THE wedding

this was probably the busiest i've ever been...preparing for a wedding. note to self...marry someone rich so i can hire people to do everything! but it all paid off because in the end everything came together beautifully!!! and after seeing my two besties at the happiest they've ever been...i'd do it all over again.

so since march was wedding month, i had spent the first two weekends flying to cali to help out with as much as i could. and then i flew out the weekend before the wedding and stayed until the big day. i brought my sister along with me the week of the wedding cause i knew there would be a lot to do. and boy was a right. as soon as we got there we went straight to work. here's a play by play of our schedule for that week:

friday:
- arrive in orange county and head out to coto de caza (where the real housewives of orange county live) to pick up the brides head piece and a few silver platters for the hors d'oeuvres
- head out to murrieta thinking we would get some shut eye. WRONG. programs had to be glued to cardstock, on both sides...so instead of waiting til the next day we started it up at midnight and finished by 4am.

saturday:
- BALL day! cutting out 1800 paper circles...then folding and gluing them together to make a total of 90 balls! this took us literally ALL day...from 10am-7am the next day

sunday:
- day of rest...oh wait...that is after ironing approximately 100 chair ties.

monday:
- ironing 30+ huge table cloths
- ironing 100 seat covers and figuring out how to store them

tuesday:
- salon day!!! getting our nails did with the bride
- continue ironing 200+ more seat covers

wednesday:
- visiting the venue to map out the ceremony
- chopping up veggies, baking cakes and making pudding for desserts, and skewering grapes for pupu's

thursday:
- rehearsal day! headed up to long beach early to get a few last minute items for the wedding
- arriving at the chapel on time...only to wait an hour since everyone else (who lived the closest) came late. hahaha.

friday:
- crunch time...chopping up the rest of the fruit for the hors d'oeuvres.
- practicing the taualuga with the bride
- loading up the cars with everything that needed to be transported to the venue the next morning

saturday:
- waking the bride up at 6am to start getting ready
- waking up the rest of the bridesmaids to get ready as well before heading over to the venue to help set up
- returning to the house to send the bride and groom off for the bridals while the rest of us get ready...
- head to the venue and then....GAME TIME!!!!

everything about that day was BEAUTIFUL!!! and i know i've said this before but i'm over the moon happy for these two...because of everything that they have both gone through to finally come together. and i'm just so happy to have met both of them and be part of that special day. here's some pix from that crazy week!

the besties

in a previous post i know i mentioned that two of my very best friends were getting hitched...to each other. this was definitely a first for me...the whole being close to both the bride and the groom. so naturally i was chosen to be the maid of honor. hahaha...nah..jk. well...the time has come for these two to get married. but before i get to that i have to share the story of how i've come to know these two beautiful people...and how it alllllll happened.

first meet the bride...ms ana eileen aiono
she and i met in the spring of 2006. she and her niece, morgan, just moved out to hawaii from arizona and started working with me at turtle bay. because they were new to the island, i took pity on them since they had no friends and introduced them to my friends. hahahaha...totally kidding bout the taking pity part...but i did befriend them and introduce them to the YSA scene in laie. they came at the right time too because me and my roommates were in the process of house hunting for a bigger place, and since ana and momo were so over paying for their overpriced apartment, we invited them to move in with us. and that began our bond as musicbox sistahs for life!



then there's the groom....gregory robert dowden
we first officially met the summer of 2007 at a ysa ward activity. i had always heard so much about him from my other friends who went to school with him at byuh his freshmen year. he left for a mission, went to school in utah for a couple years and returned to byuh to finish up. i would always hear stories about them and this white boy greg. so when i first met him...he was like..."hi..i'm greg." and instantly i knew...he was the white boy. it wasn't until later that year...after winter ball i think, where we became close. next thing i know is i was picking him up from the airport after his winter break and we hung out pretty much everyday after that.


