I DID IT!!!

Friday morning, I decided to cook Alma breakfast. I wanted to do it because he had cooked me breakfast the day before. So off to the kitchen I go. I made him scrambled eggs with spam and sausage in them. yummy! I sauteed some onions. I know, right?!? :) I even made him some eggos. We sat down, said our prayer, and started eating. Just like the last time I made him dinner, everything appeared to be okay. He was eating. He was still alive. Only this time while he was eating, I hear him saying, "mmm...oh wow." I looked up in shock! I asked him, "honey, how's your food?" You know what he said?!? He said, "BABE, THIS IS BOMB!!!" YEEEEEEEESSSSSSS!!!!!! I've managed to make my husband something he actually loves and he's still alive! Maybe it's just dinner I can't make. Maybe my "thing" is breakfast NOT dinner. Yeah, I think it is. I need to buy more eggs. Looks like we'll be eating breafast for the rest of our lives. LOL. Life if good.

I love to see the Temple...

I'll go inside some day. I'll convenant with my Father, I promise to obey. Today was a great day. We went to the temple with the Bryce's. It's the first time I'd been back since March 14th. In only two months I had forgotten how wonderful it is to be in the house of the Lord. I had forgotten how important it is that we go as often as we can.
I had such a beautiful experience at the temple today. Knowing the work I was doing for this sister who had been waiting for so long was finally going to be completed today was very emotional for me. I realize how fortunate I was to be able to do this work for this sister and feel all the same wonderful feelings I had when I first went through. My heart was pounding a mile a minute. I could feel His presence. I could not stop crying. There's a sense of peace that comes with knowing you've done something right.

To Lili, Mua, Michelle, and Paaga...

I hate you guys! ugh. lol. Okay wait. I'm trying to control my thoughts here, so let's turn that to something a little bit nicer...I uh...well, It's just that...umm...EH! forget it! YOU JERKS!!! lol. j/k. i love you guys...sometimes. :)

Last night, I actually made dinner for us. It was even something other than chicken. Matter fact, it had NOTHING to do with soup or baking. I made hamburger and spaghetti. :) I made rice and even a little garlic bread. Okay by "garlic bread" I mean regular sliced bread that was a bit crusty, IDK why it was because the bag is always closed. I just mixed shredded cheese and mayo and spread it on the 4 pieces (we only had enough cheese for 4 pieces. Usually we can eat more than 4,5,or even 6. haha. we're fat. i know. that's a whole different blog.) and put it in the oven until the cheese has melted. yummy! Anyhow, so dinner's ready and I make Alma's plate, get him some water, and a napkin. Then I get my plate ready. We say our prayer and start eating. We're watching T.V., eating, and talking. Everything seems to be going well. He's eating his food. Hasn't spit it out or died. So everything seems to be okay. I'm thinking to myself, "Wow! I think you've FINALLY made something Alma actually LIKES!!! yay!!!" But then I realize he's really putting ALOT of seasoning salt on his food. Actually we're BOTH really putting ALOT of seasoning on our food. I even go and get the garlic salt, because I can't quite get my food to taste right. :( Then I look down at my rice and it looks like sua leisa (rice). DANGIT! ugh. But I keep on truckin'. I look over and Alma's done eating. He's actually finished his food. I'm still a little excited, because he actually finished his meal and appears to not be suffering from any adverse side effects. haha. So I ask him, "Honey, how was your food?" He shrugs his shoulders and just says, "It was alright." I am no longer excited, but I'll take it. Gotta start somewhere, right? Needless to say I probably won't be cooking dinner for a while since my food is just, "alright." I'll be outside cleaning our lawn. ugh. I AM A GUY!!! LOL.
**side note** don't laugh too much you four. Why? Anyone who knows you knows, that you 4, ESPECIALLY LILI, are MEN. I know that you also think you guys are well...GUYS, also. You just happen to wear lip gloss. love ya!

