A House Full of Girls

Kulani took this picture of me and the girls today before church. He saw us all dressed up in spring colors, and he wanted to take a picture of us in front of the few daffodils I planted last fall, which are now blooming. I love this picture. Poor Kulani--he's surrounded by girls, and he's a guy who's not accustomed to being around a lot of girls. He didn't have a bunch of sisters; just the one, and she's much older than him. But he's a great sport. Recently, Lilia has started wanting privacy while dressing, and she closes her eyes if she sees me dressing. It reminded me of my mom and grandma. My family isn't exactly shy about being half nude around each other. Well, actually it's my mom's side that isn't shy about nudity. Don't get me wrong; around others we don't even expose our midriffs, but with family, we let it all hang out. Let me provide the following humorous examples.

When I was about 9 my mom took me and my two youngest siblings to visit Grandma McEuen in California. We went to the beach one day, and all of us got sunburned. I was sleeping on Grandma McEuen's living room floor later that night when I awoke to see my grandma completely nude from the bellybutton up. My mom was applying aloe vera to her shoulders. No attempt at covering up was made when they saw I was awake. Then my mom bared her chest, and Grandma applied aloe vera to her shoulders. It was no twisted dream; it was life-scarring real life.

My mom never bothered to put on a robe when she exited her bathroom, so it was natural for us to see her nude growing up. We never saw my dad nude past maybe age 2 or 3 (when mom would plop us in the shower with him to save water and time; I have a few memories of me, B.J., and Dad showering together). But mom: common place. Kulani, on the other hand, never saw his mom even in her underwear. So Kulani was on his first visit to my home in Idaho while we were dating. He awoke on Sunday morning to shower and get ready for church. He was shocked to see my mom ironing her dress in nothing but her underwear. He was very embarrassed, but my mother thought nothing of it. Later he told me about how different that was from how he grew up. Thankfully he still wanted to marry me, and I hoped he'd shake the image of seeing my mom in her underwear before we got married.

But now that Nohea is getting older and is so fun, we're thinking maybe we'll try one more time for that boy. (No, we are not pregnant, so please don't ask.) And if it turns out to be another girl, all the merrier. Hopefully the girls will marry nice guys like their dad, then maybe Kulani will have some sympathy around here.

April Whimsy

April is a busy time around our house. Mine and Kulani's birthdays are both in April, as is our wedding anniversary. I'm one year closer to my goal of hitting 100 years old. I just know that if I can hold on until 100, I may be invited to the White House to get my picture taken with all the other people born in 1976 for the country's tricentennial. If my mind is gone by then due to Alzheimer's, will someone please nominate me on my behalf?




I love having a birthday. I don't care if I get presents, but I just love getting older. Thank you to all who sent me a birthday greeting or called or sent a card. I am very much appreciated. My little Lilia made me a nice gift with the following inside:


She said it's a picture of me and her shopping for flour (notice the flower picture on the package). I really like that we're wearing matching outfits in the picture. She can't quite spell yet, but she likes to copy letters. She also included a family movie ticket she created for when it's time for family movie night. Thanks, Lilia! Lissy and Nohea gave me hugs and kisses. Kulani got me a great triathlon bag, and he said I'm also getting new clipless road shoes with daisy socks, but he's saving that for our anniversary. I can't wait! We celebrated my birthday by going to Outback Steakhouse with our best buddies Lani, Patrick, and Alika. Michelle and Vivian also showed up. It was a great night with family and friends.

My mom has started a tradition of giving us $2 bills for each year we've been alive. So this year, I got 32 $2 bills. She always includes a poem with the money, and each year so far, the poem has changed. The poem this year is as follows:

Eyes and ears and socks and gloves,
Lips and hands and turtle-doves,
Feet and shoulders, cheeks and shoes
All these things come grouped in two's.

Our birthday wishes come that way.
Two hearts that love you want to say
We think you're great! Just Super Dandy!
Better than gold or chocolate candy.
We hope this year's a special one,
Filled with joy and lots of fun.

Our gift to you won't come as news.
By now, you should expect the two's $
And with the bucks come love and kisses
From your Idaho Patriarch and his Mrs.


