OCTOBER FUN CONTINUES

So I've started this blog three different times. Obviously I'm having a little trouble with focus this evening. Do you watch Superstore? Because if you're not, you should be. It's freakin' hilarious. I'm trying to watch that and type at the same time. Not working out well for me. I've had a lot of people tell me to watch Speechless, but I haven't seen it yet. On my to-do list.

I've had a headache for about 10 days straight. Super not fun. On a pain scale from 1 to 10, around a 6-7. Sometimes a 7.28459 haha. Actually today it's better, so maybe it's finally clearing up. Change in weather? Stress? Both? Who knows. Just ready for it to GO AWAY!

No secret that we love this time of year. Getting geared up for Halloween. Colby isn't going trick-or-treating, he's too old. But we have other stuff planned. His school is doing two days of festivities this year, one tomorrow and one Monday. Stay tuned for one funny costume and one scary costume. Saturday we're going to St X High School for their second annual baseball Halloween thingy. The baseball players and coaches dress up in costume. They play a scrimmage for a few innings. Then they hand out candy and kids trick-or-treat around the bases. Colby will be helping his St X baseball buddy Chris pass out candy. We haven't decided on a costume for that event yet. Chris is going as Elvis. I really wanted Colby to be a peanut butter and banana sandwich but just didn't have time to pull it together. We haven't decided what we're doing Monday. We've been invited to a Halloween party. I think Colby and I would have a great time if we went. But, I also kind of want to stay home. This is our first Halloween in our new house. I would like to see/meet some neighbors. And maybe a nice firepit. We'll see.

Colby is getting over a knee injury. Not sure exactly what happened. His nurse was giving him a hamstring stretch. She said his knee popped, then she felt it “give way.” Ah shit. It was really swollen and putting off heat earlier in the week. We ended up not going to swimming on Tuesday. I called all three of the PTs he has had over the years, along with his pediatrician. I decided the best plan of action was RICE and keep a close eye on it. Didn't really want to drag him out for an x-ray unless totally needed. It's much better now, thank goodness. He's not as whiney and the swelling has gone down, so woo hoo for that.

Loving this weather and getting Colby out to do stuff. We went to the zoo a couple of Sundays ago. Good stuff. There was a really nice zoo volunteer who made sure Colby got up close to see the baby gorilla. I don't think people realize it when they cut in front of Colby sometimes. This past Sunday Colby got to participate in Special Olympics bowling. His St X peer buddy was his volunteer helper. Colby did a darn good job. He used his switch to make this trigger drop so the ball would roll down the bowling ramp. The trigger kept getting caught on a big piece of tape and/or plastic, so once we saw the trigger drop we would gently help the ball roll down the ramp. Colby's score was high enough for him to advance to state! We have to get that ramp fixed between now and then! I want him to be able to make the bowling ball fall all on his own. Our first Special Olympics event, and I was very impressed. Can't wait for state competition in December!

And now for some really, really cool news. If you live here in Louisville, listen up! Starting next week, the first week of November, start looking for Louisville Magazine. Pick up an issue, and pick up one for us, too. Colby has been chosen as one of Louisville Magazine's Super Kids in 2016!! This is so cool! They choose around 25 students in the local area. Anything from students that do photography, ballet, run non-for-profits, etc. The counselor at Colby's school nominated him, telling the magazine about all he has overcome over the years. And they chose my sweet boy as one of their Super Kids! Fantastic! We went for his photo shoot a couple weekends ago. Just a head shot, but OMGosh, I can't wait to see him in the magazine! Of course we all know how super Colby is, but now we'll be able to see it in black and white. Isn't that just the coolest thing ever?

Okay, it's now 10:23. I started working on this blog entry at 8:something. Sorry, many shiny objects to distract me. So that's the update for now. Mostly good stuff going on around here, and I'm so very thankful for it. You can never, ever take the good days for granted. If I've learned one thing in this life, it's that.

