Signs of Life

This year I'm planting a garden, for the first time ever. Anyway, I love tomatoes so I've planted some seeds indoors since it's too cold to start them outside. Here are some beautiful pictures of my little baby tomato plants. I have three varieties, although at this point they all look exactly the same, I've started cherry, Roma & regular tomatoes. Aren't they so cute?

Happy Birthday Jonathan!

This year Jonathan's birthday fell on Easter, which has never happened before. Because it was Easter and because he had to work on his birthday we celebrated his big day a little early. This year Jonathan got a Wii for his 27th year. He was skeptical at first but I think he likes it, since he's playing Super Mario Brothers at this very moment. He also got a movie we've been looking for forever, Pure Luck. Anyway, I think it was a pretty good birthday for him, you'll have to ask him to find out for sure. Here are some birthday/Wii pics.

Happy Birthday Dylan!

Our nephew, Dylan, has the same birthday as Jonathan. This year we went to Kangaroo Zoo for his birthday. All the kids had a lot of fun playing on the inflatable toys. Here are some pictures of the event.

Weekend Warriors

I've always wanted a garden. Jonathan and I have lived in our house for almost three years and every year I've said I wanted to plant a garden, and every year I get too lazy to do it. Well, not this year. Jonathan was on spring break this week so I took some time off and instead of going to Las Vegas, like we had planned, we stayed home and built a garden spot. I don't have any before pictures, but I have a lot of during and after pictures.

This is what we did Thursday morning. This is as far as we got in the morning because the ground was still frozen about 4 inches below the surface.

We took a break to let the ground warm up so we could break it up more.

Later that day Cornel Jr., Kage and Jaida came over and helped us.

This is my favorite picture. Kage is such a funny kid!

This is what it looked like after it thawed out and we were able to spread it around.

Then we put up a fence to keep the dogs out of it.

This is my manly husband pounding in the stakes for the fence. He's so strong! I love him :)

This is my lame attempt at pounding in a post.

And we finished! Friday we built planter boxes so I could try the Square Foot Gardening Method. Jonathan is skeptical about it so we're going to have a little competition, he's going to grow his corn in regular top soil and I'm growing it in the SFG Mel's Mix. We'll see in the fall who's corn turns out better. If worse comes to worse we'll have a lot of corn!

And I even got a little sunburned.

Adventures in Babysitting

We got to babysit Cornel & Bekki's kids while they went to a volleyball tournament with Sheliah. The kids were great, we ordered pizza and watched Ratatouille. Jaida loved being at our house so much she walked back over by herself (no shoes) after Linda and Pili took the kids to their house. It's a good thing we only live three houses away from them! That stinker. Here's some footage of the evening...

thought of all the stupid things i've done

I don't know about you, but I know I've said a lot of stupid things in my life. I don't know why I can't learn the lesson to think before I speak. This fault of mine has plagued me for a long time. Here are a couple of examples:

• The time I went shopping with a friend and remarked about how some of the clothing in the store was "school teacher bad". My friend, bless her, was so sweet when she said, "I'll have to tell my mom about this store then." I felt awful, I totally forgot that her mom taught elementary school.
• Or the time when my husband and I were talking to a car salesman about a $25,000 truck. When the salesman asked what kind of payment we were hoping for I said, "we'd like to keep it under $200." The salesman was nice when he said that if they were allowed to finance cars for 30 years, they would.

Let's not mention the times I've "let the cat out of the bag" on secret matters. I think I'm just going to try to keep my mouth shut from now on, unless I'm blogging, of course.

He has a name - or 7

I'd never be able to remember all these names or their spellings... Congrats again, Kevin & Sara!

Lalea Makali'i Pilikua Pomaikai Kalani Kiekie Saluone Kaohelaulii

Introducing Baby Boy Kaohelaulii

Jonathan's sister, Sara, had a beautiful baby boy on February 22, 2008. They haven't named him yet, but he was 10 lbs. 5 oz. What a beautiful baby boy! Congratulations, you guys!

Here are some pictures of him with his sisters:


Apparently Pa'ia wasn't very happy about having her picture taken!

