August 22nd 2009 Western Carribbean Anyone?

[stsomewhere]

Mmmmm...15 nites of Christiaan!! I will def get picks!!

Is he the guy on the Disney DVD?
You need to elaborate.

 

[Ski-and-Sea]

SKi and sea- The doctor wants them to get checked in 2 weks to find out if they are " strep carriers".

I think that they got strep from our neighbor.
They play together all the time. She was sick last week and missed school on Thursday and Friday. On Saturday, they let DD-Marina play in their house. I did not know she was sick.
Marina played with the other sister all day Saturday( at our house).

The parents took the sick girl to the doctors on Monday and she was put in the hospital. She came home Wednesday.

This is a big pet peeve. If your child is sick, keep them home. I don't want them around my kids.

DS- Matt was born with an absent right pulmonary aertery and has pulmonary hypertension.
We were told that he would need a heart /lung transplant. We opted for an experimential surgery. The doctors did 2 surgeries- 1st- get blood flow to the lung. 2nd- open heart to attach heart and lung. They made him an aretery out of donated tissues.
He is doing wonderful.
You would never know his has a problem except for his scars-which he is very proud of.
I always worry about him getting sick. What if the strep would get into his blood stream or fever to damage his heart.

Don't get me started on people letting sick kids be around other kids. Or even sick adults insisting on going to work and infecting everbody else.

I hate that schools have awards for kids who don't miss a single day of school. All that means is that the parents are letting their sick child go to school.

How interesting about your son. That is so wonderful that he is doing so well, but yes, I'd be terrified about him getting infections.

Regarding cruise director Christiaan.....here's a pic with my kids....

He has a really sexy voice and is incredibly funny. Plus a super nice guy. He used to be a dancer for DCL and needless to say he can dance extremely well.

 

[wayneg]

How was your DISboard meets?
Did you do fish extenders? Gifts?

What was the best thing on your vacation?

Dismeet was only a 15 min chat. The Disboarder I had most correspondence with got lost on way to Port Canaveral so missed the meet. I find my way from UK she got lost from Clearwater
No gifts/fish extenders this time. Last time on Magic it was a lot of fun.
Best thing? so many, The airboat ride was something we had not done before, seeing wild gators, bald eagle was amazing. Also being back on Wonder was great, 1st time for 5 years.

Wayneg.....definitely bring the pirate costumes. Magic cruisers in the summer are a very outgoing bunch and you will definitely see more pirate costumes. I've also been told by a DCL captain that the western cruises tend to get a more livelier crowd than the eastern cruises.

Last time we did Magic not one person had a pirate costume but it was almost 3 years ago. I will bring our outfits if we have space, we will be in Florida for 24 nights so luggage space will be limited.

 

[Maza]

wow....24hours without logging in and soooooo much to catch up on.

1. Sick kids. Where to staart. Its unusual for kids who have had their tonsils out to get a streph throat. did your dr. swab and culture or just guess?Antibiotics...agggghhh....but sometimes they are necessary. Unfortunatly Haemalytic strep is a clever little bugger...and keeps adapting. hence MRSA, VRSA (v.v. nasty).... I have been very lucky, my eldest kid gets tonsilitis, but in the UK we have swing back to not removing Ts&As unless really causing problems.My kid responds to fluids, paracetamol and a couple of days off school! My youngest has the constitution of an ox, and *crosses fingers* has never yet missed a day off school because of illness (holidays a different manner ) She has just never been sick ! Like DH ! Strong farming stock i guess...lol. Now I am a nurse...and probably a bit more of the 'ah...youll be ok' school...but she has quite honestly never been ill. Except Chicken Pox...which she had at 2. So 10 years without an illness...the kid is possessed! Wasn't it the kid in the Omen who was never ill??
I used to get strep throat...and have to have my tonsils out before I was allowed to do Midwifery training. Tonsillectomy at 21 is not fun!

2. Going to work when ill. Guilty as charged! It is very difficult when you work in an area where no-one will be able to do your job if you dont turn up! I dont mean as in 'indispensible' i just mean physically if you dont go...no-one will be able to do what you would have done. Stuff gets missed...too few staff spread too thinly...patients get transferred ( I was on nights last night (with a cold i confess)...our labour ward..in a tertiary referral hospital...was closed due to lack of staff! Labouring women would have been transferred! nearest hospital is 20 miles away! So you go ...even when you shouldnt. I spent last night wearing a mask and avoiding patients not in incubators....its bad...really bad!


3. stsomewhere....thank God your son was born in the US. The surgery you mentioned is only available in 1 hospital in the UK.The condition your son had is still pretty much a death sentence here.Wonderful to know its not the case elsewhere! Depressing too....if you get my meaning!

