Karrousel, The Ball

Tabitha invited Dane to the dance. He's a good friend of hers. Her boyfriend, Al, didn't mind because they were broken up at the time, and he didn't want to wear a tux.

She said there was an "After Party" at Rachel's house. I have no idea who Rachel is. She said both of Rachel's parents would be home. I have no idea who Rachel or her parents are. The dance is from 9:00pm to 12:00am. I think this is long enough for a 16 year old girl to be "Out on the Town". After some discussion with Charlie, we decided she should be home by 1:00am at the latest. If memory serves us correctly, the bars stop serving at 2:00am and all the drunks hit the road. She was very upset and said she would have no time for the "After Party" if she had to take Dane home, drive to Interlochen where the party was and get home by 1:00am. Well, we said, it appears you won't be going to the party. So she left.

She called about a minute later and said she left Dane's flower in the refrigerator. I told her I would bring it out to her if she wanted to come back and get it.

I walked out to her car and opened the passenger door. It was unlocked. All the doors were unlocked. Here is my princess, driving around in an evening gown and heels with all her doors unlocked! I immediately locked all the doors and reminded her to be careful.

She called about a minute later and screamed, "Mom! There's something wrong with my car!" I said, "What do you mean? What happened?" She said, "I don't know! It just started choking and sputtering and making a loud noise!" I asked her where she was and called Charlie to meet me there. He was on his way back from dropping Michael off at a friends house to spend the night. We met at the Fountain Parkway gas station and there was Tabitha, parked in the road, waiting for us. I sent her on her way in my car and Charlie drove hers slowly back to the house. I followed in Charlie's truck.

I got a text from Tabitha on my cell phone around 10:30 asking if she could be home by 2:00am. I replied that she could either take Dane home and come straight home, or she could figure out how to do what she wanted and get home by 1:00am. "K" was her reply.

My next text from her was that she was leaving the dance, so I figured she would be home by 1:00am. At 12:15am she was standing in the living room screaming up to my bedroom, "Mom!" I looked at Charlie and he verified she was downstairs screaming for me. I went out of the bedroom and looked over the railing. Tabitha said, "Mom! I did something to your car!" I said, "Seriously? What did you do?" She said, "Yes. I don't know. Come look." We walked out to the garage and the passenger side of my car had paint in various place that stick out further than other place. I asked her what happened and she said she didn't know. I asked her why she turned and looked at this side of the car and she said to get her bag out of the back (she had packed a change of clothes for the "After Party". I asked her where Dane was and she said he got a ride home with someone else. Hmmm. An answer for everything except what happened to my car. Charlie came out and it was decided that she pulled in too close to the side of the garage and scraped the paint from the garage onto the car. Nothing major, we can buff it out.

Meanwhile, what was wrong with her Jeep? Motor mounts sheered off.

Michael's Results

The nurse called and said that Michael's blood work came back normal. She said that since his bones are not 11, that means he has more growing time. In essence, even though he is 11 and should ordinarily stop growing at age 18, his bones are only 8 and will grow for another 10 years. It doesn't sound possible, but that's what she said, his bones are just developing slowly. We have a check up with the endocrinologist on May 1st. We'll see what he says then.

Happy Halloween!!

Michael turned 11 today!

Charlie and I pulled him out of school early to take him to an appointment made 3 weeks ago with an endocrinologist with the Cook's Children's Network. We have been concerned that Michael is small, so we wanted to make sure once and for all if he was growing at the correct rate, or not.

When we first met Dr. Thornton, he asked why we came to him. He was concerned that even if he told us Michael was growing right on schedule, we would want him to make Michael bigger anyway. Apparently, there are parents out there who do this... that is just insane! So, we told him we just wanted to know one way or the other. If he is growing at the right rate, then we are done. If he's not... what do we do?

Now keep in mind, Michael's pediatrician did not refer us to the endocrinologist, Michael's occupational therapist suggested we might want to check into it. Dr. Thornton said that if we had waited too much longer, Michael would be into puberty and it would be too late to help him, if he needed help.

After checking Michael out, Dr. Thornton sent us to have an x-ray of Michael's left hand. After the x-ray, we went back so he could read the x-ray and tell us if there was reason for concern or not. There is reason for concern. Some of the bones in Michael's hand are between 6 & 7 years old, and some are about 8 years old. None of them are close to 11 years old.

We were then sent to a lab to have blood drawn. Three tubes of blood. Michael was very brave during the whole process. The tests they are going to run will tell the doctor where Michael is deficient so he knows how to treat him. We also discovered during our conversation with the doctor over Michael's medical records, that a medication his pediatrician prescribed for him, that he took for over 3 years, could have stunted his growth. Oh joy.

