Jonas Brothers Concert and Echo

Bailey called on our good friend, Todd, to see if he could work his magic and get her tickets to a Jonas Brothers concert in Evansville. He came through for her! She was SO excited to take Paisley and Josie (Marissa opted to spend the night at a friend's house.) and, of course, they needed a driver . . . that was me. Knowing full well how far Evansville is from Indianapolis (3 1/2 hours to be exact), I was all for a road trip. I took my ear plugs . . . thank goodness! Lots and lots of screaming girls - my 3 included, I might add. Neither Bailey nor Paisley could speak after the concert. It was a good night. I have to say that the Jonas Brothers seem to be pretty neat kids - 16, 18 and 20 years old. I'm not too thrilled about a lot of teen idols out there, but the Jonases travel with their parents (who is/are/were minister(s)) and little brother. I haven't seen them do or say anything that makes me cringe as a mother and it was a relief to see another good, clean concert (they performed for the kids on our Children's Miracle Network trip in Disney World and Bailey actually spoke with them - I think she holds that memory dear to her heart).

I forgot about the time change, which meant we had plenty of time to get down there, but it also meant the concert started an hour later than expected WHICH means we get started toward home an hour later. Oh my. My expectation was that the girls would be so wound up from the concert that they'd be awake for half the trip . . . OH NO!! That didn't happen. 15 minutes into our return travels home . . . in the dark, on strange roads, and in the rain . . . they all 3 fall fast asleep. I pull over once about 1/3 of the way home to get gas and a Mountain Dew (caffeine!), and Bailey has the nerve to complain about the radio. I think my quote was: "Bailey, you're just gonna have to deal with it because I need something to listen to while I drink my caffeine and chew my gum!" It was a long trip. It stopped raining for about 10 minutes, but that was it. I contemplated pulling over to get a hotel, but I really like my own bed, so I kept going. Finally, just north of Edinburgh (only about 20 minutes from home), I had to call Tom. "If I blink one more time, my eyelids are gonna stay shut!" I ate so much junk food and drank so much caffeine that I had a really bad stomach ache when we finally did get home at 2:15am. The girls crawl out of the van, "Oh, I'm soooooo tired, Mmmmmmommmmmmm." Hm.

Bailey had an echo this week. It went great! Ever since her surgery in November, we've heard "stable" . . . which is very good! But THIS time, we heard the word "better" three different times in Dr. Darragh's report, AND we heard "best in a while". Yay!!! He made it very clear that she's not near normal, but any improvement is worth celebrating. And, Bailey returned to school full time as of Thursday. She's felt great!! I think it's good for her to finally feel completely a part of the school again. She's even going to go to "pit orchestra" rehearsal on Monday nights. Every little step toward "normal" is so, so, so exciting to us.

And Bailey's been talking with our friends at the Foundation over the past year in hopes of organizing a Dance Marathon at the high school to raise money for Riley. Unfortunately, she's been so sick this past year, that plans kept getting interrupted. We're meeting this week with our friend Katherine to get the ball rolling! We're so excited about that, too. It will feel really good to get to do something special for Riley. It's an incredible place, as you well know.

Enjoy the pics!
Have an incredibly great weekend! We will.

Angie


A little blurry, but "do-able".


Josie and I discover we're in the wrong seats, so we just move across the aisle and Bailey and Paisley still can't find us.


"The Bus!" The girls watch the doors for about 45 minutes hoping someone somewhere will emerge.


A pro photo, of course.


Ok, they're a little blurry, but they give you the idea. We had a blast!