Focht Family Blog

This is the question Samantha asked a little girl on the boat ride back to Fort Wilderness tonight. I just thought it was so cute I had to share.

Anyways… we checked in today with only minor issues and decided to go over to Magic Kingdom for a few hours. Here is a picture I took of us walking towards the marina to catch the boat.

When we saw the boat sitting at the marina we started running to catch it until we noticed the captain walking on the pier. Come to find out that the water was too choppy so the boats weren’t running. SO… we took the bus.

Here we are waiting for the bus…

We didn’t have a restful night last night. The wind was blowing hard and all night long we heard the chains on the rock guard squeaking. I guess we should have let Nathan have a day of rest. I went to take a picture of Timmy on the bus on the way to the Kingdom and didn’t even realize that Nathan was snoozing.

One of the rides the kids wanted to go on tonight was the Astro Orbiter. It was cold and windy so it wasn’t a great ride for the adults. Mom and Josh ended up getting onto the ride before the rest of us so I tried to take a picture of them in their rocket while we were waiting in line.

I also took a picture of Samantha in our rocket after I got out.

One of the other rides they wanted to go on is the Buzz Lightyear ride. This is the boys’ favorite. By boys I am including Nathan because he loves to get the highest score everytime. The kids wanted to have their picture taken with Zorg behind bars.

One of the last rides we rode tonight was the Speedway. The kids like driving us adults around. Here is Samantha and my mom in their car.

I tried to take a picture of Josh driving me but he kept hitting the center line and flinging me the other way. I took a picture of Timmy and Nathan while we were waiting to get out of our cars. They were behind us. Timmy is holding up his drivers license that they gave him when he got into the car.

We are thinking of going to the Hollywood Studios (Disney MGM) tomorrow and see some of the shows they have recently changed but I need to check and make sure that is not the park with the extra morning hours tomorrow. If you go on the day with the extra hours it tends to be a bit more crowded. I will try to post more tomorrow.

Okay… my lesson for the day is to learn how to get the fire extinguisher out of its holder. Apparently this is a lesson you should learn before you actually need it. Yesterday while we were driving the indicator light for the high beams wouldn’t go off. We called a tech and they thought that maybe moisture was near the wires and as soon as it dried it should be fine. We stopped and checked the lights and they didn’t seem to be on high beams but the high beams wouldn’t come on, although the indicator light was on.

We are also having an issue with the radio not being able to turn off if the running lights are on. Today we stopped in Lakeland to look at some truck campers that Nathan found that are light enough that we could probably tow. Mom is considering trading in her trailer for a truck and camper so we would have a vehicle. Once we stopped Nathan smelled something that smelled like burning electronics.

The children were already dressed so I threw them out the door while Nathan was yelling for the extinguisher. He had opened the fuse box and nothing was there but when he opened the front access door there was a high flame coming out of the back of the headlight. He had it mostly blown out by the time I got the extinguisher out of its holder but he used the extinguisher to make sure it was all out. Apparently two of the wires must have crossed or something and we should have been more concerned about the high beam light that wouldn’t turn off. Now I am a bit more concerned about the radio issue. Nathan is going to try to take the RV into a local dealer on Monday while I take the kids to a park to see if they can look into the radio issue and fix the headlights. Right now we only have one headlight.

Here is a picture of the wires and a picture of the burnt housing.

We left Statesboro Friday morning, dropped Punch off at the vet’s office to board and drove to Ocala, FL. Once in Ocala we dropped mom’s trailer off at a dealer that R-Vision recommended for repairs. Unfortunately, they said they are about a month behind. They didn’t tell us this when we called to see if they could do the repairs. So… not sure when mom will have her own space again. Until then, she is stuck on our sofa.

After dropping the trailer we called to find out where hospice was and found out that my grandpa has not been moved yet because the bed they thought he was going to get was given to a more urgent patient. We visited with grandpa, Jo (his wife), and Chris (Jo’s daughter) for a while. Grandpa was not having a good night. He didn’t seem to know we were there and he is also battling a lung infection. My dad showed up and we talked for a little bit and we decided to both come back in the morning and see if grandpa was better. We drove to Walmart and stayed the night.