My affection for my parents grows every year. I pretty much think they're just about the most perfect parents ever. My mom is always so cheerful and positive, and my dad is just a great listener and just great. My one birthday wish is that I can provide the same love and care for my kids as they did for me.

Best Movie Ever

So if you're going to have a post about the worst movie ever, you inevitably must have a post about the best movie ever. But for me, that's harder to admit. I mean, you're really putting your neck out there to say "This is THE best movie of all time," because it's hard to narrow it down to just one. But I'm going to try, and I think you'll be surprised at my winner.

To start out, I'd like to give a shout out to Kulani's favorite movie of all time: the Shawshank Redemption. I don't think that movie ever gets old. I love it too, but I will leave that movie to Kulani.

The first movie I ever saw that really affected me to the core was E.T. I saw it in the movie theaters when I was around 6 years old, and I had nightmares the rest of the summer. I hated the scene where E.T. is sick and white and on the verge of dying. When I was living with Grandma McEuen as a freshman, I watched E.T. again. I fell head-over-heals in love with it. I re-watched it right after having watched it, as if I was 7 again re-watching Disney's Robin Hood for the third time in a day. When the 2002 Olympics were in Salt Lake City, the host city also gets to host a lot of cultural events. So Steven Spielberg allowed E.T. to be shown at Abravanel Hall for the 20th anniversary of the release and for the Olympics. The two producers flew out to introduce the film and spoke a little bit about the magic behind making the film. I bought 10 tickets to attend the premiere, but not very many people were interested in going with me. I invited a few work associates, and gifted them the $10 tickets. I didn't enjoy the film as much, because I was nervous that the others wouldn't like it as much as I did. But even so, I think what spoke to me was the love between the boy and E.T. As prickly as I may appear on the outside, love is what really speaks to me when viewing art. And I don't mean love in the sense of "I'm falling in love with you," although that can definitely be part of it. But I'm thinking more in terms of charity--the pure love of Christ. So with that in mind, let's continue.

I was also in college when I discovered my affinity for It's a Wonderful Life. I'm pretty sure one of the most romantic scenes I've ever seen in any movie is when George Bailey and Mary are both talking to Mary's boyfriend and George's good friend on the same phone together. George is in a foul mood about having to stay in this "crummy little town," and the electricity between them is amazing, when he finally puts down the phone and turns to Mary and just starts kissing on her. The whole movie is just so absolutely, gut-wrenchingly sweet, but it pulls it off. The dialog and acting couldn't be better. And the overall message of the movie definitely wasn't lost on me.

And now for a different tone. I present to you a movie that has no overarching theme of love and forgiveness, but rather quite the opposite: The Godfather. The Godfather may be the textbook movie about how to get even. But if you love movies, as we do, The Godfather can't be overlooked. It's just a beautiful movie. It's a gripping story. And it's a classic. The Godfather was my gateway drug to other gangster films, which I craved watching for many years.

And finally, for my favorite movie of all time...brace yourselves...it's Forrest Gump. From start to finish, that movie gripped me and did not let go. It's simple and deep at the same time. Perhaps I see myself as a bit of a Forrest Gump-type person. Life seems somewhat easy. You have a few simple rules to live by, and you live by them. Others may think you are dumb, but what do they know? Two scenes that really get to me are when Forrest finds out he has a son, and the first thing he wonders about is whether his son is dumb like him. The way Tom Hanks reflects that in his face says it all: I don't want my boy to have to suffer the way I have. And then the next to last scene always does me in. Forrest is standing by Jenny's grave and he's talking to her, and in those few sentences he sums up pretty nicely the whole point of the movie, and coincedently, how I also feel about life: "Jenny, I don't know if Momma was right or if, if it's Lieutenant Dan. I don't know if we each have a destiny, or if we're all just floating around accidental-like on a breeze, but I, I think maybe it's both. Maybe both is happening at the same time." It brought back into focus the feather floating through the breeze motif. And the music in the movie--few movies have used music as well as Forrest Gump. It was like listening and watching a slice of Americana being served up ala mode. I just loved it.

So now I want to hear your favorite. Don't be shy. Defend it with your thoughts and own up to what is you.

