I know...

...it may sound a little cheesy but I miss Nathan. Actually, that doesn't sound cheesy at all. That is the dang, cold hard truth. He is stuck in Houston for the moment and we are trying to get him back to Phoenix. This standby, buddy pass stuff is for the birds. I don't think I'll do it. I don't have the patience for it. I'd be sick of it already and give in and walk home!

He left Anchorage at 12:40 am Friday night and landed in Seattle yesterday and someone had to go and pick him up and house him to get to Houston this morning. So, technically, he has been waiting to get to Phoenix for 2 days. That sucks. Ka'le is terrible, he has gotten more sappy and is wondering where "papa" is and when a car comes by or my phone rings, he thinks that it is him. If you ask me, that is a pretty smart dog!

I have to work tomorrow and do some last minute running around before my vacation starts this next week so I'm going to be VERY tired!

Other than that...I don't have much more to say. I've been watching CSI season II all week so I'm all CSI'd out!

Have a wonderful Sabbath Day.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone. I hope that all of your prayers and wishes are answered this new year.

I have a "family letter" that I typed up a few weeks ago but I don't want to mail it out so I am fighting with myself to figure out of I even want to email it out. If you keep up with the blog, I don't need to send the letter because, technically, everything that is in the letter is here too.

So, I guess I just answered my own concern; I'm not sending it!

Nathan has been in Alaska since Saturday evening and is doing fine. He hurt one of his fingers on his right hand and has gotten the flu while being up there but other than that, he is having a wonderful time.

I worked Monday and Tuesday and had Wednesday and Thursday off...hence, I did what little work I needed to do on Tuesday and left 1 hour early so that I could hit the grocery store so that I could get the little things I needed to make blueberry cheesecake to take the my friend Kathy Turner Davids' home for Christmas Eve dinner. She invited me after learning that I'd be in AZ by myself. I had a great time. They crack me up. Paul her husband is so stinking funny so we had a great time. Nathan would really like them.

I have gone on lots of walks with Ka'le because he has been alone a lot this week. It has rained every day too. He doesn't care to much for that on his paws and it is so stinking funny because he walks funny and then won't pee or go #2. He makes me walk with him and then I get all wet...so, I guess its fair...we are both wet.

I've taken a bath almost every day so I just soak and fall asleep in the tub...kind of funny because I am not one to do that because I used to not fit so now that I figure I fit, I do it! Big people don't belong in the bathtub, they may get stuck!

I made cheesecake (blueberry) yesterday and homemade wheat buttermilk rolls. Both were so yummy. No sugar in each of them.

This morning I woke up to a mariachi band singing and what sounded like 5 girls singing and dancing outside. Guess what time that was? 4:45 am. I was so mad because it took me about another 45 minutes to go back to bed and by that time, I think the cops had come because it was QUIET.

So, at 7:30 this morning Ka'le came to get me to let me know that he needed to go outside, so we took a walk down to the park. When we returned, I read about the birth of the Savior, Luke 2 and Alma 7. When I finished that I looked to see what time the movie was starting, The curious case of Benjamin Button. It was 10:25 so I showered, got dressed, walked Ka'le again and went to the movie. It was almost a 3 hour movie and I had to be at the Phoenix Rescue Mission right afterwards. I left the movie talked to Nathan, called my dad and ran over the the location. I get there, park the car and quickly read through the paperwork and realize that I'm not wearing black pants like the paperwork asked, I have on jeans and a red sweater. I remembered the red but not the black pants. I figure that I have time to go home since the building was so close to my house. The paperwork said to be prompt and on time so I figured I'd make it. I run home, change my pants and run back there and they have already shut the doors. OK...I need to say, I was late! I don't know why they were strict, I just know that it was raining out and that I was late. So, needless to say, I went home and walked some more CSI.

Ka'le and I went back down to the park and ran in to a puppy that was hit by a car because he won't walk on his left hind leg. I actually saw him like that about a month ago and it still looks really painful for him. Ka'le has gotten more sappy lately too. He wants to sit right on my lap, he wants to be right where I am and snuggle with me in the blanket that I'm using.

