Dance Date Asking and Answering

Austin was asked to Sadies this past week. I think this is at least 15 times now I have had to help come up with an original way to ask or answer a dance ( and it's only child #2). It is getting difficult. Luckily we have the internet.

This time Austin actually came up with his own answer. After his cute date asked him with a bowl of Goldfish and they had died by the next morning :(. He wanted to answer her back by giving her the fish bowl and dead fish back and saying "I'd have to be belly-up not to go to the dance with you!"

We opted on crushing graham crackers like sand and putting swedish fish on the sand belly-up with the same saying!

Our Thespian

Conner starred in his first play yesterday. He was so excited to be play the old man in their class stone soup play. I had to be there early and sit on the front row and take pics and video. He did such a great job. They had only practiced once and he had to follow along with the play and had many many speaking (reading) parts. He has really become a great reader these past few months! You were awesome!

Sidney recieves her YW award

Sidney earned her YW award at the ripe old age of 14. Most girls are struggling to get this by the time they graduate. I'm so proud of her for working so hard at all her goals and getting it done so early. She has really grown in the past year. She is a great girl and we love her so much. We rented the racquetball room at Noah's to celebrate with Sid. We had Terriyaki Bowl (her favorite) and played all night while we watched Monday Night Football. Sidney also performed for the first time with Senior Company this past weekend. I was so impressed with her. She fit right in with those girls and looked great! :)

My little brother Mike

My brother Mike and I were always best friends growing up. We took care of each other and played together everyday! Now we are all grown up and have our own families. He has 4 kids under 6 and I have 5 over 6. He got started a lot later than me on his family but it is really fun to see all his cute kids. Sophie, Gracie, Max and Olivia!

Tori's Funeral

This Friday we all attended the funeral of one of Jessi's great friends Tori. her story is below. Jess and other dance friends cried, smiled, laughted and sang as they said goodbye to Tori. She was such a strong example of sacrifice and strength. We are glad she is in a better place "dancing with angels"

Tori's Story

Submitted by Tim Schmanski on Sat, 2009-11-07 00:00.

Tori Schmanski is our beautiful, brilliant, talented and vibrant 16 year old daughter who sustained a ABI (Anoxic Brain Injury) in an automobile accident on Fathers Day, June 19th, 2005. The accident involved Tori, her sister Whitney and two of their cousins. The vehicle they were all in rolled 1.5 times and landed upside down in a canal and everyone except Tori was able to swim out of the vehicle.

Whitney and her cousin were in the back seat of the two door vehicle and both of them distinctly remember being pushed out of the driver's side window and we truly believe it was Tori who saved their lives. This heroic action exemplifies the type of person Tori is. Tori has always focused her attention on helping and supporting others and her life revolved around her friends and family.

Tori was originally in the front passenger seat with her seat belt on and she was eventually removed from the back seat of the submerged vehicle by members of the EMT team after 15-20 minutes. She was then resuscitated and brought back to us during the 10 minute ambulance ride to the local hospital. At the hospital she was immediately stabilized and then Life Flighted to the PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit) at the PCMC (Primary Childrens Medical Center) in Salt Lake City, Utah. Tori also had to be resuscitated again during her hour long flight to the PCMC.

Tori has been fighting for her life ever since and has overcome the incredible odds against her survival. The PICU medical staff originally had little faith in Tori surviving from the severe lung damage sustained in the accident but she fought through it and her lungs are fully recovered at this point. They also believed Tori's brain was without oxygen for an estimated 25 minutes and the resulting anoxic brain damage would leave her at best, in a completely vegetative state. But we have personally witnessed incredible and miraculous activity from Tori including fully awake and aware states, responsiveness to sound and sight, body motion, smiling, laughing and crying among other things. Tori seems to demonstrate new improvement and behavior with each passing day.

Brothers......

When we decided to have another kid the main reason was we wanted a brother for Austin. Conner is a great little brother. He gives Austin just enough trouble to keep him on his toes, and visa versa Austin is a fun ig brother and keeps conner in line. They have a lot of fun messing around and beating each other. They are both great to me and tell me they love me everyday. They even got all dressed up in their football clothes just so I could do a photo shoot with them on a Saturday afternoon!

Halloween

WHAT A FUN HALLOWEEN! We thought it was going to be sooo cold and then it turned out to be a perfect night. We started our holiday out with a piano recital starring Austin, Conner and Nikki. They all played perfectly. Austin was such a great sport to dress up and play at the recital with all the little kids. He was a hit. We always have fun dressing up and this year was no different. We headed to the Wilkeys and had chili and treats for dinner before the kids headed out for some trick or treating fun. Every year the Wilkey's set a big fire up in there yard and all the adults sit around and talk to all the parents of the trick or treaters. Lisa makes hot coco for everyone that comes by. Conner and Nikki got a lot of candy this year. Too much!! Austin and Sidney both went to parties and we didn't see them all night. Around 9:00 pm we headed around to see the grandmas and grandpas. Now on to Thanksgiving!