Worst Movie Ever

People are usually passionate about things they like, but Kulani and I can be rather passionate about things we hate. Recently, we saw a movie together that honestly could be filed under the "Worst Movie EVVVVEEERRR" category. Before this time, Kulani thought Hope Floats was the worst movie he'd ever seen, and he wasn't quiet about sharing it with people. (Let's just say a few of my friends were personally insulted because they count Hope Floats as one of their favorites, and they felt that disliking it was like disliking their kids.) But this one surpassed it, or rather, underpassed it. It's called The Wedding Date, and if you're like me and watch movies to see for yourself whether it really is that bad, be aware that I warned you. Highlighting just a few of the stupid parts is difficult because the sum and parts of it were just dumb. As we discussed why we both hated it so much, Kulani described that it was like a teacher asked a group of junior high girls to write a movie script that would be entertaining, cute, and sweet, and the group of girls tried to put in every idea possible about break-ups, marriage, and romantic ideas.






I can't believe I'm even taking the time to add a picture of this movie to this blog; the movie definitely doesn't warrant a picture post. I don't know how someone could get the formula for "chick flicks" so wrong, but they did. On the TV show Top Chef, the judging chefs are fond of saying, "If you taste it and it's not good, don't serve it." They shouldn't have served that movie after watching it, or perhaps they didn't bother watching it before serving it. It's two hours of my life I'll never get back, and now I'm wasting another half hour blogging about it. I personally like the acting abilities of Deborah Messing, but this was awful. And the lead guy character, Dermot Mulroney, is just plain bad. The writing for his part was awful, and his acting was worse. His character was essentially a male prostitute. For me, one of the dumbest lines of the movies was when he and Deborah Messing are lying down on the bed (clothes on) talking, and he says to her, "I'm allergic to fabric softener. I majored in comparative literature at Brown. I hate anchovies. And I think I'd miss you even if we never met." I'm thinking, "Who the heck thought it would be clever to throw in that he majored in comparative literature at Brown?" Maybe I could believe SUNY, but Brown? That just seems snobby for snobby sake.

So why didn't we turn off the movie and just go to sleep? It was like a train wreck. We couldn't believe how unbelievably bad the movie was. We kept waiting for it to get better. And unlike some movies that you stop watching because you think your soul is going to hell (see American Psycho, for example, if you can stomach watching the whole thing, which we could not), this one felt more like trying to figure out a jugsaw puzzle that had a bunch of other puzzle pieces from other puzzles mixed in. So Hope Floats, you are not the biggest loser.

Happy Birthday to Lissy the Toad

Lissy turned 4 on March 14th. This has been a year of progress for Lissy, who used to only refer to herself as "Lissy the Toad." At the start of the year, Lissy still had trouble not getting upset when placed in her car seat, when taking a bath, getting dressed, or basically anything that dealt with telling Lissy to do anything she didn't initiate or do herself. I think the term some people use is "hard headed." But Lissy has made great strides. She can now dress herself, brush her own teeth, and use the potty by herself. She has even made some friends at her preschool. We love having Lissy be a part of this family, and we love her funny sense of humor.

We celebrated Lissy's birthday over the course of many days. We went to Disney's Princesses on Ice on the 12th. The tickets were relatively cheap because we were in the top row, but the snow cones (in souvenir Little Mermaid cup), suckers (in the shape of Mickey Mouse ears), and cotton candy (with Mickey Mouse king ears) were not. Fifty dollars later and Kulani getting a case of vertigo, we made two girls pretty happy for all of one night. Poor Kulani's eye had an ulcer earlier that day, but luckily he went to the eye doctor before the show started, so it wasn't hurting "as much."

The next day we drove to St. George for Kulani to attend Continuing Legal Education. We stayed in the Green Valley Resort condos. It was a great condo. The girls' room even had it's own Mickey Mouse TV. I don't encourage TVs in kids' rooms, but this was vacation, so we let it pass. While in St. George, we ate at Ruby River, Outback Steakhouse, the Blue Bunny ice cream shop, Godfather's pizza, and Jon and Delena's house. We had a very good time in sunny St. George, and we came back with a new member of the family. On our way home from St. George, we drove through a serious snow storm. It was not a nice welcome-back gesture. At one point, Kulani couldn't see anything out his window except whiteness because the windshield wipers were not working to full capacity. We made it back, though, so we were able to be at church the next day to teach our nursery class. Aahhh nursery. I seriously love being in the nursery. Kulani, however, is not so keen, but he's surviving.

