Laissez les bon temps Rouler...Feb 2010 2/20 MK Last part of the Night updt 9/70 pg65

[All7OfUs]

You sure got a lot of pix of the parade! Each one just as colorful as the next!!

35 minutes of gyrating?? I don't think I could hulahoop for 3 minutes anymore!

 

[vamassey1]

That parade had such high energy. I never saw a CM that wasn't going all out during the whole thing.

I loved Stars and Motorcars, too.
I want them all.
A different parade every hour?

I like your idea! I'm a sucker for parades.

You sure got a lot of pix of the parade! Each one just as colorful as the next!!

35 minutes of gyrating?? I don't think I could hulahoop for 3 minutes anymore!

I have never been able to hula hoop. Both my girls can do it.

Dennis was taking the pictures and believe it or not we have lots more than I posted. Since it has gone away I'm glad we have them now. I wish I had more pictures of the Stars and Motorcars.

 

[MEK]

Those parade pictures are awesome! I feel like I am right there watching it with you. Thanks for the fun and festive update!

 

[vamassey1]

Those parade pictures are awesome! I feel like I am right there watching it with you. Thanks for the fun and festive update!

Thanks for the compliment, I'll pass it to Dennis since he took the pictures. When he's with us he does most of the attraction photos, and I get to enjoy the attractions.

 

[vamassey1]

I'm doing a Glenn post so I can start at the top of the page.

 

[vamassey1]

This update is going to be about a general life update. I had planned on doing an actual update Sunday night but life got in the way, but I don't want to get ahead of myself.

I know everyone's life has ups and downs and here on the Dis we share the good with the bad. We all rejoice for one another when things are going good and we support and pray for one another when things go bad or we face adversity. Although life has been busy for the most part he has been good.

On Saturday, March 26th Dennis and I went to New Orleans for a wedding. It was for my boss's daughter who also works in our office with us. Everyone had a great time. The wedding was at St Anthony's on Canal with the reception at the Omni in the French Quarter.



On April 5th we celebrated our 26th wedding anniversary. As a surprise Dennis bought us a brand new dining room set. I have always wanted a formal dining room. He spent January redoing the room. We had lived in this house for almost 12 years and the dining room is finally a dining room. It has been many things over the years from the play room, computer room, scrapbook room, storage room and right before it was redone it was Brent and Hannah's bedroom. They now reside in Texas.

I have searched to try and find some pictures to show how bad the room looked before but I guess I've avoided taking pictures for all these years. It was a dark green color on the walls with dark trim. The carpet was your typical tan carpet but the overall effect was just dark. The room still needs some same detail fixed and it needs window treatments but it looks so much better especially with the new furniture.







I would also like to replace the light. The room is 22 ft long so you don't see the rest of the room that is still being used as storage. Michelle has a rack of clothes and we have a shelf with DVD and let's not forget the gun case. But overall the room looks great.

The rest of the week revolved around Danielle, she was trying out for cheerleader at her school. Kids can't do sports until the 7th grade so this will be her first participation. She stayed after school on Wed, Thurs and Friday with tryouts being Friday. The girls wouldn't find out who made it until Saturday after 10. They had to call a number to listed to a voice mail listing who made the cut. On Friday night she had a friend spend the night who had also tried out. The girls were a bundle of nerves that night. They were also back up by 8 a.m. on Saturday. I had told the girls I would take them to breakfast on our way to the mall. They wanted to go hang out with friends at the mall. And yes I did sacrifice my Saturday and spent the most boring 3 1/2 hours at the mall. It's not that I don't like going to the mall but over the years I've gotten to where I go knowing what I'm looking for find it and get back out. It's been years since I've spent hours there just looking. We waited to leave the house for breakfast until after they made their phone calls and thank goodness they both made it! We're thrilled for Danielle. It takes a lot of courage to try out and of course kudos to her for making it. See loves attention so I know she'll enjoy her time as a cheerleader.

