Sunday, July 25, 2010

Matthew's Surprise Party

The best part of Matthew's birthday was his surprise party. We started the evening with dinner at Clark's Fish Camp. We went with Matt's mom, grandparents, two sets of aunts and uncles and his cousin and her boyfriend. With there being 11 of us, we knew we needed a reservation, so we made one Thursday. Unfortunately, they had the time wrong, but it didn't take long at all for them to get a table ready for us. We already planned for Matt to go with Mark and Brigette to Best Buy after dinner so the rest of us could get back to the house and get everything ready for the party. Our friends Amber and Evan were there soon after we pulled in and I put them to work as well. Kevin and Melodie made it a short while later with their youngest daughter, but they missed all of the set up. We made pretty quick work getting the food out and the house decorated. Matt was very surprised to see everyone. We didn't have to wait too long before I got the call from the next surprise. Barbara got him a singing telegram. They came dressed up like chickens, sang, gave him a certificate, took pictures and left. We used our new video camera (Barbara gave us hers because she never used it) to tape the show. Unfortunately, we are still trying to figure out if or how we can post the video, so I can't post it yet. We cut the cakes and then Matt opened his birthday cards. We hung out for a little while longer before people started heading home. Some of the family stayed and we played the Wii before the rest of them left to go back to the hotel. It was a great night and I know that Matt enjoyed it.

Side note: Before I started cleaning up I let the cats out of our bedroom since they were stuck in there for a few hours. I started getting ready to put the cakes away and Juliet jumped up on the table. I went to shoo her off and she decided to run through the cookie cake!! Luckily she left paw prints where she stepped, so we're able to cut it out.

Here are some pictures:

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Happy birthday Matthew!

Today is Matthew's 30th birthday! He is the youngest of the Villacampa in-laws, so we are now all in our 30s. Matt's mom came up yesterday. We went out to dinner at Kan Ki, my favorite Japanese steakhouse. Matt was excited about getting sushi, and he got 2 different kinds. One was cooked and the other was raw. I couldn't help him eat it, so he had them all to himself (though I do think Barbara tried a piece).

This morning he went to Panera to pick up bagels for breakfast. Then he and Barbara put up the new dining room chandelier and a new light at the garage entrance. They also replaced 2 light bulbs outside. After being outside for just a couple of minutes, they decided we will spend the rest of the day inside! It is hot in Florida in July!!

We are waiting for more family to get here and then we are going to Clark's Fish Camp for dinner tonight. Matt made a reservation Thursday so that we won't have to wait when we get there. Clark's gets very busy on the weekends and with a party of 11 we might have had a very long wait!!

Pictures of the new lights:

Monday, July 19, 2010

Changing of the Guard

It's been about 4 months since our trip to DC, but I have just finally been able to upload our video of the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It's pretty long (almost 9 minutes), and most of the time when I tried to upload it to YouTube it would get timed out. It's up now, so I'm sharing it!

Friday, July 16, 2010

Summer Safety

This is an article a friend posted on Facebook. I don't want to over worry, but I think with information we can be better prepared for potential accidents.

Drowning Doesn't Look Like Drowning

The new captain jumped from the cockpit, fully dressed, and sprinted through the water. A former lifeguard, he kept his eyes on his victim as he headed straight for the owners who were swimming between their anchored sportfisher and the beach. “I think he thinks you’re drowning,” the husband said to his wife. They had been splashing each other and she had screamed but now they were just standing, neck-deep on the sand bar. “We’re fine, what is he doing?” she asked, a little annoyed. “We’re fine!” the husband yelled, waving him off, but his captain kept swimming hard. ”Move!” he barked as he sprinted between the stunned owners. Directly behind them, not ten feet away, their nine-year-old daughter was drowning. Safely above the surface in the arms of the captain, she burst into tears, “Daddy!”

How did this captain know – from fifty feet away – what the father couldn’t recognize from just ten? Drowning is not the violent, splashing, call for help that most people expect. The captain was trained to recognize drowning by experts and years of experience. The father, on the other hand, had learned what drowning looks like by watching television. If you spend time on or near the water (hint: that’s all of us) then you should make sure that you and your crew knows what to look for whenever people enter the water. Until she cried a tearful, “Daddy,” she hadn’t made a sound. As a former Coast Guard rescue swimmer, I wasn’t surprised at all by this story. Drowning is almost always a deceptively quiet event. The waving, splashing, and yelling that dramatic conditioning (television) prepares us to look for, is rarely seen in real life.

The Instinctive Drowning Response – so named by Francesco A. Pia, Ph.D., is what people do to avoid actual or perceived suffocation in the water. And it does not look like most people expect. There is very little splashing, no waving, and no yelling or calls for help of any kind. To get an idea of just how quiet and undramatic from the surface drowning can be, consider this: It is the number two cause of accidental death in children, age 15 and under (just behind vehicle accidents) – of the approximately 750 children who will drown next year, about 375 of them will do so within 25 yards of a parent or other adult. In ten percent of those drownings, the adult will actually watch them do it, having no idea it is happening (source: CDC). Drowning does not look like drowning – Dr. Pia, in an article in the Coast Guard's On Scene Magazine, described the instinctive drowning response like this:

1. Except in rare circumstances, drowning people are physiologically unable to call out for help. The respiratory system was designed for breathing. Speech is the secondary or overlaid function. Breathing must be fulfilled, before speech occurs.
2. Drowning people’s mouths alternately sink below and reappear above the surface of the water. The mouths of drowning people are not above the surface of the water long enough for them to exhale, inhale, and call out for help. When the drowning people’s mouths are above the surface, they exhale and inhale quickly as their mouths start to sink below the surface of the water.
3. Drowning people cannot wave for help. Nature instinctively forces them to extend their arms laterally and press down on the water’s surface. Pressing down on the surface of the water, permits drowning people to leverage their bodies so they can lift their mouths out of the water to breathe.
4. Throughout the Instinctive Drowning Response, drowning people cannot voluntarily control their arm movements. Physiologically, drowning people who are struggling on the surface of the water cannot stop drowning and perform voluntary movements such as waving for help, moving toward a rescuer, or reaching out for a piece of rescue equipment.
5. From beginning to end of the Instinctive Drowning Response people’s bodies remain upright in the water, with no evidence of a supporting kick. Unless rescued by a trained lifeguard, these drowning people can only struggle on the surface of the water from 20 to 60 seconds before submersion occurs.

