Some things ending, some things beginning

Mercer wrapped up the season for ANOTHER baseball team - 15u Spikes.  (Technically, he's ONLY on one team right now... yay!

This was a team cobbled together (technically through the rec league) but it was really of people across the area who needed a low-cost travel team.  There was a lot more cursing and bad manners on this team.  I thought maybe because the boys are older, but it was the families too.  Unfortunately, Todd says that we can probably expect this when Mercer joins an official travel team.  (ugh).  We've been with the "family friendly" rec league for 10 years!   I guess we were spoiled by our "good mannered" groups at EMNLL through the years.  Sure an outburst here or there happened, but not like it did with this 15u team.   Here's a picture of Mercer's youth minister, Michael, who went out to watch him play at his last 15u tournament.

The only team he's playing for right now is the 14u Little League All-Star team.  Many of the boys were on the 13u Little League All-Star team last year.  When the boys went to state for 11u down in Savannah, they did fundraising.  I'm not sure why they didn't do it for 13u and this year's 14u state tournament.  But - we're taking a little "vacation" in an Air B-n-B for almost a week to north Georgia to see him play.  That will be in a future blog post.

(I'm still sad that his 12u All-Star shot... the "big" year when all of the kids (and parents) hope that their kid will make it all the way to Little League World Series that is televised... was shut down b/c of Covid.  There was no regional or state playoffs in 2020... and ultimately, no World Series.)  They won State last year at 13u, but - again - because of Covid, they did not have the World Series.  Supposedly everything is back on track.... we'll see how it goes later this month at State (and beyond?)

Another thing that ended:  swim.  

Thank goodness!  Here are photos from some of Isabella's meets.  

It was hard to get Isabella to go to practices.  She enjoyed the meets / had fun... but did not want to get up early to go to the pool first thing in the morning.  

She did improve a little bit... shaving a second off of her time for freestyle.  

She also worked on the breath stroke.

And backstroke. 

She would participate in solo races and in relays with 3 other teammates.  As soon as her teammate touches the wall - she launches into the pool and does her 25 yard portion.  

She would often swim the free-style in those relays. 

She made some friends too.  This seems to be the one she hung our with the most, Danny.  I got to know his parents quite well too... and we need to set something up soon for them to play.

The end-of-season swim party got rained out, so they had it at a local school theater.  It was LONG presenting all of the awards.  This was a BIG team this year!!   

Isabella's "award" was called the Florist Award.  One of the coaches told a story about how she picked flowers for each of the coaches and carried them over in her tiny little hand in the car / delivered to each coach one morning.  (they were gardenias from the front yard).

It's kind of random, but I guess it's better than the "bug-in-the-eye" award.  ha!   I wonder if they sit around and brainstorm / discuss each player and something that stood out about each one?  What a nice personal touch!

I do think it's impressive that they hand-draw and write a note to each swimmer on their fish awards!  The coaches are mostly high-schoolers, but the head coach is a student at Emory.

Mercer won't go swimming at the pool that we join each year, but I got him to go once by bringing a friend!  (KJ)

One thing that is just beginning & we are in the early stages of learning more about:  Mercer was officially diagnosed with epilepsy last week.  After his seizure in May, he had a neurologist appointment... and she recommended he have an EEG.  (His cat-scan and EKG at the emergency room were normal)

An electroencephalogram is a test used to evaluate the electrical activity in the brain. Brain cells communicate with each other through electrical impulses. An EEG can be used to help detect potential problems associated with this activity. An EEG tracks and records brain wave patterns.  (From John Hopkins) 

We had to keep him awake so he would go to the test tired. The EEG showed a lot of "extra" brain activity.  When we met with the neurologist again last week, she said that this is an indicator that he WOULD have another seizure - or multiple seizures... not a question of IF he would have another one... but WHEN.  She recommended he begin seizure medicine.  He had an epilepsy DNA test to help determine what type of epilepsy he has (I think).  She also recommended he have an MRI.  He has that scheduled next week.  I suppose this is to ascertain if there are any structural issues.  

Results from the EEG were all normal except for this area:

IMPRESSION: This is an abnormal routine EEG in the awake state due to the following: Frequent brief (<2 seconds) bursts of irregular 5-6hz diffuse spike/polyspike-wave discharges with bifrontal shifting predominance.  CLINICAL CORRELATION: There is evidence of an underlying genetic generalized epilepsy.

He is not to be left alone in water or on elevated surfaces.  Unfortunately, we think that this will have an impact on him when he starts driving too.  

Otherwise, he's acting and feeling normal.

Here are a couple of cute photos of Isabella and Hip Hop.

I have been working on painting our bedroom and cleaning it up from the previous construction.  And - I was working A LOT on prepping Isabella for her 1st away camp.... more on that in the next blog post!

But - one other unique thing happened:  we got to go to the new Elevator Testing Tower that is located next to the Braves Stadium.  

The Thyssen Krupp Elevator company built a unique building + corporate office in the area.  I tagged along with Todd and his colleagues to go to a lunch-and-learn there, then go on a tour.  Here are some photos from that unique educational session!

(Can you imagine having an event here in the top of this tower overlooking the stadium??!!)

Here's a photo looking to the south of the stadium -- across highway 285 (the Perimeter).  The 3rd building seen in the right window in this final photo is a project I worked on maybe18 years ago!  (Galleria 4000).  At that time, I remember looking over highway 285/75 junction and just be mesmerized watching the traffic.  

This definitely tops that!

Such a great opportunity.  Grateful to have been able to attend!