Focht Family Blog

I am disappointed. I had hopes that this would be the perfect RV for us. The way I had it all planned out we would put a single bed in the loft, instead of the queen. That would be Samantha’s bed and the extra floor space in the loft would be the play area. The bunks would be for Timmy and Josh….. well…. that was the plan at least. The reality is that the loft is at best the height of an over the cab bed in a Class C. Nathan had to belly crawl in and out of it. I could get up there on hands and knees and Samantha was hitting her head trying to sit. We tried to talk to Newmar about lowering the floor by 6 inches which would make it good enough but still not ideal. Their answer was “no”. I am not sure if they are just not wanting to invest money in the engineering behind a redesign or not. There were 2 other people at Newmar while we were there that wanted the new floorplan as well but for all of us the loft height was the deal breaker. So… Newmar just saved us a bunch of money! Nathan put up a page that has all of the pictures on it that we took. If you are interested in seeing this engineering malfunction, go to: http://www.focht.net/photos/4159

Well… Samantha should be partied out. We started out with going to Atlanta for her birthday weekend. Friday night, her birthday, we went to Macaroni Grill for dinner. Here is her birthday dessert which she shared with her cousin Ashleigh.

The next day we went to American Girl a little bit early so we could buy Samantha a Nellie doll and get my nieces a set of Bitty Twins for their birthday gifts from us. Timmy also managed to talk grandma and I into an outfit each for his doll and Josh’s doll to share. Next we were sat at a large table with 3 adults, 5 kids, and 6 dolls!

Here is Samantha and Ashleigh with Samantha’s “Samantha” and “Nellie” dolls and Ashleigh’s “Ashleigh” doll.

After our lunch was finished they brought Samantha a beautiful cake that had pink and green dots on it. It had 9 candles on it and they sang to her. She let Ashleigh and Josh help her blow out the candles.

Josh enjoyed his dessert with his doll.

After lunch we drove to the local Michael’s craft store and bought Samantha and the boys boxes so they could better organize the doll clothes and accessories. Then we went back to our campsite at Sawnee Park. We were in a beautiful spot that had water on both sides. When you were inside with the windows open it looked like you were on an island. Here is a picture of the view.

That night everyone came to our campsite for pizza. We were planning on eating outside by the lake but somehow everyone ended up inside. I think it was because the kids wanted to play with all of the dolls and toys. Sunday we woke up late and headed home around lunchtime.

Of course this wasn’t the end of her parties. Nathan’s parents came home from NY on Monday and came over for a visit. Because they had driven the whole night before, we didn’t do much else but visit but Tuesday night they came over for dinner and yet more cake. :)

I think Samantha is still recovering. I know that I am! :)

I tried to give the old bikes away and nobody needed them at the campground so I gave them to Goodwill while we were in Savannah. Samantha, Timmy, and I went to the dentist on Tuesday to get our teeth cleaned. I am happy to report that none of us have cavities. Samantha also had sealants put on her back molars to help prevent decay. Timmy is now growing his first permanent tooth. The gap he has had for three years finally has a tooth growing into it.

Yesterday on my way to Savannah I received a phone call to tell me that my allergy serums had been sent to our mail forwarding center. That was not supposed to happen. As it was, my first stop in Savannah was going to be getting my first shots. So… I had to pay for them to send the serums overnight and I got my first shots today….. all 4 of them!!! No major reactions so I am good to have the next higher dosage next week.

Tomorrow I meet with the rheumatologist. My joints and muscles are constantly aching now and my fingers are getting more gnarled looking than before. It is making it more noticeable to me. I am hoping they can come up with what is causing all of these symptoms. If not I also have an appointment with an endocrinologist on Wednesday. Mom also meets with the surgeon on Wednesday so next week we will know when her surgery date will be.

Friday we will drive to Atlanta for Samantha’s birthday. She will be 9 on Friday!! I cannot believe I have a 9 year old! We will go to dinner with her aunt, uncle and cousins on Friday and then Saturday we will have an early lunch with her aunt and cousins at American Girl. I will take lots of pictures this weekend and try to update the blog early next week.

Nathan has been telling Timmy that if he learned to ride his bike without training wheels that he would buy all of the kids new bikes. Samantha and Timmy both had rust on their bikes because of being out in the elements. So Nathan bought Samantha and Timmy new bikes (Josh’s bike is newer so it doesn’t have rust). Here are pictures of the kids out riding their new bikes.

Samantha is with the owner’s daughter from the campground. We also bought a cover for the bikes so now when we are traveling they will be covered.

On Friday Samantha asked me to change her earrings because her left ear was hurting. It had been at least three weeks since we changed them so I went to clean them off and remove them. The left earring came out without problems. The right earring however was another story. I went to remove it and couldn’t find the back. I thought at first it had just fallen off but the front didn’t come out easily. That is when I realized that there was a little bit of blood on the back and I felt around and realized that the back of the earring had embedded itself inside her earlobe. I called her doctor and they said they could remove it but not until Tuesday because he was out of town. I called every plastic surgeon and ENT doctor but nobody could see her or they didn’t deal with stuff like that so off to the ER we went. They numbed her ear and sliced it open slightly until they were able to remove the earring. The ER doctor felt like it had been in there for awhile. Here is what her ear looks like now.

They said the hole should heal in a week and after about 6 months or so she should be healed enough to be able to get her ears pierced again. I guess I don’t have to worry about changing her earrings for awhile. :)