Weddings and Friends...

Don't get excited, I'm not getting married... yet. (That would inquire the "d" word, and most people know how I feel about that!)

Today I got an e-mail from 2 very dear people to me. The first being KT-J, who is getting married in August. The second being Eirinn, Sister Swenson, who got married April 4th.

Sister Swenson was the second companion I had on my mission. She's the one who was raised in the wilderness with her family. (You all would love her to pieces! Definitely one of my favorite people in the world.)

Anyway, her photographer put her and her husband's pictures on his sight, and so I thought I'd share: Go to www.reflectionsbydon.com - go into the wedding gallery and they're on pp. 7 and 8. I don't know how long their pictures will be on this website, but please check it out while you can.

One Love~

May 27th...

Well, I could embarrass a friend of mine and tell you what happened today, but... I won't. You'd truly have to be a poly or a fob to get it anyway! (Much love Kehaulani!)

Here's a picture of Kehaulani and I showing off our Jamba juice during lunch.

After getting back to the office, I opened the letter that my dad sent to me at work. Here it is:

Notice the coins? A few years back when my brother Keoki turned 25, I started giving my family "coins" that represented their age. For Keoki, I gave him a quarter at age 25. At 26, a quarter and a penny. Well, my dad sent 2 dimes, a nickle and 2 pennies! Good times. Good times indeed.

Happy Birthday!!!!

So, here's a little something....

It was my birthday, yesterday, May 26. Fortunately, I'm another year older, not so sure about the wiser, but definitely thankful to be alive and healthy. It was a great day filled with family, friends and food! (Not to mention, a nap!) Basically, this post will be mainly of the pictures I took yesterday. Thanks everyone for sharing this day with me. Hope you enjoy!!!

The Hinckley Home:
I love being able to go home to Lewisville once in a while. It always feels like home to me.

Patsi made Quiche, homemade biscuits with honey, homemade jam, and fresh pressed apple cider. It was a great breakfast. It was sooooo good that I passed out with a full, happy tummy on the recliner!

John & Linda were also there. They brought me pictures of my mom and dad playing and having a good time at a luau that was held in Las Vegas. I thought that was pretty neat! Thanks!

Here's a picture of my Lewisville Family:

Patsi, Grandpa "Chick" Rock, Lee & Pili girl

P's B-day at the Hanson's

I must admit, I have some really neat friends. All of whom I appreciate and love immensely! Remember when I said I had a feeling that something was going on and that someone was going to have a party for me? Well, my "party sensors" were correct! So, here's a little insight of what we did! Enjoy the photo's and bust a gut watching the videos!




This is Bryce. He delivered our pizza! Nice person.





Here's the pizza (on the right). Can you tell what kind of plant that is in the background? If not, let me help you out. It's one of my other favorite flowers! It's a gardenia plant!!!! That was definitely a great gift!!! =) Oh, and of course, we can't forget the rootbeer! (I'm kind of regretting drinking a lot of rootbeer last night.)



Winnie


This is Winnie!!! She wanted to come and have a good time too! She's Dr. Hanson's cat for his birthday. Winnie was a hoot... here she is in full pawing mode attempting to get at the strings of my jacket. She really was a lot of fun to play with and watch!



Opening Presents


I just finished opening up my presents. Obviously, I'm still camera shy! (Just kidding...)

Hey... wouldn't ya know, I got a "Mahalo" 'ukulele (green), 'Ukulele strings, a picture frame and chocolate twizzlers.



Waiting Around
People waiting around for the food to arrive! "Where's the food?"!!!! (Listed bottom left to bottom right: Travis, Ryan, Emily Y., Emily May, Jen and Scott.)








More people waiting around for food and bonding with each other. (Left to right: Scott's shirt, Tamra, Tamara, Kim and Bryan Bybee)




Balloons!!!!!!



Lots and lots of balloons! It's amazing how much fun a few balloons can add to a bunch of people just looking for a little fun.









... more pictures of balloons...
















A video of playing with the balloons:




The "Cake"



Check it out... we didn't have enough candles to put on the cake, so they decided to write out my age. (Yeah, yeah... I'm 27, so get over it!) =) *Oh, and friends, remember, some of you are still older than I am!*



Waiting for a slice of cake:










Brittany serving up the goodies... the cake was... strawberry something or another. (Sorry, I don't exactly know what it was.) But it was good!







Tamara showing off her "slice" of cake. (Actually, her car load had to go, and she grabbed a "to go" for the car load.)







Playing Pictionary


I must admit, it's been quite a while since I've played Pictionary... it was fun!



Travis rocked on his picture!

Here's Emily Yeckley doing her thing with the hygiene!



THE SPOON GAME
Last fall, I was introduced to "The Spoon Game". I will also admit, I don't like to play it often, but once in a while, it's soooo much fun! (Especially to watch.) I only put one of the video's up here for fear of loosing friendships of the other people I videoed! (Emily May and Brian Bevan... much love to you both!)



