Just another day...in Paradise!

Some of you may not know that I left Don...temporarily! My niece, Katrina, who lives in Hawaii was injured in an accident last Friday. Her husband is currently serving in the US Army in Kuwait and she has two young children at home, Justice who is 6 and Harmony, 3. They told her that she had broken her elbow, but they didn't do surgery until Monday afternoon. That was after the orthopedic surgeon finally looked at the x-rays on Sunday night! The emergency room doctor thought that they would probably do the surgery that night, but the orthopedic doctor said to splint her up, schedule her for surgery on Tuesday (Monday was a holiday) and send her home! Guess he changed his mind after he finally looked at the x-rays in person! They ended up replacing her elbow with a titanium prosthetic since her bones were shattered! Anyway, she won't be able to lift ANYTHING for six months and starts rehab on Monday! Her mom (my sister, Kathy) was already scheduled for a visit mid-September so I came until she gets here! We arrive/depart on the same day!

After only a few days...I know why God gives us children when we are younger! :-) It's been fun spending time with Justice and Harmony, but they are constantly on the go! On Wednesday it's piano lessons, Thursday is soccer practice, Friday is gymnastics, Saturday is soccer, Sunday is church AND gymnastics, Monday is the start of rehab (and something else...but I don't remember), Tuesday is a DAY-OFF and on Wednesday it starts all over! I forgot to mention the 4 month old puppy...Spirit, a Labradoodle! He may only be 4 months, but he is BIG and going to get bigger! The one good thing...he appears to be potty-trained, but he, like most puppies his age, likes to chew things! Anything and everything that he can get! He is also big enough to "graze" the kitchen counters! Don't leave something there that you might want to eat later! Otherwise it will soon be gone! Disappeared...in an instant!

Almost forgot to mention my arrival! Katrina had a good friend of hers, Jean, pick me up at the airport. Now I have to mention Jean and her husband, Charlie! Jean and Charlie have gone above and beyond for Katrina and Jerry (Katrina's husband). Ever since Jerry has been deployed, Charlie has made sure that he comes over and mowes Katrina's grass. They ended up picking her up at the emergency room, took her to the doctor for her pre-op, watched the kids and brought her home after her surgery and suffered through 4 HOURS of traffic on the way home from the airport! Just a little before I landed in Honolulu, a military transport hit a pedestrian bridge over the highway with a crane that they were transporting. Guess they didn't get it all the way down! Anyhow, they decided that the bridge wasn't safe and CLOSED the highway for the entire day through at least Wednesday!!! Jean and I sat in the traffic for FOUR HOURS! We felt that we really knew each other well during that ride! They diverted traffic off just before the accident, but all in all...it took us 3 hours to go less that 3 miles! There was a BIG headline about it on all the local papers the next day! At least I was a little bit of historical news for Hawaii!

Well, now that I've told you about my arrival and the last few days...I can't show any pictures other than the ones just like those here I haven't done any of the "touristy" stuff that most people do when they come to Hawaii! Guess I'll have to wait to do that when I come back, sometime in the future! :-)