Ok- I'll go into this more on a different post. Sorry I once again disappeared. My computer was in need of a major overhaul.
Now on to the good stuff! This one is deserving a post all its own. I touched on it briefly when I talked about the Luke Bryan concert. We had contacted his management team but never heard anything from them. Almost 2 weeks ago I went to the mailbox and there was a FedEx mailing envelope jammed next to our mail box. The top was ripped open and I thought to myself "wtf???". Bring it in and look at the address. It's not any shopping my mom & I had done & I don't recognize the return address. I reach into the envelope since it was already open and a personalized autograph from Luke Bryan is in my hand. Considering that the mailer had been ripped open it was by the grace of G-d that the picture was still in there! I honestly can't think of a time that I've been so excited for my daughter. I actually considered pulling her out of school early that day so she could see it. I held myself back and had it on our kitchen table turned over when she got home. This is Princess Bear receiving her personalized autographed picture from him.
After I stopped taping she started turning all red and almost started crying. She was thrilled beyond measure. Her picture is now framed and in a place of honor. It was cute when before it was framed my sister went to pick it up and look at it and PB was like "fingers! Watch your fingers!!!!". I'd heard that Luke Bryan is a stand up guy and gives back to his fans. Now I'm thrilled to say that I know that.
Oh my gosh you guys!!! So Friday night was the Luke Bryan concert and it was AWESOME!!! I had such a good time hanging out with Princess Bear (PB) at her first concert!!!
We had great seats and got there in plenty of time since this was the first concert at the Civic Center with the new security measures in place. It was kind of a mad house going in but wasn't as crazy as I thought it was going to be. The big concern was if when they did the body scan that any of the plates, screws or other hardware from PBs cranial vault reconstruction surgery would trigger the alarm. The head of security had already told me he thought it'd be ok and if not to have him paged to the entrance we were at. Luckily it was not a problem at all. Then we stood in line for 20 years to buy everything, ok almost everything, that PBs little heart desired. She had a budge of $135. My parents gave her $75 for Easter and part of her birthday gift and I threw in some money. She got up there and wanted a long sleeved t, 2 short sleeved t's, a baseball hat and a bracelet. Yeah- she was $5 short. It made more sense to me to give up the $5 bracelet but she decided to forgo the long sleeved t. She was also a bit disappointed that I wouldn't let her get the only pink t shirt available. It said Double Shot of Heaven on it and I'll be damned if my 12 year old is walking around in that! I waivered back and forth on a khaki colored baseball hat for myself since there was some money left. Opted not to get it and now I'm kicking myself. Oh well. There's always next time right? We were there for both opening acts, Dustin Lynch and Little Big Town. I like Dustin Lynch and good golly does the man have a strong jawline...yum! PB and I both like Little Big Town so that was cool. PB does this thing when she gets very excited and all her muscles become rigid and kind of freeze. It's an excitement induced reaction. It's gotten to the point that for years it's only been her face and we can get her to calm down very quickly. When Little Big Town started playing Boondocks she got so excited that her whole body went rigid. I started to worry but she was able to relax quickly. All that kept on going through my head is that we weren't even going to make it to the Luke Bryan part of the concert. Can't even begin to tell you how glad I was that it went away quickly!
It was so much fun to see a concert through her eyes! She had me taking small videos & pictures throughout the night.
I was loving what was going on with the screen during Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye. It's always been one of my favorite songs. As they started playing it on the screen there were two rings interconnected and then they shattered apart. For the rest of the song it was the shattered pieces just spinning around all over the place. Very cool! "Love me like you loved me when you loved me and you didn't have to try....". LOVE IT! The screen use was also very cool during Roller coaster. You hear all this clanking going on. PB even looked at me and asked what was going on. Hello? How do I know?!!? Sit back and relax. We'll find out! Then you see a roller coaster track and it starts going down the track. Great intro! Then it went into the video. How freaking good looking is Evan Geiselman? I think it's an unwritten rule that surfers need to be hot.
