Cyberdeb

We have late dinner as well. Early show.

Ok, it is getting closer and closer, i am now buying clothes for the cruise. So who is actually going and were r we going to meet?

We will be arriving August 27th and will be renting Tina's (Camp at the Forts) 5th wheel. Will be checking out Morning of the 8th and heading to the port. Would love to catch up with anyone prior to the cruise.

Deb, we are right next to you. Look at it this way, if something happens, we just have to jump off our balconies into the boat, lol.

Yeah well that is a good way to look at it i suppose. Rhonda is keeping an eye open for a room on higher deck for me, but it isnt that big of a deal. We booked parasailing as Castaway Cay. My mother will not be doing that. I also booked the Aquadventure at Atlantis. My daughter insists that we do that as well. Since she seems to think she is the princess and it is sort of her graduation trip, i will follow along. It is also my 50th birthday celebration.

Ok, i did it. We are checked in and our excursions reserved. Wooo Hooo, now we just need to see if we can get a higher deck. I am nervous about being over the lifeboats. So who is going at this point. Did anyone else cancel?

Tommorrow is the day we can check in online and book excursions. Wooo Hooo, it is getting close. :banana:

I would love to. I will be heading to the fort on the 27th.

We will be at our seasonal campsite in Ottsville on Memorial Day weekend but not going till late due to daughters prom. :dance:

Sorry I havent been around for a while. Been soooo busy which only means i need this trip really BAD!!!!! We will be at the fort for8 days prior to the cruise,

Debra M = Cyberdeb - Mom, Sister and Daughter

Lynn T = We4mickey

Carol K = Mouseketab

Scott C

Jen M = AuburnJen & AuburnChris

David S = Grumpy and Grandma

Carla T = Harlie_Quinn & Total Joker aka Chris

Sandra & David S. = Friends of Carol & Rick

Melissa M = MandMLuvMMandDVC

Karen H = MissysSister (Melissa M's sister)

For us it depends on when we leave, if we leave in the o dark thirty time( early am) we go right down 95, if later in the day with a stop for the night we will take 301 down to 95. Most of the time from there it's right down 95 to Rt 4

  We take the same route from outside of Philadelphia. 

I will be doing it too.  I contacted the person you gave me last year.  I am glad i didnt order it yet, i would love to have the fort fiend logo.

I waited to get mine to see if she made a ff one.  Has she done that?

Wooo Hooo, this is  going to be a blast!!!!

Rhonda is very nice.

The bad news is my daughter backed out of our January cruise, so I had to cancel it 

The good news is my husband and I are going on the Fort Fiends Cruise. :banana:

I will tell everyone I know who cruises just how helpful Rhonda is :banana:

doodlebug

Rhonda is great!!  We are going to have a blast on the fort fiends cruise.  I am very much looking forward to it!

Got my airfare yesterday.  Checked it out early in the morning and by afternoon the price dropped by $300.00.  I booked it.  I was afraid it would go up again with the gas prices.  So I am so excited.  Cruise is paid in full, airfare paid, the fort paid, just need to finish paying for the 5th wheel rental and any excusrsions on the cruise.  What, if any excursions are others planning?  I think we will do parasailing at Castaway Cay and maybe the Aquaventure at Atlantis.  :banana:

I can believe some of these stories.  People are sooooo rude!!  One one of our trips we were in the 1500 loop in our pop up.  in the next two sites were Disney Tents set up for a young girls birthday party.  Of course they were up all night squeeling, giggling and screaming.  That wasnt quite as bad as the morning when they were up at the crack of dawn starting all over again,.  The adults did nothing watsoever to quiet them down.  DH called the office and they sent someone down but it didnt help at all.  The screaming and squeeling continued until i gave up and got dressed and left the site for the day.  On that same trip someone had a dog tied up outside in the next loop right next to the comfort station that barked allll day long.  No one was in site and we complained about that as well but no one did anything about it. 

Here's another question -- Scott and I would like to rent one of the new Cabanas on the adult beach at Castaway Cay.  Here's a recent blog for info:  http://travelonadream.wordpress.com/2011/02/12/cabana-rental-at-castaway-cay/#more-1053

The price is $399 for 6 people.  Is anyone interested in sharing this with us?  If so, please let me know here, or email me ([email protected]) or send me a PM.

Thanks again!  :dance:

I might be interested.  There are four of us. 

Oh Carol I want one.  I have the old one that Rog made but they are lime green.  I kept the same screenname. 

Checking in August 27 and checking out for the Fort Fiend Dream Cruise on September 4, 2011.  Will have my sister, Mother, and Daughter with me. 

I will be doing it too.  I contacted the person you gave me last year.  I am glad i didnt order it yet, i would love to have the fort fiend logo.

Deb she signed up on ff she is StitchesNBows-JenGC. I am having her redo mine, was emailing her yesterday about what I wanted to do. I asked her if she could do the new logo and put fortfiends.net on it.

I know, i just contacted her last week.  Yeah i know you gave me her contact info last June but i forgot about it till just recently.  I will wait until she makes that new logo and will get it on mine also. 

