Nick, Marie, The Diva's & Me!! Finally Finished 10-20-13!!

[DizNee Luver]

Checking in.......thank you everyone for your concern, support, congrats & everything else that has filled these last couple of weeks. I see things slowing back down & I WILL get back to this report!! After all the running around getting the camper & SUV.....we had some issues actually towing the trailer home. The SUV had to be wired....Mike called the guy to ask what wiring connection we would need......so we had it installed, went out to pick up the trailer & he had told us the WRONG ONE!! So things got delayed and cost more money, etc, etc, etc............ We also had Mike's installation Saturday night as an officer for the Elks. It's a semi-formal event and something we had been looking forward to. I had to go out and buy an entire outfit......I don't wear anything but jeans & tees.......so wearing heels and such was a stretch for me. I had been dealing with some horrible allergies and had been sneezing, had a horrendous sinus headache and my nose was so plugged up I couldn't breathe out of it. I was downing allergy meds & advil and getting nowhere with it. We got all dressed up & went down to the Elks Lodge. I got about a quarter thru dinner and ended up going outside for a bit. I then found a place to sit down away from people. We ended up going home after the dinner.....instead of staying and listening to our friend's band. I was so disappointed.

We got home & I was running a fever! I asked Mike when the last time I ran a fever was (never run them...even as a kid).......he couldn't remember me EVER running one. I WAS SICK!!! I feel horrible that I exposed people.....I really thought it was allergies.

Anywhos.......I spent most of Easter flat out on the couch as Mike took the kids to the park. No egg dying, no egg hunt & no ham dinner this year. I felt bad for the kids but the Easter Bunny did come!!

So since this is such a RARE occasion.......here's 2 pictures of Mike & I all dressed up!!

Easter goodies (the girls were all home in the morning.....but Anthony was up at Nick's house and didn't get his stuff until he got home in the afternoon).

The girls at the park.

Hoping to do some on the report today......but do have an appt this afternoon for Michayla.......she's hitting herself again. Her arms, thighs & forehead are covered in bruises. Hoping for a med change to get on top of this again. Breaks my heart to see her doing this & unable to get her to stop.

 

[DnA2010]

Looks like easter was fun, sorry to hear you were so ill!

We had a busy easter as well, including celebrating my DH's birthday with the family- I attempted my first multi-layer cake! I am no cake person by any means, having just taken some of the Michaels classes, but I had fun and it kinda turned out!

 

[DizNee Luver]

Looks like easter was fun, sorry to hear you were so ill!

We had a busy easter as well, including celebrating my DH's birthday with the family- I attempted my first multi-layer cake! I am no cake person by any means, having just taken some of the Michaels classes, but I had fun and it kinda turned out!

I LOVE THAT CAKE!!!!! So cute!!!! So how do you do the Mickey on the top??? Do you use fondant?? I've always wanted to try to do a cake with fondant. I'm not a cake decorator either......but wouldn't mind experimenting!! Hope your hubby enjoyed his birthday!!

Being sick anytime of the year sucks.....but having it totally mess up Mike's installation evening and the kids Easter made me sad. I'm doing a little better today......but want this to be gone!!

 

[Trentmom]

aw..sorry you were not feeling well and could not stay for the entire elk thing.

But you guys did look great

As long as the Easter bunny came, which I see he did, sure the kids were fine with no Ham this year.

 

[DnA2010]

I LOVE THAT CAKE!!!!! So cute!!!! So how do you do the Mickey on the top??? Do you use fondant?? I've always wanted to try to do a cake with fondant. I'm not a cake decorator either......but wouldn't mind experimenting!! Hope your hubby enjoyed his birthday!!

Being sick anytime of the year sucks.....but having it totally mess up Mike's installation evening and the kids Easter made me sad. I'm doing a little better today......but want this to be gone!!

Yup that is fondant I don’t make it, I just buy it from Michaels (use the 40% or 50% off coupon and it isn’t very expensive) I took the classes from Michaels- fondant was class 3, and now it is just practicing…it is kinda tricky, but fun!

The mickey topper came about when my first cake stuck to the pan and busted and I needed to do something with it, so I decided to make the topper- I made it cake pop style, so you crumble the cake, add in some icing and then I packed it into a small bowl lined with plastic wrap. I then stuck it in the freezer to firm up. When I was assembling I covered the base with black fondant. The ears are oreo cookies which were covered in black fondant and then stuck into the base with toothpicks.