Now I'm sure I'm aging myself here but back in the day during songs like this everyone broke put their lighter to start waving around. Yeah- now you just throw on your cell phones flashlight app. This song has been said to be a tribute to Luke Bryan's siblings that are deceased. It's a great song but I did damn near lose it. The concert was Friday night and Saturday would have been my friend Mike's birthday. I'm sure I've talked about him on here before. We went to school at WIU and stayed friends afterwards. As soon as he graduated he became a Chicago Police Officer. I'd been a bit weepy all week with constant thoughts that his birthday was coming up. It was beautiful to see the Civic Center lit up like that. PB loved the "stars" song.
Mikey- that beer's for you baby. It was even a Miller lite. Miss you!
Play it Again & Kick the Dust Up are PB's favorite Luke Bryan songs!
This one isn't my video but my nephew wanted to know if they were in a cage. Lol!
Here Luke Bryan and Dustin Lynch are covering Brooks & Dunn
Play Something Country
Here is Luke Bryan & Little Big Town covering Let's Get it On. Not every day you see Country stars covering Marvin Gaye!
I did get in trouble because the day of the concert PB wanted to make a poster and I wouldn't let her. We didn't have time and I didn't want people behind us to get upset because of their view being obstructed. She seemed ok with my explanation until we got to the concert and she saw some people with posters. She also didn't understand why she couldn't just stand around after the concert until she could meet Luke Bryan. We did try contacting his management company and my mom's best friend tried some contacts that she had at the Civic Center and meeting him was just not in the cards. She did have a great time and walked out an even bigger fan of Little Big Town which is cool. I don't think it would be possible for her to love "her" Luke Bryan more than she already does! I'm just glad that she had a good time!
Man I wish there was a good reason why I haven't been posting but it's just been crazy. Crazy busy, crazy family stuff, crazy sick. Just crazy. Within all the crazy there has been some awesome stuff like Princess Bears (PBs) IEP at school.
To begin with let's go with my sister. Now I love my sister but she can also drive me bat shit crazy. There are times that I'm thoroughly convinced that the only reason I deal with her is because I love my nephews so much. There are other times we have a ball together. Now my sister is one of those type A people that just can't relinquish control at all. Lately there are a couple of things in play. She has a growth on her thyroid that is growing pretty quickly. They made the decision to remove the growth and see if they had to remove part of her thyroid. That surgery was supposed to happen in January. Then it got bumped back farther and farther. Now why she is ok with this I have no clue. Get that shit removed! The reason this comes into play for me is that there are certain things that I've been kind of holding off on until I have more time. People with autoimmune diseases don't heal as quickly from anything and surgery definitely takes longer to bounce back from. So I started putting off stuff around the holidays thinking "OK....I'll get to this after Kate's surgery". I figure it's going to be at least a month, possibly longer, of my parents and I pitching in and helping in any way we can. So at this point the surgery has been scheduled for March 10. Hoping it doesn't get bounced back again and hoping that it's smooth sailing. My sister also hurt her wrist. She's had awful carpal tunnel since her first pregnancy and thought it was that. It got to the point that she couldn't turn her wrist enough to start the ignition in her car one day. She had an MRI ordered but hadn't scheduled it. Then she was in so much pain that she wanted it yesterday. When she did call to schedule it was going to take a week or so. Then she was wanting my mom's help to see if she could pull off a scheduling miracle. The result was it had nada to do with her carpal tunnel and that small fact that she tore cartiledge in her wrist. Ooops! Not good. The week before that we'd just been discussing my hand surgeon because I'd finally decided that I was ready to go ahead with my carpal and cubital tunnel surgery this fall. My sister informed me that my Dr. is battling cancer and it doesn't look good. My sister knew she was going to be referred to an ortho and was trying to get referrals on who was known to be good. Long story short she was referred to my Dr. Who's trying to stay in the game by still working 2 hours a day. In addition to her cartiledge being torn she also has a cyst in her wrist. The Dr said at some point surgery is going to be necessary. No don't get me wrong. I totally respect my Dr for wanting to stay in the game but can someone tell me what a Dr with a brain tumor is doing operating on people? Along with my sister is the fun stuff being my nephews. We had an awesome day a few weeks ago where my parents, PB, myself, my sister, bil and nephews went out to lunch and then to the Caterpillar Visitor Center. It's basically a museum about Caterpillar and has a ton of there different machines on display. I have a to of pics though so that will be it's own post.