Don't Know

I don't really know what to write, I just feel like I should write something. Let's see...

I got to sleep in today.

I am going to make some delicious Minestrone soup for dinner tonight.

I haven't showered yet and it's 12:41 PM.

Jonathan is snoring.

Two dogs are sleeping on me.

My house is a mess.

I'm watching Food Network.

Basically, it's a good day :) I hope you're having one too!

A Good Weekend

This last holiday weekend Jonathan and I were lucky enough to get to spend the whole weekend together, no work or anything. It was so nice, first we got a bite to eat for lunch. Then we went to Nickelcade, I didn't have much luck there because half the machines I put nickels into didn't work, and the air hockey table sucked - Jonathan hit me in the wrist with the puck, then I almost maimed some innocent standbyer with it. I found out how out of shape I am because after playing the basketball shooting game two times my arm was really hurting me. My high score was 25 and Jonathan's was 42 (which he was disgusted by). Then we went to Target and bought curtains for our bedroom. Then we installed the curtains in our bedroom. Then we took a nap. Then J wasn't feeling so hot so we got some dinner to-go at Wallaby's (good mashed potatoes). I don't really remember what we did after that, probably nothing. Jonathan steadily got more and more sick as the weekend progressed so we stayed in for the rest of it. It was still really nice to just spend time together. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures. Maybe next time.

Happy Valentines Day!

I know I did a post recently about Jonathan, but I still wanted to take the time today to say:

I love Jonathan Saluone with all my heart!

He is the best husband ever. He always thinks about me and takes good care of me. He keeps me on the right track (even though it's annoying at times) and he always tells me how beautiful I am (and I need that). He's such a hard worker and I know he will always do whatever it takes to make sure our family needs are met. I can't wait to be sealed to him for time and eternity. He's smart and handsome and I'm the luckiest girl in the world!

Jonathan, I love you tons!

A Tasty Recipe

So I found the best meat loaf recipe ever on the Food Network website. Here's the recipe:

1 pound ground beef
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped bell pepper
1 egg, lightly beaten
8 ounces canned diced tomatoes with juice
1/2 cup quick-cooking oats

Topping:
1/3 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon prepared mustard

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Mix all meatloaf ingredients well and place in a baking dish. Shape into a loaf.

Topping: Mix ingredients for topping and spread on loaf. Bake for 1 hour.

I don't usually add the green pepper, mostly because I never have one on hand. And I like to spoon the meat mixture into a muffin tin because it takes about half as long to bake. The topping is delicious and the meat loaf is never dry. I love this and so does Jonathan, which says a lot!

Enjoy!

Curtis

I'm sorry I don't have a picture, but I wanted to blog about a friend of mine (and my husband's) today.

Sometimes I get bogged down thinking about all the things I want and don't have, and all the things I think my life should be or could have been. The fact that Jonathan and I are preparing to go to the temple doesn't help, Satan has really been at work in my life lately. But then Jonathan started working in the tire shop at WalMart (for the winter) and he made a new friend, Curtis. Curtis is a really nice, sincere, friendly, capable, smart and innocent guy. He has some issues in his life right now, which I won't explain because that's not my story to tell, but after Jonathan got to know him, it became evident that Curtis needed some help. So Jonathan, being the service-oriented guy that he is (and I absolutely love that about him), decided that we needed to help Curtis and I'm so glad that we did. Having Curtis in our lives has definitely helped me to gain a greater perspective of my life. I found myself counting my many blessings as I learned more and more about Curtis and his situation. I realized that I have way more than I need and it doesn't matter if I don't have a brand new kitchen, and it doesn't matter if I can't go clothes shopping every weekend and it doesn't matter if sometimes my husband's bad habits get on my nerves because at least I have a house and at least I have a closet full of last season's clothes and at least I have a husband who loves me and wants to spend time with me. There are a lot of people out there who would give anything to have what Jonathan and I have (material & immaterial) and I need to appreciate that.

Thanks, Curtis, for teaching me a much needed lesson about life. And thank you, Heavenly Father, for blessing me with so much.

