Here is the latest update on the two older crew aboard Hand Full.
Neil is going to have to have surgery. They are trying to get all the details and "permission slips" worked out. We are not sure when this will start but are hoping it will be before the end of the year. The good news is that it should provide a lot of relief to Neil and hopefully he will be rid of a lot of unnecessary pain. The down side: each surgery (three in total if all goes smooth) will require some serious down time. We are looking at all our options and may lean towards getting a flat somewhere down south here. There is a lot to think about but not to worry as nothing will be sprung on us and it all has to be planned far in advance.
As far as for myself....
Well it turns out the reason why I got sick so easily is because my body makes no antibodies, at least not right now, nor do they know for how long. This makes me 100% vulnerable to everything.
Solution: I will begin taking IV antibodies once a month. A sort of super solution of antibodies from thousands of individuals...as noted in a previous blog. My first big day is October 6th. I am excited and nervous but more excited to get some "good stuff" in me.
I will also be undergoing several tests, some invsive, some not that will clear up any other questions or concerns the doctors may have. I now have my very own set of "house" doctors at the Immunology Division at UCSD.
So there you have it.
Meanwhile back at the ranch, we are enjoying ourselves and each other, as always.
When it rains it pours, but I don't mind a little "singing in the rain." I just don't like hail! :o)`
Monday, September 26, 2011
Friday, September 23, 2011
It's a Boy!!
If feels like it was just a few years ago that the doctor was exclaiming "It's a boy!" Neil and I were so happy.
We have a boy and a girl both healthy and close together...."I hope they are best friends" and that is how it came to be.
Today Stewart, my little man, is 15yrs. old! Can you believe it?
He is just as handsome as the day he was born! Big bold hazel eyes and so happy go lucky. He has accomplished a lot in so little time and over the years he's added skilled sailor, skateboarding and several electronic experiments. (homeade fans and cucumber choppers, rocket and rubberband launchers). Not to mention he will kick your butt on X box live!! haha.
We are sure proud of him, and also of Katie. God blessed us with amazing kids and I have loved and continue to enjoy every minute spent with them.
So altogether now: "Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday Dear Stewie, Happy Birthday to you, and many more!"
Now, for the spankings! haha!
We have a boy and a girl both healthy and close together...."I hope they are best friends" and that is how it came to be.
Today Stewart, my little man, is 15yrs. old! Can you believe it?
He is just as handsome as the day he was born! Big bold hazel eyes and so happy go lucky. He has accomplished a lot in so little time and over the years he's added skilled sailor, skateboarding and several electronic experiments. (homeade fans and cucumber choppers, rocket and rubberband launchers). Not to mention he will kick your butt on X box live!! haha.
We are sure proud of him, and also of Katie. God blessed us with amazing kids and I have loved and continue to enjoy every minute spent with them.
So altogether now: "Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday Dear Stewie, Happy Birthday to you, and many more!"
Now, for the spankings! haha!
Monday, September 19, 2011
a new blog to follow
Want to know what Jim and Kara are up to?? Check them out and bookmark em. One thing is for sure, no matter who you are or what you are on, it is never dull living on the water!!
Visit: www.chasing-freedom.com
Visit: www.chasing-freedom.com
Pumpkin Ice Cream
Thank you for praying for my mom. She is doing well and from what I hear suffered a back injury which landed her in the hospital with a "saddle block." They kept her for a few days and sent her home fully medicated. I feel bad that she hurt herself but glad that it wasn't too horrible.
This weekend we got to meet up with Cap'n Jack Spot. I am sure you F Dockers remember Jack. Well, he helped a buddy move a boat from Santa Barbara to San Diego and is planning on bringing his own sailboat down here for the winter. So if you are keeping track, Former F Dockers now living in San Diego...soon to be:Three.( haha). He is doing well and may start up a diving service here modeled after another diving service that didn't do too bad up north...what was the name again? Ship..? Shapeshifters? No..Bottom Buddy's? Ugh, just can't remember, but between you and me, I thought the diver was "a Hottie!" (smirk, giggle). Either way, "Good luck to you Jack!"
The weather is doing that funny thing now where you feel like drinking coffee on the deck in a beefy blanket wanting to buy pumpkin's and plan Christmas gifts in the mornings. By afternoon your shorts are on, and ice cream sounds good. So because of this I am craving pumpkin ice cream from Half Moon Bay. I can't complain though as it is still so much warmer here than San Fran..I am just a big ole woose now!!Now, back to the ice cream..If you are still up that way, you must try it, oh it's delicious!! In fact the kid's have told me that if we head up for a visit soon that it is imperative that we stop in, just for the ice cream and bring home a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch! I will not fight it too much as I thought it would be pretty cool too...I become an even bigger kid in the patch.."Look at this one! Let's get it! No wait, this one! No..." you get the idea, haha!
