happy end to 2019

So many great times in 2019... looking forward to all that 2020 will bring!

quite a happy holiday

Gordy LOVES holidays, and Christmas is definitely at the top of his favorite holiday list.  For the last few weeks, all he could talk about was Santa and presents, pineapple and Christmas lights.  He would wake up each morning asking, "Is it Christmas today?".  And then, when he learned that it was not, we would go through the same line of questions - How many days until Christmas?  Can I open my presents?  Can we see Santa?...

Since he was so excited about it all, we took him to the mall to see Santa for the first time - which he loved!  He gave him knuckles and asked him about his reindeer.  

Gordy and Nana went to town to see the Honolulu City Lights and to ride on the trolley.

We brought our living Christmas tree in from the garden and decorated it with lights and ornaments.

We baked sugar cookies and painted them - as was my granny goodwitch's tradition.

We wrote a letter to Santa asking him lots of questions including: (1) Do you give whisker pies? (2) What do your reindeer eat?  and (3) Can you bring me some pineapple please?

And, we left out some cookies and milk out for Santa with the letter and some fruit salad for the reindeer.  (Mall Santa said that the reindeer liked carrots, but we didn't have any.  So, we decided that the reindeer might also like fruit salad.)

Finally Christmas day was here and Gordy bounded out of bed right past me without a hug or much of a good morning to check to see if Santa had come.  He politely asked Daddy if he planned to get up to participate or if Gordy should begin without him and then he tore into his stocking looking for dried pineapple.  All in all, it seems he scored on his gifts and of course - Santa did leave some pineapple for him.

Mele Kalikimaka!

sampai jumpa bali

Our Bali journey has come to an end and we are all feeling mixed emotions - Todd is quite sad (especially about the end of his daily massages), Gordy seems a little confused about what is happening next, and I'm leaning towards being excited to go home.  The food has been spectacular (some of the best we've ever eaten), our hotel and it's staff were quite great, and the three of us had tons of fun together at beaches, pools, and on scooter rides... however, I really can't get past the rubbish/plastic burning.  

We've learned through various expats that the landfills have recently reached their capacities, so the rubbish pickups have stopped for most of the island.  As a result, for the last 3 weeks, locals have increased the amount of rubbish that they are burning because it seems that they have no other disposal option.  The consequence is that at the end of each day, toxic smoke fills the air almost no matter where you go.

I'm not sure what will happen to Bali moving forward, but I can say that I don't want any of us to be a part of it.  Until this island and its people can figure out a more green and sustainable way of living, we will be finding another place to holiday.  Sampai jumpa our beloved Bali.

2 kings and a queen

After 3 days in our Easton Canggu hotel, we set out in search of a more long term place to call home - and boy did we succeed.  For nearly half the price of the Easton, we have a great room at the Umpadhi Canggu.

This little boutique hotel is a block north of where all the Canggu madness starts, so it's pretty quiet, and there happens to be a little massage shop around the corner with the best masseuse that Todd or I have ever had.  The hotel pool is great and the staff are all very friendly.  They even make the towels into cute little animals and leave notes on the bed for Gordy and Gory's stuffed animal Soggy Doggy :)

Now that we've found this little gem, we've settled into quite a daily routine - wake up, drive 5mins to the waterpark with the 50m pool for our morning swim/play, enjoy a killer breakfast at one of 100 restaurants for between $10 - $20 (depending on how hipster the restaurant is), take turns getting a massage while Gordy swims in the pool/naps - all before lunchtime.  This is living!

If it weren't for the constant burning of rubbish and plastics making the air somewhat toxic, we'd have to consider making this a permanent home... 

roti canai & teh tarik

Our Bali trip would not be complete with at least one (so far we've been 3 times) trip for roti canai and teh tarik.  I'm not sure which Gordy would say he likes more - the roti egg or the teh tarik spesial.

The good news is that it's still as good as it used to be... the bad news is that because it's so good, we are going to have to go back again before our trip is over.

Gordy, Gordy, GORDY

Indonesian people (men and women) are absolutely infatuated with Gordy.  Everywhere we go, people are pinching his cheeks, kissing him, picking him up and toting him around, and constantly calling his name.  Not only does he not seem to mind it too much, he is very much enjoying the attention.  At every opportunity, he'll show off his counting to 10 in Indonesian skills, or he'll knuckles it up with a sea star finish.  It's pretty cool to see him acting so comfortable in such an unfamiliar place.

Bali 2019

After 18 hours of flying, a delayed plane, a nearly missed second flight, lost luggage, the slowest taxi ride we've ever experienced, and a bit of attempted shystering from the hotel, we finally made it to our room in Bali.

Our first plane to Shanghai was late to arrive, so we departed about and hour and a half later that expected.  This didn't bode well for us as we were only scheduled to have about an hour and a half to transfer planes in the Shanghai airport.  When we got off the plane, an attendant was there waiting for us with special large, orange "express transfer" stickers that he slapped on our shoulders before leading us on a running spree to the other end of the airport.  He took us through special VIP lines and checkpoints through immigration, security, etc. getting us to our plane just in time for boarding.  Sadly, our luggage didn't get the same treatment.  It was left in China scheduled to arrive on the last flight of the following day meaning that we were all stuck in our plane clothes from Saturday morning HST until Tuesday after lunch Bali time... not what you want in a sweaty hot place where clothes don't dry quickly from washing.

