Billy Updates

August 12
"Today we flew up to a mountain top landing zone and walked down a steep trail to a p-38 crash. it was pretty cool, most of it was there and the villagers say the pilot is in there... he crashed in upside down and it all kinda buried into the mountain side. while we were there, one of the villagers said he also had a wing at his house, so I took him in the helicopter to his house to see the wing... on our way back to the LZ, thick fog and storm clouds moved in on the LZ, we couldn't see a thing and to be honest, it was pretty nerve wracking... we couldn't see the mountains let alone the landing zone. so we had to leave the others on the mountain... we waited about 2 hours and the storm just got worse... I called into (name withheld) and we decided it was best for us to go back to the hotel and they will camp out over night... bad thing was they were getting drenched didn't have a whole lot of food and no hammocks. Eventually back at the hotel, (name withheld) called again and said he could see clear to the ocean.. so me and (helo pilot) jumped back on the bird and went and fetched them up. So... they were soaked, but we are all home safe and sleeping in a bed tonight. Tomorrow, we go to another site, we are packing hammocks just in case this time."

August 17
"Today, we went to a site and it was a Japanese Zero... its not ours, and we won't find our guys there, but it was still pretty cool to see one of their planes down... and its a zero... i like that plane. It was cool too because one of the wings you could still see clear as day the big red sun on it. Also at that village we held and petted a baby Casuary bird... I'm not sure if I spelled it right but they are these huge flightless birds that kind of resemble an ostrich and when they are adults they can really put a hurtin on you... but this little guy was only like 2 weeks old and he was as big as a cat or small dog. he didn't really have feathers yet, he had like wirey feeling hair and it was like yellow with brown stripes running down its body, he had big huge taloned feet and a huge beak. He was pretty cute because he is a baby but they say that when they are adults you don't want to come across them. I got pictures of us holding him. Tomorrow we are going back to the site where the guys almost got stranded for the night. I'm gonna go to bed, we have an early start in the morning tomorrow to try to beat the bad weather that comes in in the afternoon. "

Hurricane No More

So Hurricane Felicia, turned Tropical Storm and now turned to Tropical Depression still has not made it here yet. We are suppose to get 3-5 inches of rain and like 20mph winds, so nothing like it was (cat 4). Now I wish it would just get here and leave so the humidity and clouds will leave. Suppose to be tonight into tomorrow but it is just kinda sitting out there. Everyone is doing well. The boys are liking school. My job is going well, starting tomorrow I go to full time. That is about all that is going on.

Here are a couple of updates from Bill.


August 8th

"Today we dropped into a village that we ended up coordinating 3 different landing zones for 3 different sites. It was a very productive afternoon. Its amazing to see how eager the people are here to come out and see why you have come. The kids get the biggest kick out of seeing themselves on the camera too. And its like a mob when we had out candy... I got a picture of (name withheld) today passing out candy and there is like 50 kids all around him. We also saw part of a church service today... they still had on t-shirts and pants but the women had on grass skirts with feathers in it and palm leaves and feathers in their hair. The men also had some palms in their hair and they were surrounded by the village while they were in the middle dancing and seeing while beating on long tube type drums. (name withheld) and I wanted to buy the drums from them, but they were just starting their service and I didn't want to be rude so we left so they could continue.. Tonight, its SP Lager time. Ive had a beer or two here and there but we haven't had a chance to just sit and shoot the shit and drink some beer. We may play some cards tonight too. Tomorrow will be my first day off... looking forward to sleeping in."