If you can’t take the classes, I would recommend getting the fondant course book from Michaels as they explain really well how to roll it and cover cakes, then it is just a matter of practicing. Let me know if you can’t get it there and I can probably scan my book.

 

[PHXscuba]

Laurie, that picture of you and your husband is great. It's nice to have a good semi-current picture together. Often the only pictures we have of just us together are on vacation!

Hope things go well with the medical appointments.

PHXscuba

 

[DizNee Luver]

aw..sorry you were not feeling well and could not stay for the entire elk thing.

But you guys did look great

As long as the Easter bunny came, which I see he did, sure the kids were fine with no Ham this year.

Thank You.....I think the last time I wore heels (actual heels & not flats) was in high school!!! (no joke!!)

The bunny did come.....thank goodness we took care of that ahead of time!!

Yup that is fondant I don’t make it, I just buy it from Michaels (use the 40% or 50% off coupon and it isn’t very expensive) I took the classes from Michaels- fondant was class 3, and now it is just practicing…it is kinda tricky, but fun!

The mickey topper came about when my first cake stuck to the pan and busted and I needed to do something with it, so I decided to make the topper- I made it cake pop style, so you crumble the cake, add in some icing and then I packed it into a small bowl lined with plastic wrap. I then stuck it in the freezer to firm up. When I was assembling I covered the base with black fondant. The ears are oreo cookies which were covered in black fondant and then stuck into the base with toothpicks.

If you can’t take the classes, I would recommend getting the fondant course book from Michaels as they explain really well how to roll it and cover cakes, then it is just a matter of practicing. Let me know if you can’t get it there and I can probably scan my book.

Cool.....thanks for the tips. My son Tyler got his degree in Pastry/culinary. They just did very little with "standard" cakes.....so he never played around with fondant at home.

Laurie, that picture of you and your husband is great. It's nice to have a good semi-current picture together. Often the only pictures we have of just us together are on vacation!

Hope things go well with the medical appointments.

PHXscuba

Thank You!! I figured if we had to get dressed up, we better get some pics. It was a beautiful day out.....just didn't realize how washed out these pics ended up being. I did a little fixing on photobucket.

Michayla's meds are going to double within the couple weeks. We're hoping that will get the hitting thing under control again. If not, she'll have us drop the busperone and increase the night med~Trazadone to see if that helps. After that it's onto psych drugs that can have long term issues...hoping to avoid that if possible.

 

[Markie Mouse]

Hope you and the family are doing ok and had a great easter. I thought we we the only weirdos who made DIY easter baskets. Much more personal that way. If you don't mind me asking what is RAD? I tried googling it but no real explanation. Is it developmental disorder or just a natural disorder? Anyways wish you much more strength along your journey. You must have blessed with the gift of great patience to take care of such a big family. Looking forward to more of the TR.

 

[DizNee Luver]

Hope you and the family are doing ok and had a great easter. I thought we we the only weirdos who made DIY easter baskets. Much more personal that way. If you don't mind me asking what is RAD? I tried googling it but no real explanation. Is it developmental disorder or just a natural disorder? Anyways wish you much more strength along your journey. You must have blessed with the gift of great patience to take care of such a big family. Looking forward to more of the TR.

Thank You and thanx or your interest in RAD.

http://www.attachment.org/parents/letter-for-teachers/ Here's a nice overview and what's going on & what could possibly happen if left untreated or the damage is really bad.

This is becoming very common in kids that have been in foster care. Our system is messed up and becomes all about the parents rights, no matter the damage being done to these kids. Very sad.

 

[Teki]

phew all caught up! Its amazing how similar your experiences are to mine I feel like Im reading my own trip report its pretty neat Sorry to hear you were sick but dont feel bad about never wearing heels, I dont know if you noticed but I even wore flats on my wedding day lol

 

[DizNee Luver]

phew all caught up! Its amazing how similar your experiences are to mine I feel like Im reading my own trip report its pretty neat Sorry to hear you were sick but dont feel bad about never wearing heels, I dont know if you noticed but I even wore flats on my wedding day lol

Since we were there at the same time, I imagine a lot of things were the same.....lol

I just don't dress up and going out & buying all the stuff and then getting sick......was just a bummer!

I wore flats for my wedding too.......

