gijanet
Well-known member
We're back...............did ya miss me? 
I sure missed y'all. Okay, I am once again overdue for an update, but my butt has been dragging all week since we got home . I feel like I have been run over by a semi and, unfortunately, lived to tell about it. I kept thinking I would work up an update one of these days (probably when I get around to mailing out my damn Christmas cards! heehee!), but I am still unpacking.........ugh! We got in at 8:00 Sunday night and I had to go right back to work MOnday! Okay, enough of my whining (it's just that I do that so well.......... ).
Reader's Digest version: The Make a Wish thing all fell apart at the last minute due to miscommunications between MAW and Katie's PC (her PC called us at 6:30 PM Friday - the week prior - just to let us know that he had authorized her for travel; then the following Wed. the MAW folks were still saying that they didn't have the authorization, so dunno what happened there). Anyway, we decided just to bite the bullet and take the kids on our own nickel (okay - lots of nickels) and table Katie's wish for now.........so there we were trying to jump through hoops to try and get some sort of package worked out - and we did - barely - we made reservations the day before we left - a week ago Saturday - well, almost two weeks now (my spring break)..............
You know what, though? Things worked out for the best. I am so glad that we went, but I am even happier that the wish fell through. I want it to be really special for Katie - something that she really wants - and this was not it. She set the mood for the trip that Saturday morning we left. My little drama queen decided that she did not want to go. She began crying and wringing her hands in despair. Thinking that she associates long trips with surgery, we assured her this was a vacation and nothing medical was involved. This was to no avail. She ran around the living room, all the while picking up her toys and kissing them, crying, "I don't want to leave my toys. I will miss my toys. I will miss my Texas. I don't want to leave my Texas. I will miss my couch. I will miss my tv." Then she drug her little stool over to the wall of pictures and started kissing all of the pictures on the wall she could reach. " I will miss my pictures. I will miss my Baby Trip picture (as she is kissing and fondling it!)" Then she flung herself on the couch and declared that she was not going.................so we strapped her in her car seat, kicking and screaming ..............................sigh!
What a way to start a trip! Although she did eventually calm down, Katie was NOT thrilled with Disney World. I had forgotten that Disney is set up for the hearing impaired - or at least it seems that way. Everything is so loud - the rides, the shows, even the restaurants.......... and Katie hates loud noises. Hard to believe as loud as that little hellion is herself, but she does. And she hates going too fast and she hates things flying in her face...........and water in her face.........and anything else in her face. So that doesn't leave a whole lot. She wanted to go to the 3-D bug show, so we went............and five minutes later she is screaming to get out of there after water was squirted in her face and bugs were flying at her...................and of course, we were smack dab in the middle of the row. Heehee! so if you take all of this into consideration, it doesn't leave a whole lot to do. And "It's a Small World" ride was closed - for refurbishment - the one ride that she would have adored was closed! Once she quite crying on the way down, she was singing that very song - and then it is closed!!!! She did like Animal Kingdom, Bear in the Big Blue House, the Dumbo ride, the monorail, the characters - especially the princesses (although she was a little miffed that the princesses and other kids weren't asking her for her autograph because "I'm a real princess, too - Princess Katielion"), and her "memry" (autograph) books, but she would have been just as happy at the Disney store or at the beach. And it would have helped if the weather would have cooperated - cold and wet, but the lines were very short. Trip had a blast and rode Space Mountain three times all within about an hour's timeframe.
The best part of the trip,though, was the NickHotel. They just opened
up and aren't even through with the renovation yet - the grand opening
isn't until May, but they did have some kid suites converted. You have
to take your kids or grandkids there. The kids' room has bunk beds and is painted with a scene from one of the Nick shows. Unfortunately, all we could manage to get is one night there as they were booked solid. They thought they had us in a Rugrats room, but it turned out to be the Fairly Odd Parents. Katie would have preferred Sponge Bob, but we were lucky just to get a room there period. The pool was heated and had lots of slides, etc. Then they had a Nick show poolside and slimed some kids. Kids twelve and under eat free. And they had some of the Nick characters, but they had just started it the day before, so no Sponge Bob yet, just the Fairly Odd Parents - Bill and Cozmo - and Dora. Check it out at www.Nickhotel.com. It is going to be really neat when they get it all done. Okay, I am rambling and this was supposed to be short..............................
Anyway, I am so glad we went - lots of good memories - and it would
always have bugged me - but I am NOT going to go there - I'm just not,
but I am really glad this was not Katie's wish trip. This just tells me that Katie is going to fly through surgery and wish for something she really wants later - although she is already back to wanting to know when Lola Bunny is going to come to life.................sigh! (While I am now trying to get her to say "Brad PItt in Hawaii"! ) If I ever do 2300 miles roundtrip in a car with two kids, it will be too soon for me...............remind me of this in June when we have to drive to Illinois for my step-daughter's wedding ( no RV this time and it will be warm)..............and what I would have given for Katie NOT to have been potty-trained. We would no sooner get back on the road when she would declare that she had to go pee-pee. And then there was the time she ran up to Don in the restaurant line and announced to everyone within ear shot that she had to go poop ! When a red-faced Don tried to stall her, she yelled even louder, "No, Daddy, I have to poop riiiiiiiight NOW!" Sheeeeeeesh! So you know who got the dubious honor of that one - we did make it in time, though, which is always a good thing.
