FAILED GOALS!!!

Goals for 2011


EPIC FAIL!!!  I did a whopping 40% this year... sheesh... I mean really half of these are just because I am lazy or uber busy with work... but really? UGH I FAIL!! Time to make a new list... I'm already almost done with January. HOpefully I will get at least to like 70% next year. I will be making a few repeats bc I didn't get to do them this past year... so we'll see.

1. Take a picture of my nephew EVERYDAY.

2. Read a novel each month (any novel by any author).

3. ELEVATED at least 4 times this year.

4. Attend Rugby 7s w/ the girls!

5. Find a Dentist & make an appointment

6. Celebrate as many holidays with my nephew as possible (if not ALL of them)

7. Another tattoo (preferably a cultural one)

8. Start up at 24 again... slowly get into a routine!

9. Keep the room tidy

10. Purchase new work out shoes (coaching shoes)

11. Pay off 50% of my major credit card

12. Visit my grand parents more often then usual.

13. Make time to visit the loved ones at rest...

14. Make a trip to Texas

15. Make a trip to the eastcoast

16. Start planning Family Reunion (TAUANUU side) (contact family members)

17. Shop for NEEDS rather then WANTS

18. Go to Hawaii in JULY & NOVEMBER

19. Keep in contact with my family across the big ol' Pacific Ocean (email/FB/Call)

20. Purchase a new laptop

21. Attend Delaney's baptism

22. Lose atleast 30 lbs this year.

23. Visit Missouri

24. Plan Nephews 1st Bday party.

25. Go to a 49er game! GO COUSIN MIKE!!

26. Get cable in my room.

27. Keep up w/ pedi & mani's

28. Throw brother's 30th bday party!

29. Start Family Tree from my paternal & maternal sides.

30. Establish a relationship... with a potential lifetime partne

Farewell Gramps

Alalagafa "Jack" Fauolo Tauanu'u... the only grandfather I really got to know growing up. He was special... he was a very stern man with a great foundation on how he lived his life and how his family lived. Although some may debate his loyalty and fairness in monetary or materialistic values... his love he had for each and everyone of his children were all equal.

My gpa fought a battle for about a year and some months. He fought his battle against lung cancer which rapidly spread over the year. He was strong... never wanting to give up. He tried with the treatments... he tried with a long trip to New Zealand to try a natural source of trying to cure his cancer or just slow it down to give him more time... He made an admiral attempt on living...

On December 7th at 2:56 in the morning I lost my grandfather who I have known for 27 years. This was only my second time actually witnessing someone take their last breath. He wanted to take his last breath in his home... not in a hospital with wires connected to him, with strangers in the next room. He wanted to have his final living moments in the comfort of his own home... with in the last few hours of his life our family came together to say our farewells to him... sing to him to talk to him. He left us peacefully during those last few moments. I will never forget my last hour with him... I said my prayers to our Almighty to ease his pain and to let his heart rest. It wasn't even minutes after i said my prayer that the nurse in the room told me that he was on his way "home"... I felt a huge wave of panic over whelm my body and I just stared at him... his breathing became very quiet and shorter with every breath... he inhaled slowly and one by one each family member was woken up in the house. He was surrounded by his family... his wife, children, grand-children, and siblings. As he took his last breath I felt a void... and the tears came... and it felt like his pain left him and transfered to all of us in the room. He was gone... 2:56 in the morning and there was nothing but tears and cries of agony in the room. I will never forget that moment when my grandfather finally left us.

I didn't get my chance to give my testimony in front of the church, friends, and other family memebers. I don't have that public speaking ability. I wish I did. I wish I could have gained the strength to walk up to the stage and just talk about him. So I'm using my blog to do it...

