Homecoming

  Hallie attended her first School Dance.  Jake Asked her and she answered with gummy snakes saying "yesssss".  He is terrified of snakes.  They spent the day at Jump time and laser tag and had a late lunch at Sizzler.  The actual dance was up at the Justesen Barn and then they watched movies after.  They both looked adorable, and had a funny 3rd wheel, Joel, tag along.  My kids are just getting too big.

New Brace

Hallie got her new brace.  She was all excited about it until we got there and she realized how much longer this one is.  She has had some physical freedom with her old one.  It wasn't fitting as far down on her pelvis.  We made our trip a quick one.  Got there in time for her appointment and headed home right after.  Savanna ended up going with. Not sure why but she thought that sounded funner than school.  Aleena claimed she was sick with a tummy ache so she came too.  I had already made plans for Livee to spend the day with Cooper and Jase went to school.  Long car rides always give time for some good conversation with my kids so I really didn't mind.  I am finding I have to cherish those talking moments as my kids get older because they don't happen as often. 
Her first wearing of her new brace were miserable.  We started with 2 hours.  We will work our way up to the 20 hours like we did the first time but it shouldn't take as long.  The 2 hours were filled with tears, pains, begging to take it off.  I know it is hard for her.  Her skin and body will have to do some adjusting to the feel of it.  We worked our way up to wearing it all night and a couple hours in the evening.  Today is her first day of wearing it to school.  It has been 1 week since we got it so we really need to get a routine.  She was refusing to wear it to school all week so I knew this morning would be hard.  I let her have last night off so her body would be fresh and it would be less likely to irritate her.  She put up a small fight.  I offered her to stay home but she still had to wear it.  She said she will quit school. So I told her ok. She can flunk.  She worries the kids will teas her.  I told her repeating 7th grade would really bring on the teasing.  She finally decided to get it on and go to school.  I know it is hard for her but some day she will thank me.  I hope

Girls Camp

Savanna and Hallie survived girls camp.  Sounds like they had a great time.  A few things Hallie told me : 
We had the most people and the smallest tent. 
I was cold the first night but hot the rest.
My favorite part was the secret sisters gift.  I got like 5 things a day. 
I had to use my bucket to sit on because I forgot my camp chair in the car. 
Me and Savanna were the only ones not crying during the testimony part.  We are Berlinguet tuff - she gets that from her father.
Savanna shared her testimony.
I got my fingers burned a few times trying to start the fire.
Our hike was only suppose to be 5 miles but it was more like 9 miles. 
I had a headache one evening from the hike. 
We all had meal duties.
Food was good.
I am tired.
I got a sunburn on my head.
We  had fun playing pranks on each other.
I had to help sort out the drama the first night with the silly string prank. 

Savanna's comments:

It was good. 
I didn't sleep in my assigned tent.


Do you think these girls are complete opposite or what?  I am sure they will both have more to share about it.  Savanna was upset at me tonight because I wouldn't let her stay the night at her friends house.  Even though we have made the no sleepover rule for quite some time now, they still have to ask and we still have the same argument.  Except tonight she used the "Why do you hate me" line.  That one just made me laugh.  I hope some day she will understand that it is because I love her. 
Anyways, a big thank you to all the people that helped put camp together.  It is a lot of work but it really does create some wonderful memories and friendships in these kids. 

Happy Birthday

It was Hallie's big 12th birthday yesterday. I took her and her friend Tiare to lunch at Searle's and after school she got to bring Tiare home. She requested angel food cake with fluffy cream cheese frosting. I got such a kick out of her. She comes home and sees her cake cooling and says "mom, what does angel food cake taste like?". Apparantly she never tasted it. Not sure why she requested a cake she hasn't had.
Anyways. Happy Birthday. I love you.

Grama D sent Hallie a cute trinket box in the mail.

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Hallie's basketball game..

Hallie really had fun playing basketball.  This was her first season playing.  The girls picked crazy socks for their last game.  She really has a lot of friends on her team.  I think they only won 1 game for the season but they truely tried.  Way to go Hallie. 

Back update

Hallie had her x-rays with her ortho and then we got to talk to Dr. T about her brace. She is still at 20 degrees. They are very happy with where she is. Her bones are indicating that she is still growing. Maybe she will get some height. We have to come back in 4 months to check that her brace is still fitting. Good job Hallie on wearing that dumb thing and not fighting it...

