Geocaching

We're going to try Geocaching, finally! I got a Garmin eTrex Venture (handheld gps especially designed for geocaching), and loaded up a bunch of sites in Del Rio and San Antonio, and all along the way from here to there. So, I think for our date tonight, Russ and I will try it out. Then we can do it with the kids tomorrow.

Matthew has been in the Laurel Ridge Treatment Center in San Antonio for 3 weeks now. We get to take him out for a few hours on a pass tomorrow, so we'll go have lunch at Pizza Hut and then go do some geocaching.

I haven't posted anything for quite awhile--since May 11th. Things were just too crazy, and besides, what do you say? My child is in a psychiatric hospital? Well, there it is. We think he might be bipolar, and he really needed to be on some meds to help control it. The earliest appointment we could get was mid-July, and that just wasn't going to cut it. Our only other option was to put him in the hospital right away. Luckily our insurance (TriCare Prime) pays for it all, or there's no way we could do it. Acute care was something like $1300/day and even the extended living facilities where he is now is $650/day. They have him on some meds now, which a psychiatrist adjusts as they observe him. Matt goes to summer school there, they swim on Tues, Thurs and Sat. We call him every night. He seems to be doing better each week. Tomorrow we'll drive out there (3.5 hour drive) for a weekly family therapy session with him, and then we get to take him out.

At first Ethan didn't really miss him. But, after 2.5 weeks, he started saying he missed Matthew and wanted him home. We don't know how long he'll be there, but it looks like it could be two months. He needs to be stabilized on his meds and capable of returning home and assimilating back into the family appropriately. He was getting more agitated, irritable and aggressive, making more threats and acting out physically (like destroying property). We're hoping not to have to deal with that when he returns.

We have applied for humanitarian reassignment so that we can be closer to facilities/medical care that our family needs. We expect to move by the end of the summer, probably to Shreveport, LA. That is where Barksdale AFB is,and where Russ will once again fly the B-52.

Okay, now we're going on our date.