Later that night we had cupcakes for Lissy's official birthday party. We invited the "cousins": Susan and Kuhia's family who live three miles away. Lissy got a Cinderella doll, a card game, a puzzle, and a painting kit. We asked her later that night how she felt about her birthday. She said, "It was awesome." I think that's the most praise I've ever heard out of Lissy's mouth.

On Monday, we took the girls to their first dentist appointment. They each had cavities. Lilia had her cavities filled with no problem. Lissy cried pretty ferociously when the dentist filled her cavities. They are now taking the task of brushing their teeth very seriously so they don't get any more cavities.

Here, There, and Everywhere

Last night was an interesting night. Kulani was asked by one of the partners at his law firm, who happens to be on the board of the J. Reuben Clark Law School, to smooze a young up-and-comer to try to get him to attend BYU law school. We took him out to Outback Steakhouse. The partner asked Kulani because the student is Polynesian with an engineering background who wants to become a patent attorney. Not too many Polynesians in the patent attorney field. Unlike many electrical engineers I've met, the kid was very nice, sociable, and modest. He didn't brag about his amazing grades or background. He was polite and humble but able to hold a good conversation. To put it succinctly, the guy is going places. We tried our best to sell BYU on the guy. Hopefully we made our case. At the end of the dinner, I couldn't help but put a plug in for one of my nieces--should he ever want another free dinner. He seemed interested.

Lilia came home from school saying she had a bad day at preschool. She wasn't able to go to recess because she was using the bathroom instead. (Did it take all recess to go?) We forgot her backpack, so she wasn't able to put her papers in her backpack to bring home from school. And then her best friend Lily didn't ride the bus home with her so they could talk on the way home. Her mom picked her up from school. So she was lamenting her day and asked if I might be able to make it better for her by giving her some strawberries. If strawberries is all it takes to turn her day around, then I'm more than happy to help. Later that night, when we were at the restaurant with Wonderkind, she retold her sorrows to our neighbors who agreed to swap babysitting for a night. She told the babysitter that if she'd only make her some cinnamon toast, she'd feel better. Girls will eat you out of house and home just as much as boys, I'm finding out. The girls are always hungry.

Lissy and Lilia have begun with the arguments. They argue over everything. For example: "Lissy, your chair is too close to mine." To which Lissy will usually scream, "It's NOT!" at the top of her lungs. It's hard to know which one is wrong and which one is right. Lilia tends to be bossy, and Lissy hates to be bossed. So one day they were arguing over something silly, and to keep Lissy from screaming, I told her that rather than screaming, she could just say "we have a difference of opinion." Now whenever they start arguing, Lissy says, "Lilia, we just have a difference of opinion," which makes Lilia upset. She told Kulani last night, "Lissy thinks we have a difference of opinion, but really we're just arguing." How do they get so smart so fast?

Tonight is the Princesses on Ice concert at the Delta Center. I'm going to dress the girls up in their princess costumes. We're eating whatever they want at the concessions stand. It should be a lot of fun. We'll see. It's in celebration of Lissy's birthday Friday. We'll be celebrating it all weekend long, as we're going to St. George for Kulani to get some CLE classes in, so our hotel (and hopefully gas) will be paid for by his law firm. (Thank you WN law firm!) We told Lissy that the trip is part of her birthday. Kulani reserved us a condo that has four swimming pools. Yee haw!

Make Room for Pictures

Lilia's First Ballet Class (after quitting last year, but this year she swears she's going to stick with it).

The girls wearing their favorite stocking hats Aunt Angela made them (with Nohea trying to pull them off).

Nohea with the "big cousins" Mackenzine, Grace, and Sarah at Uncle Wayne's wedding reception in Rexburg in December. The back of Minnie's head is also pictured.

The whole descendants of Karen and Norvel Christenson at Wayne's wedding reception.