RIP Grandma Keller!

Today is a sad day.  My last Grandparent died.  Grandma Keller was 89 years old.  She was a wonderful lady who in the past 10 years suffered from Alzheimers.  Little Lion and I went to visit her in August and I'm so glad we did.  I wanted her to meet LL and see me even if she didn't recognize me.  I still felt it was important.  She was in a chipper mood when we saw her and she even sang for us.  

I'm not sure what day the funeral will be yet.  We are hoping to go up to Wisconsin, if the stars align.  My parents are driving up tomorrow.  I'd like to fly, but airfare is $350 pp and LL isn't free anymore.  That is a lot of money.  We could drive with my parents, but 24 hours in the car is a LONNNNNNNNGGGGGGG time with a 2 year old.  So I'm looking into driving one way and flying another.  The decision will be made tomorrow.  I just don't want to make the wrong one ;)

Grandma will be missed dearly.  I'll always remember her always baking me a cake on my birthday.  I never ate it though because she always made them with random flavors.  Like a peanut butter Barbie cake :)  It's the thought that counts!  Rest in Peace Grandma.

Busy Week!!

I feel I'm in planning overload!  As most of you know, I'm a planner.  I want everything set in stone and know what I got is great. So searching for a place to stay in Paris has been overwhelming!!  Did you know that there are a bazillion hotels and a gazillion apartments???  Well I've got it narrowed down to 10 apartments and a few hotels.  I think we'll get an apartment though since it's nice to have a kitchen and privacy. Plus you can save bucks by eating at "home" a few meals.  The prices actually are about the same between the two.  It's just a matter of finding the best one ;)  I have confidence that I will.  

Mr. E and I have also been talking about taking the train over to London for the day.  It's only 2.5 hour trip.  I figure we could hit the big sights.  Are we crazy to do this???We'll see.  

Ok enough about my trip.  Here are some cute pictures from our play date.  Please notice how big J and I have gotten!!!

PARIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WoooooHooooooo!!!!!  We booked our 5th anniversary trip to Paris!!!!!!  We are going May 5-12th!  I can't wait!!  However, I'm a little nervous because this is the first time leaving Little Lion alone....with my parents of course ;)  I'm sure he'll be fine, but we'll be a continent away!  Nonetheless, Mommy and Daddy time is very much needed!!!!!!!!!  And yes I know that our anniversary is June 5th, but prices to Europe are DOUBLE what we are paying.  How much are we paying you ask? (yes I'm bragging here) $843 for BOTH of us ($421pp) for airfare!  Now to find a nice hotel...ideas???? Eiffel Tower, Mona Lisa, Wine, and Mr. E alone.......what more could you ask for?????   72 days to go!!!! Insert me here!!!

Green Thumb

Ok onto a real post of the day (101).  My wonderful husband loves to buy plants.  Last year he was into fruits.  We had strawberries, blackberries, and tomatoes (is it a fruit???).  Well of course, like usual, they died!  We can never keep anything alive (plants only, not people).  Since we live in Florida and the weather is starting to warm up, we have a new plant addition.  Welcome the largest weed you ever did see!!

Please notice in the first picture it is taller than the porch door!  It also had beautiful dandelions and white things that we used to blow when we were kids.  (I don't know the official name)  Which in turn blew onto our screen porch.  It looks like it snowed in Florida :)

Our weed has become a joke. Mr. E and I are wondering just how big it will actually grow.  I guess I was wrong after all.  We can keep certain plants alive...or maybe just weeds alive ;)

Woo Whoo! ONE HUNDRED!!!!

This is my 100th post!!!!  I can't believe it!  I really have enjoyed blogging and documenting my family's adventures and mishaps.  I also want to thank all of you who read the blog.  I know you don't always comment, but the love is there....sitemeter.com tells me ;) I'll continue for another 100 and hope you are there along the way!  Thank you!!!!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!

Yeah for getting our computer back and all is restored!!!  Here are a couple of pictures from our photo shoot TWO WEEKS ago;o)  Nonetheless it's cuteness!  

I hope your day is full of love!

