Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Christmas Day

The grandchildren had a present filled Christmas.  Addie had a Barbie Christmas, with a Dream House and Pop Star Barbies.



Asher got his own dress up clothes.



Claire got her own Little People Castle with all the Disney Princesses.


Modeling her new outfit.


Grandma got a new phone cover with the grandchildren's pictures, from her friend Charlene.


Papa got a new sweatshirt that said, "World's Greatest Papa" and had the grandchildren's names on the back in little birds.

















Scot arrived with more presents. A Barbie skido for Addie.


Asher got a Mader truck that could do everything, but fly.  (This became the favorite gift of everyone, including Papa and Craig.)


Claire got a Mickey and Minnie Mouse but I don't seem to have a picture.  I do have a picture of Heather and Scot.  They will probably both kill me for including this, but I love it.


We had a great dinner.  Steak, hash brown casserole, green beans and more.  Yummy!

Scot gave Claire a private concert.


Asher joined in with his new guitar that his sister got him.


It started to snow, yes snow.  It was an ugly day.  Rain started hard after midnight and as the temperature dropped it turned to snow.  It made it nice for Christmas though and Addie and Craig made a snowman.





Merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight!




Monday, December 24, 2012

Christmas Eve

We have Christmas with Heather and Craig and family every other year.  This was our year to be with them for Christmas.  Craig had wanted a new door for the garage for Christmas.  Not the overhead door but the door from the garage to the backyard.  He wanted it installed and painted, with no work for him.  So, that's what we got him for Christmas.  Bob met Scot's handyman and made arrangements for it to be installed.  I played with Addie on my IPhone.  She knows more about it than I do.  She is not in Kindergarten yet, but reads all important words and knows how to buy apps on my phone and how to look for princesses.  Here are three princesses that may look familiar to you.
Princess Addie


Princess Jacki


Princess Claire, notice she already has the Rose Parade wave down. Asher didn't want to be a princess.


At 2:00 pm we attended Park Cities Christmas Eve service.  They have about 5 different times, but earlier was better with the children.  Grandma and Papa too. It was in the Grand Hall, later it would be in the main sanctuary. Grand Hall is more children friendly also and the service was an hour long. It was a candlelight service, so the picture is not too good.


We went for an early dinner at Campisi's.  Not crowded yet delicious food.  I had chicken picata, my favorite, and Bob had lasagna, his favorite.  The grandchildren had pizza, it was perfect.  
We headed home and took one last picture of the grandchildren before they were off to bed. I should say several attempts were made for this picture.




Hope your Christmas is filled with as much love and joy as ours.



Wednesday, December 12, 2012

A Week in the hospital

We came home Saturday from Orlando.  Bob did not do well on the flight home.  By the time we got to Dallas, his dizziness and light headiness was too much, so we got a wheelchair for him.  We picked up Pralines at the Pooch Hotel.  She was happy to see us, and we all headed home.

Sunday, Bob was better but not great.  We decided it was best for him to rest for the day as he was having tests on Monday before his surgery on Tuesday.  Scot was performing in a cantata for Christmas at his church. So I headed to Ft. Worth for that and lunch with him.  It was a Scottish Christmas and the performance was just awesome.  Not a great picture but I felt odd taking pictures in the church.  Of course it didn't stop me from snapping  one.  Sorry Bob missed it.


Monday, we moved into Heather's, as Bob had to be at the hospital at 6:00 am and she lives only blocks away.  Bob had blood tests and a CT Scan.  We went back to Heather's and enjoyed the children one more day.


We had taken over Asher's room, but during nap time he returned gladly to his bed, with Hoppie and his pacifier.


Tuesday morning before light we headed to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital. Where Bob was scheduled for an ablation and a pacemaker. The front of the hospital, was all decorated for Christmas.  You can't really see in this picture but the lights made it look like it was snowing.


Check in went easy and by 7:00 Bob was prepped and ready.  I was soon escorted out to the waiting room as the first of two procedures started about 8:00.  Vicki (Kiki) came to wait with me.  Two of Heather's children were sick.  Waiting went by quickly with someone to talk to during the time.  Thanks so much Vicki. I appreciate it more than you know.  The hospital attendant, John, was great about keeping us posted.  About every hour he would come over and give me an update.  About 10:00 am, John told me the ablation was done and they were now starting the procedure to put in Bob's pacemaker.  I began to notice that most of the people in the waiting room that I had been with since early morning were gone, but soon it was my turn. John let us know about 12:00 pm that the pacemaker was in and that Dr. Le would be out to see me.  Dr. Le let me know everything went well and that Bob should really begin to feel much better.  Thank you Lord.  And thanks for all our friends who had lifted us both up in prayer.