Hahaha, I was given two gifts from people at work and I guess Santa told them that I don't like to wear shoes and I don't like to wear socks at home without shoes on. Nathan, who have you been talking to? Anyways, I was given a pair of slippers that I was told to keep at work, however, I have been wearing them here at home, so I think I am going to keep them here. I was also given a pair of fluffy socks that have a diamond where the strap is as a button and I was told to wear those at work too. So, I think I'll take the less bulky of the two to work since I take my shoes off at work and if I have to go to the bathroom I can throws those on. I even take my shoes off to walk to the cafe because it feels better and everyone laughs at me. Listen up everyone...not anymore!

I have to work tomorrow, Friday and then on Saturday I am going to the gym in the morning and having lunch with a friend that I used to work with that got pretty ill and Gail Galloway is going to meet us. Both of these ladies are old enough to be my grandmother/mother! I don't care though, they are so stinking funny and so sweet.

Nathan "should" be home Saturday afternoon about 6pm and if not, he'll be stuck in HOU again. As of right now, SEATAC is having great flight weather so we'll see. My dad told me today that the snow is supposed to get worse so I don't know what to believe because if it is going to snow some more, how can there be great flight weather? Oh well...we'll see.

I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Family

Hi everyone!
I hope that this year has been a wonderful time for everyone where ever you are.

Nathan is in Alaska right now visiting sister #1 with her husband and 5 kids and hanging out with Forrest who lives there and with his other brother Randy and his wife Ashley who are there looking for work as he just finished BYU-Idaho. So, that side of the family is hanging out during this Christmas 2008 season.

All I can say about Nathans trip up is, I know that Heavenly Father answers prayers! My brother Kenji works for Continental Airlines out of Newark, NJ and got Nathan an awesome buddy pass deal that we just couldn't pass up. The going up trip goes like this according to Karen and I'm probably pretty close to Nathans version too, so if you need to please ask him.

Nathan leaves Friday morning about 4:45 am for the airport and meets his other brother, Ben at the airport with the truck so that he can use it to move. I don't get out of bed at all. I didn't need to. I didn't have to be at work until 7!

OK...Nathan is sitting at the PHX airport and he doesn't get on the flight to HOU...I'm at work by the time he calls to tell me, which is fine...the next flight out was 8:15...OK...he gets on...yahoo! He is in HOU and he calls me at least 5 times to let me know that he doesn't see himself getting on a flight to SEATAC. So, in the mean time we are trying to contact a good friend of mine, Candice who lives in Katy however, she isn't answering the phone at home or her cell. We both have left messages and I have called Kenji in the meantime too because he knows people in HOU and I know that he could get a place for Nathan to stay, however, Kenji is working a double shift in NJ and asked if he could call me back (which by the way, he doesn't do, until Saturday afternoon).

OK...in the meantime, I am crying and Nathan is frustrated and it is about 7 PM MST so it is getting late. Oh, let me just tell you this...Nathan said that there were so many people flying standby because of the missed flights, late flights, delayed flights and cancelled flights that he was on the bottom of the totem pole. He has no clothes, no toothbrush, no cell phone cord to charge his phone that is slowly dying.

I told Nathan to give me a few minutes and let me get my head on screwed right and I'd call him back. I said a very quick prayer and jumped online to lds.org. I found that HOU has a ton of stakes and called a cell phone # to a bishop who told me what stake the airport was on. I clicked on that stake and chose the first ward on the screen. Low and behold, a phone for a Sister Stack. I called and cried and explained to her what was happening to Nathan and her husband advised me that he could go and pick him up and let him stay the night and they'd drop him off at the airport Saturday morning to start this flight stuff all over again! To learn more about them, you'll need to ask Nathan. He did tell me that they are awesome and that he was so grateful that I found them for him. I have to publicly express my gratitude for prayer and for Heavenly Father answering such a simple prayer to find a home where he could sleep so that my best friend could make it to Alaska to visit his family!

OK...Nathan is in HOU and calls to let me know that he got on the plane and that he'll call me when he lands in SEATAC. HOURS later, he calls to tell me that the weather is terrible in WA and that there are tons of people waiting to get on planes an that there are cancelled flights all over the place because WA is loaded with snow and terrible weather conditions! I call a friend there and talk to her about taking him for the night just in case he doesn't make it out and she was ready to do it. I told her that if I hear anything from Nathan within the hour that I'd call and let her know...well, I didn't hear anything so I just assumed that he got on the flight to AK, so about 8:20 PM Saturday night, he called and said that he had made it. He was so excited, he had his bags, he charged his phone and he had already called Forrest to have him come and pick him up. It was a complete surprise for everyone else too so I'd like to know how that went down!

