The Carey Family: March 2014

Saturday, March 22, 2014

Florida trip

My grandpa had back surgery and also wound up having a mini stroke following the surgery. He has subsequently developed several infections and just today was transported back to the regular hospital from the rehab hospital. He is still having a very hard time and has a long road ahead of him. Well, I felt like it was important that I go see him. I talked to Adam and luckily had enough air miles that I was able to get a ticket that worked that dates that I needed. I flew out bright and early on Friday, March 7th, and got into Ft Meyers just before noon. My Aunt Eileen was there from Colorado as is my Aunt Sue Ann from California (Aunt Sue Ann has been there for about 2 months now I believe, and is there for a while longer, so it is good when the other sisters can come in to help). My Aunt Eileen picked me up from the airport and we went straight the hospital and basically spent all day there. I met my grandpa's girlfriend, Ruthie. So funny to say that! She was a friend of my grandma's and is a very sweet lady. My grandpa was in good spirits and happy to see me. We left shortly before sunset and headed to my grandpa's condo.

We headed out to the pool, where his friends gather for cocktails every evening. We said hello for just a few minutes and then headed to dinner. The sunset was stunning.

At dinner I was so tired I could barely keep my eyes open! It was a long day of travel and being at the hospital. As soon as we got back and my head hit the pillow, I was out!

The next morning, Aunt Sue Ann got up early and headed to the hospital, while my Aunt Eileen and I slept till maybe 8 or so, had breakfast, and then went for a walk around the neighborhood before heading to see my grandpa.

We quickly headed back and got ready to head to the hospital. We got up there and Aunt Sue Ann got to head out and have a little time to herself and go get her hair cut and a pedicure. We then made her stay home and take a much needed rest. We had a good afternoon with my grandpa, and went to therapy with him and tried to encourage him as much as we could. Before too long, it was time for me to take my Aunt Eileen back to the airport for her to fly home. We were silly and took pictures of us in grandpa's Porsche, because it is a little funny that we are all getting to drive his cars. :)

I took her to the airport and then was starving, so ran into Panera on the way back to the hospital and grabbed a quick 1/2 salad. I got back and visited with my grandpa some more and then we all headed back for the night. My Aunt Sue Ann, Ruthie, and myself all went to dinner, then headed home. I could not sleep that night to save my life, and to make it worse it was daylight savings spring forward AND we needed to be up early to be able to spend time with my grandpa before I had to head back to the airport to fly home. That night though, my grandpa called my Aunt's phone at 10 something saying he couldn't get the nurse to come in and he was in a lot of pain. It was good that I was there because I was able to keep him on the phone while we called the nurses station for him. He also did a good job knowing earlier in the night to tell them what medication he could not have. I felt so awful for him knowing he was hurting and that the nurses were trying to get ahold of the on call Dr to get another medication. It was a long/short night and early morning. We stopped at Starbucks on the way to the hospital, visited with him for about an hour, and then it was time for me to go. He thanked me so much for coming to see him, which for him is a lot. I am really glad I went.

He's got a long ways to go, so please keep him in your prayers!

Embracing Spring Break! Our trip to the castle!

For the first time in 15 years, I felt like it was finally ok for me to go on vacation for spring break. It really was more happenstance than anything else, I guess you could say. Adam and I were supposed to go to the castle for our 7th anniversary back in November, and it didn't work with his class schedule. We were so bummed that we couldn't go, but if you remember, we got to go to our Aunt's house in Granbury and had a blast. The castle was nice enough to let us reschedule our visit (huge sigh of relief since we'd already paid!). When we rescheduled we didn't do a set date necessarily, and then Adam and I realized that with him being in school full time now, we would really only be able to go when he had a break from school, so spring break it was. I have to admit, there was a big part of me that felt guilt, as since Dalton passed away that Saturday morning of spring break, it has always had a bad connotation to it. But, the other part of me said, you know what, it's time...he would be ok with it. The castle also agreed to let us bring Sadie along, so we had our first "real" family vacation where it was just the 3 of us without any family or friends to visit. The morning of March 10th, off we went to Greystone Castle. It was about a 3 hour drive from Tyler, so it was not too bad. Sadie got antsy about the last 45 minutes or so, and just kept asking if we were at the castle yet. When we got there, we learned that we would be the ONLY guests! How awesome is that?! They showed us to our area and said to just pick whatever room we wanted. We normally would have had to share the living room and bar area with the other guests in that area, but we had the whole thing to ourselves, so it was like having a giant private suite! We also had the chef come meet with us to make sure the menu he had sent over was good, etc. So, not only did we wind up with an entire castle to ourselves, we also basically had a private chef for 3 days. BEST TRIP-EVER. Enjoy these pics!

THE DRIVE INTO THE CASTLE!!!!