uh-ohh...

son, let's have a little chat about your choice of footwear...

i think he loves me

whenever i'm standing in one spot for a while, the little tyke will find a cozy nook on my feet and just plop himself down between my legs. the reason, i know not...but i think he may be keen on me.

travel channel supastah!

saturday was certainly a whirlwind of craziness. i began getting ready at 6am because we were scheduled to meet the host of the show at 10. i thought ahonui would sleep until around 8-ish, but i guess he heard me get out of bed and crawled after me. after an hour & a half of getting my hair straightened (thanks tab!), i then had to get ahonui ready and fed. i prayed that he would be a good boy for the travel channel cameras and guests at the pretend first birthday luau.

so at 9am we met at uncle vonn's house down the road from my apartment to go to turtle bay resort's helipad. there we were to finally meet the show's host, andrew zimmern, and his bizarre foods crew arriving via helicopter.

isn't there a stereotype that tv show stars are supposed to be egotistical and rude to us less famous peasants? well, this guy absolutely defies this stereotype. he was just the nicest, most down to earth guy you'll ever meet.

the pretend luau began at around 12 noon-ish...actually, people began arriving at that time since that's when i told our guests to come. however, when you're shooting a tv show, this means doing what you just did over and over about three or four times - or until the producer is happy with the shot. so while andrew and my uncle vonn were going over how to pound taro into poi and make lomi 'o'i'o (raw fish pulled from the bones and then mixed with the meat of a kukui nut and hawaiian salt), all the starving guests waited patiently.

ahonui took a brief nap around 1pm. i was so worried that he would be sleeping or grumpy when the camera crew needed to shoot him, but it all worked out perfectly. he slept when they didn't need him, and he was a happy, cooperative boy pretty much all day long...i was so proud.

brandon, fran, and harrison were our wonderful entertainment that day. they couldn't even begin performing until the cameras were done shooting the cooking (or lack thereof) segment. we are also very lucky to have the best hula dancers right in our family! brieanne, kaui, and angela were so awesome to agree to do a beautiful hula for our guests. it was perfect...who needs the pcc promo team?

here are some of the 'ono kine grindz that were served:

pounded taro (poi)

squid lu'au

raw crab

'ahi poke

kulolo

y'all know what this is...yummy pineapple (this one's for u, kareena)

lomi 'o'i'o

liliha bakery chantilly cake...it went as soon as it was cut!

after singing happy birthday to our 14 month old, marcus, tane, and some guys i don't know represented the whanau by performing a traditional maori haka. it never gets old for me...thanks bros.

also, thanks to my mom for all her hard work with the planning and decorations. don't you love the monster construction trucks with flowers? so masculine.

all this for our little one...i hope one day when he's quite grown up, he'll look back at our blu-ray dvd copy of the show and be like, "yeeah, that was me!"

my feet haven't been this dirty since i was seven. but i felt so hawaiian - and exhausted!!

new lifestyle: week two

i must say, it's not as bad as i thought it would be. i really feel healthier and better about myself already. the part that's KILLING me is waking up early to go to the gym. half of me wants to go to the gym in the morning so i won't have to worry about going later in the day...and the other half wants to go at night so i won't be hanging every morning when i wake up. however, it's a great feeling to come back from the gym in the morning and know that i've done something healthy for myself for the day.

after my workouts i usually make myself breakfast and prepare my meals for the day. i'm so lucky to have brandon to guide me on what is actually good for you and what's not. just because a label on a product says fat free, it doesn't necessarily mean it's a great choice. most of the time these products add a ton of sugar or high fructose corn syrup to keep it affordable and tasty. chicken, tuna, eggs, and beef are the main proteins i plan on eating, while whole grain pastas, vegetables, brown rice, and whole wheat bread has been my carbs. i also keep fruits, nuts, yogurt, and those 100 calorie packs for snacks during the day.

so although i may skip a workout (or two) a week, i am trying hard to stick to these eating habits and make it a lifelong goal for my family. keep pushing me people - i've lost 4 pounds so far. YAYERRR!!!

labor pains...in my mouth!

at about 3 am wednesday morning i woke up with massive pains - in my mouth! i've never had a toothache before so i wasn't quite sure how they felt - but i had a feeling this was it. i desperately tried looking online for an emergency dentist that would take me in asap to see what the problem was, but to no avail. so i took some aleve and tried to go back to sleep.

when i woke up in the morning, i told brandon that i was going to have to try and see a dentist that day because i felt like i was going through labor pains again - without the benefit of a cute baby afterwards. i called up my usual dentist in temple valley and they said they'd squeeze me in - yaaay! i really needed to get in that day because: 1) the aleve just wasn't cutting it; 2) i couldn't eat comfortably unless it was just soup; and 3) i didn't want to miss more work by staying out just because of a toothache.

so i went to the dentist's office and they took me in within an hour and a half! i was very impressed. i thought i'd be waiting almost all day. when i met with the dentist he did a few tests to find out which tooth was bothering me. turns out that after some temperature sensitivity test, and a few agonizing taps on my second to the last tooth, i have a bruised ligament holding my nerve on that tooth. i think it may have been from me chewing gum the day before...i dont chew gum very often, so i must have shocked my molar with the vigorous impact of chewing. sounds strange - but i can't think of any other way my tooth ligament got bruised.

my dentist put me on some prescription tylenol with codeine for the pain, so i'm practically sleeping while doing everything now. i hope this bruise heals fast otherwise a root canal might be in the works!!

jam-packed saturday

i thought that being so busy this weekend would have made me yearn for a relaxing moment...but in contrast, it only made me want to get more done.

tane, angela, and ava came over to visit us on friday night and ended up spending the night! it was wonderful to have them over. i was so excited to have guests to entertain that i made ange a nice big omelet for breakfast. tane missed out cause he was still crashed out on the floor at the time. ahonui seemed quite intrigued to have his cousin ava to play with as well.

after tane, ange, and avey left for the beach, brandon, ahonui, and i got ready to go to pcc. brandon was off to work, while i had a class project meeting at the fijian village. bonus: we got to watch brandon sing during the canoe show and ahonui got to throw rocks and get dirt in his fingernails.

i'm sure ahonui had a blast.