PB's IEP was a couple of weeks ago. I was less than happy that PB was sitting in on her IEPs already but what was done was done. This year the teacher sent me a list of goals that she had in mind BEFORE the IEP and asked my opinion!!!! OMG!!!!!!! This teacher rocks in so many ways!!!! My mom laughed at me because I still needed to listen to Rammstein a few times before going in. She doesn't get how I can listen if I don't understand what I'm listening to. It's angry music. It gets my pissed off on. I have one play list like that named Pissed off/Get in the pit. It's usually best to avoid me when that's on. I'm already pissed or working my way into it. Anyway PBs tutor also sat in on the IEP which was nice. Always helpful to have people on your side. My big concern was the fact that PB is in a regular division science class. She's actually doing very well in it. I just don't know what real knowledge is going to be retained from this. So while she is doing well it's also frustrating. My idea was since she's so into the Arts why can't she take both Art and Chorus as her elective courses. It's still getting her in regular division classes so the peer interaction is there but it's stuff she likes. Isn't life stressful enough and if there is no long term knowledge being gained what is the point? Well, they're trying to convince me it's the fact that she's learning study skills. So no pulling her out. I'm not happy but we'll see. I did get it written into her IEP that they have to have 1 class period a day dedicated to reading, vocabulary and comprehension. So overall it was a win.
For the second time since December my mom, PB & I have been sick. This one has SUCKED! Respiratory influenza and at the same time I had a raging sinus & ear infection. The cool thing is with my Dad being retired he really helped pick up the slack. Today was PBs first full day back since she got sick last Tuesday. She'd done a half day Tuesday, stayed home all day Wednesday and a half day yesterday. Since I was feeling like death warmed over and it didn't conflict with having to pick my mom up from work on the days she was there only a half day my Dad picked her up. He'd bring her home and feed her lunch. It was awesome to have the help! I have read 4.5 books in the last week! Another plus!
Tonight was PBs monthly PuP social. PuP stands for People with Unlimited Potential. They have a monthly social event for special needs individuals. Tonight was a Valentine's Dance. Dinner is provided as well as door prizes. PB was so stoked to "be going to a dance!". I'm not sure how things will work for her in high school so I do love that she gets to have these experiences. My name was one of the ones drawn for a door prize so I let PB pick it out. She's now the proud owner of a Star Wars calendar. I still don't get how she and my nephews are completely obsessed with Star Wars when they have seen any of them.
Last but not least. This is what is going to be going down a week from tonight.
PB is so excited that she's about ready to launch!!!!
Let's start with the good. Remember awhile ago I was discussing Luke Bryan coming to Peoria? Now Peoria is actually where Luke Bryan came to practice before starting this most recent tour and perhaps he decided it really did play in Peoria. We get tons of concerts here but if you wanted to see a concert like this you were most likely hauling butt to Chicago or St. Louis. Now I love Chicago and the Lou isn't bad either.
There were just serious down sides to taking Princess Bear (PB) to her very first concert in either location. I'd also been stressing the cost of the tickets. My sister who is a big fan of giving experiences rather than gifts decided she was going to gift them to PB and myself as our Christmas and birthday gifts. Today was the day that tickets went on sale. There was online presale yesterday but the tickets I could have grabbed weren't the best and Ticketmaster assured me better seats were going to be released this morning. I was all set to stand in line and get me my Luke Bryan tickets. Btw....why is it that if mom's are standing in line for something it's either darn cold or darn hot? It reminded me of when PB wanted, no needed, a Zhum zhum for Christmas several years ago. My butt sat outside Toys R Us in the freezing cold and she got her zhum zhum. I digress. The game plan was for me to head downtown and wait in line as soon as I took PB to school. PB wasn't feeling great last night and about midnight I had oh my gosh body aches. I just figured I was going to dose myself with Dayquil and stuff some hand warmers in my pockets. Yeah under the category of the best laid plans and all that I woke up this morning to a very sick PB. She didn't have a bad temp but she did have a horrible headache and bad body aches. I gave her some Advil and sent her back to bed. The child actually slept until 9:30am! That never happens. Well I was obviously not schlepping a sick kid downtown to stand in line for tickets so then it was a question of was it better to go online or try
the phone. Or just try both which is what I did. $454 later this little beauty was on my screen:
Woot woot! PB is over the top excited to be going to her first concert and I must admit I'm pretty stoked too. This also blows U2 out of the water as my most expensive concert. All things considered it worked out better that PB was sick because I wouldn't have had that much cash on me. So we
wound up with great seats and I'm sure it's going to be a great event!