Grandpa... He was the only grandfather I got to share my life with. From preschool to college, he was there to help celebrate those moments. He watched me grow from a little girl who would throw tantrums when she didn't get what she wanted to a young woman with a strong head on her shoulders that was ready to take over her own destiny in life.  I will always remember our family gatherings... all the vacations I would stay with my grandparents. The routines we had when I stayed in their home... Wake up... eat breakfast and out the door tackling hours of tasks just for him to come home and rest for another graveyard shift for ARCO gas company. Watching him work for Agape, doing his weekly duties for our heavenly Father and I would go with him to the bank where he promised after we were done we would go eat somewhere, usually McDonalds! I was always bribed with food and it worked for a while.  I will miss him around the house. Sitting at the table with stacks of papers ... sitting with him while he watched Pi'iga (wrestling), football, and other sports. He would always watch and get so excited to see The Rock and he would really get into the WWF program, I wanted to tell him it was all fake, but he loved it so much I couldn't do it.  We would always debate about which was the better team... San Diego Chargers or the Denver Broncos.... he would win because Denver was so much better then the Chargers growing up!  I will definitely miss Christmas.  The time where Gpa Santa would come out and hand out presents... you see if he wasn't working that day it was a great treat for us to get to spend with him. It was rare that he would be able to spend the entire day with us, and when he was there it was always a great joy. I was always the little elf that helped. I mean I have never really been LITTLE, but he would always say "ok little elf... or santa's little helper".  I will definitely miss these holidays with him. He was the voice of our family. He definitely holds a special place in my heart and is a constant reminder about how much my family means to me... I do not have a grandfather to share any more of my life time achievements with... he won't be there to say "Young lady... good job"... I will miss his smile and his laugh... he will forever live in our hearts... but if I could rewind a little I would tell him how much he was someone I looked up to and hopefully one day my children will know how much of a great man he was.

I do miss him... even as its been a month since we have laid him to rest... it is still fresh.

I miss you grandpa!!!

September 29, 1939 - December 7, 2011. Rest in heavenly peace grandpa!

Coaching

I envy coaches who can handle and deal with the emotional and mental parts of their athletes lives, while also trying to help with skills and fundamentals of their sport..

I'm a coach to a junior varsity  team. I have a lot of different personalities this time around. I have been coaching for 4 seasons and this season is probably my toughest.  I have not really had to deal with the emotional and mental toughness as much prior to this year. The girls I have range from simple, sweet, quiet athlete to rambunctious, lively, and down right disrespectful atheletes.  Skill level is up and down the charts and I believe that there really isn't a sense of guidance on the court for the team.  We have 3 team captains and not one really has that role of a leader.

I have never really dealt with so many different types of attitudes before but this is a good lesson for me. I need to firm up a bit and deal with things sooner rather then later, nip things in the bud right away. I feel as if they want so many chances to do things and the girls have excuses for everything they do wrong or right. I give feedback and they question it, I have practice plans and they want to suggest all sorts of things that in my opinion don't need to be worked on. Individually we have great players with great skills... team wise, our energy is high starting off, but towards the middle or end of the game we tend to fizzle out. Lack of focus has a lot to do with it too... I give consequences and it still doesnt stick. I am trying to get through this season stronger then I came into it, but its a battle.

I am hoping the team turns around attitude wise and just hope that we can finish strong as a team. Skill wise we are fine, we have things we can work on, but we have 3 more weeks left... I hope I can hang!

BlabBlog

So it has been quite sometime and I'm failing at this ONE post a month deal!!!

So it is August and my last post was in April!! Wow a whopping 4 months ago! SO much has gone on but things haven't really changed much.

W/His UGLYDOLL :)

May- Went by really fast. We pretty much finished our regular club volleyball season and were preparing for our big tournament in Arizona. Spent some time with my besties and had a wonderful visit from Leilehua Low all the way from Maui!!! We put in to a different apartment complex because our neighborhood was getting a little rough, so we put in an application for an apartment complex in Tierrasanta and were approved!!! Whooohoo!!!

Nainoa has gotten super big already and is very strong!!! He has a HUGE head but thats ok... his big brain is in there!! LOL This is him at 5 months...

Handsome after bathtime!

June- 9 days into June we had to pack up and move from North Park back to my old stompping grounds of Tierrasanta!!! We moved back to the suburbs and LOVE IT!! Although the parking sucks, we love the quietness and the family atmosphere. Then 2 weeks later we left to Arizona for our 5 day tournament... Festival!! Our 14's age group were the only team to go and we LOVED it. They had a lot of fun and did very well. They finished 24 out of 100 teams, so that was a great finish for our team. But the pool times were super hard, but we did what we had to do!!!  This was Nainoa's first plane ride ever!!! He did so well and although it was only an hour long he was a champ!!! The ride home was a little more difficult then the ride to AZ, but it was late and he was tired!!!

