Our very nearly perfect Christmas

I say nearly perfect for obvious reasons, the only way it could have been better is if Steven had been able to physically be here with us. We were able to have a quiet Christmas Eve with Omi and Auntie Sharon and then we went home so Santa could build a couple of things. Steven was even able to watch the building process and type advice to me via Yahoo web cam IM. Christmas morning I woke up at 0530 and the kids slept in until 0730!I was so worried that they'd wake up and get into it all before Daddy could get online to watch the excitement. So Steven was able to watch and we could even talk with him on the computer while the action happened before his eyes! It almost felt as if Daddy was really there with us helping open the gifts. Auntie Sharon came over to take pics for me so I didn't have to worry about missing anything and I could really be a part of it too. What a wonderful morning! A bit later,after Sharon left, I got to watch as Steven and his Battle Buddies, JP and Mondo were opening their gifts from us. What fun!
Next, the kids and I went back to the Nihipali's for brunch with Omi, Tutu, Auntie Sharon, Uncle David, auntie Leilani, and Ikaia. The missionaries sort of joined in after they had spoken with their own families. We had a great visit and we were a little sad to have to leave to go to the Gold's for Lunch/dinner and our White elephant exchange.
All in all we had a fantastic day!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas
Dad
Mom
Sharon
Kenji & Sima & OD
David & Leilani & "Buddy"
Steven & Janell and Aukai and Kali'i
Andrew
No matter what stage you are in in this life and where you are living, God sent his only begotten son for you and for me to obtain a physical body and to go through the trials of this life! The Savior was born and this is the season that we rejoice in this great miracle.

Love, Karen

Hit song...all by myself!

I couldn't help the title of todays blog.
Nathan is in Alaska, finally visiting 2 brothers, his sister and spouse and 5 kids so they have a full house this Christmas season!

I don't think their house is any bigger than what we had in Tacoma. It doesn't look any bigger :o)

Ka'le and I have gone on walks at least 1 time every couple of hours. I was supposed to make Holiday cookies and grub for people here at work but it didn't get done because I have no mula to buy the stuff to do it. I started to make buttermilk rolls last night after talking to mom, added to yeast to the flour and realized that I added WAY TO MUCH flour so I didn't finish it, not only that but I realized that the recipe was asking for HONEY and well, I couldn't find any in the house so I needless to say, I didn't do anything else but cover it all and leave it on the counter, so it has probably gone bad!

Ka'le misses Nathan something terrible, he lies by the door waiting for "papa" to come home and so when he hears a car go by or some extra ordinary noise, is right there and wants to go out. He slept with me on the couch last night probably because it was warmer with mom and the blanket than just him on his little bed by the front door.

Church was wonderful. The spirit was there as I partook of the sacrament reminding me of what this life is all about and what we need to do to have joy and peace in this life. It was a gentle reminder that the Savior was born in a stable among the animals with a humble and sweet mother and peaceful and obedient earthly father.

Just a reminder as well that Joseph Smith was too born in humble circumstances 203 years ago tomorrow (12/23/1805) along with mom not so long ago (whew, who would have known ;o) ). I'm grateful for him and his knowledge and faith and understanding of the restoration of the gospel. I too am grateful for MOM and her testimony of the gospel. I wish that she would understand though that she can't solve all the worlds problems and that she is mortal and that we ALL make mistakes. Any how, all is well.

Have a very Merry Christmas and know that you are loved!!
Be good, be nice, be kind!

Karen

Winter Wonderland

We woke up this morning to quite a lot of snow, especially for Vancouver, so I decided that after lunch we would try and play outside. Last year Keli'i wanted NOTHING to do with the cold wet stuff around her, but today both she and Aukai had so much fun that I had to bribe them to get them inside to warm up! Aukai even figured out how to make a snow angel but where he got the idea, I'll never know. It was not my idea and I never have taught him about snow angels! What a wonderful day and how we miss Daddy!

(This one is much too cute not to share. Enjoy! Be sure tograb a tissue; I think you'll be laughing so hard you'll cry!)

One day I met a sweet gentleman and fell in love. When it became apparent that we would marry, I made the supreme sacrifice and gave up beans. Some months later, on my birthday, my car broke down on the way home from work. Since I lived in the countryside I called my husband and told him that I would be late because I had to walk home.

On my way, I passed by a small diner and the odour of baked beans was more than I could stand. With miles to walk, I figured that I would walk off any ill effects by the time I reached home, so I stopped at the diner and before I knew it, I had consumed three large orders of baked beans. All the way home, I made sure that I released all the gas.

