July 29th

Another fun filled summer week. We played with a few of my old high school classmates this last weekend, and it’s always good to hear from them that they see improvement in Quinn. The biggest thing that was commented on was how her disposition changes if I am in the room or out of the room. Good to hear that she wants to be with me, but at the same time it makes me a bit nervous for school to be starting up here soon.


We have also been enjoying the weather. Blue has decided to be Quinn’s nurse maid, and as I’m working to pull weeds or water or tend to this our that outside, Blue tends to Quinn. It’s adorable! I’ve caught him sleeping on the job, but I think I’ll keep him.

The for sale sign is in the yard, and so now we are on the mission of keeping the house picked up and ready for a moments notice to be shown. We were putting in an offer on a lot to build on, but there was a bidding war between a few other folks and I was not going to get involved in that, so we are waiting things out, and saying some prayers for the right situation to happen, when ever that may be. I’m hoping sooner rather then later, but we will see. So after cleaning windows again, and bathrooms again, I’ve been working on my sewing skills, they still have a long way to go, but I’ve made up some pillows to go with Quinn’s chairs that will be at school and at Chrissy’s house. Sometimes they just look to theraputic, for lack of a better word, and I wanted them to look cuter, as well as having them help hold her head in better alignment, and help her arms get into a better position to work.


Quinn has had a week of ups and downs. She has not felt super, and has been sick one day, then the next day she is good again. She has been doing a good job eating again. So I’m thankful for that. Yesterday we went back to Madonna for our therapy session. She did great, the gal that heads up her group, talked about how she was in a much better mood and did a great job playing with the therapy dogs that were there. My group had a super speaker talking about wholist medicine. He talked about pressure points and finding ways to let stress go, as well as lots of facts on the space and people around you making as big of a difference as the drugs you are given. I came out of it thankful that Quinn loves music and how it can relax and help the brain continue to heal, so we are on the right track there, and there are some new types of music I’m going to look into. I’m also going to look into essential oils more, he talked a lot about them, so give me some time to do research and I’ll share a few of those tips on what I find.

I’ve also been busy creating a book about Quinn and all her stuff, this will be sent to school with her, so folks can read about her and see her in the way I see her. AS she does not tend to make great first impressions, and I don’t blame her, but as I say in the book, just give her some love and attention and watch for some amazing inspiration! OK, well I’m off to read some books with Quinn and keep tiding up the house. I’m hopinn this might be a trend that I get use to having a sparce house and keeping it clean. It’s pretty nice, and currently there are only three things that I wish I would not have packed, and of course can’t get to the boxes they are in. Oh, well, I guess I don’t really need them!
Blessing to you all!
Susan

July 23, 2010

Let Me Win
But if I cannot win,
let me be brave
in the attempt.
..... Special Olympics Athletes Oath

Here are Quinn, Amy and me at the special olympics right here in Lincoln Nebraska!

Here is Quinn working with Diane and it seems like she was more interested in watching herself in the mirror.
Here she is with her new Physical Therapist, Suzanne, and just check out the big smile in the second picture.

