Cranberry or Pineapple??

[jiminyC_fan]

Good news for you Selena! I bet you love being able to talk to the kids. I want pictures too!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

That is great you have been able to talk to the kids, I am sure it makes your vacation even that much better being able to talk to them!

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

Stacey and I had our sister's night out last night. It was a lot of fun. Late night and I am a little tired this morning but it was worth it. We went and saw Girls Only. It was hilarious. I left with my stomach hurting because I was laughing so hard. You can read about it here:
http://www.denvercenter.org/shows-and-events/Shows/GirlsOnly/Overview.aspx

 

[Jsme]

Hey everyone...thought i would write a bit more

wednesday due to the raining off and on we really bummed around and relaxed a lot. dinner was suppose to be with people we had met but we decided to do something different. we went back to the steakhouse and ate there. however service was really slow but the food was as good as the night before.

we came back to the room a bit early and went to bed. wednesday was really a very lazy day.

thursday, woke up and had pastries in the club and a mimosa. then we found a spot in the club/private beach and stayed all day. we did leave for lunch at the italian place but came back. they have servers on the beach to bring you anything you want to drink. you really are very spoiled here.

thursday evening, jeff surprised me with a bubble drawn bath which had rose petals floating around with candles lite. We had a bottle of champagne chillied with the flutes awaiting us at the whirlpool tub in our room. needless to say i ate this up. i jumped in quickly and stayed for a while. jeff joined me and we sipped on champagne for about an hour. jeff got out to take a shower and i washed and deep conidtioned my hair in the tub.

after this we went to have sushi at the japanese place and a drink at the main lobby bar. i love the drink i had. it was vodka, soda water and a splash of cranberry. very nice,

then we were off to have dinner at the see and sea. this is the seafood open air restaruant at the beach. we had grilled lobster. very yummy. however, a lot of people have not enjoyed the grilled lobster. we liked it alot.

by the time we did all of this it was late and we wanted to go to bed early.

today was a lot of the same. except we did not stay at the beach as long we came up to the pool to stay at the bali beachs for a couple of hours.

ok i am off to some fun

 

[jiminyC_fan]

This is so much fun reading Selena's trip report while she is there. Sounds so relaxing. I really need something like that right now. Plumbing issues lead to bringing the house up to code. For a 500.00 water heater it is now costing us 2K. Yikes! And now he just realized something else needs to be changed. Good grief.

 

[Jsme]

just thought i would check in with all of you.

in case if you are wondering it is so hard to navigate the spanish keyboard that i am not trying to cap my letters

tonite is our last nite. we really have had an awesome time and love this resort. the resort we have been stayin at only opened in november and has had a lot of issues according to trip advisor. i am sure they did but they have really come a long way since then.

we have not had any issues what so ever with anything here. our room was exactly what was requested. we booked the club level which is called elegance club. we were lucky that we only had to pay about $100 more for this level for 7 days. Alot of people have questioned if the money is worth the club level. i would have to say yes in caps...but too hard to do that right now. lol we have used the club amenities for so many things. we have loved the usage of the club lounge. you can get sodas and water at anytime of the day. we have free internet in our room and in the lounge. we did not bring our laptop so i have to use it down in the lounge. they have food out almost all the time. you can pour a glass of wine or champagne at any time of the date. not sure if you remember me mentioning the butler. oh my goodness he has been great. he is the one who have drawn our bath for the last 2 nites. for towels we can just go to the concerige desk in the lounge and get as many as we want. we also have a private beach and the bali bed usage. we have 2 private pools. the club level has 2 buildings. we are in the smaller one due to the fact we only booked what they call a standard club level room and i had requested an ocean view. this building is across from the other building and it is much more quiet then the other one. i would like to stay in the other building but then with the type room we have we would look at the sister hotel and not have an ocean view. however, we have talked about that and to be honest we have only truly used the view once. that was lying in bed the first morning and watching the sunrise.

there are 6 restaruants. one is a buffet. 2 you must made a reservation. the japanese and the french are the reservation restaurants. we never ate at the french. we did look at the menu and really was not interested. we have ate at the seafood twice and the japanese and italian once. otherwise we have been at the steakhouse. tonight we did a progressive dinner and started with octopus cocktail and grilled lobster at the seafood place then had a drink in the main lobby. we met up with a few new friends and talked a while. then headed to the steakhouse.

we really have had a grand time. while we are use to cruising much more than the laid back atmosphere of a resort we did love our time here and look forward to coming back.

i have to admit though 7 days have been long and i miss my children. i am sure that will last all of 3 seconds upon entering our house. we have decided the perfect length would be 5 days and 4 nites. you have to remember 2 are really all about traveling. 3 full days at the pool and beach is enough for me unless we come with friends.

punta cana is very pretty but does not offer much off of the "reservation". there are lots of excursions you can chose from but like i said earlier the down time is horrible and i am not a patient person.

tonite though we did get some stressed service at the steakhouse. the hostess was not the friendiliest person but then when we left she smiled nicely and thanked us for coming. i think it being friday that things are very busy and she just is not coping well with it all.

truly this resort is very breathtaking. you see people constantly cleaning and working. most are smiling and saying hola.

you really lack for nothing. while i can not wait to go home in one way it will be sad to leave the wonderful place. i told jeff tonight that i know he must dread going back since he will have to cook again. lol that is a long standing joke since he has been cooking more than i have lately.

we leave at 1 from the hotel and our flight leaves at 430. we are to be in charlotte by 801 tomorrow evening. of course all of this is est.

i hope all of you have a great weekend. i am sure i will be up bright and early sunday to go grocery shopping. fun fun.

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

Selena - thanks so much for sharing you trip report with us. Sounds like a wonderful resort and a great vacation. I hope you made it back safely and had an uneventful flight.