 they both met each other in the ward the same year i met greg. ana's sister in law is from the same area greg's from and she actually worked at his high school. so when he first came back to hawai'i that's how he introduced himself to ana. but i don't think they started hanging out til later in 2008 when ana came back to visit and i was hanging out with greg...so naturally she started hanging with him as well. then when he went back to cali that year, they met up there and started hanging out there, and developed a lasting friendship. they've seen each other make it and break it with past relationship, yet always seemed to miss each other when it came to developing that "more than friends" relationship. but now finally after 4 years...they have turned a new page in each others lives, and are not stuck with each other..FOOORRRREEEEVVVEEERRRR!!! lol

twinkies turn ONE!!!

it has been a loooooooong time coming now...but my twin niece and nephew have finally turned ONE!!! these two little munchkins have been a huge blessing for our family...especially their parents. i still remember the days where 1...we found out honey girl was pregnant...and then 2...finding out that she was having TWINS...then 3...discovering that one of her little peanuts had a peanut and one didn't....and then 4...welcoming them into the world. since i live with them...i've been there with them every step of the way. from rushing over to the hospital with my older sister after working graveyard shifts with delta...to take the morning shift as the parentals rested...to changing dirty bums and spit up when the formula didn't agree with them. a lot has happened within the past year, so what better way to celebrate their 1 year mark than with a baby lu'au?!

this party has been in the planning/prepping stages for months....literally! and thank goodness because if we had left everything at the last minute i think i would have wanted to shoot myself. hahaha. but even though we had prepped almost half of the decorations before hand, there was still A LOT to do the week of. what seemed to make it even more stressful was that we only had 3 hours to setup!!! yup....we found out later that the chapel we were using for the party was having stake baptisms earlier in the day, so we weren't allowed to set anything up the day before. talk about stress alert! but thanks to the many helping hands of family and friends, we were able to git'er done just in time for all the guests, and the party was a HUGE success. mahalo nunui to everyone who came and contributed to this milestone for our twinkies!!!

some of the decor

games station that go toe' up by the end of the night

more decor

dessert table

the two happy one year olds sporting their hau'ula gear...how's da shorts/skirt...meeeean bu!

baby names

last weekend i took a quick trip home just to escape the cold weather in utah. while walking home from the beach one day i was talking to my niece about her new brother that is expected to come in may. just a little background...this is my oldest brother's (aaron) eldest child that i was talking to. my brother's three kids are the same age as my sister's (leone) youngest three kids. so when they get together, they are practically inseparable. keonaona...my niece that i was talking to loves her saaga cousins so much...this conversation is definitely evidence of that.

me: so naona are you excited you're having a new baby brother?

naona: yup.

me: what's his name?

naona: teancum. that's daddy's favorite person in the scriptures.

me: oh really...cool.

naona: yeah..but we have to think of a hawaiian name for him. like the rest of us.

me: oh yeah...and which family name will he have? you have kamaka'ala (her mother's maiden name), malu boy has rivers (my mother's maiden name), and hiwa has sproat (her maternal grandmother's maiden name). so what name do you think your baby brother is gonna have?

naona: ummm...i don't know...maybe saaga?!

me: buahahahahaha!!!!! GIRL...das your uncle ope's family not your dads!

omg...i just had to post this for memory's sake. that girl has just spent toooooo much time with her saaga cousins.

aloha THURSDAY!!!!

the beach down the road from my childhood home

i'm so ready to get outta here for a much needed vacation. i know you're probably thinking "what?! you just got back from a trip to ny and phx?!?!?!" those were hecka fun...but not quite relaxing. so now i'm going to my favorite place....home. ready to get some much needed sun and relaxation. its the perfect time to fly standby since all the other poly's and their mama here in slc are flying down to vegas for the rugby 7's. so bring on the poke and rice...boots and kimo's pancakes...cinnamon's red velvet pancakes...storto's deli sandwiches...sharks cove grill veggie burger...shokudo's honey toast...and ERRRRRRRRRRthang else!!! diet goin out the window this weekend! lol.

