Countdown...

I just added a countdown ticker thing on my blog... but the ticker is on 0 and not on 4... Oh well.

Nothing Too Exciting...

I figured I would just update everyone on my life right now... that and I'm so incredibly bored at work. Ugh.

1. Ben and I are on 4 different Intramural/City League teams: Co-ed softball (upper division, heck yeah!), Ultimate Frisbee (It's a men's team but girls can be on it if they want to), Men's Softball (I'm not on this one but Ben is and I go and watch... I'll only play if the team forfeits), and finally City League Indoor Soccer. This is basically taking up our lives. Example: This is my schedule for this weekend -- Friday, ward camp out (We're only going to dinner though because of our crazy schedule for Saturday). Saturday, 9:15am co-ed softball game and then at 10:00am we have an ultimate frisbee game. We get a short break for lunch, relaxing, CLEANING OUR HOUSE, and then we go to our soccer game at 3:00pm. Now that I wrote it down it doesn't seem too busy but imagine yourself playing all these sports... I'm going to be exhausted but it's going to be fun! And this is basically how our summer is going to be!! Anyways, we're excited cuz we love being active. Anyways, if you want to come to a game, let me know and I can give you the schedule ( I would definitely suggest coming to co-ed softball... it's a work team that basically rocks!)

2. On a more serious, plan for my future/career side... I've been applying to full-time salary paying jobs on campus. I'm not going to vent anything on here....I'm not going to. For most people who I'm pretty close to, you've already heard everything :) For everyone else, I've recently applied for 4, FOUR, more jobs so please, please, please keep your fingers crossed for me.

3. My goal of eating healthy, cooked meals is going great! I'll be honest, we messed up 3 times this month and went out to eat at Burger Supreme (twice... Ben's new favorite: The Belt Buster) and Gloria's Little Italy. Yum, yum, yum. Definitely recommend Gloria's Little Italy to everyone... It's this super cute little restaurant in South Provo and the food is pretty good but honestly, the people are SO NICE! You really do feel like you're part of the family when you go there. It's a little pricey for 2 poor, college students but I liked it a lot. Anyways, other than that I've been cooking most nights and trying new recipes. I'll post a blog at the end of the month of all the meals (along with pictures) and you can ask for the recipe... So yeah, we're saving a TON of money and we're feeling pretty good about ourselves :)

4. My birthday is coming up! Which I am so excited for because of multiple reasons: (1) I can get free slurpees on my birthday. It's awesome. (most people think this is amazing but really, everyone can get free slurpees on my birthday... but how many people can actually say that?!) and (2) Ben was going to get me either a piano/keyboard (which as much as I want this... the piano that I have my eye on is going to cost roughly the same as the mortgage of a small house, one of the two kidneys that Ben has, and our first born) , a new cell phone (cuz mine is dying... or dead... it's dead), or a scooter (let's face it, how awesome would that be?!). Anyways, instead of getting any of these options we made a deal. I have a friend at work who is going to Europe for an entire year, all expenses paid (awesome deal) and she wants to sell her furniture. So we looked at it at work. I loved it right away but Ben was a little hesitant. I told him to at least look at it and still, I think hesitation was still there... So we finally went to her house. Ben had the mentality of already saying no to the whole deal BUT I'm pretty sure that the force was used and he changed his mind as soon as he sat in the couch. So we're basically getting a heck of a deal for all the furniture... AND the cutest little...... kitten!! I'll make it very clear now that I am not a cat person. When I was a kid, a cat bit me and since then, I'll admit, I've encouraged my husband and my 3-yr old nephews to throw rocks at the tom cats that hang around my house... I don't like cats... or rather, DIDN'T! Anyways, if you're not a cat lover, you'll just have to see this little cat. She's absolutely adorable and FEISTY! She's definitely not a cat that just sits and gets fat. She's cute and very playful. So there's (in a very big) nutshell, what I'm getting for my birthday: new (for us) furniture and a kitty. Yay!

5. These are probably the biggest things going on in my life right now... Other fun things about our lives: we're wanting to rearrange our whole house before the end of the summer (which doesn't sound like much but with our busy schedules and what we want to do, this will be a task that we will need to try hard to accomplish), ABC.COM (I've been watching WipeOut, I Survived a Japanese Game Show, the Mole, and... yes, the Bachelorette (Go Jason!)), shopping for new clothes.. sigh, I love new clothes.