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Art Class

Hallie has been taking art this summer. She LOVES art. She said that is one of her favorite parts about living here. For most of July they have been working on a special project. The community is putting on Footloose and they got to help out with painting scenery. I took a few pictures of some of the scenery that they worked on. Hallie painted the root beer float sign. Quincey painted the apple pie sign. Hallie got to go to the family night dress rehearsal. She is just tickled pink that she got to be a part of the whole thing. Brad and I are going this next weekend. If any of you out of towners want to take a little trip, you could come to Oakley and see Footloose. You can even stay at my place, maybe go swimming or fishing.

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Crazy Hair Day

Hallie found this hair do online somewhere. It actually was more cute than crazy. She ended up taking it out in the bathroom because someone told her crazy hair days was only for the 4th grade and younger. She came back from the bathroom and the other kids asked why she took it out, it is crazy hair day. Silly girl.

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Hallie Scoliosis Update...

Hallie had an appointment back in July. It was time for x-rays again. This time she was suppose to leave her brace off all night and see what her spine is doing without the brace. I was a bit nervous how it would go just because we had just got done with a couple weeks of vacationing and not being 100% faithful to our time on. She kept it on pretty good, but it was hard being on the beach and in the water a lot. So she actually did really good. He measured her at around 20.6 degrees. Which he was very happy about. She was diagnosed at 31 degrees. So her spine is responding and she is just suppose to continue doing what she does. She has been noticing if she doesn't wear her brace for a while and she is tired, it almost hurts to not have it on. It makes her muscles tired and feels better when she has it on. She has done so good wearing it. I am very proud of her. We are still in the original brace. November is when we see Tom again, so we will see if she has grown any and needs a new brace.

Hallie 5th Grade

Hallie must be getting older. She thought me taking pictures of her on the first day of school was "stupid". I just chuckled. I still took some pictures but decided I wouldn't take it to school with me and really embarrass her. She at least smiled while I was taking the actual picture and then instantly went back to the "Mom-can we just get to school" face. She is very excited for Aleena to start school and to be in charge of getting her home. She will be a great helper.

Hallie's Birthday...

Hallie turned the big double digits of 10 yesterday. Aleena, Livee and I made a little goodie and took it to her at school. We delivered it to her class room. I had this idea in my head that the teacher would stop what she was doing and the kids could see her get a goodie. But as I entered the classroom, the teacher was reading a book to the class and the kids were writing sentences. She barely glanced up and I said we have a delivery for Hallie, she said "Hallie" and continued reading. She took it and went right to her backpack hall and put it in her backpack and we left. I am sure it made Hallie's day, but I was left wondering why the teacher didn't let me have my moment.

After school, she came rushing home wondering if her present had been delivered. (She knew I was waiting for it and hoped it would come today.) She wanted to open it right now. I told her we were going to fix dinner and cupcakes and sing to her and then she could open it. She was so upset. Every ten minutes she would re-hash the situation and continually get upset with me. She picked homemade cheeseburgers for her birthday dinner. Oh and for breakfast we had donuts. That is a little family tradition we have. Birthday Donuts. It is the only time we do the donut thing. Hallie picked the raspberry filled hostess ones.

We finally sat down for dinner. We put a candle in her bun and sang Happy Birthday and let her open 1 present of Flip-Flops and a glitter ball. Savanna the happy person she is says earlier while we were wrapping them, "Mom, why would you get her a glitter ball. If I get one of those I will just throw it over the fence." Oh-she is so happy. I am getting her one just because she said that. (She is just mad about the Birthday Present Hallie is getting. I will post about that next.)