Maui-HI, July 2011 Happy Nainoa!!!

July- Best month ever!!! As soon as we came back from AZ we had to get ready for our trip to Maui!!! We left on the 7th and returned on the 23rd!! We had such a great time and I will never forget everything we did. I went to Oahu to visit Carol and we had some fun, although my cousin hates the outdoors, we did do a lot. I got to swim with a turtle and that was so cool.  My favorite beach was Black Rock beach. I was too chicken to climb the rock and jump off, but it was cool watching people jump!! Nainoa loved the water. He didn't cry at all in the cold water. He even fell asleep to the rythm of the waves. I hope he likes the ocean when we go back to Cali beaches!! I probably gained like 15 lbs while being in Hawaii!!! I miss the grindz and the beautiful scenery and espcially the soft sand at the beaches!!! Then back to reality!! Had my cousin Malia's wedding to prepare for. Bridal shower was a success and then off to the bachelorette party 2 weeks after. Whooohoooo!!! Pops turned 53 and Nainoa got to spend his evening with Gpa for his 53rd bday.

My handsome and me :)

Now we're in August and it is half way done. Time flies way too fast!!! My cousins Bachelorette party was probably the most fun I've had  (other then hawaii) in a long time!!! Volleyball started on the 1st so back to no life again!!! But Nainoa is finally crawling!! After numerous attempts he finally got the gist of it. He is really fast too!! It's funny, he went from only walking and holding stuff, to crawling... He still prefers to walk while holding onto the furniture or our hands, but I'm glad he is crawling first. Now the house is becoming baby proofed... gates for the kitches, locks on the drawers and cabinets... cushioned corners of the furniture and so forth. I will take pictures and post them later, but its pretty funny!! Along with that huge event in life... my cousin Malia Liufau finally got married. It has been years and people (as well as her) were giving up. Then she met Pele Ta'aga and her life changed. She is now happily married!!! I was lucky enough to be apart of her wedding party and I met a lot of cool people in her line. The girls were all so sweet and funny!! I was one of the younger ones but I fit right in!!! The wedding was a blast and I even got my parents to even take a funny picture in the photobooth!!! But that is the update for now...

MOM/POPS/ME at the wedding :)

Other then that everything is going well for us here in beautiful San Diego... Hopefully I make my trip to Maui for the Garcia wedding!!! :)

Until the next blog... Tofa Soifua!!!

 

A.H.M.U

I am the daughter of Saui'a AhMu, who is the son of Fevaea'i Frank AhMu, who is the son of July AhMu, who is the son of AhMu. The fifth generation of this family. I have grown up to be blind to my father's family. I am pretty sure I have a lot to learn and it wasn't until I moved half way across the country to finally learn more about my 4 letter branding.

Apparently my entire extended family is Mormon, other then my dad, his siblings, and some of his cousin's we grew up meeting. I do know that there is a book in the Mormon religion that holds all of the families names starting from the old man AhMu. I really only know my first cousins on my dad & mom's side and some extended family on my father's maternal side, but that is about it. I would really like to get answers. Answers that my dad can not give me nor do I think my aunties can either. I feel as if I'm lost when it comes to the earliest times of my ancestors and I want to try and figure out who is who and where the branches continue to grow. I know a little bit a bout my great great grandfather, but only that of what is written in an article written by a missionary for their magazine or short storied book. Not too sure.  I want to know more about my mother's side of the family as well, but that tree extendeds so far I can't even get past my great grand mother.

I grew up never really having "family reunions", because our immediate families lived in remote areas from each other, there really wasn't a reason for that. Although my father's side lived thousands of miles away on the little island of Samoa, our mother land, we never had a reunion either. I just think that in their minds it is way to expensive (which it is) and not really worth it being that family functions go on every so often... and when I mean family functions, I mean funerals or weddings! Sad but true.

I guess lately I have been real accustomed to trying to figure out who is related to me and who isn't is because I want to continue my life with someone with the same cultural backgrounds. I'm not racist or anything like that, but I want to be able to find a Samoan or just polynesian man to share my life with.  I have really only dated 3 Samoan me and 1 Tongan man and I may have been related to atleast ONE of those 3 Samoan fellas! I am not too sure, but it was a little too close to comfort when we found out about each other's families and who was who and so forth. 