August 10th

"We started off the day returning to a village that cut us an LZ... the site didn't have much but a couple of small pieces... the guy told us that another dude down the river has a wing from the site, so we went to see him. He told us the whole story of the crash as told by his father. His father pulled the pilot out and nursed him back to health in his home... once he was healthy he brought him to one of our bases and turned him back to US hospital. So, even though that site came up with a guy who survived it, it was a cool story to hear. The village is also the one that we saw the religious service at. (name withheld) and I bought a drum each from them. The drum is really really cool. I feel like I have to use hand sanitizer everytime I touch it but its really cool. I'm not sure how to clean it without taking a chance of ruining it. Its carved from wood and has some kind of lizard skin streched over for the drum. They also have hardened pieces of gum that they said they use to seal holes. The whole thing was probably fired because it slightly smells of fire and its all a dark brown, including the gum patches. So... it may be clean, but with seeing the wads of gum on it, I feel the need to sanitize it. Any thoughts? Later on we also went to a High School... we interrupted school to which I apologized to the principal but he assured me it was ok. We spoke to a few kids who knew of some sites. One kid told us he had 3 sites in his village, so we went there. There were 3 american bombers right there in the village. Again, very cool to see, but no luck with MIA stuff... all three were there because during the war it was designated an emergency landing zone... the crews are all accounted for and safe. But the aircraft wreckages were really cool. One of the B-25s still had some nose art on it of a bomb and its name, "Fer-De-Lance". You can google it and you should see it on Pacific Wrecks website or some other type... well, we were right there wear it lied in peace. Very cool. Tomorrow we go up to another village that has a landing zone cut for us, hopefully this one turns up some good stuff for us... So so far we haven't got anything that we can go back and say... ok, dig here... but we have been able to say, ok, this case... close it, we don't need to go back anymore because this crew is safe or whatever."

Updates

I know it has been awhile but live gets busy sometimes. I really don't know where the time went. Since our last post we went on a trip to North Carolina and Florida. We flew military aircraft and it only took us one plane and like 14 hours to get to South Carolina and then we rented a car and drove up to North Carolina. Kyle went to camp, Justin stayed at Grandma Debbie's, Bill, Zack and I went down to Florida for a few days and went to DisneyWorld. Then we spent some time in North Carolina visiting family. The way back on military aircraft it took us like 5-6 days and 3 planes. We got stuck in Cailfornia for a few days because the plane we were on the list to get on broke down and we had to wait for it to get fixed because we were already scheduled on it. The bad part was that every morning we had to go in there and wait to see if it was going to leave that day and by the time they would decided it wasn't it was already close to rush hour so we could never make it up to Sacramento. It felt really weird being less than 1 hour away from "home" and not being able to go visit my dad's grave. I had some issues with it but got through it.
After we got home it was time to get Bill ready to leave for his trip and the boys ready for school. And during the mist of all that I got a part-time job from 8am-1pm. Also Aunt Susan, Bob, Katlyn and Scott Jr. came to Hawaii and we got to do some fun stuff with them and Bob's son Justin (he lives here). Bill left for Papua New Guinea on Aug. 1st at 7am and Aunt Susan left later that afternoon. So that just leaves me and the boys. Kyle and Justin started school on Aug. 3rd and they like their new school so far. Zack has gone on one day and also goes tomorrow (Aug. 7th), then starting on next Tuesday (Aug. 11th) Zack will go everyday. It will be nice when we can settle into a routine, everything just still seems so hectic. I am hoping maybe after next week when Zack has been going to school for a bit everything will settle down.
So I have gotten a few updates from Bill. Internet is very slow and alot of times his emails don't get through. I have talked to him once for just a couple of minutes, he was on a satellite phone so it was hard to hear and it kept breaking up. Here are a some of the emails from him.....(I have removed other peoples names)

Aug 3rd
"Im here in Port Moresby now.. Im in a guest lounge on a computer that is slower then a snail crawling uphill in an avalanche. We got in yesterday at about 5:30pm Hawaii time last night. We had to wait forever through customs and getting our bags before we could go to the hotel. We finally got here at like 10pm Hawaii time. We had dinner and I had the only beer here, its called SP Lager... not bad. We were all beat so then we went to bed at like 1230 HI time but it was only like 830 here. I slept like a rock, yesterday was a long day. So far no bad effects from the doxy... so thats good. Today (3 of the guys) are going to help depalitize our gear, not really, they will just point out our stuff and the PNG workers will do it, while (1 of the guys) and I are staying behind, we have a meeting with the Embassy officials."
"So far the people are very friendly and you can tell they really appreciate you being cordial with them. It was a very interesting drive from the airport to the hotel. There were a lot of street side markets with people sitting on balnkets with thier goods. People walking everywhere... and the drivers are crazy. There is a distinct funk amongst some of the men that Ive seen but the woman so far have not had that. Since we are at a port. My hotel room overlooks the port and ocean, its pretty cool. The room is very westernized. Its not bad at all. This city is one of the largest in the country and most successful but I would say it looks like a poor city to us. Im sure the rest of PNG will be alot more exotic and wild in nature."

