Branson

I'm so grateful that we were given the chance to come to Big Cedar Lodge near Branson, MO. It's so beautiful in the Ozarks. Bryan and I were over this way once 22 years ago but it was winter and not a pleasure trip.
We have a one bedroom apartment and Morgan has an adjoining studio. We each have kitchens and bathrooms, we also have a jacuzzi tub. The bed is comfortable and when I remove the down pillows tonight I'll sleep great (allergies).
So far, I'm just laying around with the door to the patio open. It will be in the 90's today and tomorrow and then get cooler and rainy. It's been so long since I've seen real rain so I'm ok with that. We will do museums and such Wednesday which is the day with the greatest rain chance.
Branson is majorly cheesy- lots of musical shows. I love concerts but not shows with no name people. We will go to the Titanic museum per Morgan's request and also do the after dark ghost tour. Bryan will dive tomorrow. We will also do a tram tour of Dogwood Canyon. Whatever else we do is fine. I mostly just want to rest, rest, rest!


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High School Standards

I have spent so much time researching graduation standards. I know there is some leeway because they were able to manipulate the standards for Ken's graduation. It's hard with kids who are dyslexic, ADD and other LD's. They are smart but don't test well and don't fit neatly into the mold society sets for high school. In the past, the counselor could chose what standards were used to judge whether a teen could graduate. Now, you must fail 10th grade before they can relax some requirements. When we all went to school, there were kids who chose a different track and that was fine. Now days they require you to fail and be frustrated before they can give you a choice of paths. The real kicker is the counselor doesn't have to offer it, they could continue to hold you to the main standard and torture you. Then, we wonder why Texas has the highest rate of drop outs. We try to put everyone in a mold and to hell with whether it works for you! So, this year went from being Morgan's junior year to senior year when I discovered she only needed 3 full credits and two 1/2 credit classes to graduate. She is very smart and some day would like to run her own salon. She can take business classes at the community classes and she can chose if she wants to purse an associates or bachelor degree. For now, she will get her cosmetology license.

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Progress

I fractured a bone in my foot into many little pieces last summer. I finally had surgery to remove it in June of this year. After eight weeks, it has finally healed and I can begin to start walking. I have to wear a very stiff sole shoe and the only ones that work are the Skecher's shape ups. Their weird walking action makes walking easier when you are trying to avid walking on the little area under your big toe. I have one pair of white and pink sneakers so soon I have to go buy the black mary jane version for work. I hate not having variety but I'm grateful to walk semi-normal again.
Ken is home for one more day and the heads back to Afghanistan. He has been there since the end of last year. His new Harley will stay in the garage so Bryan will get to enjoy it some. Ken spent all day cleaning the garage (Bryan is a pack rat and I have tons of holiday decorations). He took a huge load to the dump and moved some of my decorations inside. Bryan seems to be having a diverticulitis flare again. He is such a bad patient! Morgan begins her senior year homeschooling once again. Amber is working and nit going back to school (trying to keep my opinions to myself. Life is getting busy and I'm tired already. I have to find a new doc for pain management and my Enbrel injections haven't been working so we have to decide what to try next to stop the disease progression. I am in pain every day it's just a matter of how much. My right elbow will no longer straighten because of joint damage and that scares me because I don't want to continue to get funkier!

Back

I haven't written a blog post in a very long time. I felt like I had run out of things to say. Now, I feel a bit hermit-like so I decided to start blogging again. Having an auto-immune disease, I find I'm more and more withdrawn. It's hard to have a social life when you're exhausted by day to day life. I homeschool my soon to be HS senior, with her help, we watch my incredible baby niece Ali born April 20 and during the school year I work part time selling class rings and grad stuff. I'm also a bit OCD about housekeeping so all that added into daily pain, overwhelming fatigue and a compromised immune system and there isn't much left. I find myself sitting at home more and more. I'm boring myself!


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