MY NEW WHEELCHAIR

After months of waiting, I finally get my new wheelchair. It's the same as my old one but it is a sparkly blue and has that new wheelchair smell. This one rolls much easier so hopefully I can race faster with it at the Kona marathon 5k race in June.
Here are some pictures of them building it and making the custom back for it.

Here they are pouring a chemical in the back which get really hot while it turned to foam around my back.

Here it is from the other direction.

What my wheelchair looked like before the back was made

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They are getting ready to cut the foam after it set up.

Getting ready to mix the chemicals to make the back. My dad's weight machine finally getting some use, even if it is as a table.

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And the finished product.

BLOGGING BREAK

As you can tell im not on my blog. I moved to facebook and myspace. See you there.

MISSING PIECES

Forrest Gump's mom says that "life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you will get." But I say life is like a jigsaw puzzle and you never know what pieces will fit with each other. Or what piece may be missing all together.

A couple of month's ago I put together this turtle puzzle. It was the hardest puzzle to put together because the border pieces were so hard to find. It took me weeks to build. Pieces would fit together that didn't belong together so I would have to break them apart and find the right pieces.

Puzzles are fun to work on, but they can be frustrating too, especially when you spend days looking for a certain piece and then finally decide it must be missing and you have to move on to a different part of the puzzle.

And that's how it went with this puzzle. I spent days looking for one piece only to find out when I was finished that it was missing.

After a couple of month's though, when my dad was moving furniture around in the living room, we found the missing puzzle piece. Just like life, sometimes you go through life for months or years feeling like something is missing to one day, out of the blue, find that missing piece and your life seems complete.

PHOTOS:
The slow progress of putting this puzzle together.

Me with the finished puzzle minus the missing piece (seen in the next photo).
The puzzle mounted on my bedroom wall with the missing piece in place.

p.s. my dad helped me write this.

I AM - DEAF

THIS IS WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE DEAF:
Lonely at times
I AM - ONE IN A MILLION
Feelings of being left out of conversations
I AM - DIFFERENT
I'm able to talk with my mouth full and not be rude, - I use my hands to talk, lol
I AM - UNIQUE
Deaf people have their own language - ASL
I AM - JUST ME
I can read lips
I AM - A FRIEND
It can be frustrating not knowing what sounds sound like
I AM - JUST A GIRL
I can "hear" your expressions
I AM - WHO GOD MADE ME
I don't hear sounds, I feel sounds
I AM - SPECIAL
It's upsetting when the closed captioning doesn't work on the TV
I AM - TALENTED
I can watch TV and read at the same time (the closed captioning)
I AM - BEAUTIFUL
Not being able to understand movies at the theater
I AM - A DAUGHTER
Not all deaf people know each other
I AM - AN ATHLETE
I still sing along to music I can feel
I AM - A WRITER
Vibrations are "noisy" to me
- motorcycles
-earthquakes
-bass drums
-ambulances
-big trucks
these things are very "noisy" to me.
I AM- A SISTER
Some people don't understand me when I talk
I AM - REBECCA

V IS FOR VOLUNTEERING

Today my dad and I volunteered at Ironman to help put together goody bags for the athletes. Last Friday my mom and I helped put together all the Ironman number packets. It was pretty fun working with al the other volunteers. We made a game out of putting the packets together.

The volunteers are all really nice and I'm sure the athletes appreciate what all the volunteers do so Ironman can happen.


Photos:
Top: Look at all those luggage tags. This is one of the items the athletes will get in their goody bag.



Middle: Volunteers line up at one of the tables carrying goody bags to be filled.


Bottom: All those race packets are what my mom and I and other volunteers did Friday. 1824 of them.

GOOD LUCK TO ALL THE PEOPLE RACING SATURDAY.

MARINE SISTER

Mess with me and you'll have to deal with my brother ...



Today I saw my brother, Daniel, at MCRD and our friend Isaac. It was family day at the Marine training depot in San Diego. It was very crowded with other families of all the new Marines who are graduating tomorrow.

It got very hot today while we walked around the depot. It was nice to see Daniel after three months. I bought a stuffed bear that has a U.S. Marine sweat shirt on. It's really cute.

