Monday, February 27, 2012

Day 1369 - Feb 26, 2012

Well we had one helluva week!!!  There are so many people to thank for giving Kevin the vacation of a lifetime, I swear!

First, I want to jump in and say that it will be a few weeks before I give any information on the organization that remodeled Kevin's bathroom.  I CAN'T WAIT to show you how fantastic it looks, but I want to do it right and it's not quite finished yet.  I guess we can be patient though...

So on to vacation!  First I must again thank Dick over at Impact Player!  He knew how much Kevin loved movies so he contacted a very special person, who in turn made this the vacation Kevin will never forget.  I can never thank Judit enough for all she did for us! 

So here is who Judit works for and who she brought Kevin out to see!


Yes!  Judit works for Adam Sandler and they brought us out to LA to meet up with them and to show us what movies/tv are all about.

Here are a bunch more photos of Kevin with some others:

David Spade


Jonathan Loughran





Christian Slater


Megan Mullally


This is the set from the show Breaking In which has both Christian and Megan in it.


And here's Kevin standing between the original Ghostbusters car (which still runs!) and the Green Hornet car (which does not).

 
 Here's Kevin 'playing' Jeopardy with the most wonderful Leeann Tweeden and her husband, Chris


This is Kevin with one of the producers at Happy Madison (I am embarrassed that I don't remember his name) and Allen Covert


And here is a group photo at the Happy Madison office.  The wonderful Judit is on the far right.



And to end this most wonderful last day in LA, we went to dinner with Leeann and Chris (Judit couldn't make it and we were so bummed!) and here is a photo of them with Kevin


This day alone was spectacular and Kevin couldn't stop grinning!  I wish y'all could have seen his face when he walked in and saw everyone and then when Adam walked down the hall?  Kevin almost fainted, lol!  It was the most awesome thing to see!!

So I have TONS of pics to show you from the rest of the week, but I think I am going to just write a few times this week to do it.  It would take forever to load all of them and I want to really share the week with you guys.

Thank you to Judit and Adam.  To Dick.  To Hertz for the rental car.  To the Westin hotel for our room.  To Universal Studios and to A Day in LA Tours.  I am so sure I am forgetting some folks, but I'll throw their names in this week when I think of them.

You all made my hero one happy camper - he honestly had a blast!!
 

Monday, February 20, 2012

Day 1362 - Feb 19, 2012

Kevin and I had a wonderful day today!  We are actually in Los Angeles at Universal Studios!  An organization (I will have to get the name of it to you next week as they are just getting up and running) is in the process of remodeling Kevin's bathroom so that he has a permanent seat in the shower and they needed us to leave the house for a week.  Kev's polytrauma doctor at the VA hospital set this all in motion - thank you, Dr. J!

Another organization - Impact Player - helped us out to be able to come to California and they hooked us up with some wonderful people in the area to give us a hand out here.  More will come on that next weekend.  Thanks a mil, IP!!

So we just got here last night and today we went to Universal Studios and had a fabulous time!  I took tons of pics (of course), but dummy me forgot my camera cord so those will also have to wait until next week.

Kevin is sure being treated like royalty here, lol.  Just wait til you see the photos!

So it is so cool seeing how the movies are made and you have to know that Kevin is loving it!  He is such a movie freak, lol.  When I asked him where he wanted to go a while back, this was it.  I have to admit I was (still am) a bit nervous being out here with him with no help, but we'll make it - we always do!

I am also happy to report two things - we went to our first 3-D show and Kevin had no problems at all.  It's always been a fear of mine that he would have a seizure, but he did fantastic!  The King Kong 'ride' was phenomenal and I'm so glad Kevin handled it.

And he also rode his first roller coaster since being wounded.  I did not, lol, but we were with a group on a tour so they took care of him.  He told me tonight that it was 'wow - fast' and that he felt sick when he got off.  I truly believe it was just a normal reaction to the ride and had nothing to do with his injuries though.

So tomorrow we are going back to Universal as we just don't move fast enough to do it all in one day.  We only have a few more rides to do, but we are going to get them done and then head to a different area of town for the second part of our journey.

And I guess I'll end here and head to bed.  This lady is whooped.  It is just not easy pushing a 200 lb man around all day in his wheelchair.  But we still had a blast!!

Monday, February 13, 2012

Day 1355 - Feb 12, 2012

On Thursday we went to BAMC so that the doctor could see how well the Botox has worked.  He was happy with the results as well, but felt we needed new braces for his wrist, hand and elbow.  We ended up being there over 4 hours while a new brace was actually designed for his hand as we decided to focus on it first..  Kevin is already struggling with it because it has his hand opened and it's honestly the first time in nearly 4 years it's been this extended.  He's hurting.

So while at BAMC a football player from the 49ers was visiting all the wounded soldiers.  His name is Riki Ellison and here are a couple of pics of Kevin with him and his Super Bowl rings.




And on Friday Kevin had his wisdom teeth removed - finally!  He did very well, but then again he was put under, lol.  So I was nervous not knowing how he was going to handle it, but we came home and when he was really struggling with the pain I gave him a pill and sent him for a nap.  When he woke up he was fine and has needed no additional pain meds since.  Matter of fact, he and Efren actually went to the movies that night.  I sure don't remember it being that easy when I had mine removed, hehe.

Last night we did something very different.  We actually went to a mystery dinner theater event at The Spaghetti Warehouse.  It really was kinda corny, but we still had a good time.  Kevin doesn't want to go again though,  but that's ok.  Life's all about new experiences, right?

And this about sums up our week.  My brother will be leaving on Wednesday to go to Florida to visit our parents and Kevin and I are leaving town next Saturday, but I'll explain more about that next week.

Monday, February 6, 2012

Day 1348 - Feb 5, 2012

Well it appears that Kevin had a good week without me, lol. He did call me quite often, but that's ok - I missed him too.

I wasn't really with him this week so there isn't all that much to say. We did go across the street for a Super Bowl party tonight and we had a good time. Lots of food and lots of gabbing - at least for some of us. There were a few that watched the game though, lol.

So we are supposed to go to the docs this week to discuss the Botox and I can't wait! What a HUGE difference it has made this time around! Kevin's wrist is the loosest I have ever felt and he is so excited about how far he can pull his arm down. Honestly, it is so much easier on my hands to do his exercises too. It's amazing the difference and I'm glad that he didn't end up creating antibodies after all.

And I guess this is it. Like I said, I just don't have much to say. Catch ya' next week!