My doctor's visit went well. They think I may not be producing enough anti bodies to ward off evil spirits, ie..the common cold...so, in a few weeks we will know. The result may be monthly i.v's full of antibodies from over 20,000 others, and given to me. Result? I may become super human! I really hope that they can do something a little less severe and more travel friendly but will do what they say. It is a fluke kind of thing and unusual, which fits in with my life...ie, a bit unusual...
Neil goes in this week to start some physical therapy and we hope to get some "set in stone" plans for non surgical recovery. They are still leaning towards surgery, but we will do what we can to avoid it for now even though it is still on the table. Fingers crossed.
(mom and dad below)
This weekend we got to meet up with Cap'n Jack Spot. I am sure you F Dockers remember Jack. Well, he helped a buddy move a boat from Santa Barbara to San Diego and is planning on bringing his own sailboat down here for the winter. So if you are keeping track, Former F Dockers now living in San Diego...soon to be:Three.( haha). He is doing well and may start up a diving service here modeled after another diving service that didn't do too bad up north...what was the name again? Ship..? Shapeshifters? No..Bottom Buddy's? Ugh, just can't remember, but between you and me, I thought the diver was "a Hottie!" (smirk, giggle). Either way, "Good luck to you Jack!"
The weather is doing that funny thing now where you feel like drinking coffee on the deck in a beefy blanket wanting to buy pumpkin's and plan Christmas gifts in the mornings. By afternoon your shorts are on, and ice cream sounds good. So because of this I am craving pumpkin ice cream from Half Moon Bay. I can't complain though as it is still so much warmer here than San Fran..I am just a big ole woose now!!Now, back to the ice cream..If you are still up that way, you must try it, oh it's delicious!! In fact the kid's have told me that if we head up for a visit soon that it is imperative that we stop in, just for the ice cream and bring home a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch! I will not fight it too much as I thought it would be pretty cool too...I become an even bigger kid in the patch.."Look at this one! Let's get it! No wait, this one! No..." you get the idea, haha!
(see pic below..and old one but you get the idea)
My doctor's visit went well. They think I may not be producing enough anti bodies to ward off evil spirits, ie..the common cold...so, in a few weeks we will know. The result may be monthly i.v's full of antibodies from over 20,000 others, and given to me. Result? I may become super human! I really hope that they can do something a little less severe and more travel friendly but will do what they say. It is a fluke kind of thing and unusual, which fits in with my life...ie, a bit unusual...
Neil goes in this week to start some physical therapy and we hope to get some "set in stone" plans for non surgical recovery. They are still leaning towards surgery, but we will do what we can to avoid it for now even though it is still on the table. Fingers crossed.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Prayer request
I know many of you have never met my family abroad but I ask that you please pray for my mother. She is in the hospital and that is basically all the information I have as yet. I will keep you posted and I thank you. Tiffin
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
there's always a story once the sails are raised...
For labor day weekend we decided to head up to Mission Bay for a lovely 3 day stay. One of our mooring friends was to be heading that way also to start his adventure to Hawaii. His name, Bill and his boat, "Root Beer Float." For a while there was a bit of a race, but all in all, he won as he was a bit smaller and far less heavy than Hand Full.
This time we were to include with our crew Stewart's good friend Sam. Since we have the skate park on shore behind our boat, they became good friends over the summer. Sam is sponsered by one of the local skate shops which we think is pretty cool considering he is 13 years old!! Stewart is getting pretty good at it as well so watch out Sam!!
Sam had never been sailing before and is new to the concept of life on the water.He has spent the night a few times but is not sure if he likes the constant rocking, so we were more than happy to let him come along and see what a sheltered anchorage with your own private swimming hole is like.
Everything was fine until....we got out into the ocean. The swells and a little bit of yawing sent poor Sam over the edge to chum the waters. A nice nap later we were anchored safely. We set the boat up the next day for swinging off the side and swimming but the water was much cooler than it was a month ago, so the water playtime was cut in half and the kids spent most of the time onshore. Neil and I had a good time just being a bunch of lazy boaters and enjoyed the hard work of working on our tans!!
The last day, after Sam got picked up by his dad, we were to get together with our friend Bill for dinner. We hadn't seen him outside for a while but it was a cool day and windy so we didn't think too much of it. When we went over to his boat we found that he was in bad shape. He couldn't move and was quite disoriented. We radioed in for Harbor Patrol as requested and they quickly came with aid of the paramedics after giving them the specifics. They carried him out on a stretcher and he was off to the hospital. Last we heard he was doing ok.
