Saturday 30 January 2010

Congrats!

Huge Congratulations are in order to my brother-in-law Erik and his new fiancé Krista!

They got engaged this morning and are planning towards a wedding in April!

(The photo is one I took back in December... it's the most recent one I have.)

Up close and personal with turtles...

We just love the beaches close by to where our apartment was located - they are stunning!

Cory with 'flat island' behind him.
Cory checking out the coral at Lanakai.


A short drive from our apartment was a 'secret' little beach, and I'm not going to spill it's location here either. It was told to us by a 'local' after I asked him where the best spot to see turtles would be. He said that spot wouldn't disappoint us. Well, it didn't.
It was amazing.
The experience of a lifetime.


We went to the little beach, and the tide was about half way out. We had our snorkeling gear with us, but we wanted to see what was there before we kitted up. Cory waded out into the shallow water first, and after just a few moments he came quickly back to me and said he'd seen a turtle. He brought me back out to where he had seen it, and we were only up to mid-calf in water. After a short moment I saw one, then another, and another... and so they kept coming along. We must have seen about 20-30 turtles in that short amount of time. It was amazing. At one point there was three turtles about a foot (at most 1.5 feet) from us. Just chillin, eating some lunch. They clearly knew we were there, and at one point I exclaimed too loudly "Cory, look!" and the big guy backed off for a few minutes. But they weren't too nervous about us if we kept quiet and still and didn't advance on them.

I will never forget that moment.

I think turtles are wonderful and amazing creatures and I am excited for the opportunity to see them again sometime.

I will definitely return to our 'secret' beach to watch them again if the opportunity comes up.
There's three turtles together in this last photo - I wish you could see them better.
I only had my little point & shoot camera with me at the time and it didn't do as good a job of capturing the turtles in the shallow water as my other camera would have.


USS Arizona

One of the many memorable things we did while we were there (and probably the most 'tourist' thing also) was to go to the Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor. It was quite the experience...

We arrived in the morning, hoping to avoid the long queues that are apparently fairly common - since it's Hawaii's 'most visited' tourist attraction.

We got tickets for the first session and we had a little time to spare before hand. We walked around a little bit seeing the sights and walking through the museum. It was crazy to read about all the battleships that were lost in action, and it really hit home as I saw the list of names of people "ON ETERNAL PATROL".

On one of the information boards it told of a captain who was above deck on a submarine when they started to take fire. If the sub didn't 'dive' the whole crew would die and the submarine would be destroyed, but there was not enough time for him and a couple of others to get below deck. Regardless, he gave the order to dive. The crew followed his order and took the sub below the surface, to the loss of the captain and the crew above deck. The rest of the crew and the submarine were saved, because of the bravery of that man. I kept reading similar stories of bravery and it was apparent to me that so many of those 'lost at sea' were brave, brave men and it is only right that there should be such a memorial to them.

We listened to a short talk from a survivor of the attack on Pearl Harbor and also watched a video made up of original footage of the attack. It was quite sobering to watch and realise the scale of the attack.

After that, we took a little boat ride out to the Arizona Memorial which is directly above where the USS ARIZONA lays.

The shipwreck is considered an active military cemetery and is a National Historic Landmark. 1,177 of her crewmembers went down with her, and they rest there still.

It's amazing to see the 3rd gun turret still there, and the bouys that mark the size of the Arizona. You can also see and smell the oil that still seeps out of the battleship - often the oil is referred to as the "tears of the Arizona".

Inside the 'shrine' room each name is engraved on the marble wall. As you look up at the list and start reading the names, you start to realise that each and every one of those names represents a life. A life cut short by war. It also represents a void that was left in the life of others that can never be replaced.

No matter what your nationality or background might be, the Arizona memorial pulls at your heartstrings and makes you wonder about the 'price' of war.All the names engraved on the marble wall in the shrine room.
The 3rd gun turret
The Arizona Memorial with the marker to it's right. There is a similar marker for each of the battleships that was destroyed that day.

A taste of paradise...

Cory and I had the most amazing trip to Hawaii. We both totally needed a break from 'everything' and it was wonderful to get away... To take time to relax and recuperate.

