Sisilieta Ku'uipo-'O-Kakela Suluka

Here we are, December 22, 2019 and as the year winds down, I wanted to take a few minutes to simply write about all that I'm grateful for.

This year really did fly by quickly. So much happened and I don't know how I lost track of the entire year. Overall, it's been a pretty ok year with the exception of the passing of my Dad. I really do miss him so much.

I have pictures of him and the family right before he passed and I catch myself crying or feeling down cause part of me wishes I would've done more to try and keep him here longer.

The last time I was on here, I nut-shelled the whole year in one post. That sounds like me these past few years though. I have a hard time taking the time to sit and update the blog.

December 11, 2019 at 9:58 am.

Sisilieta Ku'uipo-'O-Kakela Suluka

was born. She weighed in at 6 lbs 9 oz and stretched 19 inches long. She finally arrived!!

Lets rewind a bit though yeah?

December 10, 2019. Amoni and I woke up that morning and planned our day. What we originally planned totally fell through. We had plans to fix cars that we've had lined up for some time and we eneded up going to Home Depot to rent the rug doctor and we carpet cleaned the entire house! lol Way different huh?

I wanna say maybe all that walking around the house really put some work on my body cause once we were done, I showered and went to bed about 10 maybe 11 pm. Now, being 8 almost 9 months pregnant I'm constantly going to the bathroom.

Well, its about midnight on December 11, 2019 and I get up to go pee. As I'm walking out of the room to the bathroom, my water breaks! I turn to Amoni and say, "Uh oh!" and he turns and says, "Whats going on?" and I'm like, "My water just broke! On the carpet we just cleaned!" lol Yes, I was worried about the carpet too - why? I dont know.

I tell him to wake up the kids and send them to my Mom's house. I've had the baby's bag and my hospital bag already packed for what seems like weeks... you know.. I was trying to put out to the universe that I was ready to have this baby. lol

I change, we send the kids off and we are off to the Hospital.

We get the ER and the roll us down to the Womens Center and we get checked in. They bring us to one of the delivery rooms and start taking samples to confirm that I am in fact in labor.

The nurse runs 3 different tests, leaves and comes back maybe 10 minutes later and tells me that the tests came back negative and that my water has not broken.

I'm like - WHAT?!! (and in my head I'm thinking either this nurse is crazy or her tests are dumb and wrong.)

She says, she will give it maybe 45 minutes and re-test.

During this 45 minutes I'm starting to feel heavy and strong contractions and I'm telling myself, I am not going home feeling these types of contractions.

She comes back and takes more samples and leaves.

My Everything.

She comes back and says the same thing. My water hasnt broke. She checks my cervix and I've dilated from a 4 to a 6 since her first sample testing and says that based on this I am in early stage labor.

10 hours later. My next Princess is born and I couldn't be any happier.

Pregnancy was really taking a toll on my body during the 3rd trimester and honestly don't think I could've lasted until Christmas Day to have her. But just like Tamara and Henele, she was born 2 weeks early. 

The one thing about my delivery was my Dad was there. It would've been about 4 am when my contractions were really big and really long. I felt so tired to cry or scream that I wanted to just push and get her out. But the way she was positioned made it impossible for me to push cause I could've hurt her if I tried to push too early. So I sat and took the pain. 

But around this time, I saw my Dad standing off to the corner of the bed and in my head I cried out to him asking him, "What do I do?" and he would reply "Breathe Via, just Breathe!" 

And for the second half of my labor time, my dad coached me through the pain until it was finally time for me to push her out.

When I was pushing her out, I turned to look for my dad in the area he was standing before, and he had already left. 

Thank you Dad! I couldn't have done it without you!

We discharged on Friday December 13th. There weren't any complications after delivery. Just a matter of keeping an eye on me and the baby for the standard 48 hours.

Now being home for almost 2 weeks now, she is sooo loved!

I am truly grateful of my family and everything that I've been blessed with. So much has happened this past year and along with all that happened, many blessings too!

I love and miss my Dad and Im truly blessed to have my little Silieta in our growing family.

