The times we live in

My mother Caroline Ainuu lives in Samoa which was recently hit by an earthquake and subsequent tsunami. Already saddened by the destruction surrounding her, she has just lost her husband and is alone and in need of help. She was born in Western Samoa and now resides in American Samoa. She is not a citizen of the U.S. and has had difficulties trying to return to California to be with her children and see her grandchildren that she has yet to meet.

She is alone and without means to support herself and with the island in shambles the potential of finding a job is slim. We ask for all of our friends and family and anyone else who might read this post to please offer prayers on her behalf. We need to get her to California so that we (her children) can take care of her. Life is truly unpredictable. This experience has taught me that truth. There is only one constant in life and that is the everlasting truth and comfort that comes from living the Gospel of our Savior. If any of you know of anyone who might be able to help us in this predicament please let us know. Thank you.

THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF OUR HEARTS

Last night in the middle of me saying my prayers there was a loud knock on the door. It scared me really bad. Mese opened the door to find a very generous, anonymous gift on our doorstep. This post is intended to say the biggest thank you ever to whoever it was that gave the gift. Words cannot express our gratitude for the love we felt just knowing how much someone cares about us. I was bawling like a baby because of the overwhelming amount of love and gratitude I felt to have such wonderful people in our lives. You know who you are and you need to know that we love you and are so thankful for your generosity. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

The Sandwich Stoppe: life is crazy

Well, today marks the end of our fourth week at The Sandwich Stoppe. Life is getting into a little bit of a regular routine, but it still feels very crazy and busy. I am a working mom, which I never wanted to be, but it is nice to have a little break from the kids. Some days I do wish I could just stay home and hold my baby or take my kids to the park and clean my house. It helps that they have a great baby sitter. Every time we are driving home from any where Mason always starts saying "Mom, Vivian coming? Vivian coming?" Thanks Vivian. And thank you to all our friends and family who have stopped by to visit and eat. We appreciate your support and your business. The weekend of Nia's wedding we had a record breaking day. We broke the previous owner's record for daily sales in our first month. I think it has a lot to do with the new window signs we put up too. We need to do even more advertising so if anyone has any ideas about cheap ways to do that let us know. Things are going well and we are excited to start our second month. Hope to see you all again and we hope everyone is doing well.

The Sandwich Stoppe

A lot of our friends and family have heard that we are buying The Sandwich Stoppe restaurant in Beaumont, but this post is just to let everyone else who hasn't heard, yet, that we are officially taking over on August first. We are closed on weekends, for now, though, so, technically we start business on Monday, August third. We are so excited. This has been one of Mese's life-long dreams to own a restaurant. Please come by and visit us. Our hours are Mon.-Fri. 9 am to 4 pm. The food there is great and we have big plans for redecorating and for spicing up the menu a little too. We have been so blessed to be able to do this. A big thanks to the Markwith family for their generosity too. Like I said it would be great to have everyone stop by for a bite. We have put everything we have into this and even some we don't have so we need all the business we can get for these first couple of months. Come in and tell us what you think. We are open to all kinds of suggestions for the menu and the ambiance. We look forward to seeing you. Wish us luck.

Howdy

It has been a long time. I got to have a little vacation when I went to our family's annual women's retreat so I am taking a while to get back into the swing of life. Thanks, by the way, to Vivian, Siona, and Kathleen who helped out while I was gone. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it. Life has been strange with Mese working a night shift. We are starting to get used to it, but it is hard on him when he misses out on all the social activities and I am sad that I have missed out on some "girls nights" because my baby-sitter is working. I love you, honey. Our little Gwenny brings so much joy to our home. She is by far my best baby. She is so sweet and quiet and thoughtful. We have been doing a lot of catering and I can take her with me to the events and she just sits in her chair and smiles, for the most part. She only cries when she needs something and she is so smiley right now. I love them at three months old. We finally got a new camera so here are a bunch of new pictures to make up for the lack of pictures these last few months. We are happy and doing well and hope everyone else is the same.

Birthday Surprise

I just wanted to write a little message to my husband and all of my wonderful friends and family who came to the surprise party for me. It was my first surprise birthday party and it was so much fun. I am so proud of Mese for doing such a good job of keeping it secret. We usually cannot keep anything secret from each other. I never suspected a thing. It was almost a week after my actual birthday and I think it was only planned a few days prior, but it was great and I felt so special and so loved and appreciated by my husband. He is so wonderful. He cooked an amazing meal of grilled flatbread sandwiches with yummy salads. Thanks again to everyone and especially to Shawn and Darcy for letting us use their house. I love you all, but especially you, Mese.