We really lucked out with the location too. We stayed in a beautiful little town that not frequented by too many tourists and we really enjoyed that. We got a good feel of what we called 'real Hawaii'. Our apartment was just a short walk to the beach and we were spoilt. It is ranked as one of the top 10 beaches in the world year after year - and with good reason. It's beautiful.

The next beach down was just amazing too - again, another one that is ranked as the top 10 beaches of the world repeatedly.

We travelled around the whole island of O'ahu and every time we came back to Kailua we said to each other "I like our beach better".

The first morning we were there we both were still on Oregon time and woke up before sunrise. So we quickly got ready and walked down to the beach. It was beautiful.

We walked the length of the beach as we watched the sunrise. I think it might be on my list for the most stunning mornings I've seen.

Short hair again...

So, it seems that I really had no choice... my hair was getting so scraggly from the Graves Disease and the radiation treatment, and it's still falling out in what I call "mousefulls". Basically, every time I have a shower there's a ball of hair the size of a mouse (a big one) or more that falls out.

So, I decided that I was tired of my hair looking like a mess and I would have to get it cut up short.

I went just below the ear lobe, fairly plain and simple, just a little bob. It looks ok, but it's hard for me to get used to. Probably because I didn't really 'want' it cut, but I felt like I had to.

I don't have any pics as yet - but I'm sure there will be some soon...

Umm, yeah.... that's about it...

Over and out!

{Edit}
OK, so I thought I'd come back and add a photo of the shorter hair. Here it is... This was taken in Hawaii....

Monday 18 January 2010

Yep - it's Monday again...

Yep, another Monday.
I can hardly believe it.
It's crazy!
It's the 18th January already...
Time is slipping away from me quicker than I'd like to admit. It's already way into 2010 and I feel like time is flying past and sometimes life is leaving me behind...

NO!

COME BACK!

Hummmm...

Breathe...

Anyway, last week I was scheduled to have the maxillofacial surgery on Thursday, but due to a big mix-up with scheduling we ended up changing the appointment. It seems like all these things worked out for a reason, and even if we don't really know what the full reason is, I'm sure there is a purpose for it. It's only a 2 week delay, so hopefully that shouldn't have too big of an impact on the great scheme of things.

This past weekend we had great plans to get the house in order and get everything ready for our trip... well, that didn't quite happen. Cory came home from work with a head cold, and that really made him feel just sluggish and lethargic. We did a little bit of shopping on Saturday afternoon and then went over to a friends house in the evening for din dins and a birthday party. Sunday we just chilled after church and went to our neighbours house for a little bit in the afternoon.

Of course, since we share everything in this house, I got the cold too... except, I'm a couple of days behind. Today I feel like crap - I really don't have the energy to do all that much, my head feels foggy and my sinuses and nose are having a right royal party to themselves.

I'm trying to both take it easy and relax and I'm also trying to get enough stuff done so we're not having a last minute panic getting ready to leave.

Hummm.... I'm going to nip downstairs, change laundry over and then take a nap while the next load washes and drys...

Ooooh, and I should add that we're totally into the TV show called Dexter right now too. It's a little weird (OK, it's really weird), but once you get past that it's really a good show! If you haven't seen it, give it a try... it might take a few episodes before you can really 'get into it'. It took me about 3-4 before I knew if I liked it or not.

Anyway, laundry and napping awaits!

Over & out...

Thursday 14 January 2010

Update from Dr's visit

Last week I went to the Doctors to have a blood test... OMG it was a chore. They couldn't get blood... Firstly, they went into the left arm, as usual... it 'sprayed' into the syringe, but nothing... and as he moved the needle around in my arm he punctured through the other side of the vein. Whoops!

So, then he moved over to the right arm. I'm not the biggest fan of having blood drawn from my right arm, and I don't know why, but I have good veins there and so he gave a try there. So, he put the needle in, and completely missed the vein this time... I don't know what happened, but as he poked around and tried to find it he couldn't get a thing! OUCH!

To be completely honest, I don't think he knew what to do. He said this has never happened to him before, and he has taken my bloods before without any trouble...

He put me into the little room where I had my ECG taken before and asked me to drink some water and wait there. He would have the other guy, Dr John, do my bloods... I was getting nervous by now. I had gotten over my fear of needles back in the summer when I started having all the blood tests and stuff. I found the lab at DFM was great and I hadn't had any problems there... until now.