I talked to Kenji in the meantime Saturday afternoon and he felt TERRIBLE that Nathan got stuck in HOU until I explained to him what had happened. He was excited to know that he was possibly on is way to AK. The truth was, so was I and I honestly didn't know yet.

I miss Nathan. I have watched 8 episodes of CSI, I have done a load of laundry, I have walked Ka'le at least 6 times around the block, down the block, freezing may I add. Yes, it is freezing. Nathan by the way says to me, "Karen, you'd love it here. The weather is great". I tell him, "really?", in complete doubt and then he laughs and says, "yep, it is 17 degrees and it is wonderful". I would have kicked him in the bottom if he was standing next to me. I told him, "I don't think so, the cold in PHX is enough for me".

Ka'le misses Nathan REALLY bad. If he hears a car or I say "Nathan" or "papa" he runs to the door and wants out to look for Nathan and the car never comes. I don't know how many times I have had to open the door and watch Ka'le stand in the drive way looking for him and him not show up. Ka'le has eaten dinner but not much. I wonder if this silly dog is like this when I am not here!

I went to church this morning and sang in the choir for Christmas and the spirit was just awesome and it really helped me to get ready for a conversation that I would later have with my brother David who was visiting and with a phone conversation that I would later have with my mom about Andrew who is here in AZ.

Which brings me to the next point of my Sabbath Day. I called home to see how everyone was doing and all is well and then my mom asks me if I had heard from Andrew and I told her that I had not. She told me that I needed to Love him and go to him and help him out. I then proceeded to tell her that the Savior knocks on our door and we have to open it and let him in. Which means, that the Savior is doing his job with Andrew at this point and working with him to humble him and that when Andrew is ready and it is supposed to happen, he will call me and ask me for help.

David told me today that he lives in Goodyear with 2 other guys in an apartment and doesn't have a car and lost his weekend job as security. Later my mom mentioned that he just needs to know that he is loved. I know that he does and all Andrew has to do is call me and ask me what I am doing just like he did when he asked me what I was doing for General Conference. He was supposed to come over, but didn't. That isn't his sisters fault, he just didn't come over. I don't know why, I didn't have a phone # to call and ask so I didn't think about it.

I do know that Andrew went to MI to visit with Kenji in November because he sent cute pictures of everyone!

I will say this, change your ways, change your heart and plead with your Heavenly Father and I'll be glad to have one stay in my home paying RENT, own car insurance, paying for the usage of the car and utilities. In fact, if this is sounding right, it is because it probably is. Of course, I'll need to talk to Nathan about it first and if the other party can pay the costs of living here I'm all for it. First and foremost, he'll have to go to the bishop and go to church begin the repentance process. If not, forget it, I won't allow anyone to stay here in that state.

I need to go to bed now, I am going to work 6-3 shift this next week as I have 2 days off because of Christmas.

I love the Lord, I love the truthfulness of the gospel. I know that the LORD takes all trials and tribulations away from all sons and daughters of God as long as we are willing to change and because humble and Christlike. I know that the Savior is real, he loves all of us and suffered for each individual person. I know that when I need the Savior the most, he is always there and I can feel his arms wrapped around me. I know that the Savior is knocking on all of our doors and all we need to do is open that door and when we do, wow, we will feel the sweetness of a loving Heavenly Father.


Love everyone!

Karen

A different time of year

OK, I know that some of you who follow me won't believe me when I tell you that I miss the SNOW. Nathan my obvious better half will laugh at this when he sees that I am writing about missing the cold weather, the snow capped mountains and the beautiful eyes of Gods creation, the animals. This week I'll be working a full week and then Thursday night Nathan has class, I'll go to the gym and then run over to the chapel for enrichment night. They are doing a cookie exchange...I don't think I'll do it because I don't want cookies lingering in my house. I'll go though just so that I can associate with the other sisters since we are in nursery. Saturday I think I'm going to go North for a few hours and walk around with Ka'le...apparently there is snow just NW of Flagstaff. I can't wait...it is going to be so nice. However, the downside to that is that I am going to freeze. I don't have a winter jacket, I don't have gloves and a warm hat, sssoooo, I am going to go up to the snow and tough it out! :o) Oh now...more on that one later.