(Source: On Scene Magazine: Fall 2006 (page 14))

This doesn’t mean that a person that is yelling for help and thrashing isn’t in real trouble – they are experiencing aquatic distress. Not always present before the instinctive drowning response, aquatic distress doesn’t last long – but unlike true drowning, these victims can still assist in their own rescue. They can grab lifelines, throw rings, etc.

Look for these other signs of drowning when persons are in the water:

* Head low in the water, mouth at water level
* Head tilted back with mouth open
* Eyes glassy and empty, unable to focus
* Eyes closed
* Hair over forehead or eyes
* Not using legs – Vertical
* Hyperventilating or gasping
* Trying to swim in a particular direction but not making headway
* Trying to roll over on the back
* Ladder climb, rarely out of the water.

So if a crew member falls overboard and everything looks OK – don’t be too sure. Sometimes the most common indication that someone is drowning is that they don’t look like they’re drowning. They may just look like they are treading water and looking up at the deck. One way to be sure? Ask them, “Are you alright?” If they can answer at all – they probably are. If they return a blank stare, you may have less than 30 seconds to get to them. And parents – children playing in the water make noise. When they get quiet, you get to them and find out why.

Friday, July 9, 2010

5th Anniversary

Today is our 5th wedding anniversary. It doesn't seem like it was 5 years ago that we got married just down the road. Thanks for all of the anniversary wishes. We will open cards this evening. The plan is to go to Marker 31, a restaurant at the beach that we have heard good things about, but this will be our first time going. Poor Matt has to work today, but at least his 30th birthday falls on a Saturday!

Happy anniversary to us!! :)

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Ohio Visit and Doctor's Appointment

Matt and I had a great time in Ohio visiting with Patrick and Mariruth for Caitlin's 2nd birthday. We flew up Friday night, and Matt's mom, aunt and grandparents drove in Friday evening, but we really didn't visit much because we got in so late. Mariruth's parents were also there and got in the weekend before. Saturday was the big day. Caitlin's birthday was Tuesday, but Saturday was her birthday party. In the morning, Patrick and Matt got to work putting the finishing touches on Caitlin's new swing set. Patrick did most of the hard work getting the land cleared and leveled. Mariruth's friend Alex was up from North Carolina with his family visiting his in-laws, so they were able to make it for lunch and the party. Alex has 2 sons. The oldest is a couple of months older than Caitlin and the youngest is 4 months. Mariruth's mom grilled lunch and also made the bear cake. The cake was actually a bunch of cupcakes of different shapes that were put together in the shape of the bear. The kids had a good time playing with each other, but I know it's hard for 2 year olds to watch someone else opening presents. Not long after presents it was nap time, and not just for Caitlin! The back of the house gets the afternoon shade and Mimi, Gramps and I took a snooze. The weather was great and the low humidity was nice. We grilled hamburgers and hot dogs for dinner and enjoyed playing with all of Caitlin's new toys!



Mariruth's parents left early Sunday morning to head back to North Carolina. We went out to breakfast and then headed to the botanical gardens. Mariruth and Caitlin had been before, but it is good enough to go back. They had a lot of Chihuly glass work from an earlier exhibit. It was nice walking around inside. We didn't stay outside too long because it was hotter Sunday than it was Saturday. After lunch we went to the art museum where they had more Chihuly glass on display. Sunday was the last day for the Chihuly exhibit, so Mariruth was worried that it might be crowded, but it wasn't bad. The museum was offering free admission for the month of July, so we definitely went at the right time, but a lot of the museum was closed to set up new exhibits. We went back to Pat and Mariruth's for the rest of the evening. Caitlin really likes her new swing set and anyone who will push her in her swing. Barbara bought her a 50's diner for her birthday, so that was all set up and put together for her to play with as well. She loves to give you ice cream or a hamburger from the diner. We didn't go out to see fireworks, but we did watch some on tv. We didn't stay up too late because we had to get to the airport early (for us!).



We really enjoyed our visit with Pat, Mariruth and Caitlin. We hope that we'll get to see them more often now that they are back in the States!

Today I had my next 4 week appointment at the doctor's office. These are very brief meetings with the doctor, so Matt didn't go with me. I did get to hear the baby's heartbeat again. The nurse said it was averaging 150 bpm. I had a few questions for the doctor and then set up my next appointment. One of my questions was when am I going to have another ultrasound? She said that they will only do another ultrasound if there are worries of complications, so it's best that I don't get another one. The good news is that everything is going well so far. The doctor asked if I am feeling him move, and I have been for a while. Saturday was the first time that Matt was able to feel him, though. I think it was the brownie that I had for dessert that got him so active. It's not often that he hits or kicks hard enough that I think Matt (or anyone else) could feel him, and it's only a couple of times before he gets tired, so Matt will have to be quick. At my next appointment I will do my glucose test and I probably need to tell them which pediatrician I will be using. Luckily I have lots of mom friends, so I can get several recommendations.

Hearing the heartbeat again: