Birth and Death

WARNING: slightly depressing blog

Today at church they announced that our old bishop's wife died. It wasn't a surprise or anything, she's been battling breast cancer for years. He was the Bishop when we first moved into this ward when I was pregnant with Alekisio, and now he is in the stake presidency. For the year of 2006 we were in the tongan branch so when we came back to our ward I thought they had just moved. Later I found out she was in the hospital. After I gave birth Aisea left to get Alekisio and when he came back he said he saw Pres. Soon in the hall and they were releasing Sis. Soon because they could no longer do anything for her in the hospital. I was giving birth to a beautiful baby and he was taking his wife home to die. I understand the plan of salvation, I know that she's not suffering now and she's finally at peace but this is why life just plain isn't fair sometimes. Bishop Soon was raised in the church and became inactive, got married, had two boys, and buried his first wife because of breast cancer when his youngest boy was a toddler. He went back to church and met his second wife who quickly became a mother to the boys. They have a daughter who is now in 9th or 10th grade. She was a petite, beautiful, quiet woman, and they've raised amazing kids. The oldest boy is on his mission right now. Now she is gone from the same illness that took his first wife, and his daughter doesn't have her mother for all the things a teen needs her for. I know that having an understanding of the gospel has helped their family, as it should.

This all brought up feelings and thoughts I've been having since my Grandpa Levenhagen died just after Sio was born. What do you say to people after someone they love dies? I have a testimony, I know where they're going, I know I'll be fine and see them again. There are times though that knowing those things doesn't comfort me. I need to cry, be mad, think about how unfair it is that my grandpa couldn't hold my baby. They're the most perfect things I've ever done and my grandpas can't enjoy them. Those feelings of sadness won't go away, and they actually aren't getting easier to deal with like they're supposed to but they're less frequent. Whenever my mom tells me that I'll see them again etc. lately I want to scream. I know it already and I feel like people are telling me I shouldn't still be sad. I know she isn't though. After I lose someone I would rather not talk about it unless I want to and have someone give me a hug when I need it. So what do you say to someone who has just lost someone they love? Especially if you don't know them really well. I feel bad just avoiding them but I don't know what to say and I feel like I would start crying just looking at them. Times like this make me remember not to take my family for granted. Sorry for such a depressing blog. I don't know if it all came out the way it is in my head. Just to clarify, I do have a testimony, and I know my family that has passed it waiting for me and watching my family grow, and they're proud of me.

Another use for febreze

This is my third entry in two days. I can't believe it! I just read Missy's blog and it reminded me of something I forgot to blog about. I kind of use this as a journal so I don't forget. For some reason I'm better at this than actual journaling. Maybe because I know others can read and hopefully enjoy. Here goes.

Alekisio threw up in the middle of the night monday night. I cleaned it up and sprayed febreze, leaving the febreze on the floor by his bed. Tuesday night he was watching a movie in his bed and Aisea smelled febreze. He called to Alekisio asking what he was doing, as he was walking in to the room he saw Alekisio spraying the febreze. He said,"I just spray a little bit daddy." Aisea then put it in the kitchen. That night Aisea slept on the floor in the living room(on a fold up mat) so Sio could sleep with me. Isabelle woke up at 1:30 which also woke up Sio. He would not go back to sleep, going back and forth between Aisea and I. He always ends up in the end;). I finally got him to lay down by me and I fell asleep around 2:45am. I guess he didn't fall asleep because the next day Aisea said he woke up in the middle of the night hearing something in the kitchen. At first he thought it was me, then he heard ch ch ch ch (a spray bottle). This was what followed:

Aisea: "Alekisio?" As he walked to the kitchen. "What are you doing?"

Alekisio:"I cleaning my poopy diaper." As he sprayed the diaper he had taken off on the kitchen floor with febreze.

Aisea said he wanted to be mad but he couldn't because it was so funny. Left in the house with no supervision he finds the best things to do!

Ten for Today

I get bored sometimes at night and google people. I found Ben Engstrom's blog and his wife did something she saw on another blog called ten for tuesday. I keep meaning to do it on tuesday but I never seem to remember so I did it today. Here are ten random things about our family this week, or just going on in my head.

