Part 1 of the weekend

Sorry we didn't post sooner! My parents came Friday night from Nampa, and we've been spending all our waking moments with them. They just left, and were way behind schedule...so they're sacrificing tonight's sleep for a few extra hours with us. It was awesome having them here. So, from Friday; Friday night, the doctor on in the ICU told us they were going to try and extubate Oakley earlier than the previous doc had said. He told us that they would wean him down through the night on his oxygen and CPAP and hoped to extubate around 7:30 or 8:00 am, right after shift change. My mom and dad were in town that evening, and we were able to get them into the hospital after visiting hours so they could see him for 10 or 15 minutes. We went out to dinner with them in the University District of Seattle. First, we went to the Thai restaurant that Trevor and I have liked the most. We walked in to the place at 9:30, the sign said they close at 10. As we sat down at a table, the man behind the counter said to us, "We close te'o clock. So sawee, you maybe come back 'nother nigh." We all started to leave, a little baffled that they would ask us to leave, when the restaurant had people seated, and the cooks were all cooking, and they didn't close for half an hour. My mom turned back and went to talk to the man and clarify that we were correct in assuming he wanted us to leave. She asked him why he was having us leave half an hour before they even close; he replied that "we have lot people in here already, we will be cook until te'o clock anyway." My mom then asked, "So, you're telling me that you'll be here, cooking anyway, but you just don't want our business?" and he nodded and said "yes." For your information on future Thai food searches, this restaraunt is called, "Amazing Thai Cuisine" and it really is great food for pretty cheap, but the customer service (or lack thereof) has ensured that we will not be repeat customers any longer. I hopped on my phone to try and find something that was still open, and found another Thai place just a few blocks away. I called them and the owner let me know that they too close at 10. I asked him, if we could make it by 9:45, would he let us in or turn us away. He told me they would let us in, but we'd have to order right away, because the kitchen usually closes at 9:45. We were there, but couldn't find a parking spot, so I had Trevor, my mom and dad hop out of the car while I found a parking place. (I always order the same thing, no matter which Thai place I'm at, so they could order for me, and look at the menu for themselves.) Every stinking spot I found was either a loading/unloading spot for 15 minutes or less or a handicapped spot, so I drove around for quite sometime. I finally found a spot, but after driving around, I had no idea where the restaurant was. I didn't have anything on me, except the keys to the car...no wallet, no cellphone (with GPS-which would have been convenient), nothing. I got lost. I was on the correct street, but didn't know if I should go up or down. I guessed...and guessed wrong. I walked about 4 blocks in the wrong direction until I came to an area that looked familiar...it looked familiar because it was where "The Ave" ended. I turned around and started walking the other way. I kept feeling vulnerable, because the homeless people started to come out. They were setting up for the night to sleep, beg, and navigate lost girls from Idaho to the right area down the street. That's right. I asked several drunken college kids who didn't have any idea where they were, let alone a specific Thai joint (there are about 5 on the Ave). I forced myself to face my fear of crackheads and ask if they knew where Thai65 was. He knew right where it was and told me. I didn't have any money on me, but that was the first time I felt really compelled to give money to someone who had asked if I had any coke. They were very gracious at Thai 65. The owner talked to us for quite some time about having a restaurant here, and how he had to call his mom constantly for advice on how to cook things. He knew we knew a thing or two about Thailand or at least Thai food, because of what my mom ordered and how (I can't do it, so I don't know how to describe it even-all I know is that it's a lot of meat, and a fried egg). We talked to him about his Thai name, and our Thai international students. After we had paid, he left, and brought back some spring rolls and ginger rolls for us to try, on the house. We were all so impressed with the customer service we received, especially so late into the night. We will now order from Thai65 anytime we get Thai food here in Seattle. Saturday: they extubated Oakley! He was still on a nasal cannula and quite irritable from the tube rubbing on his vocal chords all week. He had almost no voice, and the sound he makes while breathing sounds like a very loud cat purring. He has to get suctioned, because all the irritation makes you produce phlegm, which is tough to breathe through. His nurse didn't want us getting him riled up; when he was awake, he cries-producing more phlegm and making it harder to breathe, so she asked us to leave him alone until at least the afternoon. Oh, and I forgot to include that they are very strict, and will only allow 3 people in his ICU room at a time, so while my parents were back there, Trevor or I had to leave...it was kind of a pain anyway. We need very little excuse to go shopping-and my dad jumps at the chance to go to any Asian markets, let alone a whole International District! We went downtown and went shopping. We piled into the Prius and found it, parked the car on a hill, and trekked to the shops. My dad was wanting to find a shop with all of the spices, I think he wanted some garam marsala? We went into a little shop, they all had some weird stuff. Next, we stumbled upon a shop that said tea-tasting and kind of looked in, and the owner told us to come and sit with him for some tea. We sat on driftwood seats at his driftwood table and tasted a bunch of different loose leaf teas. About an hour in, a guy walks in-obviously a regular-and the owner convinces him to join us. (I thought we were almost done, I've had about 20 shot glass sized cups of tea) It just so happened that this guy actually teaches classes about tea. I never had thought about different kinds of teas, or about the history or process of making tea. We learned all kinds of stuff. I ended up getting a tea steeper and an ounce of my favorite of the teas and an ounce of Trevor's favorite. After that, it was time to go back to the car and refeed the meter, as well as drop off our new goodies. We started looking at other shops, and found a food shop that had some crazy stuff...what do you do with a dried sea cucumber? They had some gross stuff, like dried fish and shrimp that my parents got, and I got a few laughs at some of the Chinese herbal medicines that they had. We were starting to get hungry, and after about half an hour we found a place. We had a couple of trays of dimsum, and then got two entrees and were stuffed. It was time to go to the car again, and we were getting bored and cranky, but on the way to our car, there was an alley full of pigeons who had gathered just outside a "pet shop." Now, I put that into quotes because the only thing he had were freshwater fish, and there's no way that place is legal. It had hundreds of fish in each tank, there were probably more fish than water in many of them. It had some really cool koi fish, but it was super narrow, incredibly smelly, and we couldn't even turn around in most of the store to get out. There's no way that meets firecode or healthcode. We suspect that the pigeons were there because they're getting to feast on the dozens of fish he must find dead in his tanks. (Some of his 'tanks' were clear rubbermaid totes with water in them.) We went to University Plaza for some retail therapy after all the ecclectic shopping we'd done. We went to H&M, GAP, the Northface, Storables, and then we got a call.

