Preference

Tonight was "Preference". It is a girl's choice dance. Their morning date was a nice breakfast.
Chris putting on her corsage.

He is such a cute boy. I hope he has fun!

I forgot to put this one on the last post. We also had a yummy Chocolate cake for our Valentine's dessert.

Valentine's Dance

Joseph has been waiting for this dance for a long time. I heard him talking about it with his friends over a year ago. They LOVE girls and they talk about them all the time. The 6th graders practice many dances during P.E. for quite a while. They then put all of their moves together at a special dance. They all dress up and practice their moves. They cannot dance with the same person more than once. It was boy's choice half of the time and girl's choice the other half.
They did the swing, the cha cha, the waltz, the bunny hop, the electric slide, and a few more. It was very professional!
Joseph danced with many girls. I couldn't even post all of the different ones. It was way too many. They also did many dances that didn't have partners.

Us moms all walked around taking pictures and ooohing and ahhhing! It was a fun time for a mom.

Joseph had the time of his life. He just had a blast. What a great opportunity for these kids to practice their dances and dance etiquette. A great experience for us all. I bet I don't get to follow him around with a camera at his next dance, that's for sure!

Joseph won an award for his Electric Slide. Ha! So fun to watch!

On Valentine's Day, we had assigned Valentines and they had to do dates in the house. (Because it was Sunday). Chris and Emily exchanged gifts and had a nice date that included hide-and-go-seek.

Joseph and my mom exchanged gifts and had their date.

I forgot to get a picture of Dennis and I, but we had a date and he gave me this nice gift. It is a Willow Tree figurine and the title is "Our Gift". I know Sarah is our gift to raise in the millennium, but I'm not that patient and sometimes it doesn't feel like a gift. He was sweet though to give me this, even thought it made me a little sad. I made a huge turkey dinner for us all and I was stuffed and went to bed early. Not too shabby of a Valentine's Day for this family!

Basketball

This basketball season has been quite interesting. Christopher couldn't play because of his brain injury. This was very hard for him. He loves to play basketball. Joseph had a great time this season.

Emily has been the challenging one this year. It was her first year playing. I decided to coach to give her a little help. Christopher was my assistant coach since he couldn't play. Here he is giving some pointers before they begin.

Emily has been very frustrated this season. This has been overwhelming and difficult for her. During her last game she exploded as a basketball player. She was dribbling, guarding and shooting like never before. She was even running. This girl does not run. It was amazing. She was so proud of herself. She got so pumped up and asked if she could sign up for soccer. I am so proud of her. Coaching has been challenging. I feel like I don't know what I'm doing, but to see how far some of these girls have come is a joy I did not expect.

Udpate

Some days when I am just barely getting by I get a little reminder that I'm not as alone as I feel. Thanks for remembering this appointment day. It has been a doozy! I woke up early and headed out with Chris only to realize I forgot his MRI films. Luckily Dennis was able to drive it over to the hospital for us. It was a few hour appointment. We went over history and symptoms and all that jazz. Christopher then took some tests while I waited in the lobby forever. She told us basically that we should have been there much sooner. Why didn't any doctors get him there? I felt so guilty. I just kept doing what I was told. He is one of the only 3% of people that have post concussion syndrome. His brain has just not healed. He tested very low in all areas he was tested on today. He even scored only 2% for visual memory. That means reading is totally pointless. It explains why he forgot he left my car at the school or that he even had my car. I thought it was stolen and he had no idea where it was. It's all making so much sense. It also explains why he comes home from school so frustrated. He says that he has to read a paragraph 20 times and still can't remember what he read. They feel lack of sleep may be playing a role in why his brain isn't healing. He is supposed to get a certain amount of sleep this week. I have to chart it. No late nights at all. He can't do any activities. Not even swim. He is supposed to rest that brain and go back on Wednesday to take the same tests and see if there is any improvement. I went to the school with my notes from the doctor on what accommodations he would need for a while. He is mortified. He told me with tears in his eyes that he feels retarded. He feels so inadequate. His anxiety has been so bad that I made him a counseling appointment next week so he can deal with his emotions. Another symptom in 100% of Post concussion syndrome patients is depression. Just what he needs. His emotional and physical well being are all affected and he feels so lost. My heart breaks for that boy. How do you make a teenage boy realize it doesn't matter what anyone thinks. Teenagers are not as compassionate or understanding as adults and they can be pretty thoughtless. He is also over sensitive lately and irritable. He would be quite mad that I even wrote this in my blog. I now have more questions than answers and I will be armed with my long list I am accumulating. So, my next update on this will be Wednesday after his appointment. Another thing that we just found out and have been dealing with is my mom. She was referred to a cardiologist last week. I went with her for one of her tests. She has a serious heart condition. They say her heart could just stop at any time. She is doing more tests throughout the next couple weeks and they should have a game plan after that. It is apparently something with her electrical system of the heart. It jumps all around and is highly irregular in it's beating. I saw it on the echo cardiogram and it was truly jumping all over the place. She is wearing a monitor right now. I know she is scared and I wish I knew what to do to help her. I wish I knew how to help Chris or Emily for that matter. I feel helpless. I feel overwhelmed and I just pray that Heavenly Father will make up the difference because I am falling short all over the place! Some fun things that have gone on lately are a super fun western dance Chris went to at school.
Emily had a late over with a friend and they just so happen to be wearing the same jammies! This made her very excited.

Joseph at the science fair. Two super cute neighbors just happened by while I was taking this photo. Tomorrow is the day he has been waiting for. The Valentine's Dance. I have signed up to be the photographer, as to not miss a single second of his first dance with a girl. I cannot wait to post those pictures tomorrow. I have to savor the good moments as they come.