I just hope one day I can find someone who shares the same culture as me and we not be related in any form or way... although I do not discriminate towards other nationalities or cultures, I just PREFER my choices of men from the Polynesian islands.

Well this went to a whole different direction!! Hahahaha. I hope I find out the details of my Great2xGrandfather, who he was married to all 5 marriages and the children him and his wives had and their kids and so forth. I know that I am related to the Rivers, Crichtons, and AhMu's. That is just on my Papa's side alone. There are tons and tons of information I should gather, but if I ever go back to Missouri and talk to Willard AhMu, he will have to retell me the story all over again, and this time I'm going to record/jot notes down, so I can make my own family tree for myself. Phew I know that there are AHMUs all over and hopefully one day if ever we find our Chinese descendants we can meet them, but my gggrandfather was given that name by the man who had taken him on his voyage to Samoa.  So really... was that his real name? Hmmmm

Well i jsut thought I'd post about that because the other day I was looking up the AHMU name (thank you GOOGLE) and it came up with a lot of posts from years ago and the article from the morman magazine.

My search continues and hopefully people rememeber everything they are told about the old man AHMU so it can continue to be passed down. :)

Love Bugg

When Nainoa was born I gave him his lil nick name "love bug". Well it was either myself or his mama... But I'm pretty sure I called him that right out the womb... But neways...

He's a whopping 10 weeks and 6 days today and growing extremely fast! I just wanted to update the world on my nephew. He has become super alert and he loves to "talk" and recognizes us and loves to laugh. He has grown to be 24 inches already and at his last check up he was 13lbs 12oz. That was 2 weeks ago and he has surely gained a pound already!! I love when he lays and talks or laughs when we talk to him. I wish they could stay this cute forever, but then they grow up!! HAHA...

I hate being away from him all day, but daily photos are still in tact thanks to mommy & aunty (me)!! I can't wait until he starts crawling and exploring everything. He's such a handsome fella and hopefully he keeps those long eye lashes of his!! Well here is a picture...

Aunty <3s u so much love bugg!! :)



2.0.1.1

So I have been inspired to do a yearly goal list. I started last year and I failed. I mean if I were taking a test I got a D -LOL... so in my eyes... I FAILED... But I did accomplish some of my BIG goals that I probably would have never really would have thought I would get done. SO with 1 month already down in 2011, and we're 7 days into the second month of 2011 I've decided to finally get my act together and make this list of goals, some not so important then others, but still I plan on doing a little better this year then last!  (I started this in February and posted in March #FAIL)

Goals for 2011

1. Take a picture of my nephew EVERYDAY.
2. Read a novel each month (any novel by any author).
3. ELEVATED at least 4 times this year.
4. Attend Rugby 7s w/ the girls!
5. Find a Dentist & make an appointment
6. Celebrate  as many holidays with my nephew as possible (if not ALL of them)
7. Another tattoo (preferably a cultural one)
8. Start up at 24 again... slowly get into a routine!
9. Keep the room tidy
10. Purchase new work out shoes (coaching shoes)
11. Pay off 50% of my major credit card
12. Visit my grand parents more often then usual.
13. Make time to visit the loved ones at rest...
14. Make a trip to Texas
15. Make a trip to the eastcoast
16. Start planning Family Reunion (TAUANUU side) (contact family members)
17. Shop for NEEDS rather then WANTS
18. Go to Hawaii in JULY & NOVEMBER
19. Keep in contact with my family across the big ol' Pacific Ocean (email/FB/Call)
20. Purchase a new laptop
21. Attend Delaney's baptism
22. Lose atleast 30 lbs this year.
23. Visit Missouri
24. Plan Nephews 1st Bday party.
25. Go to a 49er game! GO COUSIN MIKE!!
26. Get cable in my room.
27. Keep up w/ pedi & mani's
28. Throw brother's 30th bday party!
29. Start Family Tree from my paternal & maternal sides.
30. Establish a relationship... with a potential lifetime partner.

Okie dokie... I'm only 3 months into the year!! Bwahahaha But hey better late then never. I've already done some of these goals already!! Good luck to me! :)