19 years with Amelia

Amelia turned 19 yesterday! Dang, girl it’s your birthday! She looks very cute with a new short haircut. We spent part of the day at Dillard’s and JC Penny’s getting shoes and clothes for her mission. She found three pairs of suitable (and cute) shoes. I was in a spicy mood that morning, she was too so the day was kind of blah. Amelia was dog-sitting for Mrs Sene so was gone half the time until Monday morning. We had sushi for Sunday dinner and raspberry jell-o cake for her dessert. We watched cute videos and admired how cute Amelia was growing up. Time flies. We adore having Amelia home, she brings a sense of happiness into our home. I am very excited for Amelia to serve on her mission, she will shine. 

I met with a podiatrist Thursday morning concerning my plantar fasciitis. I’ve avoided seeing a specialist because most of my experiences are not very positive, my attitude probably flavored the appointment. A nurse took some x-rays of my feet before I saw the Dr. When he came in his first question was what do you think is going on. Plantar Fasciitis. How do you know that? Me explaining my feet. I  asked if the condition was exacerbated by my knee surgery based on timing. He said no. I explained about my leg discrepancy, he asked how I knew my legs were different sizes, had I actually measured my own bones. Well…yes…doctor…I’ve had my leg bones measured and my femur head causes my leg discrepancy. He looked impressed that I was not blowing smoke. I explained that I stretched my calf muscles, iced and scraped my feet often, stretched my feet at night, used custom shoes/orthotics, and even tried the sonic wave therapy. He left me with this sage advice: stretch my calves (which I do), go get my feet measured (already did), wear the orthotics (which I do), lose some weight, and come back in 4 weeks. It’s like I was not even there. I left feeling utterly hopeless and $250 poorer just to hear him regurgitate all the things I’ve done and am already doing. So frustrating. 

Amelia and I got our eyes dilated at the optometrist Friday morning. That was fun driving home with fancy sunshades to protect our eyes. It’s been 4 years since I updated my prescription. My right eye once again went worse, I can’t read things far away anymore. Hooray for new glasses. Amelia is all set for new glasses and contacts as well for the next 18 months. 

Everett was chosen to compete as a varsity player for a major valley wide tennis competition, The Capital Classic. He was the solo player from CHS competing in the Boy’s solo at Borah HS. He was one tired kid after two whole days of tennis. The matches were over 45 minutes long, which is like three times longer than the middle school matches. He had to be at Borah by 8 am both Friday and Saturday mornings. I picked him up Friday and got to watch his last match for the day. Saturday he played until 2 pm, the girls stayed at the mall shopping while I left to go pick him up. He was thrilled to join us for a birthday lunch at Noodles and Co. He did not win any matches, the players he was pitted against were all in 11th or 12th grade. He held his own for being the youngest there! Excellent work. 

Evelyn and I got hair cuts on Friday as well. Evelyn chopped a good 5 inches of length off and is absolutely loving the shorter length and bangs. I just had Kymrah shape my hair since it was terribly lopsided again. Evelyn was selected to receive the Young Citizens Award by the Nampa Exchange Club. She was 1 out of 50 Middle Schoolers chosen for this award! The award is given based on citizenship, attitude, academics, character, leadership, and sportsmanship! We will attend a special luncheon in May for the event. Excellent work Miss Evelyn! 

Evelyn and Josie both survived testing week. Josie had her iSAT tests M-W mornings. She finished the tests early so had some extra free time on Thursday. Evelyn was worried about the writing portion of her tests, she was relieved her topic was an informational essay. At home we reviewed what kind of paragraphs she needed to write for the test. I think she slayed it! 

Phillip is learning about the Civil War in history this semester. He still has Mr Geisler like he did the first semester. Mr G has a student teacher who is struggling to handle a very energetic class (read between the lines!). Phillip struggled to write an essay about 4 leaders in the civil war, two from each side. He wouldn’t write down his research findings after reading the articles. I showed him how to divide up a paper and write basic bullet points that would help him compare and contrast his findings. He was surprised that the South could’ve won the war just as easily as the North based on the type of military leadership each side had, the decisive factor came down to resources.   

We got to visit with Fergus after church on Sunday. His new owners are very nice and were thrilled to meet up for a little while. We met at the elementary school park for an hour. Fergus adjusted quickly to his new family. They have another rescue pup they renamed to Fergus! So they have Big and Little Fergus. Their Fergus is quite the twitchy guy, he slunk around and jumped at every noise. I hope seeing our Fergus happy helped the kids realize that Fergus is in a better situation. The new people wondered how such a funny dog like Fergus would ever be given away. Explaining our situation helped them gain some insight into Fergus and our home situation.