Once Upon A Time

On an islandfar away agirl who thought she had life all planned out metthis handsome Samoanguyand the rest as they say is history

WePromised

You promised that you’ll stilllove me even whenthere’s a lot more of me to love and I promisedthat you’ll still be the love of my lifeeven whenyour snoringkeepsme upat nights

To Have and To Hold

Wemoved in seemingly different circles but thankfully fate brought us together and I will have and hold you until forever and beyond my love

In Sickness and in Health

You’re theone that I reach for when I’m hurting and the one that I want to laugh with when everything is going right

For Richer, For Poorer

Rememberwhen we had to walk to the closest Safeway to buy groceries and we had one piece of furnitureto our name, what an adventure its been my love

In Good Times and Bad

We’ve had our share of those, you’ve annoyed the heck out of me and I’ve made you mad as heck, you’ve put up with my crap and I’ve learned to look past yours

To Love and to Cherish

You are and always will be my one true love, wherever you are is home because that is where my heart will be

Till Death Do Us Part

That’s not going to happen because I will stalk you from the grave if I die before you sothis part doesn’t apply to us

Happy 24th Anniversary my love! Here’s to another 24 years of loving you, fighting with you, being loved by you, annoying you, being annoyed by you,cheering the boys on with you, celebrating life’s little victories with you, sharing the thorns of life with you and just simply being the other half of you. I look forward to growing old with you. You and me facing whatever together babe, we got this!

Perhaps it’s the arhivist/librarian in me because latelyI’ve beenon a treasure huntfor historical records andarchival documents ofSamoa or related to Samoa. Or perhaps it’s my never ending quest for genealogical records for hubby’s elusive palagi ancestor that has awakened this interest. This palagi ancestor found his way toSamoa in the early 1800s. But more on that particular search later.

Came acrossthis old clip ofPlebiscite day. Love the old black and white video and love the fact that this momentous event was carried out peacefully and seemingly very orderly. This simple fact stands out in my mind today as it was only last night that we watched a movie based on true events surroundinga change of government in South Africa.

So sad how changein some parts of the world almost always seem to be accompanied by bloodshed and violence. I understand and support change and know that sometimes change is necessary for the good of the people but still, it’s sad that it comes at such a cost. So unfair that so many innocent people are killed just because that happens to be their home. But I didn’t mean to get into a political discussion so that’s all I’m going to say on that.

Samoa did gain its independenceon 1 January1962, however,Independence Day iscelebratedon June 1st every year. This has been the practice for as long as I can remember which bringsup the next obviousquestion…why?Yet one more nugget of historical data to dig up.

As a young school girl in Samoa, I remember participating in Independence Day festivitieswith myschool. It was a day that we looked forward to for anumber of reasons; the main one being that it was an official holiday so no school of course. There was also excited anticipation of the week’s festivities andthe special treats we’d get such as an ice cream cone from Isa’s or if we were really lucky an ice cream cone from Isa’s and a keke pua’a from Pigaki and a movie at the Savalalo Grand.

The most exciting event, at least, as far as my father was concerned was the fautasi race. I remember sitting on top of our old red pick up truck so that us young kids can have a clear unobstructed view of the race. And yes, I also remember the envious looks of others who had no such preferred sitting at their disposal and how easily I dismissed them. Ugh…the immaturity and selfishness of children. If I ever gave you one of my10 year old “sucks to be you” look I sincerely and wholeheartedly apologize.

Ona side note, check out the very casualattire (or should that be non-attire) of some of the ballot counters…love it.

Thispast Sundaymarked an important milestone in the fabric of our family’s life.It was the dayour father turned 80.

Sundaywas also the culmination of weeks and days of planning and coordinating between all of us his children to pull off a surprise birthday and family reunion this past weekend. And such a joyful reunion and celebration it turned out to be.

