Winding Down

The school year is winding down. I always look forward to the last few weeks of school, mostly for the same reason kids do -- summer break is on its way! Here are some things we've been up to, using bullets out of necessity for my brain.

• Girls Only Trip to Cleveland. My brother Nate had surgery on May 1st at The Cleveland Clinic. Katy and I left the boys at home and took off to give Mamaw and Poppy and Nate some support. The day of surgery was the longest, so Katy took some pictures to document the day. You'll see a pic of her rolling her new "fun bag," a present from Mamaw and Poppy to help pass the time. There's also a pic of her riding the shuttle bus with Poppy and loving every minute.

• LCS Carnival. Our school had a carnival on Friday night, which is usually Cole Family Dinner night, but they were gracious and let us skip. :) We came home with full tummies, two balloons, five bracelets, two plastic snakes, and one not-so-plastic goldfish. Bummer on that last one, by the way. It's nice to have such a great place to work AND send my kids to school. Great job, PTO.
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• Caleb's noggin is doing just fine. He had a follow-up scan the week after his fall, and things look great. I would swear that he is constantly on a quest to see how many times he can end up in the ER before he is off our insurance, but so far his post-fractured-skull efforts have been in vain. THANK YOU, JESUS!

• Katy has been very keen on being all done up, so tonight after her bath we had pedi time. Here are the lover-ly results. The second pic is what I got when I asked her not to have "scrunchy eyes" when I take a picture. Hmmm... On second thought, maybe scrunchy is better...
  

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Recent Pics

Sometimes I don't get around to sharing our family pics because they sit on the camera for a while. Here are some of the recent happenings.


Barb in Peds @ MGH, one of Caleb's nurses


The kids and I just hanging out. I think it was one of those super-cold days, so we were in hibernation mode.


Nate finally got to come stay with us. He was supposed to on the night that Caleb went in for emergency surgery, so this had been in the works for a while. Nate was taking a catnap on the couch, and Caleb saw fit to share his naptime essentials.


Her royal highness, the Princess Cinderella-Katy, dressing up for LCS Homecoming Week on Disney Character Day.

Nathan

Mom, Dad, Nate, and Erin (his girlfriend) are in Cleveland today for a barrage of tests to get a second opinion about his condition. The referral was given by his current doctor in Indy who strongly encouraged them to get another opinion. Please pray that something comes to light that would control or stop Nate's seizures, which are still happening on a fairly serious, daily basis.

Stuff and Things

I was down in Indy (like every Sunday lately) to visit with my family, and we got the chance to disconnect Nate from all his monitors and wheel him around. I thought I'd give you a look at him. He was really grumpy because he wanted to go home and his mean family wouldn't let him. :) They are talking about moving him to a rehab hospital as soon as Wednesday, so I'll keep you posted.




And outside of the hospital, life goes on. It's Thanksgiving week, so that means a few family gatherings, lots of food, and lots of time in the car. I really enjoy car travel, so I look forward to weeks like this. True, the kiddos do change things a bit, but they're getting better at car travel now.

Enjoy the movie!

Nathan, My Little Brother

I am so scared. We are at the hospital in Muncie because my tall, little brother is very sick. While the doctors have yet to give a definitive diagnosis, right how they are labeling him as having encephalitis.

I don't know what your mind does during circumstances like these, but mine tends to imagine out some of the not-so-positive scenarios. Right now I hate that tendency.

Nate and his gal

Nate and his gal
Originally uploaded by jaxnoth.

My brother-in-law