{LOOK! IM BLOGGING AGAIN!!}

Twice in the same week. Wow! Whats gotten into me?!lol

This past week has been ubber busy for us. Whats new?lol

It started off with Parent Teacher Conf. for 4th term.
Klaire is a freakin' rock star i tell ya! We are incredibly proud of her.
Last term she had a few low grades due to her missing school for a week because of a trip we took. So this term those grades were raised.
Her reading Level at the beginning of the year was at a level E, and now its at a level I currently, but when she leaves 1st grade she will be at a level J. We are pretty happy about that! Shes really taken to reading and loves it. I have gotten into a book series lately, so its nice when its just her and i and we sit down and read together quietly. I'm glad to see her love for books blossom. In total she has read 3000 minutes, from August to the beginning of April. This week she will hand in another 500 minutes, and by May 14th we are shooting to get her another 500 minutes. By then she will have a grand total of 4000 minutes read!

On a side note, one thing in parenting that i really worried about doing was teaching her to read. Potty training, no biggie, illness, no biggie, but reading. DUDE. It freaked me out a little. But at the beginning of the year i followed her que's and interests and Kreg and i worked together to get her started. We are both pretty pleased at how well shes done this year, and we did it, all 3 of us together.

In Math shes done well too. Shes actually testing at a 2nd grade level right now. We are noticing that shes flipping signs, but that's OK for right now, that will come with time in our opinion. She did a number scale all the way up to 500 and in 1st grade they are only expecting up to 200. Overall we are pretty pleased with how her math is going, and the teacher gave us a few ideas to help her over the summer and we plan on doing those things. That way when she enters into 2nd grade she will already be ahead.

Shes right at where she needs to be with time and money, but we want to see her a little further ahead. So Kreg and i have some fun ideas of how to work with her and prepare her for the new year.

In Dibbles Testing there's 3 sections to the testing. The first 2 sections she tested beyond what the charts could classify her as. So she did better than what we expected! And on the last section she tested slightly above average. So we are pleased with the scores and hope that she continues to do well.
But i have to admit that while im glad about her testing on Dibbles and think she did a stellar job, i don't put alot of stock into the testing and what her true capabilities are. Each child is so different. And well. Alot of things can impact the testing scores. So. ya.lol Testing went well, but i don't see the testing as a true read for what where shes really at.

Lastly, her behavior this year has been out of this world!! She's seldom "pulled a card" to green, but that's as far as shes gone. She follows direction well, listens well, and is willing to help her peers. She can tend to be a bit on the chatty side, but that will come with maturity we feel. We are teaching her that there's a time and place to be chatty, the classroom is not one of those places.lol But its nothing we are concerned about really. She gets along with everyone beautifully!

We are incredibly proud of her and all the progress shes made. We are proud of her for putting alot of hard work into her work and for asking for help when she needs it. And most of all, we are proud of her for trying her best in all aspects of school. And that's all we have asked for her to do, to try her best!
So she has a great starting point for next year!


I also had my final post op appointment with my Neurosurgeon this week. I took my new MRI, that was done 21 days post op, and we had a peek into how things went.
Its amazing to see what the body is capable of just 21 days after surgery. Truly amazing. I had already formed a nice layer of scar tissue over the disc. There is a small fragment left but its not affecting the nerves or tissue around it. And chances are my body will reabsorb it within the year. The disc looks amazing compared to what it was actually looking like pre op. The nerve has fully restored blood flow as well, which is utterly amazing considering how severely compressed it was before.

The previously operated on disc looks good, still stable and the scar tissue looks great, but there is an ever so slight bulge. And the disc above the recently operated on disc looks OK. For now. It has herniated slightly more since my last MRI and after surgery. It will eventually need surgery as well, probably within another 2 years we think. But for now, its OK, the nerve is OK, and so we will just watch it. At some point i'll have another epidural if it starts to affect me.

So ive medically been cleared to resume my life! Im beyond thrilled, although, 3ish weeks after my surgery i pretty much resumed my life fully anyways.lol The neurosurgeon was pleased with how well i recovered as was i and i think we have found a surgery option that works for me and that im happy with.
Im so excited to have this done and over with considering all of our many plans we have for this summer!

Now, i have to say. Im in total love with this surgeon. The experience Ive had has been night and day from my last surgeon. At the time i thought i was receiving the best care i could receive from the orthopedic surgeon. And in all honesty, it wasn't.
Dr. Winters and Dr. Humphreys have given me nothing but honest and compassionate care. And for that im eternally grateful. I just cant tell you how different the experiences were, and the price tag of it all was about the same.

We are also incredibly grateful for our ward. I cant show my gratefulness to them enough. They were amazing. And Kreg, my land that man. He blows me away with his compassion and selflessness during times that my health is so poor. Im incredibly thankful that he had so much time off. We all needed that time with him.

And lastly, summer planning!!!
Kreg and i have been planning our summer now for a few months, since about January.lol We have camping trips planned on a monthly basis. Klaire will be going swimming and taking lessons and we have our normal movie day we do each year. Then ive found some free things we can do to fill in our weeks.
Then on the weekends we have some major camping planned. Maybe a trip or two to the Uintahs and Wyoming will be thrown in there to. Kreg has a re enactment event we want to attend as well.
So we are super excited, we have waited a few years to be able to financially do this and to have Klaire be old enough to really enjoy it all. I cant wait to show my family where i spent my summers as a kid!


Well, that's it for now, today's laundry day and i need to get cleaning!