So in case you were wondering where I’ve been (all 7 of you that read this lol) now you know. As the host and head planner by default (being the oldest has certain liabilities as I’m sure all of you “oldest” siblings can attest to) I felt as if it fell to me to make sure everything was in place. Not that I had to do everything myself, no it was truly a team effort. And not that it was the kind of 80th birthday celebration that we’re used to seeing in our Samoan community. As a matter of fact, the kind of celebration wewanted was very different than most Samoan celebrations. For one thing, it wasn’t big at all. It was small, actually very small.There were no suas or extravagant sao ga measorlarge sums of money given as gifts. What it was instead was an intimate and heartfelt celebration with the people that mattered the most to our father.

You see, if you knew my father, you’d know that he’s not the kind of man that likes the bigelaboratefiafias where you invite the whole auloku or village, the kind that is filled with people that we don’t even know, or at least don’t know very well. My dad is a quiet andhumbleman and anything extravagant at that scale with him as the guest of honor wouldn’t be enjoyable for him. So to honor him, we planned a quiet weekend with just our family doing things together. The most important thing was to bring all of his children andour familiestogether from the different parts of the world that each of us now call home – that to us was the best gift we can give him as he hasn’t seen all of his kids together in one place in at least 20 years.

Last night – the final evening of our celebration and his actual birthday brought many of us to tears as we reminisced about all the great lessons this unassuming man from Samoa who grew upwith very humble meanshas taught us over the years.Each of us got to share a memory of growing up under his roof and some of the things that we remembered doing with him. One of my brothers talked about a time when he and our father spenttheday in Apia and then instead of going toouraunt’s house for the night, he and dad decided to just hang out around Apia until daylight when the buses start running again so they can catch a bus to Mulifanua for the next ferry to Savaii. In his words, they didn’t necessarily do anything fun but having that alone time with dad meant the world to him.

Another brother shared how he observed that our father always let our mother go on the “fun” trips overseas to visit one of us when we started to leave home for school in NZ and the US. Dad always let our mother have that pleasure and he’d stay home with the remaining kids. He told us that this is what he tries to do in his own family now. Yet another brother shared how he sometimes thought that our fatherwas too forgiving and too humble but now that he’s older, he realizes that humility and forgiveness are the marks of a truly powerful father, leader and patriarch. It’s easy enough to respond with anger and hate, but turning “the other cheek” takes the kind of inner strength that many of us lack.

When I stop to think about the legacy this man has bestowed upon us I can’t help but marvel that someone who grew up as he did, with literally nothing, many times going hungry and barefeet, who wasn’t always treated nicely or fairly in his own youth, and yet this same manmade us feel as if we were the most important and the richest kidsin all of Samoaand showered us with love. He raised us to believe that we can do anything and that we are worthy of everything good in this world.

It was a spiritual and memorable evening and weekend for us. I for one am glad that we got to share these memories with our father while he’s still around to hear us express them. Too often we wait to say these things over their coffins – and really what is the point then if they can no longer hear you say them? If you have the kind of father that we areblessed to have in our Dad, go ahead, tell them what’s in your heart before it’s too late. Reading another Samoan blogger’s moving tribute to his own father today really brought home this point.

I can’t end this post without saying how much I appreciate and love my family – my siblings and our children and all that they did to make this weekend one that we’ll remember forever. And to our spouses, these wonderful eternal companions that have blessed our lives in so many ways, I thank you all. To my hubby and best friend,I love you- you have my undying gratitude for loving my father and honoring him like your own. Finally, to my father, thank you,I’m truly blessed to be able to call you Dad.

I should never have said I was going to post twice a week. I was doing just fine before, managing to at least post once a week but I just had to go and jinx myself. Before I knew it a whole week had passed and then two….gotta delete that bit about twice a week posts, can’t have you guys thinking I’m a flake lol.

We went to see Act of Valor this past Friday and I loved it. If there was such a thing as a required list of films for every American then this movie needs to be on that list.

This movie made it clear how much these special forces and our military do to protect not only our country’s interests but our very lives as well, and most of the time, we don’t even know about it. Act of Valor is of course about the Navy Seals and yes they are exceptional and extremely well trained. You have to be pretty jaded if you don’t walk away from this movie without gratitude and appreciation for this elite force, for their training but also for their dedication and loyalty to each other, to their country and to all of us as well.