And, while all of that was definitely frustrating, we are not complaining (anymore).  We finally got our luggage, have each had a massage a day, have gotten some laps in at a waterpark with a 50m pool that we had all to ourselves while Gogo played on the slides, and have eaten like kings at various healthy restaurants in Canggu.  We've moved out of our first hotel into a cool, more reasonably priced one in a better area, and have no plans for the next few days other than continuing our daily massages and good food.  

schnozberry

Gordy's Sunday swim class finishes at 11:50am and he's usually hungry after.  So, on our drive home, he pacifies his belly will some kind of nut and dried fruit snack.  Today, about halfway through our drive he yelled out "Mommy, I can't get my blueberry, it's stuck!".  Assuming he'd dropped one (which is fairly typical), I told him to calm down and that we'd find it when we got home.  He then replied, "But, it's in my nose!".  WTF?!?!  

I made an abrupt turn off the highway, put the car in park, ran to his side of the car and peered up his nose, to see a wrinkled dried blueberry lodged quite deep up the right side.  So, I used a toothpick that I found in the center console to rotate it while pushing with my fingers from the top.  And, after a sneeze, a few good blows, and some toothpick action, we managed to dislodge the berry.  After I pulled it out, we sat there looking at the snotty thing while I lectured him about putting things in body pukas... the only thing he had to say about the event was, "Can I eat it now?".

Rose Marie Bentley - rare anatomy

I forgot to post this a few months ago because it happened when we were in Australia, but it's totally worth a late blog effort.

Gordy's late Granny Goodwitch (Rose Marie Bentley) had wanted her body donated for research.  She and grandpa had decided to donate themselves after reading a poem called "To Remember Me".  So, after she passed, she was donated to OHSU, where students discovered that she had a rare condition called situs inversus with levocardia - meaning her liver, stomach and other abdominal organs were transposed right to left, but her heart remained on the left side of her chest.  Apparently, it can be fairly life-threatening with only about 1 in 50 million with this specific ailment living long enough to become adults.  Being that she lived to be 99, she may be the oldest-known person with the condition!  What's even crazier, is that no one in our family (and most likely Grandma herself) had any idea that she had this condition.

Here's a few new's articles about her:

https://news.ohsu.edu/2019/04/08/body-donors-rare-anatomy-offers-valuable-lessons

https://www.kgw.com/article/news/health/an-oregon-woman-lived-99-years-with-organs-backwards-and-she-didnt-know/283-f736f64c-2576-46a5-a74a-cda42c5a50c9

https://www.oregonlive.com/education/2019/04/oregon-feed-store-owner-was-oldest-living-person-with-1-in-50-million-medical-condition.html

https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/08/health/99-year-old-backward-organs-medical-oddity/index.html

https://www.chicagotribune.com/nation-world/ct-oregon-woman-organs-20190409-story.html


Here's a copy of the poem that inspired her to donate:
To Remember Me by Robert Noel Test, American Poet (1926-1994)

The day will come when my body will lie upon a white sheet neatly tucked under four corners of a mattress located in a hospital; busily occupied with the living and the dying. At a certain moment a doctor will determine that my brain has ceased to function and that, for all intents and purposes, my life has stopped.

When that happens, do not attempt to instill artificial life into my body by the use of a machine. And don’t call this my deathbed. Let it be called the bed of life, and let my body be taken from it to help others lead fuller lives.

Give my sight to the man who has never seen a sunrise, a baby’s face or love in the eyes of a woman.

Give my heart to a person whose own heart has caused nothing but endless days of pain.

Give my blood to the teenager who was pulled from the wreckage of his car, so that he might live to see his grandchildren play.

Give my kidneys to the one who depends on a machine to exist from week to week.

Take my bones, every muscle, every fiber and nerve in my body and find a way to make a crippled child walk. Explore every corner of my brain.

Take my cells, if necessary, and let them grow so that, someday a speechless boy will shout at the crack of a bat and a deaf girl will hear the sound of rain against her window.

Burn what is left of me and scatter the ashes to the winds to help the flowers grow.

If you must bury something, let it be my faults, my weakness and all prejudice against my fellow man.

Give my sins to the devil.

Give my soul to God.

If, by chance, you wish to remember me, do it with a kind deed or word to someone who needs you. If you do all I have asked, I will live forever.


I will never forget you... you will always be my granny goodwitch.

gogo-lingo

Gordy says such funny stuff that we wanted to get some of it down on paper:

• "Ok Mommy, I know, I know, I know."
• "I'm just so excited!"
• "Whenever I ... I just... and then I fall down."
• "Look at the sunset, it's so beautiful!"
• "No thank you, but thank you for offering."
• "Gogo loves you so."
• "I pank you and I put you in time out."
• "How many are you?"    "Wow, that's a lot!"
• “I’m just a Gogo.”
• “I have a What If.  What if we ...”
• “I have a splendid idea!”
• “Do you have any ideas about...”
• “That wasn’t me whining, that was just my body making that noise.”

so many panties

Gordy got some hand-me-down panties from his friend Luka recently, and he went crazy for them!  He still loves to be a naked ninny, but we are all surprised at how much he loves his new flash, lightning mcqueen, and mader bvds... we get nightly fashion shows.

gogo pool fun!

The last few Fridays have surprised us all by having some of the best gogo pools we've ever seen at rockpiles and keiki beach.  We found some wana (sea urchins), dunked in some reef pukas (holes), did some sand sliding, splashed around in knee (or waist for Gogo) pools, and enjoyed some pretty spectacular sunsets.

all the Sells (almost)

For Tutu and Pop pop's 55th wedding anniversary, we made the trek to Nor Cal for a big family get together.  

We spent a few days in the city checking out the sea lions, riding trolleys, working (yuck), and eating lots of yummy food.

The weekend was spent in Piedmont making lemonade, going to see "llama llama", hanging out with cousins and grandparents, taking nice naps, and enjoying the pool. 

And last, but certainly not least, we spent the second half of our trip a few hours south near Templeton with 14 other members of the Sells family!  So much good wine and food, 6.4 and 7.1 magnitude earthquakes, and plenty of wonderful company :)  Happy 4th!!