A peek into life with the Shinsatos…
December 4th is Beamer’s birthday . . . our big guy would have been 6 years old today. We miss him so much, but we know that he & Logan are having a grand old time together . . . we’re sure that they’re getting into ALL sorts of mischief! 
HAPPY 6th BIRTHDAY BEAMER!! We love you!!
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!
Today was a bittersweet day for Kim and I… it’s Thanksgiving day, but it’s also exactly 4 months since Logan left us. This has been an extremely rough year for us and it’s difficult some times to see the good things in our lives… there are many, though.
We are thankful that we still have a house over our heads, we have such supportive and wonderful friends and family, and we are especially thankful that we still have each other.
Thank you everyone for being there to support us through this year (and throughout our lives).
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!
I’m sure you’ve all heard about the wildfires in California. We received an email the other day from Kim’s cousin, who lives in Anaheim Hills. This is the same cousin that we visited during our Disneyland trip. She explained that they were all okay, but had to be evacuated for one night. They were one of the lucky ones because their house escaped unscathed… they only had minor damage to their fence and some plants.
Looking at the pictures they sent was a little surreal. We were just in that backyard a couple of weeks before the fire!!!
They also sent a video that shows the fire that was right behind their house (fast-forward to about the middle of the video)…
CRAZY!!!
We’re glad that they’re safe!!!
2008 Premature Birth Report Cards
The National Grade: D
The March of Dimes has graded states by comparing each state’s rate of premature birth to the nation’s objective of 7.6 percent or less. Help us make progress for preemies by signing the petition and finding out more about what you can do.
Sorry for the short hiatus. Lance and I just got back from vacation. We spent a week at Disneyland.
There were ten of us from Hawaii… Lance and I, my parents, Jen, Hugh, Dana, Megan, Sandy, and Mika. Like our last trip to Disney, we stayed in the Grand Californian Hotel . . . NICE!!   A huge perk to staying there is having your own entrance to California Adventure and Downtown Disney. Believe it or not, we crammed all ten of us into two rooms! The girls were excited because their room had a bunk bed in it . . . of course they had to take turns sleeping on the top bunk!
Our Disney trip this year was very different from our trip two years ago. This time around, Dana and Megan were both old enough (and tall enough!) to ride the “big kid” rides! No more Dumbo for Meggy! The girls were both soo proud of themselves after their first time on each “big kid” ride! They went on everything . . . Matterhorn (2 million thumbs UP from Meggy), Splash Mountain, Grizzly River Run (Meggy’s favorite), Tower of Terror (Meggy gave this one 2 million thumbs DOWN), Big Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain, Star Tours, and California Screamin’ (Meggy wasn’t tall enough, but this was Dana’s favorite). Meggy said she would have chosen the Matterhorn as her favorite, if it didn’t have the “snow abominal” (aka the “abdominal snowman” according to Mika).Â
Our real reason for going to Disneyland was to trick-or-treat with Mickey and friends on Halloween night. Joining us at Mickey’s Trick-or-Treat party were lots of our mainland family . . . Aunty Gail, cousins Tracey (and her husband Brian and their 3 boys Caleb, Nate, & Kai), Lynn (and her daughter Sydney), and Laurie (and her 2 boys Jacob & Kyle) . . . this brought our total to 21! We had 11 dalmatians (me, Lance, Jen, Hugh, Dana, Meggy, Sandy, Mika, Laurie, Jacob, & Kyle), Cruella de Vil (my mom!), Jasper the henchman (my dad!), Indiana Jones (Caleb), a storm trooper (Nate), a baseball player (Kai), and a super-cute ladybug (baby Sydney). What a sight to see! As we walked through the park, you wouldn’t believe how many people asked to take our picture! We had a blast!
During our week in California, we also got to celebrate Sydney’s 1st birthday (just a little early!) at Brian and Tracey’s house in Anaheim Hills. Brian cooked up a mean Mexican dinner of margaritas, guacamole dip, enchiladas, & soft tacos . . . YUM! We celebrated Sydney’s 1st birthday with a delicious chocolate dobash cake (made by a friend of Tracey’s) . . . DOUBLE YUM!
It was great to see everyone (our first time meeting Sydney!) again. It was also nice to get away and leave our worries behind for a little while. You can check out some pictures of our trip on our photo website.
A friend of ours got married last weekend and asked if we could dog-sit one of their dogs, a golden retriever named Kainoa. They dropped him off on Thursday and he stayed with us until Monday. He is an older dog, I think they said that he’s about 10 years old, but he’s as frisky as a puppy. He LOVES to roll around in the grass and get his tummy rubbed. He was such a sweet dog.
Unfortunately, Irwin didn’t think that he was such a good thing. Every time Kai would go near Irwin, Irwin would tense up. Once in a while, when Kai would get too close, Irwin would lift his lips to bare his teeth just a bit. You could tell that Kai really wanted to be Irwin’s friend. We tried all weekend to get Irwin used to Kai… He got a little better towards the end, but not enough that we felt comfortable leaving the two unsupervised.
It’s a good thing that we have our yard fenced off… Kai spent most of the time on the grass, while Koko and Irwin stayed on the concrete. When we were home, we would let them hang out together, but only while they could be supervised.
We loved having Kai… he’s such a great dog… we just wish that Irwin thought so too.
When I get a chance, I’ll post some pictures of him.
October 15th has been declared “Pregnancy & Infant Loss Remembrance Day”. If you’re interested in finding out more, please click on the link below . . .
A national candle lighting ceremony – A Wave of Light for October 15 – will be held tonight at 7 p.m. (in all time zones) . . . if you’d like to participate in memory of Logan, please light a candle at 7 p.m. and keep it burning for at least one hour.
Lance & I went to our first meeting with a parent support group called H.O.P.I.N.G (Helping Other Parents In Normal Grieving). The support group is for parents who have lost a baby (whether through miscarriage, still birth, or through situations like ours). The group meets on the first Saturday of every month. We met another couple & 2 women at today’s meeting. It was comforting to be around people who really understand what we’re going through. Sometimes it’s hard for us to share our feelings with other people . . . it was nice to be able to talk story with others who are grieving just like we are. Although the session was very helpful, the reason for us being there was a painful reminder of what we’ve lost . . . this is definitely a “club” that we don’t want to be members of.
Today is September 27th . . . it’s been 2 months since Logan left us. It’s still so hard to believe everything that’s happened in the past several months. I’ve been feeling so many conflicting emotions lately . . . happy, but sad . . . hopeful, yet depressed. Sometimes I think I’ve made my peace with what happened, & other times I’m still so angry about everything that we’ve been through. Some days, I find it VERY hard to stay positive & strong. We miss Logan and we miss Beamer . . .
A friend pointed this out to me… It’s from EepyBird (the same guys that did the Diet Coke and Mentos experiments)…
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