Flowers

New flowers in our garden.

Hannah's First Flute Recital

This is Hannah's first flute recital for her teacher Lorraine Jones.  She is playing Scherzino, Op. 55, No. 6 by J. Anderson.  The piano accompanist is Elizabeth Van Hoy.  She has improved tremendously since she started.  Thank you Nana and Nanelizabeth for making the lessons possible.

The Wait is Over!

The anticipation of not knowing how many slots there are as they pull the names out of the bag. 

Hannah was Accepted into Savannah Arts Academy yesterday afternoon.  It was a stressful weekend starting with the audition (Play an Etude, Scales ( F, Bb, Eb, Ab ), Chromatic Scale, Sight reading and an Interview on Saturday, then wait to see if we received an email Sunday indicating she had failed the audition (We didn't think she would) but none the less stressful, and then the Lottery on Monday to see if she was accepted or wait listed.

We are so proud of her, she has worked really hard to get here!

District Honor Band

Hannah will be performing with the District Honor Band this Friday evening.  She auditioned months ago and was accepted, the only one from her middle school.  She will spend two days, all day rehearsing with all the others students ending the second day with a free and open to the public performance.  She is excited to be included and is eager for the challenge. 

Hannah performs with the orchestra

Hannah performed with the Armstrong Atlantic Youth Orchestra this past week.  She has enjoyed marching band and concert band with her school but has taken the next step and auditioned and got into the Youth Orchestra.  She is enjoying the higher level of difficulty and is always looking for that next challenge.

Patrick gets 225

Patrick pressing 225 today.  Way to Go!

Hannah Makes it!

Hannah was accepted to the Armstrong Atlantic Youth Orchestra.  She is excited and it should be fun.  She has had a couple of practices and is really enjoying the music.

Major Family Event Continuation

JoAnna returned home and was doing well.  We had been getting routines down to help her and get us all on a schedule.  It was great having her home again, Diva enjoyed the mommy time sitting on the couch with her in the evening, Hannah spent every moment possible with JoAnna to make up for lost time. 

While in Denver, they discovered a Dumoid tumor that was non-cancerous.  It couldn’t be removed in Denver while she was in treatment so after she had gotten home we scheduled to have it done.  It was to be a typical laparoscopic day surgery.  We went in Monday morning and were out be late Monday afternoon.  Wednesday morning JoAnna woke up in excruciating pain and nauseous.  We called the Dr. and they had us come in to be seen.  They were a little concerned so they ordered a CT scan to check everything out.  After the results came back they were very concerned and rushed her into surgery.  They discovered that during the laparoscopic surgery they had nicked her bowel and so she had a major infection.  She spent five days in the ICU and is now in a normal hospital room.  As of today she has been in the hospital for a week.  It will be a 4 to 6 month recovery requiring another major surgery to reverse the work they did to allow the damaged areas to heal.  So while she was recovering from the eating disorder, we had the setback of this.  It has been over a week since she has been able to eat real food and though she is getting nutrition through the IV, her body has gone back into the disorder mode.

Major Family Event

Christmas was a turning point for our family; JoAnna had gotten very ill due to an eating disorder she has suffered since childhood.  Over Christmas she had gotten very sick and so when we returned home, she had to enter treatment.  We found a place in Denver, Colorado that was headed by a doctor she had seen many years prior in Savannah before he moved to Colorado.  When we arrived, JoAnna was admitted directly into the hospital for three days to be stabilized prior to being able to enter treatment.  It was a long hard road for the next 16 weeks but she has gotten better, she looks wonderful and is much healthier.  While the treatment isn't a silver bullet, it puts her on a path to recovery.  Full recovery can take up to three years to retrain the mind and body.  The worst part of the entire ordeal is when JoAnna returns to Savannah, there is no eating disorder support in the area.  There are no doctors, facilities or dietitians that specialize in eating disorders.  This makes it especially hard when insurance doesn’t cover any preventive care.  They will cover most of the hundreds of thousands of dollars it can cost for treatment but not the care to prevent going to treatment.

For spring break, the kids (including Diva) and I drove to Denver to visit JoAnna. Even with gas prices, it came out cheaper with hotels, rental car and plane tickets to just drive.  We had a blast stopping at all the Lamborghini Dealerships along the way for Patrick and going to the top of the St. Louis Arch for Hannah.  We got to drive cross country from the Atlantic Ocean to the Rocky Mountains.  We had a great time and are looking forward to doing it again only continuing on to California and Oregon.

Christmas

Christmas was great this year.  We made the trek to Williamsport, Pennsylvania to meet up with Eric's mom and siblings and families.  All the families plus the other guests made for a very full house.  There was a lot of running around and fun for Christmas.  We cut a tree down had Christmas dinner and enjoyed each other’s company.  It has been many years since we had all been together for Christmas.  The Victorian houses all decorated were beautiful and the biting cold added to the winter atmosphere