Any Advice?

Since Micah's birthday is in February and he asked Santa for a PSP for Christmas, Darrick and I thought we would do some research.

During our search we have discovered Nintendo DS. The unit itself is less expensive, the games are less expensive, it seems more kid friendly and it has a lot more younger kid friendly games.

We are just wondering if anyone out there has an input to the PSP vs. Nintendo DS debate? We would really appreciate it!

The boys

Today has been one week since Luke broke his leg. We took him to the vet today to get his new cast, he has to get a new one each week for about 2 months. This one is bright orange with green smiley faces on it.

I also put a picture of the boys with some cute shirts we found during Christmas.

Micah's says :Big Bruddah
Jacob's says :Lil Bruddah

The boys wanted to get a cute little tank top with pink writing that said "Baby Sista" but we didn't know what size to get.

We also got our internet, phone and cable hooked up today as well as getting our broken dishwasher fixed! Things are looking up!

Such an amazing woman

I just received one of those emails you never want to receive.

A little background: About 10 years ago when Darrick and I were stationed in New Jersey we became very good friends with a girl on his ship, Sonya Haught. Sonya was from West Virginia and we even went there and met her amazing family. I had an instant connection with her mom and her passion for adoption.

We were so blessed when we moved to Hawaii to find out that Sonya was stationed her also. We enjoyed hanging out and I was even Sonya's birthing coach and cut the cord when she gave birth to her son Braiden.

Last Thanksgiving Sonya's family came to Hawaii. Sonya has an older brother and then she has a twin brother. Her parents have adopted 4 kids, and one with severe special needs. It was so awesome to see those kids, and her parents, have fun of a lifetime in Hawaii. Sonya's mom and I spent a lot of time talking about adopting. She is so passionate about it. She is always searching to find families for kids. She just encouraged us and helped us get started on our journey.

Sonya has since gotten out of the Navy and moved back home to West Virginia. I got an email this morning from her that her mom unexpectedly passed away yesterday. Sonya was shopping with her mom and they were driving in the car, her mom was driving and she passed out. She said her mom was airlifted to a hospital in Ohio where she passed away.

She was such an amazing person, so full of life and love. Please pray for this family. Especially her dad and those kids who they adopted. Below is a picture of her having fun celebrating her adopted daughter's birthday.

Merry Christmas

As I was finishing my last blog post I heard a lot of dripping sounds. I looked up and water was dripping out of the kitchen ceiling onto the counter and floor. So we had to call emergency maintaince. So before we could have our Christmas Eve sleepover we were visited by an elf who cut a hole in our roof and discovered it was from a leak in the overflow drain from the upstairs bathroom.



We woke up Christmas morning, popped our Cowboy French Toast in the oven and got the turkey ready to go in next. Just as we were about to sit down for a nice family Christmas breakfast the doorbell rang and it was another elf who wanted to patch up the hole with drywall.
The food was yummy but the atmosphere wasn't. It is hard to have a nice family meal when there is a stranger in your kitchen pounding and scraping. Micah decided he did not like his meal and ended up eating Special K but the rest of us liked it.
From there we went into the livingroom to try and have more privacy. Micah read half of the Christmas story and I read the other half. Then we took pictures of the boys in their Christmas pajamas by the tree.


Then it was time to open presents. The theme for the boys was Pokemon and Star Wars. And they were very excited about a rocket Uncle Charlie and Auntie Maud got them!


Then it was time for our Christmas feast. I made an 11 lbs. turkey, rolls, black olives, corn, stuffing, greenbean casserole, mashed potatoes, gravy and sparkling cider. Everything was delicious except my gravy. The flavor was awesome but it was super runny.

Here is a picture of my Christmas dishes I bought in the spring. I have always wanted Christmas dishes with holly and I finally found some I really liked.

In the evening we headed to the Pearl City Cultural Center to attend our church Christmas Eve service. It was really awesome and the children, Micah and Jacob included sang 2 songs. There was also hula, hip hop dancing, praise time, a moving testimony and an awesome sermon by our pastor Mike Kai.

Jacob fell asleep on the way home and after a nice bath, Micah was out like a light.

Darrick and I cuddled up on the couch and watched "The Nativity Story". It was really good and we both liked it a lot. Then it was time for us to hit the hay too. It was a very nice Christmas.