An Apple A Day, Doesn't Keep The Dr Away

Sorry I've been slacking on the blogging.  With TWO children at home...Mr. E and Little Lion, I've been busy taking care of the both of them.  Mr. E is doing better.  The bloody gauze mustache is gone, but he's still weak and achy in the face.  Hopefully, by next week we'll be back to normal!!  

Another reason for the slacking is that our iMac crashed!  Mr. E bought the new iLife and went to install it on our computer, and it basically crashed it.  We had to bring it to the Apple store for service.  Luckily, everything is on the backup hard drive, and we have this ibook to use until that one is fixed.  However, that means I can't download any pictures from the camera.  You are probably thinking well put it on the ibook.  I can't because we also installed the bad iLife on this one too, but haven't opened any applications which is what caused the problem. 

SOOOOOO I couldn't do Valentine photos this year for the Grandparents or you.  I did take pictures and I got a few cute ones.  Oh Well.  I had to think of another idea without pictures.  Well Little Lion and I went to visit a preschool. (I'm looking to get in in the Mother's Day Out program next year) They had cut out construction paper hearts and put the kid's handprints to form a heart on the inside.  Way Cute!!!  I thought I could do that.  We got the paint out and had the hearts cut out.  Let's just say that most of the paint ended up on LL and my shirts.  The handprints became paint globs ;)  I guess I'm not meant to art projects with a 2 year old!  I'm sure the grandparents will love it anyway.  I hope your Valentine's Day projects are going better than mine!!

Here is a photobooth picture of LL and me to give you at least a little bit of cuteness!

 

Just call me Dr.Robyn

WARNING LONG BLOG WITH A LITTLE VENTING BELOW ;O)

My lovely husband scheduled surgery for yesterday on his nose.  He has been having issues with breathing for as long as I have known him and he snores!!!  Mr. E had his tonsils and adenoids taken out many years ago, but it didn't help the situation.  Since he works at a hospital, he found a great ENT who told him she could help him breath.  Whoo Who!  

After a month of scheduling conflicts and 2 CAT scans on his head, they finally decided on yesterday to do the surgery....notice I didn't tell you what surgery he was getting.  Because he didn't really know just that the ENT would take care of it and clean out all the snot (sorry tmi).  This is what happens when the wife doesn't go to the appointments with him.  He tells me that it'll be 45-60 mins and an out patient surgery.  Ok great the inlaws could watch Little Lion since we should be home around 11-12 ish.  

Here's how our day went.

6:00 up at the crack of dawn

6:45 Drop LL off at inlaws

7:30 We arrive at hospital.Mr. E's surgery was scheduled for 9:00. We get checked in and find out that the Dr.'s 8am surgery got cancelled, and they moved Mr. E up. Great I thought we'd be home by 11 for sure. I'd be able to take a nap when LL and Mr. E.

8:15 Mr. E goes into surgery. I meet with the Dr. and tell her I'll come check back in 45 mins. She says 45 mins???? I scheduled the surgery for 2-2.5 hours since I'm not sure exactly what needs to be done until I get up there. OK.....2-2.5 hours is not going to get me home by noon!!!!!!! Now I know this sounds selfish, but really I was concerned for LL. Remember these are the inlaws who just got home from India with knee replacement and LL hasn't seen in over a month. Plus LL hasn't ever slept at their house and he's not the greatest of sleepers. I had visions of him screaming crazy over tired until we got there.

11:00 The Dr. finally comes to see me.  She tells me she fixed his deviated septum, cleaned out his sinus cavity.  She put a splint in both sinus cavities and packed them with gauze.  He had scar tissue build up from his adenoids being removed.  

11:45 Mr. E finally gets to recovery and I can finally see him. (remember I thought I'd be going home by now) 

12:30 Mr. E is in major pain with a migraine headache.  The nurses decide to give him 2 percoset on an empty stomach!

1:00 Mr. E is now nauseous.   Nope not going home any time soon.

1:30 Mr. E decides to eat.  Wow the headache goes away.....amazing how that works since he hadn't eaten since the night before!!!! He still needs to pee before being discharged.  Does he have to go?? NO!!  The wait continues.  I have to call the inlaws and tell them to put LL down for a nap because we aren't going to be home any time soon.  

