Craig Week 7

Wednesday

Starting this week off on Wednesday because I didn't get back from Nevada till Tuesday night. So, today Josh got to try out a basketball chair. Him and Joe tried them out and he went over the different rules of wheelchair basketball. Then Joe had me try it out. Me n Josh played a friendly game of pig...which I won!!! :P. The thing with wheelchair bb, you have no push off your legs, it's all upper body. Well, take away your core, and it is even more tough! He'll get it.

 

Then, Josh had his very first driving lesson! SCARY! Haha! He did great! He got the hang of it really fast and felt really good to be behind the wheel again. He will have a couple of more lessons, then he has to pass a Nevada DMV driving test. Then he will be a driving maniac!

There he goes!!! I'm so proud. :')

 

Thursday

Today Johnny flew out here with Ron Lawson, a camera man with Dirt Wheels Magazine. They followed Josh around for a bit, took some footage, did some interviews then took back off again! It is for the up coming ride day at Cahuilla. It'll be awesome to see it all come together:)

Friday

Today was a great day! Josh learned how to play wall-ball in wheelchair class. That was fun to watch these guys play together and see the quiet ones be very competitive. Lol! Josh's team won ;)

 

Joe had Josh try going up stairs without his chair. He had him wear this padded seat and he made it all the way to the top of these 8 stairs! It was way harder than it looked! Joe told Josh that he was only the 2nd person that he knew of, that could do that while at Craig as an inpatient. So that made Josh want to keep going up, just so that he could be the first one who made it all the way to the helipad!!! All about making records here! Lol!

In fit class, they switched it up a bit and tried archery. They all did well and had fun doing it!

 

Josh met Matt Updike , who is a Olympic paracycling champion, and is known as the Lance Armstrong of "hand" cycling...without the doping part. Haha. He travels all over the world to compete. Matt is helping Josh order and get fitted for his own hand cycle. Watch out Matt! Here comes your competition! ;)

 

So today was the day that Codey and Nathan started the demolition on our house! They only have 10 days to get it all done before we come home. I'm nervous, but excited! I know they will do an amazing job! Lots of people are helping them out and I am so grateful for that!

Our bedroom...they are hilarious!

Our shower...

Or what's left of it....

Red, Nathan, and Codey putting the shower back together! They are cruising!

 

The toilet...

which is hanging out in our bedroom...

Codey showing us where the new toilet will be. Lol! He's crazy!

Our awesome friends Charlie, his son David, and Codey working on the toilet room:). It's fun to see updates of our house coming together. It's going to be better than before!

 

Saturday & Sunday

Wendy and Brandon came up this weekend again to hang out with us. So we made Brandon come help us and deal with dealership people since he loves doing that! We are just looking right now and trying out what kind of vehicle would work the best for our family now. I'm afraid if we go by ourselves, I will be driving it home instead of flying. Haha. It was fun and so glad I didn't have to do it by myself. Now we have an idea of what we want. Then we ate some lunch and went to the movie Star Trek. It was very good. Then we just hung out the rest of the day. That was Josh's first time out and about for that long of a time. He did great! No excuses now;).

Sunday, we went to church then the Butlers headed home. :(. Josh and I just relaxed the rest of the day and enjoyed the beautiful weather while it lasts.

Eating dinner at Texas Roadhouse. Mmmmm!

Going to church. We did not plan our matching dresses. Haha!

 

Monday

Only one more week till we go home! Ahhhhh! We are so excited, but scared at the same time. So much to do in so little time! Oh we'll, ready or not... At least our house is coming together!

So since this is Josh's last week, they are redoing all the tests and X-rays they did when he first got here. So hopefully everything looks good on his back so he can be brace free!!! Not much movement on his ASIA test though:/. But that doesn't mean anything. We will see in 6 months when we come back for the re-eval.

Joe and Mackenzie doing the full body ASIA test.

In wheelchair class, Josh had to go down a couple of flights of stairs by using only the hand rails. Now, I know he has Chris behind him, but its only for precautionary measure. As they say, it's less paper work if someone gets hurt. Hah! So anyways, Josh is doing this all by himself! Crazy!

Then he had to go across these bumps, again with no help, while keeping a wheelie. They said not many people can do this before they go home :) he conquered it! :)

It's like last chance workout today in fit class. Since they do something different every day for a week, and this is his last week, he is pushing himself extra harder to make this workout his best! We are hoping he will be able to keep up on all these workouts when we get home, at a close-by rehab.

He was just a little animated. Haha!

 

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Craig Week 6

Tuesday

So, today in wheelchair class, Josh passed off stairs. How to instruct someone how to take him up and down stairs, and how to go down by hisself! I say, if there isn't a ramp, you don't need to go there! To trust a complete stranger with your life....I don't know. Josh barely trusted me to assist him! But I did just fine. :).

Going down assisted...

Going down, independently! She was just spotting him.

At lunch time, we took a little stroll to a close by barber so Josh could get a much needed haircut. I think we were in the ghetto...or the 1970's. Lol! But it should do him good till we get back home. Then we got us a sandwich and headed back.

