Where does the time go!?

It is so hard to believe that yet another summer has almost come and gone.  NOt only has the summer been flying by but so has life  and by life I mean kids growing up! Joshua graduated this June -- sigh. (I am feeling so old some days!) AND he has moved out. ok, he moved into our old house across the road but still, he is not living in our home anymore (although we DO see him more now than when he lived with us -- go figure...) 

Josh receiving his diploma!❤

Proud papa and mama! 

Our graduate and his beautiful girlfriend Dana! {we heart her}

Official "grad pic" He looks like one of The Duckmen! :)

Another Brain Injury Awareness campaign is also {almost} done too..... Well what I mean is I am not mailing out piles of envelopes every week now, but I do still get a trickle of emails with requests for them. I have about 100 left and hope to continue sending the bracelets out until they are all gone! 

This year I had one goal for myself with regards to the bracelets and that was to send some to a country I had not sent to last year! Then one morning in July I received an email with a request for some, so I replied back to please send me their mailing address and low and behold it was somewhere I hadn’t sent any bracelets! MOSCOW, RUSSIA!!!  I was so excited and that prompted me to map out everywhere I had sent bracelets in total! I discovered that I had sent bracelets to 5 provinces in Canada, 42 states in the USA and 6 countries in total!!

 I was shocked!  I still AM shocked! 

That was almost 1500 bracelets out in the world! 

So now I need to work on a goal for next year -- maybe it should be to deliver some bracelets in person ... {grin}

The summer has gone by so quick and we have been so busy with the farm and the kids that it is hard to remember all that has happened.

One big surprise for Dennis and I was in July when we went to Dauphin Bible Camp (where Isaac was working as a work hand) to see one of the teens from our church be baptized). After church that Sunday, there was a baptism planned for 4 people and there ended up being 13 in total when it was over and one of those 13 was our boy Isaac! He felt lead to be baptized as he was walking up to the pool and in his testimony he told how he was wanting to be baptized by our minister Pastor Dean (who moved to Alberta a few years ago). He told how while he was walking up he felt that God spoke to him telling him that it didn’t matter WHO did the baptizing, it was WHO he was being baptized thru in the NAME OF.

We were {and still are} so proud of him! 

Isaac giving his testimony ... ❤

Declaring he has accepted Jesus

Hold yer breath! :D

Born again!! ❤❤ so proud of him! 

It was a big step and we noticed a huge difference in him when he came home that day and while he was at home for the week and a half before heading back to camp for Cabin Leader Training (CLT).  All he could talk about was what he had learned, read and saw, other kids that were there and what they had/have learned! He read the book of Revelation (not my first choice of books in the Bible to read but it is so Isaac! :) ) He was talking about next year and working at camp for the summer already too! He was so excited about working with kids and going back.

We pick up the boys next week from camp and this weekend Hannah heads up for teen camp. Then next week everyone is home and we are getting back into regular life routine and getting ready for ... Ugh... Winter 

This fall school season will see Sam in grade 12 (not sure if he is going to do an entire year as he CAN be done after the first semester), Isaac in grade 11 and Hannah in grade 9. SInce Joshua has now graduated  and is well and settled in our ‘old  house’ across the road AND working full time but also plans on going to get his Class 1 Drivers License for trucking. 

Dennis and I are busy with the farm and life and I just signed myself up for some night courses in photography at the local college. So this winter I will have something to keep me busy now that I am not running back and forth to Winnipeg with appointments. 

As of July Sam is2 years seizure free and this  August he will be one year without medication and back to his ‘normal’ self. I say ‘normal’ as we still have issues with BI moments and then there are those darn hormones that like to throw in monkey wrenches where we don’t expect OR want them! Lol But then if life were too normal, who would want it!?

so not a good day...

It sure feels lately like we have ben having more ‘off’ days than ‘on’... and not just with Sam. 

Everyone seems to be out of sorts or just not themselves... and I for one am exhausted. 

Between the medicine side effects and the brain injuries causing issues to teen drama and ‘relationships’  to medical problems am ready to jump ship and head for shore.

Yesterday I took Isaac to have his hearing tested and it seems that (by the test results anyway) his hearing is that of a 90yr old man in one ear. 