I’m well aware that the military has a lot of detractors and critics. I also know that the military has more than it’s share of screw-ups and mishaps so some of that criticism is justified. Still, taking everything into consideration, our men and women serving in the military deserve a lot more respect and gratitude than they get. Some will argue that they’re paid for what they do and that’s all the gratitude they need. They say why do I need to thank someone for doing something that they’re paid to do? They even say that these soldiers chose this job or career for themselves and that it wasn’t forced upon them.

All of that is true. Our soldiers are paid and our soldiers did choose to go into this career of their own free will. But let me ask you this, what if everyone was like you and does not want or choose to serve in the military? What if everyone was like you and would rather let someone else put their lives on the line, pay or no pay? Who then will protect and die to keep you and your family safe?

As a military wife and a military mother, I’m admittedly biased so I guess you can dismiss this as an overly sentimental military post.

Regardless, I do want to say that I have the utmost respect for all the men and women of our military. I salute them. Our son said it best…this is the son that is in college and not in the military. He and his girlfriend saw the movie together and at the end of the movie, he made the comment “we need to go home and hug our dads right now.” Her dad is military too. So to all of you, our military community, thank you, and if you’re reading this and have a family member or a friend in the military, please thank them, heck go ahead, give them a hug as well.

One more thing, if you’re only looking to be entertained, then don’t go see this movie, find one with real Hollywood actors who are great at that – acting and making believe. If you’re looking for a little taste of what it’s like to do what these military men do, then go see Act of Valor. These soldiers aren’t playing at being soldiers, they actually are real soldiers.

“For all those who’ve been down range, to us, and those like us — damn few.”

April Keil's Zumba crew

…would rather get a root canal or give birth without epidural.

Well, not quite, but you know what I mean.

Ihate exercising,working out,going to thegym, whatever you call this thing that we have to do to get or stay healthyand lose weight, I HATE IT! But as much as I hate exercising, there’s something else I hate even more – getting up EARLY in the morning to go exercise.

Believe it or not, that’s exactly what I’ve been doing this week – getting up at 5am to go exercise.And despitethe fact that I abhor exercisingit actually hasn’t been too bad.In fact, I’m looking forward to going tomorrow again even thoughit means sacrificing my Saturday morningtreat- staying in bed until I feel like getting up. Like many of you, it’s the one day that I don’t have to rush anywhere.

The key for me was finding something I enjoy, and when it comes to exercising that something is dancing, specifically zumba. When I’m dancing, it doesn’t feel as if I’m exercising at all so zumba’s tagline, “ditch the workout, join the party” is fitting.I also like the new place I’m going to now, it’s a women only gym so the women that show up at 5 in the morning aren’t afraid to come as themselves – no makeup, hair hastily pulled up in a ponytail, and in sweats and baggy tshirts. The instructor still looks cute but the rest of us come as we are. Hey, at least we take the time to brush our teeth, hubby tells me that the guys he plays basketball with in the mornings don’t bother with that, and they’re not shy about yelling and getting in each other’s faces at all.

In addition to kicking off my exercise campaign this week, I also decided to eat healthier. I know, what am I thinking? There’s no way this Samoan is going to exist on rabbit food, no sirreeee, and I’m notgoing to. I plan to make small changes, for example, thispast week Ieliminated sugar. Giving up that one little thing was hard.How hard you ask? Well, Icouldn’t have even a sliver of guava cake at my niece’s birthday party even though I love guava cake. And I couldn’t have even a teeny tiny bite ofa Cinnabon from the box of warm delicious Cinnabons that hubby brought home.There’s actually one left in the fridge, tempting. I’d betterchannel all my willpower so I don’t walk over there right now and warm it up. I can do this, I can do this, repeat 10 times…

By the way,if you have any healthy recipes forSamoan or Polynesian dishes, please share. The Samoan diet is ahmmm how can I say this…not verybalanced but it sure is delicious.

So why am I telling you all this? Because if these fitness and weight management experts are to be believed, then telling you is going to help me succeed because I’m now accountable to all of you. Whether or notthey’re rightremains to be seen a ea..

Check out these Samoan zumbaaddicts and instructors promoting fitness in our Polynesian communities:

• For the Love of Zumba
• The Keil Krew
• Finding Joy In My Journey
• Fitness with Netta