Amanda graduates!

We are very proud of our graduate! She graduated with honors; her cap stayed on; and Austin put on a "real" shoe for the first time since his accident. It was a good night! (A special thanks to Steve Zinsenheim for taking the picture of Amanda receiving her diploma from her principal.)

A series of unfortunate events for Austin

Austin has had a rough 6 week period. It began with his toe smashing incident. He spent a week recuperating at home with us. We monitored his prescription medicine, let him sleep, fixed his meals, etc. When he was tired of being spoiled, he returned to his house near school where he promptly caught the flu from one of his roommates. He spent another week recuperating from this new affliction.

Lately he has had 2 car mishaps. For a boy who has never had an accident, he recently has had 2 and both

occurred in driveways! The first one occurred when he backed up and hit a trashcan. It wasn't even a big, metal trashcan. It was just one of your standard, plastic home trashcans. He apparently hit it just right and dented a panel on his car.

Then, on May 16th, he had an appointment with a podiatrist. The podiatrist decided not to remove the nail from his toe and mentioned that the break was healing nicely. Huh? What break? When the toe was x-rayed in the ER after the accident, Austin was told that it was not broken. I guess they were wrong. Since the toe has hurt a lot, he hasn't moved it much and it is healing like it should. He was told that he can return to work on May 30th and will return to the podiatrist in a month for another follow-up visit.

The next vehicle incident occurred when he backed up, admittedly without looking, and a tree limb busted his passenger side mirror. The offending tree limb had apparently fallen during the night and landed at just the right height to destroy the passenger mirror. While he had decided to live with the dent from the previous driveway crash, he doesn't want to drive without a side mirror . . . safety first. It is going to take a chunk out of his savings to have it repaired. Such is life.

Finally, he finished his finals and wrapped up the semester. He decided to check his summer schedule on his computer. His computer wouldn't work! Arghhh . . . .

May is a busy month

Alan told me that I needed to update my blog. I reminded him that we've been busy, but I have a moment so here's the update . . .

Thursday, May 10th - Amanda has been very busy. She and Jordan are co-presidents of the Relay for Life club at Pope. They hosted the Miss Panache pageant at Pope that helps to raise money for the cause. We didn't see her at all on the Tuesday or Wednesday before the pageant. Austin texted her - just to check in - and her response was "I hate everyone." Alan had a similar experience when he texted her. She replied, "Just kill me." That's our sweet, little ray of sunshine! Nonetheless, she and Jordan did a fabulous job of hosting the pageant.

Friday, May 11th - Amanda worked on Relay for Life. We didn't see her again.

Saturday, May 12th - It's Prom Night. Prom is always filled with drama . . . dress, hair, meeting for pictures, etc. Amanda looked gorgeous and had a good time. She has a good group of friends and I knew her date would take good care of her.

Sunday, May 13th - Mother's Day. I cooked for the family here. I knew Amanda would be tired. Plus, some of the family was already going to be in Marietta because Jasmine's dance recital had been the night before, so it just seemed like the best thing to do. We watched the video of Jasmine's performance since we couldn't be there in person. Amanda did miss most of the festivities because she was asleep or preparing for work. For the few minutes that she was able to join us, she was gifted by her family with balloons, a cookie cake, a singing animal (that Rylie really likes), and money - the all time favorite gift.

We still have a lot to look forward to . . .

Wednesday, May 16th - Austin goes to the podiatrist. They may remove his toenail.
Friday, May 18th - My last day of school with children.
Wednesday, May 23rd - Amanda's Baccalaureate 
Thursday, May 24th - Amanda graduates!