Pay It Forward

This was written the day after Christmas...didn't realize I never posted it.

10:30pm. 2 days 'til Christmas. Troubled times. A knock on the door. A teenaged kid handed an envelope that said, "Kaufana" on it. He said, "Merry Christmas!" and walked right into the darkness and disappeared. Inside the envelope, an amount of money beyond my imagination. Shock. Ran outside to track the footsteps in the snow that brought such a blessing. Nothing. Analyzing. Tears. Analyzing more. Tears. Analyzing harder. Tears. More Tears.

Who could be so generous? So thoughtful. So benevolent. Christlike.

Prayers were heard. Gratitude.

No way to find out who it was, but now, to PAY IT FORWARD. Tears.

Big Lights WILL Inspire You!!

My cousin, Oti said it right, "Alicia Keys wasn't lying!! Big lights WILL inspire you!!"

Click to see just a tad bit of the fun we had in NYC!

Tito Freestylin' at Charmin

Tua'one girls annual trip was to New York City!! (December 10-13, 2009) If ya haven't been there, I HIGHLY recommend you go. It was certainly a memorable trip. I loved every minute...20 of my most favorite girls, no kids or husband....just us girls and New York! Shopping, good food and great company! To save time I'm just going to copy and paste my post I left on our family website! Here we go...

“Handbag? Coach? Louis Vutton? Gucci?” Do ya know how sick I was of hearing that phrase all up in my face? Malo Canal Street!! New York was certainly memorable…I keep lookin’ at the pics posted over and over just to relive the moment! I wanted to thank each of you individually…so please bear with me in this novel!

Prim- I am so happy you were there! Thanks for always lookin’ over us out there, makin’ sure we were warm and personally, thank you for the extra cheeseburger at Mickey D’s! Hahaha! That fish burger I ordered just didn’t cut it for me!! Hahaha!

Banana- “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”….hahahaha!! Did you see all the girls faces when you and I busted out with that song? MEMORABLE!! Now you know the subway peeps NEVER experienced that one! GOOOO UTAH JAZZ!

Kadi- This girl could read my mind so well, ‘cause we’d see somethin’ at the same time, look at eachother and just start busting out before anything was said!! LOL! I will NEVER forget the lady with the subway doors closed on half her face!! Hahahaha!!

Cinnamon- Never heard the terms “Oh-Em” so much in all my life, but that’s exactly what NY was….O- to the- E-M-GEEEE!

Les- I know you hated that “waiting game,” but you did it anyway! Always the last to get on the subway, walk nto the buildings, the bus, countin’ heads everywhere to make sure we were all there counted for! *tears* You made this whole experience happen for us…behind the camera in 99% of those pictures, because you wanted US to remember the moment! You’re the SUPER GLUE…you keep us close! How I love and admire your every characteristic!

Moni- Thanks for making my head ache a lil’ more with the whole fire alarm incident!! LOL!! Ehhh!! J/K! That was a funny incident all on it’s own, especially when Les decided to announce it to everyone riding the subway with us!! LOL!! Seriously though Moni, THANK YOU for lightening up our spirits when there were thorns- You were our “ROSE!”

Silard- Now you know we really didn’t leave ya hangin’ at the M&M store alone right? We actually stayed another ½ hour waiting for you to come out while you were eating nice and warm at Beef Bowl….why I oughtta…LOL!

Otis- Thanks for helpin’ me find that dark alley and callin’ the taxi on the streets of New York!! I felt so silly admitting those two things I wanted to do…haha! Then wakin’ me up to catch my flight so early Sunday mornin’ and checkin in at the airport…I would have been so LOST had I not had you there AND I’m sure Les would’ve KILLED me had I missed that flight!

Brooke- Girrrrrl, all I got to say is, “Tim Tebow’s HOTT!” You lucky duck!

La- Can’t believe you came from JAPAN for this girlfriend! Now that’s a TROOPER! Good thing you and Pou got HEIGHT so you could spot us in the NYC crowds….it totally made our night complete once we were all together!

