Great New from Jason's MRI

As expected, the results from Jason's MRI was completely clear. No signs of any bad stuff in his brain. We are so glad to hear this as you might expect. The only thing for us to do is to watch and manage until he outgrows his childhod epilepsy.

Thanks for all the prayers, thoughts and kindness each of you have showed us.

A Message from Jon-Jon

Jon-Jon has taken to writing on a whiteboard in the living room. Most of the time, he does math. He has gotten quite good at math and has learned to carry numbers from the one's place to the ten's place and so on. I've seen his work carried into the thousands place. Quite good for a 1st grader.

However, it is Jonathan's latest work that is the best. He sat down yesterday and penned out this message, with a little help from mom on the spelling. The words and picture are all his. It is a message worth sharing. We hope you will share it with your family and friends since this is something we all need to remember.

An MRI for Jason

Lets go back a few days and catch everyone up on Jason's seizures. As you can see below (Feb 19th entry), we had an EEG done. The results of the EEG diagnosed Jason with Benign Rolandic Epileptic Seizures. It is a form of childhood epilepsy. The good news is that he will outgrow it sometime during his mid-teen years. The bad news is that Karen and I will worry every night whether or not he will have another seizure. If he does not experience another seizure in the next six months, then we will just ride the wave until he outgrows his condition. If he has another episode within six months, we will have to consider medication to keep him from having seizures.

Its normal when a child is diagnosed with Benign Rolandic Epileptic Seizures to have an MRI done of that area of the brain (the Rolandic region) and see if there is anything bad in there. In nearly 100% of the cases the results of the MRI are negative and its just back to the watch and wait game.

Last night, Karen and I took Jason to Hendrick to have an MRI done. It was a very typical scan and lasted about 45 minutes. I know this all had to be scary for Jason but he was very, very brave. He talkative and helpful to the technician and mounted the MRI machine and did exactly as he was asked. For a young man of his age, he did very good job by laying still and allowing the technician to get some good images.

The one thing we were not expecting was that they injected some fluid into Jason's veins for contrast on the images. It hurt a little when they put the needle in his arm but my little man gritted his teeth and hung in there.

After the scan, we went into the technicians area and looked at pictures of Jason's brain. Not something you see everyday. Jason thought that was pretty cool! But, Jason's mind was on the important things of the day ... the Dominos Pizza we promised he could have after the scan.

We wrapped things up at the hospital and headed straight to the nearest Dominos Pizza and ordered a medium, thin-crust, pepperoni pizza for Jason. Mom and I couldn't stomach another pizza meal so while Jason and I picked out a movie at the video store, Mom got some real food at Arby's. Well, at least its closer to real food than Dominos. Having acquired all the necessities of an average night in a 21st century American home, we headed home for dinner and a movie.

Joshua and Jon-Jon had a treat too. They got to spend the night at Granny's house.

Jason's ALPS Program - Space Night 2007

Over the last couple of years, Jason has been attending the ALPS program here in Abilene. This ALPS program is what used to be called the Gift and Talented program. Well, my unbiased opinion ;-) is that he is indeed a gifted and talented young man!

This school year, Jason has been in Mrs. Randall's class at the ALPS location. I don't know if its the same every year but this year's theme is about outer space. The kids in the class get to focus on one or more aspects of being and traveling in space. Jason and his team, The Star Destroyers (seen at right), focused on how to package and carry food on a space shuttle flight.

To transport the food, Jason and his team recognized the limited amount of space that would be available on a shuttle flight for food. In that light, they created a tubular device called "The Dark Meal" that holds seven different containers of food in it and can be placed into a small space on the shuttle.

Jason and I built the food storage device one night here at the house. We needed a way to cap-off the two ends of the food tube. We used some paper and rubber bands to create a cap. The boys on the team thought it looked like one of those hoods you see the old Hebrew guys wearing in the old movies like The Ten Commandments so they named the tube (view in Jason's hands) "Moses."

Moses was displayed for the parents and all the friends to see at Space Night 2007. Different kinds of food that may be on a shuttle flight were handed out. OK, the truth is that everything the kids had to offer was of the dessert variety. One parent remarked, "I've learned something about space food here tonight. Its full of sugar!"

The parents were full of sugar. The kids were REALLY full of sugar. A good time was had by all.