My answer for Lili's blog..."cook with love"

Okay, so after reading Lili's blog I felt a little guilty for not cooking for my husband. He works 5 nights a week and still manages to make sure that I'm taken care of. The least I can do is cook him dinner, right? Well, the two things I can actually make he doesn't care for ; sua moa and baked chicken. Apparently he ate it too much when he was a kid and now cannot stand the stuff. His bad for marrying a girl who only knows how to cook those two things. :)
I do make sure he has eats, has clean clothes on, and blah, blah, blah. However, when it comes to a nice home cooked meal that is where my "wifely duties" are lacking. A caring wife would learn how to cook other things. Foods her husband actually enjoys. I choose not to. Not because I don't care about my husband. But because I don't really like cooking. I used to "cook with love" for my family in Washington, but have long since lost that "love" for cooking. In fact, I can't really stand it.
Today Alma cooked us dinner. I felt a little guilty, but then I quickly got over that. Why? Well, today while he was cooking dinner, I was mowing the lawn. I realize that is a great trade, right?!? Alma can cook while I mow the lawn! I don't mind doing it since it only takes about 15min. to do it. :) Maybe one day I'll find that "love" for cooking and try to make something for my hubby he actually will eat. :) But until then, our lawn will be SOOOOO BEAUTIFUL!!! :-D

exercise day two

Another beautiful, sunny day here in Salem. Another opportunity for us to go out and walk at the waterfront. We got dressed and headed out. Everything was fine during our walk, until my left calf started to tighten. We stopped so that I could stretch it out. Of course all the while I'm doing this, Alma tells me, "See hon, that's why it's important for you to stretch BEFORE you start walking." So supportive this guy. :) After my stretch, we continue to walk, but my leg just kept hurting. Of course we get to the parking lot and Alma asks me if we're gonna keep going to the bridge like yesterday. "NO. I'm done. My leg hurts." was my reply. "Really?" was his reply. He shakes his head, tells me I should work through the pain. I laugh and shake my head and politely tell him to keep going while I wait. "NO, babe we're a team." So we hope into our car and head to the grocery store to buy stuff for the house. Our half an hour walk took only 20 mins. today. However, we did do alot of walking around the dollar tree and Winco. So I think we'll call it even today. :) Tomorrow is going to be better. At least I hope it will. lol.

A beautiful day for exercise! What?!?

Yes you read right, today was a beautiful day in Salem. So beautiful that Alma and I decided to go for a walk...a pretty long one. We drove down to the waterfront, parked our cars and off we went! Tuesday evening we discussed our exercise routine. Or rather, the lack of an exercise routine. I was watching Oprah and her guest was Dr. Oz. He said if we were to walk everyday for at least 30 mins. we would start to lose weight. I thought, "hey! we could do that!" So Tuesday evening Alma and I decided that we would start walking. Wednesday rolled around and ugh...it was raining! Gotta love the northwest, right? But today was BEAUTIFUL! We went downtown and started walking. It started off as a slow leisurely walk, but quickly turned into something more. We started walking faster and talking less. Pretty soon, I started to jog. But then I stopped, cause I couldn't breathe. lol. We walked and walked and walked. So far, that I was sweating! It was great! Of course my legs and butt started burning. Alma just said, "That's good! Keep going!" Idk why having a burning butt would be good thing. It felt really good to finally get out and exercise. Yes, it was just walking, but it felt great! We've decided to make this a daily routine of ours. OMG, we're that old couple that you see at parks walking together! lol Only not as cute. They're not sweating and out of breath like us. lol. Now all we have to master is our eating habits. ugh. Wish us luck!

Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy...take two.

