Drawings

As far back as I can remember; I have enjoyed art. I am tickled pink that Ryan and Jorie seemed to have inherited my love of art as well! And from time to time, we enjoy drawing together. It's one of the few things all three of us can do together! I drew these two drawings back in 2006. The tiger drawing was actually one that I did to help Ryan out with a school project. At that time, he was just 10 years old and needed help. Probably wouldn't need as much help now with how talented he has become! :) But, it was also due to the size of the project. His teachers used to assign him projects to do on large poster board and he was never really able to reach across the board to draw on it. It took a long time to finally convince them to modify his projects so that he was able to do them. Now, that he's in highschool, his teachers are great at modifying his work so he is able to do it his own way and we are grateful! The other drawing is of Jorie. I find drawing people to be extremely difficult though and am much happier with how the tiger turned out! If I can get my scanner to work again; I will post some of the kid's drawings as well.

Weekend

We were very sad that our friends couldn't join us today for lunch. :( I still made the very delicious burgers I had planned to make for them and we enjoyed them very much. I haven't had a burger quite like them before and I will be using this recipe again, I think! I mixed in some fresh cilantro and seasonings as well as bacon crumbles. We topped them off with gaucamole, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, pickles and of course, CHEESE!! Jorie ended up having a friend from school over as well and the two girls helped me decorate some Valentine cupcakes! Fun!! We had a very nice, relaxing weekend.

RYAN'S SPEECH!!!

I am just so proud of my boy. He gave this speech or rather recited a part from the book "Romeo and Juliet" yesterday in his Language Arts class. His voice is quiet, so you have to listen carefully. To be able to see my son in a classroom setting is pretty incredible to me and was such a gift! One of the benefits of Ryan having a 1:1 nurse is that she can also video tape my boy for me and I can get a little peak into what it's like for him in school. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful nurse working with Ryan. She actually takes a "motherly" role with him and treats Ryan almost as if he were her own child. She's pretty amazing! This is the first time she has ever video taped Ryan for me. But, I hope it won't be the last! I love seeing him among his peers. So cool! Hope you enjoyed it too!!

My Montage 1/21/11 at OneTrueMedia.com

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Jorie and Alaina at OneTrueMedia.com

Jorie and her cousin, Alaina. :0)

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Yay!!

Wow! I think it's going to take a while for the excitment to wear off. Today, my mom and I met with the new RT from Ryan's DME store...AkA... Durable Medical Equipment company. They supply all of Ryan's medical machines as well as supplies that go along with the machines. We have been using this company for over 10 years now. There are a couple other smaller DME's around town and we use one of them to supply Ryan's feeding and G-tube supplies. But, Norco is the main place in town that we use for mainly respiratory needs as well as wheelchair, potty or bathchair needs. Anyway, I can't tell you how frustrating it has been for us to call in monthly to get his supplies ordered, only to have the clerk on the other end of the line have no clue who we are, or what we needed. Even though it was all there in a file on the computer in front of them and since 1998 or '99??!! Countless times, we have gotten our orders delivered only to open them up and have all the wrong supplies. You can imagine our frustration when the supplies your child depends upon for his life; have to be re-ordered, re-explained and even "re-trained" to certain reps in certain cases. A few years ago we tried to setup an automatic re-ordering system so that the supplies Ryan uses regularly will just come automatically and we wouldn't have to explain each month what they were. At that time, they told us it couldn't be done. Until today!! We felt like hugging this lady after she came to our home with her little laptop and told us that we would no longer have to go through the re-odering process anymore!! She entered all of Ryan's info into her computer and said it was very easy just to create a file for him with all of his information in there and his orders will now be shipped to us automatically! Now, why couldn't they have done this 10 years ago? I don't know. But, I'm glad she's here now!!! Keep in mind that Ryan uses about 8 pieces of equipment. Some of them are used only when he is sick. But, the majority of them are used daily. Most of them have parts that have to be re-ordered regularly such as tubes, masks, filters and yankaeurs (AKA suction wands). We are thrilled to say the least and this will make life much easier!!

Elle Belle's visit

Over Christmas vacation, we had my nephew, Elliott, here quite a bit. He and Josh share similar interests and had a great time playing together. Elliott will be 5 years old this coming April and Josh will be 4 in May! Time sure flies!! Here are a few pictures of the boys from Elliott's visit.