Saturday, August 1, 2009, Nashville, TN., written from my bedroom at 14264 Haskell Street, 7:40 a.m., D.S.T.~

Dear Journal~

Howdy!  This is Julie Jasmine Torres writing!  I am writing this entry from my very own bedroom, at my own house!  This is a red-letter day for me today because this is the first journal entry not written from the hospital!!

My mom is still in the hospital; she continues to make strides in her recovery.  She is undergoing tons of therapy:  emotional, speech, occupational, physical.  She will need therapy for a while; it will be some time before mom is well enough to come home.  I miss her so much!

My brothers are glad to have me home; even Tray has been behaving, when he's usually obnoxious.  I guess he figures since he has special needs, he can get away with acting like a first class brat.  That's not gonna fly; maybe this will calm him down somewhat!

I just hope he doesn't have any problems; we don't need him getting sick on top of what mom's been going through; that would be a disaster to end all disasters!

Torencio and Trevvie are doing their best to keep Tray in line, which I greatly appreciate.  They are all very good boys; I just love my little brothers to death, even when they are being braticious!!  LOL

Mom will need a lot of supportive care when she comes home.  She will more than likely come home in a wheelchair and will have walking aids to help her until she gets stronger.  Right now, though, she's as weak as a newborn kitten.  There will be nurses/therapists, who will come and help mom, and we will help her too when they leave.  So we have a lot of work ahead of us.

Might as well enjoy the easy-paced life we have now because when mom comes home, it will be nothing but busy-ness!

Today I am actually planning on visiting my girlfriend Miracle and my other good friend Fantazsia.  I have been friends with them for years, since grade school.  Now we will all be starting high school together; I can't believe we will actually be in the big leagues of schooldom!!  It's gonna be awesome!!

We plan on going to the mall, and maybe out to eat; we plan on having pizza at Mama's Pizzaria, which is a new pizza place here near us.  They say it is very good; we shall see once we get there.  :P

The weather has been stormy for the past few days, even with the threat of tornadoes.  No tornadoes here, but hearing the weather sirens put us all on edge.  I just hope mami didn't hear them; she freaks out big time when it storms!  She hates storms with a purple passion!

Thank God the weather has calmed; the skies are clear now, with cooler temps.  It's supposed to warm up somewhat next week, with highs in the low to mid nineties and lows in the seventies as high pressure anchors itself right over the Tennessee Valley.

Maybe we can see a meteor shower or two; they say the Perseids are coming out, with the peak next week, on the twelth.  Or maybe that's several weeks away; it's only the first of August now; we have 11 more days before the peak occurs.

I love the meteors, but what I really want to see are the northern lights.  I have heard so much about them, but have never seen them.  I think that would be cool.  I've seen piccys of the northern lights, just haven't seen 'em.  (They do venture this far south once in a while, but to do so is a very rare event.  It happens something like once every 11 years.)

I think that'd be cool if we could go to Alaska; that's where the northern lights play hot and heavy outside; I bet they see them  just about every night up that way!  :)  Maybe I can sweet talk papi and mami into going on an Alaskan cruise and drag us along!  They want to go to Alaska and were planning on going when this happened, so the cruise they had booked had to be cancelled.  Maybe next year.  (sighhhh!)

Well, papi is stirring, calling us out of bed, so I will go now.  I will write in here again probably next week, now that the danger appears to be behind us.  Now mami can concentrate on getting better, and we can be there for her, support her in any way we can.  Just keep those prayers coming, though; that's the only reason why mami has been improving so fast since waking up from her coma!  Thanks in advance!

~Love, your friend, Julie Jasmine.  :D