Pou- This girl knows how to POTTY like a ROCKSTAR!! LOL!! Thanks for being down to make my dreams come true even if I wanted to get up at 5am to make the Today Show filming…LOL!! Glad ya made me realize that wasn’t my dream so we could sleep in a bit more!!

Gina- Malie SNAKE BOOTS!! Thanks for waitin’ on us girls at Beef Bowl, I’m sure your feet were just as sore and tired, but there you were servin’ us our food and drinks so willingly…I totally appreciated that!

Tito- Malo tour guide! Thank you for livin’ it up in NYC for the 2 months that you did!! LOL!! How would we have seen all the sites we did had you not come? This girl was runnin’ up the incline on the Brooklyn Bridge like it was a piece of cake! No thanks on mentioning a rat in the subway causing me an anxiety attack…that is not my style!

Lupita- This girl wore some comfy tennis shoes the first day we toured New York, then sacrificed her comfort to sport her cute boots the next day! Although your feet are probably dying from those boots, let’s just say it paid off, ‘cause ya look darn cute in the pictures!! =D

Mele- “Happy Halloween!” from Houston! LOL!! Thanks for stickin’ with me when I wanted to experience the WHOLE effect of the Brooklyn Bridge!! You knew just how important it was to me! Now, I wish I could have done the same for you on eatin’ that New York pizza…dang, I suck!! Sorry MayRay!

Seni- Who knew this girl could bargain shop! I loved the whole undercover mini black van experience and I’m glad I had you and Lupita to share it with!! Glad you and Sila got swept away for an even better deal!! Jimmy Choo & Dolce Gabana…WOWZERS!

Oli- We’re GANGSTAHS up in those NY alleys…LOL!! Thanks for being so down to run through Central Park with me when I wasn’t sure anyone else would! Beware of those subway doors!! LOL!

Uinise- The GYRO experience was DELICIOUS! So glad we didn’t pass up that opportunity…thank your friend for me will ya!

I’d also like to thank the guy at Chinatown who sold me the Blind Side bootleg. Justin and I stayed up ‘til midnight Sunday night to watch it. We were so into the movie, only to find out that it was only HALF the movie!! MODED!

Lastly, I want to thank MYSELF for going to New York and taking pictures so I could get a “reality check” and realize why I am out of breath every time I climb three or four steps! GEEZ-LOUISE! Give me a few months of ZUMBA and I’ll show you! Hahaha!! Let’s hope!

LOVE YOU ALL OH SO MUCH!!

All Grown Up!

My lil' Toree turned 21 this month!! All she wanted from us for her bday was to bring the kids up to go sledding with her. She's been livin' in Provo for over two years now, doin' school, attending the singles ward and makin' her own lil' life out there. She absolutely LOVES "Happy Valley" (Provo) and calls it "home" too. We tease her about how much Provo has changed her...she used to be so shy and quiet...now, you can find her in the middle of the circle at Provo's YSA dance gettin' hyphie!! LOL! I admit Provo has done her a whole lotta good and she's become Miss Independent! I think of this girl as my "1st born," because I took care of her since she was born, her crib was next to my bed growing up and I was the one up with her at nights. You can ask anybody who knew us back then and they'll tell ya, this girl wasn't crying for "momma" but for "IA" (Via). I'm certainly darn proud of what this girl has done with her life and where's she's headed...she's got a darn good head on her shoulders! I love you SHEESTER!

Sunday Mornings!

Church starts at 11am each Sunday. Ten people to one bathroom in the house is pure chaos! I can't wait for the other bathroom to be done already. Let's just say all the kids and dad were fresh out of the bath and neatly groomed in time. "Someone" ended up throwin' on a church dress, hair in a bun for the millionth time and out the door. We were still 5 minutes late! No one in nursery yet, so I walk into Relief Society holding Koloi in his carseat in one hand and lil' Drew in the other. Well, what do ya know? Relief Society lesson's on "Optimism- A positive outlook no matter the situation." But of course!
I needed that though. I'll be sure to always take my showers EVEN give the kids their bath on Saturday nights from now on. :)

MEMORABLE!