I sat there and drank as much water as I possibly could (to keep me from worrying, and also to hydrate me, in case that was the problem) and I hoped they wouldn't have to use a butterfly needle.

After about a half hour, maybe more Mike came and got me and said Dr John was going to take my bloods. He had a feel of my veins and said there shouldn't have been a problem - I still had good veins!

As I'm sitting there he gets the butterfly needle out - OH NO! My heart flipped, I hated those. They were sore and made me bruise badly... and regardless of what "they" say, they are not the easiest or least painful way to take blood...

I told him I didn't like the butterfly needles because I always had trouble with them, and so he used the smallest needle possible. He had Mike hold the receiver tube end and he felt around my right arm. I could tell he was going to insert lower down the arm from usual, in the forearm!

OUCH! The needle went in, and yes, it bloody hurt! It went deep and it was sharp as heck. He drew the blood slowly... a deep dark red blood. He said it looked a good healthy colour and that there shouldn't have been a problem.

He put some cotton on my arm, told me my results would be back by Friday and let me leave!

Man, I was hurting. I felt like a pin cushion... before I'd even gone round to the lab guys I'd had my HepA booster by Michelle too... I wanted something to eat and I wanted to be home.

My arm hurt to move it, it hurt to drive... so I clicked into cruise control and headed back to Mac.

Within about an hour the bruise was horrific. By the evening it had gotten worse again, and was getting bigger by the morning! I will never believe anyone who tells me the butterfly needle doesn't hurt and doesn't bruise! It does both!

Anyway, a couple of days later we went to get the results... we were hoping for something good. I'd been having a LOT of hair loss over the last couple of weeks and my energy levels were falling in the afternoon again.

Surprise, surprise, my T4 levels tested in the 'normal' range for the first time ever. I was super shocked, esp since I wasn't feeling "back to normal" (whatever normal is). My Dr is really good, he knows he's not treating the numbers, but this was the first hurdle. To get me back in the range, and then we could start aiming for feeling better.

Over the last few months my levels have looked like this on paper:
Up til now I'd been told that I should be feeling better by Easter... now he reckons it might be the 'summer'... I just hope it's soon... I could really do with a break on this Graves Disease. This is the first time I wouldn't be increasing my Synthroid after a blood test.

The Doctor also told me that considering the level of Synthroid it has taken to drag me back into the 'normal' range it is expected that my thyroid has been completely obliterated. Not a partial like expected, but that the whole thing is dust now! Nice thought to leave you with eh?!?!?!

Mark's whirlwind trip to Oregon! (with pics)

I was extremely excited to have Mark visiting with us. Cory hadn't met Mark yet, so I was excited for that too... I was determined that he would have a fun trip and that we would cram as much into the few days he was here as possible... Oh boy! We sure crammed in a lot!

I didn't really know if I was going to be able to cope with being "on the go" all the time, but I was sure going to give it my best shot!

On Thursday, after the big ordeal getting here we decided to have an easy night. Cory went to work when we got back to Mac and Mark and I just took it easy. In the evening we had dinner a few drinks and chilled out.

On Friday we had a birthday party to go to at a friends house, so we didn't do too much during the day. I showed Mark around McMinnville and we went to a few shops. We dragged him along to my Dr's appointment too (I'll post about that separately) and then came home and got ready for the party. As I was waxing and scraping my snowboard the "boys" started on the drinks... Oh boy! Then we headed to Dave & Heathers place... Heather was turning the BIG 30!

We had a really fun evening, and although we bailed before 10.15pm and before bowling we were beat. Even Mark was ready to hit the hay (even though he didn't want to admit it). He'd had at least 11 shots of varying sizes and concoctions, plus about 6 beers... Ewwwww. No wonder he fell asleep on the sofa! Cory tried to wake him, but there was no budging him... So, we left the light on to his room and hoped he would find his way there when he got cold or uncomfortable.

He did!

In the morning we got up and started getting things ready for the trip to Mt Hood! Mark was a little dizzy, so was trying to get re-hydrated, and Cory cooked a yummy breakfast to keep us going til our late lunch in Sandy.

With the truck loaded, we hit the road!

