Just another Friday morning...

If you're bored with your life...just come hang around our house for a while. It's never dull!



This morning I went down to the basement to get some of Max's medicine, and heard a little squealy noise at the window...I looked up and was face to face with this...


At first, I thought it was a rat...and it scared the life out of me. Steve was on a work call, so I couldn't scream...but I did on the inside. Then Abbey came down to see what I was doing, and saw me staring out the window. It was a cute little baby bunny that had fallen down the window well.



Don't worry...we got it out and let it free. And by "we", I mean Steve...because I sat over on his chair with my feet up to make sure it wasn't going to get loose! We have bunnies everywhere around our house, so it wasn't rare to see one. Just rare to see one in our window well first thing this morning!

Goodbye July!!!

This has been one doozy of a month...

We've been more busy this month of July, than I believe we have been in a very long time!

We've had a couple of hospital stays with Max...and hopefully we have figured out what has been causing him all his tummy problems. The xray last week showed he had a blockage in his bowels, so we are treating accordingly...and he's moving things along, hopefully as he should.

Abbey had her first week of science camp...where she learned how to extract the dna out of a strawberry, among other neat molecular biology ideas.
The next week, she started fencing camp. It was during this week that Steve was away traveling, and we ended up in the hospital with Max...so getting everyone where they needed to be was a bit of a struggle...but we got through it. And have the photos to prove it.


Here she is showing Steve her equipment...


Something about this photo makes her look about 20 to me...she took it pretty seriously.






She really loved fencing, and said she would really like to do it for the entire summer next year. Maybe we'll have an Olympic fencing champ one of these days!

While big sis was playing with swords, Mr. Max was holding down the 8th floor at Children's...but at least he had his monster and Curious George to help him feel better...


The other thing Abbey wants to do a lot more of, is rock climbing...She's a natural!


Our new tradition...that Abbey proclaimed we will do from now on...the Moonlight Classic...
10 miles through Denver, late at night. It's so much fun! And this year, Ang and Dan joined us!

(In front of the art museum)


On your mark...get set...yes Abbey does have a handlebar mustache...


The next day, Abbey and I had a day out without the boys. We did a painting class with my friend, Maria and her daughter. Then on to the mall and bookstore, and dinner out.




But, we didn't feel like eating out...because we missed the daddy and the Maxy. So, we brought dinner home instead. It was still a great day out!

And great evening at home...after a crazy week!


Last week, Abbey was doing a chemistry camp at CU Boulder. She really loved this camp more than any of the rest. They turned pennies into "gold". And freeze dried all kinds of things. And a lot of blowing up things. She took notes every day, and one her way home recounted every thing they did.

I'll wrap it up now...with photos from the garden. It's exploded out there!


Spaghetti squash isn't quite ready...but we'll have a lot of them!


It's a jungle!


And this week especially, the veggies have mutated into giant veggies!






mmmm...Okra!!!


Don't you feel all caught up? I know I do. And tired. I feel very very tired. So, I'm heading to bed, now. With much more on my list this week still.

When it's cold...

When it's cold and snowing and we're stuck inside the house for weeks on end, I'll look back to July and think, at least it isn't that crazy!

As I said on Max's blog, I have very little energy to keep up with the blogs right now.

Max has been in the hospital last week, and again this morning. An xray of his bowels showed he had a blockage, and that could be causing all the vomiting spells he's been having.

So we hung out in the ED from 4:00am-11:30am. Got him treated, and headed home to deal with the aftermath! Shoooo-wee!

I'm tired...just from a crazy week, being on the phone or email all day every day this week with insurance, and doctors, and therapists, OH and two hospital stays. And Abbey's full summer schedule of camps.

I think I need a vacation!

I will do a photo update over the weekend. I've got a load of Abbey photos from her summer fun so far I need to put up.

Until then, you will find me trying to catch up on sleep...and I've left Addie in charge...
She may look cute...


But, step out of line, and she'll throw a rock at you! So, ya'll better behave!

This is a FULL week!!!

I can already feel the exhaustion of this upcoming week, the night before it starts!

Abbey starts her fencing camp tomorrow. It's something she's wanted to do since we started talking about camp options last winter. So, now it's upon us, and she's excited for it!

Max has his usual therapy appointments throughout the week, along with an appointment with his wheelchair guy, to hopefully get some of his equipment sorted out.

Then, Friday, he goes to the dentist. I'm curious if they will try to see if they can get his top two teeth out. They are loose, but Max won't let me keep my fingers in there long enough to see just how loose they are...so maybe the dentist will have some more tricks! Speaking of teeth, the little guy lost one this past week, while I was brushing his teeth. I didn't even know it was loose, and out it popped. It really threw me...I wonder if any others are that ready to come out. When you don't chew, and don't put anything in your mouth, it's hard to know when teeth are ready to be pulled, so I guess they'll just come out on their own time.

Saturday, Abbey is doing her baby-sitting beginners course. I'm thinking she's already going to know all of the information, but she has to take this class as a pre-curser to the other baby-sitting classes. Saturday night, we are doing the Moonlight Classic with Abbey. 10 miles of downtown Denver is blocked off to ride through the city by moonlight. We did it last year and really had a blast! This year, Abbey won't have the tandem with Steve pulling all the weight, so we'll see if she still loves it as much!

