Ok so we suck with this Blog thing lately

So while we were not blogging, some of these things happened; Jared got his first haircut at Little Clippers where they play a movie for the little ones so they don't pay attention to whats going on. Highly suggest the place.



Jared was a Lion for Halloween and we loved it because he likes to roar like a lion too. Jared absolutely loved going trick o' treating of course with people handing him candy left and right whats not to love right?!

Jared was really excited to carve pumpkins, until I opened it up and it was time to clean out the insides...then it was "yucky, yucky, bowl, bowl" (Jared's way of saying get it away from me and put that junk in the bowl Daddy).

One of Jared's new favorite things, Daddy puts this blanket across his legs and Jared jumps in like a hammock and reads his books!

Laura turned 30!

We went camping at Silver Falls...that may be the last time for awhile, Jared for some reason would not sleep very long (ok to be fair it was freezing and even I was a bit cold) next time I'll buy a tent heater, or just use the new camping trailer :-)

Grandpa Elia came and visited Jared and was teaching him how to play a nose flute with out the nose flute. We had good times, come back soon Grandpa Elia!

Jared and Grandpa Elia spending some quality time. Jared loves stubble, he will rub his hands all over your face for 20 mins if you let him.

Well thats what we've been up to in the last few months and your all caught up now mostly, except last thing Laura is back to teaching she teaches half a day all week at Waluga Middle School in Lake Oswego. She loves it.

Fourth of July Weekend

We spent the 4th of July weekend in Sunriver, its becoming a little bit of an Elia Family tradition. Jared loves the Pet Parade they have every year (people dress up their dogs, cats, ponies, horses, rabbits and goats or at least decorate a wagon and pull them in it). After the parade every one moves down to Drake Park and there is live music, arts and crafts booths, clothes, jewelry and food booths as well. This year Jim and Kathie came with us as well as Lynda, Todd and Terri Zenger. It was fun times. The highlight every year of course is at 10pm, there is this big cinder cone in the middle of Bend and they do a huge firework show from the very top so that you can see the fireworks basically from any point in Bend, and probably further away than that.


We go to this spot on the Deschutes river every time we're in Sunriver with Jared so he can feed the ducks and throw rocks in the water. This kid would throw a dump truck worth of rocks in the water if you let him!

Jim has had this cedar log swing in the garage at Sunriver for at least 10 years he said, we finally put it together on this trip. It is really nice and Jared loved swinging on it.

Jared's most recent battle scar, he jumped from a concrete pad that a big electrical box sits on onto the sidewalk and as you can see he didn't keep his balance. If you could see any closer you could see the distinct lines of the sidewalk in his scab. It looked like a mini version of a Ruffle potato chip.

Jamaica - finally a new post!

We took a family vacation with my parents, sister and her family, and my brother and his family to Jamaica ya mon! It was fantastic and we had a wonderful time. We stayed at the Beaches Boscobel all inclusive resort in Ochos Rios. It was hard to want to leave the resort it was so beautiful as you can see by the pictures. The pools were great with a ton of water slides and all water activities were included. We were able to go snorkeling, banana boat rides, glass bottom boat rides, among other fun activities.

Most days we spent days relaxing by the pool drinking virgin Pina Coladas and Strawberry Daiquiris, going down the water slides or playing in the sand on the beach. We did take two day excursions which were a lot of fun. One day we went to Dunn River Fall's which is a cascading water fall that you can actually climb up to the top. You hold hands in a big long line and help each other up to the top of the falls, Ronald carried Jared all the way up the falls. It was a lot of fun and very refreshing. Our last day there we went to Dolphin Cove where we had a dolphin experience. We didn't get to swim with them, but we were able to touch them give them kisses. Jared loved it and gave the dolphin a huge kiss and hug. It was very cute we will have to post the video later.

An interesting Friday

Laura left last night with her parents to drive to Utah for Cindy Zenger's (her first cousin) wedding. Its the first time Laura has left Jared for more than an overnight. I was planning to take Jared to daycare and pick him up after work. However right after I had gotten Jared all dressed and ready for the day and I was just putting on my shirt, I catch a glimpse of Jared running full tilt out of the bathroom and just as he gets to the door way he stubs his shoe on the metal strip that separates the linoleum from the carpet and he takes a header into the foot of our bed.