Alma and I have decided to try harder to keep the sabbath day holy. Last week was our first and well...we failed. ugh. All week I was hyping myself up for this coming Sunday. I knew that it was Mother's Day and we were gonna be in Tacoma with our family. I immediately thought our goal was not going to be met. I thought I was gonna go to the store to buy more stuff we forgot to get for our dinner. Or go buy me a new dress Sunday morning, because I am too fat to fit my clothes now. Saturday night we were home before midnight AND we decided to stay home and not go out, because it was too late and we had to get ready for Sunday. :)

We got ready and made it to church. Not so much on time, but still was able to catch the entire sacrament program. I was bummed that we had just missed sacrament. I was disappointed with myself because we were late. Idk why I didn't think to iron our church clothes the night before, or make Alahzei take a bath before she went to bed. So I found myself running around Sunday morning trying to do a million things at once; make mom's mother's day breakfast, clean the kitchen, help Mua cook the food for tona'i, give Alahzei a bath, make Alahzei breakfast, make Alma breakfast, get Alahzei ready for church, iron Alma's clothes, iron my clothes, make sure mom looks BEAUTIFUL because today is her day :), figure out how to sew because there's a hole in my husband's church pants, shower, get dressed. phew! The whole time I'm doing all this, I'm wondering why I didn't do all this the night before? I'm thinking, "wow, this is hard! how do mom's do this?" 

We get to church and have a good day. We come home and have our dinner and spend time with family. The T.V. was on because my bro-in-law was watching his soccer game. Usually I would just turn on the T.V. and watch a show regardless of the sabbath day. But NOT today! yay! We were able to get through Sunday without going to the store, watching T.V., or going online. :)

We go to bed that night and talk about things we need to do to better keep the Sabbath Day Holy. Although we were able to refrain from our usual M-Sat activities that day, I still struggled to keep myself spiritually availble. Our Sunday was a big improvement from last week's. We've still got things to work on and are looking forward to being successful at reaching our goal. Yay for us!

LIFE.

Found out this morning about the passing of a young father/husband. Death has been this young father's certain outcome. But does it make us anymore prepared for it? How does one come to grips with their own mortality? I have often thought of this young man and wondered what is going through his mind. Was he afraid to die? Was he sad he had to leave his young family behind? Was he angry that his life is being cut short? Or was he ready to go back home? Was he happy because he was so sure of his eternal salvation? Dear Father, please comfort this family. Please help them remember thy eternal plan. Please help them feel thy presence near. Please, please, please watch over this young mother and children.
It is a known fact that death comes to us all. We do not know when it will come or how it will come; but it will come. With this knowledge, does it change how we live? Lately I have been thinking of death; my death. Am I ready? With that question comes a swift and firm, "no." I have so much I need to "perfect" before my time comes. I have so many more "i love you's" to tell my husband. Now that I'm married, concern for MY eternal salvation has turned into concern for OUR eternal salvation. It is my hope and prayer that when our time comes we will greet our mortality with happiness and peace.

Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy...take one.

I started reading The Miracle of Forgiveness...again. :) I remembered how powerful this book was during my "dark period" haha. I just started reading the book and I've already felt the fires of hell burning at my feet. lol. This week I decided I will try to Keep the Sabbath Day Holy. I woke up, said my prayers, took a shower, got ready...blah,blah,blah. Everything was okay until...my stomach decided it wanted to dispose of some waste...two times! lol. I know that was probably too much information. haha. But because of my stomach issues, we were late to church. So late, that we only got the last 20 mins of sacrament mtg. :( We live an hour away from our ward and so we need to leave at 12pm to get there right in time for church. But all was not lost.
Alma teaches the Y.A. class and today was a good day. Our lesson was on Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy. We are still trying to get to know the Y.A. at our ward and so there's still a bit of "encouragement" we need to give for some class participation. Class was really good today. We talked, we laughed, we read, we shared, I cried.
Usually after Sunday School, we leave. Not today. Today I, Sis. Toelupe was feelin' it! I decided that WE will stay for the rest of church. It was combined class today, so Alma and I were together.
On our way home, I felt really good about how our Sunday was going so far. What usually gets us, is AFTER church. It's still Sunday, so we still need to honour the day right? On our way home, we are trying to figure out what we're gonna eat for dinner. I forgot to take out the chicken to defrost it. So on and on we talk about what we're gonna do when we get home and each time I ask Alma, "So what are we gonna eat?" Eventually he says, "Sushi?" I should've said, "NO." But I didn't. Needless to say our attempt at keeping today holy has failed. As of now, I am blogging and my eternal companion is playing the Wii. We really need to get better at this.