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?!