Then lastly, Sunday afternoon, Abbey and I will go to a painting class with some of our friends, Maria and Sarah. Maria is one of my super-mom friends, and Sarah is a sister to a special brother like Abbey is to Max. I know Abbey is going to love the class, and we'll all have fun together.

Sunday night, I shall collapse in a heap...and you might get another blog from me.

Happy Birthday Grandmama...

High-School Graduation...


At my wedding...


Where I remember her being most...that cup was full of RC Cola...and we would go through the paper and look at the ads every Sunday morning...


At Max's baby shower...


One of the sweetest moments ever. She kept whispering to him, "I didn't think I'd get to meet you.". She was diagnosed with lung cancer when I was pregnant with Max. We took him to meet her a week after he was born, and surprised her.


A month after his surgery and long hospital stay...she loved watching him on the webcam...even without sound. I remember, one time, she wanted to watch him have a bath, so we held the computer in the bathroom for her to watch him have a bath, and had the phone on speaker-phone so she could talk to him. This was Easter weekend, 2004.


My last photo with Grandmama. It was her 63rd birthday, and the whole family came in for a special Luau birthday. She wished she could have gotten back to Hawaii "one more time"...so we brought Hawaii to her.


And the last time I saw her...


This is how she was most of the evening on her birthday. Sick little Max, and sick little Grandmama holding on to each other...giving the other all the comfort they had. She passed away the next morning...and I have thought of her every single day since then. Happy Birthday Grandmama...we all miss you!

Courage Classic...

I have these SuperMom friends. We do fun things like go out to dinner once a month, and have family picnics, and share our best chocolate treats. But we also do things like visit each other when our kids are in the hospital. And pass on equipment and clothes when our kids outgrow them. One of our supermoms, Heather, is about to take a crazy long bike trek through the mountains for our kids, to raise money for The Children's Hospital, in The Courage Classic.

Heather put a video together to help raise donations for her ride, and in a roundabout way, it got to the local NBC station, where they made a commercial out of part of it. Head over to Heather's page to see the original video, it makes me cry every time.

Max made the commercial, so I've had friends and therapists emailing and calling me..."I saw Max on TV!". I feel proud that Heather wanted to include him in her video, and that he is in the commercial spot too. Children's Hospital has been such a huge part of our lives. The doctors and nurses that work there have taken such good care of him, and saved him time and time again. I am happy we are able to play a part in raising funds for such an amazing place. His huge smile in this video is a big THANK YOU!

Jenny, Cici's Mom, captured it on tivo, and got it put on youtube...so I'm hoping it will stick around for a while for everyone to see it here. We're waiting for an "official" copy from the news channel. So, if it goes away, we'll hopefully get one again. Cici is also in the video.



If you would like to donate to the Courage Classic, please do it underSamantha's Team Donation Page. All the money goes to The Children's Hospital. But Heather has made a goal for her team, and has nearly reached it. Plus, Sammer's birthday is coming up...and I'm pretty sure she would love for her mommy to get some donations in honor of her. And Max would appreciate it too!

Stopping to catch my breath...

The days haven't gotten any calmer...in fact...we're starting to pick up speed! Abbey started Science Camp at the Uni of CO today, and runs all week. Next week she has fencing camp, babysitting course with the Red Cross, and we'll do our midnight ride with thousands of our fellow Denverites. She'll do one more science camp before she heads back to OK. In the midst of all that, we have three therapies a week...doctors appointments for Max...doctor appointment for Abbey, and dental appointments for both of them.

We did have a nice holiday weekend. It was rainy and cool again on the 4th...so we didn't get to see any large fireworks. Abbey was determined to light all of her fireworks that evening, so we stood shivering in the pouring rain watching our puny fireworks fizzle out.

But, sparklers never disappoint...and we had plenty of those. And, although we couldn't see them, the booms from the big fireworks gave Max lots of giggles.



Max enjoying the show from the covered patio...




That's me in the hoodie and umbrella on the left...


I waited all year to use my "fireworks" setting on my camera...this was as good as it got!




I liked this one...like they are sharing lightening!


Monday, we called off therapy and decided to play around town since Steve was off of work. We had lunch with Dan, Ang, and Addie...where Addie had me laughing so hard at her reaction to Max eating I almost cried. She was getting so concerned about the little bits of banana that were on the corner of his mouth that she gagged, then told me Deanie...CLEAN MAX! It's so funny that the "normal" way for Max to eat for her is through a whole in his stomach...this feeding by the mouth thing is a little unfamiliar!

We ended up at the river in downtown Denver. We parked and walked a short distance to find this area under a bridge across from REI. We were the only ones in this little area, and Max LOVED it! I think we'll head back and plan on spending a lot more time there.


There was sand and moving water...he was one happy boy!






Now, it's time for me to settle down...figure out what all needs to be done tomorrow...and fall asleep to the cold wind and rain again. Such a treat in July to sleep with the windows open like it is September!