I blogged about Kaitlyn, 25, a week ago, but I’m doing it again because this young woman will change the world in her own way. Kaitlyn went on the Kathie Lee and Hoda segment of the Today show yesterday and confidently told the world about the misconceptions of epilepsy, something she has battled since she was a kid. She did it on national TV, and she looked like a professional speaker. Her 9-minute segment is here.

The information she imparted is important to everyone. Kaityln was diagnosed with epilepsy after a head injury, and she did not exhibit traditional symptoms of seizures.  After she told her story, Kaitlyn’s Facebook page and cell phone lit up with comments and text messages from people all over the country, and so did the blog I wrote last week.

Congratulations to Kaitlyn and her mom. In about nine minutes, these Fairview women helped the audience understand this condition, and they made Erie proud. Kaitlyn is headed for great things. Here are just a few of the emotional comments from grateful viewers that were posted on last week’s blog:

1. Ann says:

   February 2, 2012 at 9:49 am (Edit)

   Mom of a daughter with Epilepsy diagnosed summer before her senior yr of high school. Similar story but she had myoclonic tics before her grand mal and fell onto her head at 8 mths old. Yes, thankful for medication and she is 18 and a sophomore in college 300 miles away. Wondering which medication you are using Kaitlyn and do you use any vitamins?

2. valerie sargent says:

   February 2, 2012 at 9:58 am (Edit)

   Kaitlyn, just watched you on today show…OMG, you would not believe how much we have in common. I am now 50 years old and was diagnosed in 2000 with epilepsy, due to, so my neurologist says a severe auto accident in 1977. The right side of my head was completely crushed with 3 pieces of bone pressing against my brain. The dr.s removed the bone and wired them together to reform my skull. I was fine till 98 when I had my first “blackout” Yada yada. I have lost my last 2 jobs due to sick days when I was in my “zone” totally out of it. But here I am. Keep up your good work with the foundation, and best of luck to you! Love ya lots! Valerie

3. Rebecca Banks says:

   February 2, 2012 at 10:10 am (Edit)

   Thank you for sharing your story. I have an 8 year old daughter diagnosed with Absent Seizures. To see you living an active life as a beautiful young lady, makes me smile. Watching you on the Today show, gives me a positive outlook on my daughter’s future. Thank you, Rebecca Banks

4. Theaudrey Roberts says:

   February 2, 2012 at 10:25 am (Edit)

   Hi Kaitlyn,
   I saw your segment on the Today Show and I wanted to cry, not out of pity, but out of relief because I felt like finally their was someone that understood how I felt. I had never had seizures in my life until I turned 32yrs. old and without warning collapsed in the floor. I was told that I had some type of seizure disorder, but the doctors in my town were not sure type and it took me going to a doctor that specialized in epilepsy in a bigger city with more advanced technology to diagnose me with frontal lobe epilepsy. I was told that I pre-exposed because my dad has epilepsy and it runs in his family. I’m now 40 yrs. old and my friends and even family still quite don’t understand why I can’t drive, why I can’t go to clubs and parties or places with bright lights, why flashing images on movies bother me or even sometimes causes me to have a seizure, why I get depressed at times because after going on dates a few times and the subject has to be brought up and the guy suddenly doesn’t want to see me again, or how if I get really stressed out or why I can’t remember things sometimes as simple as doing math or spelling that I learned before going to school as a child. When I saw you and heard your story I didn’t feel so alone. Thank you!!

Teen lovebirds. On the plus side, it’s nice to see kids in loving relationships. In our family, with six kids, we’ve seen a lot of that. But those love stories don’t always play out to anything lasting, and the breakups are hard on everyone. Parents too. We’ve absolutely loved some of the boyfriends and girlfriends who temporarily became part of this family. In fact, we are still friends with some of them … and a few of them are married – not to our kids.

But what do you do when you can’t stand your kid’s significant other? When a boyfriend or girlfriend is clearly poison, you have to be careful. For us, the situation usually played out on its own. Painfully. Kids eventually see past blind love that masks a bad relationship. It may take a while. Months. Years. Gulp. But, they do see it. And it’s best if they see it on their own.