My Man!

This is for Rachael, since I ignored her previous tag...

What's his name?

Jonathan Pili Saluone

How long have you been together?

3.5 years (2.5 years married)

How long did you date?

1 year

How old is he?

27 in March (9 months younger than me)

Who eats more?

He eats more than me, definitely. (Do you think I'd say if I ate more than him, anyway?)

Who said "I love you" first?

He did. I wanted to say it first, but I was too scared and just waited for him to say it.

Who is taller?

He is, by about 6 inches.

Who can sing better?

I'm pretty sure that's me, although he does a pretty darn good Elvis impression.

Who does the laundry?

Mostly me, unless I've slacked off and he's desperate for socks & underclothes. I slack off a lot.

Who pays the bills?

We both make the money, but I make sure the checks are in the mail ;)

Who sleeps on the right?

I'm on the right side (if you're looking at the bed).

Who mows the lawn?

He does, although I did mow it about 3 times the first year we were in our house. But I do all the gardenening/weeding.

Who cooks dinner?

We both do, although on weeknights it's mostly me.

Who drives?

He does. I feel much safer with him behind the wheel, or just less self conscious. Plus he has a CDL so I'm never worried when he's driving.

Who is more stubborn?

That's probably a tie, unfortunately.

Who kissed who first?

Him, of course. I'm a lady ;)

Who asked out who first?

He asked me out. It was so sweet, we met one night and, after finding out from my friend that I was available, he called me up a couple days later. He doesn't like to waste any time.

Who proposed?

He did, I think. We never really had a formal engagement, we just knew we wanted to marry each other and decided to get a ring.

Who has more friends?

I think he does. He's a friendly guy.

Who is more sensitive?

That would probably be me, although I don't like admitting it.

Who has more siblings?

I have 4 and he has 6.

Who wears the pants?

We both wear pants, but J never wears a skirt :)

Seriously, I think we do a good job at making decisions together.

I love you, Jonathan!!!!

Farewell to a Prophet

Gordon B. Hinckley is the prophet that I remember most since he was the prophet for the last, and most memorable, 13 years of my life. I will miss him, his humor and his encouragement.

The most memorable talk from President Hinckley, for me, is the talk he gave on the "Be's". I'm sure many of you remember it or the modified versions of it, including the book Way to Be! But the thing that I remember most about the talk isn't the list of things to "Be", but the prayer he offered for the youth of the church at the end of that talk. That touched me more than anything. To have a prophet of God pray out loud for me, that's really something. At that time in my life I really needed that. So here's the prayer, which I'm sure he has offered more times that once, for the youth of the church:

"Now, in conclusion, I offer a word of prayer concerning you.
O God, our Eternal Father, as Thy servant I bow before Thee in prayer in behalf of these young people scattered over the earth who are gathered tonight in assemblies everywhere. Please smile with favor upon them. Please listen to them as they lift their voices in prayer unto Thee. Please lead them gently by the hand in the direction they should follow.
Please help them to walk in paths of truth and righteousness and keep them from the evils of the world. Bless them that they shall be happy at times and serious at times, that they may enjoy life and drink of its fulness. Bless them that they may walk acceptably before Thee as Thy cherished sons and daughters. Each is Thy child with capacity to do great and noble things. Keep them on the high road that leads to achievement. Save them from the mistakes that could destroy them. If they have erred, forgive their trespasses and lead them back to ways of peace and progress. For these blessings I humbly pray with gratitude for them and invoke Thy blessings upon them with love and affection, in the name of Him who carries the burdens of our sins, even the Lord Jesus Christ, amen."

Artists on my MP3

• Dashboard Confessional
• Better Than Ezra
• Ziggy Marley
• Gwen Stefani
• Otis Redding
• The Beatles
• No Doubt
• Ingrid Michaelson
• Paul Simon
• UB40
• Natasha Beddingfield
• Sean Kingston
• The Flamingos
• Travis
• Sia

The invisibles

Puppet for your thoughts?

Did you...?

I'm not alone