Darrick left early this morning because he has to stand duty on the ship. We are going to join him there in a little bit because they are having a Christmas service and meal on the ship.

Merry CHRISTmas everyone!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Yes, I know, today is not my real birthday, it is tomorrow. But Darrick has to stand duty on Christmas Day. So we celebrating my birthday today and Christmas tomorrow. The boys and I went to church this morning and Darrick met us at home when we got back. He had to stand duty yesterday.
So after church I opened my cards and presents. Thanks Dad and Mom for the money and calendar and Grandpa and Grandma and the Sytsma family for the cards.

Then we headed up to North shore to have birthday lunch at Cholo's. I had a yummy chicken, cheese and bean burrito with rice!
Then came the interesting part. The boys decorated my cake. You could definitly tell it was made by 2 kids. They sang to me and helped me blow out my candles as I made a wish: for our daughter to be placed with us this year.
We just opened our Christmas pj's and movies. Jacob got "Surf's Up" and Micah got "Meet the Robinson's". Micah and I made our Christmas breakfast. It is called Cowboy French Toast and it has to sit overnight and then you just pop it in the oven in the morning. We are going to have a slumber party tonight and watch movies and be cozy in our pajamas!

LUKE UPDATE: He doesn't seem to be in a lot of pain and is even starting to run around with his cast dragging behind him. He sleeps a lot and looks like he longs to go outside. On Friday the 28th he has his next appt. when he will get his new splint. He also seems to be terrified of Darrick. We think that Luke associates the pain of his broken leg with Darrick since he was the one with him when it happened. Thank you for all the prayers and thoughts for our puppy.

Our life is never boring!

Thursday night Darrick thought he would take Luke for a nice evening walk. As he was getting Luke out of the back yard he wiggled away from Darrick. He already had his leash on but Darrick couldn't catch him, Luke is really fast. I was in the house with Micah. All of the sudden I heard Luke crying like I have never heard him cry before. Darrick came in carrying Luke and said something happened to his leg. Darrick had been on one side of our van and Luke had run away to the other side when Darrick heard him cry.

He had a pretty good size bump on his leg and couldn't walk. In this picture you can't see the bump, but you can see how swollen it is. It is the leg on top.

We called the vet right away because they have a doctor on call. She told us it would $100.00 for her to come in and $50.00 for the x-ray tech plus whatever the normal costs would be. We decided to wait until the next day and see the vet them. But Luke was miserable, you could see it on his face. All he wanted to do was sit on my lap and if I got up to do something he would hobble around following me until I sat back down and he would crawl into my lap. I don't think I have ever seen a dog's face look so sad.

So yesterday afternoon they worked us into the schedule. The vet said they need to take 2 x-rays to get a good view of what is going on in there, which would cost $250.00. We told her that we do not have that much. She said we could do 1 which was $140.00. We had no choice, we had to do it.

She showed us the x-ray and said it was really bad. It wasn't just a fracture but instead the whole bone broke apart at the growth plate-by his ankle. She said he needed to go to an orthopedic surgeon and have it operated on and set, which was about $2000.00! Since we couldn't do that she said they will try their best to set it with a splint and hopefully it will grow back together properly.

If it doesn't he may always limp, or it may be shorter then the others, or if it doesn't heal right it will have to be amputated! That was the last straw for me and I started to cry. Our life has been so stressful lately and so much going on and now this.

So we asked her to set it. We could hear him crying in the back, it broke my heart. When they brought him back to us it was all wrapped up in yellow gauze with green dog bones on it. We have to bring him back every week so they can check it and wrap it up again.

So for the next 2 months Luke cannot really go outside or get it wet. This morning he seems in pretty good spirits and is getting better at wobbling around. They also gave us pain medicine that we have to give him once a day.

Micah's Christmas celebrations

On Wednesday I went in to Micah's school to help. The whole first grade met in the caferteria and each students was given a plate, a baggie of decorations and a ball of gingerbread cookie dough. Each student got to shape and decorate their own gingerbread man. They all turned out so cute and then the caferteria baked them all and the students got to take theirs home.

On Thursday was Micah's schools Christmas program. It was 2 1/2 hours long but so good. The beginning and advanced band played. The Spirit Squad did a few routines (Micah asked me to videotape them because he thinks they are cute). Then each grade from 6th down to pre-k sang 1 or 2 songs. Micah's grade sang "Jingle Bell Rock" and "Rockin' around the Christmas Tree". He did a great job dancing and singing all the words.