And we heard from Dr. Bove while we were gone - I think it came in the
day we left, wouldn't ya know?. He said we can hold off on Katie's surgery until this summer, so we are thinking July now...... I guess we will have to give Michigan a buzz and see if that is a go with them.
...........so quasi-good news on that front..................although I
would prefer not to do it at all...........................3rd time was
supposed to be the charm.......................
Okay, so much for the RD version. Thank you so much for all of your
support through this venture. Oh, btw, did I mention that we are
leaving in the AM for our annual family Boy Scout camping trip? No rest
for the weary - wish I was as excited about it as Katie is................unless she is back to kissing pictures in the morning. We are going to go camp out at the dinosaur tracks in Glen Rose................supposed to rain all weekend...........and I have a blasted head cold...................sounds like fun to me..................yeehaw! Hugs to you all. J.
P.S. Niki, I owe you a long post and lengthy explanation...........heehee! Will try and "talk" to ya Sunday PM if I survive the dinosaurs. Hope you are doing well. Love ya. J.
Take care and God bless, Janet, Trip (12 HH & one heckuva Boy Scout),
Katelyn (AKA Katie, 11-19-00, Heterotaxy w/situs ambiguous, dextrocardia, polysplenia, a complete AVSD, DORV, TGV w/L-looped ventricles (L-TGV), BSVC, PS, IIVC, and a mod. leaking AV valve; BT shunt @ 2 weeks at Cook Children's; cath @ 3 months; Bilateral Bidirectional Glenn @ 12 months at UofM; failed AV valve repair on April 13th, 2004 at UofM; next OHS tentatively scheduled for Mar/Apr '05 - well, lookin' like July now; a real little toot, but absolutely adorable!), & Don (DH) Arlington, TX
www.carepages.com carepage name: KatelynSteffen
I sure missed y'all. Okay, I am once again overdue for an update, but my butt has been dragging all week since we got home . I feel like I have been run over by a semi and, unfortunately, lived to tell about it. I kept thinking I would work up an update one of these days (probably when I get around to mailing out my damn Christmas cards! heehee!), but I am still unpacking.........ugh! We got in at 8:00 Sunday night and I had to go right back to work MOnday! Okay, enough of my whining (it's just that I do that so well.......... ). Reader's Digest version: The Make a Wish thing all fell apart at the last minute due to miscommunications between MAW and Katie's PC (her PC called us at 6:30 PM Friday - the week prior - just to let us know that he had authorized her for travel; then the following Wed. the MAW folks were still saying that they didn't have the authorization, so dunno what happened there). Anyway, we decided just to bite the bullet and take the kids on our own nickel (okay - lots of nickels) and table Katie's wish for now.........so there we were trying to jump through hoops to try and get some sort of package worked out - and we did - barely - we made reservations the day before we left - a week ago Saturday - well, almost two weeks now (my spring break)..............
You know what, though? Things worked out for the best. I am so glad that we went, but I am even happier that the wish fell through.
I want it to be really special for Katie - something that she really wants - and this was not it. She set the mood for the trip that Saturday morning we left. My little drama queen decided that she did not want to go. She began crying and wringing her hands in despair. Thinking that she associates long trips with surgery, we assured her this was a vacation and nothing medical was involved. This was to no avail. She ran around the living room, all the while picking up her toys and kissing them, crying, "I don't want to leave my toys. I will miss my toys. I will miss my Texas. I don't want to leave my Texas. I will miss my couch. I will miss my tv." Then she drug her little stool over to the wall of pictures and started kissing all of the pictures on the wall she could reach. " I will miss my pictures. I will miss my Baby Trip picture (as she is kissing and fondling it!)" Then she flung herself on the couch and declared that she was not going.................so we strapped her in her car seat, kicking and screaming ..............................sigh! What a way to start a trip! Although she did eventually calm down, Katie was NOT thrilled with Disney World. I had forgotten that Disney is set up for the hearing impaired - or at least it seems that way. Everything is so loud - the rides, the shows, even the restaurants.......... and Katie hates loud noises. Hard to believe as loud as that little hellion is herself, but she does. And she hates going too fast and she hates things flying in her face...........and water in her face.........and anything else in her face. So that doesn't leave a whole lot. She wanted to go to the 3-D bug show, so we went............and five minutes later she is screaming to get out of there after water was squirted in her face and bugs were flying at her...................and of course, we were smack dab in the middle of the row. Heehee! so if you take all of this into consideration, it doesn't leave a whole lot to do. And "It's a Small World" ride was closed - for refurbishment - the one ride that she would have adored was closed! Once she quite crying on the way down, she was singing that very song - and then it is closed!!!! She did like Animal Kingdom, Bear in the Big Blue House, the Dumbo ride, the monorail, the characters - especially the princesses (although she was a little miffed that the princesses and other kids weren't asking her for her autograph because "I'm a real princess, too - Princess Katielion"), and her "memry" (autograph) books, but she would have been just as happy at the Disney store or at the beach. And it would have helped if the weather would have cooperated - cold and wet, but the lines were very short. Trip had a blast and rode Space Mountain three times all within about an hour's timeframe.