Wow, I don’t know where summer is going, but it’s sure going there fast! It’s been a busy week. Quinn went from not feeling super great last week, to doing so much better this week, and what a week we have had. We started off by going to the National Special Olympics, right here in Lincoln Nebraska. We watched swimming with Amy on Monday, and I teared up a few times watching how some of those athletes, as well as their parents, wear their heart on their sleeve. They show the right way to live! The athletes and parents both, are inspiring. One swimmer got to the starting block and turned around and yelled “I love you mom”, that got me emotional, the love in that building was amazing. The high fives, the fist bumps, the hugs, the comradely, the parents we met who loved their son more then anything and were happy to talk about him, tearing up and being overjoyed to have him in their lives, but when his event came up, they were on their feet, done talking and focused, and more then excited to go congratulate him afterwards. It was an amazing day. Throughout the week we also watched track and field, checked out the family center, and flag football. Quinn got a bit warm outside, but loved it, she loved swimming the most. I was a bit concerned that she would get upset because we were not getting in the pool, and sometimes yelling scares her, but I saw non of that, she was excited and so content to be there, as was I, it was an amazing experience that I wish so many people could experience! I was humbled and empowered by the experiences. At the same time I felt like Quinn was accepted with open arms and that was also an amazing feeling. We have been so fortunate to have acceptance everywhere, but being at this event with Quinn was totally calming and wonderful! What an amazing group of people, the volunteers, parents, and athletes, just amazing! I volunteered at bowling and was amazed, I had four gentlemen at my table and they were wonderful. I had to work hard not to cry from pure joy a few times, but held it together. There were bowlers of all kinds, some were in wheelchairs and I helped a blind bowler and one experience I had was getting the privilege of letting him know when he got a strike, and we would celebrate with all the folks around us. What an amazing experience.

Well other news, it’s interesting how life and therapy are following the same trail as our life. We are packing up with one therapist and starting a new journey with another one, with a few more changes to come. We had our final therapy session with Jen, and I am thankful we will see her a few more times with transition meetings for school, and I hope we stay in contact after that, she is such a good person and has so many ideals she shares with us, so I’m glad we are not ending everything, just therapies, so we will not have any more therapy sessions in our home, now those will take place at Riley Elementary during her school day. So to Jen we send out a big thank-you. We ended therapy on a super note. Quinn was standing with Jen’s help and started taking a step, then decided against it. Jen asked Quinn to take 5 steps to mom, then she could be done, and what a great ending that would be, so with help, Quinn worked crazy hard, falling over her own feet, but at the same time being so successful, and took exactly 5 steps then launched herself at me. How amazing she is, she did exactly 5 and worked so hard to get those feet to move to make Jen proud and was done. What an amazing girl we have! Sadly I did not get a picture of them, so when we get together next time we will need to get one.

Crazy enough we also just got a new therapist at Handprints, Suzanne, and she is working hard with Quinn already. I give her props for working so hard, as Quinn does not tend to work to hard for anyone new for awhile, yet I started seeing some sparks and what a difference a week makes, we all saw improvements in what Quinn was willing to do. Thankfully we still have Stacie and we are hoping Diane finds time to work Quinn into her afternoon schedule, as we have to switch times around with Quinn being in pre-pre-school this fall. We also will continue water therapy at Madonna and are crossing our fingers to get the same Friday afternoon slot since it would work great with our schedules.

As for house news, please keep praying, we are planning on getting ours on the market this week, and might have more news to share next week, we will see what God’s plan is for us. I’m glad I was distracted with other things this week to keep me from dwelling on that.

Blessings! Thanks for checking in on us!
Susan

July 15, 2010

I just love the faces she makes when she sleeps.

We have had a busy week. Quinn is still trying to catch up on sleep from our trip, and then here I am hauling her all around to different houses, only to see that there is something structurally here or there that would make it very hard to modify. There have been a few contenders, only to have them shot down because of one thing or another that just can’t be modified. We have had good news on the home front, we have a realtor who has fallen under Quinn’s loving personality, and is helping us sell our house and is working so hard to help us find something that we can move into or land we can build on. We also have talked to our architect that has told me he will be with us until we either kick him out or we have a house that works for Quinn. I guarantee I won’t be doing any kicking out! I just thank God for bringing people into our lives at the most wonderful times. Nothing is set in stone as of yet, so I’m not going to put the cart before the horse and all, but please just keep praying for things to go smoothly and for Quinn to stay calm with the whole process. She woke up this morning throwing up. That does not make me happy so we canceled therapy and swimming, and I’m going to spend the day with her instead of cleaning the house, so that is probably good for both of us. Yesterday we got her new car seat and I think she got a little over heated being out in the sun for just a few minutes, then going back and forth from hot to cool, was probably not good for her either. We did make it to the support group and play group. I always get a lot out of it, and Quinn loves playing, but not so much yesterday, I think her goal was not to fall asleep, because she was needing a nap so bad and was sound asleep by the time I got her out to the car, then as I was getting her belted in she had a panic attack of sorts, being so tired and hot, we had to just relax and calm her down for a few minutes. As of right now, she is breathing calmly and trying to relax. I’m hoping she takes a long nap, as she really needs it, but her schedule and mine tend to vary on what she wants to do, so we will see.
Love to you all, this week has reminded me how fortune we are. I’m nervous and excited for the future, so will just try to keep being thankful.
Susan

