Aaaaaaaaaaa piano!

Tori has signed me up as her accompanist for her flute solo for band class. I'm TERRIFIED! We picked a piece that looked a little complicated for her and now I have to play the piano for her. We just practiced (which I really don't have time for today). Hopefully tori will be better then me, and she won't be graded on my performance!!!!!!

September 16th

Tori had her eye appointment with Dr. Bernstein on the 16th. I had to call 3 or 4 times just to get through to the doctors office. Once I got through they set me up with an appointment pretty quick.
As always Tori took everything in stride. The monkey even didn't eat breakfast just in case she had to have surgery that day. However, everything is fine. Dr. Bernstein said her retinas look good, and nothing to worry about. I asked him about the lattice degeneration that the other Doctor saw and he said, "I see what he was talking about but it's really not degeneration, more like scar tissue." So she's good for now.

"Dr. Lisa" called and let us know that Duncan's blood work came back fine. His blood cell count was fine, his arthritis numbers were normal. He did have some high numbers on one of the tests, I don't remember what it was, but basically you can have these numbers if you don't stretch out well before you run. So she wanted us to get x-ray's taken. We headed over to Lakeview and had another first for him. As a matter of fact Jason was the only kid we have had to have x-rayed before this one. Of course they sent us home to let us know that the X-ray doctor would contact our doctor.

Saturday September 10th

I woke up the morning and realized that the world was crazy!! Brett was at Bountiful Baskets, an every weekend kind of thing. He'd taken the van for obvious reasons. Duncan had been invited to go wake boarding with his buddy, and he advised me he needed a lunch. I jumped up and ran to the park to get the van and go get him a lunch. By the time I got home he had already left.

Samantha had been invited to two birthday parties. She was so excited she could hardly stand it. As soon as I got home she was telling me she needed to go get birthday presents. Since I wasn't 100% what time her parties were at I decided it was better to get them then to not. So we ran to the store and picked out some presents.

I thought the insanity was over when Tori advised us on the way out the door that she was seeing a weird spot. The way she described it really didn't sound like a "floater". She said when she moved her vision it stayed consistent in the same line of sight. Well not her words but that's how I took it.

I called the On-Call and advised him Dr. Bernstein was her doctor and she had Sticklers Syndrome. Two magic words and we were in to see the on-call at 1:00 pm.

We got there and of course had to wait to dilate her eyes.

Then she is the best patient and the world!! She is no trouble what so ever.The doctor said her retinas are flat and attached beautifully. He did however see some Lattice that is common in Sticklers patients. He said she was fine but needed to see Dr. Bernstein in the next couple of weeks.

Duncan then had a soccer game. Tori of course had to wear here awesome sunglasses!
The boys lost again. It was cold and windy, but they did have fun. Again we saw some good things happening.

Jason fell asleep! Something wasn't quite right with this picture.

Tori's Piano

Tori is really picking up the piano. She is enjoying it immensely. She practices just about every day. She is so excited about the music that she wants to start Orchestra. I love her enthusiasm!!!

Tori is 11

I can't believe my surprise baby is now 11. How did that happen? Tori was always been a very wonderful little girl. She is so responsible and concerned about everyone around her. Her goal in life is to make sure everyone is happy. She loves animals, and anything that has to do with nature. She always wants to help, with cooking, cleaning, Jason. Whatever it is, she wants to be a part of it. She loves everyone, and always expresses that. She has always been able to make friends with anyone. Even when she was little, where ever we would go, she would come away telling me about her new friends. She is smart, and amazing!!! I love her and appreciate her so much! Love you baby!!!!

Outdoor Camp

Tori went on Monday to Outdoor camp with the Utah Foundation for the Blind and Vision Impaired. She had SOOOO much fun! Tori was not ready for it to be over when I picked her up this morning. Tony, the head of UFB, said that next year they will try and make this camp longer. She was tired and soaked, because it rained almost the whole time. She had a lot of fun, however.

IEP's

This week has been so crazy I forgot to post about the girls IEP's.

Samantha's was first. Samantha has reached all her goals that were previously set. She is smart as a whip, and is very excited to be with Marcia.

Her new goal is to be reading 36 wpm in Braille. Right now she is about 17 wpm, so that should be do-able by the end of next year.

Marcia's one concern is how clingy Sam has become recently. I advised her I'm aware of the problem, and hope to get some good advice on how to help her soon.

Tori was second. She has done fabulously this year, and both teachers love her. She also has met all the goals that were set and is steadily progressing.

Her new goal is to be reading 72 wpm in Braille. Right now she is between 25 and 32 wpm. Depending on word lists or Genre reading. Again, I think this is do-able.

It is so impressive to watch my girls read the Braille with really no problems. They have to start learning short form words, slowly but surely their speed will be getting closer and closer to the speed that they read print. It's lovely to see them progress!

Achievement Days

Tori had Achievement Day's today, and they went ice skating. I dropped her off and helped her on with her skates. Then of course I had to take some pictures while I was there.

She did pretty good! She said she went around 13 times and only fell down once. Of course she slammed down on her wrist, so she has had some Ibuprofen.

And to make the time more enjoyable, they got to skate with Grizz.......=)

Thanks Kelli and Amber, she had sooooo much fun!!!!

Symphony

Yesterday was a crazy day. Tori wanted me to go on her field trip with her, so we had a great time at the Symphony. I had Tori's IPod in my pocket so I was able to take some pictures. Duncan is in a split class so he also got to go on the 5th grade field trip. I have some pretty sweet kids!!!!

At school with Tori

Jason and I went to walk with Tori's class. It was raining so the teacher decided we were going stay inside. We played, "4 corners", and "Heads up 7-up".

Jason sat in Tori's desk for a minute.
And then he decided he needed to run around the class room.
After school Tori told a story at the Storytelling Festival. Jason found the box of pillows and head dived into it. It kept him busy for a few minutes, anyway.

Walking the track

Jason and I walked the track with Tori today. We discovered that Jason kind of likes his big sister. She was started to play with him a little less like a baby, and more like a kid that needs to be roughed up a little. It was really cute to see him actually taking to another person.

And of course I had to throw in the goofy behavior he exhibits on a day to day basis.

Louis Braille Prensentation

The girls got to give a presentation on Louis Braille today. One of the first grade teacher asked Marcia to introduce her students to Braille, since they had been reading about Helen Keller. The girls did so well, I am such a proud Mom!!!

July 24th: Tori's birthday

The day that Tori was born, we watched the Days of 47 parade with the in-laws. We had just moved into their basement a week before. The doctor called and said, "Want to have a baby?" So we gave Duncan a hug, I cried a lot, and we went to the hospital. She was born about 4 hours later, and she was the sweetest little thing. When Duncan came to see her he gave her a lot of kisses and then bounded off with my Grandpa Wilson. She was so sweet, and cuddly!!!

Well now she is 10. How did that happen? She has insisted that we go to the mall for the last 4 years. Tori likes to be spoiled on her birthday. My Mom and Traci were the only ones that could make it this time, so it was a little smaller then last year. It was a good day! The girls enjoyed each other, and Tori got some fun new clothes.

The girls had some Birthday money from Grandma and Grandpa Siddoway. So we went to Build-A-Bear. This is one of their favorite things to do!


We then went to Grandma Child's house for dinner and fire works. Always entertaining.

Tori's cake! Yummy! She wanted one of the blue flowers. Can I tell you how big her piece was? It was huge!!!





Jason crashed!!!
When we got home the neighbors were lighting off some more fireworks. Loved it!