Spring is Here

Darein has been doing very well since the last time that I wrote. She is still enjoying her Science class very much and actually was one of the few students to actually handle a pig and cow heart. Most of the other kids just poked at it she said but her teacher cut them in half so they could see the inside of each of the hearts and Darein was one of the first students to pick it up, handle it and then showed the different parts of it to the janitor lady who came in to the class to have a look. Darein didn't think it was gross at all and said the grossest part was the liquid that came out of it but said that was just the liquid that it had been stored in and she wasn't grossed out by this at all. She got an A on her test over this and doing really well in school overall. She is currently working on a science fair project where me, Shane and Damein have to take a bite out of an onion and then a bite out of an apple with our eyes closed and see if we can tell the difference. Her presentation is coming along very nice. She goes to get her xray on her kidney on Monday and then we will have to wait to hear from her doctor as to how things have changed or not and what our next step will be or if we will just continue to keep her on her kidney medication at this time. She has no upcoming appointments for April which will be a nice break for her.
I set up an appointment for Damein to visit MU on April 30th. I had also sent an e-mail to the MU S&T Rolla baseball coach asking what we needed to do to get him to take a look at Damein and he sent me an e-mail back inviting him to attend tryouts this year which will be June 7th. We are very excited about this opportunity for him. I did unfortunately goof up and did not get his ACT registration for April sent in so he will not be able to take that test again until June. He signed up for all of his classes for his senior year earlier this month and is going to only have to take 6 classes. He will take 3 dual credit college classes to give him a head start for college. Baseball season has started for him and me and Shane are so proud of him. He is doing an outstanding job this year, considering how rough of a time he had last year. He had just got over his Steven Johnson's syndrome last year when baseball started and unfortunately the coach didn't cut him any slack and some of the parents were quite rough on him. He got his position on Varsity taken away and was dropped down to JV and got yelled at the entire year. He kind of lost his desire to play and chose not to play Legion ball last year. We were afraid he wouldn't play again and he is so talented and just a natural at this sport it seemed like a waste of talent to us. Fortunately, he joined a team in the Fall and did quite well. We were hoping that it would carry over to his high school year this Spring and it has. It is his coach's last year of coaching as he will retire at the end of this year. He is a nice person but does not seem to care so much about the team anymore as his star player was hurt in football this year and is sitting this season of baseball out for his senior year so that he can play college ball. Damein is playing left field for some reason this year which he doesn't mind. He is a better shortstop than the one that we have this year but he is fine with playing left field and it will help build his arm strength as well so we are not complaining. He also is getting to play shortstop when the starting shortstop pitches and Damein is getting to pitch quite a bit too. He is a great closer and has been one of our better pitchers this year. He is back on Varsity and has his confidence back so even though we will probably lose most or all of our games due to poor coaching, Damein is doing well and so we are staying upbeat and enjoying watching him play as always. He is going to play Legion baseball this Summer too and then we will see if he wants to play Fall baseball again.
I have had my gallbladder taken out this month as well as a lipoma removed from my right side. The surgery went well but as most of you know, I came down with a really bad stomach bug that put my recovery behind a little and made me miserable. I am excited however, as I have lost a ton of weight due to the surgery. I needed to lose quite a bit anyways and being sick with my gallbladder and then going through the surgery on top of that I have managed to lose a total of about 24 lbs. from my heaviest weight last year. I still have a ways to go but am eating and drinking healthier now and as soon as I am stronger I am looking forward to getting back into an exercise regimen.
Shane has been working really hard as always for us. He went to get his DOT physical though and they could not get his blood pressure low enough to pass for a 2 year physical so unfortunately, he has to go back in 3 months and have it rechecked. We are a little nervous because if he doesn't pass this time then he will be disqualified and he's not sure what that entails but it will most likely cost him his job. I scheduled an appointment for him to go see his doctor on Friday so that he can get on some blood pressure medication. He has diabetes and high blood pressure but has not been taking any medications for these things as he doesn't like how they make him feel. I have talked with him though and explained that they can change the medications so that he feels like he is supposed to but he has to tell his doctor otherwise they don't know that something needs changed. I have him eating and drinking better now and he has accepted the fact that he needs to see his doctor regularly for his conditions. His blood pressure has actually been fine, though a little on the high side just genetically. However, when he went for his physical he was sick and he gets nervous every time he has to have one of those physicals anyways so that didn't help with his blood pressure. We are confident that he will get this controlled and we both are working together along with Darein to have a healthier lifestyle and after only a few short weeks we are already feeling much better and Darein has lost quite a bit of weight as well and is looking great!
I found out this month that me and Darein are going to get to go on a month long vacation with my parents to California. We are so excited. I asked Damein if he wanted to go but he has opted to stay and play Legion baseball and take part in some church mission trips and activities that they do in the Summer. Shane unfortunately, will be at home working to help pay for our trip. Both boys are just as excited about mine and Darein's vacation as we are since they will have the house to themselves for a month. We are driving and are going to get to see some beautiful places. I won't go into too much details about the trip right now as I am sure I will be blogging and facebooking each day as I am taking the laptop with me on our trip.
All in all, we have had a good month though we have had a lot of sickness. We have spent the month working on a healthier lifestyle and taking care of health problems that needed resolved. Since Darein has no appointments in April, I will probably most blog about Damein's baseball for the next month. We have got Silver Dollar City passes and White Water passes so we have already been to SDC once on opening day and look forward to spending a lot of time there as weather permits. It is good exercise walking up and down those hills and a good time is had by all :)