What a day

Hello everyone this is Darrick again.
Today was a long day for us today. This morning I had my appointment at the general surgery department at Tripler Army Medical Center. Turns out that I have two hernias, one on each side. I am going to need to have surgery. Jenn and I were really surprised when they came and said Thursday March 2nd. Just in case you don't realize it that is this Thursday. So I am having surgery on Thursday. So after my appointment we went straight to doing all the preparation stuff at the hospital. After that we had to stop by the ship and let them know what is going on with me. I will be away from the ship for about a month. A big thank you goes out to Lauren who had the boys all day when she probably only expected to have them for a few hours.

On a better note we got some pets today. Last night we bought a fish tank and I set it up. Today we bought the fish, we got a goldfish each. They are Rocky, Daisy, Lion and George. The boys love them.

Well that is all for tonight we will make sure we let you know how I am on Friday.
Darrick

Trying new things

Confession: I am 30 years old and have never used a weed wacker. Growing up with 3 brothers, they were the ones who were trained to do the yard work and I learned housework. And then when I got married, Darrick did the yard work and when he was deployed I had a neighbor boy do it. But now that Darrick has a hernia, I needed to do the lawn today. And since he is deploying in the near future he wanted to give me some lessons.

Just looking at the weed wacker intimidated me. Lesson one was how to put gas in-that was easy. Lesson two how to start it..not so easy. There is some kind of deal with a full choke, half and no choke and pulling the start cord and giving it gas...I couldn't do it. Darrick wanted to help me but I told him, no that I had to do it on my own. Well I eventually got it. Lesson three how to use it. It was hard to figure out the right angles-I put a lot of dirt spots on the edge by going to deep-oops...when I would look back at Darrick, he said nothing but just smiled. He was probably thinking: Jenn is mutilating our yard. Then after I was done with that I still had to mow the grass! My arm muscles are so weak tonight.

The other new thing was that Micah learned to ride his bike. He got it pretty quickly and now he just needs to practice more. The boys are growing up so fast!

Yesterday and Today

Yesterday Darrick and I went on the most fantastic date. My friend Lauren had the boys. The first thing we did was to drive down to Waikiki and walk to the beach. It was there that we checked in for our reserved sail on a Catamaran. Neither of us had been on one and we thought Hawaii was a great place to try it. It you are not familiar it has a net part where you can see and get wet and also seating in the back. There were about 20 people-a very lively group of tourists who liked to drink and be silly. The weather was perfect. We saw whales, dolphins and a sea turtle. It was so relaxing just gliding on the waves-we loved it. It was a 90 minute sail which was a nice amount of time.

From there we went to a late lunch, early dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. We had not been there for about 3 or 4 years, since we lived in San Diego. It was so so yummy and after our meal we each had a piece of delicious cheesecake. I chose the Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake and Darrick had a Peanut butter cookie dough cheesecake. We had such a nice time.

Today it is raining and it is suppossed to rain until Wednesday. Darrick was feeling bad this morning so he stayed in bed. I offered to watch Charlie and Alex this morning so I loaded up 4 little boys and we went to church. It went really well.

Jacob is doing great on his potty training. Today he had an accident and we are not quite sure what happened exactly. When Darrick walked into the bathroom he had his underwear off, there was poop on the floor and he had already stepped in it. We are so surprised at how fast he learned especially because Micah took so long. The stickers we put on his chart are scratch and sniff smelly stickers that I had leftovver from teaching.

In our efforts of trying to teach the boys about loving others and showing God's love to them we read them the scripture in Matthew 25:31-40. We then went on to the Compassion International website and each boys picked out a 4 year old boy they would like to sponser. We hope it will teach them compassion and about other people and their lives. Micah chose a boy from Brazil and Jacob chose a boy from Mexico. There were so many children on there it is hard not to want to do more. If you are interested checkout their website and see what you can do.

One last thing, a long time ago we use to write about this huge frog that would jump around in our yard. Well this morning I saw him squished in the street, it looks like he got run over by a car. So sad...

Whales and the bathroom

Hello this is Darrick
Today we had to find something to do that did not require me doing anything, hard to do but we can not stay in the house to long. In case you forgot I have a hernia and unfortunately I am not one of the people that has one and it doesn't hurt. So we thought of whale watching all I had to do was sit there and look for whales. I was really great! The boat was big but there were not a lot of people on it. Where we sat was covered from the sun and it had seating all around. Yes, we did see whales and we got it on video. We also saw a lot of dolphins. Jenn and I enjoyed seeing the whales and dolphins but really enjoyed seeing the boys seeing whales and dolphins.