I have been trying to transfer payroll funds from one bank to another for the past 6 weeks and can I just say that it is ssssssssssooooooooooo annoying! It is confusing, long and a pay. We have been patient and just cry when things are working (well, I cry) and we move what funds we don't have to cover something else and then move it back to cover what we are trying to pay...my gosh, direct deposit is a blessing and a drag when something doesn't go through. Oh well, I am hoping it will all take care of itself by the end of the year...another couple of weeks.

We made cookies the other day that was made with Splenda and Red Wheat Flour. They were pretty good. I was pretty proud of myself to make them. They had chocolate and butterscotch chips and peanut butter. They were pretty good.

I need to get to bed. I have to be at work by 7 so I get up at 5 :o)

I'll write later this week.

Christmas Party

OK, go figure...a bunch of weight loss junkies getting together to have a Christmas party! Sound ironic? It isn't. Did we talk, eat and have a great time? Yes! Was there food you ask? But of course there was! Who has a party and there not have food? We all watched and laughed at each other as we ate different things and tiny amounts of what we did eat. We were all telling each other to not drink anything while we ate so if you were thirsty to drink it first. It was so funny to be each others support on Wednesday night.

I will say that it was a blast. The majority of the people at Leanns home had the surgery and then their significant others were there for "moral" support. It was nice to see people that I can identify with and then be able to talk to them about how I feel and what I'm going through as they are going through it too!

Lenny, the older gentleman to the left has lost 75 pounds since July and is doing well. He eats a lot though, his girlfriend says...she is sitting next to me. She was ratting him out and telling us that he will everything and very quickly. It was so funny. Lori next to me had surgery too and is the head bariatric nurse up at Paradise Valley Hospital. She is awesome and told me that it is perfectly fine to eat CHEESE as long as I don't eat the entire block, which I can do! So, along with Dr. Simon, she says to eat it sparingly!

Here we are again!

I don't look very happy looking at the food. I think I was thinking about what to do and how much to eat. It was pretty close to 7:30 by the time we started to have dinner.

I left the gathering about 8:15. It was sweet and we all had a great time.

Impressions

Earlier I had posted things that we had done this past week. I also wrote that if I feel impressed to write something else I'd jump and do it then.

I am writing now because I just listened to a talk that was given at BYU-Hawaii Thursday, November 04, 2004 Emerge With Your Gifts by Mervlyn Kitashima. She grew up on Kauai and is a graduate from Kamehameha and received the mother of the year award for 2003.

What I was impressed with is what she talked about concerning the Ohia Lehua Blossom. An ohia lehua tree provides rare color on a lava field in Volcanoes National Park, Hawaii. Ohio lehua are the most abundant native trees in Hawaii and are among the first life in new lava flows. According to Hawaiian legend, the tree is actually a young warrior. Pele, the goddess of fire, wanted to marry the warrior. When he refused, she turned him into a tree. The other gods weren't able to turn him back, so they turned his true love into the lehua blossom so they could be reunited. It's said that if you pick one of the blossoms, it will rain – the tears of lovers.

OK...it isn't the legend that I want to focus on, it is what Sister Kitashima said about the actual tree. She said that at first, the tree is small, it doesn't grow very big and it has ugly branches and it is straggly and doesn't look appealing. It is not pretty, gnarled and twisted possibly because of the stress and the amount of work it takes to break thru the lava created earth. The blossom is beautiful once it blooms though. The post popular color is RED. There are other colors though such as pink, yellow and gold. Her whole point of this analogy was that look at the beauty from such a distorted tree, look at what it becomes from such a distorted environment and look what beauty God can create when he provides the necessities of life to bloom.

I thought about that scenario this morning as she was speaking and had to go back and listen to it again at least 3-4 times to know that she was talking to me. I was to listen to that talk today so that Karen would remember that she is a daughter of God and that he loves me and that he provided a Savior for me so that I could return home to him again because he doesn't want me to be alone.

The awesome part of this story is, is that my middle name is Leihua. Mine name has the "I" because the flower is included in a Lei. How wonderful it is. I don't think that my grandma even had a clue that this world and name would be so significant to me later on in my life and I'm grateful for my parents who agreed to give me the name.