July 10th, 2010

Here we are at Sun Studio, Memphis TN, we took a week off to go see Grandpa Ron and took Grandma Martha to Memphis with us. Here is where Quinn showed us I don’t know what I’m talking about. I get done saying she will not eat ice cream, and then she shared one with Grandpa.


The two of them just loving on each other!


This is the best three generation picture we got, as we were waiting to see the Peabody Duck Walk.

It’s been a busy week, went from working like crazy on the house thanks to some wonderful friends and a very busy mom, thanks a bunch. To escaping from Lincoln for a few days and going to Memphis to see family. It was a great escape but I don’t think we got in all that much rest and relaxation. Quinn had a few good naps but by the end of the week she was breathing pretty heavy. She did not show off to the extent that she has sometimes. She did stay nice and relaxed with her hands and did a good job looking around. Once when grandpa Ron was pushing her in her stroller, she grabbed on the bars of her chair, like she was worried he was going to tip her out. Another fun story – the one where she proves me wrong, yet again. We were at Sun Studio’s going on a tour, and they don’t let kids take the tour, so Grandpa Ron stayed with Quinn, and they were going to have a Coke float, well I said that Quinn does not like ice cream, and when I got out of the tour, she had eaten a bunch of ice cream and was opening her mouth for more. She continues to prove me wrong and I’ll take it. As for her talking to anyone down here, not a word. Lots of weird breathing and cooing, but no real words in front of family. One of these times she will show off with the words, I know it. Past that, she was up for lots of site seeing and lots of love.

This next week gets Quinn back to therapy appointments and me back to researching houses and talking to architects, and continuing to educate myself on what will be best for us in the short run and the long run. So I just need to keep praying and educating myself and hope that God will help the right thing come to us. I’m not going to let a little thing like a house burden me to much. We have other things to deal with, so we will just keep fighting our way through all of this! Thanks to Grandpa Ron and our great family for loving up Quinn and praying for Great Grandpa Harold that he keeps getting better. It’s been a busy fun week and I’m ready for a nap!

On the trip home Quinn did great for the first six hours, then she was done and started breathing all crazy and would not calm down, so I pulled off the road and got us a hotel room and as soon as I got her out of the car she was just fine. Her breathing calmed down and she was happy as can be. Hmmmm, I guess I am not the boss in this family. Oh well, an early night, a swimming pool and HBO, so I guess it worked out pretty good!

July 1, 2010

Keeping this one short and sweet! We have had lots of folks over helping us get things in order to sell the house. I had my first break down last night and cried because selling a house is much more expensive then I thought. Then Quinn started crying because I was crying and in turn I started crying worse, lets just say a good night sleep helped, and waiting to put it on the market for a few days to do a few more touch ups, was nice as well.


Working so hard means playing a little and so here are Quinn and Kaleb at the zoo catching butterflies and feeding lama's, even thought the butterflies freaked her out a little, she had so much fun. Does she ever love her cousin Kaleb, and he in turn is so good to her! Quinn has been doing good, she knows something is out of the usual with the house and at times seems to be stressed, while at other times is calm and cool. So all in all she has had a good but busy week. This next week should be the same, busy busy busy! So we will find some time to play while getting things done!

Love to you all! I was again reminded this week the preciousness of life, and am so very thankful for Quinn and having her affect my life in such an amazing way!