The bad. I had a Dr's appointment last week. My PA thought that perhaps my Hashimoto's isn't the only thing making it so I'm in pretty constant pain and chronically fatigued so she sent me to the Rheumatologist. All the test results are not back yet, still waiting on Celiac and Wegener's granulomatosis, but I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia and joint hypermobility. As dumb as it sounds I almost broke down in the Doctors office. I certainly didn't want another diagnosis to be sure. On the other hand knowledge is power and there are things I can do to start alleviating my symptoms. It would be so nice to not feel so dang sick and tired all the freaking time! I've started the medication they recommend starting with and it has helped some of the widespread pain. That in and of itself is awesome.
The really bad. My youngest nephew, Luke, has a growth on his leg. My sister had been treating it with essential oils for awhile. It got to the point that he was getting upset every time she would try to apply
oils and she kept on saying if he wouldn't let her apply the oils shewas going to have to take him to Dr. Tom (the pediatrician for PB and my nephews) so Dr. Tom could cut it off. There are times I really could shoot my sister. This is one of them. For a few reasons. While I completely believe that essential oils can be very useful when there are no results or it causes pain it's time to try a different route. I got a text message from my sister today that Dr. Tom thinks the growth is suspicious and wants it removed immediately. There is a chance that it could be melanoma. WHAT??????????????????????????????????????? They are trying to get him an appointment with a surgeon for Monday but still haven't heard anything. To say that there is a serious amount of praying going on would not even be an understatement. If prayer is something you believe in I'd surely appreciate it if you could say a few for Luke.
Now I don't want to wrap up my post on a downer note so the last note worthy event this week was PBs school Winter Concert. She's in chorus as an elective this year and loves it. I mean like LOOOOOOVES it. She was inviting everyone to come see her perform. She and Julie the floral manager at our local HyVee have an awesome relationship. We shop predominately at HyVee just so PB can visit with Julie. Remember when Julie sent PB flowers and balloons for her birthday? Julie as also promised that as soon as PB is 16 she has a job with her in the floral department. So Julie and her daughter Amy had to be invited as well as my sister. PB is also very close to one of the leaders in her youth group and she invited Jessie. Jessie's mom, Sue also came. She used to be PBs art therapist. All in all PB had an 8 person entourage at her concert. Below is a link to one of the songs they performed. PB is wearing the red t shirt and black skirt in the first row.
Ok first thing first. Can I just have a WTF moment? Cubbies, really? I get that losing when you're not at home is easy to do. Home team advantage is real. I get that. I won't even discuss that you freaking beat the Mets the last 7 times IN NEW YORK before this playoff series. You brought it home. Game 3 could have changed the tides. What the hell is going on?
Thanks for allowing that vent. I really appreciate it! Anybody that has been with my blog for awhile knows that I'm a Chicago sports fan. It's in my blood. I'll be the first to admit that I'm much more die hard about football. I can sit down and watch an entire football game on TV no problem whatsoever. I like baseball. I really do. I just have a really, really hard time watching a baseball game on TV. Now take me to Wrigley and it's all good. There is something about hearing the crack of the bat. LOVE IT! Perhaps that's why I'm more of a football fan. I do love the Cubbies. Really I do. I just don't watch entire games on the TV. Now that hasn't been the case since the Cubs won the wild card slot. All games have been on for the duration of the game. It's been a big topic of conversation in our house. My Dad was talking to Princess Bear (PB) about how lucky she was that there was a chance that she could see the Cubs in the playoffs when she was only 12 years old. My dad had to wait until 1984 so he would have been 38.