For fit class we all loaded up in a "short bus", as the guys called it, and headed to Washington Park to ride hand cycles.

A fun group of guys! Josh Tate is the crazy bald one to the left. Haha!

The bike loop at this park is 2 miles long! Well, Josh got on a bike, and headed off! He loved it so much, he did 8 miles! I tried out a mountain bike style, hand cycle, and that was a lot of work! Holy cow! But it was so fun. We all had a great time, then ended with pizza and sodas and headed back home! Josh really enjoyed getting out and be active. We will so be getting one of those! This place is amazing! Letting us try different things, so we know what we really want to do when we go home. They get nothing out of it, except knowing we will go home, excited, with more purpose, and loving and living life to its fullest!

Getting fitted...

Truly happy :')

There they go!

So, my sister Chavonne's husband's sister, Alice, lives close by in Aurora. She was such a sweetheart and made me some homemade chocolate chip cookies! She brought us a plate of them and they were scrumptious! She said she read my blog, and I said something about homemade chocolate chip cookies, so that was how she felt she could help us out. How sweet!

Wednesday

Uncle Vaughn flew in today to see Josh for a couple of days. It was nice to visit with him for a bit. I've been getting ready to leave Josh and go home for 5 whole days!!! I'm totally freaking out! I know he will be fine, it's just that I haven't left him for more than a couple of hours since we've been here. Time to cut the cord I guess.

Thursday

Today is the big day! I'm so excited to go home to my babies. But not real pumped to leave my sweetheart. :/ The nurses are glad I'm going, so they can make Josh do stuff by himself and prove he can do this on his own. They are real big on independence, which is good, because like they've said over and over again, I am not the caregiver. I am the wife and mom. So, he will probably just have the kids do stuff for him when we get home. Haha!

Well, today Josh hit another milestone. He did a floor transfer into his chair! They were not going to do that until he got his brace off, but thought why not give it a shot! Well, he made It look so easy:). When he gets that brace off, there will be nothing he can't do.

 

 

Tiff's Weekend

Well, I almost missed my flight. I was reading my book, waiting with my Vegas bound peeps, so I thought, and they announced a gate change, and I wasn't paying attention. So, I got up with everyone around me and we headed to the other end of the terminal! I'm sitting there, reading again, and was wondering why the new gate still didn't say Las Vegas. So, since my departure time was supposed to be now, I finally asked if this was e gate for Vegas. He said no. I about passed out! I had totally went with the wrong crowd! Apperantly I was sitting more on the other gates side by my flight! I started to sprint across the terminal, as I hear my name being called for the last chance to board my flight! I'm screaming "I'm coming! I'm coming!" Well, I barely made it! They almost gave my seat to someone else! I would have died. It was the last flight out for the night! That is why I don't read!!! Lesson learned!

Friday

I made it home with no more drama. :). Snuggled my kids all morning, then went and played some volleyball with the ladies! The last time I played was for the championship for our women's league. I have craved it so bad and it felt so good to let some of my aggressions out on it.

The kids had their mayday dances tonight. I was so glad I was able to be there for that. My sweet Maddy is an awesome dancer and I already missed her dance at the fair. She has great talent and I really should get her into some private dance lessons.

Our Mexican cowboy! Haha! His idea for the mustache. Love that boy!

This is pretty much where jax spent most of the time while I was home. Snuggled right up next to me. I love it!

Me n Maddy sporting our new matching CanAm hats. Jax, trying to photo bomb us! Lol!

Saturday

I met with Codey and Nathan this morning to go over our house modifications. They are starting on Wednesday. I'm so excited and scared at the same time. I trust Codey will do a great job, I just hope it doesn't turn into too big of a job. He pretty much has about a week to complete it seemings how we will be home in about 2 weeks and he was planning on coming up to Denver the weekend we get released so we can go to an outdoor motocross race! I booked our flights and we come home Memorial Day! I'm so stoked! He's nervous, but I'm ready for us to be home and start working on our new, normal life with our kids. But sooooo much to do! Ahhhhhhhh!

So, tonight was the benefit dinner and auction Kylie n Nathan Bundy had put together for us. She has been working on it for the last month with the help of some of our wonderful friends and family to make it be as successful as possible. Well, lets just say when I pulled into the community center parking lot at the time it started, I had a breakdown! I could not believe how many people were there already! The parking lot was overflowing! I pulled myself together and walked into the place where all the stuff up for auction was and had another come apart! I couldn't keep it together. I haven't cried in a while, so I guess it was all built up and when I saw just SOME of the love and compassion this valley had for us, it was completely overwhelming! There was a jump house, face painting, a dunk booth, rock wall, bungee tramp, and these plastic bubbles on water for the kids! My kids got to go for free, so I don't see them all night! They had a blast doing those activities over and over again! I got to hang out and witness the generosity of all these wonderful people we are so blessed to have in our lives. I am still in awe!

Maddy made it to the top!

Since Josh couldn't make it, for obvious reasons, his life size fathead made a special appearance for him! He was a hit! People were getting their pics with him, as did I. Haha!

Standing in line with my little shadow. Haha!

I loved this cake! It was made by our friend Jennifer Totten. She is so talented!

