Homecoming week

Okay, our week of craziness is about to begin!! It is Homecoming Week for our school. Since Annika's oldest brother is a senior on the D/C football team, our week is going to be a little crazy. Today we have the JV game against our rival town and our kids are looking for a little revenge since the varsity lost to them last Friday. It was such a bad game that Annika finally gave up cheering and went to sleep. Everyone is yelling all around her and she is curled up in my lap snoozing away. And I didn't take off her implants either! Anyway, then after the game today it is off to Homecoming Coronation. Tomorrow may be our lull in the week but that is yet to be seen. Wednesday is church night for us and we also have to start to fry up 10 lbs of hamburger as it is our turn to feed the D/C football team on Thursday evening. So yes, Thursday evening we will feed the whole D/C football team a spaghetti dinner. This is a tradition for our football team that all the families take turns hosting a spaghetti dinner (or helping out with it) the day before the varsity game. And then of course Friday is the big homecoming game. Before the game we will feast on a pork chop dinner.

And then to start this week off, we went to the annual CI picnic in the Twin Cities yesterday. Only Allen, Annika and I went as the boys now want to do their "own" thing. But I always enjoy this day because it is for anyone who has been implanted at the U of MN so you get the chance to visit with adults and other families. Annika has a blast because there is always a playground close by so she spends most of the time hanging out on the playground. You can hardly get her to come back to the shelter to even eat something. It was a little cold to start the picnic but it turned out to be fairly nice by the end. Had a great time catching up with some of the families around the state. Also there was a guy there who was going in today to get his implant. It is always great to talk to those who are heading into surgery in the near future. Also met a young man who battled menigitis only last November and he now has implants. Still struggling and going to therapy for many things and not that I want to see others struggle but it is great to know that we are not alone in our situation and we can encourage each other on the way.

I think what is so fun is seeing how great the kids are really doing with their implants. I still think that if someone would have told me back when we started this journey that it was going to be this good I would have been more relaxed. But of course the issue is would I have believed them?

School is going great for Annika. She is having a blast. I got the opportunity to go along on her field trip on Friday to the apple orchard. The kids were so excited to be there and the all got to pick their own apple right off the tree. It is fun seeing how she interacts with all the kids and how they work with her. She has lots of friends and they all watch out for her, well as much as 5 and 6 year old kids do. I also received an email from her child study coordinator that she stopped by school one day last week. She peeked in on how Annika was doing at school and she said she was having a great time and was listening and interacting with all the kids. I know that what I did and the battles that I fought were worth it but it is good to hear from the school district that they are now seeing that what I did was "right" for my child. No regrets.

Gotta run finish getting ready for work. To top off all the craziness of the week it is my late week so I have to work from 8-4:30 p.m. every day this week. It is going to make supper very difficult for us to work out. Thankfully 2 of the nights are planned already as we have the dinners on Thursday and Friday. The other 3 days are going to be whatever we can throw together very quickly.