Now the impact was cause for concern by itself, however as I go to pick a screaming Jared up off the floor I notice the corner of his left eye is already swelling and purple and he is bleeding down his cheek and into his eye as well. Now it may sound cruel but I had to leave him there so I could take off my dress shirt so he didn't get blood all over it but once I got it off I picked him up off the floor and tried taking a look at his eye.

He wasn't having any of it, he would barely hold still for me to look but I could see that he had split his skin next to his eye and that if weren't for the swelling he would be bleeding all over the place! At this point I am thinking to myself 'I can't believe Jared just did this, now Laura will never let me take care of him while she is gone :-) So I call Laura to let her know what happened, luckily she is still sleepy so she didn't freak out too much.

Jared took his header around 7:30 am and I know he needs to go to the Doctor to probably get some stitches because his eye is still bleeding and it was a pretty nasty cut. So I called the pediatricians office and they said the doctor would be in at 9am and we could come in then. We showed up at 9am and of course waited for a bit. While in the waiting room this lady made a comment about Jared getting his first black eye, I let her know that this was actually Jared's third black eye (and actually not even close to the worst one).

The nurse came out and took us back and she used some gauze to clean up Jared's eye. Jared was so brave, he just gave the nurse his leary look but he let her clean it up and he never cried or winced once. The Doctor came in a bit later and took and look and luckily she said it wasn't too bad after she took a look and said that she could just glue it shut instead of doing stitches. We had to switch to the procedure room and the nurse had to clean Jared's eye with beatadine and saline solution. We had to take off his shirt and wrap him in a blanket so we could keep control of him since he was squirming like a fish out of water and kicking me like a mule as well. Then the Doc came back in to glue his cut closed which took everything the nurse and I had to keep Jared still so the glue didn't get in his eye. He of course screamed during this whole time but when the Doc was doing gluing his eye and he was still screaming I sang Rock a Bye Baby too him and it calmed him right down but he looked so sad that Daddy felt so bad for my little guy.

When we were all done Jared got to pick a prize and he decided on a dinosaur. Later I told Laura that he got a dinosaur as a prize and she in her sleepy state says "did he get a real one" next thing out of my mouth and Kathie's of course is "yes Laura they gave him a 'real' dinosaur, a real live T-Rex!" Of course she meant a big one like he has at home but Kathie and I enjoyed teasing her about that one. So of course at this point its 10am and I just can't take him to daycare, I felt so bad for him so I stopped in at work since it was close to the doctors office to let them see that I didn't make it all up ;-) and then Jared and I went home to hang out the rest of the day.

Utah Trip

Okay so it was back in March but hey its all good right...So we had good times, it snowed a ton on Saturday night and Sunday, don't miss the snow so much. We went to Utah for Michele and Jordan being sealed to Julie Beth and for Julie Beth and Kaisleigh's baby blessings. Good times seeing everyone and watching Julie Beth starting to walk, and falling down as well.

Of course we were all bummed Dad couldn't be there but happy that he is doing better :-)

Sunday

Dad is doing good, he no longer has any IV's going, he only has oxygen when he sleeps because he has sleep apnea so his oxygen levels get a little low. Other than that he seems to be doing good, no doctors today since its Sunday. Hopefully tomorrow holds good news, but I go back to Oregon tonight. My Mom and I are exhausted since sleeping in a hospital room can only be so comfortable and the nurses come in and out all night but I am glad I came home to see my Dad.

Aging is a natural process but the medical stuff starts to catch up. Makes me want to move home but I know Laura would struggle with it but I'll eventually need to figure it out. So it seems that my Dad is doing much better, he just needs to take it easy and rest (while still getting some exercise) and actually manage his diabetes so his kidneys last longer:-)

We are all sad that Dad can't be in Utah this coming weekend for Juju B getting sealed to Michele and Jordan and for Juju B and Kaisleigh's baby blessing but that's okay. That is why I am glad we are an eternal family!