Anyways, we finally got through dinner. And we then let her open her big present. The only things she asked for were a new phone, or a new puppy. She was so excited for her new phone. She got a Chocolate Touch Phone (only because they were on sale for $29.99) All night we got to hear from Jase and Aleena "Mom, I want a phone. When I am 10 can I get a touch phone?" Aleena said, "Mom, can you show me how to work it, so I know what to do when I am 10." I kept saying yes, in hopes that in 5 years she will have forgot. We finally got around to ice cream and cupcakes. I bought these little 2 oz Ben and Jerry ice creams. I bought 2 of them for Hallie. I came in with them and said "I think the freezer turned into a shrinking machine because look how tiny the ice cream got. I don't think there will be enough for everybody." Now if you will remember how sugar crazy Savanna is, she gets up and runs to the freezer. "Mom you better have some more somewhere or I am moving out" (She is laughing making a funny) I hid them so she couldn't find them. After not seeing them in the freezer, She comes running through the front room with one of her bags on her shoulder and pretends she is moving out. She had us all laughing. What a clown.

Hallie got all her phone parts figured out. I was laughing because Brad really does not like texting unless he has too. He doesn't have a keyboard and it drives him crazy. So he is helping Savanna with her homework and kept getting texts from Hallie. She was on her bed and texting everybody. Everytime his Text ring would go off he would have to dig in his 12" pants pocket and see who it was. It was funny because he was getting annoyed and that doesn't happen very often. She had a great birthday. She is having a friend party on Saturday. She is taking 2 of her friends to swim at YMCA. Happy Birthday Hallie. I love you.

"THE" talk

This post might be a little risky for little eyes.

Hallie is going to be 10 yrs old next month. It is crazy how fast time is passing. I finally had THE talk with her on Sunday morning. Her and Livee came with me before the Soccer game and we had some good car time together. I had mentioned a few days before that her and I needed to talk and so she was kind of prepared for it. She actually was very open to talking and very comfortable. Very opposite of Savanna. She told me a couple things that shocked me. I am only sharing for you mom's with 4th graders so you know what they are hearing at school. Her friend S. has a boyfriend and S. is telling her friends that he raped her. She wondered what "rape" meant. So we talked about that and she said "I don't think that is what she meant. I think she was meaning like he takes his clothes off and stuff." Her other friend S. said that her boyfriend touches her stuff and she likes it. Which that led into that topic. Hallie was very mature about it all and knew that these girls were not doing what was right. She is friends with a lot of kids at school. She loves to be the nice one that helps the last one and has lots of friends, but has a couple really great best friends that really are good girls and gets along great with and they have the same morals. I am thankful for them. My Hallie is turning into a big little girl and maturing right before my eyes.

Hallie's Checkup

Hallie had a check up today to see how her brace was doing. We have worked up to our 20 hours some days it is 18 but we have been pretty faithful to wearing it, well I should say she has been. I have been noticing the past couple days that the really tight mark wasn't seeming like it was that tight. When Tom looked at her he noticed the same thing and made us new marks. He was able to pull it tighter which is really great news because that means her back is working with the brace. It means her spine has straightened out just a bit and that is exactly what we want. His goal is to correct it by about 50% and keep it there. He was very proud of her wearing it and keeping with the program. She was not excited though to know that we have a new tightness to work up too. The other positive thing is that she has been waking up in the night to go potty. She wears her pullup under her brace and she go potty unless I undo her, but she has been waking up about 1am, going potty, gives her a chance to breath and then we put it back on and she goes back to sleep. She will be so excited to get rid of the whole pull up thing. If He did do a bit of an adjustment on her chest because it was digging in her just a bit so he warmed it up and curved it out. It is tight enough that her skin and tissue hangs over the edge. This way it will be a more gentle edge. Tom is very nice and really makes us feel comfortable. We have to schedule for an xray with her brace on. if the pad is in the right place and there are no concerns then we will just see Tom in 4 months.

20 hrs

Yesterday has been Hallie's hardest day so far. There were a lot of tears. I think there are a few things going on: she is realizing how much she has to wear it and is not liking it, her body isn't used to it so it is agitating her which makes her more sensitive to everything. I definitely was the bad guy yesterday. We had many talks on how she is going to have to think about or do something to keep her mind off of it because we can't take it off every time she is uncomfortable or she will take it off all day. We actually made it through the night last night. She used lots of pillows and propped herself up a bit. That is a big start. We tried wearing it at the tightness it was suppose to be at. She only made it about an hour. So now that we are at the 20 hrs, I think I might try every couple hours tightening it for an hour and then have a couple hours with it looser. She does not like it super tight, so I am definitely going to have to stick to my guns on it and set some time goals because I find her already trying to work it so she can have it looser. It is tight enough that it effects the way she breaths so I understand why she doesn't like it, but we have to get where the marks are or it won't do its job. I think it is important to ease into it so her body will adjust and her mind will adjust. Her skin is adjusting fine. She tends to have dry skin which is a plus for wearing a brace because it can get sweaty in there. I gave "Bracie" a bath for the first time. I just use the soap she uses and give it a quick wash. The straps tend to take a while to dry, so I tried blow drying them and that worked.