4. Pirates.... we are sooo up for it! Last year we just went with piraty t-shirts and hats ( and a stuffed parrot...which is a whole other story!). I was so jealous when i saw ppl who had actually made an effort! There wernt many of them..(wonder 4 day- go figure) but they made the night! Seriously, how often do adults get to dress up and fool around. ( maybe I should re-phrase that!!). For us the added bonus is that we are several thousand miles away from home. We will big it up next year...the parrot is already in the suitcase!

 

[Maza]

Dismeet was only a 15 min chat. The Disboarder I had most correspondence with got lost on way to Port Canaveral so missed the meet. I find my way from UK she got lost from Clearwater
No gifts/fish extenders this time. Last time on Magic it was a lot of fun.




Last time we did Magic not one person had a pirate costume but it was almost 3 years ago. I will bring our outfits if we have space, we will be in Florida for 24 nights so luggage space will be limited.

Wayne... im sure we can do better next year. Some DISers really make an effort...others not so much! Our DISmet last year was about 45mins...then we hardly saw anyone again! There where quite a few of us, and we kept crossing paths, but otherwise it was a quick meet on day 1 then gifts in the FEs! It was a little odd....we had spent months chatting on a daily basis (more than i do with my 'real world' friends )...but the meet was a little stilted. Note to self...do better next time!

We have a similar prob. with luggae...we are going to Las Vegas first, then the cruise..then 2 weeks in Orlando afterwards. But I am honestly (yes DH..here it is in writing )..only going to take enough stuff to do us a week...and not overpack! I have 16 months to plan...i can do this Needless to say...we will have considerably more luggage on the way home

 

[stsomewhere]

Both kids had their tonsils out last spring at the same time. It was horrible. They had them out on a Thursday. The doctor told me most kids go back to school on Monday....(the following Monday). It was the longest two weeks of my life. One always felt bad.
One only wanted cold food, the other hot.

They don't push getting your tonsils removed. It had to fight for it. They had to strep so many times in a year. Last year, they had strep constantly. They kept passing it back and forth. Finally, I just scheduled an appointment with ENT. He took one look and agreed the tonsils needed to come out.
DS missed 5 weeks of school due to illness.


On our last cruise(Carnival), we had a quick meet after the muster drill.
We kept seeing everyone all over the ship. The kids enjoyed it because they already knew other kids.
I think we can do better.

It is wonderful that some of you can take such long vacations. DH can only take a wee at a time. We took and cruise in Jan., and have a week long road trip planned in August. Plus, DH has misc. days for scout camps and hunting.

Maza- do you deliver the babies or just help?
I love babies. My friends and family know if thee is a baby around, it will be in my arms.

 

[stsomewhere]

Don't get me started on people letting sick kids be around other kids. Or even sick adults insisting on going to work and infecting everbody else.

I hate that schools have awards for kids who don't miss a single day of school. All that means is that the parents are letting their sick child go to school.

How interesting about your son. That is so wonderful that he is doing so well, but yes, I'd be terrified about him getting infections.

Regarding cruise director Christiaan.....here's a pic with my kids....

He has a really sexy voice and is incredibly funny. Plus a super nice guy. He used to be a dancer for DCL and needless to say he can dance extremely well.

What a great picture. Your kids are lovely.

 

[Maza]

Maza- do you deliver the babies or just help?
I love babies. My friends and family know if thee is a baby around, it will be in my arms.

used to deliver...now work on NICU. we still essentially beleive that childbirth is a normal physiological process...not an illness. Plus Madwives are cheaper than Obstetricians. Low risk deliveries , ie 80% ,done by midwives, although caeserian rates are climbing in the UK...thanks to medical intervention stats vary from area to area. Our local home birth rate is , thankfully, increasing....women now beleive home is the best place to have a child.Usually cleaner than hospitals...lol. and you get 1 to 1 care...unlike most labour wards now. We are battling to resist the temptation to adopt a medical model of care..thank God, where things are only normal in retrospect! Doesnt hold up statistically and we are all for statistics in Europe! despite the better tertiary education nurses receive in the US, UK model is alot more Nursing led. I get cross when i see how nurses/midwives are portrayed on TV...the handmaiden thing is sooooooooo 1970's. Most of us are graduates...most with post grad quals many with PhDs. Midwifery Care in the UK (actually most of europe and australisia) is the normal care pathway most pregnant women follow.Pretty well established....second oldest profession

 

[Ski-and-Sea]

Maza.......that's fantastic that DD has been so healthy. I wish my kids didn't get so many viruses.

