She's Over the Hump!

Vanessa caught a cold and was  sick the day after her school break started.... Last Friday night she gave us a very big scare. Her face swelled up and she had horrible pains in her hands and feet, her hands were swollen, she was coughing and her chest hurt.  It seemed viral. She ended up with pneumonia, and pleurisy, and the pains in her feet were unbearable. She still gets these episodes of pain that take her down....  but she has only had a couple of them today.  Seems related to circulation but described as nerve pain. If we do hydrotherapy (hot and cold water treatments) it gets unbearable. Eating can trigger it as does any sort of exercise. She just did some exercise now and is paying for it. She had one episode with her hands today and two with her feet.

A lot of people have been praying for her.  We are thankful for the turn around. School begins again on Thursday. 

She had her hair cut today and it's great.

Here's my not so good iphone pic.

Brianna bought her own camera and gave me back mine. That means I have to take my own pictures now. . .

Brianna switched from Nikon to Cannon. She wanted the video capabilities.That will make a lot of her friends happy. . . and I got  a really nice new lens for my camera because she can't use it on a Cannon.

Vanessa gave me a Fitbit for Christmas.... It means I have to start clocking some more miles. :-)

I can only say good things about the twins. It seems they might actually be quadruplets... two of them go into hiding while the other two come out and give us fits, and then they switch. I tell you, the kids I had at Thanksgiving break are NOT the kids I've had for Christmas break - NOT. AT. ALL. We have  NOT had one screaming tantrum for two weeks. Missy is Missy, and she can't just obey without some sort of detour, or delay or distraction, or whatever, but we've been fairly successful at redirecting her. There's nothing different about the way we are doing anything. It is unexplainable. But we'll take it and we'll thank God for the peace we are enjoying. Hoping she doesn't decide to switch with the girl in hiding now that the presents are opened. Her gift, a fuzzy orange ball of fur... has brought her absolute joy. Brianna caught the moment of meeting on film. Priceless. Have to show you the video when it's ready. It's SO cute.  Missy is one intense child even when she's cooperative and everyone has noticed that today was so easy because she was totally enthralled with her kitten. He's so very entertaining!

I'm reading a new book on RAD. I've read a lot of books on the issues we've been facing with the twins and I've thrown a LOT of books in the trash. There are a handful of helpful books out there, but a lot of not so helpful, child centered, humanistic, psycho-babble books, too. I've gleaned bits and pieces of useful information here and there.... I've been educated on where a lot of people are coming from as far as where they have gotten their ideas and all, but  there is VERY much that does not hold up to the standard of truth. A book I'm TRYING to read at the moment is proving to be different. I say trying. It's not one you can just sit down and just read. I feel like I need a notebook, some highlighters and a few good sharp pencils and a Bible as I study along. It doesn't help that it's one of those days where I can't seem to line up the words in my brain fog... so, maybe tomorrow will prove more successful.  I'm also reading another book about a girl who SOUNDS just like Missy on the cognitive level - low IQ, hearing issues, impulsive, clumsy, a mess, learning disabled, etc...  Well, it says a great deal when the author of the book IS THAT GIRL ~ now married with 4 children, a public speaker and a writer. Now, if that doesn't give anyone hope, nothing will. She describes Missy to a T when she shares how she used avoidance techniques, distraction, attention getting, etc.... to avoid having to put her mind to the task at hand which was learning ~ a task so incredibly hard for her.