I havent heard of Calm Child.  My kids are adults now so i have been removed from that whole subject for a while but i can say that we tried the Feingold diet and that did nothing at all.  We also tried very strict dietary changes (cant remember what they were) while my oldest son was on an inpatient unit at the National Institute for menta Health in Bethesda MD and it also did nothing.  Not to say that it wont work for someone and more power to them if it does.  I dont think there are many parents out there that WANT to medicate their kids.  God knows i didnt.  With that said, good nutrituion sure helps everyone. 

My daughter has bipolar disorder.  Before she was diagnosed, I used to get upset that we would go camping and all she wanted to do was nap in the camper.  I finally figured out that if that was what she wanted to do on vacation, then why not?  After her diagnosis, we started doing less as far as commando raids on parks and activities that would overstimulate her.  More time at the camper, in the quiet, going for walks etc.  It sure made things a lot better for everybody.  Fortuneately, we live in a time where medicine has advanced as far as diagnosis and treatment.  She is now stable on her medications, has a job and can hold a conversation with adults.  While she cannot handle full time college, she did finish a psychology course at our local community college and got an A!!!!  That was a big accomplishment for her.  I gotta say, I probably wasn't the most patient or sensitive guy when it came to dealing with disabled people, which I am not proud of.  If anything good has come of Chris' disability, it is that that aspect of me has changed.  However, it has made me more aware that there is a lot of misunderstanding and fear in the real world when it comes to dealing with disabled people.  As terrible as a mental disorder is, and I can't imagine the struggle my daughter went through in life before she was treated, I can't imagine the difficulty in dealing with physical disabilities, or combinations of these, but I am trying to understand.

I have a kid with Bi-Polar too.  Mine is 25 and now working in the mental health field as a Youth Support Parnter.  I also have one with Scizophrenia.  It wasnt a picnic, but it taught me a hell of a lot about compassion and what is truly important in life.

If people take nothing else away from this discussion, I hope the younger parents will see some hope from mine and your experiences.  Christine just turned 26.  She is employed full time at a Veterinary Referral Hospital (I have noticed disabled kids tend to migrate toward animals), takes college courses part time, has a steady boyfriend whom she has been with for 3 years, and makes and keeps her own psychiatric and counselling appointments.  She also pays her own bills, manages her own bank accounts, recently purchased a new car and got the financing herself.  She does live at home, but mainly due to the expense of living alone, and has been actively preparing to find her own place.  If you knew what we went through 8 years ago, you would realize just how far she has gone.

I agree completely.  We were told the worst case scenerios for my oldest son, 29 with schizophrenia.  However he lives independently, got married last june and works full time at the same job for the last 6 years or so.  Has his own car as well.  He still gets support through the program that he is in and we help with managing his finances, but he is doing better than we were told he ever could.  My other son, 25 with bipolar  also lives independently and works with kids that have mental illness and for the most part at least until just a few weeks ago when he had a bad breakup from a 7 year relationship was doing very well without meds. That has changed but i think he will get through it.  . 

I would love to.  We have a seasonal site at this campground in Ottsville.  Northern Bucks County.  It is a nice clean campground with VERY clean bathrooms.  www.campbeavervalley.com 

I will be doing it too.  I contacted the person you gave me last year.  I am glad i didnt order it yet, i would love to have the fort fiend logo. 

Oh what a life we all lead indeed.  LOL.  3 with ADHD!?  OH MY LAWD!!!  We resisted meds as well, until he (our 7 year old and otherwise typical son) had problems focusing at school, that is.  Funny, but we get notes home nearly every week saying that he needs to focus or "is having trouble staying focused" ... and yet he remains on the A/B honor roll.  If he could only stay focused he would be a genius!  :rofl:

Our 6 year old with Autism/ADHD is quite another matter.  He's sort of like TAZ on speed... all of the time....unless he is asleep....which is not usually all night....even with meds  :o    Unfortunately every ADHD med we tried only made him completely nuts so we gave up on that and focused on treating the behavioral issues that stem from the autism. (Sorry for the run on sentence.)  If anyone would like to share which meds and or strategies that have helped in these situations, I would be very glad to hear it.

You probably already do a lot of things that help without even realizing it.  When my kids were younger it was "Structure, Structure, Structure".  Not to the point of being rigid, but enough that they know what to expect.  My son was medicated for ADHD as a child.  We called it the "chill" pill.  Let me tell you it worked, but by the time he got home from school, it was too late inthe day for another dose, but too early for him to be so wound up.  What i used to do was give him a little bit of diet mountain dew.  The little bit of caffiene helped.  Just be careful not to use too much or it will have the opposite effect. 

KFK,

I agree, it is absolutely necessary to get the help needed to give your children the best opportunity to grow, physically or mentally.  And you can't get the help unless you kow what is wrong, or what is needed.  I wouldn't call is "labeling".  I would call it "diagnosing".  As Judy would say, a wheelchair doesn't handicap a child; it give the child mobility.

I agree too.  But also have to add that people somtimes get too hung up on labels.  I would rather have a label that tells you what is going on rather than a label like "Crazy, stupid, brat, etc."