Here's to a year to remember and a new year to prepare for.

2020 will be a year to make bigger moves with bigger strides.

Happy Holidays and Happy New Years everyone!
Hope your hearts and homes are filled with Love and Joy!

I'm all good, I hope you are all too!

XOXO Via

2019 In A Nutshell

This year has been - a year to remember.
Both good and bad and everything in between has come of 2019.
Overall, I would say, 2019 is an ok year.

Ok for the following reasons.
Let us begin shall we?

1. Year started out great. Mind you I married the love of my life last September so the beginning of this year, we would have only been a few months into our marriage.

Marriage so far has been "a dream"
You know when you're a kid and dream of that special person you're gonna spend your life with and all your future goals and how you're going to turn out when you're in your adult years? Well, all my dreams came true when I married my Honda.

 Honda Meets Grandma Silivia

We are so compatible it's ridiculous. I want to say that in one of my earlier posts that could be even years back, I had written something along the lines of "if there is a man out there that is just like me, I would propose to him."

He is that man.

He's so good with Tamara and Henele. He can't wait to adopt them fully and legally. Tamara has actually sided more with him then me on most things. I love the relationship they have built.

Last night he had a meeting at the church and got home pretty late. His first place to go is down to see the kids. Totally blew me off and went to check on them. 

2. I got pregnant sometime in January. We were super excited. We want more kids and were trying. So when I tested positive, we were both so very happy.

Two months in, sometime in March, I miscarried. We cried. I remember seeing the look on his face and how broken I could tell he was.

The Miscarriage

Soon, after... and no joke.. like right after. I got pregnant again. I honestly dont even think I had a period from the miscarriage to the new pregnancy. Thats how determined we were to grow our family.

Today, I am 37 almost 38 weeks and about to pop. lol I know.... this is the only reason why I can take the time to update the blog... I'm pretty much out of commission doing anything.

This pregnancy has been such a rollercoaster. With Tamara and Henele, it was pretty smooth sails. But this one, I've had to endure pelvic pressure. Something new I learned this round. So basically, the baby has been developing close to and on top of my pelvic bone and when I hit about 5-6 months, that when the pain really started to hit. The heavier the baby gets, the more pain I have to deal with. So these past few days and what I hope will be only the next few days, I still have to do my best to do what I can but also being mindful of myself. It's really hard.

We are naming her after Amoni's late Mom Sisilieta and my oldest sister Kuuipo. =) Hopefully she comes soon. Cause I've been ready to unload for a few weeks now. lol Im actually counting contractions as I sit here and blog.

3. Around the same time we got pregnant, we learned my Dad was diagnosed with Stage 2 Liver Cancer. We were certain we were going to beat it. You notice how I've been using past tense.

 My Dad passed away August 8, 2019 at about 6:30 am.

It had been such a rough few months of drs appointments, procedures, surgeries and all of the above. In the end, we left it to God and we have been coping and learning to accept that his journey here in this life was complete.

I miss my dad so much. I wish there was something more we could do to keep him here longer with us. A few months has passed and things are definitely different without him.

One Last Ride

- after my dads funeral services we asked to drive by our home one last time with him before we go lay him to rest at the cemetery. This is us.

4. The Move - This past June, Lee and Lawrence moved out of the Yellow House and into an apartment. Lets just say, they decided they wanted to venture out on their own, away from the family. When they made that decision, the Yellow House was open and we decided to move from the Back House to the Yellow House and took over the mortgage.

We are currently moving the mortgage out of Lees name and into mine and Amonis. Its been challenging. Given, Im the only steady income, I'm pregnant and during my dad cancer treatment, I was his caregiver, taxi and secretary. I took a hit on my only income. Amoni has been steady fixing cars and picking up cash where he can, but even that can be a hit or miss. Which brings me to...

5. The Calling - A few months ago, Amoni was called to be the Second Counselor in the Bishopric. He has been steadily serving faithfully and with his calling comes with MUCH ministering. When families need help with their cars, he's right there ready to serve and sometimes, they don't have the money to pay for labor, so it gets hard. But we continue to see that sometime cash flows and other times blessings flow. Either way, we take it one day at a time, one month at a time and just keep it moving.

