Pretend this is a creative title ...

... because my brain is not working well right now! The past few days have been riddled with highs and lows around the Jones household. I've been smacked upside the head with a terribly nasty bout with the flu and it appears I have three little ones following my lead. That aside ...

The good news is that my lovely daughter turned 12 years old on Monday! We celebrated with our family, Grandpa, Aunt Kristie, Uncle Eric and Christopher at O'Charley's. Nita received some lovely "big girl" gifts this year. My heart just can't take that I have to shop for her in the adult shoe department and that she already has a deodorant preference. She's just a baby!

I asked for prayers from you recently ... just know those prayers were answered. Praise God!

Tomorrow I have my first IEP meeting for Brandon. BLECH! I've come to the conclusion that IEP's are not child-oriented ... they are just bureaucratic paperwork. Brandon's delay is in Speech only. His difficulty is with pronunciation ... he is advanced with his language skills. He will also be getting some physical therapy services due to his cerebral palsy diagnosis. Because he is not socially/emotionally delayed, they are denying him a place in a preschool classroom until next Fall. I guess I should be thrilled that Brandon has overcome so much adversity and that he doesn't "qualify".

The big news this week is that Brandon is undergoing a same-day procedure to help with his orthopedic problems. We'll be traveling to St. John's Mercy Friday morning for the procedure which basically entails injecting Brandon's heels and calves with carefully measured doses of Botox. He will be somewhat sedated during the procedure with Versed. This will not dull the pain, but it should make it so Brandon doesn't remember a thing. Please keep him in your prayers. In a couple of weeks we will return to St. John's to meet up with Dr. Otis. She will then determine if Brandon will need to undergo a series of castings (called "serial casting" ... go figure) to help stretch his tendons/muscles. Our goal is to eliminate Brandon's need to walk on his tip-toes. Nothing is going to stop my little stinker!

So that's our not-so-exciting update for this week. After 4 paragraphs of mindless rambling I've still not come up with a fitting title ... so just pretend. ;-)

Until Tomorrow,
Kathy