Finally, Pictures of the New Baby

Here are some pictures of baby Gwenyth Lynnae Ugapo. Born March 3rd. 7lbs. 5 oz. 20 inches long. Some are from when we were in the hospital, but there are some more recent ones also. We think she is pretty cute. We're gonna keep her.

Molten Chocolate Cake Recipe....Heaven on a Plate

A few of you have asked me to post this recipe so here it is. Good luck trying not to make it once a week. It is soooooo yummy and soooooo easy. Warm gooey chocolate is one of the best things in the world. And please eat it with ice cream. It is way better with ice cream.

Prep: 15 min. / Total: 29 min.

4 squares Baker's semi- sweet baking chocolate ( I just use 4 oz. of good dark chocolate, bittersweet is the best, in my opinion.)
1/2 cup butter
1 cup powdered sugar
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
6 Tbsp. flour
1/2 cup whipped topping (or Ice cream)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Butter 4 (3/4 cup) souffle dishes. Place on baking sheet.

Microwave chocolate and butter in large microwavable bowl on HIGH for 1 minute or until butter is melted. Stir with wire whisk until chocolate is completely melted. Stir in sugar until well blended. Whisk in eggs and egg yolks. Stir in flour. Divide batter between prepared souffle cups.
Bake 13-14 minutes or until sides are firm, but centers are soft. Let stand 1 min. Carefully run a small knife around cakes to loosen. Invert cakes onto dessert dishes. Top with 1 tbspn. of whipped topping and serve immediately.

Enjoy!

Nothing New

This post is kinda pointless because I really don't have anything new to write about. I just felt like I hadn't posted in a long time. I will hopefully have some fun news of the arrival of our new baby girl in the next couple of weeks. I am so done being pregnant. I just want her to be here already. Oh, I did get my hair done. I am back to blonde. It's pretty fun looking in the mirror and seeing myself as a blonde. I feel younger. Sorry I don't have a picture to put up. We are without a camera, but are looking to get one before the baby comes.

Never Judge a Book By It's Cover.

Look at this man. Yes I said 'MAN'. What do you notice about him? I see sloppy red hair and freckles. Looks like a teen who never quite grew out of the awkward stage. He is the epitome of geekiness. Or maybe that's his allure. He is Brett Dennen.

Having been home taught his whole life by his parents afforded him the opportunity to hone his musical and songwriting skills. The same skills that would one day help him to create such beautiful (and subtly sexy) songs including "Ain't Gonna Lose You", a haunting one - sided tale of a man struggling to hold on to the the ever fraying thread that holds him and his love together. His work has helped him to be considered a musical genius by many including the folks over at Rolling Stone.

Then there's that voice. That voice. It's like the audio equivalent of introducing a new and delicious taste to your tongue that lingers comfortably, well after the meal has ended. There is a soulfulness to it and a confidence in his ability that would make you believe what he's saying. He does dabble in the political realm but manages to get his message across without being overbearing.

One evening a few years back, while playing a local venue, another musical genius happened upon that particular show and after being completely immersed in Brett's music, he invited Brett to join him on tour for a few shows. The new fan's name? John. Last name, Mayer.

I specified the word 'man' earlier because it was difficult for me to believe that this baby faced song wizard is 30 years old. Does he look 30 to you? Honestly he looks like an ugly 16 year old girl, but his music is beautiful which makes him beautiful. He is amazing and pleasantly surprising on many different levels. Anyway I have added a couple of his songs to my music player below (#'s 1 & 2). Enjoy the musical offerings of Brett Dennen.

Potty Training Sucess

I hope I'm not speaking too soon, but we have had three days in a row with very successful potty training with Marlowe. She has had a few accidents, luckily, for me, the one who has to clean up the mess, it's only been #1. Today she actually started telling me that she had to go rather than me taking her every hour or so. She even did #2 on the potty during one of those times when she told me she had to go. This is probably way too much info., but I can't help it. I am so excited. I started training her at 18 months and I so hope she sticks with it this time so I don't have to deal with 3 kids in diapers when baby Gweny comes. I'm sure some of you out there know how I feel.

A special thanks to Daddy, also, who got involved and caused the success we are having.