Micah also brought home his Christmas letter to Santa. He really wants a PSP and gave a pretty convincing argument for why he should have one. We looked around and they run about $175.00 here without a game. Maybe for his birthday we will think about it...

Mother-in-laws

As I was taking a shower this morning, I was thinking about our day yesterday...

In the afternoon, after piano lessons, we stopped by some friends house for a playdate. After entering the house and saying hi to my friend, I was greeted by her mother-in-law. She had been there for a week already and plans on staying with them until February. Wow, that is a long visit and at times I could see the frustration in my friends face as the mother in law did things.

At Micah's piano lesson when we walked into her house I noticed that her livingroom was rearranged. I commented on it and she said her mother-in-law was visiting and she decided to do it and she said I just don't say anything.

It has been almost 5 years since my mother-in-law passed away from cancer. We were very different people yet she always liked me. But like a lot of mother-in-laws she frustrated me too.

And now that she is gone I wish so much that she was here. A few years after she passed away I apologized to Darrick for wasting so much time putting him in the middle by complaining about how she did things or when she did things or why she did things. I wasted so much time it is something I will always regret.

It shouldn't have mattered how different we were. She was Darrick's mom and raised an amazing son who is my wonderful husband. For that alone she should have been honored.

And I miss her for my boys. She was crazy and loving and would have spoiled them to no end. I have made it a point to not let her memory fade away. The boys know who she is and where she is. I tell them how much she loved them. I keep things of hers around the house. I have a small white pitcher of hers that we put syrup in everytime we have waffles or pancakes and I remind the boys that it is hers.

Even though she can't read this I just want to thank you Linda for your wonderful son and for loving me into your family.

If you are BLESSED to have a mother-in-law thank her this holiday season and enjoy her company. Celebrate the differences, appreciate them. Don't put your spouse in the middle and just let things go. And give your mother-in-law a big hug in memory of Darrick's mom Linda.

Cookies, Crafts and cards

This morning as I was dropping Micah off at his classroom, Mrs. Hudson told me that she forgot to buy all the ingredients to make gingerbread cookies and all the 1st grade teachers are getting together after school to make the dough. She asked me to go so I said I could after I dropped Jacob off at preschool.

I thankfully found all the ingredients I needed and the bill was $103.00!

After I dropped off the groceries and was leaving she asked me if I could stay and help the kids make their Christmas presents for their parents. So I sat at the table manned with a hot glue gun, frames and lots of beads and decorations. When that was done it was onto making reindeers out of candycanes. She also told me that she needs my help tomorrow morning to help the kids design and decorate the cookies and to make antler headbands for the 1st grade to wear for the Christmas program.

This is not what I envisioned when I looked at the few weeks the boys were both in school before I start subbing. I want to be in my pj's reading in bed...

This afternoon I finished up all my Christmas cards and hope to get them in the mail Tuesday or Wednesday. Christmas is sneaking up on me fast!

The days are flying by

I am finally starting to feel a little better today. It has been 1 week since I went to the ER. It was a really rough week with not feeling well but I made it through.

TUESDAY: In the afternoon I had to go to get my fingerprints taken to start working as a sub. It was cool because it was all done electronically, no black ink involved. That evening Micah had a scout pack meeting. They played some fun games and went Christmas caroling at the Minimart. Tuesday night we had our friends Charlie and Alex over to spend the night. On their way from Japan to California for Christmas they made a short few day stop in Hawaii! We were excited to see them and to meet their new little sister, Elizabeth.

WEDNESDAY: After feeding all four boys and getting them ready we headed to the Navy Lodge to swim in the pool. I let Micah and Jacob have a special day off from school. They swam and goofed around for hours and I got lots of time to hold Elizabeth. In the evening we all drove up to North Shore, watched the sunset and ate Stordo's on the beach. It was so hard to say goodbye.

THURSDAY: We found out at the beginning of the week that Oscar and Beth (Vairin) Gonzales will be moving to Oahu at the beginning of January. Oscar was offered and accepted a new job here and starts the beginning of January. So they flew out to check out places to live. We picked them up at the airport and then let them borrow Darrick's car to use while they are here. Darrick also fit in a quick tour of the USS Lake Erie.