6. The Green Card - Amoni is currently a permanent resident of The United States. We just got his Green Card earlier this week. We initially filed all his form back in March and finally got an interview two weeks ago and got approved for his Green Card. He can now, work and help out around the house with a steady income.

Since our baby will be here soon, I asked him to stay home with me during my maternity leave and will plan to make adjustments to our family as needed while I am off work recovering from the baby, before I return back to work.
______________________________________________
It's been quite a year. I wish I could go into detail the way I used to. But for now, this will have to do.

Christmas is around the corner and the year is winding down.
I am content with life at this time. Life is definitely blissful with exceptions of mourning my dad.

Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!

May 2020 be the year to start standing and really progressing in the life. I want to live with the goals my dad set for us in this life.
I have a lot to cover here soon once the baby is born, but I know what Im capable of and cant wait to beast!

XOXO Via

5 Months In

So the below post was originally written a week after we got married.
As for my title of this post, I'm now 5 months into my marriage with my Amoni Suluka.

I know, it's time I go ahead and update. Hopefully, because I'm at the same time, trying to upload a little video on my youtube channel of our lovely little lives, I want to post it within this post too. Let me warn you though - its 18 minutes long. lol Please be advised.

A year ago, I was pretty much in my own world, keeping things simple and really just focusing on myself. After my second marriage fell through, I told myself that I've put the kids through enough, lets just move on and live our best life, alone. I honestly wasn't planning or even wanting for that matter to get married again. I just wanted to improve who I was. I DID - tell myself this...

"If my King is out there, he will find me."

I wasn't gonna put myself out there. I wasn't gonna actively date. I honestly wanted to be alone with Tamara and Henele and focus on bringing their dreams to life.

Little did I know... My King would really find me.

Amoni is from New Zealand. He had recently finalized his divorce in New Zealand and came to America to visit his Brother that lives in Morgan, Utah.

Morgan is really in the middle of no where. If you drive up to Layton, and go east into the moutains you'll run into this small town, Morgan.

He came to America June 2018. He had been in town a few months before I even heard of him. Amoni is an Auto Mechanic. Amoni is a relative of Lawrence - my brother in law, Lee's Husband. Well, Lawrence's truck had broke down and heard that his cousin was in America and called him and asked him to check out his truck since he was a Mechanic.

He fixes Lawrences truck and Lee is impressed with his work and asks him to then work on her FJ Cruiser. Amoni did a huge number on Lee's car cause it really did have a lot of work that needed to be done on it.

While Lee's car is getting fixed she would post pictures of her car parts on our family chat and just give us random car fixing updates for us. I remember seeing these pictures and what was being done and thinking, jeez Les, you really don't take care of your car. Yes, I was impressed.

It was then I thought in my mind, "do i have any problems with my car that need to be done." I didn't. I actually just got my brakes done at a shop a few months before Amoni showed up. And everything was looking good with my car anyway. So I didn't have any business with "this mechanic."

Now, when my second marriage fell through, I took both kids with me and both cars. I drive primarily my Escalade and my Trailblazer, my Dad was using at the time.

I come home and as my usual, I talk with my mom about my day at work. She then tells me that "this mechanic" is working on the Trailblazer. I think, hold on... that's my car. What going on with the trailblazer and what is "this mechanic" fixing. My mom says, I dont know.

I then take it upon myself to find out what "this mechanic" is doing to my car. I walk over to the other house that he's been fixing all the  cars at to find out.

I walk over there and say in a demanding tone, "Hello! I've come to audit your work on my car." He rolls out from under the car surprised and sees me and says, "oh this is your car." I then explain yes, but I don't drive it.

It was here where my audit of his work turned out to almost be a little challenge between the two of us. I had a small and I do mean small background of auto mechanics and somehow end up changing out the spark plugs to the car. While doing so, we talked and I got to know "this mechanic."

This is where his somewhat challenges were really him trying to keep me around.