We had cases where we had to tell the kids to reevaluate their relationships. If they ware unhappy more often than happy, we reminded them of that. Young love should be joyous – not a chronic pain. We didn’t lay blame on anyone. We just encouraged a break much the same way we encouraged breaks from pals they were fighting with when they were little. But we chose our words carefully. You can’t take them back.

One big component of staying in touch with your teen about love is to not lecture. Sometimes, you just have to listen. Love isn’t easy at any age. We spent time with our teens and the significant others. We had conversations and stayed engaged. The best advice to parenting teens comes from teens. On about.com, an article doesn’t offer great advice, but the teens who commented did. The comments were eye-opening. Don’t lecture, be interested and don’t be judgmental. We all make bad choices at one time or another, but we learn from our mistakes.

And we hope we set a good example with respect and loving actions. It makes love all the better. At any age.

Dr. Spock’s Baby and Child Care (that’s Benjamin Spock, not Star Trek’s Mr. Spock) and T. Berry Brazelton, M.D. got me through child-rearing. And now, I recommend their advice to all my young parent friends. Books by both docs were lifesavers, and the advice is still great stuff even though Spock is long gone.

The best lesson I ever learned from both: choose you battles. You have to make sure your tots (and this applies to kids at any age) know you love them, and you have to keep them safe and healthy. So if they want to wear mismatched clothes and eat a cookie for breakfast, it’s not worth a battle if you’re already fighting over more important issues. I encouraged independence and the outfits were entertaining for a few years. My youngest wore green everyday for awhile. He was a Green Bay Packer fan, and he still is.

When you give kids space to grow, they will surprise you. And the more they are around other kids, they will want to do things their friends do. And the things you do. They learn by watching and doing, and independence is a good thing at any age. It builds confidence that they take to school and into life. We can all use more confidence.

Another thing I learned — distraction. If you see a tantrum in the making, try distraction. Redirect your child’s attention quickly and thoroughly. It won’t work all the time, but if it only works half the time, it saves the day. If you succeed, you’ll be able to do it again. And if it doesn’t work, you may lose that battle and the tantrum will go on. Tantrums happen. When my kids were little, my little princess screamed a howl that could be heard blocks away. We would put her in her room with a gate in place, and she would tear the place apart. When it was quiet, she would often have cleaned it up and be sound asleep on her bed or cuddled up with stuffed animals.  My great nieces, twins, do the exact same thing.

The tantrums will end, and someday your screaming toddler will be a successful young man or woman, so choose those battles carefully. The docs whose advice I chose, Spock and Brazelton, have one thing in common — longevity. Spock died at age 94 and Brazelton is 93, according to Wikipedia. I don’t agree with everything they ever said or wrote, but overall, they helped me raise three kids with tactics that worked.

If you fear hearing those words from your child’s teacher, rest easy. I’ve been there, and I’m writing this because it’s the time of year when parents start thinking about where their little ones will be attending school once they graduate from preschool. My advice: Don’t push them.

There is no magic date or age when kids are potty-trained, tie their shoes, tell time, or master the intricacies of the times tables. Last week, a teacher asked me to resurrect an article that Heather Cass wrote about this topic in 2007 because it becomes so prevalent this time of year. Parents feel guilty that maybe they did something wrong when the news comes in that a tot just isn’t ready.

You did nothing wrong, and the benefits of waiting are many. My oldest started kindergarten after attending a 5-year-old class at Lakewood United Methodist Preschool. It was the best decision because he wasn’t ready in a lot of ways for the daily grind of school. The next year, he excelled at everything.

Here’s an article that gives you some guidance on what kindergarten readiness means.

Enjoy your kids. Those first few years of school are so important. You and your child should remember them as happy times. We do.

You don’t have to be a tennis fan to appreciate the talents of Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal. At the 2012 Australian Open, Serbian Djokovic was the winner with scores of 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-7(5), 7-5. It was a nail-biter of a record-setting match that took 5 hours and 53 minutes. If you don’t understand those scores, it’s OK — let’s just say it was really close. And long. It was the longest final in history, but not the longest match by any means.

