Two amazing blogs by two amazing moms – nothing I could write could sum up the content. So please visit
Was this in the plan???? Written by Stephanie Nimmo in London
and
Ourprincessnicola Written by Jo Burns in Australia
Still here – GO read already
Well it has been a busy few days with my server replacement and rebuild, all is working again thanks to the backups. I love backups. I took my eye of the ball regarding the CostelloKids website. The site has experienced a few problems some of them related to the update to the web hosting. Unfortunately not all the problems are fixed, while others took quite a time to figure out what went wrong. For example this site has been serving blank pages, now fixed, but the main CostelloKids site is still playing up. http://www.costellokids.com will work fine. but it does not yet work without the www.
Our Web forum went missing of the web for a couple of days and the FAQ system came, then went, and is now back again, all to do with the black arts that is the DNS system that makes the web work. All being well everything will be fixed in the next few days and normal service will be resumed.
When you are in a rush something always goes wrong. Take tonight for example, I have been building a new CostelloKids site on my test server. The server also runs the Rasopathy network http://RAS-Pathway-syndromes.com website.
Well everything was going well until the server went an rebooted and never recovered. So if people are looking for the RASopathy network for the next day or two it temporary broken. A new server is rushing this way, hurried along from Amazon by a tribe of lost of bits and bytes, and all being well will be up and running by the weekend.
In the mean time enjoy visiting this site, while I debate on whether it will be a fun project to build a new CostelloKids website in Drupal, or a WordPress platform.
If you can see yourself to making a donation to help us cover the costs of this site then that would be amazing.
Life can be very difficult caring for a child with a rare and complicated disability. With hospital visits being a weakly routine, with often 2 or 3 different appointments spread over a couple of days. Add to that health issues including a complex heart condition, joint problems, speech and language issues, the good times are something to savour.
When my daughter was 16 we held a huge party for our family and friends. It was great we built memories to remember, and every body was able to join with us to celebrate a birthday that we thought we would never see. The Hotel were fantastic at the time catering for our needs, and nothing was too much trouble as they wanted to give Helaina a wonderful time.
After the event we made plans to hold another big party to celebrate her 18th birthday and in February 2011 we signed a contract to host her 18th fully expecting to be treated in the same way we had previously been treated. Oh how wrong we were, on Sunday January 8th we were invited to discuss the venue, or so we thought. However the hotel had invited us to see the manager because they wanted to tell us that they were cancelling our event. Not only that the staff did not have the courtesy or manners to even recognise or address Helaina, she was just ignored. The event was cancelled by them outside of the terms and conditions of the contract and we had no say in the matter. The Bower Hotels behaviour left us devastated.
The local paper has covered the story here Heartbreak hotel for Helaina
If you are thinking of holding your event at this hotel think again – if they can treat a person with a life limiting condition in this appealing way, how would they treat you on your special day.