FUN, FUNNER, FUNNEST

Sorry I haven't blogged in so long, but quite honestly, we've been having too much fun! It's so nice to say that Colby is doing well. Staying healthy and out of the hospital, just rolling along, doing his thing. I'm so proud of him. Such a stud he is!

So what all have we been doing? Heck, what have we not been doing?! Every year Cincinnati Childrens offers Reds tickets to vent-dependent patients. We had never been until this year. It was fabulous! I'm so glad we went, although we were all super tired doing an up and back trip to Cincy. We had four tickets, so Colby, nurse and I drove up. We met Colby's St. X buddy up in Cincy – he goes to college at Xavier now and was available to go to the game with us. I love that the St. X kids have stayed in touch with Colby. We were able to park right under the stadium, the same parking garage as the players, so that was awesome. We were all under cover on the party deck. There were two other SMA families there, so it was great visiting with them. And, Colby got to meet some of the players! It was an awesome day, and the Reds actually won for a change. We'll definitely be doing this again if given the chance.

I decided we needed to have another cookout here at the house. I mean after all, we have a party deck, too. Tieing in my love for autumn, I called it an end of summer soiree. Printed out the invites on paper trimmed in Fall leaves. Planned on serving chili, lighting our fire pit and making smores. Yeah, well, it was 92 freaking degrees that day! But hey, the party went on, just had to switch gears. I ended up making homemade sloppy joes and chicken salad. No fire pit of course. The nurse and I rigged up Colby's Super Soaker water gun so that he could squirt our guests as they came out on the deck. Colby thinks that's the funniest thing ever, and I didn't think anyone would mind. It was hilarious to look around and everyone had this wet stripe across their chest or belly. Good job, Colby. Next year if I have another bye Summer, hello Fall soiree, I'll move the date up a week or two.

Then the next day I went to a Colts game! Colby stayed up because it was girls' day out! I went with my BFF's from grade school. I mean Amy, Kari and I go waaaaaay back. I had asked for cash for my birthday to pay for my ticket. Kari and I shopped around for weeks to find the best tickets at the best price. It ain't cheap going to an NFL game, that's for sure. I'm so glad we went. I hadn't been to a Colts game in several years. And the Colts won! The only game they've won this season. So I think it's safe to say we should be attending the remaining Colts games this season. Don't you agree? Someone send us tickets so we can go and the Colts will win again. Thanks.

Last week Colby was on Fall break from school. No sitting around doing nothing for us! I pretty much invited us down to our friends' house, about an hour and half drive from here. The same SMA family we went and visited a couple of years ago. We all had a fantastic time! Our kiddos kept us busy for sure. We got there Friday afternoon and left late Monday morning. We did as much stuff with the kids as we possibly could, working around feedings, respiratory treatments and range of motion sessions. Getting two SMA kiddos up, ready and loaded for the day – whew, lots of work. So worth it! Friday night we went over and TP'd the neighbors house. Hilarious. Not the first time the other family has TP'd them! I guess it's an ongoing thing. We made sure the owners came out and “busted” the kids. They have the nicest neighbors. We also played Wii bowling. Colby and I sucked at that. Also a couple of games of Uno Spin and Pie Face. Hmmm, guess what will be on Colby's list to Santa this year? Saturday we went to feed to ducks at a local park and walked around Halloween Express looking at all the spooky stuff and getting costume ideas. Sunday we went to Scarefest, a huge convention of all things creepy, gory, scary and frightening. The people there were so nice to our kiddos! They actually remembered Danielle from last year when they went. The first few minutes we were there Colby was freaking out a bit. I thought he was going to have a meltdown. But he snapped out of it. The kids got their faces painted, got to pet a fox and see a wolf, and met some very interestingly-dressed people. Hoping our friends invite us back to Scarefest next year!

Here are some pics of our latest adventures. I'm very happy to share that things are going well around here. There are the usual bumps in the road with getting supplies, dealing with insurance, etc. Oh how I continue to dread making calls for stuff like that. But it's all part of it. Overall we are staying healthy and loving life right now. Can't ask for much more than that, can we?!