Neil Stone Updates

It's been a while.  Thought I'd fill you in on Neil's current doings and progress. 

Wave jumping at the shore

SCHOOL
Neil just completed a year at the high school where he was taking five classes:  math skills, resource lit, computer repair, P.E., and a cooking class.  He did very well in each of them.  Although he has long since met the requirements for graduation, we are holding off on receiving the diploma because the school has so much to offer him to prepare him for future education or training. 

Next year, he will be back in the high school again.  It looks like his schedule will include a standard level Algebra I, and a standard level lit. class.  These will be a step up for him and we're hoping he can keep up with the pace.  In the afternoon he plans to be in the school's work/study program with a paying or volunteer job.  

THERAPY
Starting this last Monday, for three days a week we take the familiar road up to Kessler in Chester for 45 minutes of speech therapy, followed by five hours (yes, I did say hours) of cognitive therapy.  In CRP(Cognitive Rehabilitation Program) Neil works with a group of other brain-injured clients that covers different aspects of dealing with disabilities, including, thinking, judgement, memory, vocational, and social skills. 

He also has one session each week to work on vision therapy.  He continues to have trouble getting his eyes to work together.  There may be some surgery down the road to help correct this, but we're hoping Neil doesn't have to resort to that.

His left hand has come a long way, but progress has plateaued a bit, so he's not getting any formal therapy for it currently.  However, we're still exercising it at home.  We're not giving up!

THE FUTURE
This part's tough.  We don't know how much more therapy Neil will be eligible for.  If CRP is still helping him with great results at the end of the summer, we may continue with that instead of the job angle.  He's still looking to go to college or vocational training.  He's still dreaming about Tons of Tacos.  Neil's favorite line (which has been in constant use since he started talking again last April) would be appropriate here:
 "I guess we'll see."

My Boys

Happy Fathers Day!

Eric's Turn

You can't see Eric in this picture because he's in the bus, but yes, that is Harry Connick, Jr.  Last Monday, thirty-seven students from the high school marching band were selected to take a little trip into New York City to accompany Mr. Connick and Kelli O'Hara at the American Theater Wing Gala at Cipriani's on 42nd Street. 

Here they are practicing.

And here they are killing four hours at Grand Central Station between rehearsal and the show.

It's show time!

Now here's a link to an article in the Wall Street Journal.

Notice how the band "made a particularly spectacular entrance to cap the evening."

And one more link.  Here's a TV spot that didn't mention the band, but right at about the middle, you'll see them for about a half a second.    Look Ma! We're on TV!

Am I a proud mom, or what! 

In Season

This is our favorite place to be.  If anyone says, "I'm going down to the garden," suddenly everyone drops what they're doing, someone picks up the cat, and down we go.  We water a little, pull a few weeds, thin a few veggies, and sometimes we just sit and soak up the peacefulness. 

Of course, Jemima enjoys it.  She's an indoor cat, after all, and the excitement of being out in the open thrills her no end. 

Yesterday, I was able to take some lettuce and cilantro to church to share.  Hope we have lots more to give away.  We're garden novices, so we've made a few mistakes, but we're learning. 

Want some carrots?  Soon, soon.