We also had to explain the whole flying the W concept to PB. Its things like that that are making this post season a lot of fun and great family time.
One of the few things that I've
always told PB is that being a Chicago fan in most cases (be it Cubs or
Bears) is a lesson in loyalty. It's not about winning. It's about being part of
a tradition. That said I'm am completely bummed for my Dad. To say that he
loves the Cubbies is an understatement. The first time we had to bring PB
up to Children's Memorial to meet with the surgeons she was only 2 1/2 weeks old
(yes weeks). After the appointment my Dad tells me and my mom he has a stop to
make. We figure he's going to the cemetery to check on his Dad's site. We're
sitting in the car and I realize we're not heading to the cemetery. He goes to
Wrigley and gets out. He looks at me and says "Give me the baby."
Um...ok Dad- wtf:???? I hand him PB and he holds her up and says this is
where the Cubs, your team, plays. Really Dad? Now he's just waiting for my
nephews to be old enough to take to a game. Although my youngest nephew is pushing the bonds of acceptable behavior by flirting with being a Cardinals (and a Packers) fan. I did tell him if he ever came here in Cards or Packers gear that I would take it off and turn it inside out!
So while the fat lady has sung yet she's warming up. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and I'll utter a few prayers for a Cubs miracle. If only to see my Dad's face.
Now on to Luke Bryan. PB and I love us some Luke Bryan.
I mean could he be any more adorable???
She had me at Target the day that Kill the Lights was released. He's one of the few artists that I have to buy 2 copies of the CD. Otherwise the kid is either in my room or in my car swiping my copy! I thought that taking PB to Luke Bryan for her first concert would be a great idea. Anybody remember when I talked about this awhile back? It was either here or on Facebook. Remember that I set up PB's yearly Shriners visit to coincide with when Luke Bryan was playing in Chicago? When I was able to make her appointment for that week I was so stoked! The next thing was to buy some tickets. It had to work. I made the appointment. Things were syncing up. Now this is where things get a little weird. PB suffers from focal seizures. Thankfully they don't occur as much as they used to. The thing is that flashing lights is one of the things that can set off seizures (not just focal but that's all I have to worry about with PB). So in order to take her to see Luke Bryan I would have to buy 3 tickets so my mom could accompany us just in case PB had a focal seizure. So there I was having saved a few hundred dollars and not having gone to a concert in a damn long time (the U2 Elevation tour in 2001 was the last concert I went to. That's wrong on so many levels but that's another post). So there I am at my computer ready to buy some tickets to Kick the Dust up tour. Life is going to be great. PB is going to see her beloved Luke Bryan. Then I see ticket prices. Nosebleed as in upper upper deck tickets are $150 each. Now I love my child and would do all kinds of craziness to see her happy. There was just no way that I could justify spending $450 on tickets to make it happen. I was so bummed and apologized all over the place for getting her hopes up. I felt like such a shithead for getting her hopes up.
Now let's fast forward to today. Our local Civic Center announced that Luke Bryan is going to be playing here in February with Dustin Lynch and Little Big Town. Color me excited! This might be a more doable situation for some many reasons. It would still be hard for me to come up with the money for tickets but with it being here in town I'd only have to buy 2 tickets. Still a pretty huge hunk of change for a single mom that doesn't work in order to take care of her medically fragile child. The plus is that I wouldn't have to buy a ticket for my mom so that helps lower the cost. G-d forbid if PB has a focal seizure while we're there my parents could get in the car and be at the Civic Center within 10 minutes. That's probably less time than it would take for me to go get the car in the parking lot and get back to my mom & PB at the United Center if we went in Chicago. Then we could just wait out the seizure or if it didn't go well we'd literally be 3 minutes from the Emergency room. I honestly don't know how I can save the money but I have a couple of months to try my best to make this happen for my daughter and I'm going to give it my best.
