Happy Halloween!

A look at Halloweens past:

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

...stay tuned for 2008 (I know you're thrilled)

One thing YouTube is good for

I love listening to this Tongan kid, Ben Mataele, sing. His voice reminds me a lot of IZ (the guy who made the ukelele version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World" famous).

Singing "Sunday Morning" by Maroon 5


Here he is accompanying his buddy, Adam Ashby, in singing "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz


And for my Mormon peeps, here's "How Can I Be?" written by Nela Otuafi of SLC

For those chilly autumn nights

I spent Friday night at my friend Daisy's house. She made this drink for us, along with hot-and-fresh tortillas covered with melted butter and cinnamon and sugar. It was a delicious snack, if I must say so myself. Daisy sent me home with some cut up pumpkin (the one she cut up was humongous), so I made the drink for Aki on Saturday, and we had leftovers on Sunday. It's definitely different, but give it a try! I think you'll like it—we love it!

The Pumpkin Patch

It's Monday and it's cold

Okay, so since I'm in such an excellent mood this morning, I thought I'd get some of my negativity out and pass it around blogdom. Just this once, then I promise to follow up with some optimistic vibes tomorrow or sometime later this week.

Introducing a few of my (many)
PET PEEVES:

• Receiving a blank Christmas card...not even a name written inside (gee, thanks for the reusable card. good thing the envelope has your return address so I know who sent the thing!).
• Apostrophe in a family's plural last name. It should be written: The Funakis, NOT The Funaki's. And if your last name ends in s, just add es to make it plural: Morris-->Morrises . Looks weird, I know.
• Misuse of apostrophes in general and...I could go on and on about English usage. I am my mother's daughter.
  
• Smelling like food. In high school, I used to change my clothes just to eat dinner. I also have to wash my hands after meals...I can't really function if they smell like food.
• For said reason, when eating at a restaurant, being seated next to someone ordering fajitas...it can ruin my whole evening.
  
• Not having lotion available after I wash my hands...I hate dry skin!
  
• Lack o' customer service (including cashiers who don't know basic math).
• When I drive away from the drive-thru and realize the order is wrong (or there's no ketchup, no straw, etc.).
• Telemarketers who don't take no for an answer and make me want to throw the phone across the room.
• Answering the phone to a voice recording from "Sarah" or "Kevin" wanting to talk about my mortgage, auto warranty, satellite TV, or credit card account, etc.
  
• When people don't park straight...come on, take an extra 30 seconds and do it right.
  
• Missing library books...I hate looking for them.
  
• The Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition.
• When the following used up items are not replaced: paper towels, toilet paper, garbage bags, grocery store produce bags.
• Grocery store lines...especially, a store that has 20 check-out stands but only 3 are open with 8 people in each line (hello, Wal-Mart).
  
• My brother Cord.
• When parents don't follow the rules of pronunciation in naming their child (secondary to that: crazy spellings in general and combo names...sorry to all you Breaking Dawn fans—Renesmee Carlie is pretty bad).

DISCLAIMER: I'm sorry if what's written offends anyone. No offense intended, I'm just keepin' it real, as they say. Besides, I'm pretty sure that I myself am a pet peeve for many of you.

Curious Ame

Ame, on a quieter day.

She woke me up with a question:

"Mom, Why do the Ninja Turtles live in New York City and not Salt Lake City?"

The questions continued:

"Mom, What does thump mean?"
"Mom, Why doesn't Jackson's dad go to work?"
"Mom, Do green eggs taste the same as yellow-and-white eggs?"
"Mom, Have you ever been on a tiger hunt?"
"Mom, Why did the baby get shots in his legs?"
"Mom, Why do some kids have silver teeth?"

Even as I type, she is asking:

"Mom, What's the internet?"
"Mom, Does log rhyme with blog?"
"Mom, Why doesn't Grandma live in Tooele?"
"Mom, Why did Nina have two birthdays?"
"Mom, What stinks in the van?"