Over then next 2-3 weeks, I found myself coming home from work and going straight to the garage to see him. It wasnt so much the cars, but it was him that I wanted to be around and I didn't care if I had to fix a car to do it. I just wanted to be near him.

He finally builds up the courage to ask me out on a date, and we go to Temple Square after working on the trailblazer for 2-3 weeks.

It was an Autumn Sunday and we went to Temple Square in Salt Lake City and walked. We sat near circle stand where you take pictures right in front of the Temple and watched people walk by, take pictures and this is where we opened up to eachother.

It was almost like, the prayers we had been crying to Heavenly Father were being answered through eachother. This same day, Amoni proposed to me and I froze. I kept asking questions and was beating around the bush but he was focused on his question.

I said yes and we married the following Friday!

This have been very busy and challenging. The adjustment for the two of us and also the kids have been trying. What we like to call, our transition phase. The kids absolutely love Amoni! Amoni absolutely loves them. It can be assumed that it would take a little bit of time for all of us to adjust to these changes.

5 months in and what sums this all up for me is this -

I didn't know you could be this happy.

Now, to add to all this amazing happiness is this -

I am now 2 months pregnant!

Here's the small clip of some of our Suluka Life!

Xoxo Via

Dear Amoni

My Dearest Amoni,

A week ago today, we walked the grounds of Temple Square together and there opened our souls to each other.

Words spoke, stories told, experiences shared, history stated and above all, the unplanned and unexpected happened - love overtook.

An unexpected life turn came and steered us to our eternal commitment to each other.

I didnt see you coming, but I knew you were him when we spoke
I didn't plan on you, but you came anyway.
I wasn't ready for you, but jumped with you.
Everyone we loved questioned us both, even I did, and with how soon things came to pass, can you really blame the quesitons, no. But we were there for each other to fallback on anyway.
______________________________________________________
Xoxo Via

Life Continues

Oh hey there!

Long time no write aye?

Early this week I had been thinking about a lot and I mean, its one of those points where I start to just look at all things in my life and weigh out where I am and where I need to go. And these thoughts lead me back to my blog. I thought to myself, I HAVENT WRITTEN IN THE LONGEST TIME!

So here I am checking in as I usually do when I've been MIA for forever.

Anyway, here's where I have been and where I currently am at now.

Kids. Family. Work.

Simple enough right?

Kids, are growing and not only have they grown vertically but theyve also grown horizontally too. hahah This summer has been rough. For me as a mom and keeping up with an actual nutritional meal for them. We've been highly committed to take out and that is why I take full responsibility of their weight gain. (insert face palm emoji girl here.)

Family has been REALLY busy...

June got engaged.
Willy got engaged.
Sunshine & Christina play beach volleyball on a national level.
Tita plays baseball and football for Granger High School.
Koko go baptized yesterday.
Juicy is a little dancer.
June go un-engaged.
Mom and Dad are still die hard working.

mmmmm lets stop there. thats everything in a nutshell since the last time I blogged.

But get this... I havent really missed a step.. Heres what Ive been doing to keep these lovely memories and milestones kept on record cause you know, it matters to me to leave a history of my insanity for my kids to keep for later in life.

I've been VLOGGING! lol actually, its private vlogging, so my youtube videos are completely private until some crazy hacker figures out a way to open all the private videos to the public... theeennnn oh well. lol I havent said anything in my vlog videos that isnt true. So I wouldn't care if that happened. In the meantime, we keepin it private.

Its a different feel, blogging versus vlogging.

But, not only does it give what Im wanting to say, but it also gives visuals, like facial expressions, laughter, tears (yes, its gotten real through the vlog), angry and even vulgarity. I know... there will always be pros and cons with anything and everything we do.

It's my favorite time of year, and we all know how I get when the trees turn fall. I get all in my feelings and simply fall in love. Love, has been quite the topic in my life. No, I'm not dating anyone.. not exclusively anyway... lets just say, I LOVE MY TAMARA AND HENELE with everything I got!

Lets get the festivities rolling! I hope I revisit the blog, if I don't Ill try and be brave and just post a vlog on my blog. lol

Till next time.