Snowboarding was such a lot of fun! I didn't really have enough energy or stamina to do as much as I had wanted to, but I still had a blast. At the end I had to sit out in the café and let the boys do the last few runs by themselves. They were having fun, and I didn't want to overdo it and turn to mush for the rest of Mark's vacation. Mark did really well on the snowboard for it only being his second time ever... I realised that I am not as much of a daredevil as I used to be and that I would much rather take things in my stride!

When the "boys" came back to me after their last run they were both laughing so hard. It took a few mins and a few attempts to get the story out of them Apparently Mark had gotten tired and the last run had really stretched him. He did several awesome wipe-outs, including one really hard face plant, and one somersault come cartwheel where he landed hard and his board was upright in the snow! Mark was a little sore, but they'd had fun... and best of all, there was no serious injuries!

We left the mountain at 8pm and were home a little after 10 - that was good going!

On Sunday we got up and going again - this time we headed west to the beach! We started at Pacific City, one of my very favourite beaches. On the road to PC we stopped at Irish Road... We always give a little chuckle as we pass by, but this time we jumped out so Mark & I could have our photo taken!

At PC we climbed up to the punchbowl and then the boys decided to climb up to the top of the sand dune! There was no way I would be able to do that, esp after snowboarding the day before... I decided to walk back down and let them do it themselves! They had fun, and ran the whole way down the dune!

We walked back to the Pelican and grabbed some drinks and onion rings to warm us up... then we headed to Lincoln City, and to the outlet malls!

Man, there was some good deals at the outlet malls... GAP had some crazy sales, and then on top of that there was an additional 40% off the lowest ticketed price! I grabbed a few tank tops... each for less than $2! Cory and Mark both grabbed some awesome deals on jeans, and Mark got some shirts too ... with the exchange rate he got a superb bargain!

After that we were starting to slow down and get tired, so we headed back to Mac. We grabbed some pizza's on the way and went round to Dave & Heather's for a few, then back home and hit the sack again!

Monday and Tuesday in the daytime were fairly quiet. Mark and I just chilled around here, did some shopping and took it easy. On Monday afternoon we packed our warm rain gear into the truck and went and grabbed Cory from work to head up to the farm! Cory gave Mark a quick lesson on shooting a shotgun - he did really well! We threw some skeets (video below) and once all the shells were done we jumped on the four-wheelers and headed up into the trails around the farm!


I was on the back of Cory's and Mark had his own four-wheeler, and we went through the grounds and area where Cory grew up. It was such a lot of fun, and it was a nice relaxing evening! I'm pretty sure Mark had a lot of fun too, there was a big smile on his face as he was revving the four-wheeler through little streams and racing across fields! We had some dinner with Cory's parents and then headed back home... it seemed like we had spend the whole time on the go, and a lot of time in the truck!

On Mark's last evening we took it easy... I made spaghetti for dinner and we had that, a few drinks and watched a couple of episodes of Dexter. By 8.30pm we were all considering going to bed, but we managed to wait til 9.30pm... The alarm would be going off soon... real soon!

At 4am the alarm made it's terrible noise and I knew it was time to get up! Ugh!

We got the truck packed and on the road on time and with just a quick stop at Dutch Brothers for a caffeine fix we headed directly to the airport! I was so sad to see Mark go. We thoroughly enjoyed having him here, and the week had gone so quickly.

Thankfully, his flight left Portland without delay, and the connecting flight also left Newark on time... the flight home had no glitches! I was glad for that!

Here's the video of Mark skeet shooting...

Déjà vu

With January firmly under our belts I thought it was about time I took a few minutes to blog... I am really going to try and be more consistent this year about blogging, but I can't make any guarantees...

My nephew Mark arrived from Ireland last week to visit with us and we had a GREAT time together. His flights were on Wednesday from Dublin, via London and then Vancouver BC before getting here to Portland. Well, he didn't really get off to a good start. The UK received a right royal dumping of snow the night before his flights and all that morning, and London Heathrow were not prepared (shock horror!)! They had all the passengers strapped into their seats before they realised that they didn't have a deicing machine available... so, they went and found one of those (it took them hours) and then once they got it they realised they didn't have any deicer! WHAT!?!?!? So, about FIVE hours late, while everyone is still strapped into their seats they finally managed to get ready for take off.