The next morning we arrived at about 8:30. Grandpa was awake. He was watching us and seemed to know we were there so I just talked to him about my family and showed him pictures of his great grandchildren. He tried to talk back but I couldn’t understand most of what he said and I am sure that frustrated him. His mind is perfectly fine, it is just his body that has failed. He used to travel the world speaking and Parkinson’s has robbed him of the ability to speak. Chris came in a little after 9:00 and she has an easier time understanding him because she has spent so much time with him. We sang some hymns with him and he sang along, even keeping tune. Then we got up to leave and I patted him on the shoulder and told him we were leaving. He opened his eyes, looked a bit startled and said clearly, “Hi Bonnie, How are you?”. He recognized me and knew who I was. He then said hello to my mom and my dad, shaking my dad’s hand. He seemed very happy to see us all although his moment of clarity did not last long. I am still glad that grandpa knows we were there.

As soon as a bed becomes available at hospice he will be moved there and they will remove his feeding tube. The doctors have told them that he will probably fall into a deep sleep after 2-3 days and never wake up. He is battling a lung infection and sores and his kidneys are already starting to shut down so I hope that he will live long enough to be moved to hospice and give him and his wife the peaceful ending they desire. Since I do not have most of my pictures with me, I copied a picture of my grandfather off of a website that sells some of his books. He was a pioneer in the field of Christian Psychology and Counseling.

We are back in Statesboro. We made it back on Friday. Nathan washed the RV on Saturday. The dirt and salt were driving him crazy!! It now looks brand new. It had a wonderful bath and wax from Nathan and his father. We took his parents out to dinner on Saturday to thank them because his dad helped him clean the outside and his mom watched the kids so I could clean the inside. It was gorgeous for one day… however now that the kids are back in here it doesn’t look like I did much! :)

Monday my mom and I took Samantha in to get her throat checked to make sure her strep was clearing up. I can’t remember if I said it before but her pediatrician called in antibiotics for her because I emailed him with her symptoms and pictures of her throat that I took. I love that he helps us out like that. He is a wonderful doctor. I wish I could find a doctor that good that took care of adults! After her appointment we went to my mom’s father’s nursing home. She was having problems with them getting their checks for his care in a timely manner so she left them checks dated for each month so they have them in the file and can deposit them monthly. They want to write my grandfather up as a success story because they now have him up and walking. That man is going to live to be 110!

This is the same grandfather that we rushed home for in August because he was dying in the CCU. We had them pull everything when we got there because that is what his will states that he wants. They said he was still going to die because he had infections and couldn’t eat. He got well enough that the hospital transferred him to hospice. He was only on a liquid diet at hospice and again they said he would die within a few weeks. Mom got rid of his TV and clothes. Then he became so healthy while at hospice that he wasn’t allowed to stay there anymore because he wasn’t declining. He was transferred to another nursing home, mom bought him new clothes and a new TV, and he is still going strong. He seems to be getting nicer to everyone and the nurses all like him.

After the nursing home I drove by Samantha’s old school. I was going to see if they could test her with their national standardized test that they do. They were actually testing this week so I thought maybe she could sit with her old class but when the principal checked with the person who runs the diocese schools they said she wasn’t allowed to test someone who wasn’t a student. I have been having such a hard time finding someone who can test her with a test that covers more than just reading and math that I finally ordered the testing supplies myself for one of the national tests and I will just give it to her. However, we managed to get to the school just as the classes were heading to lunch so the principal allowed Samantha to stop in and say hello to her old classmates. She also got to say hi to her old teachers. She was very happy since she has missed some of her friends.

We then stopped at Houlihans and had a nice girl’s day lunch. Here is mom and Samantha at the table. The waitress tried to get a picture of all of us but she didn’t do something right with pushing the button and the flash didn’t go off so the picture was too dark to see anyone.

As much as I love my boys it was nice to have a little time with just the girls. Samantha has been having some problems with attitude lately and we have a deal that for every 7 days that she is attitude free that we will do something fun that is girls only, like getting our nails done. In two days she has 1 day that she was good. The pediatrician actually recommended that we write a contract with her of things we expect of her and consequences if she doesn’t do them and then have both of us sign that way the consequences are already set.

Tomorrow mom and I are taking a little time for ourselves and we are going to a spa in town to get a massage, a facial and a pedicure. I can’t wait. I haven’t had a facial in over 5 years and it has been over 3 years since I have had a massage or a pedicure. My last pedicure was a couple of day before Josh was born because I wanted my toenails to be pretty at the hospital. :) Wednesday I have doctor’s appointments in Savannah and Thursday Nathan has meetings in Savannah and he is also going to take all of the stuff from my mom’s trailer and put them in our storage unit so her trailer is empty when it is dropped off. Friday is Josh’s eye appointment and then we are headed to Ocala.