I love life, I love the Lord. I sound like an idiot when I share my testimony because my Savior means so much to me that I forget where I am, but I don't care. I know how I feel and I know that it means TONS to my Father in Heaven and to my Redeemer, Jesus Christ. I am grateful for the atonement and what it has done for me to bring me out of this distorted life and to allow me to blossom. Out of barren and rough ground I can be clean and beautiful. I am humble to say that Heavenly Father has created a beautiful me and I'm grateful to him for that.

Love,

Karen

Early Present...late decor

The infamous Dwarf Washington Orange Tree

Nathan scooping the, ya...crap! He's taking it rather than dishing it...what a great guy!
This is sweet, 9 + pound Samantha. By looking at her, you are looking directly at Amiee!

Good evening,

Its Sunday evening and I'm just beginning my blogging session. We just returned from the Pace family home from watching the First Presidency Devotional 2008. It was very sweet. The theme pretty much was to think of others and act upon the the promptings of the spirit and do something for that other person or family. It was awesome.

We ground some RED Wheat while we were there too just to have it so that we could have something to cook/bake with during the Holidays.

Nathan let me know that one of the few things that he wanted for Christmas was an orange tree. So we researched a few and came upon one from Home Depot. We bought and now we are in the middle of planting it in the God given clay type dirt! So, we have dug a hole, which still needs to be deeper, we went to the dairy on Saturday and scooped up some, well, you know...manure, I would have rather talked to the cows, pet them, hung out with them than scoop crap! It was so funny :o)

We went and picked one up. Its a dwarf Washington Orange Naval Tree. It will be exciting to watch it grow, since it is a slower growing tree. We are going to plant it between the house and the shed since there is plenty of room for it to grow there.

Earlier yesterday I had gone to a Holiday Extravaganza at a friends house in Glendale and it seemed like I was the only one to get orders, which is fine, I was able to submit one from the early party of November, finally! While I was putting my purse in the car, I bent over to put another small bag on the ground and I heard my back pop, I thought, "oh great, again...it is going to hurt for another 2 weeks, just lovely!".

I put it in the car, packed the rest of the stuff, went home, turned around and went and scooped poop...it hurt so bad.

I went to a Partylite Candle party later that evening after scooping poop and helping load it in the truck and bringing it home and getting it in the backyard. We were so tired last night. Oh, and not only that, we watched the movie called Breached...if you haven't seen it...go get it! Its really good. So a little after midnight...I finally ended up in bed, UNTIL...

we heard the pool pump go crazy. It turned on as normal and then all of a sudden it was screaming for help. The hoses are fine, the connection is fine, the filters are fine, something crazy
is happening with the motor. So, tomorrow we need to call the pool people and have them come and take a look at it! It was just so crazy.

Then I finally went to bed!

Today we went to church and it was lovely. The spirit did truly testify to me that Jesus is the Christ and that this special season is the season to celebrate the birth of our Redeemer and that Heavenly Father truly loves me and that I am a daughter of his and he selected me to be here in these later days to be among the great and noble. I don't know why I was chosen and what great and nobleness I have to give to others, but he trusts me and has confidence in me so I'm fine with it!

My very good friend, Amiee Finster had baby #3 on Monday 1 December. That makes girl #2 with Payton in the middle and the only boy and Portia #1 and the oldest. She'll be a great older sister and a wonderful helper to mom and dad. Congrats Max and Amiee!

I also bought 26 books this past week as well to mail to Janell so that she can wrap them up for Aukai and Kali'i for Christmas. I figured that they need something and they'll love them. They are all of the Golden Book collection!

I hurt, I want to go to bed, I'm stuffy because the house we went to to watch the devotional has cats and I'm allergic so my eyes are all stuffy and puffy and my nose is clogged. My throat started to get scratchy so I had to wash my hands a few times and go outside to get a breath of fresh air...we left fairly quickly...needless to say.

Another week down for December! It'll be awesome. When my tree is finally decorated and the house is put together, I'll gladly take pictures and blog them, for now, forget it...I am only 1/4 of the way done! This seems like the year too that I'll be getting rid of stuff that I no longer want to keep. I get that feeling already.

Have a great week, we'll talk again when I fell impressed to post something again by the end of the week.

Karen

Elder Wirthlin Dies, 91

http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/background-information/leader-biographies/elder-joseph-b-wirthlin

Elder Wirthlin Died, 91

This link is to his biography.

He died last night after going to sleep.

My prayers are with his family.

http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/background-information/leader-biographies/elder-joseph-b-wirthlin