I love this video! Bryan Bybee is our favorite spoon game player! He makes the rest of us happy with his dizzying performance!

Well, I hope you enjoyed my "Memorial Day Birthday"!

Oh, and Lorita, esto es para ti.




¡¡¡¡¡ Te Quiero !!!!!




¡Chistes!

Pink...

For the fans of pink... I'm writing this blog in "pink"....

There...

Please, please, please have a safe weekend everyone!

Paz, I'm outties!

Friday, before the Holiday...

Okay... I got sick of the pink. It was driving me nuts! So we're back to black!

Obviously it's Friday! Yahoo!!!!

I'm soooo excited for this weekend! Well, not really. But it's a 3 day weekend! I get to recover from travelling and being with family, not out running around places, being on the go, and yeah... (moving right along.)

One thing I wish I could have done, is gone to a friends sealing tomorrow. That would've been the highlight of this weekend for sure! However, life ends up happening, and things out of our control become priority. (Sorry Shaver Family.)

However! On a lighter note, I attended class this morning for MS-115 and we played ultimate frisbee. (I'm a fan of ultimate frisbee, but ultimate football would've rocked!) Basically, I still pushed people around, hit some people, ran into others, and hit the frisbee out of one person's hand, and... yeah! I was in my element of kicking some booty!

To "warm-up", we did 6 sets of 30 second push-ups! (The first set was 1 minute.) During which, Major Esplin took roll. I was wondering if he had our roll, because, he didn't call me my name. when we was finished, (and we were in the middle of one of our sets), he stated "if I didn't call your name, it's because I know your name and marked you on the roll." The first thought that popped into my mind was "ah crap!"

"Is that a good thing, sir?", was my reply, as the rest of our class laughed, and asked the same thing.

"Yes, that's a very good thing" responded Major Esplin.

"I'm not sure how I feel about that", said I. (By now, half of us are dying with laughter while still doing our best to finish our 2nd to last 30 seconds.)

"Peanuts! The Major knows my name!" kept going through my mind. That means, I can't mess up, or get out of line, or give cheeky comments back! Oh well! Such is life, eh?

Cheers!

I'm Yours!!!!

Eh, anyone from Kaua'i notice where Jason Mraz filmed "I'm Yours"? ...

Kaua'i No Ka 'Oi!!!!

Dessert & Dancing ~

DESSERT:

Aren't you jealous?

Just kidding! Okay. So, this past weekend I got to go to California for a commemorative show to my Grandmother. It was a last minute decision to go. (I'm glad I went.)

"What's with the pink stuff" you may ask? Well, let me tell you! This is a picture of one of my favorite desserts. It's strawberry mochi ice cream! It's sooooo good! I ordered this just for myself! (Yes, I was greedy, but Mochi Lovers can relate!)

Here's a picture of my niece lovin' up on the mochi ice cream too! I can't say that I blame her. After all, she takes after me! ha ha ha! (That's such a lie!) She definitely has a little mind of her own, and she'll tell you that too! She was the cutest thing to watch though!

It was fun to watch her pull my sister-in-law's hair, stick the hashi (chopsticks) up her own nose, in her eye, then on other people's plates. I think she had duck for the first time too. She was grinding away! (She's definitely obtained the Baclayon appetite!)

Oh, and she LOOOOOVVVVEEEESSSSS to go to the "potty". That doesn't necessarily mean she uses the washroom, but hey... better safe than sorry, right?

DANCING:

**WARNING** Slapping yourself and jumping around like an ape (or mad man) should not be done at home. Leave it to the professionals.

(P.S. They are not professionals. Many of them are first timers.) The crazy guy at the end is my brother. (Sorry ladies, he's taken.) =)

The Elk Lodge was beautiful and decorated in absolute awe! Many of my grandmother's students and the students of her descendants were there. It was like a great big family reunion! There were people you were some of my grandmother's very first students! (I wish I had my camera on other parts of the night.)

Here's how packed we all were:

(Sorry it's so blurry.) Anyway, you get my drift. This place was standing room only!

Not to mention that it was really hot! (I couldn't wait to get home and jump in the shower.)

Anyway, if I can find a picture of my grandmother, I'll put her on here.

Let's see, some other snip-bits, I got to go to the Tri-Valley Ward for sacrament meeting. It was great to see a few familiar faces. (Even though a lot of them were new.) How I miss my California!

Sniff, Cough, Hack, Gag...

Well, that's pretty much what I'm doing these days. I'll admit it... "I have the flu"! It's finally Spring, and I have the stinkin' flu! The only thing I've seen that's good come out of it, has been dropping 1 1/2 pounds, because I can't keep things in... Oh well, such is life.

Today, I didn't go to my MS 115 class. (I slept instead.) I can just hear everyone on Monday... "Pili... why weren't you hear on Friday? There's no excuse for being sick!"... My response will be, "I'll give YOU an excuse!!!" As I lovingly kick the Lieutenant or Major in the shin, while smiling and enjoying myself. Of course all of this is playing out in my head while the real answer slips from my lips... "Yes, Sir!" **Then, I drop and have to do 20 push-ups** (Of which, I will totally rock at!!!)