Sunday was church and clean house day. Dennis took Danielle to the movies so I could clean without them being in my way and of course they could also avoid helping. If you aren't going to help then get out of my way. Nothing makes me madder than for someone to sit on the couch while I'm trying to clean around them.

After cleaning I went to visit my mom who is in a home. She has been there since her 2nd stroke in 2008. She lost the use of her left side and she can't swallow food. I can't imagine not being able to eat and it has been almost 3 years now. She has had so many health problems, too many to list. When I went to see her I couldn't get her to wake up. Her roommate told me they feed her by tube at 12 and had given her some pain medicine and it was normal for her to sleep soundly after that. For the last few months it has been harder and harder to keep her awake for visits. Her short term memory doesn't work and hasn't since 2003 when she had the first stroke and an aneurysm bleed. She was in a comma for almost 3 months. She also hasn't made much sense in the last few months. Its so sad to see her decline more and more. After about 45 minutes I gave up. I wrote her a note and put in beside her. She has also lost her hearing since the first stroke so we have to write to communicate with her. Since her eyesight is also bad we have to write really big. Right after diner I got a call from my step father that they were taking her to the emergency room because she was having trouble breathing. That night they put her on a vent in the ICU. At first they thought it was her COPD. For years she has been on oxygen and they had said at some point it may come to point where she would be put on a vent and possibly until her final time came. My oldest sister Tena is doom and gloom and between her and step dad they were afraid it had come to this. By Monday things were much better. She didn't have pneumonia but there was something in her lungs. She has a UTI and a brain infection, meningitis but they don't know if it's bacterial or viral. They aren't sure where it came from but it could be associated with the shunt in her head from the brain bleed in 2003. That's the bad news, the good new is she was taken back off the vent on Tuesday and yesterday was moved to a long term care ward at the another hospital since it has a neuro section. She'll be there for at least 2 weeks. Since this is her second extended hospital stay in 6 months they are going to sent out hospice once she goes back to the home. She was in the hospital over Christmas too.

So has been the ups and downs in our life in the last few weeks and also the many reasons I have had the Dis time. We have also had our niece here visiting. She lives in Texas and was in town for work. Once her work was done she was able to hang out with us. Dennis has been off so he had been entertaining her. Tuesday he took her and the girls to diner. Wednesday he took her, his dad and Michelle to the WWII museum in New Orleans. Michelle's boyfriend came over and cooked for us last night and we broke in the dining room. Today before she left they just visited and he grilled some burgers and hotdogs. I've been working all week and Danielle has had high risk testing so we've missed out some of the fun.

Hopefully by this weekend things will slow down and I'll get a real update done.

I almost forget on a lighter note I know I've mentioned before that I like to scrapbook. Earlier this month I did this layout from our 2006 New Years trip. It makes me sad to know these fun cut outs are gone.

 

[PittypatBR]

So sorry about your Mom. Hope they are able to keep her comfortable, at least. But hooray for the new dining room! The picture of y'all at the wedding is great - what a good-looking couple! And congratulations to Danielle! That is very exciting.

 

[vamassey1]

So sorry about your Mom. Hope they are able to keep her comfortable, at least. But hooray for the new dining room! The picture of y'all at the wedding is great - what a good-looking couple! And congratulations to Danielle! That is very exciting.

Thanks PittypatBr. Mom is getting better. We are really enjoying out dining room. We call it the clean room. We both liked the picture from the wedding. Dennis framed it and it's on the mantel. Danielle is still excited. She get introduced to the school next week at a pep rally. They get to preform the the short dance they learned for try outs.

 

[MeMom]

I am sorry that you have to watch your mom go through so much. We take care of our kids, and we always want to be strong for them, but sometimes that just doesn't happen. I know that it is hard on all of you. You have my thoughts and prayers.

Congratulations on the exciting new things - new cheerleader girl and new dining room.

At least you have some nice pictures of the cutouts to remember that nice, quiet little place by. We do, too. We miss our secret place. We'll have to check out the new stuff in July.

 

[glennbo123]

Congrats to Danielle!

Sorry to read about your mom.