Once again thank you for all of your prayers on our Dad's behalf, and all that you do for our family. Its been a scary experience but its always nice to know how much Ohana one has in the islands and through out the world.

Love and Aloha,

Ronald

Lazy Saturday Afternoon

Dad has been sleeping most of the morning since he did not sleep at all last night. Nothing like telling some one they can't move and of course mentally you feel that you have to! Needless to say he has been very vocal on how much he wants to move and how much being on his back has been really sore. Now that his leg is doing good and there is no hematoma (s/p) on the entry site in his femoral artery where they went in to do the stent he can now move around and not have to be on his back.

Funny thing though now that he is so tired and is sleeping he is in the exact same position from when he couldn't move and is sleeping comfortably. ;-) Nothing like the power of suggestion. During his napping though his sleep apnea started to kick in a bit and his oxygen level was in the 70's and it made some alarms go off, but since his nurse never showed up I just put him back on oxygen and he went right back to 100. When his nurse came back in I told her why he was back on oxygen and she was like oh it should have made the alarms go off. I said they did twice but when you didn't show up twice, I just silenced the alarm (I've been doing this for awhile on his monitors and his IV drip - they take forever to get in here and never have the new IV bag ready and the alarms are so obnoxious and loud) and put him on oxygen. She was like oh, okay.

As Caroline would say, "Good times."

After the procedure

Dad is back in the room, they put in a stent and he is doing good. The hardest part is that they are making him stay on his back laying down in his bed. He doesn't do that, he always sleeps in a Lazy Boy chair so its killing his back. So needless to say he isn't supposed to be moving his right leg but of course he is...to be continued.

Friday Update

Dad is doing a ton better, yesterday he had more of an appetite and I was able to get him to eat some food and drink more fluids. His blood pressure has gone down to really good levels, his oxygen level in his blood has been staying at 100 and on his own without the oxygen in the 90's. His heart rate has leveled out around 100, earlier yesterday and on Wednesday he was only around the 60's and since putting in the external pace maker his heart has only needed it a couple of times to keep it from going too slow.

When the lady came in this morning to do his EKG his heart rate goes up a ton because he gets nervous or something. His heart rate yesterday was all over the place when she came in to do the EKG, this morning I tried getting him to be less nervous about it but his HR still went up to the 140 range and then crashing to the 40's and 50's. Don't be alarmed, it does this a couple of times a day and when his HR goes under 60 the pacemaker kicks in to keep it going at a faster rate.

So mostly besides helping out with going shishi and helping him adjust in bed so his okole doesn't hurt too much, feeding him and making him drink stuff is all I am doing. His creatin level has come down from 2.5 to 2.1 so that is why they are going forward with the angioplasty and putting in some stents (answer to every ones prayers -thank you).

So that is the update for now, once again we thank everyone for their prayers on Dad's behalf and on his doctors and nurses behalves as well and the out pouring of Love and Aloha to our Ohana, we are humbled and grateful for the blessing of being able to call everyone of you Family and Friends.

Aloha,

Ronald

Update on My Dad

I flew to Honolulu on Wednesday to see my Dad who is in Queen's hospital because of a minor heart attack. He is doing okay, still having issues with his heart rate and rhythm. The doctors were going to do an angioplasty today but since my Dad has diabetes too, his cretin level was higher than the doctors wanted so they called it off to try and get his cretin closer to 2 down from 2.5 where it was at this morning. However because his heart stopped for a couple seconds here and there this morning they decided to attach an external pacemaker. That is making Dad a bit uncomfortable because they went in through his right jugular vein so that hurts a bit.

Well other than all that he is feeling good, his blood pressure has been pretty good 145/68, heart rate is 97 and pulse is in the 90's. Blood sugar has been the issue lately high 200's after eating but that's because of the dies they put in him for the catheter? s/p, to look at his heart is really hard on his kidney's. So they have been giving him diuretics s/p so he can pee more to get that crap out (read Ronald has to help him do this and it is just so much fun! not :-)) So I have figured out most of the machines, and am following the tests they are doing so its been a learning experience. Hopefully this learning experience ends soon and in a good way.

Thanks to everyone for their prayers on behalf of my Dad and his Doctors.

