Busy Weekend in October 2012!

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Its been a busy weekend! Thursday night was Kalaheo's Homecoming Dinner to celebrate the Football team. Parents were amazing and pulled out all the stops when it comes to our kids. I made a lot of pasta (four trays of pasta, 1 for homecoming dinner, 1 to leave home for family dinner-Darin, Malu, my parents, 1 for my brother and sister-in-law and their family, and then 1 more for Saturday or Sunday's events).

I actually had to leave early to get to hula by 7:15pm. And it was still a school night.

On Friday, I got up early to bake a giant batch of shortbread macadamia nut cookies hand dipped in dark chocolate and topped again with more chopped macadamia nuts. It was just practice for the cookie crust that I needed for my fancy green lime jello cheesecake dessert for Saturday's University of Hawaii Football Game.

Friday evening, Kalaheo smashed Roosevelt in our Homecoming game 50 to 14. Go Mustangs...all the way to the playoffs! Woo hoo!!!

The JV football team's season is over and it was definitely a learning curve for the new football players, I'm sure they will play even better next year!

In the meantime, Kai needs a break from contact sports as he is still recovering from his injuries, but he's already looking forward to playing another sport soon.

Saturday morning, Darin made spam musubi's while I squeezed in a quick 4.5 mile run. A few hours later, I was cheering on my Warriors but that was after a really awesome tail gate party! OMG everyone went all out, the food was so ono! Seriously yummy! I'm wishing I had leftovers in my fridge. The Warriors had a tough game, but my nephews had me smiling as we wandered about in search of ice cream :) yum!

Sunday, after a morning work out to sweat off all the naughty things I ate since Thursday, we packed up the family to join my lovely friend Diane on location in Diamond Head. She was filming for a fascinating story about the disappearing art of Amezaiku, Japanese candy making. It was fun and although, my children felt they were to old to participate, thinking it was just for the little kids (they were such diva's that day, grrrr), they begged for their own fancy Amezaiku candy lollipops and were as thrilled when they got them as the 4 year olds (some kids may have been older or younger than 4 but all were adorable).

Please Check out my friend Diane Ako's blog this is a link about her Halloween event and she writes on so many interesting topics. I can't wait to see her story on the Amezaiku with Nathan and Chika Tanaka of Candy Art Hawaii. 

It's now almost midnight as I type this, and way past my bedtime on a school night. So uploading all this text plus my photos to share with all my friends on facebook and elsewhere will just have to wait til morning.

Happy week ahead everyone :) smiles for you!
Love always,
Maile

Hawaii's Best Halloween Event of the Year

The most amazing Halloween event that I look forward to every year is a wonderful costume-optional party held at the beautiful Moanalua Mortuary. Diane Ako and Paul Drewes are so gracious with their time and effort to host this favorite annual event. Originally thought of as a get together among media friends, the spooky location in industrial Mapunapuna, sets the mood for a very macabre evening.

By day, Moanalua Mortuary is a very beautiful and respectable Mortuary offering compassionate and affordable end of life services. Providing cremations, caskets and funeral services in its beautiful air conditioned chapel.

The gorgeous double door entry and grand wood floor, vaulted ceilings and stone counters make this an amazing reception area for guests to truly have a beautiful party to celebrate the life of their deceased. In fact, that description really doesn't do it justice. Check out these photos...

But at night, there is no question that the atmosphere changes and when appropriately decorated with added spooky decor, it transforms into the best haunted party location you could dream of.

This year might have been my favorite with the popular psychic and the best haunted tour. Scary shadows wandered about the halls and peered out from dark corners. The screams and shouts from some of the guests made it so much fun, I'm not sure how Diane and Paul can top it for next year, but I look forward to being there.

Death is such a difficult subject. And the first few parties were a little strange. Hard to explain, but I like to think that all our friends have become more accepting of our fates. Parties like this, are certainly unusual, but have given each of us a renewed sense on the value of living the precious moments of our life.

Death is a curious topic, big mahalo always to Claus Hansen (Owner, Moanalua Mortuary), who is so patient with everyones questions and offering us a safe opportunity to explore such a difficult subject with a sense of humor and erases all those worries of passing on into the next life.

It was so wonderful to see my dear friend Cindy, who is just a month away from welcoming her own bundle of joy, and Malika who's baby is due to arrive at anytime. Life is a cycle, birth and death are just natural parts of our life. If we just make our time on Earth count, and live every moment being the best we can be, then when its our time to depart this life, we can look back and say everyday I truly lived and it was all worth it.

This amazing event gets bigger and better every year. Looking forward to the years ahead, and grateful for each day. Mahalo to all my wonderful friends, you make every day worth it and I want you to know how grateful I am to know each of you.