 

[DizNee Luver]

Well it's been a long time since I wrote on this report......but here we go!!

Day Four, March 2:

Nick & Marie were up early (like 5:45am early) so they could make it to Magic Morning. I, opted to sleep......... (I think Marie would have too, but she was a trooper & got up and went with Nick).

They made their way down Main Street and did the Sleeping Beauty Walk-Thru.

Their next stop was Snow White's Scary Adventure.

Then Pinocchio's Daring Journey.

 

[DizNee Luver]

A flight on Dumbo was next and then a picture op on the Dumbo ride elephant (located behind the attraction). LOVE the picture of Marie.....very cute!

Now a ride on Alice in Wonderland...........

Since the line was short for Finding Nemo, they decided to go for a ride.

Next up was Autopia.

......and then Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters.

Still having time before needing to meet me for breakfast, they headed to Snow White's Grotto.

They even got to take a ride on Casey Jr.

It was time to head towards the DLH and Goofy's Kitchen....so they headed to the Monorail and got to sit with the pilot in the front!!

 

[mommy2allyandaveri]

Laurie, I'd love to see a picture of your new trailer! Sounds like it's going to be a really fun summer.

 

[DizNee Luver]

Laurie, I'd love to see a picture of your new trailer! Sounds like it's going to be a really fun summer.

For some reason I thought I had posted pics of our new rig & trailer.....glad you asked!!

Looking in thru the back door into the bedroom:

Standard trailer kitchen:

Mirrored bathroom door (left) and a good sized fridge & separate freezer (right):

Dinette (which I love that it's booth style) that will convert to a queen bed, and the cupboard above the dinette actually folds down to make a bunk bed.

The trailer is a 25'......will be a tad tight with the 6 of us, but we really only sleep and play games in them. We love camping and it's been years since we were able to do so!!

So we had to get a rig to tow the trailer, so we got this 2005 Ford Expedition (73,000 miles).

It seats 8!!! Something we've needed for a long time and finally have!!

The seats on each side will totally fold up to make it easier to get to the back seat (and to hook kids into their seats). All the seats in the 2 back rows fold down.

It came with a pretty expensive/fancy stereo/navigation/cd/dvd player. The glove box is full of wires to hook up a computer, phone & ipod to.....crazy!!

I can't tell you how excited I am to be back into a Ford Expedition!! We had one before and well........ this happened:

There wasn't a piece of metal (including the roof) that wasn't totally destroyed. Derek was driving Mike to work and hit a patch of ice (back in 2011) and they hit the cable that separates the highway and then rolled it. There wasn't any damage to the interior of the vehicle and Mike & Derek were fine...not hurt!! This proved to me the worth of our Ford and I couldn't want to get into another one. My stepdad helped us out by carrying a loan on a minivan he found for us. We were very appreciative of him doing this for us, but we never felt safe in it (and it ended up being a lemon)......so I am a happy mommy!!!

 

[WDWJonasGirl]

I love the shirt!! It's so cool how it's Cars themed

 

[DizNee Luver]

I love the shirt!! It's so cool how it's Cars themed

Our shirts always fit the theme of the year.......it's a beautiful shirt in the sunlight!!!

 

[mommy2allyandaveri]

I love the new trailer! I hope to upgrade to something similar someday. We just have a pop up right now. We love it and it's a great starter.

First trip of the season starts tomorrow. Can't wait!

Enjoy your new trailer

 

[PHXscuba]

That trailer represents my favorite kind of camping ... it comes with a mattress and a bathroom! I like the great outdoors, I just don't sleep well on hard ground and I hate pit toilets or worse. My father was a backpacker and his idea of luxury camping was allowing us a tent go with our sleeping bag!

PHXscuba

 

[DizNee Luver]

I love the new trailer! I hope to upgrade to something similar someday. We just have a pop up right now. We love it and it's a great starter.

First trip of the season starts tomorrow. Can't wait!

Enjoy your new trailer

Oh fun.....have a good trip!! Camping is fun....love our getaways!!

That trailer represents my favorite kind of camping ... it comes with a mattress and a bathroom! I like the great outdoors, I just don't sleep well on hard ground and I hate pit toilets or worse. My father was a backpacker and his idea of luxury camping was allowing us a tent go with our sleeping bag!

PHXscuba

I only camp in a trailer.....I can't do the tent thing! I like getting away, but certain things have to be there for comforts.