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Well, I survived my girls’ trip to Vegas…and Matt survived a few days at home with his dad! The trip was just what I needed…fun, sun, relaxation, shopping etc. I had the best time just being goofy and hanging out with my friends Jami and Gina. We all share the same offbeat sense of humor, and there were just so many ‘you had to be there’ moments; I tried telling Matt about them, but he just smiled at me and nodded his head in that ‘uh-huh, whatever’ sort of way that men do when they don’t really get what you’re talking about, and they don’t really care to get it. I can’t blame him! But we sure did have a gooooood time!



Things are going well at home too. We met with our builder on Saturday afternoon and looked at lots. We looked at one development in particular and found a couple of lots which should work. One stood out to us and the builder, so he is going to meet with an engineer to make sure that we can fit the house there properly. Hopefully we’ll have that figured out in the next few weeks and (keep your fingers crossed) maybe we’ll actually get started here one of these days with the actual building process!!!! I can’t wait!!! We both just look ahead to how great things will be in the new house, how easy it will be to just LIVE and do normal things without all the challenges we have now. I can’t even describe all the ways it will improve our daily life!!

Matt has been doing great with his therapies as well. This week was our first week of the new schedule – heading out to Panora twice a week, and working here in Des Moines once. It is LOVELY to have two nights to ourselves! Last night my mom came over for supper and a visit. She was in town helping my grandma with her move, so we hooked up at our place. It was a perfect evening for grilling out! It is such a treat to be able to go home and putter around the yard looking at my flowers, throw the ball for the dogs, and just sit on the couch with a diet coke – without having to run here and there, rush to make supper, or have half the evening already used up! It has already lifted my spirits, just knowing we have two evenings to ourselves is such a huge deal!

Monday Matt rode a different horse at Panora. He rode a younger (5 years old) female horse named Gracie. She’s taller and more slender than Sunny, so it was definitely a different ride for Matt. Matt has been doing so well with the riding, I just have to say…in the beginning he had to hold on pretty tight to the saddle. But over the last few rides, his therapist has challenged him to lift one hand, then another, etc. Well the last couple of rides he sat with both shoulders back and his arms at his side, not holding on, nearly the whole time!! As you can imagine, this takes quite a bit of balancing work as they zig zag through the cones and around the arena! He has also been working on riding with his eyes closed or looking up, which also challenges his balance. Off the horse, he’s been working on standing balance as well. He told me last night that he’s been working on this at home too, standing up before going into the bathroom and working on standing without holding on to anything…he can go for a couple minutes! Monday he also worked on this pedaling contraption. It’s hard to describe; but its sort of like an elliptical machine that moves forward or backward as you push the pedals. So he rode it up and down the hallway a few times. I wasn’t even sure he’d be able to get on it, let alone be able to stay balanced and coordinate his arms and legs to make it move! It was awesome! Last week he got on the treadmill with his therapist here in town. We talked about how my grandma is giving us her treadmill and maybe Matt could get some use out of it as well…and so we tried it. I think we were all unsure he’d be able to keep up the pace and stay on…but he met this challenge as well and walked for several minutes straight, holding on to the bars, with little to no help from anyone else!! It was awesome! I probably don’t write enough about all the things that Matt is doing, because to us, they are just normal everyday occurrences, and he hates to make a fuss…but just know that he is working so hard, and doing so well!! Last night he was even dinking around and doing wheelies in his wheelchair! That’s our Matt!!

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