Our Home

Here is the new and improved virtual tour of our handicap accessible home. Enjoy!

Another free digital slideshow by Smilebox

Our Dream Home

Thanks for being patient.....Here is my "Virtaul Tour" of our new home. I hope you like it. It's still a work in progress but for the most part it's decorated.
A BIG THANK YOU to ALL the contractors that stuck it through and helped to make our house and DREAM HOME. Thanks for being part of our family!
Built by Custom Family Homes, Mike VanHoof

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Avrianna and Dan came to visit us today....it was WONDERFUL to have them here. I miss them SO MUCH! Avrianna had a surprise waiting for her from child life here on the floor......her puppy who of course is trached, LOL. It was so cute every time we would have to suction Danny she would get her supplies out and suction her puppy, Mia. One of Avrianna's favorite pass times, laying in bed with her brother watching TV.Danny has been up since 4 this morning back to his spastic and tremoring ways....UGH. That continued till about 11 and then he got a PCA pump. I couldn't stand see him like that any longer! So now his is getting a continuous drip of Dilaudid to hopefully aid in keeping him more comfortable all the time then these highs n lows over n over. It seemed to have taken the edge off today, so I can only hope that this works until we can get/find the cause of his discomfort. The other option is these episodes are related to a dysautonomia condition. That has been set off due to all the medical issues and procedures Danny has gone through in the last month. Which after reading up on it more.....alot of it make sense as to the gut and spasticity issues going on all of sudden. NEVER EVER a dull moment, right? LOL

Dan was able to do his training today when he was here with the trache cares on Danny. He cleaned the stoma area, did trache tie changes, did most of the suctioning, and watched as I pulled out my first trache doing the trache change. WHEW ~ First one under my belt, now I just have to put one in. Dan and I both had to be trained on the new home equipment Danny will need once he's able to go home and then we had an updated CPR training for a child with a trache. We are getting closer and closer to being able to go home, now we just have to whip Danny into shape, LOL.

Here are some pictures of the new house...as you can see it is coming along very nicely. Talk about another stresser on our list of NEVER ENDING DULL moments in our life, but seeing the pictures ......WOW and it's not even completed yet! ** Remember the house in the VBHA Parade of Homes with Custom Family Homes by Mike VanHoof ~ starting August 15th so stop on by to see the all finishing details & the handicap accessibility of our home.
Here are some bits n pieces of the place ~

Danny's room....with some of the lifting systems
Custom made shower lounge for lil man

Mstr Bath cabinets

Avrianna's bathKitchen

The Great RoomFront garage view

The Front

The Back

Here's a picture of Danny and his therapist during his Physical therapy yesterday.   SO BIG!  He did great.  Today he had PT and OT tag team him and he did awesome again.  Of course he was showing off today as this was his last therapy session of the school year, LOL

A Preview of just some of the paint colors in the house....and they started the stone on the fireplace today too

 

Nanny Checking out Avrianna's room ~ I know check out that color, WOW

Looking into the dining room ~ the stain is starting to go on the windows and the doors too :)

Guest bedroom on Main floor ~ Calily Room

Front of House
Backyard and Pool

Tomorrow I go in for my MRI.....glad that we'll be able to get a better feel of what's going on with this "pinched nerve".  I hope I will get some answers soon.

This weekend on Saturday the kids and I are going to do the fundrasing walk for Fox Valley Sibling Support Network and we are excited.  Dan is throwing a bachelor party for his best bud Tim with a few of their close friends.  I hope they have a blast!!!  We're so happy Tim and Amanda found eachother =)

GRILL'N for the GUYS

Well here he is.....our knight in shining armor, Mike at Custom Family Homes. He has stuck his neck out and gone above and beyond the call for our family. I will never be able to THANK him enough for ALL that he has already done and continues to DO in helping with our home come to life. Mike THANKS for not running the other way and helping us take this project on full force. YOU ROCK ~ there will ALWAYS be a special place in my heart for you!!

Well it's coming!! WOW, simply breath taking. Today the family went out for lunch and grilled out for the crew out at the house. They are doing a phenomenal job out there, these guys are AWESOME! I mean look at it ~ what a great bunch of guys ~ I can't say enough about them. The backyard is even progressing....YAY!Avrianna's new trait "in training" for ~ watch out guys, LOLThanks EJ ~ Good LUCK tomorrow with the new addition to your family!

Danny had Vision and OT therapy today....he actually played with them and stayed awake n alert the whole time. Now that progress, YAY!! Tomorrow is PT along with Speech so we'll see if they get the same from Danny too.

Well I better get going....Grey's Anatomy season finale' is on tonight. Can't wait! Me,a glass of wine, and Grey's. One kid is clean and the other is "getting there" so need to wrap things up. Thanks for stopping in.

Productivity

This was my Saturday's project....whew, glad that was done!! GW is stocked let me tell you. I did some serious house cleaning out. No more baby clothes or toys found here, I'm done holding onto that fantasy. The van was packed front to back and the bags were falling out when I opened the back, yeap I held onto alot of stuff. Not anymore :)We have siding going up on the house.....LOVE IT!And the pool was poured....things are happening over there! Avrianna is practicing her front stroke,heeheeMonkey see Monkey do.......Hey where's the water? I'm ready :)In the inside the insulation was blown and the drywall is going up. It's just amazing to see the house "come to life". I'm so excited to go out to the house now because we are at the stage where everyday something is different.