Aug 5th
"Today was amazing... it was like I was in a National Geographic episode. We flew into this remote village on a mountain top... about 6 big grass woven hut buildings... as we fly over, about 60 people come out and they are all smiling and waving... very cool experience... we landed in the middle of thier village and they all came to greet us with smiles and hand shakes. I spoke to the village chief about 2 crash sites and we plan to go back later this week so they can take us to them. I took a picture of the kids and showed it to them, they were all laughing, they thought it was cool. They all wanted to be close to us and hear what we had to say. Then when we lifted off, everyone was still out there and they waved to us good bye. It was one of the coolest feelings I have ever felt. Our supplies arent in yet (supposed to be tonight) so I didnt get to give the kids candy yet. I wanted to so bad. they were all smiles just watching us. I took some picutres but I didnt take to many, I didnt want to seem rude. "

Aug 6th
"Sorry but the phone is not really working today, everytime i try to call you it tells me to try again later." "Today we coordinated an LZ to be cut for a site, it was pretty cool, they gave us these funky looking cucumbers that were pretty good. we gave them some rice and sugar for thanks. we also found another site that is definatly one on our book. we are going back tomorrow with (the anthropologist) becasuse there is probably remains at the site.. im very excited because this site is one i was really hoping to find... and i did. we finally got all our equipment today, seems like its been so long... i forgot what i brought." "(One of the guys) showed me a picture he took of me today. Im standing with my back to him but the entire village of like 60 people are all around me... its a really cool picture. I wish i could upload pictures but i swear this thing is worse then dial up... the typing even has to catch up with me, especially on like the password login screens. Tonight we are going to eat chinese food again, we had the western menu they had last night and the service was horrible... dad would have beat someone :) we sat at the table for 1:45 before we got our food. well, gonna stop now before the internet dies off again."

Well that is really all I have for now. I'll try to update more often so everyone know what is going on. Love to All.

Moving

After today (June 11) we will not have internet until they hook it up at the new house on the 17th. I will try to get to the library to check email and stuff between now and then but I can't make any promise, so if you don't here from us we aren't ignoring you, we just haven't bothered to check up on you =).
We went and saw the new house this morning, it is great. They have already packed up all of our stuff and it is so awesome not have to do it ourselves. In the morning they will come and move it all to the new house. Bill wanted to have them unpack it also, but we decide against it because then it will be all over the place and we really want to try to get rid of some of the stuff we have accumulated as we unpack. We will see how that goes, I really have a hard time getting rid of stuff that belonged to my parents even though it just sits in a box, in the closet, or under the bed. Then there is all of my scrapbooking stuff that I really haven't touched much in about 2 years (Maybe I need to take a trip to Diana's to get back into it). Thinking about it I guess it has been since my dad passed away, which would make sense because I really had a hard time with that.
We have given ourselves a deadline for unpacking, we have until the 21st because we leave for North Carolina on the 22nd. I am going to try to make it stick because I really don't want to come back from NC to a house full of boxes. Too bad I can't get the Clean Sweep people from TV to come and do it for me. I know I would have to still do some of the work but I can handle that.
By the way Justin is feeling alot better. He is taking less pain medication now, sleeping less during the day and eating more. He still has a hard time getting up in the mornings because that is when he has the most pain but even that is improving.

Justin's hard head isn't as hard as he thought.