prayer, meditation and dance central

this past saturday was the 2nd stop in a 3-part bridal shower series. with the eat, pray, love themed bridal shower extravaganza, and the "eat" part already taken care of...it was time to head out to india, arizona for some prayer and self discovery. since the bride to be spent most of her time living in arizona, (and with the maitron of honor living there), it was only appropriate to have everyone there join in on the celebration.

the beautiful matiron of honor (niece of the bride), ms. morgan casey gilmore along with her mother (sister of the bride) played hostess to the festivities. to keep with the "pray" theme, the gilmore home was transformed into our very own indian temple. complete with specific chakra colors chosen for the bride.

red...the base...to ground spirit forces in body
orange...sacral...utilization of creative forces in all aspects of being
green...heart...release emotionally suppressed trauma
indigo...third eye...clearing subconscious to channel intuition

it was beautiful! the mellow bollywood tunes playing in the background definitely set the mood and had everyone feeling like we were in india.

later...alberta...the bride's eldest sister, who just so happens to be a practicing yogi lead us in some simple meditation and prayer exercises that put us all in a state of peace...and sore arms. lol. the food was delicious...and the company was more than entertaining. one of the highlights of the night for myself was meeting up with this beautiful mama.

i've known ms. robin almost as long as i've known ana and morgan, and now that she resides in arizona, it was so nice to see her and just crack up for days talking about all our adventures back in hawai'i.

after we got all relaxed and ready for bed...morgan just had to challenge us all in the art of dance! lol. so this is what we spent the rest of the night doing. lol.




it was nice to chill and hang out with the rest of ana's family out in az...even if it was for a short trip. this just makes me even more excited for the final shower in cali...where we'll be celebrating love in bali, california.

i wanna be a LOSER...

i know everyone sets the goal with each new year to release some excess weight...yet this year i'm DETERMINED!!! i actually started working on my release in late november. PERFECT time to start with thanksgiving and the holidays just around the corner right?! well...i didn't care. i was in "i'm-gonna-be-in-a-wedding-line" mode, and was determined to make that lifestyle change.

so i'm happy to say....IT'S WORKING! they say if you do something consistently for 21 days it then becomes a habit. well...i'm a habitual "worker-outer"...hahaha. yup. i've been going to the gym consistently at least 4-5 times a week for a month!!! this may not seem like such a big deal to some, but for me this is HUGE! i haven't worked out on a consistent basis like this since i was in high school!!! but i do it. a lot of it has to do with my new work schedule which actually allows me to wake up early(er than normal for me) at 9am to get ready to go to the gym. but i feel like i have no life during the week. this has been my normal schedule mon-fri this past month:

*wake up at 9am and get ready for the gym*
*zumba classes usually start between 10-1030..depending on what gym we go to*
*get home by 12pm to make lunch*
*get ready for work at the hawaiian cultural center (work 2pm-6pm)*
*get home in time for a quick dinner*
*jump on the phones by 715pm and work my normal 8 hr shift with delta*
*off the phones by 345am...straight to bed for a quick snooze before starting all over again the next day*

seems crazy right?! well...there are some days where i have friends at delta pick up the first few hours of my shift, so i can take a little break here and there. or i'll take a day off with the hawaiian cultural center (LOVE that they're super flexible).

you would think that i can catch up on rest over the weekend right?! WRONG...i've been busy almost every weekend so far this year...and will continue to have something going on clear until april! between bridal showers, hawaiian community events, and girls trips...life has kept me busy busy busy!!! and i LOVE it!

so with all this work and working out going on...you're probably wondering...is it working? well i'm happy to say it is...little by little. one of the biggest things that has helped me out has been the new app i downloaded, lose it! i say how much i wanna lose each week, and it gives me a daily calorie allowance. i've never been more conscience of what i ate. but its working. i'm already down 6 pounds since i started 2 weeks ago!!! so here's to a healthier new year!!!