap date and great entertainment. It is put on by the multicultural students and I believe BYU offers a Polynesian dance class during the semester and they perform in the performance, so that should be interesting to watch.

Cinderella Ball

Last night the singles ward we serve in had a Cinderella Ball. It is something the Elder's Quorum do every year and is a big hit. All the ladies in the ward all turn in one shoe and then the guys pick a shoe. So when the girls show up, the guy with their shoe is their date. Make sense?

This was the guys all finding a seat.

Richard was so cute, he brought a pillow to put his dates shoe on. Someone also brought a rose and a bottle of Martinelli and another guy brought his date a corsage.

This is Rhett, he is blind and plays the piano so good!! He played the Titanic theme song and another song he made up. It was awesome. And I loved that we all got to clap and cheer for him.

This is a view from the Bishopric table. It was fun to see everyone interacting. It was kind of like a blind date for some because there were a lot of people there we haven't seen at church for a while. And besides we have a huge singles ward and you usually don't meet everyone. I did see a few awkward moments...Dates not talking, date texting, dates leaving together...

Then the ball really started with some dancing!!

(Yum, yes that is a plastic gun...it was a center piece decoration, like I said...the Elder's Quorum was in charge)

Even Eddie got out there in the middle of the circle, taking his suit coat off. All the girls screamed when he did. It was kind of funny. I think some of them have secret crushes but whatever. It was such a fun night though and glad we went.

When it rains, it pours

When Eddie finally had an approximate graduation date so we started talking about our first 'real life' purchase. Mine was a sewing machine, o.k. I'm lying I really want a new Louis Vitton purse with matching wallet but whatever besides the point.... while his was a new set of golf clubs. Well...that has changed. We now want a new car! If you didn't know our current and only car is 9 years old. And we think she, yes she is a she...is on her last legs. She almost has 200,000 miles. The title of this post! About a month and a half ago my mom came to visit. Let me back up. I drive the car everyday, the only way Eddie drives it, is if we go somewhere together or he is going to some sporting event at night. Back to the story. So, my mom comes to visit and the girls...me, mom and sis go shopping. Well Eddie got tired of following us around so he went to the car and listen to the radio. If you think back to a month and a half ago, it was mid-January. Not the best time of the year to roll down your window...so I didn't warn Eddie because I figured he wouldn't roll down the window. In case your wonder what the heck I should have warned him about was the motor for the electrical window. It was going out. So, the girls continue to shop and I go out to check on Eddie, to make sure he is o.k. (which he was until I started yelling at him). I walked up to the car and what do I see? The window half down! My heart started racing and I was getting heated that he could be so dumb to roll down the window. But wait...I had been so dumb to not even say anything to him about it...well I did explain one time a while ago (like Nov.) that the window was rolling down slow when I went through drive through's....Yes people I do eat fast food. McDonald's is my preference in case your wondering. I get the chicken nugget mighty kids meal. O.k. anyways....besides the point of this turning to be novel.

I reach the car and and ask why he rolled it down and he said it was stuck. I obviously knew that so I repeated why he rolled it down...Imagine that he was hot!! It was a nice day though.
So the plan after shopping were to go to the movies. That didn't happen, at least for Eddie and I. We are on a student budget and we knew and still know we can't afford to fix it. So, I was upset and so was he...so we went to auto zone and bought this book all about our car, which we already have but we were up near gma's and weren't about to drive home in 40 degree weather. Needless to say we got the window back up, but I have to tape the top so I don't lose my high pitch hearing on the freeway. Maybe this summer we will get it fixed. Good thing is, it has been kind of a nice diet. It is just as easy as going in (so I have to walk) than opening the door to get my mighty kids meal. Or I just starve through class and wait until I drive 40 minutes home.

Back to the title...so now it is raining.... because before the window thing happen it started sprinkling. Most of you know I drive to Draper every weekday for work. Well that consists of me driving over the point of the Mt. .Which then leads to me getting this!!

A cracked windshield. I probably get a new rock chip...oh every MONTH!! This year I had two pretty huge cracks on my windshield. Yes the car is dirty, I know!

But look....I got a nice new shiny...o.k. wait...it was shiny...but now it's dirty again....anyways a new windshield!!

The reason for the windshield you ask? It was time to get Queenie registered since our car is a 99', she has to be inspected every year for safety and emissions. So, I wake up at 8am on Saturday morning and drive to Jiffy Lube. They can give you tags on the spot. I woke up so early because it was now expired and my new neighbor is a cop. So I wasn't sure if he'd give me a ticket to meet his ticket quota to win a toaster, kidding. Like I said...on my only day to sleep in I went at 8am...After getting the oil changed and being there like an hour they say I'm all ready. I was like sweet...we passed because last year we didn't because we had window tinting over our rear light. But that is a whole different story, let's just say we did it ourselves and it looks ghetto!!
Rejected!!Now it is pouring!! This year the front windows are too dark. The state regulation is 40%. It has to be more than 40% and what are our windows you wonder? freak'in 38%....failed by 2%!!! So, after consulting Eddie (who was sleeping in, he doesn't do car stuff) we decide to do it ourselves....

But this time it didn't turn out ghetto...But remember the broken window? Yeah that was fun, but luckily it had enough juice to go down an inch and then go back up, with the help of me pulling it up.
Well, we took it back and pasted with flying colors around 1pm. Half my Saturday was wasted over this stupid car. I hope it is the whole happening in three's thing going on. Broken window, broken windshield and then failing safety.