Sat. Jan. 3, 2009 @10:23am

Wow was that a strange date to type. Time seems to have stopped for me. I wander when things will get back to normal. Or as Ann and I talked about yesterday, we will just be making a new normal. JoLinda is doing well. She was able to sit still for her speech appt. yesterday for an hour. They are doing lots of formal testing on her right now, both speech and OT. She is still not oriented to St. George, or even people yet. She calls me mom, but at the same time, if I ask her who I am she will say her sister(which she has none) or her aunt. She is quite familiar with our home now, but is still quite unsure of herself. Her trach is healing nicely. Her hair is growing out. All of her IV marks are fading. Yet, her mind is taking its own sweet time. She is getting more stubborn and we think that is a good thing. The more aware she is of her problems, we think she will become more upset. She is walking around the block with us most days(warm ones). And is up to 10 min. on the treadmill each day. She still can't remember that she just ate and so is hungry most of the time. We are monitoring that all day. Her daily living things of showering and brushing teeth, she is doing great now. Her stains on her teeth are now gone. Her jaw and lower lip tingle all day or she can't feel them at all. We are all hanging in there and did enjoy going to Sun River yesterday where JoLinda works. We are all looking forward to a much better year. Happy New Year to you all and our thoughts and prayers are with all of you. Love Laurie