Nov. 28 11:56 pm

O.K. Remember when I said "the hardest part is yet to come"? Well this better be it! I'm still very sick. David was up all night Wednesday night throwing up. I took some cold medicine and put pies in the oven at about 11:pm and about midnight Emily was waking me up asking what she should do with the pies. That was also when I heard David. Emily was taking a cup of water to him as she did a couple more times. My day started at about 3:am with cleaning the bathroom, which I did again at about 5:am. I put the turkey in the oven an hour late and didn't realize it had frozen a bit (I bought a fresh one so as not to have to defrost) in the back of my refrigerator so it was done just in time for Steve to carve it for me before they left. We had ham. I couldn't smell or taste anything due to my cold....

Even so, it was Thanksgiving. We were quite a group with 8 adults and 12 children. Jen and Steve with Matthew, Jacob, Julie, and Abbie, also Ali and Jordan and Scot and Cheri and their 4 children Jazzmin, Ashly, Lexus, and Lisa. (Scot is my brother's eldest son) It was great! I gave Levi his Zyprexa and 7 adults and 12 children tried to stay quiet. :) I must say it really was the quietest Thanksgiving I can remember, except for the t.v. Levi had blaring in the living room!

Scot said he would bring the ham at Christmas and I promised NOT to make a turkey! Scot makes the best ham, the kind I remember from way back. He puts a wonderful glaze on it along with pineapple rings and maraschino cherries, YUM! My children still talk about the one last year.

So, Levi news: He is impossible. Trying to stay one step ahead of him is getting ridiculous. He gets up and puts on his brace while sitting on the edge of the bed. He takes it off when he goes in the bathroom. I'm pretty sure he got a drink of water today while he was in the bathroom. I heard a lot of coughing. This could be sort of a good thing. In his last swallow test he still couldn't recognize fluid going down the wrong way and wouldn't cough it up. So if he was coughing because of sneaking a cup of water then Woo-Hoo! But if not then he may be getting the cold everyone is getting. Not sure. I asked the speech therapist if someone could regularly check his lungs to make sure he is not getting fluids in there. She'll find out. She is not trained to do so. His physical therapist took him for a very long walk on Wednesday and again today. He is complaining of some back pain and his elbow still hurts. The Dr. said he will probably need surgery in about 6 months to fix the elbow. He said they took another x-ray and saw that there might be a something or other (medical term according to Kelly) where the tendon tears off a piece of bone fragment, and something about calcification due to the brain injury-made sense when he said it. :) They're not sure why they didn't see it before. Anyway, 2 more months of the brace and 6 months of elbow pain but he is so wanting to get back to work. I know he would also like to drink a tall glass of water. Work and water and life would be great! I've told him a few times (because he has little to no short term memory) that he is very blessed to be walking and so he needs to keep the brace on to protect his spine. Each time he just looks at me and says "I didn't know that. I guess I am." He is having a hard time accepting that there are things he can't do right now, but he does recognize that he has been greatly blessed.

It's 1:20 am so I think I'm finished for now. Maybe Jen can fill in some details of Thanksgiving. I'm at a point where I lump it all together, call it good or bad, and file it away. As we were taught in our "Time Out" conference in Logan, "bless and release". (It kinda looses something when you can't see the physical motions that go with it-just ask when you see me and I'll show you).

O.K. good night/morning!