1. Since having Isabelle I realized that I often run out of the house without doing one or sometimes all of these things: brushing my teeth, brushing my hair, or shaving my legs. Luckily I've learned to keep things like deodorant and a brush in the car. One sunday on the way to church I realized that I hadn't shaved my legs! We were already late so Aisea was irritated that we had to turn around so I left the razor in the car also. Dry shaving stinks but sometimes it's necessary to do things I never thought I would. I'm hoping to become a little less scatterbrained. I'm happy to say that I've been having less and less of these moments! I do however always have what I need for the kiddos.
2. Aisea can't say no to Alekisio when they go to the store. They always come home with a little bag of chips, or candy bar from the check out. Last week however when they went to the drugstore they came home with a dart gun. I don't care about my kid playing with guns but he can't put the darts in or pull the tension rod in the back so I spend much of my day doing that over and over while we shoot the tv.
3. Alekisio's new phrase last week was, "Yo Mamacita." He got it from Alvin and the Chipmunks.
4. I now have to keep the toilet paper roll on the towel bar above the toilet. Alekisio has just finished potty training and every time he uses the potty he smacks the roll and the whole thing unrolls onto the floor. I was tired of rerolling it, I don't know why it took me two weeks to think of where to put it so he can't reach!
5. For some reason Alekisio calls the darts for his gun hoots. Strange I know.
6. Isabelle smiles alot now and she rolls from her back to her stomach now. But only when she's struggling to get her thumb in her mouth.
7. I have been afraid to attempt Costco with two kids. Especially since it opens so close to naptime. But I've done it!
8. Aisea wants me to take the kids to Tonga to see his family and his grandpa. His grandpa was here when I was pregnant with Alekisio and was very excited but went back to tonga before he was born. He's too sick to come back so we need to go there. We'll see if it happens though.
9. Last night Aisea took both kids to his aunt's house. He thought it would give me a break. Well I washed the dishes, picked up, cleaned the bathroom and mopped all the floors. When he came back an hour later I was ready for that break!
10. I don't know why I insist on buying strawberries at costco. I know whatever I don't eat that day is going to be rotten the next day. They just look so good I can't resist!
11. Here's something I saw on a news page this morning. It's some weird body facts.

http://body.aol.com/health/booger-eating-safety?icid=100214839x1200632148x1200024687

Smile!

Isabelle is starting to smile at me all the time. I love it. The funniest smile is the one where you only see gums. Alekisio gets so happy when she smiles at him. Right now Isabelle has a cold, it was a gift from Sio. She's so congested that she's fussy and can't sleep well. Every time I call and ask the nurse about something they tell me to come in. Like last week I called because at the hospital they said 100.4 was a fever and hers was 100.1 and she was spitting up alot of mucus. Of course when I showed up it was nothing again. I wasn't worried about her being sick I just needed to know what I could do at home for her. It's a nightmare to drag them both to the doctor during Sio's naptime. Especially when Aisea takes the stroller in the house and doesn't put it back in the car! Anyway I had Isabelle's blessing gown made and it's beautiful.

My mom got the idea from someone to make a blessing gown out of her wedding dress. She sent me the arms and the sheer overlay with the lace on it. I met a very talented lady at a craft fair that makes the cutest baby items. I looked at her blog and saw that she made some really pretty blessing gowns so I contacted her and she agreed to make it. Her name is Angie and she's fabulous! I thought the lace was too big for a baby dress and couldn't imagine a dress that I would like coming out of it. Mom sent me a pattern so I met Angie at a fabric store and she looked at the pattern. Right away she had ideas about adding the lace to the bodice, using the sheer overlay and lace on top of the skirt, and cutting the sleeves and using the cuffs from my mom's dress as the lace on the arm. She also hand stitched beads onto the lace which updated it by making it more like an heirloom dress. She's actually a member of the church and her husband is deployed overseas right now so with four kids I'm ecstatic that she was able to do it. I'm so excited for her to wear it and for it to become our families heirloom blessing gown. I'm waiting until the first week in June to bless her because the smallest size the pattern came in was 13 lbs. It might still be a little big on her but she'll look like a princess!

If you want to visit her blog and use her links to see her baby items here it is http://amkstitches.blogspot.com

Thursday Thoughts

Today I feel like I'm in a parallel universe. I haven't been feeling well for a few days, every morning I wake up and my throat is congested. This morning it was worse. Isabelle woke up to eat at around 7am so I fed her and we went back to bed. Any other day Sio would wake up a little before eight and she wakes up again to eat at 9:30. This morning however none of us woke up until 10! I coudn't believe my eyes when I saw the clock. Isabelle woke up feeling warm so I took off her pjs and fed her. Usually she'll cool off but she didn't, so I took her temp. and it was 100.1 I called the advice nurse and she said to bring her in. By the time we finished with the doctor and came home it was already 2:30 and I hadn't really done anything. It's also sunless outside. I would say cloudy but it's not cloudy, it's called VOG. The volcanoes on the Big Island are acting up and so the whole sky is white. I can't imagine how it looks on that island. They have health hazard warnings. So anyway I have no idea where the day went. I got to thinking about it and realized that I don't know where the entire week went.