I do blame the fact that the school system in the US is still 19th century agricultural based with the kids getting these loooong breaks in the summer then very few breaks during the school year. It means the schools never close long enough to get rid of germs (and lice for the younger kids).

I totally understand that sometimes you have to be at work no matter what. No problem with that because you take precautions not to infect everyone else.

Its the guys who show up at work coughing and sneezing on everyone else that's the problem. I think its a whole "macho" thing of not admitting something is wrong with you.

I can't understand why the US doesn't switch to the way most of the world operates with a longer school year but longer breaks during the school year.

And yes, its ridiculous that workers in the US get such short vacations. Too many people get a week here and a week there. I'm envious of countries that basically give an entire month off to workers. Let people really unwind and de-stress and spend time with their families.

Stsomewhere....thanks for the compliment on my kids. My kids got their tonsils out when they had speech/sleeping/breathing problems as toddlers. It took the ENT all of five second to look at both of them and tell me that he does surgeries on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Regarding DIS meets and seeing people onboard......its funny how that works. On my 2006 Magic cruise we had a HUGE DIS group - well over 200 people and we chatted regularly for almost two years before the cruise. The DIS meet was a mob scene.

But it was almost too overwhelming when its that big. And sadly I rarely saw most of them during the week. Its like we needed to go on a second cruise together as a do-over and try to spend more time together onboard.

My Wonder cruise last summer had just a handful of DIS families but we kept running into each other all over the place and it was so nice and relaxing to stop and chat with each other.

Joiseymom.....do you post on the EB PC repo thread? A bunch of people I cruised with in 2006 booked that cruise so a few times I've read that thread and was stunned at some of the fights people were getting into Wow. I kept wondering how these people are going to be able to be on a ship together for 15 days (with all those sea days!!!)

 

[BlueMarlin]

Food? They have food?

We only care about the margaritas.

We have been to the KW and Orlando .
We haven't been to Grand cayman or Cozumel since Margaritavilles went in.

We are looking forward to the one in Grand Cayman. It has a water slide.

We will hit them for a drink and maybe a t shirt. The kids won't want to sit there all day.

We have eaten at the Margaritaville in Orlando and Key West. The food is way expensive for the quality. Skipped the food in St. Maarten, was guessing the thrid time would not be a charm either. I will stick with the drinks since they are not free anywhere and eat where I have already paid for it.

 

[BlueMarlin]

I am all for longer vacations. I did a stint in Stuttgart where there was a 7 hr. workday. The first hour was coffee and fellowship and cigarettes. My U.S. supervisor had a warrent out for her arrest due to making her German employees do a 42 hour work week for a few months. The argument is that if you are overworking, you must hire more people, or send them to training because the boss must not have interviewed properly. WOW!! Culture shock!!

On the other topic of Matt's surgery, when Christi says experimental, she means that had we made the right donations, it could be named after him. Since his time, they are now doing the same surgery on newborns that may have had hours to live before. Children's Hospital rocks.

 

[Maza]

long holidays- because i am old...and have worked for my employer for more that 10 years i get 8 weeks annual leave a year. we are restricted when we take it though...no more than 2 weeks at a time..no holiday at christmas..only 3 weeks in total in school holidays...essentially i end up with a week in Jan, Feb and March...when no-one really wants to be on holiday! hey ho! But..the really cool bit is that I work shifts and part time...so i can work Monday tuesday one week...have 10 days off then work Sat Sun the following week- using up no holiday!This is Pretty much how i manage 3-4 weeks off for our summer holiday...that and insisting on using time owing
(which I have loads of...unpaid overtime...the curse of the UK NHS!) DH has less holidays than me, but gets to have them when he likes. He has all the bank hoildays off...aswell as a good whack of time at Christamas...finishes on Christmas eve and goes back on 2nd Jan. lucky boy!Hes a monday to friday lad no nights...no weekends. Standard working week is 37 hours, although neither of us get paid for our meal breaks we still work more hours and have less holidays than our fellow europeans DH works for a french company too Our kids still have a long summer break...but they have a week off every 8 weeks or so and 2 weeks off about every 16 weeks.some schools are spreading the holidays out more, but not in our county!

 

[soccermom10]

Wow, I haven't been on here for a couple of days & I'm sooo lost.

Costumes-my DH & I don't dress up, my DS wears a cool pirate shirt with pirate accessories & my DD wears a complete costume. Our last 7 day was mixed, but either way, it's a great time.

st.somewhere - I hope your kids are feeling better.