Much blessings and love to everyone.

Love and Aloha,
Maile

I lost 50lbs!!!

I've made it! I lost 50lbs. I have never been so happy to visit my bathroom scale and so often. Now it's a friendly hello and no longer nervous, hold my breath, and oh no what is it going to be today, fingers crossed that one piece of sweet potato pie didn't ruin all my hard work.

How did I do it? What's the easy simple answer that everyone wants to know?

The truth is it started with truly forgiving myself for treating my body so badly all these years. And only then was I able to start my journey to healing my body and my relationship with my self  image. I really never did like my picture being taken. I will always happily hide in the back, out of site and maybe you can catch a glimpse of just my smile. But more recently I have had to take more more photos and I'm not afraid any more. I actually can appreciate all my old pictures now and send love to the poor shell of a woman I was. She had problems, she was depressed, she was going thru a lot. And now, I'm so proud to be me. And love all that I've accomplished and look forward to every new day I get to accomplish something else. 

I won't say, that your miracle of overnight weight loss happens at the moment you finally accept your life and yourself, with all your glorious unique flaws, and the perfect parts that aren't so bad and make everything else disappear. But something wonderful does start to happen. You want to treat yourself better. If you are like me, always trying to put everyone else first and attend to their needs and wanting the best for them. At the end of the day, the week, the month, the year, you look back and you realize you did nothing for yourself. And who really was taking care of you? And if anyone tried did you even let them? 

This may have been my toughest struggle. Asking for help. Accepting that I really couldn't do it alone. It is still one of my life lessons and its finally sinking in that my life can be of even more value if it share it, and I ask for help. Then I have the support to reach my personal goals and have the ability to help others reach theirs. My life is so much more fulfilling now, with wonderful individuals that I care so very much about and they care about me. I may still struggle when help is given, but I'm grateful for the loving friends and family that will insist on me accepting their support, no matter how much I try not to take anything. I try to just accept their generosity and always say Mahalo, Thank you, I'm so very grateful. 

My life is changed in so many ways. Mahalo for all your love and support that make me better every day. I look forward to being here for you. Don't be afraid to ever contact me. My life is one of service, if I can help, I will. Sending love and gratitude to everyone. 

Mahalo,

Maile

Our site is continuously evolving!

Hawaii Legacy Builder's might be the hardest working website on the web. Our team uses it everyday to not only get the word out about all our services and solutions for businesses, organizations and individuals, but it also is a tool to teach and share.

If you happen to notice live site changes, please don't be alarmed. Our website solution, has the amazing feature to allow us to update pages and overall site changes in an instant. This allows us to share the power of our web solution service with out clients. We also teach our team members how to use this amazing tool. So many of our clients have fallen in love with our web solution, because they can easily update their products and services live at any time, without having to hire an outdated webmaster or website company.

We all love our free technology and software upgrades for life, keeping our site the most up-to-date with all search engine technology. My favorite is the 24/7 tech support, that hold my hand, or literally my computer's keyboard, every time I need help making changes to my site. Thank you to the genius developers who create powerful new tools to make it better for us all each day.

It's true, No other website developer can offer everything we do, they just can't. I apologize to them, but offer my support in giving this great service to your clients and help improve your own business at the same time. We believe in the synergy of working together, no competition. Don't believe me, then let me prove it to you.

Sending my gratitude to all our fabulous clients, you make us better every day to.

Much Aloha,
Maile

You Are Loved.

Aloha and Happy Sunday Everyone. It's been a busy week, and I'm so grateful for all my network of family and friends around the world. One person's crisis is another person's opportunity to rise to the occasion and offer help. I had such an opportunity and am truly grateful I am in a position to help.

Life is difficult when you think you are alone in your struggle. Truthfully, if you really think about it, you will realize, none of us are alone. There is always someone out there that loves each and every one of us. Everyday you have lived on this Earth, you have touched someone's life. You may not hear it everyday, but know, you are very special to those that love you.

Many blessings, and love always.

Aloha,
Maile

Linking my blogger to my website...soooo fun ;)

Socializing with social media ;)

Aloha. It's been a long time since I set this Blogger blog up. And in that time, I've immersed myself in the world of social media. Finally embracing Facebook and Google+, as well as venturing into websites. Media is my passion and seeing the evolution of the world wide web and its power to reach a greater audience has me taking a more serious look at all of its capabilities.

I've been busy with my other websites and helping other people and their businesses rise in the online rankings. Its definitely been a learning experience and I'm happy to share with you everything I've learned. Of course, I don't admit to knowing it all, and who possibly could when the world wide web changes everyday. Rules for getting rankings and page views, shares or likes, this is a fascinating game. I hope you will want to join me and play along. It's going to be fun.