OK, well this is our busy summer schedule! And shocker... there's only 1 email in my inbox that I have to do. *sigh*

A New Resolve

Muffin Tops!

I wish I could say that I wrote the following but alas, I'm not an entertaining writer (though attempts have been made). So here I am at work, eating my pretzel's from Cabella's and absolutely all caught up with all emails (and it's only 10:30am. Awesome), and I see this letter written to muffin tops. It made me laugh.

Dear Muffin Top,

You’re supposed to be the most delicious part of a breakfast pastry somewhere in a Jewish Deli on the Upper East Side. So, why are you paying rent in the mid-town digs between my hip-huggers and my Wonder Bra?

I know. It’s because my body is an “apple,” and mid-town Manhattan’s Korean BBQ’s are the best way to make an apple grow juicy and satisfying.

But I have something to say to you, Muffin Top. You are being evicted, and I know exactly how to do it without paying renter’s rights. My body’s been sending me letters about the possibility of looming beach belly-tee antics, and it’s time for you to know what’s-what.

You, Muffin Top, are an irrefutable part of the bullet train ride to 30.

At 18, you were the curvy mark of a “real woman,” according to lovers in the sophomore throes of romantic life.

At 22, boys dared call you, “mommy pouch,” knowing it was cute that one day you’d have someone else’s child.

At 25, you started to be mentioned less and less, but felt increasingly, as a psychic question mark.

At 29, your owner’s significant other looked at you and said soothingly, “You’re sexy all over, with a little extra.”

You went by un-noticed, mostly because the scale never lied; it never went up. The change was small, sneaky, dishonest, and before I knew it, there you were, eating out of my fridge like a roommate I didn’t know I had.

Well, Muffin Top, you’ve been discovered, your tricks un-covered. This summer’s reign inside my Juicy tank tops is going to be mine, all mine!

“How?” you wonder.

“Quite simply, with a few snap strategies,” I respond.

You’re going to be occulted and disguised, by the fabulously forgiving high-waisted pants that girls from Alaska to Antarctica are donning and loving, precisely for their power to throw you off your game.

And now that I know of your insipient existence, I’m going to take further measures to keep you from taking over the thoughtful Feng-Shui of my body’s quarters.

You will be submitted to a healthy regime of belly-fighting foods, like fruits and vegetables, reasonable amounts of lean meats, and only 4-5 servings of carbs. You’re going to be worked out with pilates and yoga, which go easy on your landlord’s Calcium-still joints, and build flexibility into the future of her bones. Your reign of terror is going to stop.

But my best weapon, one that will lay you flat, is that you, my friend, are going to find acceptance. You are about to be evicted in the best way a woman knows how. That’s right. You will be taken in, by the community of women, who simply haven’t got the time to worry about you. You’ll be neutralized, stopped by the knowledge that a body changes with time, and grows beautiful with each step of the journey.

So, welcome home, Muffin Top. You are now an official tenant. You and your landlord each have defined rights, and you will no longer run amok in her fridge and behind her designer belts. Welcome, indeed.

Sincerely,

Every woman who worries she’s fat, just because she’s got curves.

Anyways, I thought it was funny and it made me laugh. Definitely blog-worthy (obviously, I'm hard to please... haha, Criteria: Funny, made me laugh... check, check) Yesterday I had an epiphany at work. I was in Oregon this past weekend. It was so much fun (I'm sure pictures will follow sometime soon) and I realized that my family and I didn't go out to eat at all over the weekend. Well, we went out for Glenn's graduation dinner but that's about it. Anyways, it made me realize how much Ben and I go out and eat. It's bad cuz we really do eat out a lot. So here it is, my epiphany: Eat healthy! :) Haha, there's more to this, of course... Eat healthy, home-cooked-planned-a-week-in-advanced meals! I've planned everything a week in advance but I actually have a sorta-plan for the month. I know, amazing. Anyways, I'm excited. I'm not doing this to lose weight or get in shape but I just figured that healthy eating is probably a better alternative to dying early...

Graduation 2008

Oh man, I can't believe that I've finally finished my degree! Here are a few pics from the weekend. My parents came down and we all had a blast!

We purposely sat all 4 Hawaiians graduating in Psychology together.... the poor name reader!

Me & Ben

My family ALWAYS does this pose... It's our "Asian tourist" picture. My mom isn't doing anything funny because she already is asian...

I'm Done!!