We have been doing scripture study daily! I'm so excited about that. We're good at praying but scriptures have been a struggle. Alekisio doesn't sit still for anything. I finally got him some Book of Mormon stories cardboard books. They sum the stories up in one or two pages so the children can understand them. He also has always loved his picture of Jesus. Now we sit him on the couch and he holds that picture. I remind his that we need to be reverent for Jesus and Heavenly Father while we read scriptures. He also has his book open to the story I'm reading, as I read I show him the pictures and explain the story to him. Then we stop when I can tell he's not going to last any longer. I'm surprised that it's working, but glad. It makes me feel like I'm succeeding at something! Of course the only stories he's interested in are Samuel the Lamanite and Helaman. It's not hard to figure out that it's beccause Samuel gets shot with arrows and in Helaman's story is about a war. He'll eventually get the spiritual aspects of these stories (I hope) so whatever keeps his interest at this point makes me happy!

One month old!

Isabelle is now a month old. I know I just posted a pic of her but my mom needed to see this one. It's special because it's a little bit of a tradition in our little family. When Alekisio was born I took his picture in the same spot in a onesie on the 15th of every month to document his growth. Isabelle's will be taken on the tenth of course. She's starting to have real smiles at me all the time now, not just occasionally. She also loves to watch Sio. When she hears him talking she looks in his direction. I know it's because he talked to her while I was pregnant.

On a different note.....gas is $3.61! Last year in the summer it was 3.41. I remember telling Missy that when we were home and as soon as I said it I thought no that's wrong gas can't be that expensive. I saw an article in the paper when I got home though that averaged gas prices for every month of that summer and gas really was that price. Now it's worse. Every week it seems to go up 5 cents. Whenever mom gasps at how high gas prices are at home I tell her get over it because it's worse here, and I don't want to hear it. It kills me when I fill up my car. Soon it's going to cost us $100 to fill up the tank. Anyway I just wanted to get that off my chest.

Snails, cakes, and castles

Yesterday was a very rainy day just like today. I tried to spend as much time with Alekisio as possible so he didn't get too bored. First I happened to look out the lanai doors and see a snail. I had never seed a snail with a shell that big before. Alekisio thought is was really cool. Before nap we made a cake. I cut up some strawberries to layer inside. Alekisio loved making it. As you can see we aren't decorators! I forgot the frosting had been in the fridge so it was a little too hard to be spread nicely. I ended up having to use my finger to spread it, for some reason that worked better than the knife, however the cake did not look good! It tasted good though. When daddy got home he and Sio made a castle. Daddy was very proud of it and took a picture.

Isabelle

Isabelle is getting bigger! Not as quickly as Alekisio but she's not super skinny anymore. She's fitting into her newborn size clothes! Naomi sent this little outfit after she was born and didn't fit anything. Her little thighs are getting chubbier and her belly is too. She still sleeps alot but is awake in the morning for a couple hours and at night for a little bit. Alekisio still says, "I love her," all the time. He lets people hold her without getting mad now though. Every time he walks in the door the first thing he does is locate her, and if he can't see her he asks where she is. If he leaves the room he always tells me not to let her cry, only make her happy. She's definitely going to be spoiled by him. I could go on forever about them:). Her eyes are still blueish too!

The lazy haircut

Aisea cuts his own hair. I guess on his mission he cut everyone's hair so he thinks he's a pro. He is pretty good so I've been letting him cut Sio's hair. Aisea cuts his own hair about once a week and occasionally he's too tired so he just shaves it. Tonight he was too tired to deal with Sio moving around so he just shaved his head! I couldn't believe it. His hair was pretty short at Walter's wedding but I didn't want it that short again. But can I do now? Hair grows, that's the beauty of it.



I know this isn't a great picture of Alekisio but I think Isabelle is making a funny face so I had to put it on here. Actually it's her concentrating on making a stinky diaper face. She's gone from skinny to almost chubby! Alekisio was always solid but thin so I would love for her to have those adorable baby rolls. Her eyes aren't going to be brown like Sio's either so I'm excited to see what they turn out to be!