Yesterday was a big day for Alex...spring dance! He's doing better than I ever did at his age...he asked a girl to the dance. She couldn't go on a "date" with him, but she did say they could hang out some at the dance. I am so proud of him. We had to buy him some new clothes since it was a dressy kind of dance (a nice shirt, tie, slacks, matching shoes) and he looked very sharp. He had a really good time at the dance too. He didn't actually dance much, but he did hang out with friends (including the girl he asked) and had some fun. Saturday I also went to FW to visit Mom. No real changes there. Prior to the weekend, things were a bit sketchy at times. Natalie has not been feeling well, and as it turns out she has mono. So, she's been missing school quite a bit, and last Wednesday she went but it did not go well. She had such a panic attack coupled with being so tired and not felling well that she basically shut down and her arms and legs didn't work. She could barely get into the van when Beth went to get her and I had to come home to help her down the stairs to get her into bed. Missy has also not been feeling well so we were pretty concerned that she was going to come down with it too. But she saw the doctor this week and the tests came back negative so she should be good. Also, one of Beth's gold crowns came out when she took her snore guard out in the morning. Really? We need this?

Beth continues to improve, but as of today she is still not operating at full capacity. We’re still trying to keep things simple, largely doing so, but mornings are the hardest. She’s been waking up anxious at around 4 and taking her meds to calm down and that helps mornings a lot. Anyway, I’ve been taking the kids in to school in the mornings, but this week she was able to pick them up in the afternoon, an improvement. Natalie’s counselor was out this week so she and Beth went to the church on Wednesday, Beth didn’t go with the class which was out of control as usual but just by the end of the program she was really upset and shaky. Then school was cancelled (due to fog!) on Thursday so another hard day. Weekends are really handy these days. Saturday was e-learning day, which is still ridiculous, so we all went out for breakfast at Crazy Egg before getting the kids started on that, and Sunday we all went to Michigan for the day because Beth’s pastor from when she was a kid, a man she still dearly loves, was preaching at her old church (Twin Lakes). That church is closing very soon, and a new congregation is going to move into the building. It was a big step for her to be able to go, but she desperately wanted to. She didn’t think she could manage an overnight, so we left early in the morning to be there by 10. Afterwards there was a gathering in the basement (with cake)…kinda funny there were some old church photo albums on display, one with several of Beth in them from some youth conference or something in around 1988. Marve and the Pinksters also went, and afterwards we had lunch at Brewster’s near the airport in Kzoo, which must be the slowest place in the world, with the whole Wiessner/Pinkster clan. By then Beth didn’t think she could handle staying any longer, so we went right home.

It has been a rough week. Pretty much all the time last week, I was leaving work all the time to run home and take care of Beth. She has just been a wreck ever since changing meds. We've been going to appointments, or just sitting at home with her, or dropping off or picking up the kids because she can't. We were actually pretty lucky to get an appointment with the NP for a psychiatrist in Fort Wayne who is apparently pretty good, and she got some anxiety meds out of that which should help. She basically can't leave the bedroom lately. I've moved a rocking chair up to the bedroom because it helps calm her to rock by the window. I've been cooking dinner pretty much every day as well. Anyway, Natalie also had a meeting with the high school counseling staff that will be helping her next year (another thing I had to leave work for). I hope things go better for her in high school than in middle, school-wise. Nat has been calling home quite a bit lately as well, with anxiety attacks or migraines or something of the sort. We really need to get her meds straightened out too. 

We were able to all go to Fort Wayne this weekend to visit Mom, since her birthday was last Thursday (76). I don't know that she recognized everyone for sure, but we brought a cake and had a little party up on the third floor. She did seem to like that. I called Laura and we were able to video chat for a bit, and both discovered how to make little add-ons to the avatar (like makeup or rainbow hair or the like) on the phone, which Mom thought was funny. She didn't talk much, but she did read the card over and over and seemed to like the cake. She gets agitated if too many of us are all there for too long, though, so we didn't stay really long. 

The kids were all supposed to go to Fort Wayne again today for Fire & Ice, or Mexican food and hockey. The youth group does this every year around this time. Unfortunately the weather has been bad lately so it wound up being cancelled. Which bummed Natalie out a lot since she wasn't able to go to it last year either due to a migraine.

I never want to have a week like this again.
On Monday there was a huge blowup with Nat. It stemmed from a confrontation with a previous guardian in the parking lot at Lowe's last week, in which she came over and called Nat out to me for flipping her off last week on a school trip out in town...for which Nat retaliated by leaving a fake complaint phone call about her at her place of work. Which came back to Beth and me, of course. We confronted Nat about it and she didn't deny it, and was not about to apologize for it. When Beth told her that she had to go apologize to her was when the real fight started. By the end, Nat was trying to climb out her bedroom window and Beth was about ready to let her go. I talked them both back down and eventually things smoothed out a bit, but we felt we had to have Nat on runaway watch. Beth started feeling sick and within a day or so she was just about losing her mind due to the anxiety, to the point she felt like she was having a nervous breakdown. I had to leave work a couple times during the week to stay with her and get her to calm down enough that she could make it through the day. Nat's had counseling since then, and Beth has started seeing a counselor herself. She also shared with me that she has been very scared of Nat lately, after some very scary questions Nat asked her (would you be mad if I...sort of questions). The counselor seems to have a good connection with Beth. Beth also got some temporary anxiety meds  which seem to be helping a bit, although not nearly enough.
In other news, Alex had a robotics meet yesterday at Wawasee. We had to get up early, really early by our own standards, to get him to the school on time so he could catch the bus to Syracuse. His team did better this time, they didn’t finish dead last at least, but according to Alex they didn’t do great either. But more importantly, Alex had fun and enjoyed it. I'm really glad about that. This is something that I really want him to stay with.