Update on Matthew

Matthew, or Chewy, has been 100% okay since the seizure. I was very scared that something would happen while we were in Hawai'i, but he was fine.
Our wallets, well, not so fine. Our portion of our 2 hour ER visit was $484.20. We haven't hit that deductible, so tough luck for us. We also received a $2400 Bill for our ambulance ride, but that hadn't been submitted to insurance. I am hoping that number will be brought down significantly.
The most important thing, of course, is that he is okay.
He is.

A Few More of California

We have been settling back into life in Austin.

Not too eagerly, to be honest.

I miss Hawaii. 

I really do.

I am sad that I didn't get to spend my usual time in San Francisco.

Going to book myself a ticket next summer if not sooner.

Work is looming right around the corner.

I actually go back to professional development very soon.

Bummer.

Next week the girls are off with me.

We are going to do some back to school shopping with Jan and my mom.

Also, we want to do a few playdates.

A few more pictures from the kids' trip to San Francisco:

 I love these plants.  

We can grow really neat things here in Austin, but the temperate enviornment in SF produces cool things like this plant.

 I had to buy this.  

It is President Obama surfing.  He grew up in Hawaii, as everyone knows, and goes there with his family.
Actually, not everyone knows that he grew up in Hawaii.  Some people think he is from Africa or something.  Maybe Indonesia.
But those people are dumb, so I won't talk too much about them.
 It is kind of a goofy likeness of him, but I think that was why I had to buy it.

 Brian D spent time with Meagan showing her how to cook some basic things.  She got really into it.  Here they were making some chicken veggie soup.

Matthew really liked the tram that you take to go from rental cars to the gates.  

I guess he felt grown up.  He really acted grown up too!

The process of getting the rental car when we first arrived was painful, to say the least.

It took forever and then forever again.

 Here they are working.

Total goofy picture, but it was the only photo I got of the candy Leis before they got eaten.  

Yes.

I got candy leis for the kids.

Well, let's be honest.

Those are the kinds that I like best.

Plus, we went to a grocery store in Waipahu and they were in sale.

Or, that is how I sold them to Andy. 

:)

More Hawai'i

 When you go to Pearl Harbor, you have to take a little boat out to the Arizona.

You can see bits of her from the side.

There is a ladder that you can picture someone heading down, just doing their normal thing.

 This is way out of order, again.  This is the lagoon at our resort.  

Inappropriate amongst the Pearl Harbor pictures.

 The USS Arizona was just loaded with oil a day or two before the attack.

To this day, she leaks oil.  

It is currently at about 9 gallons per day, which is way slower than it was.

 The back of our hotel.  This is one of the areas where they had sting-rays, sharks (the tiny kind), and fish.

15 years of marriage later, we still like each other.

Actually, I sorta love him.

 

 Our pool at sunset.

Just chilling, enjoying the sun.  

We had 5 hours in which to wait in between getting our tickets for Pearl Harbor and taking the ferry out to the USS Arizona.

That is a lot of time.

We also went to the Aloha Stadium for the swap meet.

I have never been to a place like that before, or not to that extent.

We walked around the entire stadium and t-shirts, key chains, lunch boxes, coffee, etc never stopped.

One booth after another.

It amused us for about an hour.

We did buy some awesome dancing hula dancers for the car dashboard.

Aloha, Mahalo, and a whole lot of Hawaii

I have a new Chromebook.

I really do not have it mastered, to say the least.

I do not know how to see the picures before I start uploading them.

So, you will have to read the captions. 

I will take you all over the island of Oahu.

And to San Francisco.

Sometimes in between each other.

You see, the kids were in San Francisco.

We were in Hawaii, on the island of Oahu.

The village of Ko Olina, to be specific.

Amazing seems trite.

It really was.

Above, you can see Mr. and Mrs. Pineapple.

And these are my feet.

Happy feet.

Yeah.  I warned you.

This is the Castro.  

Andy and I took a stroll there on Saturday before we came home.

Oh, how I love San Francisco.

A pineapple again.

A plate full of happiness.  The fruit rocked in Hawaii.

Hopefully there are human rights everywhere, but this is the Castro.  This store is the site of Harvey Milk's photo store.  

 This was our first night in Ko Olina.
I was getting an ice tea at Starbucks.
Because, of course, they had a Starbucks.
This is the view.
Not bad.

 We went to Pearl Harbor.

We are glad we did it, but it takes forever.

This is the actual memorial over the USS Arizona.