8 hrs

Hallie made it through 8 hrs of wearing her brace today. She got up and had 4 hours this morning, and then had 4 more hours this evening. She only had tears one time. She was laying watching tv and was putting a lot of pressure on her one side and so it was hurting her ribs. We took it off and re put it on and she was better. The brace isn't at its tightest so it may move just a little and rub funny on her. Yesterday was 4 hours and at about 3 hours she kept saying that it was hurting her side of her leg. I finally took it off and we looked at it, not a ton of redness, put it back on, and it was better. I think I must have had it a bit too far to the front and so it was hurting her to bend her leg. That spot didn't hurt at all today. She really has been a trooper. Tomorrow we will aim for 16 hours. I might see if she can sleep with it on tomorrow night. Sleeping shouldn't be to hard I hope, She is a back sleeper and that should be fine. The only other thing that is a bit wierd is that she has to wear her underwear over her brace so that she doesn't have to take it off to go to the bathroom. She says that feels a bit wierd.

Hallie x-rays

Hallie had her first appointment with the Orthosist(builds specialized braces) on Wednesday. Tom is very nice and we are going to get to know him very well. He showed us a picture of what the brace is going to look like. He took some measurements of Hallie's body. We come back on Dec. 16, and have our 4 hour fitting appt. Yes, I said 4 hours. Yikes. We learned that she has a curve on the top and the bottom, like an "S". The bottom one isn't as prominent as the top. I will take a picture of her back in the next few days. She will come home with her brace that day. We will work with Tom and he will guide us and give us a plan of action. She will start with 1 hr the first day, and then increase each day up to 20 hrs a week. We learned that it is something she will not be able to put on herself. After we learn how to put it on, we will have to show the school nurse and a few other people how to help her with it.

I took a picture of the xray copy. It isn't the greatest picture, but you can see her curves. I never noticed how the curve forces her one shoulder up and the other down. Don't mind the 2 little circles in her belly. Those are from the sweats she had on.

Hallie is actually being a pretty good sport about it all. I am sure we have our struggles ahead of us. She is a strong girl, and we will get through this together.

Scoliosis

Hallie had a wellness appointment a couple weeks ago and her Dr. noticed some curve in her spine so she had us go and get some x-rays. After seeing the x-rays, she decided it would be best if we went and saw a specialist. So she had her appointment on Thursday. He confirmed it. She has scoliosis. He graded her spine curve at a 31' curve which is considered a medium curve. She will be fitted for a brace and needs to wear it during her growing years. It will keep her spine from getting any worse. She has to be have a brace made to fit her body, so Wed. is her first brace appt. They are going to do a cast of her first. We are learning lots as we go through this but we are so thankful that our dr. caught it at such an early stage. The bone dr. said that it isn't usually caught until they start having school physicals, and I'm afraid her back would be in really bad shape by then. So yes again, we are so very thankful. She is excited about getting a brace. I am sure the excitement will wear off as she starts realizing how much she has to wear it. Summer will be a challenge.

Pack Rat

It is official. I have a pack rat. I have sort of wondered if that was the direction she was headed in, but today confirmed my suspicions. Hallie is pack rat. She loves to save and collect stuff. I even gave her a drawer in her dresser, and she collect whatever she wants, as long as it is in the drawer. Brad was in her room tonight and found a collection of ABC gum. About 10 pieces. It was in a special container and everything. I will have to see if I can find it tomorrow and take a picture. Crazy girl. I love her anyways.

Happy Birthday Hallie

Today Hallie turned 9 yrs old. That is so crazy. She is getting so grown up. Hope you had a special day.

Hallie had the cutest cheeks.

We were trying to fit into a photo booth.

Hallie was trying to pose against the tree like her sissy.

Happy Birthday!!!