By now, most of you have heard about Justin's accident on Wednesday... if not, here is the story... he was riding his scooter (basically a skateboard with handlebars) home from school, he was going downhill and had his helmet in his backpack rather than on his head. Even though when I agreed to let him ride it to school instead of walk, two days before, he said he would wear his helmet. I wanted to just tell him no, but he is twelve and I figured I should let him do things, even if it is against my better judgement. Well he lost control of the scooter and fell. Someone called 911 and a neighbor happened to drive by while the fire trucks were there and recognized him and came to the house to let us know what had happened. I got there right before the ambulance was leaving, so I rode with him to the emergency room. When we got there they looked him over, then took some x-rays to clear his neck to get the collar off and also x-rayed his left elbow because it was really swollen and bruised. After x-rays he complained of being nauseous and fell asleep, the nurse wasn't really concerned, he said that it was from adrenaline rush. While we were waiting for the x-ray results he got sick, then they came in and said that his neck was clear and took the neck collar off and treated his blisters from the hot pavement and his road rash. He fell back asleep and then got sick again while asleep. Just after that the nurse came in with discharge papers and a prescription for Motrin (which would of been bad to give him), so I told him that I thought something else was wrong because he got sick again and was still asleep. So he went and talked to the doctor and said that they would send him for a Cat Scan, but they were pretty sure he was fine. Turns out that their CT was being replaced so we would have to travel 16 miles to another hospital in another ambulance to have it done then come back the 16 miles to this hospital. When we got back to the first hospital after the CT the doctor said not to even put him in the room because he was already discharged, but he hadn't even gotten the results of the CT yet. Then the fax came in from the other hospital and they all surrounded him putting IVs and the doctor then walks up and says "Mom's know their kids best" and that he has a 3mm bleed on his brain and a skull fracture and that he will be admitted to the hospital but we have to go to a different hospital because they don't the care he need there. So then we go into another ambulance (this time with light and sirens) to the new hospital. They did another scan 4 hours later and determined that the bleed was not growing (which would have been really bad if it had). After staying in the hospital for a couple days and doing cognitive tests with him, they determined he was okay to go home. They released him Friday morning. He will have headaches for a few months while his head tries to heal and is not aloud to do anything active (running, jumping, bike riding, sports, etc.). He can only take Tylenol for the pain because Motrin can make the bleed worse. So it is a good thing that I didn't just take him home and give him Motrin like the doctor said to do at first. He gave us a scare but besides being in pain and still a bit of nausea, he seems to be okay. Also, the answer is yes... he has learned a lesson here. We are certain he will always be wearing his helmet now.
So now Justin can't go to camp or Disney World so he will be staying with Grandma Debbie (Billy's mom) while Kyle is at camp and Billy, Zack and I go to Disney World for a few days.

Pili Grass Harvest

This last Sunday Bill and I had an opportunity of a lifetime, we got to drive through trails that only a handful of people had been in the past 100 years or so. A small group of people from Ohana Trails (our 4x4 ohana) went up into the hills of the North Shore to sacred lands to gather pili grass for an authentic Hawaiian hut that they are building at the YMCA camp. Long time ago they would hike up the mountains to harvest the grass but now you need 4x4 capability to get there. As we traveled there our guide/builder, Kawika, chanted at each gate before he unlock and opened it to ask for permission from the elders/gods to proceed farther onto the land and then when we got to the top where we were to gather the grass he then chanted for permission to harvest the grass. We harvested the grass for a few hours and then we went back and had some lunch at Killer Tacos, which are very killer (yummy). Tomorrow (Thursday), we are going to see the progress that they have made on building the hut and then on the 14th we are going back up to gather more pili for them to finish the hut. Here are some pictures of the way up and while we were up there. The grass around the parked Jeeps is what we harvested. Don't have any pictures of while we were harvesting because we forgot our camera so we had to rely on other peoples pics. We will take some pic on Thursday of the hut being built and on the 14th when we go back up.

Isn't the view beautiful?

Latest and Greatest and then some

Zacky's 5th B-day, he had alot of fun.

The family enjoying a day at Hanauma Bay, snorkeling...

Justin's B-day present... a new freestyle bike! Heres pics of Justin and Kyle putting on a show.

The whole group of us... not all are in this pic, there was about 20 Jeeps... we are "Ohana Trails". We went for a Memorial Day run up Peacock Flats on Ka'ena Point on the west side of Oahu. Gorgeous views and good times....

Roads? Where we're going... we don't need roads.