A True Hero

My sister in law's dad, Mark Rampton, who is a family practice doctor in Corvallis, OR, flew down to Haiti last week to provide emergency medical care to the victims of the earthquake. You can read more about it here and on Lisa's blog.

I wanted to post about it here because I am so moved by his willingness to volunteer to be a "first responder"; to put his life/practice/comfortable existence on hold and to use his skills to help alleviate unimaginable suffering. He is part of a small team of LDS doctors and nurses who are literally camping out in Port-au-Prince, administering emergency medical care from the 50 or so dufflebags of supplies that they brought with them. Their own safety is far from assured as aftershocks continue to threaten and lawlessness is bound to increase as people get more desperate. The horror of the scale of the calamity is something that I'm sure we cannot grasp here watching it on TV from our living rooms. It is a really brave thing to go into a situation like that. He and the other emergency responders have my utmost respect.

Mele Kalikimaka

Ok, I have really been a bum about updating this blog. It is because I have fallen victim to my latest Internet obsession--combing through real estate options in Nashville. Craigslist, Trulia, HotPads, RealTracs--I've logged more time on those sites than I care to admit. It's honestly what I do with every minute of my spare time (when I'm not obsessively cleaning and tidying the house in the event that it needs to be shown at a moments notice.)

So, in an effort to curb my addiction, I am going to post an update (or two) about whatsahappenin' chez nous.

When Ryan was just a wee lad his mother painted a Matchbox car town for him and his brothers to play cars. This town was painted on canvas and was based on their Kansas City neighborhood. It had their house, the elementary school, the church, some of their neighborhood friends houses, etc. Ryan has great memories of countless hours playing with Matchbox cars on this play mat.

Given our boys' interest in all things automotive, he asked if we could have the play mat. No dice. You see, Ryan's sister, Kim, married a guy from Kansas City; a boy whose childhood home is ALSO on the Matchbox car play mat. How cool is that! Since they, too, have boys who are obsessed with cars, they get to keep the original Matchbox car play mat.

Not to be deterred, Ryan decided to paint his own Matchbox car town and give it to the boys for Christmas. But instead of basing it on our actual neighborhood, he chose his IDEAL neighborhood--specifically the sweet little surf town of Hanalei, Hawaii.  

How freaking cool is that?!?!?!

This is the town where we rented a house with a bunch of his best friends from college last August (a trip that is often referred to simply as The Best Vacation Ever (TM). 

Oh, yeah, that's the golf course in Princeville. That's Ryan teeing up.

 

He painted the Hanalei River where we went kayaking.

The Kilauea Lighthouse.

 

The one lane bridge that spans the divide between Hanalei and the rest of the world.

It wouldn't be Hawaii without shave ice.

Bubba Burgers are the BOMB! [Not to be confused with Bubba Burger (singular) which are pre-made frozen patties...quite a different thing altogether.]

The Hanalei Farmer's Market was two blocks from our house...did I mention that this was also MY ideal town?

 

Tunnels Dive Shop...ok, this place doesn't really exist, but the dive site was called Tunnels reef, so Ryan took some creative liberties.

Tahiti Nui...this place does exist and Ryan and his buddies apparently made quite a spectacle of themselves at karaoke night. I went to bed early. Seems I missed out.

Our beach house, complete with hot tub and grill.

 

The church in Hanalei. There actually was an LDS meeting house around the corner from our house but it was a pretty simple structure so Ryan chose to paint this beauty instead. Didn't he do an awesome job?!?! Check out those stained glass windows, folks!

   

And finally, the Waimea Canyon. Ryan is really proud of this one because he didn't have a picture of the canyon to use as a guide while he was painting and so he just drew and painted from his memory of the place. He did a pretty incredible job, in my completely unbiased opinion.

The boys loved it and were thrilled with all the new Matchbox cars that they got, too.