January 5, 2009
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Happy Birthday to me!
So I woke up yesterday morning at 6 am and had a hard time going back to sleep. I looked at my phone a saw a couple of text messages with birthday wishes and I remembered – “Hey, its my birthday!” Bill woke up with all my moving around and said happy birthday, gave me a kiss, and went to make Koa a bottle. While he was doing that, I lay back down and must have fell back asleep because I opened my eyes and no one else was in the room and my phone said it was 10:30 am!
I got up and took a shower, got dressed and went downstairs to see what everyone else was up to. I knew Lory & her kids were up because their room was empty upstairs, but there seemed to be more voices than just their family and my family. As I got downstairs, I realized there was almost all of my siblings and their families and also some of our extended family was there too. I was confused because I didn’t know about any family meeting we were going to have. Everyone was wishing me a happy birthday as I went by and I kissed and hugged them all. I finally got to Daro and I asked him what was going on and why everyone was here. He put his hand by his mouth and whispered “Dont tell, but its Lorinda’s birthday! … oh wait!” Then he smiled and laughed!
It turns out, Bill and my siblings had cooked up a plan to throw a surprise birthday party for me! It worked! I was totally surprised! My sister organized a pyramid made of some of my nieces and nephews and kids of my cousins too. She showed me the picture and I realized how not put together I looked! I had, after all, just gotten out of the shower! I went back upstairs and made myself a little more presentable and came back down to enjoy the company of all my family.
My dad gave a short speech before we started eating lunch. He said “Who here knows what Lorinda always asks me to bring to Utah whenever I go up to visit?” My niece Lindsey says “Wasabi Poke!” For you mainlanders, that is raw tuna fish cut into cubes with soy sauce and wasabi – a japanese horse radish. My dad says, yes, what else? One of my sisters said “Lau lau!” Again, for you mainlanders – it is a traditional Hawaiian dish of pork and fish wrapped in what are called luau leaves. My dad said, yes! Then thats when they brought out the poke, and the laulau and kim chi and seaweed wraps (also called kim) and rice! My dad made sure all the foods I missed from Hawaii were there for my birthday lunch. How sweet is that?
We actually started lunch with the birthday cake tho because some of my family had to leave to go to a baby luau. So they brought out a homemade icecream cake made by Jenn! Kai & Anjuli hovered nearby and I just knew they were dying to blow out my candles-which I didn’t mind! So right after they were done singing, I waited for them to blow- however, out of nowhere, Ethan swooped in and blew them out! We were all laughing -except for Kai that is! Anyway, we put the cake back in the freezer and dug into the lunch. SOOOOOOO ONO! For all you mainlanders, that means delicious in Hawaiian! Then we had the cake- It was vanilla and chocolate icecream spread over a peanut butter and graham cracker crust with an oreo and whipped cream topped frosting! It was AMAZING!!!!! Thanks Jenn!
After everyone left, Bill and I took a little time to catch up on email and rest. When Bill finally woke up, we went swimming with all my siblings and some cousins and our families. We went to rec center 7 and Kapono let us all in. It was a little cold (and I had forgotten my bathing suit bottoms) so I didn’t go in. But Kai & Koa did! They had a blast- Koa loved splashing on the stairs and jumping up and down. After we were all done, we went to Daro’s house for hot chocolate and saimen. Bill and I didn’t have any tho because we were going to go out for dinner.
We left Daro’s house and went to Walmart to pick up some items we had forgotten to bring (like bathing suit bottoms!). Bill went to find me an iPhone for my birthday which he said he had been planning on getting me for a long time (probably since I started dropping hints after I saw Bens!). But we didn’t really like the way the sales associate at Walmart was treating us, so we didn’t buy it there.
After we finished shopping, we went home to drop the boys off with Lory. Daro & Zui were hosting a Starcraft game night at our house so it was packed! I’ve never seen so many geeks in one room before! All the laptops networked to each other… all the wires all over the place, too funny!
Bill and I freshened up a bit and then snuck out. My dad had given me a gift certificate to Palace Buffet – a Korean buffet (duh!) so we headed there. We got there at 8:45 and found out they closed at 9! So we went to Chilis instead! After we ate, we walked across the parking lot to the movie theatres. Yes Man was playing soon after and I knew that that was one movie both of us wanted to see, so thats what we did! It was pretty funny! When we got out, it was just after my birthday ended… What a fun birthday!
P.S. When we got home, most of the guys were still there playing Starcraft! Geeks…
P.S.S. Here is an unrelated picture of all the 13 grandkids. And Bill. And Jenn. And Lehua…
Comments (2)
Glad you had such a great birthday!! It was nice to talk to you! And that grandkids picture is super cute!!!
Hello Miss Griffiths, I sent this letter to your sister in law to give to your brother, but I guess either it did not get there, or he did not answer. If I am intruding or bothering you, I apologize, it is not my intention.
Hello Miss Kim… You don’t know me, I wanted you to please give this letter to your husband Zui.
Let me explain. I met Linda at BYU Hawaii when I was there (79-83) We
were very good friends, and we had the same classes together. She was
very applied in her studies, always pushing herself. We Graduated and
we parted ways… It has been more than 30 years. I was reading an old
Ensign from the church library from September 1998 and lo and behold…
I saw Linda’s Picture with her husband, Brother Kim. I could not
believe my eyes… It seems as if time had stood still… She looked
the same as I remembered her over 30 years ago. I was very excited, after all these years I could finally say hello to a dear friend. I
work with computers, and of course I typed her name in a search engine
and found out several things about her, that she had served with
Brother Kim in a mission in Taiwan, that she had a music school in
Hawaii, and the most tragic news of all, that she had passed away last
year… How sad… but yet as I keep reading, I see that she had so
many kids… so many grandchildren…. and now I feel mixed emotions,
as I type this tears come down on my eyes, I feel sad, yet I feel glad
that she lived such a beautiful life, she graduated, she married, she
was surrounded by her loved family. I will say a prayer for her. I know
that all of you must miss her, but I am sure that she lives in your
memories every day. I am sure that some of those kids faces and
expressions and mannerisms must be hers. As I said again you don’t know
me, but I knew Linda, very well. Thank you for reading my humble words.
I have a lot of respect for Linda. May God bless her and all of you…
Brother Alex Sotelo