Don't drink and drive

On Saturday night, Sa was on his way home from having dinner with his brothers and sister. We spoke before he left the restaurant and he insisted that I go to sleep, that he'll be home soon and that he loves me. About 20 minutes before he should have been home, I recieved a call from a strange number at 11:52pm. "Is the molly? Your husband's been in an accident. Please talk to him". She gave Sa the phone and all I could hear was his pain and he kept trying to tell me he loved me. It killed me to hear him crying out for me and I wasn't there for him. I started panicking. I'd heard something about "crouching lion", which is a restraunt by my folks house, so I ran accross to a neighbors house to borrow a phone so I could call my mom with out hanging up with Sa. Finally the ambulance arrived, the woman took the phone back and explained that the crash was by the Coral Kingdom, which is in the opposite direction of crouching lion, and then she hung up. I called mom back, got her headed in the right direction. Thank heavens for a wonderful neighbor, Tupu, who I called and she came running to be with the kids as the slept so I could go to the accident.
When I got close, the line of cars waiting was so long, I had to park and run to the accident. It was the most horrific sight. I couldn't even recognize the car Sa was driving. The door was ripped off, the bumper was on the road and firemen we cutting the car apart so that they could get my husband out. They wouldn't let me near him, wouldn't let me go in the ambulance, and they didn't really tell me what was wrong with him.
For those who aren't familiar with our island, where Sa and I live there's just a little two lane road in and out. The ambulance headed off to the hospital, going towards Kaneohe. In that direction, it would have taken them about 1/2 hour to get to the hospital. However, they wouldn't let me through the reckage to follow the ambulance. My folks and I had to run back to our car and drive the other way around the island...a drive that's almost 1 1/2 hours...
I called my sister mindy and she took her family up to my house to watch the kids. I had no idea how long this may be, and although I really wanted her there, I knew that I wouldn't be able to solely focus on Sa unless the kids were with family.
By some miracle, Sa made it out with only a broken arm and some lacerations. The nurses confirmed that he was hit by a drunk driver, driving an SUV. Sa was in a little civic. He had his seatbelt on and his airbag deployed and it saved his life. Over the next few days at the hospital, some nurses would comment on how they couldn't believe how minor his injuries were.

Thank you all so much for all your help. Thanks mom and dad for getting there first and then helping me handle the horror of it all. Thank you Tupu for waking up and coming. Thanks Min for waking up your whole family in the middle of the night to come watch my kids. Thank you Mikey, becky, Peter, jolena, Joanne, and Dai for watching my kids so that Sa could come home to a quiet house and rest for a few days. Thank you to all the friends and family who came to the hospital to check in on us. Thank you all for your prayers on his behalf.

I know with out a doubt that we have been SO blessed. I am so grateful that Heavenly Father preserved my husband's life. I am so grateful that my kids still have a father and I still have a husband. I can't even describe the gratitude that I feel.

Here is the airbag that helped save my husband's life

This door was cut off, as well as part of the roof so that they could get Sa out. They've had to tie it back on so they could transport the car.
Can you believe that he made it out of here with just a broken arm and a few lacerations??? I'm telling you, it's a miracle.

Here's a link to the article that was in the paper. However, I think they got the description of the other car wrong because it was an SUV that hit him and it's been confirmed that it was alcohol related.

http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20090628/BREAKING01/90628016/Two+seriously+hurt+in+head-on+collision+near+Kualoa+Ranch

Kids and General Conference

With 5 little kids, general conference hasn't really been something I've looked forward to the past few years. Don't get me wrong...I really enjoy general conference...it's trying to get through it withe kids part that was a struggle. This year, we decided to try something new. Here, the first session begins at 6am, so I don't wake the kids up for it. I woke up and got to enjoy the first hour in peace, and then the kids came out around 7 and just kind of sat around and watched the second hour. They didn't make much of a fuss because they were still groggy.

In between sessions we watched home movies. That was a blast! I think that is definetly a tradition keeper!

I don't know where I read it...maybe an ensign or LDS site...but someone wrote an idea about how they buy a bunch of different little candies, put them in bowls, and assign each bowl a different word. Then when the speaker says that word, the kids get to take one candy out of the bowl. We decided to give it a try but with the kids making their own trailmix.

Here's what we bought: goldfish, pretzels, peanuts, rasins, m&m's, white cheeseits, graham cracker fish, kimi balls, and craisins


Then we put them in little bowls with labels: savior/Jesus, Commandments/covenants, Holy Ghost/Spirit, love, family, scriptures/Book of Mormon, faith, bless/blessings.


We also had priesthood and temple on a piece of paper and these words were freebies...they could pick what ever they wanted.

The kids had to call the word out, so we knew that they weren't just grabbing what ever, and that way the other kids would pick up on a word they may have missed. In the beginning, I was really involved and told them the words I heard, but then they got lazy and waited for me to say the word. So, I moved away from them and all I would say is "oops, you just missed a word" but not tell them which word. This really forced them to pay attention.

Of course, it took some adjusting. We had Savior/Jesus Christ by the pretzels, but then their bags were getting full of pretzels, so we switched it with the raisins...much better!

Surprisingly, love and family weren't used very often. I think I'll subsitute one for pray/prayer...and maybe prophet.

So...what I really want to know is, how do YOU survive conference with kids???

Email to Daddy

Today while at work, Sa sent the family the sweetest email letting us all know that he's thinking about us and missing us.

The kids decided to write him back...

Blue=Reedy Purple=Brookie Green=Eli Orange=Deacon

Dear daddy
thank you for writing a letter to us. We love you very much. thank you dad for letting us play and play and be the best kids for the whole day of my life. Thank you for saying all this good stuff about us and we love you. Thank you daddy for trying to keep us safe and sound. Thank you for fixing computers and thank you for letting us have the xbox360 if we be good. I love dad. I love daddy because I love daddy. Thank you daddy for taking us to the doctors and seeing Charlotte so we could see her eyes open and thank you for doing a good job being nice and playing with us and being kind. Thank you for making money for us. I love you daddy 'cause you make money and you make me feel very very good inside. Thank you daddy for taking us to our cousin's house and letting us go to grandma's house sometimes. Thank you for letting us play our DS so many times and be good children and be the best kids in the world and thank you for letting Reedy have the preisthood. Thank you for doing a good job and being nice and playing soccer with me and being good and love mommy. I love you because you are a great man and you play with me a lot. Daddy, I love you 'cause you work very hard and you try your best to work and not miss your work you have to do at where you work.

WE LOVE YOU DADDY!

-love-your kids

Underthings...tumbling

Have you seen the hilarity that is "Dr Horrible's Sing Along Blog"? My sister introduced me to this a while ago and I'm so thrilled I just found it on Hulu.com It stars Neil Patrick Harris. Please give it a gander. I promise you'll be hooked after the first number! It even made Sa laugh, and I'd say he's a pretty good measuring stick for what's funny in the world. And this is, people...this is.

dead filter = dead fish

Rest in Peace Lucas, Gravy, and Sunkist...

Chuck, you beast, your the only one left now...

Coming soon...Reed's Baptism!!!

Reed is getting baptized THIS Saturday! 2:00pm at Temple Beach!

(Reed and his best friend Kainoa at Kainoa's baptism)

One Month Old