January/February 2009 Update

A lot has happened since the last post. We have a new President, a new year, a new medicine protocol, had snow twice in Wilmington (Katie and I even got to go sledding!) and have big new plans for the spring....

We finished the 2008 quietly after celebrating Nana & Papa's 50th Anniversary and getting through a few viruses without any major issues. We started the New Year pretty quietly as well, but things have been really busy at work and at home. January was a pretty quiet month but February was has been a bit wild. Katie spent the last 5 days at home with a fever of 102-104, but so far Amanda has been spared from anything too major. I think it is really good news that Amanda has had a few illnesses this year (thankfully not the fever one) and has gotten through them without any hospitalizations. We have had a few issues with vomiting, but thankfully everything has stopped with treatment. We are hoping this is a sign that she is growing up and getting stronger with respect to fighting things off.

Amanda has been making good progress with new skills in most areas this year. We just got her progress report and it showed a lot of improvement in many areas, particularly in physical therapy. She also has so much personality. Today, she was really good at driving her power wheelchair. She also enjoyed swinging in the warm weather and walking all over the place. She walks with someone just holding a hand or arm now. She is also just a ton of fun to be around. She is a kid who just loves to tease, laugh, and be silly. She is very appropriate in answering questions yes and no. We are now taking her orders for meals and this is serious business to her. If you give her something that she didn't order, she won't eat it. She is growing like a weed and it is back up to 33 lbs. It is hard to believe she is almost 5! She and ELLIE continue to absolutely love eachother. We couldn't have possibly imagined how wonderful ELLIE would be with her. We knew she was special, but the bond between Amanda and ELLIE is truly something to behold. They are completely in tune with eachother and do lots of loving on one another. ELLIE is so patient and gentle with Amanda and Amanda loves to pet and play with her.

We will be going back up to Hopkins in early April to do Amanda's detailed MRI study and hopefully hear the news that her aneurysms and fistulae are stable and unchanged. We are also trying to finally get her med change done so that she can be on a medicine that has fewer behavioral effects and may allow her speech to come back faster. We will keep you posted on those changes. It will take several months for the switch to take place.

Katie is doing well in school and is quite the little equestrian as well. She wants to start swimming or dance so we are looking into both of those as well. She earned all As again this period at school - way to go Katie. Private school is definitely a lot more homework intensive than what she was used to, but she is doing a great job with everything. She is now taking a manners class in school and the kids will have a luncheon and a dance (where they have to do the fox trot with a boy). She is excited but nervous about the latter. She is really going through a maturing phase right now and is quickly becoming a wonderful young lady. It is hard to believe she is almost 10! Time really flies!

We sadly found a new home for our favorite horse Bo, who had suffered back problems since July when he injured himself in the pasture. The prognosis of recovery was not good, but we were happy when everything worked out for him to go to a very nice lady who has good vet experience and vet connections and lots of experience working with chronically lame horses. She is doing pretty well at keeping him comfortable and happy and has even been able to ride him some. It was a tough decision but we felt she had better resources to care for him than we did. On a happier note, we found a lovely mare with a history of abuse who will hopefully be our horse for many years to come. She is a little rough around the edges because she doesn't quite trust people completely, but she has made tremendous progress in that area. She is amazingly well conformed and perfect in every other way. We are very excited about her. We will keep you posted as she continues to progress.

Things at work have been busy. I have helped place 34 interns in full-time, paid internships this year and am working at recruiting next year's class. It was a tight year given the economy so it has taken a lot of effort to get that many students placed, and there are still a few more I hope to place as well. In addition, I am teaching the graduate auditing classes, so they keep me busy. Dan is teaching a couple of intermediate accounting classes and a systems graduate class. He went to Arizona last month and is in Houston right now visiting his parents. We both still enjoy Wilmington and UNCW a lot.

We never got around to Christmas cards this year, so then we wanted to do New Years cards and they got put on the back burner for Valentines cards, but realistically I think we have a better shot at St Patricks cards -- or maybe I should just write next year's Christmas letter now so it can come out on time :-) Seriously though, we love you all and thank you so much for the love, support and prayers you send our way. Have a wonderful February.

Susan