Isaac is 14... this is not good.

We are going to be going to another audiologist and according to the man we spoke to yesterday, he assumes it will be sooner rather than later due to his age and the test results. So off we will go to more appointments with specialists.

Sam has been forgetting meds,  missing classes at school (and not while he has been at home) and then this morning when we called him on staying up late texting on his iPod (which is NOT supposed to be in his room at night) he decided to go back to bed this morning and then miss school some more. He says we treat him like a child and when we give him the chance to act mature, he drops the ball and blames us. We are on a vicious treadmill right now with his attitudes. We are basically damned if we do and damned if we don’t. We make rule changes and he agrees with them, he makes new rules and we agree to them, then he does whatever he wants. 

typical teen behaviour.... ya ya ya

I know... but there is a pattern to this behaviour. Sam gets tired and he forgets his meds. He forgets his meds and he cops an attitude. We remind him to take his meds we are treating him like a child. We remind him of the doctors suggestions and we are babying him. We DON’T remind him, we don’t care. We give him an iPod to use with alarms to remind him to take meds, exercise, do things for himself... he turns the volume off and uses it only to texts, email and do other things. He texts inappropriate things to people, he is up all hours of the night .... which comes back around to being tired, missing meds, getting grouchy and irritable -- this results in missed school and classes, falling behind and taking a full year to do courses that should only take 1/2 a yr. 

He claims he wants to go to ‘regular’ classes which would be fine, except he has dropped the ball on this, where he could have proven to the school and teachers that he was ready for full regular classes (by going to every class, working diligently, getting his work done and staying caught up) he chose to fight it and skip classes, not hand in work, take his time with assignments the school will mostly likely say no to his request -- as he has not proven that he is able to handle regular classes. 

Which will bring us back around to being treated like a child, missing classes, etc, etc, etc... tiredness, skipped meds, etc, etc ... which will inevitably bring us to another day (if we are lucky only one!) where he has had enough of it all (as his brain convinces him that we are all against him and trying to keep him here) and want to go. 

go anywhere

anywhere but here...

There is drama also with Josh and his gf... I cant even get into that...

I am so emotionally drained right now after this morning with kids then I get a phone call from someone in Dauphin where we thot we might be able to get some psychological and emotional help for Sam. We were told that Dauphin is not the place for us and I was given a few other numbers to try.  I am so tired of everyone passing us onto someone else. There MUST be somewhere for us to go with these issues! 


I am looking into a neuro feedback program for Sam-- but it is in Edmonton, it is costly and if he is not onboard... why bother!? To be honest I am scared to call in case I do and they say "there is nothing we can do for him here either". I am jsut trying to find somewhere for him to get help with his brain injury! Why is this so damn hard!? Good grief!  

How many phone calls do I have to make? How many people do I have to tell our story too and relive July 28, 2008 every damn time!? Then explain about Josh...and Isaac & Hannah!? I have to laugh when they say (cuz they all do) “and what about YOU Jodi!?” 

I want to say “WHAT about me!?” If I could get doctors to listen to me and get Sam some proper help maybe.... just MAYBE I COULD find time for me!

so not a good day today...

From Ours to Yours...

Our 'Ugly Sweaters' for a Christmas Party

B-Sam, me(Jodi), Dennis, Josh

F-Hannah, Isaac

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a very Healthy and Happy New Year! We pray 2012 is filled with love, laughter, family, friends and all of God’s wonderful blessings! Thank you for all your wonderful and encouraging support since 2008!

Love Dennis and Jodi

xo

Merry Christmas! Thanks to everyone for their support this year with my brother. We all appreciate the support. Have a happy new year!!! 

Josh  

Merry X-mas everybody! Thank you for all you support that you have given our family these past few years its been very much appreciated! Happy holidays and have a great christmas and a happy new year

-- Sam

Merry  christmas everyone! Hope u all have a great new year! 

Isaac

I wish you all a  holly jolly christmas and a happy new year and thank you all a lot for

 all the support you have gave as through out the years. Merry Christmas and I hope 

you all stay safe this christmas year.

 - Hannah

A run to remember

... well the football boys and my boys will!

