January Post

I don't have any pictures to share, so I will just write what is happening in our life. The kids are back in school, and second term is winding down. Oh how grateful that I am that this term is different from the last one. We have had minimal stress this term. Thank goodness.

On the health front, Jacey has recovered splendidly from her surgery, and so we decided it was time to figure out why her back is hurting her. Since she was not very good at explaining the pain, we have waited to see if it would either go away on it's own, or be a little more decisive. It has really done either. 

The doctor didn't want to do an x-ray on a young 15 year old girl, so we are starting with physical therapy. He wasn't very reassuring that he didn't know what was wrong with her, but narrowed it down to facet syndrome or a fracture. Neither of those sound very encouraging, but we are moving forward.

She started physical therapy on Monday, and the therapist is almost certain that it is two of her facets that have twisted and gotten stuck that is causing the problem. So she is doing exercises to see if she can strengthen the muscles that are causing the facets from returning, and they are trying to manipulate her back to push the facets back into place. I don't think she appreciates that part of therapy, but she knows that she has to give it her best effort if she is going to get better.

Max is continuing his voodoo allergy treatments. I think he should be close to being done, but the doctor keeps coming up with new things that might help him. This was after we told him we didn't think that the treatments were helping him much. Max still can not breath very well, especially in the morning. It doesn't seem to bother him, but the rest of us don't really like listening to him breath.

Hopefully, we will be able to tell in the spring if the treatments have or have not worked. Jacey saw the doctor in action for the first time last week, and spoke out loud what I have been thinking all along. It is a little freaky. I don't know how it is supposed to work, but the hope is to desensitize him to the things that are causing him issues. We have treated him for such things as Calcium, Sugar, Salt, Vitamin C, grasses, trees, weeds, flowers, animals, woods, and a few more that I can't remember. I mainly took him in to be treated for grasses, trees and weeds.

Other than that, we are doing the same old thing. Max started basketball, and is playing a few times a week. He also is still practicing soccer, and we are hoping to start up indoor soon to keep them in shape.

Jacey has gotten her learners permit, so she is out on the roads practicing her driving skills. She is getting more comfortable, and is getting better every time she drives.

It is getting harder and harder to protect my daughter from the world, and in some ways I will be glad when she turns 16. I know she can't wait either. For example, Jacey had a friend that wanted to do baptisms for the dead yesterday. She wanted her boyfriend to come with them also, so she invited him too. Well Zach's mom didn't think it was a good idea for him to be the only boy, so Olivia ask Jaxon to go. Now we have two girls and two boys. Two of which like each other. Which left Jacey with Jaxon. They would be paired up. I told Jacey she needed to find one more boy, or another girl to go with them so it would not look like (or feel like) a date. This caused her much frustration as she tried to find another friend to go with them. No one either could go, or wanted to go in an uncomfortable situation. So Max had to step in to go with them at the last minute. Oh, he was not happy to be forced to go. Boy does that one like free agency. The only way I got him in the car to go was to promise him a treat afterwards. I also went with them inside the temple. I usually just drop them off, or I do initiatories while they are doing their thing, but I was more concerned with the dynamics of this group. I even went so far as to tell Jaxon why Max was coming along. (To Jacey's mortification.) I think he totally understood. (This is the same boy that has already asked Jacey out when she turns 16 in July. He is not chasing her as aggressively as he was at the start of school year, but I still did not want to make him uncomfortable either.) All in all, it turned out pretty well considering, but I did feel a whole lot better after I bought them all ice cream. They deserved it after I made them put up with me as I dealt with my inner struggles of what was the right thing to do in that sticky situation. Sometimes I feel like I make life harder than it was meant to be.