I can’t say I watched every minute, but I watched the last half, and it was an incredible competition. Just imagine, pouring everything you’ve got onto the court for nearly six hours. No subbing in. No lunch and dinner breaks. No half time. You just keep playing, running, jumping and focusing on what you can do to close out a marathon match and win it.

In the end, Djokovic won. But don’t dare call Nadal a loser. As the commentators noted, it came down to a couple of points and lucky bounces. It was tough to watch anyone lose. And after that match, the awards ceremony seemed almost painful as some of the sponsors gave rather lengthy speeches. Poor Djokovic and Nadal were cramping and looked very uncomfortable waiting to accept their awards. Thankfully, the tournament folks saw their discomfort and delivered chairs and water bottles.

It was all good for the game and garnered tremendous interest much like the famous Isner- Mahut match at Wimbledon in 2010. American John Isner defeated Nicolas Mahut in 11 hours, 5 minutes over three days, and it took 183 games. That match, not a final, was the longest ever, but there have been many matches among men and women that stretched past six hours. Wikipedia has them right here.

Matches like these are something to see. For those of us who have played tennis every week for decades, interesting finals bring excitement to the court — a place I love to play, but not in six-hour stretches.

Today’s The Bird Feeder Wars article in Parade Magazine made me laugh out loud. I can identify with author Connie Schultz.

We have a squirrel in our yard that’s as big as a dog, and our neighbor has tried to thwart its attempts to clean out her bird feeder. It is funny to watch. We just feed him.

In last week’s House to Home, Sue Scholz paid tribute to National Squirrel Appreciation Day, and it was entertaining as well. Read her article here. And enjoy the squirrels. Nature entertains when you least expect it.

Kaitlyn Slomski, at left, and her mom, Jill Thompson Slomski, at right, are headed to the Today Show for a Thursday morning segment on Everyone has a Story. Kaitlyn has epilepsy, and she e-mailed her story to the Today Show. Her mom and brother, Jon, were also interviewed. Her dad is Jerry Slomski of Erie.

A graduate of Fairview High School, she graduated from Mercyhurst College with a degree in marketing management and attained her graduate degree from Gannon University, the 25-year-old  completed an essay on her inspiring story. For more on this story, check out the upcoming article in the Erie Times-News.

By now, you’ve probably heard that J.C. Penney is getting rid of sales. It’s permanently marking down all of its merchandise by at least 40 percent. That means the sales, coupons and all the other hooey will disappear. I’m all for it, and as a fan of their Worthington, Liz Claiborne and other collections, what’s not to love?

On Feb. 1, the new pricing rolls out and the first and the third Fridays of each month will have further pricing reductions. As a proud J.C. Penney cardholder since college, I am elated. I remember the catalog — it was like a bible for mail shoppers long before the Internet came along. Now, I can just shop without having to spend time organizing coupons.  Next week is the first Friday of the month — so look out shoppers.

If you have kids looking at colleges, then you know the word FAFSA. It stands for Free Application for Federal Student Aid. If you want more information, go to www.fafsa.ed.gov.

There are a lot of FAFSA sites, but don’t start filling in your information anywhere but http://www.fafsaonline.com/fafsa-form/. Other sites charge a fee and waste your time. And it’s a lot of work.

My husband and I have been doing FAFSAs for 8 years for 6 kids. And I’m not done yet. I am about to start my son’s for 2012 – 2013. I’ll share tips with you.

The first big one is before you go nuts on this, figure out your net worth — not including your retirement investments. Most average earners can count that as a zero. You’ll need your current tax forms too.  You can estimate, but you’ll have to do the whole thing over again with figures. Another tip: never leave blanks — ever.

Here is a site that gives you some tips on how to fill FAFSA out. http://www.fafsaonline.com/fafsa-form/ — it is one of the few that I found really helpful. Stay tuned for more tips as I get started on my umpteenth FAFSA!

Congratulations to:

Diane Wisinski, Mary Catherine Menosky and Meagan Bielanin, winners of tickets to Saturday’s Bayhawks game! Thanks for entering. For more free stuff from the Erie Times-News and Her Times, please check back on this blog and at http://www.goerie.com/section/hertimes. Happy Wednesday!