David as he first comes up to  meet the team!

Davids view of the team as he gets close!

The boys cheering David on!

My "football" boys!

Starting their run!

These are some pictures that Dennis and Melissa (David's trip organizer) took of the boys from the Neepawa Tigers that came out to run with David McGuire for 'A run to remember' on Sept 27/11. 

Running with David on the TransCanada

Isaac, Dennis, David and Josh.
(me sitting here teary eyed still over this pic!)

David is a brain injury survivor who is running across Canada to raise awareness for Brain Injury.
Sam and I were in Wpg at the EMU Clinic when the team and David ran down the TransCanada by Carberry -- so we missed it... sigh The team ran for 4km with David and they all tell me that they really enjoyed meeting him. I was so proud of not only my hubby, Josh and Isaac for running but also for our football team to run! There were 8 other guys that volunteered! What an awesome bunch!

David has an amazing story to tell so please visit his site  or his FACEBOOK page and see if there is someway YOU can help with spreading awareness or make a donation. Also stop by his blog to read about his daily runs! (he runs about 40-45km a day!)

Here they all are after their run!
David gave them t-shirts that are A Run to Remember!

Thank you David so much for allowing our football team and family to run with you! You made such an impact on them! I only wish Sam and I could have been there to run too! You are doing such awesome work and we are all proud to have been able to be a part of what you are doing! 

Dennis took along a bag of oak leaves for David too(he put one on his hat!), so something that our family in Manitoba has been doing is now reaching beyond our boarders!

More than one injured party

3 years ago, as most of you know, our second born son Sam was injured in a freak gun accident. He was at his grandparents farm with his older brother, Josh, target shooting  and Sam brought his gun up too fast and his himself in the head with the scope. This caused him to become dazed and drop his gun which discharged and shot him in the head. That was our first injured...

Our family has always thot to be the 'second' injured party until last might...

Over the last 3 years and mostly the last year our family has under gone some major changes, and I do not mean of a medical kind (altho' there was lots of those kinds too). The changes I am talking about are us as a family growing apart.  Feeling like we are just a bunch of people that live in a house and tolerate each other.  We have talked with our kids and tried to find out what the problem is. Others have suggested that we are under going what most families do as your kids enter their 'teen years'.
It had finally all come to a boiled point this weekend and Dennis and I stayed on top of the kids until we got some results... and some talking out of our 'strong silent' boys.

I am going to go back a bit here and state that I have always wanted us to go to counselling but due to lack of support from the rest of the house and then there is that pesky issue of money to pay for it, we never have gone. This weekend finally brought to light that we either: A) go to counselling, B) start talking about how we are ACTUALLY doing or C) continue on the path we are on and not have a family life -- continue living in the hell we have been.

When we brought this news to the kids and shared with them things that have bothered us, things that irritate us, our 'happy thots'... just life and how we feel we are doing they started talking too ... a bit ... they all basically agreed they wanted to deal with our family issues as a family first and if we felt we needed it later we would go for more professional help.

So they started talking and brain storming. There was a lot of things said that made sense, some things we (Dennis or I )had not heard out loud but had assumed was being thot by the kids. (they can be very sensitive and thotful when they want to be!)

But the oldest never said anything. Josh was basically silent the entire talk. Last night I had a good talk with him and I dont know what made me think it let alone say it, but I did and it opened a whole flood of emotions in my Josh. I said "where you the one who said to go target shooting?" and that made him break down... he crumbled in front of my eyes and I felt a huge weight hit me. Josh has held it all in and has blamed himself for all of this. He blames himself for not only the accident but for all the things that have followed because of it.  I cried right along with him, assuring him that it was most definitely NOT his fault and that we do not blame him for anything.  We cried and hugged and cried more. Then we talked more and he admitted that this is the reasoning behind his not wanting to take the other kids anywhere with him or do anything with them because he is scared that someone will get hurt again and he will be responsible. It is because of this too that he FEELS so responsible and stressed out about Sam.  We talked for a while and then we decided to take a break and we will resume talking tonight... with everyone.... as a family.

I pray that this will be the new beginning we have all be desperately needing and wanting for a while.