I've been awake for exactly 20 minutes. It's going to be another long day.

And the winner is...

...Anne Marie with her answers of: 1.) elephant, 2.) pig, and 3.) [three-toed] sloth. Anne Marie, you must have watched enough Go Diego Go! to know what Makai was thinking! I've got to hand it to you—I was absolutely clueless, even when he told me what it was. Your Halloween something will be in the mail this weekend...maybe I'll throw in some Utah fall leaves for you, since I can't imagine you see much of that in Florida.

Pictionary, anyone?

Makai was in charge of Family Home Evening last night. He did a great job: Dad gave the opening prayer, Ame led us in singing "Popcorn Popping," and then Makai had me read a story from The Friend about kindness. Then it was time for the activity, followed by family prayer and peanut butter cup cookies, which he helped me bake.

So back to the activity—Pictionary with an animal theme. Below are the 3 drawings Makai did when he was on my team. I was finally able to guess the first two, but was never able to guess the last one, much to his disappointment. I guessed everything I could think of, from a frog to a rooster to a lion. Makai still won't forgive me for it, and "can't believe" I didn't get that one!

So, I want to see if any of you blog readers can do any better. Here's what I'll do: I will send a lil' Halloween treat in the mail to anyone who can guess all three pictures correctly. Please give your answers in the comment section and number them #1, #2, #3. Good luck guessing!

For the record, let it be known that...

See, Makai, I really do love you.

...Thursday night Makai was complaining of stomach pain, as he had for the previous week. It's simply a matter of being backed up, if you know what I'm talking about—a result of his refusing to eat fruit or vegetable in any form.

Anyway, his moans and groans and foghorn-like cries continued until well past midnight; he was keeping the whole household awake, including my visiting parents. After numerous attempts to comfort/silence him, I moved him upstairs so my parents could sleep. But then I feared he would wake the baby.

Frustrated, I informed—okay, I threatened—him that if he could not keep it down, he would have to go sleep outside in the car where we couldn't hear him. (You know, kind of like my dad threatening to make us sleep outside in the woodpile with the skunks.) Satisfied that Makai would finally relax and go to sleep, I went back to bed, only to wake up to an early morning phone call from Aki (who had gone to work in Salt Lake at 4:00 AM).

Him: "Um, just so you know, I've got Makai."

Me: "What??!! What do you mean?"

Him: "Well, I drove to work this morning, and just before arriving there, I heard a little moan. It freaked me out...I turned around, and there was Makai sleeping on the back seat. He had a pillow and blanket and everything. He told me that you had gotten mad at him and said he had to sleep outside. Did you really do that?"

Me: "Kind of."

So, the Funakis had their own version of "Bring your Son to Work Day;" Makai missed school and drove around with Aki and accompanied him to jobs. Shirtless and shoeless and his bedhead at its best, I'm sure Makai's appearance made Aki's customers wonder about the stability of our family life. Luckily one of the homeowners was sympathetic to the situation and let him watch Scooby Doo and eat cereal while Dad worked in their kitchen.

When all was said and done and they arrived home, Aki admitted it had been a v e r r r y l o o o o n g day, and that he had to hand it to me for caring for Makai day in and day out. Tell me about it.

Just in case the future Makai remembers this day, and is prone to think that I was a wicked and evil [biological] mother for coldly and neglectfully banishing him to the outer realms of our driveway, I'll just point back to this blog entry to tell him how it really happened.

The moral of the story is: EAT YOUR VEGGIES

More Tevi love

I promised to show more from Tevi's photo shoot with Jenn (Jenn lives here in Tooele and is getting a photography business going).

I couldn't decide which image to use for a birth announcement, so I sent out three versions; some of you may have received one:
Here are some more of my favorites (how creative is the chalkboard one?) :

Hello, gender difference!

How many of you mothers relate to this? I certainly do! Anyone have a different experience?