Another great thing that happened today was that Jacob decided today was the day that he would start going to the bathroom like a big boy. He did a great job with zero accidents and no dirty diapers. Jenn made him a chart to track his progress and put it in the bathroom. It had about ten squares but we had to add more because he was going to get stickers in all the squares to quickly. We haven't decided what the reward will be for feeling the chart but looks like we should because he will fill it quickly if he does that good over the weekend. Well that was our day we will keep you posted of the rest of the weekend and what the doctors say on Tuesday at my evaluation at the surgery department at the hospital.

Good news/Bad news

The Hopper is out to sea and is not due back until the end of the week. But Monday night I got an email from Darrick telling me that he is coming home and I need to pick him up in the morning.

If you missed a few days ago, Darrick has a hernia. They did not want him doing anything on the ship to make it worse, because if it became an emergency situation they could not get him to a hospital. Tuesday morning some civilians who were working on the ship were going back to Oahu on a small boat, so they decided Darrick should go back too.

The boys and I were so happy to see him but wished that it wasn't under these circumstances. The ship wanted him to go to the ER at Tripler so he did-he was there 8 hours and when he was finally seen they said "yep you have a hernia". He has an appt. on the 28th for a surgical evaluation so they told him to take it easy until then.

After sleeping all night it is not visible but after playing with the boys it popped back out and started hurting. They called it an inguinal hernia.

So good news: we got to see Darrick early, Bad news: he is in pain because of a hernia.

Thanks!

Thanks to the link that Darrick found me I was able to find the lyrics and some history on the song:
*Pharoah Pharoah was based on the song Louie Louie, written by Richard Berry in 1955
*As seniors in High School Tony Sbrana and two friends wrote and performed a Rock Opera as their Bible as Literature final project.
*One of the songs they wrote was Pharoah Pharoah, just for laughs, and everyone liked it so they kept it.
*Also at the same time Tony was also doing music with a friend Rick Riso and decided to perform it at a retreat. A producer heard it and suggested they do an album, so they did. But they had to leave Pharoah Pharoah off because they didn't know how to get parody rights. But they still performed it in concert.
*Apparently someone at one of their shows heard it and started doing it with their youth group. And it caught on quickly and took on a life of its own.

The boys and I sang it after dinner and they loved it. Yes! I am helping the song live on! Sorry Sam!

Today we got 2 packages from my brother Sam. One was a beautiful print I had ordered from him called "Embrace". You can see it on his art link on the right side. I already hung it up and it looks great. The second package was for Micah and Jacob and they each got the cutest monkeys. They love them! They have magnets on their hands and feet so they can stick together. But of course the boys had to figure out what else they could stick too like the fridge and the washing machine. See the pictures below.

Also today is my Grandma Vanderbilt's 87th birthday. I called her to wish her a happy birthday. It was so great to talk to her-there is nothing like a grandma's love for you. Happy Birthday Grandma, may God continue to bless you and bless us by having you in our lives! We love you!

Thanks Uncle Sam, we love them!

Micah and Jacob with monkeys from Uncle Sam

Pharoah, Pharoah

For our after dinner devotions I have been reading to the boys from a Children's Bible. Tonight we read the story of Moses and the 10 plagues of Egypt.

After we were done I told the boys I knew a song about that. "Pharoah, Pharoah, O Baby, let my people go (Huh!) Yea, Yea, Yea, Yea, I said Pharoah, Pharoah, O Baby, Let my people go, yea, yea, yea, yea" That is the chorus and that is all I can remember. I even remember the hand motions to the chorus. The boys loved it and we sang it 5 or 6 times.

Does anyone remember that song? Do you have any idea where I can find the rest of the lyrics? Maybe you remember them. I would love to buy the song...can you help me?

Maggots

Last week the trash truck did not come to pick up the trash on our side of the street. But it did pick up at the houses across the street from us. I still cannot figure out the trash system here. So anyways I left it by the curb in case they were coming on a different day, which they do sometimes. So we had 2 weeks worth of trash baking in the warm sun everyday. Well today was trash day and they came to get our trash but left at the bottom of the can was a whole bunch of maggots crawling around! It was so gross. At first I wasn't quite sure what to do and thought about leaving it for Darrick but it is still a week until he comes home. So I tipped the can and sprayed them out with water and then bleached the can...it was disgusting!