We will have the results from the blood tests in about 3 weeks.

Sweet 16

"HAPPY 16 T K ♥"

The day finally arrived for Tabitha! She's 16 and has her driver's license in hand! Shirley took her this morning to get her license and brought her back home so she could drive her Jeep to school. Stephanie and Katie made the above message on the fence surrounding the school parking lot for her. We tried to get there before sundown, but didn't quite make it. She chose Red Lobster for her birthday dinner, and passed on dessert. I didn't even get to use my "16" candle.

This just in...

I am running an errand and Michael is with me in the front passenger seat. I stop at a light and he looks up from his video game...

Michael - "Are we there?"

Me - "No, that's a private school."

Michael - "Oh, I don't understand. Why are they just out there in the open if they are supposed to be private?"

Enjoy.

I got carded!

Oh my gosh! Can you believe it??? I took Tabitha to Grapevine Mills Mall to get her hair highlighted before school started. She took Stephanie to sit with her while she had her hair done. I went shopping with my birthday money! After Tabitha's hair was finished, I took them to Chili's Too for lunch. I ordered a beer since Tabitha was driving, and the waiter said, "Can I see your ID?" I kind of giggled and said, "Are you serious?" He said, "Yes, I am." His expresssion was very serious. So I took this as an opportunity to ask, "Why? How old do I look?" You're not going to believe this... I still don't believe it... he said, "Under 30." I laughed and said, "I'll be HAPPY to show you my ID... and thanks for asking!"

Not bad for a 41 year old broad!

Vacation, Day 10, Going Home

We were exhausted... apparently Kimie was too.

Vacation, Day 9

As we were heading to White Sands this morning, there was a loud bang on the outside of the RV. Tabitha and I looked out the window to see what appeared to be black feathers flying by. Charlie stopped at the next gas station so we could take a look at the damage. This is what we saw.

Can you believe it? The side just ripped right off! Can anything else possibly happen to the RV?

White Sands was really awesome! We were blinded by it... it looks like snow in the desert.

Sugar is the white poodle to the right of Kimie... can you see her?

We spent the night at the same RV park in Carlsbad as the first night of our RV trip. A perfect ending to a great trip, I think.

Vacation, Day 8

We got up this morning and headed to White Sands. We won't make it today. Today will be a lot of driving. We took some pictures on the way to Laughlin. We stopped in Laughlin to eat lunch.

That little city you can see there is Laughlin. It's a city out in the middle of nowhere.

If you look really close at this picture, you can see the water off in the distance. This water in the middle of nowhere is why there is a town in the middle of nowhere.

A closer view of the town.

This is the riverboat casino in Laughlin where we had lunch. This is how far back in the parking lot RV parking is allowed.

This was the view out of the restaurant window. That is Home Depot across the river.

It was really hot in the desert travelling to White Sands... as you can see. This clock is inside the RV. It was 91º inside the RV and 124º outside the RV. Lots of driving left to do yet. We stayed at a really nice RV park that night. I can't remember where it was. Here are a couple photos from the drive there.

Vacation, Day 7

We got up this morning and headed to the Circus Circus buffet for breakfast. Charlie and Charles signed up for a Texas Hold 'Em poker tournament. We were very excited for them to play! It only cost them $40 each. Tabitha wanted to go to the Fashion Show Mall and Michael wanted to see a magic show while we were there. I called on the Lance Burton tickets and they were $76 each in the mezzanine and $69.50 each in the balcony. I found an ad in the magazine we received when we checked in at the Circus Circus RV park for a place that sold tickets half price. They had a location at the Fashion Show Mall, so we decided to hit the road. I drove the CR-V over to the mall and parked in the parking garage. Tabitha and I were giggling while I was parking in the garage because of the loud noises the tires make in a parking garage. You have people driving 5 miles per hour and you hear tire sounds like major accidents are about to happen, or someone is spinning out. Anyway, we went straight to the ticket store and discovered that Lance Burton does not allow his tickets to be discounted. Bummer! So, Michael had to pick another show. He chose "The World's Greatest Magic Show" at the Greek Isles Hotel and Casino. I had never heard of this hotel and casino. With will-call receipts in hand, we headed off to shop. We quickly discovered why this is the Fashion Show Mall. All the name brands have stores here. Louis Vuitton, Saks Fifth Avenue, Bloomingdale's, Bernini, Coach, etc. Since I'm accustomed to Grapevine Mills Mall and all the outlets, this was quite a shock for me. Major sticker shock!

