Happy Shriners'!!

Yesterday Jim and I took baby Mason to Shriners' to begin his orthopedic care there.  It was a great visit.  Traffic and construction made me 45 minutes late so I was totally stressed by the time I got there.  I think Jim has recovered from me screaming at him on the phone that I didn't know where the #@% I was after construction had sent me on yet another detour.  Oh well, he understood.  So, the doctor said that Mason is improving so very much on his own that further interventions are questionable at best.  It was really fun running up and down the hall with a diaper-clad Mason to show off his abilities to the doctor.  We decided in the end with a device that will keep his left foot from flexing so that he is required to utilize the bend in his knee more.  That's it.  No surgery or casting!!  He will never have a compete range of motion in his knee, but the doc said that the structure of his knee probably makes that impossible, and that all the extreme interventions like surgery will have negligible results.  I don't have to put those awful orthotics on him ever again!!  Good-bye leg brace!!  Shriners' is such a cool place - so kid-friendly, and organized, I'm so glad I heard about them. 

Jim went and watched our big boy graduate from basic training.  It was really cool, and DJ is so happy to be done with it, though he actually really liked it.  (Who likes basic training????)  He's now at Ft. Leonard Wood until December, he can call and Skype now so we can talk to him every day.  He is definitely on the path to adulthood, he bought his very own laptop the other day! 
We have been following the story of the miners' in Chile and I watched highlights of the men as they emerged from the rescue pod.  How cool was that??  One guy quietly knelt down in prayer after he emerged, there with millions watching he gave thanks.  What an amazing example of gratitude!  You would have to have a heart of stone to not be a mess as these guys emerged to their families, with their kids and wives crying and hugging them.  Gosh, it was cool.  Preston finished his season of football, and Jim has proclaimed that we have another softie who can't hit hard in a tackle.  I can't help it if we raise sensitive sweetie boys!!  Jim still has hope that Preston will get in touch with his inner beast, time will tell!!  I guess there is always interpretive dance. . . . . . .