While Bob was in recovery and being moved to a room, I went to Heather's and took a nap.  I drove back later to the hospital to spend some time with Bob.  He was still pretty medicated, but we were both glad it was over and successful.  His blood pressure was a little high, so I stayed till that got it under control.  About 8:00 pm, I headed to Heather's.  It had been a long day!

Bob told me he would call when I could pick him up.  Since I was so close and I was so tired, I didn't try to be at the hospital when Dr. Le made his rounds about 6:30 am.  Bad decision. When he came in, he told Bob that everything had gone great with these two procedures.  However, he wanted to talk to him about something.  When they had done the CT scan, they found the Bob's right coronary artery was 90-95% blocked.  He said that Bob would now need a cardiac catherization.  Bob ask if Dr. Le would do the new procedure and he said, "No, I am an electrician and you need a plumber."  When Bob called me and gave me the news, it was tough to hear.  Things became a blur after that.  I wasn't ready for another procedure. I went to the hospital and picked Bob up.  We decided it was best for us to stay at Heather's until we figured out what was next.

Within hours, Bob was schedule for his heart cathe on Friday.  Yes, the same week. Thursday he had more tests and Friday they operated on him to put a stint in his heart.  This time Scot waited with me.  We didn't have to be at the hospital till 7:00 am.  Since they were making room for Bob in their schedule, the procedure didn't start to almost 10:00 am. About noon Dr. Saland, the plumber, came out to tell us that everything went great. That Bob had a 93% blockage and that we were fortunate to have found it before he had a heart attack.  Thank you again Lord, you are so faithful. This time I was at the hospital when the doctor came in the morning.  Everything was fine.  We headed to Heather's house for the weekend.  Heather and her family had gone to the Lake house for a wedding, and Bob and I babysit the dogs.  That was Craig, Heather, and my excuse to keep Bob in Dallas near the hospital for a few days.  Our motor home is in a park about 45 minutes of outside of Dallas.  Here are some pictures of the children at the wedding. These are the cousins: Back left Asher than Addie and in front left Claire and cousin Miles. (Luke and Maci's little boy.)


We ended up staying through Wednesday, doing follow up checks.  By Wednesday night, we were glad to go home and to our own beds.  I'm sure Asher was equally glad to see us go.



Friday, December 7, 2012

Day Five

Yesterday in all the princesses magic, I forgot to tell you that we received a call from Bob's doctor and instead of doing an ablation on the 11th when we get home, after some testing, the doctor has decided to do an ablation and put in a pacemaker.  We weren't surprised, actually we were glad to get the call hoping this would be the end of Bob's heart issues.

However, this was our last day at Disney and we wanted to make the most of it.
Here are a few pictures of our hotel. This is the courtyard of our hotel.  Each night at 7:00 pm, movies were shown here.  Disney movies of course.


We had a river running through the grounds of our hotel.  You could take a boat to Downtown Disney.


Really a lovely place to stay.  We didn't see much of it, as there was so much to see at Disney.


Asher and Addie posing at Hollywood Studios.


One last parade.

Dodad and Bob both had sore backs after this trip.  But it was worth it.


Final visit with Mary Poppins.


Tomorrow morning we flew home to Dallas, and as you can see we had finally worn the children out.


What a wonderful trip!!! 

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Princesses Addie: A Day at the Spa and Lunch

This was Addie's big day.  We sent the boys and Claire to Epcot and Kiki, Addie, Heather and I headed to Downtown Disney for a special princess day. Addie dressed in her Belle gown.  Here is the Fairy Godmother Spa.


First step hair, then


nails,


and crown.


How do I look?


Princess Addie


The boys had called and were ready for lunch.  Our reservations were not till 1:00 pm. so we hurried to meet them in Epcot.

Cinderella stopped by for pictures and an autograph. 


Next Snow White.


Then came Aurora.


Two Belle's meet.


Finally cupcakes for the birthday girl.


What a day.  Addie was in heaven, but being a princesses is hard work, so we had to take a break for a drink.


What a fun day.  Tomorrow is our last day, still so much we haven't seen.

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Hollywood Studios and a great Christmas Parade

Today we headed to Hollywood Studios, another park at Disney World. Lots of props for picture taking.
Here are the boys leaning on an old truck.


We were heading to see Lightning McQueen and Mader, but made a stop at Miss Piggie's Fountain.


Addie and Asher both liked Lightning McQueen and Mader.


This was much better than princesses and Asher had had to have his picture taken with a lot of them.


At night there was an electrical parade, which was awesome.


Best parade we saw at Disney World.


Claire loved the lights.


So did Addie.


We topped the night off by dancing the night away.


Day three complete. Tomorrow Addie has her appointment with the Fairy Godmother.