Monday, February 21, 2011

Gospelfest pics

These are from Julie's cell, so they're a little dark, but still worth posting!


 
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Sunday, February 20, 2011

Gospelfest

They had a good time! Casey was perfect! He really enjoyed it all. He was totally appropriate--quiet during the serious, quiet songs and vocalized during the loud, energetic songs. I guess at one point everyone got quiet and Casey was still going and Julie said he quickly shut his voice down--so cute! They all kind of got to sit near each other. The Flynn only lets one companion seat with a handicapped seat, but after everyone is there and seated, they let you move around.

PJ found them at the end, so that was good that they got to see her.

I think the worst is over

So, Colin has had a head cold. Tuesday and Wednesday he was binging out his heart rate. We were thinking it was because he was in his stander 3 days in a row. But then, the secretions started. Tons of clear secretions. He never got a temp. Then he was stuffy, stuffy, stuffy. Yesterday, the stuffiness eased up and today he seems better and better by the minute. He even spent some time off bipap today--an hour and a half here and an hour there--when he had been on his bipap constantly since Wednesday. So, I'm sighing a huge sigh of relief that we may get to get out and enjoy a movie or two this vacation.

I thought Casey was getting it yesterday but then his secretions went back to normal. He's been perfect today.

And, speaking of perfect...I just got off the phone with Casey and Julie. They're on their way back from Gospelfest and Julie said Casey was awesome! He was appropriate and no yelling! Proud of my boy! Of course he and Gene wanted to hit some establishments on the way home, but I truly don't think they will :-)

Colin and I have had a quiet time here. I cleaned out the refrigerator and made formula and piddled around and Colin absorbed himself in The Regular Show and some Power Rangers Samurai that I had DVR'd for him. He's happy!

Monday, February 14, 2011

Valentine's Day

Hmmm, I writing this AFTER Valentine's Day but I just wanted to document our day.

None of us wore red today. I used to make the boys dress for the holidays but I guess it would be kind of queer/weird for a 14-year-old to have his mother dress him in 'holiday-ish' clothes. Hmmm, note to self-let Casey pick more of his outfits--he is 14 after all!

Casey didn't get to give his card and stuffed dog to Jordon. I guess she went home early as she wasn't feeling well.

Colin's day was pretty good. Priscilla brought over his Valentine box after school for him so he didn't have to wait until tomorrow. He enjoyed looking at all his Valentine's! He wanted to try a cherry dum dum and liked it a lot. There must be a way to put videos on here--I have a cute clip of him with his lollipop. Casey didn't want to try anything but he finally let Dada give him a nerd.








I made a nice table for our supper tonight. I put out the flowered, cross-stitched tablecloth that Grandma O made for our anniversary. I found the Princess House floating candle goblet and set that up. Pink candles would have looked better, but we had to do with red. Gene made some sirloin that was very good and we had baked potatoes with sour cream and chives, mixed vegetables in a light cheese sauce and some crusty bread. Yum. I made my famous frosted brownies with red sprinkles on top for dessert. We actually sat at the table, just the two of us! Yes, we had phone calls, owwwws, pump beeps, etc., but it was still nice.



Oh, and Gene brought me (and his mom) two roses. He usually waits until the anniversary of our first date to give me roses (since they are so expensive on Valentine's Day).

Friday, February 11, 2011

Big day for both O'Neill boys

I am exhausted from worrying about Casey being on the slopes today! (and from getting up extra early and having no nap!)

Poor Casey got snatched out of bed at 6:00 this morning. He was cool with it after a few minutes.

Julie came at 6:30 and got some final things ready while Brooke and I worked on getting Casey ready.

AND, poor Gene (who is SO not a morning person) had to get up and he and Julie got the van unstuck.

Casey became a very cute/handsome Casey-dilla, as he was all layered up in: an undershirt, long johns/pajama top and bottoms, sweat pants, snow pants, turtleneck and shirt, along with his winter coat, special mittens, hat and scarf and goggles (courtesy of Nurse Julie).




So, at 7:17 or so Gene drove Casey and Julie to school. He came home for a bit before heading up himself.

Colin was a sleepy-head this morning. He asked to flip and slept through his neb. I got him ready for school in record time and then I realized I had forgotten to put on his DAFOs, oh well. No rush today.

Colin had some stander time this morning. Mommy is kind of rusty in the stander routine. Note to self: Practice helping with the stander more often :)

At noon, Colin and his class and many other classes participated in the live, simultaneous webcast reading of Lincoln's Gettysburg address in hopes of setting a new Guinness World Record as part of the national kickoff of the Civil War Sesquicentennial. It was very cool to hear all the kids reading the Gettysburg address (Priscilla put it on the step-by-step for Colin). I wonder when we'll hear if it beat the world record of number of people reading the same document at once?



After wards, Priscilla asked Colin if he did it because he wanted to make his brother proud and he said, "Uh Huh!" Casey is a big president buff and would have loved to participate. I didn't even tell him it was going to be happening because I didn't want him to be thinking of that when he was supposed to be having fun on the mountain.

Anyway, I guess they all had a great time! Casey took several runs down the mountain (mouse hill!). He rode once with Kathy and Nurse Julie and once with Tim Scott (the consulting teacher on his team). Some of the kids skied along beside him, too.

They took a break in the lodge for a bit and warmed up.

Then, Gene showed up and took his famous run with Casey...I guess this trip down was a lot faster and more reckless the first couple of times! Gene almost wiped them out because they were going a bit out of control and he thought they were going to run into some little kids. They were going so fast that Julie, who was running beside them, couldn't keep up!!

I was checking out the Smugg's website and saw that they had some webcams set up so you could see certain areas of the resort. When I spoke to Gene (one of the many times!) I asked if they could see a gazebo. They found the gazebo and I could see them! It was really cool, although I wish I had been able to be there in actuality.




They made it home by 1:30 or so. Casey's feet were a bit cold, but they weren't really any colder than they are when he comes home from a regular winter day at school. I thought he'd be pooped and want to chill in his room and watch a movie, but he wanted to go to the living room and wii with Julie.

Colin had art and they actually got hooked up with the TV today. They did some painting and made quite a mess--Colin doesn't like messes!

I love my FlipShare camera. It is so easy to download the videos and post to Facebook. And, this time I took some snapshots from the video and posted them since Julie only took one pic with her phone and I wouldn't let Gene bring my good digital. Anyway, I'd recommend it to anyone interested in posting video clips to Facebook or email...

Right now the boys are watching the first Harry Potter movie snuggled together on their mattresses, all bundled up. Nice way to end a long week!