Major pixies needed please [updated 4/3, post #306] - Page 19 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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Lenny is getting there - he's finally just about back to the way he walked before he fell. He still needs the crutches here and there but less and less (if that makes sense). He's been walking more and more with either his two canes or with nothing at all. At the grocery store for the past couple of weeks, he's been able to stand at the register and bag our groceries again. He's also been going walking with us and pushing the wheelchair (and when he's tired he sits in the chair while Abby or I pushes him around until he feels ready to walk again). All of that means when we went to the doctor yesterday, Lenny felt ready to ask him to sign the "return to work" form. The doctor put March 24th on it - the date decided upon back in January as Lenny was suppose to go back on the 23rd for a follow up. Abby has Special Olympics that day so we changed his appointment to yesterday. The doctor even wrote another prescription for PT to continue working on range of motion and gait training but now he added work on core exercises for Lenny's back (another area of problems due to spinal stenosis). It also mentions strengthening RLE but I don't know what that means. It's got to make Lenny stronger for something so it has to be good.
I sent the paperwork off to Home Depot HR and the disability company - we haven't heard back from them yet - and Lenny called the store to talk to the local HR person. It's not the same one as before - she no longer has the position and that worried me but we went with the paperwork and met the new HR guy and he seems really nice. He's going to get Lenny back on the schedule "you're coming back at the perfect time. We're gearing up for the busy season" and he had no problems whatsoever with the amount of PT/follow up/misc doctor appointments Lenny has scheduled nor did he have a problem with time off for Abby's drama banquet/graduation/Storyland weekend (explained in another thread) or Disney for two weeks. He seemed like a really nice, understanding, work with you type of guy but the downside to him is he's moving in June - he's only here temporarily. He did say though once Lenny gets back into the computer system, give him all the dates we need and he'll put them in for us. As an employee, Lenny (meaning me) can only go into the system 90 days out to put in time off requests. That will be a help.
Another thing that I think will help is the fact a lot of people that Lenny worked with before are still there. I cannot tell you how many people saw him and came over to say hi, ask how he's doing and when he's coming back. He seemed genuinely missed and everyone seemed happy that he's coming back in a couple of weeks. A few others even mentioned "you're coming back at the right time for the busy season." Lenny seems happy to have the date too but he was hoping to go back and be able to work days instead of nights. I guess he liked being home at with us but he's going to be put back on nights. On one hand it's unfortunate but on the other, it does make sense. It's what he was doing before he broke his leg and he hasn't been "promoted" to day time yet and with all his PT and doctor appointments, he can keep those and still go to work instead of needing a lot of time off. He will get a raise though when he gets back however but that's not the stores doing - it's the state of Massachusetts. For the past three years, there was a law passed (or whatever it was) raising the minimum wage by a dollar each year for three years. Yes, it's sad to say my 50 something YO husband is only making minimum wage but as I've told him before minimum wage is better than zero wages.
On a slightly different note, Lenny is still feeling really good too despite having a heart attack only a little more than a month ago now. The stent helped and I'm sure making him get out and walk and continuing PT (where he rides a bicycle) helps too. He had a stress test last week that he was actually able to ride the bike for - the last few tests have been chemical stress tests - and he did really well at it. If we can all continue to exercise as a family, I think it will be really good, It'll help Lenny with his health issues and help Abby continue to lose weight. It'll just make me tired with everything else I do but that's what we moms do I guess - take care of everyone else. No rest for the weary and a mom's job is never done and all that good stuff.
So yeah, it's been a LONG six plus months. I will update here again and let everyone know though how it goes for Lenny returning to work as I'm sure after all this time, everyone will be curious. But for now, I just want to say again Thank you everyone for your support, your ears and your shoulders. It has been greatly appreciated.
That's great news! I'm glad Lennie's finally able to go back to work. Days would be nice but as one of my bosses once said to me " This is retail and everyone would like to work days". I finally got scheduled mostly days after years of being there.
I'm glad you like the new hr person and he was able to give Lennie the days off he needs. A raise is a raise .
Liz
That's great news about Lenny. I know you are all anxious to get back to normal again. I know the walking as a family adds more to your daily activity, but you may find, after a while, that it helps you mentally as well as physically. It will give the 3 of you time together with no one else around and with no distractions. That may prove to be beneficial as well.
Glad to hear your family's life is getting back on track and happy you are all exercising. It's not only good for weight loss but for your overall health. And doing it as a family is just really nice.
So happy Lenny will be returning to work and he's feeling better!
__________________
First trip DW--Nov. 1975; Senior Class Trip DW--Oct. 1979; First trip w/kids--Oct. 1995; Halloween at DW--Oct. 2002; Spring Break at DW--April 2004; Christmas/Pop Warner Nationals-POR--Dec. 2005;Cruisin'--April 2008; Mom/Son trip-POP--March 2010;Taggin' along w/DD on DH's conference-BWI--Oct. 2011; 50th birthday with the Gartner Geeks--Adults only!--BWI--Oct. 2012; The Trip That Almost Wasn't--BWI--Oct. 2013; We climbed The Summit (National Cheer Competition)--ASMovies--May 2014
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Things are looking up, yay!
It's hard to carve out time to exercise, especially as busy as you are, but I think all of you will come to enjoy your walks, especially as spring gets closer and closer.
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Waiting for our next adventure after enjoying our Alaska cruise. 
Jenn
The doctor put March 24th on it - the date decided upon back in January as Lenny was suppose to go back on the 23rd for a follow up. Abby has Special Olympics that day so we changed his appointment to yesterday. The doctor even wrote another prescription for PT to continue working on range of motion and gait training but now he added work on core exercises for Lenny's back (another area of problems due to spinal stenosis). It also mentions strengthening RLE but I don't know what that means. It's got to make Lenny stronger for something so it has to be good.
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