OH!!! Here's something funny. Who starts talking about Bob Marley, and then busts out "Don't Worry, Be Happy"! I had to laugh. (Well, not really, I was doing push-ups at the time.)

Anyway, life is beautiful, I'm not feeling well, friends all around me are getting married, having babies, dating people, and then there's me. I guess I can't be the best at everything I do... yet. =) (That will be a totally different blog regarding the affections of the heart.)

PINK!!!

I just realized that I saved my blasted blog in PINK! I can't stand pink! I figured I'll keep it pink to see if any of my friends really read this. If so, feel free to make comments! ha ha ha ha ha

One love~

P.S. I had the Joshua James band stay at my house on Saturday night! HECK YEAH!

MS 115, Lungs and Jackson

First off: HAPPY BELATED MOTHER'S DAY EVERYONE!!!!

Whether you're a mother, expectant mother, grandmother, aunt etc, hope your day was fabulous!!! =)

So... Class on Wednesday, 7th of May, resulted in the MS 115 & Ranger Challenge class running ladders on the field with push-ups, sit-ups, flutter kicks etc... between each run. Towards the end, when we had to run the 5 yard "suicides", I was definitely out of breath.

Oh... so, is a heart rate of 138 normal, after "walking" up a flight of stairs? NO! So, I went to the doctors because that got me concerned, especially since we have mold in our house and I've been progressively getting sick. Well, the doc found some stuff in my lungs. We're trying to rule out other things first. MEANING, I'm on drugs. Yup, antibiotics, puffers, inhailants etc. One of the big side affects I've had so far are 1) vomitting and 2) tremors. Honestly, I could handle the first, the second, on the other hand (ha ha... pun intended... okay, never mind...), is frustrating. It takes about a good 45 minutes for my hand, right hand specifically, to stop shaking. It's pretty bad when I'm typing and keep hitting double letters or double numbers. (Maybe the next time I take my inhailer, I'll get on this and type without correcting myself, that way, you can crack a joke or get a good laugh.) =)

Side note: Sad day, plans for Memorial Weekend might change. No comment.

Okay, so I was asked to post a few photos on here, and even though I know what the person meant, here's some photos... not of me... well, maybe here you go.

DRIVING PHOTO:

I thought this was a neat shot! I love digital cameras! I think it's been one of my best purchases yet!

(And thanks to Bro. Andersen for encouraging our class to take pictures, too!)



Oh, and these pictures are of me taking A.D. and Scott's things to Jackson. (I went to Jackson
through Swan Valley. It was beautiful, although the pictures may not look like it.


WATERFALL PICTURES:

This is a cool waterfall I saw on the side of the road. I got excited, and decided to take a picture of it. liked this picture... (on the left) Kind of neat!
Story behind the the two water pictures:

Has anyone ever told you to "never slam on your break in the middle of traffic, or especially in the middle of the road"? ha! Well, yeah, don't ever do that! =)

As I was drving through one of the mountain passes, I saw this little waterfall off the opposite side of the road, and as thankful as some one who slams their brakes in the the middle of a highway, I was very thankful that no one was behind me. (Actually, I think I was the only one on the entire highway!) I turned around and jumped out of the car like a little girl who just got a favorite doll or something, and ran/ skipped to the water. If anyone was watching, they would've gotten a big kick out of my giddiness to see a waterfall!


ANTLER ARCHES PICTURE:

This next picture is of the antler arches in Jackson Hole. While I was waiting for A.D. and Scott to drive up from Utah, I took the priviledge to "window shop". (Afterall, it was Sunday!) I stuck my camera in the arches and figured that some kind of a "cool" shot would come out of this, and guess what? I think It's kind of funky!

Oh well, such is my life, eh?

BEAR PHOTO:

For those of you who have been to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, you may recognize the different animals that are carved into the sidewalk posts. This bear is one of them. I thought it was cute and took a picture. =)

Hope you enjoyed the "photos".

52 Push-ups!!!!

Oh yeah baby!!! I did 52 push-ups!

Today, we ran through campus, up 3rd S., past Yale St. up to the dead end past the temple to 1st W., and back to the Hart Gym.

Major Wilson expressed that after the run, females owed 20 push-ups and males owed 50. One of the guys next to me did 50 and 1 for kicks and giggles. After everyone left, I kept going. And I did 52! All 52 done guy's style!

By the end of the semester, the guys need to do 50 push-ups in 2 minutes, and 50 sit-ups in 2 minutes! I'm going for gold on that one and push myself to keep up with the guys.

I'm so excited for the 1/2 marathon and to improve my muscles and strength on running, push-ups and sit-ups!

Having said that, wish me luck and keep praying that I'll get stronger, faster and endure longer!

"Tough things don't last, but tough people do!" - Larry Wickham