3:00 Mr. E is feeling ready to pee. Whoo Who!  So he proceeds to go to the bathroom comes back and sits down.  He then starts to get light headed and almost passes out!!!! Back to the cot he goes.  

3:30 I finally go get a Coke and a bag of chips (nutritious lunch huh?)

4:00 They start the discharge process again, but this time they do it very slow getting him up a little at a time.

4:45 We are finally out the door!!!!!

5:15 I drop Mr. E off at home and go get LL.  LL did fine and slept ok over there.  Luckily I sent enough food and supplies that he was good to go.  

5:45 LL and I go to Publix to get soft foods since Mr. E can't eat hard foods and drop off his prescription.  Publix checks to see if they have the antibiotic and the Percoset.  Yup they have both.  So LL and I go shop.  We get back to the pharmacy.  The rude pharmacist informs me that they don't have enough Percoset and it's an all or nothing and I should bring it to Walgreens.  FINE!  OH yeah the antibiotic isn't ready yet either!  I decide to go to Walgreens and drop off the Percoset prescription and then go back to Publix.  I get to Walgreens and they inform me that the Dr prescribed an amount that didn't exist for Percoset and she'd need to call the dr in the morning.  FINE!!!  Amazing how the Publix people never mentioned that!!!  Back to Publix we went to get the antibiotic.

7:30  Finally home!!!!  Now I have to make dinner for all of us.  

Lesson learned : Always go with your husband when he is scheduling something important.

Mr. E is feeling good today and didn't even need the Percoset...thank goodness.  I am recouping from my long day yesterday while taking care of my TWO children.  Mr. E can't lift anything over 10 lbs or bend over.  Plus he has a constant bloody nose which I get to change the gauze out of every couple of hours.  Dr. Robyn at your service!  Don't forget the complaining about how he can't breath out his nose....duh you got a lot of stuff up there and gauze covering it :)  I told him Valentine's Day better be great :)  

India

As I mentioned in my kitty 911 post, I mentioned that my in-laws went to India.  Here's the story.  So my Mother-in-law was having issues with her knees.  She went to doctors here in town and they determined that one knee needed replacement and the other was on it's way there.  Well after researching how much it would cost here without health insurance....they don't have any!!...they determined going to India would be the best option for them.  You wonder wow it must be a big difference to go all the way to India for knee replacement.  It is $100,000 for here and $20,000 for India and that includes airfare and 3 weeks there in their care including food.  BARGAIN!  

However, is it a bargain?????  Do you think they get the same treatment there as they do here?  My MIL feels she did.  She doesn't have anything to compare it to.  They did the surgery as soon as she got there on both knees.  They moved her to a care house where the therapists came to her and exercised her legs. Father-in-law also stayed there with her.   

The problem now arrives when they got home.  MIL is having a hard time finding a place to take her for physical therapy.  She needs to get a doctor to agree that she needs therapy.  I assume they do this for liability.  So MIL is hoping that her original doctor who did the prelim work will work with them.  Or she can find someone to come to their house on the side and do exercise with her.  I think that you need to have machines to help with leg/knee muscles.  Again she is trying to find the *cheaper* way.  Should you be cheap with your legs that you need for the rest of your life???

Here are a few pics from their adventure that aren't super exciting.  

Would I do it? Probably not. I'm still not comfortable going somewhere that I know nothing about their hospital system where problems could arise.  Then again if I had no insurance and needed it....maybe.  While they were there they met a woman who was there for a PACE MAKER and a couple gastric bypass surgeries.  So they aren't the only people taking advantage of this deal.  They also said they read that some insurance companies will pay 100% if you go over there since it's cheaper for them too.  You think our healthcare system is messed up yet?????  

They did say that the country is beautiful, but the poor are very poor and the rich are very rich.  They also visited the Taj Mahal and said it was amazing!  

All in all so far she is glad she went and looks forward to not walking slowly hunched over.  Let's hope the therapy starts soon :)  See how interesting my family is????? :)