Blog a Day Late Due to Holiday Traffic

HAPPY THANKSGIVING LET THE HOLIDAYS BEGIN!!!!

The Blog is delayed this week due to Holiday happenings and the end of the semester keeping me so busy I can't remember what day it is. The good news is the Worcester Firefighter's Calendar that likes to try all of my patience in its creation is DONE!!! I spent three hours at the printer ironing out all the bugs on Tuesday! Now they can be printed.

We had a very busy week. Thanksgiving was fun and Dad was able to come to dinner at Auntie Peggy's to celebrate the holiday with everyone. Kylie brought her baby over to Papa to show him how she can feed her! She will make a good big sister. In 12 days she will be a big sister!!!

My Cousin Katy is studying abroad this year and we were lucky enough to be able to Skype with her on Thanksgiving. It was probably about 4 a.m. her time but we were so happy to be able to see her Thanksgiving. We sent her photos so she could see the day and we took her for a tour of the house and its decoratings!

One of our decorations consisted of a Turkey "Balloon" ( That's What Adele and Colin called it! )
It was an inflatable Turkey! Another Gem of a find from the Brigham and Women's Gift Shoppe!

Kerry and Lilly Share a Thanksgiving Hug :) 

Adele and Lilly share some Snacks! and Lilly is ready to take their photo with the 1989 camera she found in the toy room at Auntie Peggy's

My Dad started a tradition a few years ago. He re-arranges the HAPPY THANKSGIVING Blocks to read HAPPY GIV A SHIT!!! Well My cousin Ryan read his mind and re-arranged the blocks this year for him :) Thanks Ry! We also had everyone that couldn't make it to Thanksgiving dinner on the mantle to join us for dinner. We decided it was obvious that Katy was the favorite since she was up there three times!!!

I went to Auntie Mary Margaret's for our traditional Thanksgiving night festivities :) We had some yummy desserts, lots of laughs and celebrated my Cousin Paul's birthday too. Auntie Madaline made her delicious pies and I of course had to sample the pumpkin and the chocolate cream pie! Cousin Tina was home from Florida so we got to catch up. It was nice.

Dad made his famous Pizelle cookies for Thanksgiving. He had me take some over to the girls earlier in the week for their approval. I think Kylie approved!

Saturday I was treated to the Nutcracker by Tracy and Adele! We went to the beautiful Hanover! It was Adele's first trip there! We went with her friend Jillian and her Mom too. The show was wonderful and the girls had fun ( us big girls did too! )

Monday Lynne and Joanne came to visit Dad and brought lunch. They got to eat at our newly decorated for Christmas dining room table. As you can see we have Santa on the door watching everyone...making his list and checking it twice!

Thanks Everyone for all of you continued support. I would like to give Tammy and Marie Mastro a shout out for all they have done in organizing my Dad's fundraiser. They have been working tirelessly to make sure all details are covered. I think it will be a very successful event with them in charge!

I am looking forward to the end of the semester and Christmas break and spending more time with everyone!

Until next week, have a great week everyone!!!!!

Another Week Has Passed

Up With The Sun 

This past weekend I took a much needed break with the girls to Maine for our annual Girls Shopping Weekend! Robyn's cousin Janice is nice enough to let us stay at her beautiful house in York for the weekend. Saturday Deb, Anne and I were up with the sun and went for a run.

If you notice the white spots on my hat...it is frost! It was so beautiful. A little chilly at first but it was a fantastic run!

Later we went back to Nubble to take a photo...frost free :)

Dad did great this week. He had an appointment last Thursday and things went well. His echocardiogram showed that his fluid has decreased HOORAY :) Hopefully he can continue on this up an up trend and get better and stronger everyday. They increased the speed of the pump to hopefully give him more energy and make him feel less tired. He is doing better this week than last and hopefully he will do even better next week. People have been stopping in to visit and it has been so nice. 

Mom and Dad even went out to lunch this week! They have been visiting local stores to walk around to get Dad some exercise. He can lean on the carts at the store while they shop and it's a change of scenery. 

Today, Dad had a lot of familiar friendly faces come to visit. They brought a delicious lunch for everyone to enjoy and it was just like another day in the office :0) Dad was very happy to see everyone. I know he misses being at work with all his friends but soon enough he will be back and even better than before.

Dad and the friends he works with. Some of them have been friends with Mom and Dad since before I was born and they are still here for support after all these years :)

******* PLEASE SAVE THE DATE *******

Some good friends have been organizing a fundraiser for Dad. It will be at St. Anne's Church Hall on January 13, 2013 from 11:30 to 4:30 p.m.

The letter from St. Anne's Pastor and the ticket samples are below

Here is a sample of the tickets

This fundraiser will be held to help with all of the increasing medical costs that Dad has. He will continue to have more expenses as his condition progresses from LVAD to Transplant and we are looking to ease the costly burden of medical care. Thus far his care has been excellent and we want to be able to continue to offer him the best care that he can get.

I would like to thank everyone for your continued support, care, concerns, cards, visits, meals, phone calls, e-mails, text messages, blog comments and so much more. We continue to make it through another week with all of your support. Please keep the good thoughts and prayers coming, we still need them. 

I will leave you with a few last photos from my girls weekend. The challenge is always to make sure we can cram all of our purchases into Robyn's car on the way home. I am happy to say we had another successful packing experience. It is kind of like playing the game tetris. Leave no available space unfilled. We left a little friend in the window to wave to all our fellow commuters.

