Thursday, December 31, 2009

More Pics and The End is Near

Spent the morning at the Getty Villa in Malibu. Had beautiful antiquities from Italy. Even with the light rain and gray clouds it was beautiful.

On Christmas Day we took the boys "sledding" at a local park. We all had a lot of fun even though about half of us were sick.

Here is Landon waiting in the extremely long line at Philippe's. It wasn't too long for an adult but a 2 yr old, yes.

This is what it always looks like at this yummy French Dip eatery.


Right next door to Chinatown in L.A. We had yummy food!

The famous Los Angeles Colosseum where they had the Opening Ceremony during the Summer Olympics in 1984.

A day our with grandma, Haydn at the California Science Center.

We spent the day with our friend Jenny in Santa Monica. It was amazing weather and we even spotted a star, Norm McDonald from Saturday Night Live.



Landon loved chasing the pigeons all over the place.

Spotted a Weiner Mobile in Santa Barbara on the day we went to the Santa Barbara Zoo with Carly, Shad, and Cru.




Sunday, December 20, 2009

Some New Photos

Here are some new photos of the family in California. We are really enjoying our time here. We can handle 60 degrees unlike the 20's and snow they are having in Michigan. Landon is still very active but his vocabulary has really taken off. The best thing that he has said since coming to California is he said his very first meal prayer (with help). Mama Bears heart almost leaped out of her chest. He said the bedtime prayer as well tonight and it was so cute as he helped pray for a baby brother or sister. Tomorrow we are going to the California Science Center and so hopefully there will be more pictures to post soon.


Papi playing a crazy horse. Landon's new game, let's ride Mami and Papi like a horse. He can say the word horse too.

Had a fun time at the park with Lily, Emerson and Landon.





Landon and Cru are so cute. At times they like to copy each other. Cru is 1 yr and 5 days younger than Landon. They even have matching pajamas, that was on accident but they are cute kids.

Grandma and Pap trying to help get Landon's wiggles out by taking him for a walk around the block. Yes, it is warm enough to not have on a jacket or shoes.

One evening we went to Americana at Brand. It snowed (fake) and played White Christmas. It was magical while we all danced in the street. They had a Christmas tree that was over 100 ft tall. We had lots of fun and Mami of course left our time at the shops with a trinket or two!


Friday, December 11, 2009

It wouldn't be a vacation without . . .

. . . a trip to the emergency room! All is well, and he's happy and in good spirits. Photos to follow. Oh, and it's Mike, not Landon, who ended up on the narrow bed in the hallway of the Los Robles Medical Center ER. He woke up yesterday morning, and he couldn't get his eyes to stop tracking across the room. He got up to use the bathroom and barely made it before he started dry heaving (ew. . .). Hallie was a trooper (she hates puke) and helped get Mike settled and comfortable.

She asked Elise (our SIL) about what she thought we should do, as Bryce (her husband and Hallie's bro) had had a spell of vertigo, and it looked like this is what Mike was experiencing. All Mike wanted to do was lie down as still as possible with the lights out. With a bile bucket available in the bedroom, he left the bathroom, upchucked a few more times, and lay down for an hour or so while Hallie looked up information on his vertigo symptoms.

Hallie then came into the room and said, "Mike, we're going to the Urgent Care. This is something you can't just sleep off." So, up Mike got up and used that trusty bucket one more time before we headed out to the Urgent Care. We got there and found out they don't take out-of-state insurance, so we then trekked to the Los Robles ER. This was Mike's first trip as an adult and easily his first trip in over 30 years to the ER, so he took it all in with fascinated curiosity. Yes, for the med students we know this is all old hat, but for those of us for whom "ER" means "Doctor TV Show," it was neat to see one in action.

As Mike was being admitted, he recognized one of the staff as someone he had known since elementary school. "Hi, Wayne. (Hallie, he knows me. Keep looking.)" Wayne looks at Mike's wrist band, and his eyes widen. "Hi, Mike!" (Side note: Facebook is good for something, if only to recognize as adults those people we knew as children.) Mike was asked to lie down on a gurney in the hallway (Room 20, apparently), and we were asked a bunch of questions. Mike was given an IV (a first for him), and then we waited for the doctor and the blood work. And we waited.

The doctor came by, asked Mike to not move his head as he tracked the doctor's finger as he passed it from one side of Mike's field of vision to the other, asked a couple of more questions, and gave his diagnosis: seizure disorder. NO, bad joke. It was nothing: benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV). After the doctor pronounced sentence, we continued to wait for the blood work.

And we waited, and we waited, and we waited some more (We had arrived at about 10, and it was now after 1). Our attending nurse went and came back from lunch. Our doctor went to lunch and was called back when a patient in Room 10 (a real room across the hall from our gurney) lapsed into a non-responsive state. He made some glib remark to the nurse about how the nurse had saved to patient's life by calling him back early from lunch (the patient woke back up. We don't know if she made it through the day, though), then came out, and seeing us there, said, "Oh, hi. The blood work came back fine. Let me write up your prescription, and you're good to go."

We waited some more, then the nurse came back, removed Mike's IV shunt (or whatever you medical people call it), and got us Mike's prescriptions before sending us on our way. Everyone on staff was so nice, and they all had great senses of humor. The doctor was very informative, and it was cute seeing his attending trailing along with tablet PC in hand. All in all, an enlightening visit.

By this time Mike was feeling much better, still dizzy, but no longer intent on heaving his insides out. He went to bed when we got home and didn't come back out until nearly 5 PM. What an unproductive day! Still, like we said above, it wouldn't be a complete vacation without an ER visit. Let's hope Landon does us the favor of avoiding one for himself!

Friday, December 04, 2009

A Way To Say Thanks

I received this in an email today. I would want my brother to get one and I am sure many soldiers would appreciate something like this.


XEROX IS DOING SOMETHING COOL

If you go to this web site, www.LetsSayThanks.com you can pick out a thank you card and Xerox will print it and it will be sent to a soldier that is currently serving in Iraq.

You can't pick out who gets it, but it will go to a member of the armed services.

How AMAZING it would be if we could get everyone we know to send one!!!

It is FREE and it only takes a second.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if the soldiers received a bunch of these?

Whether you are for or against the war, our soldiers over there need to know we are behind them.

This takes just 10 seconds and it's a wonderful way to say thank you.

Please take the time to send a card, and please take the time to pass it on for others to do. We can never say enough thank you's.

Thanks for taking to time to support our military!


I already sent mine. When will you send yours?