Unfortunately I had a bit of bad news today. My other grandfather has suffered from Parkinson’s for years. He decided to have a stomach tube a few months ago when he lost his ability to swallow. They tried to rehabilitate him but he has had a few set backs and had a few bad infections. He has now decided to have his stomach tube removed. He is tired of fighting. He is in a hospital in Ocala and we had already planned on visiting him on Friday. He will be moved to hospice on Friday so we will visit him there instead. They figure he should be coherent and awake for at least 24 hours but maybe as much as 3 days. Then he will most likely fall asleep and not wake up. The whole process could take a week or more. They are not planning on having the memorial for him until some time in April so I don’t know if we will make it back for that or not. Personally I would rather visit someone while they are still alive then to go to a funeral. My grandfather has lived an exciting life. He was a christian psychologist, he wrote books on marriages and family, he traveled around the world speaking to people. He out lived two wives. My grandma died of cancer when I was a child and his second wife died of a cerebral hemorrhage when I was a teenager. I had just returned home from a two week trip with them when it happened. He remarried again and she is by his side while he goes through this final journey.

We drove all day Thursday and made it to the Walmart in Cumming, GA at about 4:00. We called my brother and he brought his girls over to the RV and we went to dinner in the shopping center. My family walked. My brother drove his girls because it was cold and the restaurant was too far away. It is amazing how your perceptions of distance change when you do not have a car. :) My sister-in-law wasn’t able to join us at the restaurant because she had to take their new puppy to the emergency vet. She was throwing up and wasn’t stopping.

Samantha was thrilled to be able to see her cousins again. She loves playing with Ashleigh (who is 4). They sat next to each other at dinner.

Tim got a phone call from Andrea just as we were getting ready to leave. I managed to take a picture of him and his youngest Meghan. Josh was trying to feed Meghan the whole dinner.

So back to mom’s trailer…. once we stopped just outside of Atlanta to get gas we realized that she now has a crack in her fiberglass in the front of the trailer.

This is on the same side where the underside is starting to peel away.

Needless to say, it needs to be fixed. We took pictures of all of the damage and sent it to a dealer in Ocala that the factory recommended. So on Friday when we head to Florida we will drop mom’s trailer in Ocala to be repaired.

Cute story…. Friday morning my sister-in-law brought her girls to play for a little bit before we headed out. When they were getting in the car she told Ashleigh that they were going to go and play with Samantha, Timmy and Josh for a bit. She became very concerned and asked if they shouldn’t call her daddy and let him know. It seems that she thought we still lived in Savannah and had decided that if they were going to drive to Savannah they wouldn’t be back in time for dinner so they should let Tim know. Andrea told her that we didn’t live in Savannah anymore so Ashleigh asked where we lived now…. Andrea told Ashleigh we lived in the Walmart parking lot! :)

I am now worried that when they go shopping she is going to want to know if we are “home”. :)

This has not been Josh’s week. We ended up having to get back to Statesboro quickly because he had developed an eye infection in his bad eye so we managed to get an appointment with his doctor’s office but not his doctor. Josh didn’t like the other doctor as much and did not want someone opening his eye and shining a light in it. We were almost to the point where we were going to have to take him to the hospital and have them gas him to get a good look at it. I had been bragging this week about how good he was that the only time we have had to have an exam under anesthesia was when he was under 1 because he is usually so well behaved at the doctor’s office that he lets him look at his eye without any problems. Not true this day. There seems to be something wrong with his contact. It is getting a buildup on it that isn’t coming off with cleaning and when the people at the doctor’s office were able to clean off a spot they were getting pits in the contact. It shouldn’t do that.

She was able to find one scratch on Josh’s eye which is unbelievable because he wouldn’t let her see the majority of his eye so there may have been more than the one scratch. I was worried that I did it getting his contact in or out but she thought it was from the contact. She prescribed antibiotic drops and his eye is now looking much better. She also called Bausch & Lomb and they are going to replace the contact. Hopefully his new contact will be in before his already scheduled appointment with his eye doctor on Friday.