OUR GRADUATE

On May 30th, Brandon graduated from Hancock Co High. We started the evening with a pre graduation party at the church fellowship hall. We had food, cake, and a video of Brandon's life. Rob and I bought him a new laptop for his graduation gift. Right now his plan is to attend OCC this fall. He is not sure yet of what he wants to study. Guitar is his main love right now. We told him that he could be like Uncle Kev and get a degree in music performance and then go work for UPS.
The graduation ceremony was great and I was overwhelmed that our son could have grown up so quickly. We are definitely not ready for all of this. Oh well, by the time Korbin graduates, I will be too old to go, so I guess I might as well enjoy it.!!

Happy 18th Birthday BRAN!!!

On March 1st, 1991, life as we knew it changed forever with the birth of our first child. It was a snowy beginning of March at Elemendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, Alaska. At 3:15 pm, after 40 hours of labor, Brandon Tyler Kruse came into the world. The Anchorage Daily News headline read "A Great Day for All Americans". They were talking about the end of the Gulf War, but I was sure it was because the world was graced with the prescence of such a beautiful baby. He was always an easy going child with a heart melting smile. As he has grown up, he still has that laid back attitude and tender heart. We can hardly believe he will turn 18 tomorrow! He is very eager to say he is an adult, but he will always have to do what I say!! We celebrated with a family dinner at The Patio. He was thrilled to finally get his long awaited Apple Ipod. We didn't see him for the rest of the evening as he played with it. Kind of reminded me of his first birthday. Brandon, if you read this, I LOVE YOU and I am very proud of you. You are a blessing to me! Now, go clean your room!!

ICE STORM 2009

I guess we will all be talking about the 2009 ice storm for years to come. Everyone knows I despise camping or anything that does not involve electricity, so we survived less than 24 hours before we headed to the Ramada Inn in Tell City with Grandad. We called that home for a week, spending our time at the Tell City Library, watching movies, visiting with Mark and Jess (who ended up in a room right upstairs) and running home to check our electricity. After a week, Gdad had his power back and we checked out and headed to his house for a couple of days until ours was restored. We were out of our home for a total of ten days.

Chinese New Year

Today South Hancock had an exciting Chinese New Year assembly. Our district is hosting some Chinese middle schoolers, and they performed a show to teach our students about Chinese culture. Jillian started the morning assembly by teaching our students how to say hello and thank you in Chinese. After the assembly, she was asked to present our guests with some gifts from South Hancock. We all noticed that she was completely in awe during the show. It was a great experience for her.

UPDATE ON ROB'S RECOVERY

This week (Monday), Rob went back to the neurosurgeon to get a CT scan of his head. Dr. Cannon informed us that all of the bruising to the brain was gone and everything looked normal, so he could release him. Rob told him he was glad because it would be bad to lose the only marble he had left. I think he popped that one out to beat me to the punch. Cannon commented that it was amazing that we were standing around having that conversation as bad as it was. He still has an appointment on February 16th to see a neuropsychologist for a mental evaluation. This is something that is required after a head injury in order to release him for return to work.
Last week Rob went back to the orthopedic surgeon. He said that his pelvis still has a break on one side, but that it is healing over. He was taken off the cane and walker. He is walking very well with just a slight limp. Dr. Carothers did say that he could opt to have surgery on his separated shoulder later.
On Friday, he went to see Dr. Decker(his surgeon in charge of his case). He walked in a half an hour early and the nurse stuck her head out to say that Decker was already waiting to see his prize patient. He feels that he is doing fantastic and reminded us that Rob is a miracle. He said he rarely sees someone survive a car wreck like that. He decided to put him on coumadin for the leg clots they found in the hospital. He has a temporary filter inserted, but this is an extra precaution. We are very thankful for Dr. Decker. He has been one of the most compassionate doctors that we have ever dealt with and even after the worst was over, he has been very good about just checking up on Rob. He did send him back to Carothers for clarification of the shoulder issue and they did another xray. Carothers feels that the shoulder will not get worse and if he is able to use it as well as he is, he wouldn't recommend surgery. He does want Rob to see Dr. Martin in the next couple of weeks for a second opinion on that. Otherwise, Carothers has also released him.
The last issue we have is Rob's eyes. He has 4th cranial nerve palsy from his head injury. It is supposed to get better over time, but causes some blurry vision. Rob has another appointment on January 28th to do another check. If they are not better, we will have to give it one more month before he does any type of correction.
Please pray for improvement in his eyes (hopefully by his 28th appointment) and that he will do well on his February 16th evaluation. He is doing great, but he gets frustrated and discouraged at times because he can't do everything he feels like doing. He is working out on the tread mill and Bowflex every day to gain his strength back. He is really hoping to be able to drive again by the end of February so that he can go back to work. His goal has been March 1st, so hopefully he will beat that.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

New Year's Eve - This day is always very exciting for us! We are such party animals that we are usually worn out by 8:00. This year we had some errands to run in Owensboro, so we had a family dinner at Cheddar's. We even (after a lot of arm twisting) convinced (actually tricked) Brandon to go with us. He never wants to hang out with us anymore. Halfway through the dinner, he commented, "This is fun! Why don't we don't we do this more often?" After dinner we did a little store hopping and then headed home. Around 10:00, we pretended it was midnight and headed to bed. I did tell Jillian the story of the big, silver ball in New York. She had never heard of it, and probably will never see it if she takes after me.
New Year's Day - Today we had a get together with my cousin Kathy Gooch's family. It was a late Christmas/New Year's celebration. We ordered pizza, exchanged gifts, and played Family Feud. The guys beat the girls, but we are pretty sure it was because of all of Rob's brain therapy. That clearly put them at an advantage. The Gooch's and Williams' gave Jillian a set of batwings and she loved them. She enjoyed trying to fly by jumping off of Jessica's stairs. Hopefully that will be as high as she goes... Korbin got a Lightning McQueen lunch box and house shoes. He has already packed his lunchbox full of toys. Now we are home playing and looking forward to a little rest before we tackle the job of taking down the Christmas decorations.