XOXO Via

Working Hard & Playing Hard

Just about broke my own heart today.

Tamara, Henele and I sat in sacrament today and we always play this game called Paperio. Its a challenging game and we take turns after one dies. Anyway, I sat there and while playing my turn, the game would freeze and we would get kicked out of the app all together or when I would make a move, the app wasn't responding with my move causing me to die.

I would still pass the phone as if I really died. I turned to Tamara while she was laughing at me knowing exactly what just happened and I would say, "this game is rigged." lol Me and Tarmara then had a quite extensive talk about what "being rigged" means.

Anyway, my turn came back around and of course, died not on my part. I then closed the app and decided, I'm gonna delete all these non sense games that we don't even play.

Now, Tamara and Henele both got Ipads for christmas. Most of the games on my phone sit dormant anyway cause all these games are now on their ipads. So I sat there deleting all the games that "I thought" were no longer being played.

Nope, I was wrong.

As they watched me delete game after game, I honestly didn't think it was a big deal. Until I deleted THAT GAME!

I turned to Henele who was in FULL ON TEARS! and I mean, trying to catch his breath type of crying. Completely, uncontrollable. I mean, given that we were in the Chapel, we did our best to keep calm. But as I tried to get things under control, I sat there wondering, "what the heck!" They don't even play on my phone anymore. "What just happened?"

I turn to Tamara while trying to sooth Hene and she says, "Mom! He worked hard on that game you just deleted. He's at a far level then he is on his Ipad."

My heart broke after hearing these words.

With me starting at this new job called SPS - Select Portfolio Servicing, I'm still currently in training and will still be for another 2 weeks or so. I think about all the studying and work I've been putting on myself and am quite proud of how far I have come thus far. I sit in this training this class and my coaches had approached me this week basically talking to me about "moving up" because they are impressed with how fast I am learning the job and performing.

I would hate for my hard work to not go unrecognized.

With that being said, I hate that I took away Henele's hard earned work. Yes, it might be a simple little kid game but that's just it. They are kids and they're current level is games. I don't ever want either Tamara or Henele to work hard FOR NOTHING.

So as soon as we got home today, I dropped everything once I got in the house and redownloaded his game and made sure that the game is left off where he had left off at. THANKFULLY it did. I showed it to him to confirm that his game is as it was and told him that I will never delete it again.

Moral of my post today - working hard also comes from playing hard. It doesn't matter how little the task may seem to you compared to someone else. Either way, give credit where it's due and don't allow someone else to rain on the hard work you've done.

XOXO Via

Full Hearted

A few things I want to update.

Tamara has now been baptized and confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

It was an event that would change her life. She understands what her new responsibilities are and I can't wait for her to continue to excel in life and for to really start blooming into womanhood.

Henele had a dream last night. He woke up crying and ran to me. He said that there was a dog and bad people that were in our house and if anyone talked, the dog would eat us. I got eaten and so did Tamara. Henele was under the bed and didn't say a word. But what really hit hard on the heart was Henele crying out, "MOM I COULDN'T SAVE YOU! THERE WAS NOTHING I COULD DO!"

Its moments like this that really hit hard for me as a mom. I cried a little but my heart was so full of how he responded in result of how he loves.

In other news, my journey with Sutter Physician Services is coming to an end this Friday. I put in a notice last week and will resign on Friday. I absolutely am grateful for this company and all the knowledge I have obtained while working with them. I have gained many skills and can't wait to take it with me to my new job with SELECT PORTFOLIO SERVICES.

I am excited for the upcoming change and can't wait to see what is in store for me.

In addition to this change. I have picked up and am currently working on a new skill for what I call - my side hustle. I have been studying up on THE FOREX MARKET. It's a very complicated market and trade. But have been studying up on it since this past march. I am still very new to the trade and can't wait to see where it leads me. I do see this as a lifelong side hustle.

Happy Holidays!!! Christmas is just around the corner and I can't wait to take the whole season in! I'm happy with my 2017 overall \but cant wait to BEAST in 2018.

XOXO Via