Upon my arrival, my husband seemed=2 0excited to see! me and exclaimed delightedly: 'Darling I have a surprise for dinner tonight.' He then blindfolded me and led me to my chair at the dinner table. I took a seat and just as he was about to remove my blindfold, the telephone rang. He made me promise not to touch the blindfold until he returned and went to answer the call. The baked beans I had consumed were still affecting me and the pressure was becoming most unbearable, so while my husband was out of the room I seized the opportunity, shifted my weight to one leg and let one go. It was not only loud, but it smelled like a fertilizer truck running over a skunk in front of a pulpwood mill. I took my napkin from my lap and fanned the air around me vigorously. Then, shifting to the other cheek, I ripped off three more. The stink was worse than cooked cabbage. Keeping my ears carefully tuned to the conversation in the other room, I went on like this for another few minutes. The pleasure was indescribable. When eventually the telephone farewells signalled the end of my freedom, I quickly fanned the air a few more times with my napkin, placed it on my lap and folded my hands back on it feeling very relieved and pleased with myself.

My face must have been the picture of innocence when m y husband returned, apologizing for taking so long. He asked me if I had peeked through the blindfold, and I assured him I had not. At this point, he removed the blindfold, and twelve dinner guests seated around the table chorused: 'Happy Birthday!' I fainted!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh the joy of farting!

Our $16 Christmas tree

Our perfect little tree and our special stockings from Daddy. I made a killing on the kids' Christmas presents and was able to get EVERYTHING Steven and I wanted for them, I even stayed in budget and was able to get myself a beautiful necklace to wear! I am feeling very upbeat about Christmas now and can't wait for everything to fall in place for a wonderful day!
PS...the ornaments are nearly indestructible so the kids got to help decorate the tree!

Beginning to look a lot like Christmas

We are starting to get ready for our Christmas here now that Steven has received most of his Christmas for there. We were able to go and buy decorations, thanks to Sears' generosity, so now I have ornaments for the tree and an Angel for the top! I have lights, LOTS of lights, but until now had very little of anything else. The kids get very excited to see Christmas trees and I'm sure they will love having one of our own once we get one this week. All the new ornaments are as indestructible as I could find, wood, pewter, metal, and Plexiglas. Oh, and instead of glass balls, I have large jingle bells. So my plan with all of this is to let the kids decorate as much as they want, while of course I take pictures for Steven to see, and then fixing lopsided-ness once they're in bed. My brother hinted today about a tree, so I may wake up tomorrow to a Christmas tree on my doorstep so that I won't have to try and take the kids out in semi-arctic weather this week to get one.
Our newest activity is going to the YMCA to play, workout and swim twice a week. The kids were VERY nervous the first time we were in the pool. It took me an hour to get Keli'i off of my neck and into the water, but the next time we went, she loved it. It's nice to have somewhere to go to play, but I don't think we'll get to go much this week due to ice. We'll see as the week progresses.
Both Keli'i and Aukai are getting more independent in their playtime, wanting to do everything by themselves. Aukai is really doing good with potty training and Mommy doesn't have to do nearly as many diaper changes. Keli'i is showing interest in the toilet too, so I let her have her turn and soon she should be training too. I anticipate them both being fully potty trained by the end of the winter. (I hope!)
I will be getting the fabric for the quilt I am making for Steven this week and will be getting going on that project. I am excited for it and hope that I can pull it off to have ready for him when he gets his leave. I have between 3 and 4 months, so wish me luck!

my blog

OK...I think this is kind of dumb, mom doesn't comment on the blogs she does read so I don't have a clue that she is reading them....she told me that she doesn't. What good does it to to write something and then not even get a comment. Some times I'm writing to vent and other times, I'm writing to write and express myself...so I have come to the conclusion that I'm only going to blog at my site because all I do is copy and paste it here anyways.

Read mine and then you'll know what is going on. I don't want to have to do it twice!

Have a great week. Oh, I've already posted something at my site...at least a couple of times this week.

My mother in law comments on everything....believe it or not, that means the WORLD to me because she is checking to see if her family is alive or falling apart!

Impressions

Earlier I had posted things that we had done this past week. I also wrote that if I feel impressed to write something else I'd jump on and do it then.

I am writing now because I just listened to a talk that was given at BYU-Hawaii Thursday, November 04, 2004 Emerge With Your Gifts by Mervlyn Kitashima. She grew up on Kauai and is a graduate from Kamehameha and received the mother of the year award for 2003.