This was an AMAZING night in my opinion. Temple Lights. My whole family was there. Mom and dad. All my siblings and their families. My sister Mel's fam being in NZ. Marty and Alisi. Hyrum and Evalisi. Even, Evalisi's family too. Pretty cool huh? We all joke with Hyrum, telling him that night could have been his chance to pop the question. I sure hope he does and soon! =D A million pictures were taken that night. Here are my favorite ones.

SIBLINGS. Oldest to youngest. Vee,Hyrum, Joe, Jr, Martin,Toree,Uni,Brenda, Deedee, Tupou. I absolutely LOVE this picture above. It was my most FAVE!

I only wish Mele was here to be in it with us. My brothers. Joe, Jr, Marty, Hyrum, Tupou

Did I mention our COUGARS won the Holy War this year?

We bleed BLUE!

A sisters picture wasn't taken. Just doesn't feel complete without Mel!

Alafoki, Tupou and Lorenzo above.

Baby Vee, Bean, Joejoe, Ala, Bobo and Renz below.

Evalisi and Hyrum....Alisi and Marty

This one just cracks me up! Bean and Deedee are so silly!

My beautiful lil' sisters above. They are so much fun....the grandkids LOVE these gals! I guess I do too! LOL! My lil' Andrew below with his Aunty Brenda.

My family has been blessed with these wonderful people. Maka, Evalisi, Justin, Lome and Alisi

I sure love my family!

All pictures from this night are on my facebook and Evalisi's facebook. You can check them all out there if ya want!

My Louisiana Love!

The picture above is the day Tyani arrived!! It's a pic of Tyani and her lil' brother Teiko. The picture below is Tyani and her lil' sister, Nola aka "Baby Girl"

My beautiful niece, Tyani got to come down for the Thanksgiving holidays. She lives in Louisiana so we don't get to see her much...I call her my "Louisiana Love." Tyani turned 10 this past month and got really good grades (she's such a smartie!) so her mom & dad asked her what she wanted as a reward and what she wanted was to come to SLC to see all her family. My brother, Hyrum (pictured below with Tyani) works for the airlines and flew out to pick her up and bring her down....boy, were we excited to see her! =) This is Joe and Lome's family. Oldest is Tyani (10), Joejoe(4), Babygirl(2), and lil' baby Teiko (6 months).

My two, Ala & Bean with Tyani. (above) They rushed from school to the airport to say their "goodbyes"....Beanie was just bawling after this picture. She did not want to see Tyani leave. Beanie's girl cousins her age are Tyani who lives in Louisiana and the others are in New Zealand. When Tyani came down, we all told her about how we'd been rooting for LSU when they'd play football each week, (althought we are die hard BYU COUGAR fanatics) keeping her in mind...right away she said, "What for? I'm a BYU fan!" Boy was her daddy proud when she said that...LOL! Grandma bought her the BYU sweater above so she could wear it home, along with an ipod to listen to on the plane....Tyani about hit the roof! Hahaha! Below is the crowd that made it to the airport to say goodbye! We had such fun times with her and are so thankful to Mace and Chris for allowing her to come down.

WE LOVE YOU TYANI GIRL!!

Drew's Most FAVE!

My lil' 18month old LOVES this clip and can watch it for hours and hours...he laughs his face off EVERY TIME too!! It's now become his most FAVORITE joke to play not only on MOMMY, but DADDY, his big brother, big sister and all his aunties and uncles!! LOL!! I'd say he gets me on it about 95% of the time too!! Now, whenever he sees any of us on the comp, he runs over to jump on our lap, points at the monitor and says, "MOM! MOM!" We know exactly what it is he wants and so this link has become a "FAVORITE" link on the comp and in the Kaufana household. :D

G-HOUSE!

