Check Out Our New Blog!
We've finally started a real blog! Although we'll still maintain this family website,
we thought a real blog might make for an easier way to update friends and
family concerning Annie's health as well as our latest happenings and
news. So check it out at The Tolman Family Blog
A Little About Us
We moved! Justin finally finished up his PhD in Pharmaceutics at the University of Texas, so we packed up and headed north to Omaha, Nebraska. Justin is now a professor at Creighton University’s College of Pharmacy teaching Pharmaceutics and Pharmacokinetics and continuing his research. Justin moved to Omaha at the end of January while Jodi stayed in Texas with the 3 girls for 5 weeks while our new house was being completed. We closed on our Texas house just 3 days before closing on our new home in Nebraska. We couldn’t have asked for a smoother transition!
We built a custom home in Omaha with wider hallways and doorways for Annie’s wheelchair, as well as a suite for Annie with her own bathroom. We also have a walk-out basement with a sidewalk that will run from the driveway to backyard so Annie can get in the yard and in the basement easily in her wheelchair. Jodi loves having a huge basement storage room too! The subdivision we live in (Shadow Lake) is still very new so we don’t have any neighbors close by. So we love the feeling of lots of space, plus we have a great view of the lake on 3 sides of our house. We’ll be sad once homes start being built around us and we lose our great view! (You can see pictures of our house on the Photos page, just remember we’re not quite settled yet in these pictures!)
Since the weather here is still so cold, we won’t have any grass or landscaping finished for a while. Likewise, the outside of the house still needs to be painted. As for the inside, we’re nearly all settled. Jodi still needs to decide what to hang on the walls, and we still need to have blinds installed, but things are coming along nicely. If we can just get used to the wind and the cold we’ll be all set.
Annie (almost 7) started school here just a couple days after we moved in. She has an excellent team of therapists and teachers at school. Annie is in a typical 1st grade classroom for most of the day, participating in activities using her switch, and is then pulled out occasionally for her therapy sessions. We have loved her new school here, especially since it’s so close so she can sleep in longer now. Annie is losing teeth like crazy—she is now missing 5 front teeth. It’s probably a good thing she doesn’t eat anything by mouth!
Molly (4) loves having her own room in the basement. She has adjusted well and is easily making new friends although she still talks about and misses her Texas friends. Lexie (16 months) is easy-going and is adjusting fairly well. She’s getting more teeth and becoming more mobile (finally learning how to crawl up and down stairs), and gets easily frustrated that she can’t do everything Molly does. We are still in the process of getting Lexie enrolled in the early intervention program here in Nebraska, but they will be 
continuing her physical therapy plan that we started in Texas. Lexie is cruising more consistently but still struggles with standing or walking independently.
Justin is already working at Church as a teacher for boys aged 14 and 15, and we’re sure it won’t be long before Jodi receives her assignment as well. Our new congregation is really great. Everyone has been so accepting of Annie and so kind to her—especially all the kids her age. Jodi is excited to attend their playgroups, book groups, and lunch groups! Jodi is also keeping busy finding new doctors for Annie and finishing up paperwork for special needs programs for Annie.
We are still trying to get used to this weather here, but otherwise we are loving the area and our brand new home! We are also thrilled that Justin is just working normal hours, so we all get to see him every morning and evening! We are sure going to miss Texas since it was our home for nearly 8 years, but we think we will soon feel just as at home here in Omaha.
Send us a note from the Contact Us page, or email us, if you’d like our new address or phone number.
Check out more pictures on the Photos Page.
We’ve discovered that there are a number of questions about Annie that almost everyone asks us, so we've added a Frequently Asked Questions page.
Annie's page has also been updated so you can look there to read about her latest procedures and what's coming up.