I will try to keep you updated,

Ronald

President's Day Weekend

On President's Day we decided to go to Astoria and Seaside to take in the sights. Luckily as you can see it was an amazingly sunny day on the Coast, a rarity in February in Oregon to say the least!

We followed the Columbia river to Astoria and on the way got to see a Bald Eagle and a big herd of Elk on the side of the road in a field. When we got to Astoria we headed straight for the Astoria Column, boy it was an amazing view! The air was so clear and the sky was a bright blue and the river and ocean being a darker blue it was just so beautiful.

After the Astoria Column we headed over to Fort Stevens because Ronald had never been there before. A couple of cool things with Fort Stevens, it was actually shelled by a Japanese submarine during WWII but luckily no one was hurt. There was a bunch of cool WWII things on display there like different types of guns, uniforms, maps and photos of both US and Japanese Armies.

Seaside was the next stop on the tour, where Jared got to enjoy his first Carousel ride, elephant ear and ran up and down the promenade chasing dogs. This being Oregon just about everyone had a dog or two or three with them everywhere we went! Jared loves dogs so much that if he sees one he points at it then starts yelling "dok, dok" (he can't quite say dog yet). Its so cute until there are a hundred dogs everywhere and he is just running in circles yelling "dok, dok" and chasing these poor dogs everywhere. Luckily a few people stopped and let him pet their dogs and he just loved it. Ronald had to go crabbing since we were on the coast so we headed over to 12th Ave bridge in Seaside where you can crab off the bridge. We didn't catch anything but you could see them just wandering around in the river.

All in all we had a fun day, Jared slept every time we had to drive a long way so it worked out perfectly. Actually with Ronald driving we made it from Seaside to our door in just over an hour!

Its been awhile...

Hello there, we know its been a while! Well Jared is now a few days away from being 15 months old and we wanted to add some very recent pictures (bath ones are from tonight) and update everyone on our little family.

Jared has taken to doing a few new things. He is into Daddy's hats and always puts them on when he finds them, he is also into riding his caterpillar Edison, climbing into his toy basket and just sitting in there and throwing out his toys one at a time. He can stand up on his own, walks and runs around all the time, he seems to have an endless supply of energy these days. The other day at Church he totally threw his first temper tantrum! He was swinging his arms around and screaming it was kind of funny yet at the same time kind of scary.

I've been getting a few more sub jobs lately which has been nice. Ronald's work laid-off a couple guys but luckily not Ronald. I've been keeping busy with Young Women, last night was our New Beginnings program. Luckily we have a new girl coming in this year, she will be our only Beehive! Our ward doesn't have many Young Women at all but a lot more Young Men.

Well that's about it recently so hope everyone is doing well.

Sunriver

Day 1: Okay so we forgot our camera so no pics for this trip so we'll just blog. So we got into town last night, the whole drive down I was reading test questions to Ronald (not too much fun but it helped Ronald out). It got down int he 20's last night but Ronald got a fire going and that was nice and toasty.
Today though was super sunny and actually kind of warm. It got into the 60's while we were in Redmond while Ronald was taking his test and it was so warm we ate outside at a burger joint called Jody's (we highly recommend Jody's if your ever in Redmond, the burgers were awesome and so were the onion rings!).
We caught up with Jessica & Alex Po in Bend and headed back to the house in Sunriver. After unpacking their car and Alex and Ronald chopping some wood and trying to chip the ice in the driveway we all went on a walk to go feed the ducks and geese in the pond by the Woodlands golf course. It was fun to watch the kids feeding the ducks, but the geese came right up to you and hissed so they kind of got scared because of that.
Now its time to get dinner ready and figure out what we are going to do tomorrow.

TP Time!

Nope these are not old pictures from Halloween of Jared trying on a zombie costume! :^) This is Jared wearing almost a whole roll of toilet paper. If you ask me all babies eventually find the "fun" in unrolling the tp. I did get mad at Ronald for letting him do it (read lack of supervision here since he was supposed to be watching him). So after finding Jared playing with the tp Ronald wrapped him up like a mummy and Jared started busting out of the wraps and started traipsing around upstairs looking like a white zombie.