Needless to say, Mark missed his connecting flight in Vancouver. They had transferred him to the last flight out of there that evening, but he missed that one too... it was to take off at 8.30pm and his flight didn't land until 8.20pm.... He had to spend the night in a hotel - but at least it wasn't a night at the airport...

We had gone up to Portland to pick him up, and had heard of the delay, but we still thought he would be able to make the connecting flight in Vancouver. So, we did some shopping and had a bite to eat while we waited... At 9.15pm once Mark had gotten through security and found out what was happening he called to say he wouldn't be arriving til the morning... Boooo

We were going to go and stay at Cory's brothers in Tualatin which would have meant a lot less driving and a lot more sleep, but it wasn't to be. I didn't have the pills I needed to take that evening or first thing in the morning... so we headed home and went straight to bed.

The following morning we got up and headed to Portland. His flight was due at 9.50am, so in order to miss the rush hour traffic we left a 7.45am. A little early, yes, but it would be miles better than sitting in traffic. I had the weird sensation of Déjà vu...

As we were driving I received a text message from Mark saying there was a delay. A sensor on the plane wasn't functioning correctly so they were going to try and fix it! Oh boy!

Well, they couldn't get it fixed, so instead they got a new plane.... a little, bitty twin-prop! Yikes!

We parked in the cell phone waiting zone at the airport and waited... and waited! Finally his flight had landed... 90 mins late, but it was here.

So we headed over to the airport and met him, grabbed his bags and got back on the road... headed for Mac... after 36 hours of travelling he was here... finally!

Sunday 3 January 2010

So far a quiet start to the New Year!

We celebrated New Years Eve with our friends Dave & Heather. It was fairly quiet and low key, we started at their house, and then went to Third Street to catch some live music. Unfortunately, the music wasn't really all that good so we decided to move on to the Cabana Club. Oh boy, that's a strange place... A very varied and 'interesting' crowd... if you've ever been there you will know EXACTLY what I mean!

So far this year so far has been fairly quiet for us. On Friday we went to see Avatar at the theatre with John & Janet! It was a really good movie, and I'm glad we spent the couple extra bucks to watch it in 3D. The SFX were brilliant and well worth it! The movie is 2 hours 4o mins long though, so if you're going to go see it, I'd recommend getting a small size drink!!!

Yesterday and today have been fairly low key too. We had lunch with Cory's brother Erik yesterday, and his girlfriend and her two kids. We hadn't seen them around Christmas time so we still had Christmas gifts for them, so that was nice. They're cute kids!

After that Cory and I worked on the house a little bit. I'd bought some rubbermaid storage boxes on sale to organise my craft stuff, so I worked on that for a fair chunk of the afternoon. Cory was mostly trying to get the plumbing done for the basement. It turned out to be a MUCH bigger job than we had expected. The old plumbing line was weak and when Cory connected the new line it gave way! Oh Crap! So, we put a temporary fix on it to see us through the evening and today after Church went to Lowes to get the rest of the copper pipe and fixtures we needed.

Today was my first solo as the visual projection person at Church. I am pretty pleased with how it went and I think it went ok. Thankfully we had gone to the music practice on Tuesday so I could type up the two new songs. Otherwise it could have been a little more hectic this morning, especially since the service times were changing to earlier today too!

So, right now Cory & Andrew are working on getting the last bits done on the plumbing and hopefully they shouldn't have much more to do. It'll be awesome when it's done and we can do the first load of dishes in the dishwasher!

I guess I had better get going and make the working men some dinner too... I'm going to make Shepherds pie tonight and it will be nice to have a relaxing evening before the working week starts!

Here are some pics of Cory & Andrew plumbing in and installing the dishwasher... Please try to look beyond our messy house ;)I almost didn't add this one, because of the state of the kitchen in the background... but if you understand what was going on you'll be able to see pass the bomb site. I had just got water back and was in the middle of cooking a yummy Shepherds pie for the working men. They had just pulled the dishwasher out again for the millionth time and I almost spilled the pie on Andrew while transferring it from the counter to the oven. What a disaster that would have been, we were ALL VERY HUNGRY! Right before Cory snapped this shot I'd grabbed the instruction manual to double check they'd done everything right! hehehehe

Within about half hour of this photo being taken our kitchen was transformed! The dishwasher was in place, running a cycle and the kitchen was tidy. I guess I should have taken an 'after' shot so you'd believe me ;)