How does your garden grow...

It's that time again. We've started our garden earlier this year, because we're growing cool weather veggies. We started everything by seeds this year. It's been fun to watch them peak through the soil.

Again this year, we're growing most of our veggies in horse troughs.

Today was a gorgeous day here in Colorado, so we took our lunch outside in between Max's school and therapy times.

Steve was finishing up preparing a couple of the troughs, so I took some photos, mostly for my Grandpa, as I was trying to explain how we use them to him last weekend.


Empty, with the holes for draining, that Steve drilled in.


Filled with soil and ready to plant.


This one has lettuce in it. We're also growing carrots, beets, radishes, spinach, cabbage, and kale.


This one holds most of the veggies, minus the lettuce.


This is me enjoying the sunshine...I'm enjoying it because the top of my head isn't getting burned...neither is my face. Colorado sunshine loves to burn me in fifteen minutes tops.

Max took his lunch outside too. I think if he could always be outside or in his van he would be happiest!

Home for Easter...

I spent last weekend with my family. My family I hadn't seen since Christmas 2007.

Saturday morning, I hugged my boys, and took off for Oklahoma to see all the family I could squeeze in before I came back Sunday night.

My sister, niece and I took off and once we got to Tulsa, met up with my mom and went for some lunch.

Of all the places we could eat, I wanted a little sandwich shop called Bill and Ruth's. It's not gourmet. It's not the best food I've ever eaten. But, it's one of my favorite places to eat while I'm there. I do love a good sandwich, and these are pretty great. I get the same thing every time. Turkey and cheese on wheat with black olives and creamy Italian dressing.



Once we scarfed that down, we headed out to grandparents #1, Grandfather and Nanaw. It's funny driving out to a house I can remember as some of my earliest memories. Some sights had changed along the way, but I could still get there with my eyes closed.

As we drove past the funeral home my Grandmama's funeral was at, I felt my throat tighten. It's always a little emptier going home, knowing I won't get to see her.

When we got to Grandfather's house, I was so surprised we had cousins there visiting. We laughed and caught up on the in between things we don't see or talk about on facebook. I really wished Max, Abbey, and Steve were with me while we were out there. It's so hard to not just pick up and go together when we want to any more.

Grandfather and Nanaw were wearing Catfish tshirts, special shirts for Max. As soon as Grandfather met Max, he called him Catfish...and that's all he's called him since. Max has his own catfish shirt that they sent home with me.


We left there and met up with my dad and the rest of our siblings. It may as well have been the day each of us was born the way my dad was beaming having all his kids together in one place. Getting all six of us kids around a table is no easy task, but we did it, and have the pictures to prove it.



And just the sisters...I love this picture...


After dinner, we went over to my sister's house that I hadn't seen yet to dye eggs...


But the girls didn't care to dye eggs, they just wanted to play, and eat ice cream!


Saturday evening it started raining...and pouring...and making this girl who grew up in tornado alley remember why she loves not living there in the Spring!

Sunday morning it was still raining, but we got up and around and headed to my uncle's church for Easter service. It was a fun time being with family. All sitting on the same row, and singing hymns together. It reminded me of Easter as a kid.

After church, we went to my Grandma and Grandpa's and had lunch, and dessert with more Aunts and Uncles and cousins! The little girls played and played. And the big kids joked and had fun, while the grown ups talked. Funny how I'm in my thirties, and still consider myself one of the kids, and the aunts and uncles and parents are still the grown-ups.

The little girls loved hugging their Uncle Willie...


More pictures with the family...


Man oh man she's a pretty Grandma.


I can't believe I'm still the shortest of the bunch...shouldn't my mom be shrinking by now?


A couple of the best people on earth, my Grandma and Grandpa.


And the real reason I came, Grandma's lemon cake. Only kidding...kinda. I love that lemon cake.


It was a wonderful time with family. Such a great visit, and I wished Max and Steve and Abbey were with me the whole time. When we got to the airport, we thought we'd be home in time for dinner. But, we had a 7 hour delay due to weather instead. We finally got home and into bed at around 2:00am. That part could have ruined the whole trip, but I started looking through all the photos and thinking through the whirlwind of the weekend, and already wished I could see them again.

