Parent Teacher conference at Elementary School

Tuesday was the day of truth. Kerri was extremely concerned and nervous. I began to get a little worried at what I might find out during that 2:45 appointment, but I forced myself to stay positive - a feat Kerri was failying miserable.

Kadi's appointment was first, and WOW. Her teacher, bragged on her the entire time. She recommended her for PACE, so she will be tested in the spring. She shared that Kadi is always positive and in a great mood everyday! What a compliment! She is reading on a 5.3 grade level, and her TEKS test was off the charts! And, her grades weren't bad either. Check this out:

Reading 99

Language 94

Spelling 101 (nope, not a typo)

Math 96

Science 98

Social Studies 99

PE 100 (up from a 97 so all the issues are resolved with her being counted off for *not being able to crab walk)

music 100

Citizenship (conduct) E

Isn't that amazing?

On to the 4th grade hall. Kerri really has me concerned at this point; she has already called to ask me what her teacher said. I don't know, Kerri. How about you tell me? She of course says nothing and hangs up quickly. The pit of my stomach quickly finds itself on the floor.

I sit down and brace myself for who knows what. First the normal chit chat. She is a great student, extremely polite, here are the notes from the other teachers. I read -- she is reading on 7th grade level, has lots of AR points, great comments from all the other teachers. UGH OH. Her report card must be bad. I can't think of any reason Kerri wouldn't want me to hear all of this. All Positive Reports!

The teacher whips the report card around. I honestly thought I saw her wrist click into place, from such abruptness, but soon I realized it was just my nervousness. All a's? Are you sure?

Reading 97

Language 99

Spelling 97

Math 92 (up a point - math makes her head hurt) :)

Science 90 * more to follow on this

Social Studies 97

PE 100

Music 100

Citizenship E

Can you think of any reason why Kerri might be so worried about this conference? No! The teacher couldn't think of a thing. She opened her grade book - oh! Kerri had a bad grade that she was asked to redo for a better grade that she didn't. It was science. So, yes, she is down 6 points from last 6 weeks. Don't you just love those guilty consciences? They will get you everytime!

I am extremely proud of the girls! They each have excellent work ethics - yet very different. Kerri is very slow and diligent in her work, and Kadi very quick, mostly does all her homework on the bus.

A trip to the movies to see Happy Feet is definitely in store!

Stay tuned for Cole's report. It will come home today.

Shriner's Visit this week.

KADI went to Shriner's Wednesday!!! Her appointment was scheduled at 10:30, so the plan was to leave Wednesday morning after Kerri caught the bus. Cole would be fine at home for 45min until his bus arrived. I guess I should have said "my plan" because Brian poked holes all through it! :) I hadn't thought about traffic through Fort Worth, much less Dallas during the 7 - 8am hustle and bustle. Ooops. So, a new plan formed. The kids would each spend the night (tuesday night) with a friend which would allow us to leave between 5am and 6am missing all of said traffic. Great! 5am? UGH. Better plan. Brian has been wanting to go to Shreveport and throw a little money away, why not let him and use it to my advantage? Travel to S'port Tuesday night and sleep until 8:30am. Done! :)

Kadi was is such awe. We stayed at the Horseshoe. She said on NUMEROUS occassions she didn't know it would be this nice! There was a TV in the bathroom -- it made her trip. No, my kids don't get out much and it doesn't take much to please them! lol

We ordered room service, which was a treat for Kadi. I could tell she was nervous. She has no recollection of Shriner's, yet she knows that is where she had surgery. She hasn't quite believed me yet when I tell her, she will not be having surgery.

We saw a new doctor, Dr Hommel, and I liked him sooo much better! Not that I didn't like Dr. McCall, but this doctor finally said the word - arthrogryposis - in relation to Kadi. McCall never would. The doctor and Physical Therapist were extremely suprised by her improvement -- in fact, very curious as to things I had done early on. Her right foot went to neutral fairly easily, but they had a hard time getting her left foot to neutral. I think it was 6 degrees off. They really wanted to put her in braces, but we asked for new excercises first to try. The braces would basically just be a way to help her keep from tripping/stumbling so often because of not getting her foot in neutral so easily. We don't think she will wear them, as she is so insecure right now about being "different" from her class mates. She would be the type to wear them to school and then take them off. They gave us 2 new stretches. So...we will do these 2 stretches 20 times holding for 10 secs twice a day. Basically 40 10 sec stretches. You know me, I will do it double! We will be doing those Morning, Noon, Afternoon and Night! It is still up in the air as to if she will have to repeat the surgery due to growth. We will do the stretches for 6 months and return.

We are scheduled to see the hand specialist on Dec 19th. This is what they suggested last time for the web spacing surgery that I declined. Well, Miss Kadi wants to "fix" her hands, so we will "talk" to the doctor. I told her I am not promising. Many of you know Kadi's biggest dilemna in her own little world is her elbows. She wants them to straighten more than anything. We were told today that there is nothing they can do to straighten the elbows.

And that my friends, is the Carleton News!

On another note, they did see a brand new patient yesterday, and have seen quite a few AMCers recently. He gave a number of different types of AMC that I hadnt' heard, but I will refrain from posting because hubby and I are disagreeing on the number. When I find out, I will post it. He said, there is research being done, but still no concrete cause. Darn the luck, right?