FRIDAY: Micah was running a fever so he stayed home from school. In the morning we went to Jacob's preschool Christmas program. It was really cute. His class sang 2 songs. Jingle bells, where all the kids played an instrument and My God is so Great. He did all the hand motions and sang the words.

SATURDAY: We had a breakfast meeting at Zippy's for Micah's soccer team. He seems to have a really great team and starts practice this week Thursday.

SUNDAY: This morning Oscar and Beth came to church with us, Darrick is out to sea right now. After church we drove up to North Shore and ate lunch at Cholo's. From there we went to Sunset Beach to check out the Billabong Pipeline Masters . There was no competetion today but the surfers were still there. We stayed for awhile and then stopped for shave ice. Before bringing Oscar and Beth back to their hotel we stopped off at Pali Lookout. They are flying back to Cali tomorrow. But we will see them again soon!

Oh, what a weekend!

FRIDAY: The day started off with getting the boys to school. It was the day of Iroquois Point Elementary School's winter carnival. It was from 9am-6pm. I was there at 9 am helping in the first grade booth. At 11 I went to Micah's classroom because it was his classes turn to spend an hour there. At 12 I left to go pick Jacob up from school so he could come to the carnival too. Micah got out at 1:10 and we drove to Waipahu so I could get my TB test read. Then it was back to school for the carnival. Darrick met us there and took the boys around while I worked in the booth until 4:30.

While all that was going on Darrick had a very important morning. It was the 66th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Darrick's ship was chosen to sail around Ford Island during the ceremony. Every year less and less survivors return to remember this day because they are all passing away. This year they erected a "Healing Field" which had one flag posted for every person that died during the attack. Each flag also had a tag with an individuals name on it. There was also one Hawaiian state flag for every person killed in this war who is from Hawaii.

So back to Friday. We left the carnival at 4:30 to get showered and changed for the USS Lake Erie's Christmas party. Auntie Hiromi took the boys overnight so we could party all night long! It was held at the Marriot in Waikiki and the food and entertainment was awesome! But the highlight of the event was the award ceremony. One of Darrick's guys, those who work for him, was named Sailor of the Year and then to top it off the Captain picked 2 sailors who he promotes to the next rank and pay grade and it is effective immediatly and it was the same guy. Darrick was so proud and all his guys were jumping and cheering and hugging, I even saw some teary eyes-it was such a great moment for Darrick and his guys. On a side note, we DID NOT win anything in the raffle again this year. Darrick had his hopes set on 2 really nice flat screen tv's but they went to someone else.

The last bit of news for Friday was that we got our orders: We are going to Naval Air Station Lemoore which is in California. As of now that is where we are headed next but there is still a chance it could change. In February Darrick will find out out if he was selected to go to Officer School. If he does those orders will be void and he will go to Officer School and then get sent back to a ship, where we don't know. If he does not get selected we will go to Lemoore and enjoy 3 years of Shore Duty. The downfall is that there is a slight chance he will be sent to Iraq since they are sending a lot of guys on shore duty there. But it is all in God's hands and we will go where He sends us.

SATURDAY: After we picked the boys up from Hiromi's we spent most of the day unpacking and the boys played with some kids they met in the neighborhood. In the evening we decorate our Christmas tree. The boys put all the ornaments on. Luke seemed to think that it was his own personal relaxing area. We had to put the tree skirt away because he bit off a button and chewed on a snowmans arm. Are the pictures of the boys by the tree started out cute and adorable but went downhill fast!

SUNDAY: I woke up yesterday morning with a really terrible pain in my jaw, on the left side up by my ear. We all went to church but it kept getting worse. And during lunch it was so painful I could barely eat or chew. We were on our way to the ships kids christmas party and Darrick and I decided I should go to the ER. There was no reason for Darrick and the boys to miss the party and just sit in the ER with me. I had to wait about 3 hours and I had a slight fever and my glands were swollen. The doctor thought I have an infection in my glands and gave me motrin and antibiotics. If it doesn't go away in a few days I have to see my regular doctor. When the guys were done with the kids party they picked me up-I was just getting done, so it was perfect timing.

This morning it still hurts pretty good and after I got the boys to school, I took a big nap. I also turned in my sub application and made an appointment to get my fingerprints done.