It is touching and lovely.

 Andy read a book on this trip.

Okay, you may say.

A book.

We have been together nearly 21 years, married for 15. 

I have never seen him read a book for fun.

He read 11/22/63, which has over 800 pages.

Quite a way to jump in.

He actually loved it.

We got a Camaro.

A convertible.

We are pretty awesome. 

 So, we were supposed to stay in Waikiki for 3 days.  When we got to the 400$ Sheraton, this is what we saw.
It had the added perk of reeking of cigarette smoke.
$400.
I lost it.
I called Expedia and got it refunded.
We went back to the JW Marriot in Ko Olina.
So thankful.

 Meanwhile, Matthew became a dog.

Matthew and Natalie cuddled on the bench the morning before Andy and I went to Honolulu.

 One of my favorite places.

This tree was at the Ilolani Palace, the only true palace in the 50 States.

 Matthew fell asleep on his Uncle Brian.

I got to chill with the gigantic tree too.

meagan and Grandma Lois Go to Utah

To be honest, I can't really label these pictures.

Meagan had a blast with her grandma in Utah.

She loved all the animals, going to the national parks, and meeting new people. 

Yes. Meagan is cleaning.

The Kind of Excitement We Would Prefer NOT to Have

Yesterday Matthew had a seizure.

It was short, but now we are scared.

We spent 3 years being scared all the time that our little girl would space out or start shaking.

And now we have to do it again.

Natalie's first seizure was 5 minutes.  So was Matthew's.

Natalie's second seizure was 90+ min and landed us a nice stay in the PICU.  It is a place that I do not ever want to see again.

Matthew is older and ten pounds heavier.  We hope this is a fluke.

It is not unexplored territory anymore and we know basics about seizures.  Like Natalie, Matthew's was because he suddenly spiked a fever.  Initally when we got to the ER, the EMS told me that he did not have a fever.

I was terrified.  Many kids have febrile seizures; they are very common to the folks who work in pediatrics.

Seizures without a fever, though, are very scary.

EMS had been taking his temperature in his ear though.  

It is not accurate with him.  

He had a 103.5 fever.

I cried. 

I have never been thankful for a fever.

Right now we are thankful that he is okay and that he goes to a school where his teachers and school director truly love him.

On a happier note, here is Mr. Matthew with his mustache Slurpee cup.  It is pretty cool.

We went to TopGolf with some friends for Andy's friend Rejal's 40th birthday.  I want to go back there again.  It is very cool.

Meagan and Grandma Lois are in Utah.  

So far, so good.

We haven't received any frantic calls yet.

My mom fell in love with a cat with no legs.

It has been adopted already, so she can't bring him home. 

Tomorrow they are going to Brice Canyon and Zion National Park. 

I haven't ever  been to Utah at all.  I have spent lots of time in Colorado, obviously, but never Utah.

While Meagan is in Utah, Natalie and I went with her Girl Scouts troop to Amy's Ice Cream for a tour.

It was okay.  We stood in one place for the whole thing, so it wasn't the most exciting thing in the world.

It ended with a scoop of ice cream, though.

That won all of the kids over.

Farming!

Ok, so no real farming going on.  But our friends Mayme and Garrett have a mini farm going on in their backyard.  It is very cool.  

They have grapes, blackberries, green and yellow beans, peppers and itty-bitty strawberries.

Matthew felt that the blackberries were an all you can eat buffet.

Adam, whose cute face is below, showed Matthew how to pick the ripe ones.

The red ones are NOT raspberries.

They are just not ripe and not very tasty.

They also have asparagus.  

I love asparagus.  Andy decided to find some for me.  The bush that Mayme pointed out to us was huge.

We looked all around the bush.

We found nothing.  

Turns out the little asparagi are on the ground and the big green plant is just for show.

I believe that Andy was trying to find green beans or green peppers here.  He looks pretty intent on finding the mystery vegetable.

Meagan got all stylish while she looked for veggies.

Adam and Natalie had fun together.  They are the same age, or actually Natalie is about 9 months older.  They are in the same grade in school.  I kind of like this photo because the kids are in the setting sun.

Most of the blackberries that you see here are still babies.  

The shirt that he was wearing was white.

By the end of the night it was tie dyed purple and pink from fruit and veggies.

You can find variations of this photo in several "June" sections of this blog....

Yes!  Topa Joe had another birthday.  As you can see, the kids were very exuberant in their excitement over Joe's birthday.  

We got him a rock.