Oakley in his owl hat, just a few days old

Oakley had done so well on the nasal cannula that he was down to half a liter of oxygen per minute, which is not much at all. He was doing so well, in fact, that they didn't think they needed to monitor him overnight in the ICU, and that he could go back down to the SCCA floor! We were stoked, he was getting moved at 7, so we finished up and went to the hospital. Oakley was in a decent mood, not great, but my parents finally got to spend some time with him and hold him. The room we ended up in is tiny, about the size of our isolation room in Boise, but they put us at the top of the list for a bigger room because we'll be here for the long haul.

Look how far he'd come, this is from the end of June!

Thank you for everything that everyone sent with my parents. I haven't gotten to read the letters from the Nampa Chrisian yet, but I'm excited to. Grandpa, thanks for the pies, Trevor and I are stoked to eat them! We have been so blessed by those around us giving us so much support. Speaking of support, there is an awesome opportunity to help us out coming up next month.

Look how tight his hat is getting! This was clear back on August 5th

TGI Fridays is going to be having a bartender championship, where they battle to see who is the best in the valley, and donate the proceeds to a charity. The are selling tickets to the event, which is October 15th I believe. Seats are $10 and standing room is $5, and they have generously chosen our family as the beneficiaries for this event! So if you're interested in seeing some bottle flipping and fancy pouring, we'd love it if you were able to attend this event. The location will be the Nampa TGI Fridays (by the Costco in Nampa), and you can contact them for tickets starting today.

This was a week and a half ago. His owl hat is too tight, and his Hurley onesie is almost too short, he is making such good progress!