We always drive home by the water to say goodbye to the ocean one last time before we leave. The view was as beautiful as a warm summer day!

Those Days Go By

Another Week Has Passed...

We are another week into healing. Dad is dong well but somedays are still better than others. Dad has had many visitors which keeps his spirits up and keeps him active enough to stay awake.

On Wednesday last week we had LVAD training at the Shrewsbury Fire Station. It was a fantastic turnout. So many of the guys were there as well as paramedics and a Westboro Paramedic/Firefighter as well. Colleen from Brigham and Women's came to teach the class. The guys listened to her and asked some very good questions. They then had a chance to practice with the trainers that Colleen bought. Two of the paramedics talked with Mom and Dad after about possibly doing a home visit so they would know where everything was in the event of an emergency. We thought it was so nice of them to offer to do that. They all seem very well prepared in case something was to happen that we could not handle at home. 

Dad's friends Mike and Dave from his ol' band Mulligan Stew came to visit earlier this week. Mike brought Mickey's feet!!!  Luckily Dad already owns Mickey's head so now he can dress head to toe Mickey :)

The girls had a rough weekend they were not feeling good so they weren't able to come and visit. We miss their smiling little faces and hope they are right as rain soon.

My little Cousins Kiera and Connor are visiting Disney World this week with their Mom and Dad. Erin, their Mom and my cousin, sent Dad and I this photo of the kids with Donald. She knew I had to postpone my trip so she sent a little of Disney to us. Later, I learned that Kiera had even gone on the Tower of Terror ride that day!!! Go Kiera!!!

Sunday we went to dinner at Cousin Vickie and Mark's. We watched the game, had some pre-dinner snacks and we got to see the world's cutest puppy again. He is just so sweet. I had to leave to go to work but it was nice to visit.  Dad and Mom loved the dinner. Vickie was able to find low salt ham and cheeses to make a delicious antipasto that Dad was more than happy to eat. He has been eating a bunch of salads to try and thicken his blood a little. It depends on the day if he can eat greens or not. For him greens thicken the blood enough to raise his levels to a normal coagulation rate. Being on the blood thinners really reaks havoc if you can't get your blood to the level they deem safe.

Dad had a cookie crisis this week. He ate the very last Tarrall that Mark had made. He savored them and only ate one a day to make them last. Mark called them Mike's Stash of Italian Gold :)

This week Dad's appointment is at Brigham and Women's on Thursday. Originally they told him that he wouldn't have to go back until December. They lied! They called later last week and said he had to go in for an echocardiogram and check up on Thursday.

Thursday we will maybe find out more about when he will have to go in for his next heart cath.

We are 4 weeks away from meeting the newest member of our family. My little niece is suppose to be born on December 10th. We are all waiting with great anticipation to meet her and introduce her to her big sisters! We hope she takes after her Auntie Laurie and is born early. The only thing I have ever been early for in my lifetime!

Thank You all again for your continued Support, Love, Visits, Cards, Meals, Rides, Phone Calls, E-mails, Text Messages, Photos, Gifts, Laughs and most of all for continuing to help us through this journey.

Until Next Week,

Laurie

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD !!!!!!!!

 Still Taking Things One Day At A Time

This week was certainly a busy one. We had Halloween, Dad's Birthday and Joe and Lauren finally had their power restored after a week of being powerless!

Dad has good days and bad days. We had a bad day yesterday but today was a good day! Auntie Janet took Mom and Dad to Dad's clinic appointment today. They think he is doing very well. He is a little swollen and the fluid is still there so they are increasing the diuretics and he has to wear very stylish white compression socks. They told him they didn't want to see him again until December!!! They are suppose to go once a week for a while but because Dad is doing so well they think he can go a few weeks before he comes back.

Tomorrow we are heading to the Shrewsbury Fire Station so the guys can be trained on Dad's equipment. They are coming from Boston to do the training. We will be there bright and early ready to go.

              Halloween I had to work but the kids came over to Trick-Or-Treat at Grammy and Papa's They were Beauty ( Belle ) and The Beast :)

Friday night was Dad's birthday so Brendan, Kerry and The girls came over  to give Papa his presents and to sing Happy Birthday and have cake. Lilly was very impressed with the candle that kept lighting itself even after you blew it out. She couldn't stop laughing. The rest of us couldn't help but laugh. Her laugh was very contagious.

 






Kylie really liked her cake. She wore it well too! Lilly was a bit neater...she used a fork!

After cake we went to the family room to open presents. Lilly and Kylie gave Papa a very warm sweatshirt that he loves.

Introducing Princess Gabriella

Gabby was home for the weekend so Vickie and Gabby came over to wish Dad a Happy Birthday and see the girls. The best part of this photo is when Gabby put the crown on she looked at her reflection in the slider..."how does this look...does it look good" We couldn't stop laughing at the half crooked crown on her head. 

This week also was a milestone in that it has been one month since the day of Dad's surgery!

We will continue to take things one day at a time and one day we will be able to look back and remember when we had to take it one day at a time.

Thank You everyone for your continued support. Dad's card collection is quite extensive. He even went back through the cards he got while he was in the hospital to re-read them. He was a little groggy then.  The visits, calls, text's, cards, gifts, meals, rides, and everything else that has made this journey a little smoother for us are a God send. We would never be able to get by with a little help from our family and friends.

Until Next Week,

Laurie