What I was impressed with is what she talked about concerning the Ohia Lehua Blossom. An ohia lehua tree provides rare color on a lava field in Volcanoes National Park, Hawaii. Ohio lehua are the most abundant native trees in Hawaii and are among the first life in new lava flows. According to Hawaiian legend, the tree is actually a young warrior. Pele, the goddess of fire, wanted to marry the warrior. When he refused, she turned him into a tree. The other gods weren't able to turn him back, so they turned his true love into the lehua blossom so they could be reunited. It's said that if you pick one of the blossoms, it will rain – the tears of lovers.

OK...it isn't the legend that I want to focus on, it is what Sister Kitashima said about the actual tree. She said that at first, the tree is small, it doesn't grow very big and it has ugly branches and it is straggly and doesn't look appealing. It is not pretty, gnarled and twisted possibly because of the stress and the amount of work it takes to break thru the lava created earth. The blossom is beautiful once it blooms. The post popular color is RED. There are other colors though such as pink, yellow and gold. Her hole point of this analogy was that look at the beauty from such a distorted tree, look at what it becomes from such a distorted environment and look what beauty God can create when he provides the necessities of life to bloom.

I thought about that scenario this morning as she was speaking and had to go back and listen to it again at least 3-4 times to know that she was talking to me. I was to listen to that talk today so that Karen would remember that I am a daughter of God and that he loves me and that he provided a Savior for me so that I could return home to him again.

The awesome part of this story is, is that my middle name is Leihua. Mine name has the "I" because the flower is included in a Lei. How wonderful it is. I don't think that my grandma even had a clue that this world and name would be so significant to me later on in my life and I'm grateful for my parents who agreed to give me the name.

I love life, I love the Lord. I sound like an idiot when I share my testimony because my Savior means so much to me that I loose focus. I am grateful for the atonement and what it has done for me. Out of barren and rough ground, I am humble to say that Heavenly Father has created a beautiful me and I'm grateful to him for that.

Love,

Karen

Here is another better picture!

Finster Birth

This is Samantha Finster, daughter #2, baby #3 to Max and Amiee. I've known Amiee since February 1996.

Baby, baby

Sometimes I wonder why people have children and what the purpose of them are for those children to have the parents that they have. There is a 20 year old girl in my ward who is not married, who comes to church, who is somewhat active, if you want to call it that...however...she has a few screws loose. 20 months ago so had a little boy named William, the father is a member yet not active either....ok, so I said that she comes to church...that doesn't mean that she can partake of the sacrament right because she had a baby out of wedlock, well, she does and there is NO place for me to judge...I know that things happen believe me, I'm not one to judge! However, again, in November she gave birth again to another little boy named Malachi by the same guy, who is the dad of the first...who again has a few loose screws...ok...now that you kind of know where I am going with this, what makes it fair that a wife like me or a mom want to be, can't have any? What is the deal with me, did I do something wrong? Am I such a terrible person that I am not blessed with kids? Or is it that my kids are so special that Heavenly Father is preserving them for the worst of times? Are my kids going to come from dope headed mothers and parents that are imprisoned who can't take care of them? Will my kids come after all grandparents are in the grave and they won't meet them until the 2nd coming? Is there something wrong with me that I haven't taken care of through the priesthood so it's all my fault? It just doesn't seem fair! In fact, from a female perspective, it isn't fair and I feel like crap about it. Why does my patriarchal blessing tell me 2 times that my kids will bring great joy to me and that I'll be a mother in Zion and yet I'm pushing closer to 40 and don't have anything to show for it!

I am currently serving in nursery and I love it. I wouldn't change the callings for anything! I love to read to them, play with them, tickle them, cry with them, laugh with them and talk to them about spiritual things! Am I just not ready yet? If I can't communicate very well with adults, how can I explain simple, basic gospel principals to small children? Maybe I'm in nursery to learn these benevolent truths first so that I can do them at home and have a peaceful home!

I just bought my nephew and niece some awesome books that I'm jealous of. I wanted to keep them so that I can add them to my collection but I am going to send them anyways because they'll need them way before I do, and because I won't see them most of their lives, I can't not send them! I'll be mailing them off this week, as soon as I can get my debit card with USAA to function properly...you know, add the money to the account!

My very good friend, Amiee Finster gave birth to baby #3 this last Monday. It was so awesome. You'll see some pictures here. This is the Finster family....Max, Amiee, Portia, Payton and the latest, Samantha.


I hope you can see the picture! She is a complete duplicate of Amiee.

Elder Wirthlin Died, Link below is the article

http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/background-information/leader-biographies/elder-joseph-b-wirthlin