I am having a hard time with the outbreak of the swine flu. I guess it is the fear of the unknown! With Danny's crappy immune system and both Avrianna & Dan not having spleens I'm ON GUARD. I've decided to cancel all of Danny's out patient therapies and I have the home bound school therapist on alert, if anyone is feeling the least bit off to cancel. Right now it's just not worth the risk....again the fear of the unknown. Until there is a better feel of what this "flu" is all about we will continue to be hermits, sigh.

I'm really excited to go to Biolife for my first donation of plasma/blood, tomorrow. Both my kids needed blood and plasma so I know all too well the need. I had donated 11" of my hair on two different occasions to Locks of Love...well with me keeping the short hair look I won't be doing that anymore....so donating plasma/blood is my next venture of paying it forward. I can't wait to start !!

I'm hoping this is the worst and this bruise starts to go away....augh. I can finally walk with out it hurting....geeze OPEN your EYES Lori!!Our walk is on May 30th so ~ Please pledge your donations HERE and sponsor us in our walk for the Fox Valley Sibling Support Network fundraising walk. To read more on the FVSSN.Thanks for stopping by...please comment after the post or sign our guestbook to let us know you stopped in. We love reading your posts too :)

Rain, Rain, GO Away!!

It's raining, it's pouring the old man is snoring.....LOL. This is the second day in a row of rain, ugh. NO MORE RAIN!! How cold and depressing? It is pouring right now and the farmers field is starting to look like a pond not a field, sigh. I would like to be back in the fun and sun of Florida where it only rains for at most an hour not DAYS. We do have a fire in the fireplace and there's no other way to spend a day like this...with my family, drinking coffee, and sitting by the fire....Ahhhhhhh
So I'm going to post some happy stuff....Our House :) I would like to thank, from bottom of my heart.....Custom Family Homes (Mike, our general contractor) and all the sub contractors involved in helping us finish this home. Mike has gone above and beyond the call of duty to help maintain functionality and the "Country Sheek" in our home (with Mike having a daughter with some disabilities he understands). I am so excited about the house and it's progress now. I know the road hasn't been the smoothest but we are now on the right path of making this house our "Dream Home" not a nightmare. Thanks Mike, you are now apart of our family (not sure if that's a good thing?).
Well here are some updated pics as of Friday. The whole roof is now shingled and the window are in! They are starting the dryvit and siding.Our front entry way... cedar beamed peak...the wood was cleared and cut by Dan at The Newood in Spirit Falls, WI (Dan's home away from home in God's country). Thanks Dan it's Gorgeous!
The brick and stone starting to go on the garageDanny checking the place outAvrianna playing in the rocks/mud in the retaining walls by the walk out in the basement. Why is there always a drive.....MUD = KID

I am so hoping this rain stops as the pool is suppose to start being dug tomorrow and with all the mud this rain is producing, ugh......I'll have to bring extra clothes for Avrianna to change into, heehee.

Danny is doing better. He was just catching up on his sleep, I guess. Yesterday he finally pee'd on his own all by himself, Yay! I gave him/us one more week off of therapies, so I can get myself in check before people start coming over. Friday is our first therapy back in Wisconsin with PT here at the house. Danny has done some pretty amazing things in Florida so I hope we can show him off to Mr Dan (PT) here in Wisconsin.

With that said, I suppose I should get the rest of my trip stuff put away....yeap totally procratinating on this one, heehee.
Our walk is on May 30th so ~ Please pledge your donations HERE and sponsor us in our walk for the Fox Valley Sibling Support Network fundraising walk. To read more on the FVSSN.Thanks for stopping by...please comment after the post or sign our guestbook to let us know you stopped in. We love reading your posts too :)

Head's Up

Today Danny had two hours of therapy...first hour was PT and the second was an assessment from Speech. Did I tell you all how much I LOVE KIDspirit and their staff?! Well they are AWESOME. Danny did well both hours of therapy and even managed to vocalize during Speech...I know that's a change for him. But the therapist's are all beautiful ladies so Danny likes to throw his charm on, LOL! I did manage to get this video of him after his long day and bath tonight. He is so Cute!! Hope you enjoy.

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Tomorrow Danny has his Assitive tech therapist here in the morning to show me some proximetry switches. I hope they will work for Danny! It's so exciting to see Danny ambitions of wanting to activate/play with things and if I can find a switch that will work with him instead of against him I think he will flourish even more.
Today was Avrianna's last day of Gymnastic Camp so tomorrow she will be able to get back into her routine again. She really had a blast playing there all day (6 hours) for the last 7 days. I'm sure we'll have issues with getting back into the swing of schoolwork, but if she wants me to take her to see The Hannah Montana movie she'll have to corporate with me, yeah I'm not beneath a good bribe, LOL.
This is our last week here in Florida and then back to the wonderful Wisconsin weather. So many mixed emotions there, we LOVE it here.....but we miss Daddy so very much. Dan will be flying in on Sunday (the count down has been going for the last month) and Avrianna is so excited that her Dad is going to be here. I also am very excited to see our new house and all the progress since we've been gone. I'm constantly hearing how beautiful it looks and how different it looks every day so needless to say I can't wait to see it ~ Sending out a HUGE Thank You to Custom Family Homes & all the sub contractors involved in helping make our dream home become a reality~ You guys ROCK
Please pledge your donations HERE and sponsor us in our walk for the Fox Valley Sibling Support Network fundraising walk. To read more on the FVSSN
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The New House

Well it framed in : Here are some pictures

The view as you're driving up to it ~

Front yard ~ Love all the mud, yuck
View from the garage ~Our backyard ~ MORE MUD!!!