Bitter? Jealous? Envious? HONORED.

This Saturday my brother had the opportunity to experience something that I have yet to encounter. Markybo received his endowments and entered into the Oakland temple. While I knew I was endlessly proud of his accomplishments, I couldn't help but shake the feeling of being inadequate. I am the oldest of all of my siblings and to date, four of the younger ones have been able to make their way into the temple. I've been there to hear about how much peace they find and how spiritually uplifted they are. But for some reason, I'm just not ready.

When Mark began taking temple classes I was approached about taking the same classes along with him. For the first time, I started to think about actually doing it! The thought of experiencing something so huge for the first time with my little brother was kinda cool. It was either do it now with Markybo, do it alone or wait another couple years to see IF Siua would ever get to the point of taking that step. It was a lot to think about! In the end I decided that even if it meant that I would be alone, I would do it on my own time. It's not something I could rush into. I'd like to believe that once I enter into the temple I will have a solid understanding of my beliefs, unwavering faith and a firm grasp on my testimony of the gospel. That I would be strong enough to withstand all of the temptation that would come my way. I know it's coming, but I'm just not there yet.

So I went along with my "outsiders" crew - sisters Jigz, Salomay and Lani. Thank goodness for them! We waited anxiously for a few minutes and smiled proudly with the camera in hand as the "insiders" made their way out. After I hugged my little brother and congratulated him, I realized that there was no reason to even question myself and why I happen to be one of the "late bloomers". I'm HONORED to be able to participate in celebrating the accomplishment with all of my siblings. Then when it's time, I'll be there and lucky for me because by then I'm sure EVERYONE can come inside too! LOL

Snapshots from that morning at the Oakland Temple.
Purple was the color of the day. LOL
Joshy was the only one of my kids who woke up early enough to attend
MarkyBo coming out.
George, Me, Markybo and Bill
Markybo and LJ who also got his endowments that day. They are both leaving for their missions soon.
Marky Bo, Bishop Fonua and LJ
Me and my "oldest" child. LOL
LJ and his Mama Seni
Kris coming out.
The parentals with Vita Kioa
They had their own private photo shoot. LOL
One of my FAVES! Told you it was a photo shoot. HA!
Group Flic!
LOL @ MO
Gotta love the two besties.
The "outsiders" table. LOL

Sweet November

It's hard to imagine that the entire month is over! It was so BUSY! Just nuts! But I'm sure that's what added to the fleeting feeling of November 2010. I picked up a 2nd job at Old Navy as part of one of my "Always wanted to try that" things. Let's just say it's a lot harder than it looks! I'm only on the roster until the end of the holiday season so I'm going to ride it out until then.

The early weeks were jam packed with YW in Excellence for Jigz and Audrey's birthday planning. Then came this years Thanksgiving pie sales and the actual Thanksgiving holiday. Whew! Now that it's reflection time, I'm pretty proud of everyone for the way things came together at EVERY event! As with most things, not one person could do it alone. I wish I could've blogged about each event individually. But since I couldn't, I'll lay it all out right here. LOL To spare you a weeks worth of reading, I'll give you more pictures than descriptions. :-)

First things first - YW in Excellence

This is one of the value display tables. They all looked so nice!Some of the girlsJigz family tree chartHer actual TreeThe pot for her "tree" it was nice!
I enjoyed the program and I'm sure it was a boost to get the girls working on their personal progress.

That very weekend was Audrey's party. What a "SWEET" get together that was! I'll spare you all of the millions of pictures because you can view them on FB. But here are just a few so you get the overall idea. I LOVED the theme and thanks to sissy Salomay and good company from Tasha and Sia (who were working on the candy decorations) the cake ended up looking pretty good! Of course it was a team effort lead by Audrey's mama Tasha to get everything up and ready so kudos to all the sissy's who worked together to make it happen for our Audrey Love.

Lollipop and Gumdrop centerpiecesAudrey's "Sweet Factory" Candy TableAudrey and her Mama TashaGumball Machine FavorsBirthday Cake

Then came the pie making for the Elders and their pie sale. It was some work! Thank goodness the boys were actually really helpful! Maybe a little more than I expected. LOL Eric and Hola came to help so with 4 guys total we were able to get all 90 pies cooked in just under 20 hours. We started Tuesday morning at 10am and topped our last pie at 4:30am. They're some GOOFBALLS! But what do you expect with that many dorky guys? LOL I'll add a few extra pics here because they asked me not to upload to FB. LOL They raised over $700!!! Not bad!

Prepping banana cream pieOnly GUYS would think to do an egg shotGROSS!Peach Cobbler before bakingBanana CreamAll wrapped and ready to go!Cook that puddingChocolate, Coconut and Banana CreamEven Luvie HelpedAssembly Line Time!Their very first pickups! Thanks Ni and Kalo!!!Cool guys got me a gift to show their appreciation! Sweet right? Well Osi is the one who actually got it before heading over the day they delivered all their pies. It was lipgloss and a cute bag - they know me too well!

After all that baking came the random shots. LOL They were such dorks BUT it helped to keep things lively at 4am.

Hola doing the pose that he says girls do all the time. LOL
They're re-enacting a pose we did with the girls like 10 years ago.CHEEZY!!Osi showing off his apronPeace signs and pucker lipsEric showing off his heart.I joined the fun every once in a whileHola scaring the turtle pie LOLMarky Bo is a cool guy What time is it?!?!What are you guys teaching my baby!?!?!

And FINALLY it was Thanksgiving day! Original plans to combine with the entire Unga clan fell through because of just how DEEP everyone is. So instead of a HUGE thanksgiving we had our regular BIG one with the tradition of lighting xmas lights after dinner. Food was good, company was good and sleep was the BEST! LOL Nia and her little family came by too but we didn't get any fliccs! Here are a couple Thanksgiving day shots no descriptions needed.:-)

Overall this November was jam packed with FUN! I enjoyed every minute of it and most importantly I'm THANKFUL for those who make life exciting and worth all of the struggles that come. I couldn't imagine things any other way.