Laundry

Brian is at the racetrack and Katie is at the movies with a friend.  Morgan is watching TV and I am currently trying to get motivated to do the laundry.  I've been sitting here most of the afternoon reading various blogs.... which I find most interesting, I might add.  This one is basically just a test to see if I have my comments turned on or not.... can't seem to get it right.

Yesterday, the girls and I went to the Renaissance Festival. Morgan decided to dress in her costume before we left, and found a couple of accoutrements along the way. This picture was taken not long before we left. She was resting beside a pool and adjusting the head dress that we bought. I love those wings we found for her... they are beautiful.

The President Speaks

So, I'm not a big fan of our President. I did not vote for our President, but I'm not one of those people who constantly complain about him either. I have health insurance, I believe everyone deserves it, but I do not believe a Government run health plan is the answer. I don't know what the answer is. And, I think there are far more important things for the President to be doing at this moment in our history than to be speaking to our children in school.
What will he be speaking about?...... well, we're not exactly sure. We're told that he will be talking to our children about the importance of education. My children know that. They don't have to hear it from the President. They know it because I told them that it is. Hearing it from the President won't make it more so. I'm no conspiracy theorist, but I don't understand why this is taking place live. Why this has bypassed our School Boards and Teachers. Yes, it may just be a message about the importance of staying in school, but why all the fuss just to tell the kids that? It seems like a waste of resources for such an obvious message. No other President has addressed students in this way...... seems odd to me.
Thankfully, our school has given us the opportunity of letting us decide if our children will see it or not... and I'm still undecided. Maybe I'll just let them choose.

Pictures

Before I forget, I want to post a couple of pictures from Katie's party.....

First, the birthday girls. Katie and Emily.

Here's Morgan........thanks Christy for helping out with the hair. I never could have done it myself.

I had a few more posted here, but went to get a link and forgot to save and now they're gone. I just don't have the patience to do it all over so I'm taking the easy way out. If you want to see the whole set, check them out here.

We have a lot of work to do....Katie's having some friends over to watch movies later. And, Morgan has pneumonia so I need to get her some medicine. Maybe I'll add some of those pictures later.

Neurologist

As you most likely know, from either talking to us or reading my blog, Morgan has had some health issues lately. Just in case you haven't talked to us in awhile, she had an "episode" as I like to call it, at school back in February which seemed to me to be a whole lot like a seizure. She was taken to the ER by ambulance and there she told us that the same thing happened to her at home just 2 days before. There was some question about a diagnosis right from the start. It looked like seizures, but she remembered them and that goes against what happens with most seizures. There was also some concern that it may be a vessel or brain issue (mini-stroke/tumor) so a Brain MRI and EEG were both ordered, mainly just to rule out the above mentioned diagnoses. The MRI came back clear, but the EEG did not, and we were referred to a Pediatric Neurologist at Children's Hospital for a consultation. Well, that was Tuesday. We have been told that Morgan has a type of Epilepsy called BRE or Benign Rolandic Epilepsy. It is called benign because almost all kids with this type of epilepsy outgrow it and show no lasting effects, but it does cause seizures like the ones Morgan has had and, more frequently, seizures at night. It can cause learning difficulties and behavioral problems that typically disappear when they outgrow the syndrome at around age 15 and so far she hasn't shown any learning difficulty. She has shown big behavioral changes, although I wouldn't say that she's a behavior "problem". She shows all the signs of BRE.....typical onset of symptoms is between the ages of 6-8 (she's 7), the seizure she had at school (now I can call it that) was on just one side of her face and body and she was drooling, just like everything I read says will happen. So, if she were to have any more seizures during the day, they would most likely be like that, or partial seizures. But, the nighttime seizures would most likely be the tonic-clonic or Grand Mal type. As far as we know, she hasn't had any of those, an up until a few days ago she's been sleeping on the floor in our room so we probably would have known if she did. Dr. Hallinan said that she really needs to get more sleep every night as sleep deprivation worsens the condition and makes seizures more likely. So, we're trying to get her on a sleep schedule, which isn't easy since she typically only sleeps 7 hours at night and never takes naps. The doctor really wants her to sleep 8-10. All I can say is we're working on it. Oh, and if that weren't enough.... she's been officially diagnosed with migraines too. So, she's doubly blessed. We now have a medical action plan at school and are keeping a headache diary to see if we can keep them under control without prescription medications. We're holding off on prescription meds for the epilepsy for now as well.... just to see if/how much worse it gets. We'll probably need to put her on something in the future and we've been given information on some meds that are available, but neither her doctor nor we think it's necessary right now. Well, I'm about tapped out...this is giving me a headache and I'm getting bummed just thinking about it all. I'll give updates as they come

A Busy Week

This week is going to be a doozy. Besides all of the normal running we do each week, we have extra things to pick up, plan and coordinate for the party that is Saturday. I'm getting so excited about it. We have some special surprises planned for Katie that I would love to be able to talk about, but since she reads my blog occasionally, I'd better keep quiet about them until after the party. I can say that I went shopping after work yesterday and today to pick up things and I'll have to do some last minute food shopping later this week.
My 365 Photo Project is coming along really well. I especially like the picture I took today. Here it is:



I had an idea to submerge the ball in a bowl of water and freeze it, and I was able to get 2 days worth of photos from that "project", but the end result wasn't as exciting as I'd hoped. Yesterday, I photographed it in a bubble bath with some bath toys and I've taken a picture with Bear too. I'm having fun with it. Every day I think that I'm not going to be able to think of another original idea, and somehow, I do. They're not always great, but ideas just the same.

Reunion

Another exhausting day. Of course, now I feel like I'm getting my second wind. But, when I got home from work all I wanted to do was sit. I spent the best part of 2 hours working on the Reunion. If I haven't mentioned it before, this August is my 20th High School Reunion. I'm on the planning committee and I haven't even thought about any of it in about a month. We're trying to make plans for a second meeting this Saturday and I had a lot of preparation and organizational things that I wanted to accomplish before then. I also did some online searching, made a few phone calls and sent an email to try to locate a few more of our classmates that we have been unable to reach as of yet. I was able to talk to the wife of one, and confirmed the phone number of another through the bar and grill that she owns, but had to leave messages at the others. Oh, and one was a complete dead end. Wrong person all together. I'm not confident that we'll EVER find him.
My photo project is going well........day 4 today. I have an idea for tomorrow too. So far so good. Well, I've got to go pick up dinner. (pizza tonight!)