Honestly, my family can't take a good picture together at all. This was the only one that we had where the majority of everyone was smiling. I think my dad was in the middle of saying something... at least I hope so :) haha

The Best Way to End My Last Year at BYU!!

WE WON!!

Oh goodness, the game was so intense. At the end of the first half, the score was 9 to 9. It was that low! The other team brought so many fans so it was a little intimidating. I think they had about 45 people... but we did have one thing that they didn't: Polynesians... and one Polynesian is about 10 times louder than the average haole and we had 5 Poly's. Anyways, the second half was so intense. All of our fans lost their voice just about... I think what helped us is that we subbed every 5 minutes (we had 4 subs and we put all 4 in together) and the other team only subbed one girl at a time. Our defense was awesome. They couldn't get any points on us and the only ones they did score, were from fouls from us. Anyways, it's a close game but we have the lead by about 2 points the entire second half. There was about 25 seconds left in the game and if we could score a 3-point, we would secure our lead. Sarah, a girl on our team, had the ball right underneath the net and she was guarded by 3 other girls. I was wide open at the top of the key and yelled for the ball. She passed it to me and I threw it up. As soon as the ball was in the air, I realized that I was about 3 feet behind the 3 point line...I was so far behind the 3-point line!! My first thought was "Crap..." and then...SWOOSH! all net :) How crazy is that?! So there's like 15 seconds left in the game. They bring the ball down and shoot... and miss! We threw the ball in ... pass, shoot, score! Again, they bring the ball in, we're in a full court press and BUZZ! The end of the game!!! our whole team was jumping up and down and screaming like crazy! Agh, it was awesome and probably the most intense game EVER (I even brought the ball down myself sometimes... that's a big deal! haha). Final score: 30 - 18.

And the best part?

We won the t-shirt!!!!!!!!!

Definitely not a basketball player and yet....

Don't ask me how... My sister's friend put together a basketball team and needed one more person. They asked me to play. I don't think they really understood me when I said that I wasn't a basketball player but I decided the exercise would be good for me so what the heck! We were/are in the absolute lowest division, and for good reason too! We have lost every single game in the regular season. Honestly, it's pitiful. We're lucky if we get more than 10 points the entire game!

Anyways, after our last regular season game, we didn't hear anything from our team captain for awhile. I figured that we sucked so bad that the Intramural Officials decided to save us the embarrassment of playing in the tournament... and that really didn't hurt my feelings. Our team was horrible. So then on Tuesday, my sister gets a call. We have a game! I was so confused at first because this was already one week into the tournament play. That would mean that we had to have won the first tournament game and I know for a fact that couldn't have been possible because Riena, her roommate and I didn't make it and the three of us make two of the best players on the team! Ends up that we had 6 players show up to the game and the other team only had 4 so we won by default. So on Tuesday night, by some sort of weird, freak accident, we won that game! We were in the top eight... It was a fun game. We scored our first basket in the first minute of the game!! (Trust me, this is super exciting because we usually score our first basket sometime during the last minute of the game!) They told us our next game was Thursday and that we were now in the final four!!

So tonight we all show up and believe it or not, we won again! Something is definitely not right. We're playing a whole lot better than we did than when we played during the regular season... either that or we're really lucky! I even stole the ball for a fast break! But we'll leave it at that since I don't know how to shoot.... Anyways, why is this such a big deal? Because if we win, then we'll win the ever-coveted Intramural Championship T-shirt. I think that this is the one reason why people actually apply to BYU... and it's within our grasp! :) Our championship game is either going to be Saturday morning or Tuesday evening. So if you can come to the game, come and watch us probably lose to the other team (we watched them play a little bit tonight... they're good.... and they have about a billion fans)! As much as we would love to win, I think the fact that this crappy Cinderella team made it to the Championship game is beyond amazing. Awesome.

This is my work team winning last year's oh-so-coveted t-shirt for softball...
But to win this t-shirt for basketball?!

Na Ka'ao

Here's some pics from Luau this year... I danced in 3 sections: Hawai'i, Tahiti, and New Zealand. It was so much fun but I'll be honest, it's nice not to wake up at 5:30 almost every morning :)

Enjoy!

Kaliana, Me and Beth... the real Hawaiians in the group, lol

More Kahiko girls... we're supposed to be Pele, obviously that didnt work for some of us :)

Tahiti Finale

Wedding Dance... Front and Center

Single Long Poi girls

umm... there are no words for this picture

"Edem", Mr. BYUSA President

Joe Ahuna