The best part of the trip,though, was the NickHotel. They just opened
up and aren't even through with the renovation yet - the grand opening
isn't until May, but they did have some kid suites converted. You have
to take your kids or grandkids there. The kids' room has bunk beds and is painted with a scene from one of the Nick shows. Unfortunately, all we could manage to get is one night there as they were booked solid. They thought they had us in a Rugrats room, but it turned out to be the Fairly Odd Parents. Katie would have preferred Sponge Bob, but we were lucky just to get a room there period. The pool was heated and had lots of slides, etc. Then they had a Nick show poolside and slimed some kids. Kids twelve and under eat free. And they had some of the Nick characters, but they had just started it the day before, so no Sponge Bob yet, just the Fairly Odd Parents - Bill and Cozmo - and Dora. Check it out at www.Nickhotel.com. It is going to be really neat when they get it all done. Okay, I am rambling and this was supposed to be short..............................
Anyway, I am so glad we went - lots of good memories - and it would
always have bugged me - but I am NOT going to go there - I'm just not,
but I am really glad this was not Katie's wish trip. This just tells me that Katie is going to fly through surgery and wish for something she really wants later - although she is already back to wanting to know when Lola Bunny is going to come to life.................sigh! (While I am now trying to get her to say "Brad PItt in Hawaii"!
) If I ever do 2300 miles roundtrip in a car with two kids, it will be too soon for me...............remind me of this in June when we have to drive to Illinois for my step-daughter's wedding ( no RV this time and it will be warm)..............and what I would have given for Katie NOT to have been potty-trained. We would no sooner get back on the road when she would declare that she had to go pee-pee. And then there was the time she ran up to Don in the restaurant line and announced to everyone within ear shot that she had to go poop ! When a red-faced Don tried to stall her, she yelled even louder, "No, Daddy, I have to poop riiiiiiiight NOW!" Sheeeeeeesh! So you know who got the dubious honor of that one - we did make it in time, though, which is always a good thing. And we heard from Dr. Bove while we were gone - I think it came in the
day we left, wouldn't ya know?. He said we can hold off on Katie's surgery until this summer, so we are thinking July now...... I guess we will have to give Michigan a buzz and see if that is a go with them.
...........so quasi-good news on that front..................although I
would prefer not to do it at all...........................3rd time was
supposed to be the charm.......................
Okay, so much for the RD version. Thank you so much for all of your
support through this venture. Oh, btw, did I mention that we are
leaving in the AM for our annual family Boy Scout camping trip? No rest
for the weary - wish I was as excited about it as Katie is................unless she is back to kissing pictures in the morning. We are going to go camp out at the dinosaur tracks in Glen Rose................supposed to rain all weekend...........and I have a blasted head cold...................sounds like fun to me..................yeehaw! Hugs to you all. J.
P.S. Niki, I owe you a long post and lengthy explanation...........heehee! Will try and "talk" to ya Sunday PM if I survive the dinosaurs. Hope you are doing well. Love ya. J.
Take care and God bless, Janet, Trip (12 HH & one heckuva Boy Scout),
Katelyn (AKA Katie, 11-19-00, Heterotaxy w/situs ambiguous, dextrocardia, polysplenia, a complete AVSD, DORV, TGV w/L-looped ventricles (L-TGV), BSVC, PS, IIVC, and a mod. leaking AV valve; BT shunt @ 2 weeks at Cook Children's; cath @ 3 months; Bilateral Bidirectional Glenn @ 12 months at UofM; failed AV valve repair on April 13th, 2004 at UofM; next OHS tentatively scheduled for Mar/Apr '05 - well, lookin' like July now; a real little toot, but absolutely adorable!), & Don (DH) Arlington, TX
www.carepages.com carepage name: KatelynSteffen
![Woneligo Smart Watch for Women,Fitness Watch(Answer/Make Call),Alexa Built-in, [24H Heart Rate Sleep Blood Oxygen Monitor],5ATM Waterproof,100 Sports Modes Step Calorie Watches for iOS&Android Phones](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/4102RKWBa0L._SL500_.jpg)
