Labor Day Weekend

I haven't been in the mood to blog for a few days, plus my hand have been so sore from joint pain (and still are)...


Friday went really well. From door to door it took Sarah and I 6.5 hours to get to the All Children's Hospital, do the MRI and come back.

She was very well taken care off and you can tell they are all about kids. The hospital looks very new, fresh and hitech. In all waiting areas they had touch screens in the walls with all kind sof video games for kids to entertain themselves. There were also TVs with kids' shows on all over. In a place liek thhis, where it can often be a little scary for kids, I think this is a good idea. The more distractions teh better!

Sarah is trying out one of the built in video games

The hardest part of the entire process was getting the IV in. The nurse made it a smooth process and made sure the area on top of her hand was numb before putting the IV in. She was a trooper!

Wearing the hopistal outfit, wating for the IV

It is in!

What? That was nothing, dude...

Watching TV makes it a little easier...

After the IV was done we had to wait for quite some time, speak to a couple of people, including the anaesthesiologist. All the people were very nice and comforting.

When it was Sarah's turn we had to part ways and she looked a little unsure when they walked away with her, but she did good. Next time I met her she was all done, and she was veeeery sleepy and couldn't believe it was already over!

Huh?! It's over already?

She hadn't eaten anything since the day before, so she was starving after she woke up a little more. By the time we got home, so was back to normal, except for her eyes which were super red, a side effect from the anaesthesia.

On Saturday we woke up really early and made our way to north Tampa to an awesome place called Big Cat Rescue. This is a wonderful place that rescue big cats form all kinds of different bad situations. Some are from circus shows, other have even been personal pets! One guy who got busted in a drug raid was a compulsive animal hoarder, and in his house he had 5 tigers, 1 lion and 1 "liger" (illegal hybrid mix of lion and tiger). All the cats lived under horrible conditions but have now found a great home where they will live out the rest of their lives.

Big Cat Rescue has all kinds of regular and not so regular cats, and it is a very cool place for someone like Sarah who happen to love tigers...

You have to go as part of a guided tour and the only one for kids is early in the morning. It is very important not to make too much noise or move around too much, which can disturb the cats. The cages are huge, and the material they are made out of can withstand up to a hurricane of category 4 strength.

It was interesting hearing about all the different enrichment programs they have to stimulate the cats, and students from all over the world fight to get internships here. A wonderful place I can warmly recommend visiting if you happen to be in the area!

Leopard tail

Sarah's favorite, the tiger

A dragonfly landed on Ken's hand

Beautiful leopard...

Florida panther. This female had been someones pet, sleeping in their bed!

My favorite, the ocelot

 

When Sarah and I got home on Saturday we decided to go though every single toy in her room, her room was in dire need of a weed out. Usually this is a difficult process with her wanting to keep everything, but this time she was great! It took us 4 hours all in all and we ended up with a full car with stuff to donate, a huge sack of things to throw out and a large IKEA bag full of stuff to give to her friend next door.

The process was easy, I held something up and she quickly said yes or no to keep it. I told her to use her gut feeling and stick with what she first thought. It felt really good to clean out all that stuff, and she was very pleased as well. So nice to be able to open her closet without stuff falling out, and now she knows exactly what she has and where it is.

We sorted everything into different storage places, so things that belong together is together. Nice and clean, how we like it! 

I am going to have a dinner party here at home for some friends on the 18th, so that gives me some incentive to sort through my own stuff and clean up a little extra as well. It always feels great after cleaning stuff out!

Sunday morning we had a nice breakfast on the beach, went over to check on the progress on the house (going well), and then I spent the rest of the day cleaning.

Monday was Labor Day, a national holiday here in the US. No school. It was a very slow day, I had very bad joint pain and woke up with a searing headache, so I spent most of the day on the couch, but the weather was kind of gray, so it felt kind of good anyway.