Maza-I give you so much credit for being able to work in the NICU. I love babies, but I would have a really hard time anytime something went wrong. Not to mention that I'm one of those people that can't even watch any type of medical procedure on tv. I have to turn my head watching Grey's Anatomy
sometimes.

I haven't done any type of dismeets in the past, but I think it would be a lot fun. Heck, we're going to be talking on here for the next 16 months. Did I mention that my DH thinks I'm nuts

 

[soccermom10]

Oh yeah, Margaritaville. We had a blast at the one in Grand Cayman. The kids had a great time on the water slide. I don't remember too much about the food, but the drinks were great

Am I caught up yet?

 

[Ski-and-Sea]

I haven't done any type of dismeets in the past, but I think it would be a lot fun. Heck, we're going to be talking on here for the next 16 months. Did I mention that my DH thinks I'm nuts

The funniest at the DIS meets are the spouses of DISers who get to meet the other spouses of DISers and joke about how obsessed we are with the DIS.

I booked my 2006 Magic cruise 23 months in advance. That was a loooong time of people posting on that meet thread.

 

[wayneg]

The funniest at the DIS meets are the spouses of DISers who get to meet the other spouses of DISers and joke about how obsessed we are with the DIS.

I booked my 2006 Magic cruise 23 months in advance. That was a loooong time of people posting on that meet thread.

So true, Karen wants a website setting up spousesofDIS.com

 

[Ski-and-Sea]

So true, Karen wants a website setting up spousesofDIS.com

I try to minimize my DIS discussions with DH as I get this reaction from him....

 

[stsomewhere]

The kids got to go back to school today. They are feeling much better.

But, they are not too happy about having to do ALL the homework.

My sister just got a new job . But, she wants me to watch her 3 kids 9,7, and 5months. I don't know what to do. She says it is just for a week, but, she has taken advantage of me in the past. I believe I would watch them until her husband got of work at 10PM. My kids go to bed at 8PM.
we lave for school at 7:20 and school starts at 7:45. My nephews' school starts at 8:30.

I hate to do it and I hate not to do it. I guess I will have to look at our schedule. DH has some meetings so I would be stuck with all 5 every night.



Soccermom- how are the soccer games?

 

[Ski-and-Sea]

The kids got to go back to school today. They are feeling much better.

But, they are not too happy about having to do ALL the homework.

My sister just got a new job . But, she wants me to watch her 3 kids 9,7, and 5months. I don't know what to do. She says it is just for a week, but, she has taken advantage of me in the past. I believe I would watch them until her husband got of work at 10PM. My kids go to bed at 8PM.
we lave for school at 7:20 and school starts at 7:45. My nephews' school starts at 8:30.

I hate to do it and I hate not to do it. I guess I will have to look at our schedule. DH has some meetings so I would be stuck with all 5 every night.



Soccermom- how are the soccer games?

Glad to hear the kids are finally better.

My advice with your sister's kids is this....do not do it. If she has a job then she needs to find the child care. Siblings do not provide free child care. Grandparents can do that should they choose to.

I've found as I'm getting older that I find it easier to just say no. And the excuse you give is "that's just the way things are". You don't need to give an explanation.

You are doing enough with your kids. They are your first priority.

Don't feel guilty about it. I don't think its right for people to impose on you like that.

 

[stsomewhere]

Glad to hear the kids are finally better.

My advice with your sister's kids is this....do not do it. If she has a job then she needs to find the child care. Siblings do not provide free child care. Grandparents can do that should they choose to.

I've found as I'm getting older that I find it easier to just say no. And the excuse you give is "that's just the way things are". You don't need to give an explanation.

You are doing enough with your kids. They are your first priority.

Don't feel guilty about it. I don't think its right for people to impose on you like that.

I am probably not going to do it.
I left her a message asking for exact times and dates. I get upset that people just assume I am available for whatever they need since I don't work.

The only reason I fel so bad abou it is.....I would do it for my other sister. But, then again she is a teacher and she does pay for her own day care.

The one who just got a job is going to be the major bread winner in her home. Her DH is going to drop to part-time and stay home with their kids. I think she could wait a few more days to start or just have DH call in sick.
( He is a telemarketer- he hates it. But, it was the only fulltime job he could get when he moved up here in Nov.)


Last summer, I watched (paid for) my DS's best friend. He was great. But, I did not have the freedom to do what I wanted. Alot of times he came with us.
DS loved it. They were "summer brothers".

I have no problem watching kids. We have a few friends that will watch our kids and they will watch ours. We get a night out without having to pay for a sitter.

DH likes to watch all the kids at the same time, even have them spend the night. ONe bedroom full of girls, the other boys.