On a more pleasant note-I took Micah and Jacob to see Curious George (the movie) today. We went to the 12:15 matinee and including us there was only 3 families there-it was great. I got the boys each a booster seat at the entrance so they could see good and I brought our own drinks and we shared a medium popcorn. The movie was so great! It was just a clean, fun, cute movie. It was so fun to hear the boys laugh or Jacob yell something out about what was happening or repeat what they said in the movie (good thing it was all nice words!) I love the ages that they are at, 3 and 5, it was so easy to take them out and we had a really good time. I highly recommend this movie!

Aloha

On Sunday the boys wore their Aloha Clothes that they got from Uncle Troy and Auntie Bow for their birthdays. They looked so handsome! They are sitting next to the tulips that Darrick sent me for Valentine's Day.

Chinese Dragons

Today the boys and I needed to get out of the house, we have been home for days, sick. Micah is feeling better but Jacob still has a fever and is coughing a lot.

We went to Ward Center Mall. It is an outdoor mall in Honolulu. There were some kids performing, a class I think. They were doing chinese dragon dances. So the boys and I watched, it was really cool. I started to notice that people were holding out money. Then one of the dragons would come over and "eat" the money out of your hand. So I gave the boys each a dollar and he came and ate it from them. They thought it was so cool! I am wondering if people always give money to the people who are being the dragons or if it was some type of fundraiser...Does anyone know?

Kindness

I got an email from Uncle Marv and he made it back to California and is missing Hawaii already.

We are all still sick. On Thursday after breakfast Micah broke out in hives. I thought it was the medication he was on and made an appt. for him. The doctor was pretty sure it was not his medication but something he ate. He had a reaction like that one other time and we discovered he was allergic to hazelnuts. The only new thing I fed him was Quaker Dinosaur Eggs Oatmeal. He ate it for 2 mornings. The first morning he had some bumps behind his ears and the second morning within a half hour after breakfast he was covered with hives. I read the ingredients but cannot pinpoint what did it. But after some benedryl he is much better today.

Jacob is still running a fever and felt pretty rotten today. I had the doctor look at him yesterday too and she said it is just the cough/fever virus that is going around.

Today my friend Jocelyn from church called me. She said that she had read our blog and wanted to see how we were doing. Then she said that she was on the way to our house because she bought us a cooked chicken and was bringing it over so I wouldn't have to cook dinner. It was just what I needed today. Just a gesture to know that someone cares. We have been stuck at home for days because someone has been sick and the only place we have gone is to the doctor. It feels so good when someone shows you kindness out of the blue. Thanks Jocelyn, I needed it!

Happy Birthday Micah!

Today is Micah's 5th birthday! That is the good news. The bad news: we are now all sick. Micah is still getting over bronchitis, Jacob has a temp of 101.2 tonight, I have a sinus infection and Darrick emailed me that he has a hernia. He went to the Doctor on the ship and he told him that he will need surgery. But he is out to sea about 2 more weeks.

Uncle Marv leaves tomorrow so we took him to the beach today so we could get out a little and breathe some fresh air. A lifeguard found an octopus in the reef and let us see it and touch it and he even let me hold it. It was so slimey and slippery. And his suction cups stuck to your fingers. What a once in a life time chance. Then he put it back in the ocean and we got to watch it swim away.

Micah getting up close

Jenn and her new friend

Three Things...

Darrick left today for 3 weeks.

I took Micah to the doctor today and he has bronchitis.

Uncle Marv is hiking Diamond Head today.

Busy Weekend

On Thursday Uncle Marv, me and the boys had lunch at the Wright Bros. Cafe. Darrick was pulling back in after a week out to sea and we wanted to see him go by. So after lunch we walked to the place and waited. It was pretty windy and a few raindrops were falling. But the closer the Hopper got, the harder the rain came down. So by the time they passed us it was pouring and there we were waving at the ship pretty wet. As we started to walk back to the car it stopped raining.

Saturday we had a birthday party for Micah and Jacob. It was such a good time and the boys were blessed with so many wonderful gifts.

Today Uncle Marv and Darrick went to church because Micah was running a fever. After lunch we all took naps. For dinner Uncle Marv treated us to Taco Bell and then we went and checked out a new Walmart that they built a few minutes from our house. It just opened on Tuesday.

When we got home we ate some birthday cake and ice cream. Yummy!

A new little miracle

I got a call last night from Darrick's brother Charlie. Him and his wife, Maud, welcome their first baby, a precious little girl into their lives. She was born on January 30 at 11:06 pm. She weighs 6 lbs. 11 oz. Her name is Amelie Marie Hays.

This week Uncle Marv has been taking The Bus all over the island to explore. Monday he went to Waikiki, Tuesday he went to Makaha Beach and today he said he was going East.

The boys and I have been hanging out and playing with friends. It has been a pretty relaxing week.