So, I've decided to write about my plans for my wedding and the progression I make until the big day....

Here's some background...

My wedding will be in 6 months. I will be marrying the love of my life, Chris, that I have been with for about 8 years and currently have 1 child, my son Caysen.

I was proposed to in 2008, but because I have an anxiety to time I pushed the wedding date to the end of 2010.

Today was the day for me to try on and to pick out a wedding dress along with my bridesmaids. I also had them along so they could try on different bridesmaids dresses to make sure they pick on that flatters their bodies as well as makes them feel comfortable in.

SUCCESS!! This whole time I had a dress in mind and really wanted it until I tried on that style. Come to find out.....it didn't really look good on me at all. So, luckily I tried on a bunch of different styles and turns out I really like the one that I wasn't really drawn to in the beginning. Whadda ya know?

So, I know what dress I want and have to order it by July and I also know what dresses my bridesmaids want. :)

Later, we went to buy shoes to match their dresses and purchased one, went to another store, purchased another, and then went back to the first store and returned the first choice. haha. I will probably return these too. I saw some online and really liked them hopefully they work out. I should order them early in case they don't fit right.

Well, I will leave you with that and continue the next time I do anything dealing with my wedding. :)

Good Night!

Let me elaborate more on my trip to Kaua'i. We left on Thurs - sun. I was SO excited!!! My function on this trip was to photograph and video everything, so that they would have documentation of everything. Its very different the experience that you get from being behind the camera. Being able to capture all the moments that everyone else is feeling at that exact moment is really overwhelming!

Well, I found some connections on my trip. I always thought that my hawaiian family name was uncommon because I hardly ever hear it. It was only after our visit to the Kanaka'ole burial site that I actually thought about the connection. They asked that everyone with blood connection to the Kanaka'ole's come forward so that you can pay your respect. I didn't know if I was connected so I stayed back.

Later that night I mentioned to aunty gail (my roomie) that I thought my hawaiian family's name wasn't common and then she asked me what it was so I said....Kahakua. All of a sudden she starts to mention my uncle and my mom and my other uncle and my aunty. Crazy. She's classmates with my uncle brad from Kamehameha and she knows my mom and uncle. She knew about my aunty passing away and everything. Her family is from the same area as mine. She knew about my great grandparents being buried in Ha'ena in Puna. Crazy, I tell you!! Never did I think I would be that close in relation and not even know it.That makes me kind of sad though that I don't know my history.

I will now take the initiative to question my history because knowing will make me a stronger person.

To be continued...

Hello World...

Recently I went on a trip to Kaua'i with a group of women and men from all ages. We went there to see different sacred sites located all over that island. We started at Kaua'i Community College where we exchanged cultural beliefs and dance. The woman there Aunty Ilae from Ni'ihau was so appreciative she broke out in tears and laughter. I of course had to hold my emotions back because my function on the trip was to photograph and video the entire occasion. So, it wouldn't have looked very nice with a shaky picture.

The next day started early....as in 3am early. We had a hour and a half drive to Ke'e Beach where Keahualaka is located. It is a hula heiau where Pele and Lohi'au met. This event was very traditional besides the girl holding the camera. The path we took is originally a blocked off path protected by a family that malamas the heiau so that it is not just looked at as tourist attraction. I was not allowed into the heiau because I was taking pictures. But I got to take a lot of fantastic photographs and video. I caught some amazing photos. Some that capture phenomenal happenings that only I got to witness! So phenomenal that I had to hols back tears of overwhelming emotions. After the offering as the last few people walked off the heiau a lite mist blessed us during a chant. As we made our journey back down the path it poured with thanks. When we got down to the bottom a bird flew over us and not just any bird but a big bird. Then we jumped into the water to release everything that had just happened. After the overwhelming experience we got the chance to go on a 3 hour ATV ride through the valleys and mountains of Kaua'i. I got to drive a ATV with my passenger aunty Kamaka who is in her 50s or 60s. Boy was she holding on!! Every time I would tell her "ok, aunty HOLD ON!!! :D That was a blast! We got to see sites that a person can only see if they went on that trail. Surprisingly I got to see the backdrops of many famous movies. Like Jurassic Park I and II, Indiana Jones, 6 days 7 nights, Mighty Joe Young, etc... Kaua'i is SO BEAUTIFUL!! I even got to swing on a rope that Indiana Jones' swings on in the movie. Of course I didn't jump in, because of the murkiness of the water, but no one wanted to go except a boy, so I represented the wahine and started a trend because after me 4 more wahine went. :)

The next days we went on wahipana which is that we would go to see other sites all around the island. One spot in particular is a beach called Polihale. I remember going to this beach when my family went island hopping when I was a little girl. I don't remember anything else about that trip except that beach. I could remember the exact look of the beach and I could've descibed it more than anything else from my past. Not sure exactly why it stuck out to me so much, but its a memory I will never forget.

During my trip I encountered a lot of challenges most of them internal and emotional, but experiences none the less.

To be continued....

