Courtney worked so hard to make the school dance team. The Saturday right after try-outs she told Jake and I that she wanted us to go and look at the list to see if she made it. She had no desire to go and see it. So Jake and I headed to the school. We were so excited to see her name on the list. I decided that I couldn't just tell Courtney that she made it. I had Jake go to the store and get her a cake that read, "Congratulations Courtney you made it". So we just showed her the cake. Then we gave her a cellphone the we promised if she worked really hard she could earn. No matter if she made the team or not she was going to get one. She didn't know that. :) Jake and I were so proud!
Courtney wanted me to stay the whole 3 hours at the try-outs too. So I was so tired to say the least. Couldn't imagine how tired Courtney was, oh wait she wasn't at all. Right when she got home she went swimming with her friend Taylor. Guess I was tired enough for the both of us. Courtney will also be performing the play, The Mid-Summer Night's Dream tomorrow at school.
The girls FINALLY got their new legs! I'm so glad that is over! They fit perfectly for now and Fitwell is so easy to work with. This summer both of the girls will have major surgery. So we will probably have to get the bases to be refitted. Still waiting for the other stuff.
Maliyah has been doing OK. She's been having a hard time with infections because of her suppressed immune system. Even with all her infections she still goes to school. She has a great teacher, Mrs. Merrill, that has been so great with both of the girls. She is very understanding of Maliyah's and Kendra's needs. She is always trying to make them feel comfortable at school, which I love! I know that Mrs. Merrill loves my girls. They also have a great instructor Mr. Child. He is so great with the kids as well. It will be sad that he isn't coming back next year. Ms. Jess left to get a new job that had better hours since she is going to school. The girls sure do miss her, but their new aid Mrs. Kristi is great with the girls now and she has five kids too. The girls think that's cool.
Kendra is doing really well. I can't stress enough how much of a difference having an understanding teacher makes on the girls. She doesn't seem to have as much anxiety and she is excited to go to school. I'm sure the girls have missed less then 10 days of school this whole year.
Austin and Justin were the VIPs this month since their Birthday isn't until June. I had a great time making their poster with treats. Yesterday Austin had a tootsie pop, and Jake was teasing him with the song from the commercial . It goes, how many lick does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop. Jake didn't think Austin would know the end, but he replies, "the world may never know". We were laughing so hard. The commerical is probably from the 50s. Justin has a more sarcastic sense of humor. Which I love :) I'm not sure if I have posted this story on here. But I will now. Justin and Austin have to come with me to Maliyah's doctor appointments and they take several hours sometimes. Don't ask me why, I have NO IDEA!! Anyway, one of the doctors come in and they were talking to Justin and asking him some questions. He always says, "hahaha so funny", when she started laughing about something he said, "hahaha so funny." Justin just has his "lines" he says. Like "see ya suckers", he doesn't ever mean to be mean. It's just Justin.
I have to say thanks to each of my children's teachers for all your hard work with Courtney, Kendra, Maliyah, Justin and Austin. Being a teacher isn't the easiest job. But you all do such a great job!! It was great to have you all on our team this year. Because it really takes a village to raise kids. :)
3 more days of school after today!! Yea, SUMMER!! Hope the snow and rain will stop soon. :)
The Herrin's
P.S. This was a fast post so forgive the grammar. :) And I just posted new pictures today.

WOW! What a horrible last several weeks that we have had.

The week after we got back from the Disney Cruise the girls went back into the hospital to have back surgery. Thought it would be just a normal surgery with a quick recovery, like most of the other ones. Well that wasn't the case. They didn't get any infections, which is excellent, but the pain Kendra had was really bad! She was on high doses of pain meds. I was getting very frustrated with the hospital because they refused to give her the right amount of pain meds. Kendra has had so many surgeries that she needs about 2-3 times, more than other kids her same age and weight. Took some bugging to get the stuff she needed. She was on pain meds for about 2 weeks straight and around the clock. I got very little sleep, she would wake-up screaming and needing more pain pills. I would give her what she needed and lay in bed with her to get her back to sleep. Kendra was getting very sick of staying home, so I took her back to school which was the very best thing for her. She started back doing physical therapy and the pain went away within a couple of days. Her incision is still healing and looks great!

Maliyah had surgery the same day as Kendra. She recovered very quickly. But was have a lot of pain over her kidney and bladder, so we just took her to the doctor. But this time it was so weird because it wasn't showing she had a UTI. But she was in so much pain we couldn't figure out what was going on. So I made an appointment with the urologist. He thought the best thing to do was scope her bladder to see what was causing the pain. He still could figure it out. He just decided to send her home on Tylenol because the surgery wasn't suppose to be painful. When I saw her she was crying in pain. I had them give her more pain medicine not just tylenol and that didn't help. She was still screaming. It had been more than an hour and half. I called Jake to come and help me, I was very upset but he couldn't. Jake had just taken off the week before. So I just went back into her room held her hand and tried not to cry. She got home and threw-up which is normal. But than the next day she couldn't stop throwing up. We tried everything. Jake took Maliyah to the ER and I had to take Courtney to her dance performance that was the same day. They admitted her after 8 hours in the ER and she stayed there through Easter, IV fluids are just the best thing in the world. She is doing so much better now and her kidney is recovering well too.

We are so glad that we went on vacation before all of this stuff happened because we were more relaxed.

The girls are both getting new "robot legs" done again. This time everything seems to be moving faster. The girls also have grown so much, they are getting new crutches and walkers. I have been working on getting the girls new equipment since October 2010, such a pain.

Courtney is doing well. She is trying out for the dance company this year. I'm sure she will do great! She has been begging for a cellphone for several months now. Not sure if she needs one yet, maybe when she makes the dance team she can have one. She will be away from home more and I would like her to be able to call me whenever. Courtney says that a lot of her friends already have them. She is only in 5th grade, blows my mind!

Justin and Austin are just great little gentleman! :) They are so kind to people, always holding the doors open for others, they are so helpful too. But boy do they give their teacher a run for her money. They are handfuls! But such cute ones. They have won everyone of their soccer games so far. I haven't seen one yet.

Austin is just sweet all the time. He knows how to get what he wants. If he walks into a room and sees me he will run over and give me a big hug, then is says," I haven't given you a hug in awhile".

I just finished up my finals for this semester. I'm glad to get a couple of weeks off before school starts for me this summer.

This last weekend Jake got a call from his work telling him that there had been a shooting at one of the branches of his work. A women's ex-husband walked into her work and shot his ex-wife 5-7 times with a shotgun killing her. They had just gotten divorced a coupe of months before this happened. It really scared everyone in his company. They found the man in North Vegas in a hotel room. He had shot myself with the same gun. She leaves behind two children and two grandchildren. Jake was the last person she had emailed an hour before she was killed. Jake didn't sleep much for several nights. The funeral is on Friday for the women and he haven't heard when the man's funeral will be. Jake doesn't think there will be one.

As you can tell there was more than little things happening over these last several weeks.

Have a great day. :)

The Herrin's