Day 1305 - Dec 25, 2011

Bunches of pictures tonight. Before I do that though - I would like to ask that everyone keep Kevin's and Breezy's grandma Louise in your thoughts for a bit. She is VERY ill and is in critical condition in the hospital. She made it through today though so I feel confident she'll be ok!

We did have a very nice Christmas other than worrying about Louise. I cooked a massive meal and Breezy, Chris and Christian came and so did Chris's brother and his girlfriend. They came down from Houston for the day.

We really just had a hectic week trying to get everything done for Christmas. Kevin and I did go to a Christmas Eve party at our neighbors' Bill and Melissa's and we had a great time. It's nice getting out and getting to know some of our other neighbors even better. Here's a pic I took of Kev on the way out the door and one he took of me:




Kevin's antlers had little flashing lights on them, lol.

And here are some of our Christmas photos:












I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!

Day 1299 - Dec 19, 2011

Yikes! I so forgot to write last night! Yesterday was one of those super-productive days where you get so much done and I just plum forgot to finish the day with a blog posting.

I think, in all honestly, I am just going to start writing once a week. We just don't 'do' enough to justify boring you all twice in one week, lol. I guess the lucky day will be Monday mornings. I will try to always write on Sunday nights, but don't panic if I just forget.

So we had an appt at the gait lab again at the VA on Friday. Kevin is hyper-extending again and we are trying to fix it. We had the Bioness rep there to help us figure out if it will help if we use the stimulator while walking or if we should just return it. We did decide to keep it and see if it makes the difference, but now we need to get his body accustomed to the electronic stimulation again. It never made sense to me that we got the things (one for his arm and one for his leg) and then both new therapists told us not to use it. I'm glad we got the go-ahead because I do think these machines might just make all the difference in the world.

We also finally had an ENT appt last week to check out Kevin's ears because they still hurt really bad. She found no reason and thinks it could be allergies. So she thinks that, the dentist thinks it's TMJ and the oral surgeon thinks it's his wisdom teeth. I guess we'll see in the long run, but he's not getting his wisdom teeth out now til February and I think we are supposed to see someone about the TMJ too. We are waiting on some nose spray to see if that makes any kind of difference too.

We also finally have our dates for our trip back to Pittsburgh in Jan to see the surgeon. This will be the final leg of the study. Bummer. It was so nice being able to go home so often.

Anyway, the dates are Jan 16-19. As of this moment, we will not be renting a car so everyone will have to come see us down in Oakland. It's gonna be a rough couple of days, for sure.

And that's about it so I will catch y'all next week. In the interim:

HAVE A GREAT HOLIDAY!!!

Oh - and here's a quick photo of our little guy:

Day 1295 - Dec 15, 2011

We have had a pretty busy couple of days. We were having a cookie exchange in our neighborhood and I have been working on that and Kevin and Efren went out last night - giving me a chance to get it all finished without bother.

So while they were out, I guess the boys picked up a couple of chics! Kevin called and kept telling me "HOT". I had no idea what he meant so I had Efren get on the phone and he told me that they were clubbing with a couple of really hot girls! Kev sounded pretty darn happy on the phone, lol. So did Efren, hehe.

I am just so happy Kevin gets to do these things more often. He really needs to be going out like a normal 23 year old!

And in other news, I wish there was a way you guys could see how well Kevin is talking now. He surprises me every day with new words that he comes up with on his own. Last night Efren started speaking in Spanish to Kevin and Kev jokingly said "America. En-guh-lish." I cracked up and when I asked him where he learned either of those words he said "I don't know". He really just says stuff all the time now and it's coming naturally. Do I think he will ever really fluently talk - probably not - but considering I was told he would never be able to speak a word because the whole language center of his brain is gone - we will take it!

That's pretty much it though. My dad is home from the hospital and doing well. They took him off the chemo for a bit to see if that helps. He's been on it for over 3 years now and it's just rough on a person's body.

So I think I'll go scrap a bit. Catch ya' in a few days!

Day 1291 - Dec 11, 2011

Kevin and I thought we'd be brave and go shopping today. Hehe. We went to Penneys and pretty much turned around and left as soon as we got in the door. It was nuts in there.

Other than that we didn't do too much of anything this weekend. My friend Rene' was back in town for a conference and her and I got together for dinner on Friday night and we had such a wonderful time! Kevin was going to go to the movies with Efren, but I mistakenly took his car keys and we didn't figure it out until I was downtown (about 25 miles) - too far for me to just run them back. He was mad at first, but it didn't last long and I grabbed him a couple of Big Macs on my way back so all was well.

We also babysat Christian last night as Chris's brother is in town so the kids all went out.

I did talk to my parents too. My dad is in the hospital and has been for a couple of days now. We aren't sure what the problem is yet - hopefully tomorrow. They are assuming it's an infection of some type, but we'll see.

And that's pretty much it for today. I am getting a head cold and want to go to bed way early tonight. Maybe I'll feel better tomorrow! Catch ya Friday!

Day 1288 - Dec 8, 2011

Well my parents went back to Florida yesterday. We had a truly great visit and it was sad to see them go.

We were pretty busy all week - I can't tell you how much food was made; hard tack, doughnuts, fudge, not to mention some awesome dinners - the kind you just don't cook often. Kevin had a blast - it's always so much more fun playing cards with more than just the two of us. And we even took Christian and Kevin to a Christmas parade up in the little town of Boerne, where we live. Christian was just enthralled with all the floats and lights. He also really loved the marching bands. Kevin enjoyed himself at the parade too.

And last night Breezy and I took Christian to a photographer's to have his photo taken with Santa. It was a Groupon thing where you paid for 5 minutes of time and all the photos that can be taken with Santa you get a copy of. We got 52 images and man...some of them were so darn cute! Here are the best:







The photographer asked Breezy to sign a model release form while we were there to use some of the pics as advertising. Can't blame them - they sure turned out nice! (besides - he really is too cute - not that I'm biased or anything, lol)

So Kevin is completely addicted to "That 70's Show"! He found it on Netflix and is watching all 200+ episodes in a row. He is somewhere in the 150s range and I'll bet he's devastated when he sees them all, lol. They are funny though. He calls me in quite often to watch parts of an episode.

That's pretty much it for today so I'll catch y'all in a few days!

Day 1284 - Dec 4, 2011

I am going to skip tonight. It's been an exhausting couple of days with all the running around we have been doing, but we are having a great time with my parents being here.

Day 1280 - Dec 1, 2011

Kevin had another dentist appt this week and the dentist seems to think that his ear pain may be TMJ. I know Mary (W-FRC) has mentioned this more than once in the past, but nobody ever diagnosed it. This guy really thinks it might be it and it makes sense. Honestly, I just hope they figure it out soon. He is struggling with the pain something fierce at times. He is to have his wisdom teeth removed, but that's not until the end of the month.

I also had a VA inspection this week. A woman came to the house and made sure Kevin was being taken care of correctly and that all is well. She was very nice, but I still have trouble trusting the VA. I think our relationship has gotten better, but I still think that when anybody (or any entity) has total control over your life and yet they don't know you at all - there are always going to be problems and trust issues. Probably on both sides. but it's always the veteran that suffers - never the VA.

Oh well - enough of that. My folks are here and we are enjoying their company. We also got some Christmas lights put up on the house - yahoo! No tree yet, but hopefully soon!

Alrighty then - I think I'll sign off and get some work done. Goodnight all!