Regarding the dining room....I'm kind of glad my wife isn't on the DIS. We are in the same boat (dining room not used as a dining room) and she would love a dining room set and our 25th is coming up in a couple of years.

That's a really nice picture of you and Dennis.

 

[englishrose47]

Great pix of your new dining room !!Sorry about your mom!!Congrats to Danielle !!!

 

[Queen2PrincessG]

Not done yet but just wanted to say THANK YOU for putting in the chapter links. It really makes reading trip reports easier!

 

[vamassey1]

I am sorry that you have to watch your mom go through so much. We take care of our kids, and we always want to be strong for them, but sometimes that just doesn't happen. I know that it is hard on all of you. You have my thoughts and prayers.

Thanks Memom. She is doing better and has a positive attitude.

Congratulations on the exciting new things - new cheerleader girl and new dining room.

We have had lots of good news too. Danielle gets introduced to the school at a pep rally on Wednesday.

At least you have some nice pictures of the cutouts to remember that nice, quiet little place by. We do, too. We miss our secret place. We'll have to check out the new stuff in July.

I was thinking about you when I did this page. I'm going to really miss the secret place as will the girls.

Congrats to Danielle!

Sorry to read about your mom.

Regarding the dining room....I'm kind of glad my wife isn't on the DIS. We are in the same boat (dining room not used as a dining room) and she would love a dining room set and our 25th is coming up in a couple of years.

That's a really nice picture of you and Dennis.

Thanks Glenn! Maybe you should start working on a surprise anniversary gift.

Great pix of your new dining room !!Sorry about your mom!!Congrats to Danielle !!!

Thanks Rosie! I know you're familar with having cheerleaders in the house.

Not done yet but just wanted to say THANK YOU for putting in the chapter links. It really makes reading trip reports easier!

Thanks for joing in! I also find those chaper links very helpful. I hope you're enjoying it.

 

[All7OfUs]

Hi Vanessa!

I think we all understand about our ups and downs and comings and goings on the DIS. I think it's great we can all support each other through our life circumstances.

I love your new dining room! The colors you chose are so perfect for the furniture! How thoughtful of your hubby to finish it up and make you feel special with it!

Congrats to your daughter for getting into cheer. I think she will have a lot of fun with it!

It is certainly heartbreaking to see you going through this beside your mom. But it IS a good place to be, no matter how hard it is. Having the opportunity to serve her like this will be such a blessing to you and to her.

Love your layout; someday, I'll get my scrapbooking out again too. sigh.

 

[Queen2PrincessG]

JUST FINISHED! Love the report. I will say your picture of what not to wear is hysterical, It's like looking at someone stuffing 10lbs of stuff into a 5lb bag,

 

[vamassey1]

Hi Vanessa!

I think we all understand about our ups and downs and comings and goings on the DIS. I think it's great we can all support each other through our life circumstances.

I love your new dining room! The colors you chose are so perfect for the furniture! How thoughtful of your hubby to finish it up and make you feel special with it!

Congrats to your daughter for getting into cheer. I think she will have a lot of fun with it!

It is certainly heartbreaking to see you going through this beside your mom. But it IS a good place to be, no matter how hard it is. Having the opportunity to serve her like this will be such a blessing to you and to her.

Love your layout; someday, I'll get my scrapbooking out again too. sigh.

Thanks Liesa for the encouraging words. I just came back from visiting her and I needed the pick me up.

JUST FINISHED! Love the report. I will say your picture of what not to wear is hysterical, It's like looking at someone stuffing 10lbs of stuff into a 5lb bag,

Michelle is pretty good at picking those out. She loves to watch "What Not to Wear." I'm so glad you're caught up and I'm hoping to get this finished.

 

[vamassey1]

First off I want to thank everyone for their kind words concerning my mom. She's still in the hospital but might get moved Thursday. Of course a whole another can of worms has been opened. When my step-father told us she would be leaving with Hospice care he didn't explain that this also meant that the Dr had put a DNR in her chart that he agreed to. Needless to say most of us aren't happy and we can't come to an agreement of what we would be happy with. As it stands now they will not do chess compressions, incubate or put her on a vent. For now I would rather see a modified DNR but it's not up to me.


