Vacation

We are back from Disney. We had a great time and are so appreciative of the generosity of Shannon's parents.
We left very early on Wed. Feb 18. Of course it snowed when we left and the roads were very icy all the way until Black River Falls. After that it was much better. We drove to Nashville, TN. The HOJO was very scary and it was not a good night sleep for me. After putting chairs in front of the door, and hanging out with Abbey who puked because she was coughing so bad from her cold, I finally fell asleep. We headed out to downtown Nashville in the morning and had a great time seeing the sights. We also took in a wax museum and stopped at "Cooter's" and saw a bunch of memorabilia from "The Dukes of Hazzard."
We left Nashville and drove to Pigeon Forge, TN. We spent the night in Pigeon Forge and then the next morning got up and checked out the town. If you don't know, it is the home of DollyWood (Dolly Parton) and it reminded us all of Wisconsin Dells. We all said that we would like to come back and have a vacation there. We then drove through the Smokey Mountains and it was so beautiful.
We spent the night in GA and headed towards Savannah. We stopped and took pictures at Paula Deen's place and walked around and looked at the beautiful buildings. We also saw where the Girl Scouts started.
From there we headed to Florida. We arrived in town and found our house we were staying at (finally-the roads in Florida are not marked well at all).
I have to admit as we approached Disney, I cried. I was overwhelmed with joy at bringing my girls to Disney for the first time. The four of us had breakfast at Cinderella's Castle. The girls were so excited and they met a ton of the princesses. We spent the day at Disney. Then On Monday we went to Disney Hollywood Studios. Tuesday we went to Cocoa Beach. The ocean was very cold and it was windy that day but we all had a lot of fun. On Wednesday we went to Animal Kingdom and that was where the girls got to meet a lot of the other character's from Disney. On Thursday, Shannon and I took the girls back to the Magic Kingdom. We spent the whole day there and caught all of the parades and the fireworks. The girls were able to ride in the front cab of the monorail and got a special license and card from the driver. Abbey was also selected to write her wished in the "Blue Fairy" book-and of course they let Ashley do it as well. It was very cute. We were able to do most of the stuff we had missed on the first day. The next day we headed to Epcot. Abbey was so excited to go to Epcot. I was impressed that the girls went on Fast Track. They both loved it. They were scared on the Stitch ride and so then we had to buffer all rides after that throughout the week.
We spent a lot of time swimming in the pool at night and the girls did a great job swimming. They had gained a lot of confidence in the pool. Ashley actually put her whole face in the water.
We did have one bad night with Ashley being sick while we were at the house. The day we went to the ocean, she coughed the entire way back home and we kept thinking she was going to puke. She kept crying and asking to see the doctor and for medicine...it broke my heart that she was in that much pain. Yes we had given her medicine but nothing was helping her. We even took a shower when we got home, which relieved some of the coughing for a little bit, but then she was back to her coughing spell. Now we realize she was coughing it all out as she was better the next day and continued to get better.
We left Orlando and drove to Tallahasse. We spent the night there and then drove to New Orleans. We missed Mardi Gras by one week. We spent 2 nights in New Orleans. The first night we were so lost. We had gone to our hotel and then went to eat and that is where we got lost. We ended up finding a nice police officer who helped to get us back where we needed to go. We were staying in East New Orleans and ended up in South New Orleans. He was a funny guy and got us back. The next day we headed to the French Quarters.
The French Quarters is beautiful. The buildings and the history were amazing. We took the girls on a horse and carriage ride. We even saw Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's house. We also met cousin's of Shannon: Bob and Rhonda.
My cousin owns his own restaurant, Iris, in the French Quarters. He wasn't in town while we were there but I did take pictures of the restaurant from the outside. He was voted one of the top 10 chefs from "Food and Wine" magazine in 2007.
The devastation of New Orleans from Katrina is still very evident. It broke our hearts to see the homes that are still destroyed because of the hurricane. You would be driving and that is all you would see are blocks of destroyed homes. Our you see a block that has been rebuilt and then there is one house that they haven't been able to do anything to. I can't believe that they have not received more assistance in cleaning it up.
Basically after we left New Orleans we drove home. We only stopped to eat, sleep and use the bathroom. We got home on Thursday, March 5 around 2:00. It is definitely good to be home.

Here are the girls in their beautiful coats they received from Peggy this summer. The girls were adorable in them and they were kept very warm!

Temperature

Yes it is freezing outside and I am blogging about it. I cannot believe how cold it is. The girls haven't really seemed to mind it although they really aren't exposed to the cold air. I remember as a kid always thinking it was cold and snowy but this year it is really getting to myself and Shannon. Maybe we have spring fever already!

Routine

School is back in session and everything is going back to normal. Shannon had been off since Dec 20 so it was hard for him to get up this morning and go to work. Abbey has speech today and our everyday routines are coming back. There is something to be said for routines.

Uncle Emmet Rose

Today we attended the funeral for my uncle Emmet Rose. He was was one of those people who everyone liked, he had a gentle soul, and was the most amazing picker ever. For those of you who aren't sure what a "picker" is, I mean a guitar player. His voice was beautiful and nothing sounded better than listening to the Rose Family singing. I loved listening to Emmet, Kenny, David and my mom singing along with Larry and Bev. I know that the brothers: Emmet, Kenny, Donald and Gary along with my mom are singing those wonderful country songs they grew up with along with the gospel music they love. Aunt Lorraine, my dad, Uncle George are sitting with Grandma and Grandpa listening to the music and all is well. Bless all of you who have passed away!
We almost didn't make it to Pine City. Shannon awoke with the worst migraine headache he has ever had. He actually thought he was having a brain aneurysm, that is how bad it hurt. He doesn't normally ask for me to get someone to the house but he was in so much pain that he wanted to get to the Hudson ER (how is that...we never go there either) asap. Thankfully mom was there and we headed off to the ER. He even got sick before we left and that has never happened. The nurse at the ER got an IV going with only one prick (Shannon is a bad needle prick candidate-it usually leaves him more sore than the headache because no one ever gets it until the 5th or 6th try). The drugs they gave him helped and we were finally out of the ER around 8:30 ish. If any of you know Hudson to Pine City, it is normally a hour and 15 minute drive at best. We still had to come home (Auntie Tania was now there), get dressed and leave if we wanted to get to the funeral at 10:00. Let's just say that I drove, we made it by 10:05. I have never driven that fast and we didn't miss anything! It is always fun to catch up with family but I didn't get much of a chance to do that since I didn't go to the wake yesterday and we barely made it today. We also then had to drive back to the cities for the burial. By the time we finally got home and relaxed, I feel asleep while the girls watched tv.
Shannon's headache is back and now he is resting as well.

Happy New Year

We hope that you all have a happy and wonderful new year. We stayed home last night and celebrated with the girls. Nana and Papa came over and we even did chocolate fondue. The girls loved it!!
We are only 48 days until Disney!!! I am so excited to be on vacation!

Grandma Update

Like I said in my previous post...Grandma could change her mind and has now decided to proceed with all recommended treatments. This means she will be going to transitional care in Baldwin and then either back home or into a long term care facility. She has the option of stopping whenever she wants but is going to do it for now. Everything sounds like it can be done in Baldwin which is what she wants.