Louisiana is more than happy to respond to her friend's latest email.
Tuesday, April 27, 2004~
Dear Kendra May!
Hey! How you doing?? Hope y'all are well and happy! This is Louisiana again, in case y'all haven't figured that one out!
I am sitting here in our suite on the boat, and we are enjoying the stillness of the early morning. The kids (and Bill) are still all asleep; but I expect them to be awakening soon. They all look adorable and comfortable as they lay nestled in their beds. (Me, I always arise earlier; guess it's because I always get up early! Call me an early bird...)
I will be more than happy to send you the books in which you requested. If my kids don't have any copies of the books, I know where I can get some cheap; we have some good used book stores in our area! As for Shirley Temple, I like her movies too, but we don't have very many, I am afraid. We do have a lot of the Veggie Tales and the Bible Man series, and we also have a lot of the Disney movies; and like the books, I know where I can get copies of the videos at half the price of what they sell at the retail or video stores; so you have no problems there! We also have a lot of Bugs Bunny and Hanna-Barbera cartoons; some of them may be a bit violent, but most of it is slapstick humor, and besides, not many people end up all bloody or dead after the confrontations; it is all done with humorous intent, and if there WERE blood or gore in the scenes, you KNOW I wouldn't buy it! It is stuff we grew up on, and my kids seem to like the Bugs Bunny and Hanna-Barbera cartoons; it's better than the anime' cartoons or cartoons like the Powderpuff Girls, Dexter's Labratory, or The Fairly Odd Parents they have on television now! We also don't allow our kids to watch Hey Arnold because the kids on there treat each other so disrespectful, and it is only teaching kids how to misbehave or use crude or toilet humor in order to get their point across, and I won't have MY kids doing this! If I EVER hear them calling each other (or other people) names like "Football Head," "Geek", "Loser", "Weirdo", or whatever, you can bet I WILL lower the boom on them and act on this infraction!
So Linda, your oldest girl, likes Lurlene McDaniel books. I like them too, and so do my older girls, and so does Ronee'. She has recently discovered them, and she can't get ENOUGH of them! She also loves the "Little House" series of books, and also "The Babysitter's Club" series of books that they had out a few years back. Ronee' is a very voracious little reader, and she is one of the very top readers in her class. She does very well in English, and she also does very well in ALL her school subjects! The ONLY one that MAY give her SOME trouble is math; but she somehow figures out the problem on her own, and gets it completed, but it may take her a few tries, especially if it is something that she isn't familiar with, like with conversions, which is what they are doing now in her class. She is always asking me for help in that, and I am more than glad to help her with it, but I make her do her homework on her own; and MOST of the time she gets A's or B's; she's gotten a few C papers in her conversions; but then I (and her teacher) both help her, and the next time, she does much better with it. In addition to English and Math, Ronee' takes Music Appreciation, Conversational French and Spanish, Choir, Social Studies/Geography, Adapted Physical Education, and Voice. So she has a very busy schedule when she *is* in school, and it seems that she is always doing some form of homework! This is why she loves it when we can go on vacations or has her breaks for Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas during the school year because she can now concentrate on being a normal kid, and she doesn't have to worry about the homework so much anymore. She also loves summer break because it can give her three months of worry free time, and she can concentrate on having fun! After all, isn't having fun all about summer instead of sitting in a stuffy classroom setting, poring over lessons day after day after day??
No, you didn't tell me you had spina bifida, Kendra. That is a new one on me! I WAS aware of your hydrocephalus, but I had NO idea you had spina bifida! Do you use a wheelchair, or do you use crutches or a walker in order to walk; or do you walk unassisted? My one daughter, Debby (Deborah, but she is known mostly by Debby) has SB; she was born with the myelomeningocele, or severe, form of SB. She is totally paralyzed from the waist on down, and she uses an electric wheelchair to get around. She also has no arms; and so this makes her disability especially severe. She wears artificial "hooks", which serve as her hands, and she has adapted to her lack of hands or arms quite marvelously. She also has breathing problems, but oxygen (and medication and breathing treatments) helps her, and she is doing well so far! She will be 14 next year; she is fixin' to turn 13 in December. She will become a teenager. She is doing very well at the moment, and it has been over two years since she last went into the hospital with her shunt malfunctioning or her getting another kidney or bladder infection. Let's hope this continues! It is always such a huge worry when she gets sick because I am so scared that she is going to develop meningitis or something like that!!
I am physically disabled too. As you are aware of, I told you yesterday that I have epilepsy (or DID I?? I can't remember! LOL Guess I am gettin' old; heck, I am ALREADY a GRANDMAMAN, four times over!! LOL), and I am on medication to help control or prevent any seizures from occurring. I have had epilepsy for over 14 years now, and I used to have seizures several times a week, but they have FINALLY found a medication that controls them; and it has been over 10 years since I last had a seizure! The last time I had a seizure Johnny and Ronee' were just two years old, really little back then! And I was fixin' to add to the family; but back then it was just Bill, Ronee', Johnny, and myself; we were NOT the family you know of today! We were more "typical" of families in America; but we were in the process of adding more kids to the family. (We figured maybe one or two more would join; but no...We went from a family of four to a family of 11 seemingly overnight! We got a total of seven kids in the family back then, and we went from just two kids to 11!!) In addition to the epilepsy, I also have chronic back problems (I fell out of a tree when I was nine, and I was paralyzed for a time, but I relearned how to walk; and for a few years afterwards, I was walking on Lofstrand crutches and leg braces; but I ditched them by the time I was a teenager; there was NO way I was staying on them when I was a teenager!), and I also have sciatic nerve pain (due to the damage to my back from the fall), and I also have osteoarthritis in my back and in my knees and feet. This is one reason why I walk on a cane now (or use a scooter if I have to do an awful lot of extra walking); but I have not let my disabilities slow me down any, and I have shown the world that even though I am DISabled, I am as ABLED as any other person, and I do my job(s) VERY well! Now, I STILL do have the epilepsy, but you just don't know it because my seizures are controlled; but I HAVE to remain on my medication for LIFE and I can't skip a dose, or I WILL have a seizure, and I will have to go all the way back to square one, and I will have to give up my life as I know it, and I don't think I could handle that! I am too busy, and I am too stubborn; I can't give up my driving or my nursing career! This is what pays the bills at home, and I depend on my van like it was my LIFELINE!! My van is my LIFE; without it I am SCREWED!! (We have other vehicles too, besides my van; we have a used bus, and we have used cars for my husband and older kids who drive; we need these things to get ALL of us from place to place! But BOY, does the insurance rates ever KILL us! SHEESH!! I just thank God that we haven't had any MAJOR wrecks in our vehicles! Pray that this never happens to us, either!!)