Moving along. When last we left off we had just finished enjoying "Block Party Bash". So what to do now? We were right next to the Idols theater so we marched right up the steps with tons of others. No one had seen this yet and we were looking forward to our first Idol experience. As a family we watched Idol since the second season up until the last season. When it started competing with my beloved "Lost" I had to put it aside. Dennis and the girls continued watching it while I shut myself in the back to ponder "Lost". It was actually better that I do this since it required so much concentration and no distractions. This past season we starting watching the tryouts but haven't really watched the show. Moving on again. We waited just a short while before we entered but it was long enough to see them do some crowd filming where the asked the crowd to yell for a particular person.

We were soon seated in the big theater.





After a short while the warm up guy came out to explain how we would be voting and to introduce the judges. As others have reported the warm up guy was a hoot and we really enjoyed him. One of the judges looked like Randy, one was a woman like Paula and the last judge was from Australia and acted like Simon. We were told to boo him when we didn't like what he said. I don't remember the exact order of the singers but I do remember we had a young girl of around 16, a woman in her late 30s and a guy in his 40s. It was fun watching and no one messed up. The only singer that would have had a chance at the golden ticket was the young girl. In the end she didn't win the guy one and he really did do better than she did. The young girl was kind of timid the the guy really enjoyed himself. I have to say we really enjoyed our time spent here and would have done another show if we had had time.

We exited the theater and headed down Sunset Blvd. Dennis and the girls could use their FPs for RNRC now. I walked part of the way with them then headed out on my own to do a little exploring and photo taking.



I don't ride RNRC anymore, it leaves me disoriented. I've ridden it twice and that quite enough for me.

So join me while I wonder around.



Wow look at the crowds.



I never had one of these my Brent did.





Looks like the time was 4:48.



Loved this movie.



We're getting closer.





Finally my destination. In tribute to Jordan.



This was the best I could do since I was alone. If I had been brave a could have asked a stranger to take a picture of me doing one of his poses, but I'm not that brave yet maybe next time.

More to come.

 

[vamassey1]

More wondering.





It's amazing how empty this part of the park is.





Heading back down Sunset to meet up with the others.



After meeting up we took our official DHS photo.



We walked back down Sunset and hung a right. We took the entrance to the Magic of Animation through the gift shop and went to check out the info on Toy Story 3. Of course we didn't meet any character since Danielle now refuses to Character hunt with me.









Almost done with this day. In my next update I promise to finish this day.

 

[glennbo123]

I never had one of these my Brent did.

It's bad that I am starting to relate to the "nostalgic" stuff now. The restaurant in a hotel I was staying at a couple of weeks ago had old nick-nacks on a shelf up near the ceiling, all the way around the room. One item I noticed was a Nabisco saltine tin, for storing saltine crackers. I thought, "Hey, we had one of those when I was growing up. My mom probably still has it." Then I thought, "Wait a minute. I'm not old enough that I should be able to recognize this stuff!"

This was the best I could do since I was alone. If I had been brave a could have asked a stranger to take a picture of me doing one of his poses, but I'm not that brave yet maybe next time.

I don't blame you. I don't think I could have struck a kung-fu pose with a stranger taking the picture either!

 

[vamassey1]

It's bad that I am starting to relate to the "nostalgic" stuff now. The restaurant in a hotel I was staying at a couple of weeks ago had old nick-nacks on a shelf up near the ceiling, all the way around the room. One item I noticed was a Nabisco saltine tin, for storing saltine crackers. I thought, "Hey, we had one of those when I was growing up. My mom probably still has it." Then I thought, "Wait a minute. I'm not old enough that I should be able to recognize this stuff!"




I don't blame you. I don't think I could have struck a kung-fu pose with a stranger taking the picture either!

It's so sad I find myself saying "I remember when...." or "When I was growing up. . . .". I'm becoming my Grandma and Mother.

It's nice to know I'm not the only chicken. But the thought did cross my mind.