Tomorrow after graduation Daniel gets to come home with us. But first we are going to spend a few days here in San Diego. We are going to go to the zoo and probably back to Sea World. It's been fun being on vacation and to see Daniel again.


Yesterday I went to Sea World. I saw Shamu the whale. It jumped out of the water and did flips. It got a lot of people wet. I also got to pet bat rays. They are like manta rays but smaller. They are very soft. I also got to hold starfish and that was cool.

Sea World also has dolphins. Their dolphins are a lot bigger than the dolphins in Hawaii. people feed seals. The seals would bark and do things to get people to throw them fish.

In the top photo, Daniel and I stand outside the Marine museum. The other photo is of Isaac and Daniel. Isaac also lives in Hawaii.

BROWN BEAR BASH AND SUNNY SPRINT

I was in a race today to celebrate Sunny who has brain cancer. I got to meet her. She was in a wheelchair also.

When we got in the ocean the water was cold. I don't like the ocean. A big wave got in my face and I swallowed water. It tasted bad. I don't want to swim in the ocean anymore. We had to swim to the third buoy and I swam on my mom's back. She got tired swimming with me.

After we swam I did a one mile run in my wheelchair. I got hot and tired but I had fun. Sunny went in her wheelchair for the race too.

In the top photo is me and Sunny is in the other wheelchair. Brown Bear is pushing Sunny.

In the middle photo I am going through the Kona Inn Shopping Center on my way out to the run turn around.

The last picture is at the one mile turn around.

CAN U CANOE?

Last weekend on July 27 I went on my first canoe paddling adventure. I had fun but it was harder to paddle than I thought it would be. I will do it again in September. There's no canoeing in August because of the big canoe races at the end of the month. My mom went with me on the canoe. She helped paddle too.




It was pretty hot that day and sitting in the canoe before we got in the water was very hot. They had to pour water on the seat because it was too hot to sit on.

Before we got going I thought the boat might tip over out in the water but it didn't because it had things on the sides called outriggers to keep it from tipping over.




I have never paddled a boat before and it was a lot harder than it looked. I almost lost the paddle a few times. When I was paddling my right arm got hurt from the paddle. But it wasn't bad. We went out to around the King's buoy and back. We didn't get to see any dolphins that day. I thought there was a shark in the ocean, but there wasn't. LOL. The ocean was very calm, which I like cause I get scared when the ocean is rough.

Brian and the other volunteers from the Mokuaikaua Church were very friendly and helpful. It's very nice of the church to have this program for disabled people. God bless you.

TEAM WRIGHTHOUSE - THE RUN

Today I did the run for the Pea/Mango Trashcan triathlon in my wheelchair. My dad did the half mile swim, my mom did the ten mile bike ride and I did the two mile run.

My dad and mom ran with me. I got tired so my dad pushed me some of the time. My dad and mom took a lot of pictures and videos.

I pushed myself as fast as I could at the end. People were cheering for me. I still don't know if I like racing.

To read about my dad's swim click here. The Kona Life

To read about my mom's bike ride click here. Havin' Fun in Hawaii

WHO LET THE DOGS OUT

These are most of the dogs That I have had. I was afraid of dogs when I was little because a big dog jumped on me when I was little and knocked me over. After we got our first dog, I wasn't afraid of dogs anymore.

We got Bear, our Chow, when he was 5 weeks old. We have had him for around 12 years. Sometimes he likes to play and he runs around the house. He's happy to see us when we come home. He had to stay in a kennel for a few months when we moved to Hawaii. We missed him a lot when he was there.




Lady loved to play with me. She barked when she wanted outside or in the house. She was my Great Grandma's dog and when my Great Grandma died my mom brought Lady home and gave her to me. I loved Lady a lot. We had her for four years but she got a tumor and had surgery but she died about a week later. I was so sad. She was a great dog.



We got Sadie, our Great Pyrenees, when she was only 4 weeks old. Her mom wouldn't feed her so we had to. We got her right after I came home from the hospital one time. She was a really big dog. She lived with us on our farm. She was too big to bring in the house. She tried to get on my school bus one time. When we moved off our farm she went to live on a sheep ranch. Great Pyrenees are good sheep guard dogs.