G...R...A....N...WHO'S HOUSE IS THIS? G-HOUSE...E....R!

GRANGER!

who?

GRANGER!

what?

GRANGER!!!!!!!

My back really hurts today! Maybe because I was bit too hyper at Ala's championship game this weekend. LOL! The Granger Lancer (Mighty Mites) faced the West Panthers this past Saturday. They'd been the ONLY team we'd lost to this past season and we came to face them again. This game was certainly INTENSE...you know two poly teams ALWAYS are...from the football players to the fans on the sidelines!! Heck, I lost my voice big time! Yet, our boys sure didn't let down and we came out with the victory 22-13! As soon as the ref held up that ball stating the game was over, us fans were running into the field to celebrate with our boys...(hence, the reason I am having back pains today...lol). It was AMAZING!! Here are some pics after the game. Thanks to all our family who came out to support..it was certainly a memorable day! Alafoki played with his cousin, Sione Tauataina (my cousin Taina's son)...here we all are right after the game center field...The FONUA family! =)Ala with his dad, lil' Drew and Bobo!

Ala posin' with Joe and Lomes!

Johnny and Seni with Alafoki...So happy these two came out to support!!

Aunty Toree with Ala! Thanks for takin' the early bus out from Provo to make it sis!

DeeDee and Alafoki

Ala with his lil' sis, Beanie and his aunties: Maka, DeeDee, Toree, Lomes and Seni

Ala and Bean with Uncle Bobo! =D

CAN'T WAIT FOR NEXT SEASON!! WAY TO GO GRANGER!

G-HOUSE!

WHO FLIPPED THE SCRIPT?

Ala and Beanie came home with their 1st report card of the year...they've started at this new school which has been more challenging so we've all been anxious to see these grades! They gave me the sealed envelopes and Ala wanted me to open his first.

Ala got all A+s and one B in math. He usually got all Bs and a few Cs.

Justin and I were speechless and Ala was over excited!

Then we opened Beanies grades...she always outdoes her brother in grades.

Bean got 5 As and 4 Bs!!

Again, Justin and I were speechless and Ala was over excited!

Beanie on the other hand....stomped her way up to her room 'cause she was upset!! LOL!

A's and B's are GREAT...but for Ala to OUT-DO his sister in grades has never happened! We as parents were so proud of them both and will defnitely be treating them somewhere nice as promised.

After a lil' chat with Beanie, she congratulated her big brother and told him to BRING IT 'cause she's gonna hit all A+s this next term. Ala's up for the challenge!

I love their motivation!! =D

Reuniting In All Aspects

October flew by so fast...heck this year has! We're in NOVEMBER already. I have to jot down Ocotober's happenings, because there was a whole lot of reuniting in all aspects for our family.

Justin's lil' cousin, Latu Ongoloka passed away 09/26/09. He was 18 years old and had continuous heart problems the past couple years. The week before, Justin's aunt, Tolokina passed away in New Zealand, but not much of the family could make it out there. Latu's passing brought all the Kaufana family together which hadn't happened in a while and it was lovely to see Justin's aunties from Florida and Oregon here with their kids. Justin didn't wanna miss a minute away from them and loved hanging out with the family. It was an opportunity for our own kids to meet more of the family from their dad's side as well.

This is a picture off of Justin's phone. Latu's family after the burial services.

October 16th, I lost a cousin of my own, Naki Maile passed away unexpectedly. He was 32 years old and left his wife and 6 lil' girls from the age 9 down to age 1. This tragic loss also brought together much of my extended Fonua family and we were reunited with much of our family we hadn't seen in years as well. With both of these cousins passing away so young, I continue to remember that the Lord needs the BEST on the other side to help serve and certainly Naki and Latu are exactly those type of servants...I love thinking of their reunion with our Father In Heaven.