Thanks to Mrs Charlene Randall for all the hardwork she did to pull this program together.

Birthday Party for Louise

Another year, another party. We won't tell you how long ago Mahmaw stopped counting birthdays ...

Jane and Jamie invited the family over to their house for a celebration of another year for Louise. Several deserts were served. Presents were opened. Everyone had a good time.

This picture of Mahmaw and the boys was taken to remember the event and to reflect on the multiple generations that were present at the party.

We're looking forward to many more of these parties with Louise.

A Special Day for Jason

We've had a special three days for Jason. It all started Saturday morning when Jason had some sort of seizure or something else like that. After an encounter with the EMT from 9-1-1 and a few phone calls, it was decided to take him to the hospital and have and EEG done to possibly determine the cause of the seizure. Here are some pictures of Jason with 27 electrodes stuck to his head so the doctors can read his brain waves. We will know the results of the test on Wednesday or Thursday of this week. Hope and pray for the best.

In the meantime, Jason is going about normal things for a guy his age: school, play, sports, video games and watching TV.

Valentine's Day 2007

No new pictures today. Nothing really exciting going on. Just Valentine's Day. It started pretty normally, getting the boys ready for school, eating breakfast. The breakfast was a little specia, howeverl. Karen made the boys heart-shaped pancakes with chocolate chips on top. Needless to say, the syrup flowed like wine. I think Joshua ate seven or eight pancakes.

Off to school. It was an extremely cold day here in Abilene. The high temperature was in the upper-20s or lower-30s. I think it was something like 28 degrees with strong northerly winds when we left the house for school. Drove the boys to school, walked them to class (I didn't like this part because of the cold), and went to work.

Karen and I went out for Valentine's lunch at a local Mexican food restaurant (Los Arcos). Then to Walmart to buy fruit for that night's special Valentine's day desert (fruit dipped in chocolate).

Work, work, work.

I got home around 5:30PM. It was still very cold. The boys were really excited to see me tonight. They all three greeted me with "jump hugs" when I came in the door. A jump hug is where they stand back about two or three feet, jump into my arms, I wrap them up, pick them up and give them a big hug. Its great but I keep waiting for the day when I fall to the floor in the fetal position, sucking my thumb because my back just gave out. But, so far so good. Josuha had a napkin on my dresser with a message to the affect that "I Love Daddy." I got no idea how I'm going to survive when all the love stops from the boys.

Karen made a really good dinner. It was a salmon pasta. It was very good and enjoyed by ... well, Karen and me. The boys ate hotdogs or sausage and macaroni and cheese. Then came the thing we were all waiting for: fruit dipped in chocolate. I should have taken a picture of the aftermath because the boys had chocolate and a smile on their face.

All in all, it was a most excellent Valentine's day.

By the way, Karen bought me two Abilene history books that I wanted and a box of chocolate covered raisins for my Valentine's gift. The books are on the book shelf. There is no evidence left of the chocolate covered raisins. They were dark chocolate covered rainsins and dark chocolate is good for you so I kinda look at it like I was taking lots of little vitamins.

Hope each of you also had a good Valentine's day with the one(s) you love.

Birthday Party for Paw-Paw (J.C.) - 75 years old

We had a little party for the boys' grandpa last night. My parents invited some of their closest friends and the family to join them for dinner at The Homeplace and cake and ice-cream at the house. Just thought I'd share a few pictures of the event.


To Mike and Sharon: HA! I beat you to the web!

Boy Scouts at the Christian Service Center

We visited the Christian Service Center on Saturday, February 3rd. Each boy in Joshua's Cub Scout den brought items from their home they wanted to donate. There was clothes, toys, dishes and bikes. After the boys brought all the stuff inside, Jim Clark, the director of the CSC, gave the boys a tour through the facilities.

Its probably a little unusual to put a picture on a website that is blurry like the one of Joshua. I like the way it is all out of focus and seems to come into focus around Joshua. I'd love to say I planned this picture but its quite the accident.

Jon-Jon at 100 years old

Today is the 100th school day of the year. In celebration, Jonathan's class will be dressing up like a 100-year old person. Here are pictures of Jonathan's outfit. Notice the picture where he is yelling. It looks like he took fussin' lessons from his paw-paw.