Beethoven and Curly Sue were our Pekingese dogs. Beethoven is the fat one in the picture with my brother and Curly Sue is the smaller one. Beethoven loved to follow me in my room and he hid under my bed when my mom's daycare kids were at our house. Curly Sue came to live with us when she was a puppy. We had her for 16 years. She had a tumor. I miss Curly Sue. When she was a puppy she loved to bite my hair and try to pull it around. She loved to play with me.
Beethoven and Curly Sue had four puppies but one of them died when it was born. The puppy picture is of two of my brothers and me holding the puppies. We gave one of the puppies to my cousin, Amy.




Puppies, puppies, puppies. Our Dalmations, Jo-D and KC had lots of puppies. The puppies liked to run around me. They were so much fun. It was sad when they went to their new homes. The middle picture is Jo-D, and KC when he was a puppy. The bottom picture is me with KC.





Macy was our Bloodhound. She didn't bite me when she was a puppy. She loved to play with toys and plastic bottles. She followed me all around and liked to smell everything. She liked to chew everything up so she stayed outside a lot. She liked to sleep on my bear pillow. We miss her so much. We didn't think it would be fair to her to be in a kennel for the 120 day quarantine that Hawaii requires because she was so active. We gave her to some people that live on a farm. We wish we still had her. She was so goofy. She always made us laugh.

MY FIRST ROAD RACE

(Video of me at the start of the race)

Today my dad and I were in the Kona Marathon. My dad ran 26.2 miles. I used my wheelchair and did the 5K. That is 3.1 miles.

The race was very hard for me to push myself up the hills. I got very hot. When I finished, I got a medal. I kind of had a fun race. My mom walked with me during the race. A lot of people clapped for me and told me good job and gave me high fives.

Since I am deaf and couldn't hear, my mom said a lot of people honked at me and told me good job and said "you go girl". I saw a lot of people in cars wave at me. Everybody was very nice. I saw Bree Wee and she took a picture of me. A man from the newspaper took a picture of me too. His name is Baron and he is a friend of my dad.

My mom and I met a man from Ashland Oregon where we used to live. He is a school teacher and knows my old middle school teacher and some other people that we knew when we lived there.

The race made me tired and I don't know if I want to do it next year.

(Top photo is of me racing in my first road race. The other photo is me and my finisher's medal)

PUZZLE GIRL

I have finished more than 100 puzzles in the last couple of years. I like doing puzzles because they are fun. Puzzles are easy and hard but I like the hard ones better. My dad made a puzzle of me and the turtles.

I have done little puzzles and big puzzles, some with 2000 pieces. Nobody helps me do the puzzles. My favorite puzzle that I have done has dolphins and mermaids.


(Photos: In the top photo is the puzzle that my dad made of me. In the next photo is my favorite puzzle of dolphins and mermaids and the bottom photo is puzzles that I have recently done.)

The hard puzzles take me about three weeks to finish and the easy ones take one day. I hate it when I lose puzzle pieces. It takes me a long time to find them. Sometimes I buy a puzzle that has two of the same pieces.

Sometimes I mix the pieces of more than one puzzle together just to make it harder. My mom thinks I am crazy for doing that.

When I finish a puzzle I put puzzle glue on it and after the glue dries I hang the puzzles on my bedroom wall.

BOOT CAMP

My little brother, Daniel, went to boot camp for training to get into the Marines. He left the day after he graduated from high school. I feel sad that he is there and I worry about him. I miss him a lot. My dad and mom and I might fly to San Diego, California for Daniel's graduation from boot camp. I really hope we get to go.



Daniel posing with a sea turtle at Turtle Beach (at the Honokohau Harbor)



Daniel and his girlfriend Kyla at the 2007 world championship Ironman in Kilua Kona, HI


From left to right, me, my sister Rachael, Jonathan and Daniel (2 of my brothers)

BEACH CHAIRS

This is Rebecca's beach chair. Oliver and Julia from the Cycle Station arranged to have a bike donated that had been used in the Tour of Spain, then auctioned it off and used the proceeds to purchase the beach chair. It makes going to the beach so much easier. Regular wheelchairs are very hard to push in the sand, but the huge balloon tires make this one a breeze. A big thank you to Oliver and Julia for working so hard to make this happen. The picture is of Rebecca and Karen (mom) on the left, Oliver in the middle and the bike recipient on the right.