 

[jiminyC_fan]

We got some bad news on Friday. Stacey's neurologist called her and told her that Tyler's bloodwork came back bad. They are backing off 2 meds. It will get bad within a week to a month. They highly recommend that he goes on an EXTREMELY STRICT diet called ketogenic. Some of you might of heard of it. He will be hospitalized for 3-5 days and for the first 12-24 hours he will be starved with no food. His body will go into a ketotonic state. That is when they will S L O W L Y introduce the new diet. Absolutely no carbs. That means sugars, breads, pasta etc. It is high in fats. All food will be weighed and it is a must that they strictly adhere to this diet. One slip up could result in seizures. The goal is to do this for 2 years and hopefully get him off meds soon. No eating out. No nothing as we all know it. It is a dangerous diet but will be strictly monitored. I know that Ted and I are having a very hard time with this. I think Heidi and Chris are too. It's nice that we are a close family and can help each other get through this. Not sure when this will all start. Stacey feels the sooner the better. Might be a bad Easter but if he isn't on the diet yet, I will make what HE wants. You know, pizza, mac and cheese, kid food for Easter. I plan to take care of Joey so that Stacey and Richard can concentrate on Tyler and learning the diet.

Selena, I am so happy to hear that you are having a hard time with the spanish keyboard. It is soooooo difficult. Poor Heidi has to guess what all I am trying to say when I write her. Is this your first all inclusive? I got hooked on our very first AI vacation. It is certainly a different vacation over cruising. They both have good sides to them. Your elegance club sounds like our royal club. Man, I don't know if I can vacation anymore without getting pampered like that!

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

Mom - it is affecting me too. When Stacey called me in tears I was strong for her but the minute we hung up I burst into tears. Unfortunately I was at Target and ran to my car. I told Taura that I would go out with her Friday after work, so I just drove to her place and cried in the parking lot until she got home. Then she "made me pretty" and she made sure that I would have a good time that night. I have been in tears all weeked long. I have a good friend whose cousin's son has been on the Ketogenic diet and it has been the best thing ever. I am trying to get my sister and her cousin in contact with each other so she can tell Stacey the good and the bad. When they did the Walk for Epilipsy their shirts read:

"On the back i did a visa commercial with the Ketones diet:

shoes............$50
Wagon...........$100
Water.............$2
Tshirts.............$25
Ketones..........priceless"

She is the one giving me hope as on Friday I really felt defeated and lost hope. She told me that diet has done amazing things for her cousin's son. She said it would be a rough beginning, but when you see the changes it is absolutely amazing.

I have to remind Chris that he cannot slip him food and candy as uncle Chris loves to spoil them and sneak them treats.

 

[cristit14]

Oh Sandy and Heidi, I am so sorry. I am sitting here with tears in my eyes just wishing you all didn't have to go through all of that.

 

[jiminyC_fan]

Thank you Cristi. It's a rough one.,

Heidi, I love their tshirts. Goosebump time on that! Ya, I have been crying all weekend, too. I get better then something happens or something said and there I go again. Dad's eyes have welled up more than once as well. I asked him one time if he was excited for Costa Rica and his response was weird. I said well you don't sound like it and he came back that he is worried about going with Tyler. Man, I sure agree with that one. I am wondering if we should take the laptop just for skype. I am sure happy that you have connections for Stacey. I guess Treva does too. I would think that would make a world of difference for people just going through it.

Sorry everyone. Didn't mean to go into a long paragraph about all this. Once I get going, I don't stop.

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

I am so relieved, my friend's cousin emailed me her contact information and my sister will be able to call and email her regarding her experiences with the ketogenic diet. It will be so good for my sister to be able to talk with someone who has experienced it and can relate.

 

[jiminyC_fan]

Well Stacey called. Sounds like it won't happen for a couple of weeks. She has to keep a journal of what he eats now, see a dietician etc. I still wish that they would give it more time on the meds since he was doing ok before the generic med came into effect. Thhey upped the one med that he gave him the high blood count after the generic. Who am I though??

 

[cristit14]

You would think they would have started by taking him off of the generic and putting him back on the brand name. Generics don't work for everyone.

 

[Jsme]

My heart is breaking for you guys. I remember this diet from the research I did a few months back. I remember thinking how very hard that would be for a young child. I could not imagine as a parent being able to do this. I hate Tyler is going to have to go without food for a few days. My gosh that sounds very dangerous. However, I am positive the hospital knows what they are doing and all will be fine.

I agree everything I read about the ketogenic diet was good. Every thing said what a miracle this diet can be.

I wish I could be there to give all of you hugs. Here is a virtual hug for each of you.

 

[jiminyC_fan]

Selena, I'll take that hug. Thanks!

Cristi, they did take him off the generic and put him on the regular. At the same time they raised it. His blood came back too high on it. I would think that they should have left the dosage where it was originally and gave it some time.

 

[cristit14]

I agree Sandy, they should have put him back on the original dose to see how he tolerated that. What was too high in his bloodwork? Sorry if that is too personal, it is just the lab geek in me.

 

[jiminyC_fan]

That's ok Cristi. I think just the med (zarontin) level. The doctor doesn't like one of the other meds and I think it is topamax.

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

Good morning everyone. For some reason I am feeling a little down today so I hope it will pass. I feel like I have a huge rock in my stomach.

Selena - I couldn't find you on Facebook, but this morning I am so glad to see that you found me! I will confirm you when I get home today.

Jrsy - Loved getting the mail yesterday, your birthday celebration is an AWESOME idea! How cool. I really hope we can come.

 

[cristit14]

Jrsy, Count Brad and I in for the b'day bash. It sounds great!