Hello everyone! I am back!!
I am sorry for my long hiatus from the DIS. I hope to explain a bit about why I have been gone so long - it is a mixture of several things and I hope you will not mind if I catch you guys up on my world real quick - then I hope to jump back in here. I have a LOT of catching up to do on this thread!
Several major things have happened in the past few months that have affected my world in real life and have just taken up my time and thought space to the point where I just didn't have the time or mental/emotional energy to DIS.
First of all, Lauren is settled at college!
Helping get her settled in was quite an accomplishment for her parents and me.
Lauren has hired 4 wonderful ladies who are splitting 14 eight hour shifts a week to take care of her. This is paid by the State Independent Living Waiver and if Lauren did not have it, she could not live on campus at school. But it literally took an act of "congress" - we had to get a Legislative Review in order for it to be approved in time for her to get to school. Then we had dorm stuff to buy and all the regular "college" stuff to do, too. It was a busy few months!
Now that Lauren is settled in, her Mom and I are splitting "night shifts." The state does not pay for anyone to stay with Lauren at night - and her family can't afford to pay a nurse all night - so her Mom and I split sleeping at the dorm. It really isn't hard - in fact, I am here right now just playing on the computer and watching TV. It is kinda fun to be a small part of dorm life and the only really hard part is finding a place for my dog, Muffin, to spend the night - but I have lots of friends that are playing "foster Mom" to Muffin and she is happy to be hanging out with bunches of people, I suppose - lots more fun than hanging out at my place all the time.
But the main reason I have not been on the DIS is that my time and energy has been wrapped up in a federal case. Literally a Federal Case.
Through one of my jobs, I basically came across some records that suggested a terrible crime was being continually committed against people who could not really stand up for themselves. For the last few months I have spent countless hours meeting with lawyers, pouring over reports, creating spreadsheet after spreadsheet to provide details that will help describe the issue and prosecute this person and meeting with federal investigators myself. This has resulted in (
finally) the defendant being put in jail. This week I had to give testimony regarding the issue to a Federal Grand Jury. Now that I have testified and since they are in jail, I feel ok sharing this much with you guys.
For obvious reasons, I could not go "public" with this on the DIS. My life is pretty transparent here on the DIS and many people here know me in real life - I consider many of you to be dear friends of mine
- but while the person was still out there and not realizing that they were about to get in major trouble, I simply could not post anything about it on the DIS. There was a real flight risk, which is why the person is sitting in jail with no hope for release any time soon.
I hope you guys understand.
I will still be a little vague until this person has been indicted for their crime - but that could take quite some time. Now that I am confident that they have been caught and are not going to be getting out of jail for some time, I feel comfortable saying this much on the DIS. Many people in my area know about it now, it is no longer a major secret, but in fairness to the defendant and the people who are still unaware of this person's crimes against them, I will still be vague here.
I will ask you, PLEASE, if you are my Facebook friend - please do not post about this on my Facebook page at all. Please, please. There are FB friends of mine that are still not aware of this. I almost did not post this here because I really don't want posts on Facebook suggesting anything is going on in my world. These people don't come on the DIS, but out of respect for them, I hope that my friends here will refrain from mentioning any of this on my FB page. I am not mentioning anything on there, either.
This person will very, very likely eventually be indicted and this will become public knowledge at some point. I won't mind sharing more details at that time, but for now, I hope this is enough to sort of explain where I have been.
I have enjoyed living life on the DIS - and I am glad to be back!
Even my real life friends have either been "in" on this whole thing and have been one of very few confidants or have found me to be too busy to spend much time with them and not really having any idea what is "wrong" with me. I have friends in real life that are wondering where I have been for the past few months, too.
Anyway! I am back! I hope that you guys will forgive my long absence!
Now I have a LOT of reading to catch up on. I will be updating all the threads that I can find with dates and seeking out new wish trip reports to post on the first page here...this may take me a few days, honestly. If you want to be in the "front" of the line, feel free to post any links or dates here and I will check here first!
I have missed you guys!!!
to all of our new Wish trippers out there!!! This board is sooo helpful!! If you have any questions, feel free to ask!! I guarantee someone will have an answer for you!! 
. My son is most excited about seeing the Christmas lights and Animal Kingdom. No matter what, it will be wonderful to finally have a family vacation!!
