I Want a Refund

a year ago, Christi's cat - Buttercup - licks her head. What a hoot! As I type this entry today, Buttercup is kicked back on the couch. We've joked many times that we should have buried these darn cats with Christi, but we actually enjoy them very much, not as much as Christi did, but.....

"I want a refund" is what I heard Miss Shayla joke as we were driving back home late Sunday night. I inquired, "How does it feel to now officially be 8 and a half?" She responded, "You mean it was my half birthday all day and no one told me until bedtime? I want a refund." Then we laughed hysterically and talked about her 7 and a half birthday last year when she had a little cake (See picture). I'm so glad we did that because it was our final birthday celebration with Christi here on earth. (We started celebrating our "half" birthdays just after Christi was diagnosed, a tradition I would suggest to all!)

After my class ended and I picked up Shayla at Mom and Joe's we all headed to a place I'd been trying to get to all summer - Grand Rapids, Ohio! In Grand Rapids, history comes alive! We enjoyed "The Canal Experience" where the mules walked on the towpath and pulled us down the canal, through the locks while the workers were dressed in period costumes and pretended it was 1875. Shayla enjoyed hearing that we weren't properly dressed because our ankles were showing and our heads were not covered. It was a very educational experience as we all learned about the Erie and Miami canal. Shayla was selected to hold the "thunder bucket" but she told me that if anyone got seasick she was just going to pass it to them, not hold it for them. We went went to Bowling Green for the evening.


Last fall, after Christi died, we learned of Shayla's vision problem, while on a visit to San Francisco, which was affecting her reading. She worked throughout March on nightly exercises and with once a week trips to Toledo to work with a vision therapist. Thankfully, it was very successful and Shayla ended the school year reading at grade level. In May she was tested for and qualified for the gifted and talented program; however, that was cut for this school year (ergh!!!).

When she was diagnosed with "excessive convergence" she was also diagnosed with a form of dyslexia called dyseidesia which causes great difficulty will spelling. We felt we needed to get her reading back up to par first and then try to tackle this spelling problem. Therefore, each week since May we've been traveling to Bowling Green where she meets with her "spelling teacher". I don't know how much it has helped, but Shayla absolutely LOVES this wonderful teacher and they both work incredibly hard for 90 straight minutes.

I start back to school on Monday; therefore, we will end our final weekend of the summer in Thomas team style. Shayne will be donating platelets - at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in NYC. Amazing, isn't he? I cannot imagine he's going to muster up the courage to donate platelets back where he did so for Christi countless times. I will not be even able to go near the hospital I'm afraid, but I am looking forward to a weekend in NYC hoping to spend time with good friends! Today, Shayla was dismissed from her "heel therapy" and we also made chocolate almond biscotti to take to our NYC friends; however, it didn't turn out near as well as the batter tasted, hmmmmmmmm. We both believe that was the best part!

NEE NEE NEWS: Grandma Nee Nee has been staying with her brother. He's fixed up a little "apartment" and she's in the same town with her three brothers and her mom. We understand he's even arranged for a scooter for her and he made an incredible treasure chest for Shayla's toy box! Although she's still wearing the 35 pound "thingy" she did have the staples and pins removed and the doctor in Toledo said she's healing very well. Goooooooooooo, Nee Nee!