Another Kupuna that inspired me this past Keauhou trip was Maile Napolean. She is a master lomi-ist. For those of you that do not know a lomi-ist is someone that massages lomi style. Well, anyway to start from the beginning I have been having really bad back pain for the past 3 years. It generates from the middle of my head all the way down to my tail bone. It causes me bad headaches and makes me very grouchy. Well, at the conference I went to I had asked her about the pain and she told me that a lot of the pain is psychological. If I think I have a bad back, I will have a bad back. So, she said every morning when I look in the mirror I need to tell myself that I have a wonderful back and its perfect! Every time I feel like its sore I just need to repeat that to myself and guess what it works! OK OK....not every time, but majority of the time the pain goes away.

That makes me think about a lot of other instances....like being grouchy or becoming sick. People can trick themselves into thinking that they are sick or even pregnant. This is because the mind is stronger than the body. Just watch the movie "The Matrix". The body cannot live without the mind.

So....moral of the story is.....THINK POSITIVE AND POSITIVE THINGS WILL HAPPEN TO YOU! A POSITIVE ATTITUDE WILL GET YOU FAR.

That reminds me of when I got a speeding ticket. Yes, I learned my lesson, but I was happy because I got to experience the "getting a ticket" from a policeman. Others would think I'm odd, but hey theres no sense in getting bent out of shape about it, because in the end I'll still have to pay for the ticket. So, I took the experience positively. :)

Have a GREAT day!! :)

its been a while, but i have very interesting things to share.

I recently went to a conference this past weekend and got to talk to and listen to some very educated and interesting people. Kupuna that have lived and loved doing what they do. There was about 36 kupuna and they all shared a little of their lives with us. One kupuna in particular really stuck out to me. She reminded me of my grandmother Dorothea Carvalho. Her name is Marie McDonald. When I had the opportunity to talk with her within a few minutes I came to realize that she was just like my grandma and made me miss my grandma very much. Her mannerisms, her presence and even a little resemblesence reminded me. And at that moment I felt and overwhelming need to cry. It was so unreal. It really felt like I was talking to my grandma and I wished and wished that I could have been talking to my grandmother. It got me thinking........

When your young you really don't feel the need to listen and spend time with older people such as kupuna. You are more likely to want to party and hang out with your friends and etc... Hanging out with kupuna tends to be boring when your young. But then when you become the age that wants to learn, wants to listen, wants to spend time, it ends up being too late. And then that legacy ends up going with your kupuna and is never spread to others. I really wish that I had been the age that wanted to learn, wanted to listen, and wanted to spend time when I had my grandparents here. Hopefully my father is reading and will pass his knowledge of life down to my son and so on and so forth. Even though my son is young, I know that his papa will be able to teach him a whole lot that others will not be able to.

So i leave you all with this.........................................

If you never share,
others will never care.
So share,
knowledge, thoughts, concerns,
anything that will teach the future and make the future the past.
Meaning.....

for example a hourglass
what happens when as hourglass is turned upside down?
The sand falls to the bottom.
and then what happens?
you turn the hourglass upside down and the process happens again.

Thats just like life.
The future is the past, the sand that fell from the top(past) through the middle(present) and down to the bottom(future) and the process repeats. So the future becomes the past and the past becomes the future.


Have a great day! :)

Aloha All...

Today, I only have one job.....YA!!! Recently I've realized how tired I've been because I've been sleeping through the entire night. I usually wake up at least once to use the bathroom or drink water or something like that. I must be working hard. Well, life is tough so we gotta do what we gotta do.

Caysen has been doing really good in school lately just one comment was made about him and that was that he doesn't want to stay still. But really....what 3yr. does stay still? Oh well...I guess....... "he get it from his momma."

Works been fun...I've been doing a lot now, but maybe I gotta do things a little slower because I seem to do things really fast and then have nothing to do for the rest of the day. Ok, well I just got the go to put together a projector and a small slide show and project it on the wall so I get an idea of how that works. :)

Have a Great Day! :)

so here i am....

This is actually my first official day of working at I Ola Haloa at Hawaii Community College. I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to be doing but hopefully I get a hang of whatever passes my way. i am at a desk with 2 screens on it and I can't help but wonder "Why do i need 2 screens?" I basically am only using the one because i think it is actually a waste of space having 2 screens on 1 desk. Maybe if i could have a bigger monitor rather then 2 screens that would be better. Oh well, i shouldn't complain.

Caysen started preschool yesterday and got a bad review. He apparently has a listening problem. I tried talking to him about it and he said he'd listen, but he is only 3. Today, he had the same problem. He just wants to play. When he got picked up from school today he was sitting on the time-out chair. :( I give him time-out at home and he listens to me. *sigh* I don't know what to do. It makes me really sad. Because when you see a child that doesn't listen, you usually look at the parents and how they raised them. :( I think I'm a good parent, I'm just stumped. I discipline him when hes naughty and reward him when hes good, so I don't understand. Could it be because this is the first time he had to listen to a stranger? Advice please.

Well, I'll get back to researching TV stands and other equipment to buy.

TA-TA for now. Have a wonderful day.