We came to find out that he has colon cancer and a few other ailments. He knew it. He wanted "one last trip to remember" before it's too late. Bill had told Neil he didn't know if he was going to make it all the way but it was better than sitting around doing nothing. We hope the best for him and that he will have a wonderful experience.
When we got back to the bay we had a couple of very HOT days. I guess everyone else agreed and turned up the AC at the same time. Result? Power Outage! For us being off the grid is no biggie, but for others it was torture! We watched the news for a while and were very surprised to hear all the people frantically looking for any place that was able to serve them a hot meal. People were staying in their cars overnight at the gas stations because they ran out and no one could pump fuel. The internet was still going for a while so everyone was communicating via the internet. We were amazed at how the "masses" were not coping well without power. Stewart came home from the skate park and said the "skaters" were complaining about the lack of power and Stew was all like "I have power, and I am going home and playing X Box!" much to their "Awe man, no fair's!" The city wasn't lit up and the bridge had only the solar lights.We got to sit and see the stars, no light polution, not much noise at all, and thought, "Isn't it lovely." Ha Ha.
Things got back to normal the next morning. The kids are back in school via the internet. Neil is doing well. I am feeling great and we are looking forward to the future. It has been great being able to go out and have dinner with our good friends Jim and Kara (who are now "San Diegans")and I hope to be doing it more often and not just that, but just having fun, playing games, being a big kid.
I know I have said it before, but this fall I hope to be further south. To quote Bill, "I'd rather go and do something than sit and do nothing." So here's to us all having little adventures of our own!
This time we were to include with our crew Stewart's good friend Sam. Since we have the skate park on shore behind our boat, they became good friends over the summer. Sam is sponsered by one of the local skate shops which we think is pretty cool considering he is 13 years old!! Stewart is getting pretty good at it as well so watch out Sam!!
Sam had never been sailing before and is new to the concept of life on the water.He has spent the night a few times but is not sure if he likes the constant rocking, so we were more than happy to let him come along and see what a sheltered anchorage with your own private swimming hole is like.
Everything was fine until....we got out into the ocean. The swells and a little bit of yawing sent poor Sam over the edge to chum the waters. A nice nap later we were anchored safely. We set the boat up the next day for swinging off the side and swimming but the water was much cooler than it was a month ago, so the water playtime was cut in half and the kids spent most of the time onshore. Neil and I had a good time just being a bunch of lazy boaters and enjoyed the hard work of working on our tans!!
The last day, after Sam got picked up by his dad, we were to get together with our friend Bill for dinner. We hadn't seen him outside for a while but it was a cool day and windy so we didn't think too much of it. When we went over to his boat we found that he was in bad shape. He couldn't move and was quite disoriented. We radioed in for Harbor Patrol as requested and they quickly came with aid of the paramedics after giving them the specifics. They carried him out on a stretcher and he was off to the hospital. Last we heard he was doing ok.
We came to find out that he has colon cancer and a few other ailments. He knew it. He wanted "one last trip to remember" before it's too late. Bill had told Neil he didn't know if he was going to make it all the way but it was better than sitting around doing nothing. We hope the best for him and that he will have a wonderful experience.
When we got back to the bay we had a couple of very HOT days. I guess everyone else agreed and turned up the AC at the same time. Result? Power Outage! For us being off the grid is no biggie, but for others it was torture! We watched the news for a while and were very surprised to hear all the people frantically looking for any place that was able to serve them a hot meal. People were staying in their cars overnight at the gas stations because they ran out and no one could pump fuel. The internet was still going for a while so everyone was communicating via the internet. We were amazed at how the "masses" were not coping well without power. Stewart came home from the skate park and said the "skaters" were complaining about the lack of power and Stew was all like "I have power, and I am going home and playing X Box!" much to their "Awe man, no fair's!" The city wasn't lit up and the bridge had only the solar lights.We got to sit and see the stars, no light polution, not much noise at all, and thought, "Isn't it lovely." Ha Ha.
Things got back to normal the next morning. The kids are back in school via the internet. Neil is doing well. I am feeling great and we are looking forward to the future. It has been great being able to go out and have dinner with our good friends Jim and Kara (who are now "San Diegans")and I hope to be doing it more often and not just that, but just having fun, playing games, being a big kid.
I know I have said it before, but this fall I hope to be further south. To quote Bill, "I'd rather go and do something than sit and do nothing." So here's to us all having little adventures of our own!
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