Twig, Nancy and I were invited to a surprise party for our good friend, Felika Tahi. We had been looking forward to this fun party 'cause we knew we'd see friends from our younger years. Funny thing is that we thought it was some kind of birthday party and so us three went in on a gift card to Applebees for Felika and her hubby to enjoy only to arrive to the party and find all pink decoration and a huge sign saying, "It's a Girl!" Weh...MODED! Felika had her 9th child, a lil' girl and her sisters and sis in laws had put together a fun lil' shower. It was tons of fun and we were ever so happy to see old faces and catch up! Good times!

This is a picture of mom with one of Naki's girls, Eva. Taken right after the burial services.


My momma turned the big 5-0 this past month as well! We didn't do anything big for my mom for this birthday, although I wish we could have, she loves to be the center of attention so a dance to celebrate her birthday would have been nice, but we had the funerals and weddings each weekend and so my siblings and I all pitched in some $ and gave it to her and she LOVED it! Mom and dad spent almost a week at a hotel and dad says she splurged on shopping and eating good food! I was happy to hear she did that! Now if ya know me, you know my mom and I butt heads all the time...we really don't compromise well, but this past month was so different. I don't know what it was, but she seemed extra nice, always calling me each morning to see how I was, what I was doing and we could talk for hours without any arguing. You see, my mom had surgery the week before I had baby Koloi and so we've both been off of work on Short Term Disability and so we've had tons of time together...it's been such a great time with her. She had to return to work this past week and I realize how much I miss seeing her throughout the day, so when 7pm hits, I know she's off work and I'm on the phone to talk to her and chat. Totally love her!

To end off the month of October, I was able to see some of my most FAVORITE people who I hadn't seen since July! Now that may not seem so long, but for me it is 'cause these gals know everything and anything about me. Les came out on Halloween with her girls! Not only was it Halloween, but it was also Les' birthday! Monika also was here with her lil' Pataleone and it was such a TREAT to have them here and to finally meet lil' baby Leone! Baby Koloi got blessed that following Sunday so they were here to be with us and it just made my month complete!


This is Monika's baby Pataleone with baby Koloi on his blessing day...we'd been waiting to meet lil' Pataleone since he was born end of July.

A Patriotic "Reality Check!" for Momma!

The kids new school, American Prepatory Academy (APA) had their opening flag ceremony and Utah's governor came to speak to the kids and participate in the flag ceremony. Ala reminded me each day the week prior to make sure I'd be there. I'm glad I made it because it was a neat experience.

It was held outside after school on Monday. There were tons of parent support which I was happy to see. Along with the governor was one of the Utah Sentors and other members from the board. It was neat to see the school director (principal) introduce each member from the government, then asking the students which government branch that actual member served in. I was so impressed to hear the students answers, they knew each person and whether they served in the Legislative, Executive or Judicial branch. The kids then recited by memory some patriotic poems and then he governor gave a motivational speech and then he helped the boy scouts raise the flag. I was actually standing right by the flag pole so I tried to take pics, but they weren't the best.

Once the flag was raised, we all said the Pledge of Alligance and sang the National Anthem (didn't know there was a 2nd verse to the antehm and felt dumb that I didn't know it, but my kids did...lol). After some closing remarks Ala's class was chosen to sing the closing song, "God Bless America" and they sounded so great!! Here's a picture of Ala and his choir. Notice how he's front and center...I knew right away that his music teacher put him there because he is so LOUD! LOL!

Here's a picture of Alafoki with Governor Herbert. He came over to thank Ala's choir for singing, then we caught a quick picture. Beanie felt she was too cool to be around her momma this day, and I didn't catch any pictures. Silly girl!

I realized that I better get up to speed with my own knowledge of the government, 'cause on the drive home we talked about the whole experience, then my kids totally "schooled" me on who the members of the state senate were as well as these government branches...my head was hurting!! LOL!! Totally impressed with this new school of theirs.