After a few hours shopping, Charles called Shirley and let her know they were out of the tournament and back in the RV. It was over 90 degrees in the RV and the dogs were miserable. We decided to meet them at the RV to check on the dogs and go have a late lunch. Michael started feeling bad... said his stomach hurt.

When we got back to the RV, Shirley decided to check the filter in the intake to see if it needed to be cleaned so the RV would get cooler. When she removed the cover and touched it, it disintegrated in her hands. Just another thing to go wrong with the RV. Michael said he was feeling really bad and ran into the bathroom and threw up. He vowed never to eat eggs again and requested that the word "eggs" not be spoken to him ever again. He rested (as much as you can rest in 90+ degrees) while we took the dogs for a walk. He was feeling a little better when we got back so we made sure the dogs had plenty of water and headed to one of the restaurants in Circus Circus. Michael started feeling bad again when we got inside the casino (you have to walk through the casino to go anywhere in the hotel), so I took him to the bathroom and waited for him to come out. And waited. And waited. I finally called Charlie on my cell phone and asked him to go in after Michael. Michael came out right when Charlie got there. Now we had a decision to make. We didn't have time for a sit down dinner anymore, and we needed to head to the magic show, or decide we spent all that money for the tickets, but we weren't going to see a show.

It was decided that we would eat at a little diner in the casino. Michael laid down on some steps while we ate. (I didn't eat because the only thing on the menu I could eat was nachos and the chips were stale.) A security guard walked over to check on Michael. Michael was drinking a bottle of water and resting. When we finished eating, he said he thought he could make it to the show, so we went back to the RV, got the CR-V and hit the road. We were told to arrive at least 45 minutes early and we had exactly 45 minutes before the show began. Charlie had the directions, but we apparently passed the road we were supposed to turn on and ended up driving all over Las Vegas. 35 minutes later we arrived at the Greek Isles. Michael thought he was having a major asthma attack when we got out of the car because of the exhaust of the car in front of us. We hurried him inside and the smoke inside took us all by surprise. Michael was not calming down. I threw my purse open on a table and was digging for his inhaler when Shirley reminded me that she had his inhaler in her purse because she was shopping with Michael in the mall while I was shopping with Tabitha. She left her purse in the RV. Michael looked distraught at this point. The only thing I could do was get him to calm down and realize it was just the exhaust and the cigarette smoke and we were all smelling and inhaling the same thing. I walked him back outside and he got some fresh air this time and calmed down. We went through the casino with my hand over Michael's mouth and nose and found the will-call line. It was not long, but it was VERY, VERY slow. I stood in the line with Tabitha while every one else stood at the end of the hall, waiting. By the time we got through the line I was fit to be tied. I was griping and complaining about the idiots working will-call. (Remember, I didn't eat anything either.) When we got to the entrance, the maitre d' told the usher to put us in the front. The usher questioned this, but the maitre d' insisted. I can only ASSUME this was because I was so vocal throwing a fit about the idiots in will-call. Ya think?

The MC was already in full production when we sat at a table in the front row. We had a clear view to a lot of magic tricks! I mean, we could tell what they were doing and where the cards and birds and everything else that was supposed to be appearing and disappearing were coming from and going to. Kind of disappointing since this was labeled "The World's Greatest Magic Show". There were 3 acts that were spectacular. That made it all worthwhile. Michael said he wasn't feeling any better during one of the so-so acts, and he wanted to leave. I talked him in to staying, and I'm glad I did. We would have missed the good acts if we had left. One of the magicians brought out a trunk. He opened the trunk and took out a mannequin of Charlie Chaplin's head and set in on the stage in front of us. He then took out Charlie Chaplin's torso and set it center stage. He then took out Charlie Chaplin's legs and set them on the other side of the stage. He closed the trunk, rolled it closer to the front of the stage, stood it up, and opened it. He picked up the legs and stood them in the trunk. He picked up the torso and sat it on the legs. He picked up the head and placed it on the torso. Charlie Chaplin walked out of the trunk! That was so cool!!! After the show, they sell T-shirts and autograph them. Michael didn't want to stay for this, so we left.

We got in the car and went straight to the RV. Took all of 3 minutes. Yes, it took 35 minutes to find a place we were 3 minutes from. Go figure.

Michael was feeling better now, so we got him to eat a little something and that made him feel even better. Since this was our last night, we decided to head down to Fremont Street in downtown Las Vegas so Charles and Shirley could see the light show.