One footnote you may find amusing..my husband drives a BUG! Yes, you heard me..my nearly 7 foot-tall husband drives a 2002 Volkswagon BUG!! That is a production in ITSELF; you ought to see him try to get in and out of that thing; it's akin to watching clowns at the circus trying to get out of one of those teeny tiny little cars they have! It's HILARIOUS!! LOL I keep telling him he should get himself a HUMMER; it would be more his size! It's BIG enough...LOL He loves HUMMERS, but he says he can't afford one. But if he would look at a USED one, maybe he COULD, but right now he is too happy toolin' around in his little bitty BUG!! (Speaking of HUMMERS, we have friends who DO have HUMMERS, but they can afford them; we CAN'T without a MIRACLE! LOL)
Kendra, we can't WAIT to meet you in August, and we can't WAIT to take you and the girls around and show y'all Nashville! You would LOVE the Grand Ole Opry! You would also probably love the WildHorse Saloon Dance Club, or the Country Music Hall of Fame! You would probably also like the Parthenon or the Hermitage! Of course, there is SOOO much more to do here; it's too bad you aren't coming in June; we would take y'all to Fan Fair, which is an experience in itself! (We go to Fan Fair every year; it's tradition with us.) We also go to the Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival back in my neck of the woods, Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, which is my stompin' grounds; and that is tradition with us, too! But those are USUALLY the ONLY vacations we take all year UNLESS Ronee' has a singing engagement somewere; then we go for her. But this Alaska thing was something we have planned on doing for years, and we figured that since we really haven't celebrated Johnny and Ronee' 's adoption day anniversary, then we would do something special; and this was how we ended up going to Alaska. Bill and myself had always wanted to see the magnificent splendor that is Alaska, and we had been saving up for this for years, it seems like; and since Ronee' went "aurora crazy" when she first saw the Northern Lights last year, we decided that this would be a perfect opportunity, so this is why we are now in Alaska; and so far we are having a total blast! Now that Bill's asthma troubles are FINALLY behind us, we can FINALLY get down to serious business and enjoy the heck out of our vacation!!
Well, dearie, it looks like this novel must come to a close; Bill and the kids are stirring, and they are becoming awake. So I must tend to them and get them up and ready to go down to breakfast so they can take their morning meds and inhalers! I gotta' go and take MY medication too, or I will forget, and that would NOT be good! So until I hear from you again, TA-TA to you and the girls! Write soon when you can, and let me know what you think on the situations regarding the books/videos, Lightning (I will call her sometime in a day or two and tell her that you would like to meet her and the kids; she'd love that!), and other things that may come up between now and August! But I will answer any questions you may have, and I hope you will take any suggestions I may bring up to heart. Until I hear from you again, take care, and God bless you and your family always!
(((HUGS))) and much love, your friend in Tennessee (via Alaska), Louisiana. :D (Still think that sounds weird! LOL Oh, ye' yaie, WHY couldn't I have been named something like MARIE???)
P.S.: If you are wondering HOW I got my name of Louisiana, my maman, Claudia, thought it would be cute to name us after states, so she did! She named us girls (going from oldest to youngest) Georgia, Florida, Arizona, Indiana, and me, Louisiana. Oh, well, I guess I needn't complain...it's better than the names my papa had picked out for us: he was going to name us Mayrah Jolene (I still have Mayrah for a name, but it is my middle name instead of being my first name), Monette Clarice, Mamie Josephine, Marigold Florita, and Mildred Penelope. UCH!! I guess I AM glad that maman decided to name us girls; otherwise I would have been named Mildred Penelope (or Mayrah Jolene); and I am sorry, but Mildred Penelope (and even Mayrah Jolene) sounds more like a name for a little old lady with grey hair, and I am NO WHERE NEAR being a little old lady! My body may FEEL like I am a little old lady, and I MAY be a grandmaman four times over already, but the truth of the matter is this: I am NOT even forty years old yet! AGGGHHHH!!!!
I just wonder what I am going to do when I start getting stuff from AARP...I just may go ahead and bury myself in the sand somewhere....LOL
It's almost Christmas. Lynn Basil is writing her last book about a secret entrance into the magical doll land of Sha Bebe that she loves so much. Bagannos have taken over the world! Lynn finally meets her dolls in real life. Can she write in a Secret
A wicked Cajun Fairy named Robes Pierre entered the impenetrable Magical doll land of Sha Bebe. Queen Faustina, the ruler of the doll land, thought she had destroyed him, but he's back! Will the doll land survive his evil ways?
Let this coming of age story of a boy named Bean take you back to a simple time. Set in a small southern town in the 1960's, encircled by a river and gleaming white cotton fields.
Tuesday, April 27, 2004~
