We're Still Alive...

It's been a while since my last post. In case anyone was wondering, yes, we are still alive.

Where do I start??

Abby's last day of school was May 21st. Summer vacation is here. And I can already tell it is going to be long.... What in the world are we going to do all day for the next two months? At least we know that Abby will have the same teacher next year. She has one more year of preschool before she moves on to kindergarten.

We love Miss Suzanne!

Anthony's youngest sibling graduated from high school. Out here the graduations are all at night - after the sun goes down. It's too hot to have them during the day. So six of the eight grandchildren,  including Spencer, stayed home with a babysitter and went to sleep at Anthony's parents' house. We took Abby with us to the ceremony and somehow she managed to fall asleep amid the foghorns, cheering, and blaring loudspeaker. Amazing.

Abby started back up with her therapies right before the end of school. So far the reports have been good. She hasn't thrown a fit or started gagging while she is there. Maybe the break we took was just what she needed. We'll see how long it lasts :) My normal babysitter had a baby recently (and then moved!) so I've been keeping Spencer with me while Abby is at therapy. We played at the mall one day....

And we stopped at the construction site for the new Gilbert temple another day....

Mostly we just wander around different stores and spend money that probably doesn't need to be spent. That could get dangerous very quickly... But today was a sad day. Today we said good-bye to Shanna, Abby's physical therapist. Her husband took a job out of state and they will be moving very soon. I was so surprised that I didn't cry, especially since I was fighting hard to keep the tears back when I told her that we decided to let Abby have a vacation. But we love Shanna and we are going to miss her terribly.

Horribly out of focus.....bummer.

I have grown very close to Abby's therapists. In the beginning they were a huge part of my support network. I could talk to them about things that even my closest family members wouldn't understand - about the difficulties of raising a child like Abby. They were as much help to me as they were for Abby. And I know it wasn't by chance that we found them. Several years ago Anthony and I met a fun young couple at church. We became friends but they moved shortly before Abby was born. Life went on and we lost touch. It wasn't until we started looking for a therapy clinic for Abby that we discovered our friend who had moved away had become a speech therapist. Anthony called him and asked a few questions. A couple days later I met him for a tour of the clinic and he introduced me to the other therapists. I knew it would be a perfect match for Abby. And that's how we got started with Brandon (aka Mr. B), Miss Jenna, Miss Shanna, and Miss Amy - awesome, amazing people. We lost Miss Amy right before Abby took her break. She went on maternity leave and then decided to move. We were sad about that too. She was Abby's feeding therapist, but since Abby really doesn't have a need for that anymore, it worked out ok. We didn't know Amy was leaving, so I don't have a recent picture of her with Abby. But here is one from last year. We still miss you Amy!

Abby had her last dose of her anti-seizure medication last Thursday. She was officially medication free for a total of 4 days....now she is on an antibiotic for another UTI. Go figure.

I took Spencer along to an eye appointment for Abby several weeks ago. Normally I wouldn't do such a crazy thing, but I knew I wouldn't be able to find a babysitter on that particular day and I also knew the appointment would be really quick. Anyway, the movie "Cars" was on in the waiting room. As soon as we walked in Spencer yelled, "Cars movie! Is that Mater?! Sally! Doc Hudson! Lightning McQueen!" It was pretty funny. He provided some nice entertainment for the receptionists that afternoon. The eye doctor said that it looked like Abby is off to a good start after her surgery. She'll go back in a few weeks for another check up. Her eye is still slightly swollen and sometimes it is still a little hard to tell if it is any better....but that's ok because we have cute kids anyway.

I'm not sure what Spencer is doing here...wiping drool??