"Positioned 90 feet above Fremont Street, the attraction stretches 1,400 feet and consists of 12.5 million synchronized LED modules, including 180 strobes and eight robotic mirrors per block. It's capable of producing millions of color combinations, animation and video feeds, allowing the display to switch from a swirling ocean setting to a television broadcast in minutes. "

When Charlie and I brought the kids a couple of years ago we came to see this. It was really fun! We watched 3 of them. They had an Elvis one and a couple of cartoon light shows. So, we weren't prepared for what they were showing tonight. It was like watching a MTV video with scantily clad girls dancing on poles. Michael just kept his head down. I was embarrassed for Charles and Shirley. We had told them what cute shows they had, and here we were watching dirt basically across the sky. Once the show was over we packed it in for the night.

Vacation, Day 6

We got up this morning and had breakfast at the restaurant. We wanted to get in a few more views before we headed to Las Vegas.




If you look closely at the top of the next picture, you can see the resort hotel.

We are waiting outside of a gift shop for Michael and Shirley to finish checking out.

The following are views on the road from Grand Canyon to Las Vegas.

When we arrived in Las Vegas, we checked in at the Circus Circus RV park. This was the most expensive place we stayed at and with the least amenities. We met a nice lady in the RV next to us. I can't remember her name, but she used to own a beauty salon in Colleyville, TX and is now retired from that business and is in a fishing lure business with her life partner. Her life partner is a man, but she said she refuses to get married again so that's what she calls him.

We headed over to Circus Circus to hit the buffet. We were pretty hungry!

After dinner, we decided to go for a drive down the strip. I was very put out to find that the Westward Ho, my mom's favorite casino, had been torn down.

I took a couple of pictures from the car. I took the Coca-Cola picture for Daniel since he likes to collect Coca-Cola paraphernalia.

After a little while of sitting in traffic, we decided to head back to the RV. We were pretty tired. When we got back to the RV, Charlie and Tabitha decided to go walk around for a little while and take in the sights. They decided to walk over to the Wynn casino which appeared to be right down the street. It was probably around 9:30pm or 10:00pm when we got back to the RV. It was around 2:00am when Charlie and Tabitha returned from their little walk. In actuality, the Wynn is probably 10 city blocks from the Circus Circus casino.

Vacation, Day 5, Part 2

We arrived at the Grand Canyon in the early afternoon. There were signs posted that the RV locations were all full, but we had to go find out for ourselves. The young lady working the the RV place we stopped at (there are several in the Grand Canyon Park) was very sweet and told us that she had 2 spots that she had to hold for reservationists until 6:00pm. She said that if they didn't show up, she would give us one of the spots. Wasn't that nice?

So we headed over to the big parking lot we had passed with a general store, a gift shop, and a restaurant. We unhooked the CR-V and took it to see some of the Grand Canyon vistas!

Do you see the rainstorm off in the distance? We saw so much rain while we were on vacation! We weren't in much of it, but it seemed to always be around us.

Look at that dark skyline! We headed off to another viewpoint.

This looked pretty dangerous from where I was standing. But upon closer inspection, there was a railing all the way around that area. Of course there are idiots who have to push the envelope all the time. Like in this next picture. Tabitha and I were totally freaking out that we were going to witness 2 stupid men falling to their deaths.

Yes, they are on the other side of the railing. Yes, they are sitting on the edge of the rock from the previous picture. They were from Kentucky and said they climbed this kind of stuff all the time... no problem. I was having a hard time just standing there knowing how much danger they were in. So I got out of there.

Tabitha and I referred to this area as "Static Corner". It's hard to tell from this distance, but that blond standing next to Charlie, her hair is standing straight up. The funniest was a man with a comb-over. He was with his teenage son, looking over the railing, hair standing straight up at attention.

You can see Charlie carrying Kimie and Charles carrying Sugar in this photo. The dogs handled the height very well.

This was another opportunity for Tabitha and I to freak out. There are no railings down there. People were just climbing down there onto the rocks. The next picture is a zoom in of this picture.

After this family photo, Charlie and Charles dropped us off at the general store and went back to the RV place to see if we could take a "no-show"s spot. Hooray! We got one! Sometimes persistence pays off. It wasn't the nicest of all the places. You had to take a shuttle to the showers because they were so far away. We went back and took pictures at sunset before heading to the restaurant for dinner.

I had NO idea I looked so fat in those jeans!

After dinner we spent the rest of the evening just chatting at the picnic table beside the RV and planning out the next day.