Look deep into my eyes...

Mr. Blue eyes got his new glasses today.

When we went to choose the new frames, we were sure he was going to get yellow. But, once we got there and saw the color, it was definitely not a 7 year old boy yellow. It was more like a precious baby girl yellow. So, we went with a dark blue.

I think we made a good decision.



They ordered a yellow strap for the back, to help hold them on.







Look deep into my eyes...

Doctor, Doctor...

The birds are chirping.

The trees are blooming.

The early vegetables have poked their leaves out of the cold dirt.

The sun is out later, and we're going to the park every weekend.

It's that time of year, SPRING is here!

Spring also means we get to start going in for follow-ups with Max's doctors. They usually see us as late as possible in the Fall, and then say they don't want to see Max until respiratory season has passed. Last year was a bit mixed up with Max getting so sick in December. But, we've been able to stay away from the hospital for a few months.

Until this week.

We had two appointments for Max this week. We started with an EEG and Neurology appointment. The EEG tech was a little different...as they all seem to be! But, this time was a first, we had one that kept nodding off during the test. It really made me laugh. We were sitting there with Max, so I wasn't concerned at all, but man oh man...who falls asleep on the job?

After the EEG, we went to see his neurologist. He got a kick out of Max's book report. He's so impressed with his progress in school. He's surely proud of this little guy! And we are too. It was a great follow-up, and we'll see him again in a few months.

He didn't have any changes for Max right now, and his EEG looked good. It's been 7 months since we got control of his seizures. That's the longest he's ever gone. I do a lot of knocking on wood when I say that out loud!

7 months...

Today he had an appointment at the dental clinic. I was amazed at how well he did this time. We got to see his x-rays from September, and he's got all of his teeth behind the baby teeth. One replacement for each baby tooth. No cavities, not a lot of cleaning needing to be done. He even let the dentist put on the floride rinse and the sealant, after he scraped and brushed his teeth.

Next week we'll go in for a weight check and to see his pediatrician. He's lost some weight, according to the scale in the Neurology office, which was enough to make them question if he's getting enough calories as he is growing. But, I don't imagine it will be much more than adding some more calories.

And we'll hopefully get his glasses, next week too. Of course, I think he's got something going with his current ones.

Perfection...

Max's handprint in thera-putty.

This little hand has done more in the past year than I ever thought possible.

He talks to us with his computer using that hand.

He plays piano with that hand.

And...in the past week...he wrote his first book report with that hand.



He wrote out his fact cards.



I put the facts in his DynaVox computer so he could choose which order he wanted to write his report.



His teacher brought the paper that the rest of the students are using to present their report on. He was given instructions to make a pattern along the edge, with the title up top, the report to the left, and to draw a picture on the right.






Just...perfection.

Blurs and blobs...

"Make your eyes focus on his shirt.", Max's eye doctor said as he held two lenses up to my eyes, with Steve about ten feet away. I strained and squinted, trying to make the words on his shirt sharpen.

But, he stopped me before they got there.

"That's only half as poor as Max's eyesight.".

My heart sunk a little, his beautiful eyes don't see much of anything without his glasses. He goes through life with blurs and blobs...but he's so happy. With his glasses on, he sees pretty well, so that's at least comforting, and a kick in the pants to make sure he has them on!

He did let us know that his eye health was good, which is always something we want to be aware of, since his metabolic disease can cause eye damage. And gave him a new prescription for lenses. But, we told Max we would get some new yellow glasses since he was such a good boy. I'll be calling on those tomorrow!

I really liked this doctor. I wish we would have found him much much earlier. Rather than being so dejected by the first doctor we saw when he was a baby. I wish we would have had him tell us that he couldn't see much without his glasses. That his vision was worse than legally blind. I wish I would have known so he could have worn his glasses more. But.....now we know, and now we'll work on keeping the glasses on more.

And, he'll still be my beautiful boy with his beautiful blue eyes...and he'll still have his beautiful smile, because he sees the world in blurs and blobs and colors and songs. Maybe he's got the right idea.