Because of all the stuff that was donated, the auction didn't get over until 9:30! 3 hrs of auctioning! That poor auctioneer probably didn't know what he was getting himself into when he volunteered to do this. But I am ever so grateful for him doing it for us. There were so many volenteers, I can't even begin to name them, in case I leave somebody out. But I want to thank each and everyone of them for making this the most successful benefit I have ever seen. They all did an amazing job and they will alway have special place in our hearts. :'). Our burden has been made light and now we will be able to get all the things we need to make Josh's transition into this new life, a ton more easier and less stressful! Thank you all from the bottom of our hearts!

Sunday, Mother's Day

I had a wonderful Mother's Day with my sweet, sweet children.

 

Going to church

My kids surprised me with this huge banner and beautiful, planted flowers. And my husband got me these amazing roses! What a sweetheart! I don't know the last time I got roses! <3. I am missing him so bad:(

Monday

I totally cut my hair off!!! Well, I didn't, Stacie, the best hairdresser EVER, did. Haha! It's been 10 years since my hair was this short! I have been wanting to do it for the past two summers, but kept chickening out. So, coming from Denver to Moapa, the heat was too much and decided last minute to chop it off! Ahhhhhh!

Before....

Wait! Never mind!!! Haha! Too bad it's colored, I could've donated it:/

During...

Jaxyn wanted his hair done too, so he picked green! Now he looks like a Virgin Valley bulldog! When in Mesquite...Lol!

After!

 

All done!

I let Maddy ditch today, so she got her hair trimmed and a little color put in. Wash out, of course :)

Tuesday

Well, to be fair, I let Gavyn ditch today. We went to volleyball, but I didn't get to play too long, because Jax wasn't feeling to well. I'm sure it's stress of me going back to Denver tonight. So, I just did what I had to do to get ready, then spent the rest of my time at home, snuggling him. It was so hard to leave them again. But, I did book me and Josh's flights home for the 27th! That's less than 2 weeks! I told Jax I had to go back to Denver to get daddy and bring him home. So, he seemed ok about me leaving. Thank goodness!

Well I made my flight with no drama, haha, and got to Craig around midnight. No more hospital bed for Josh!!! Woo-hoo! Co-sleeping for us now! It was absolutely WONDERFUL to snuggle up next to him, smell him, (i know, TMI) and be able to touch him all night long! I have missed this so bad. I am finally feeling like things are starting to get a little more normal :)

 

Josh's Weekend

Friday

Hello everyone! Since Tiff is gone for FIVE DAYS, she wanted me to write my own week, so I hope you enjoy. First, I'm going to clear some things up. I will not be sugar coating anything and If you think your going to hear how tough it will be without my wife and how I really miss her, you are wrong! I can do this just fine without her....

6 hours later...

So yeah, this is tough and I miss my wife already and it hasnt even been 1 day. I take a lot of things for granted and now I see how much she really does for me. I love her so its time to step up. Luckily my sister kc and her husband Ian came to town so I wasn't totally bored. Of course, Tiff left a list of things for her to do unbeknownst to me. One of them....

Rubbing essential oils on my feet and spine! I can't believe she did this, because she is totally grossed out by feet! She must really love me:')

Friday we got to go on a outing to red rocks. It's a big amphitheater and we took a tour through the museum. It was interesting, but more than that, it was just nice to get out for the day.

Everyone else at this museum was intrigued by the Beetles memorabilia. As for me, this is more of my style. ;)

Working on more floor transfers with Joe. This is so I can play trains with Jaxyn on the floor, then get back into my chair.

More floor transfers with Chris. This will help me get back into my wheelchair after I fall, which is apparently inevitable... :/

Saturday and Sunday

I got to go out to lunch with kc and Ian and practice on my truck transfers. I'm getting pretty good at them. I even got to transfer from my chair to a booth bench at Texas Roadhouse. I will say this, my wheelchair seat is much more comfortable than that hard wood bench. I am slowly getting used to being in my chair in public. It's not that I'm ashamed or embarrassed, its just so different. I feel like every one is watching me. Funny huh?

Kacee felt like she was in high school again all crammed in the middle of a small truck. Haha! So glad Cam let us use it while Tiff was gone

So, Tiffany called me tonight very emotional. She told me how amazing the benefit dinner and auction was that our awesome friends, the Bundy's, had put together for me. She told me about all the people that helped and the unbelievable turn out. "You won't believe it Josh, but you are so obviously loved" she said. I broke down. We live in such a great town where everybody helps everybody. I could go on and on about the amount of love and support I have gotten not only in my town, Moapa, but in the racing industry all around the world. It is truly humbling. I was talking to my PT, Joe, who I truly respect and have gotten to be good friends with, about how can I ever repay these great people back or show them that I am truly grateful? He told me that I should just pay it forward by continuing on being a good example and when people need help, help them. But I do want to personally thank you all who have sent emails, texts, Facebook messages, letters, cards, words of inspiration and encouragement, stopped by both at the hospital in Vegas and here at Craig, helped out with my kids and my house, all who donated both time and their own stuff to the auctions and helped out with the dinner and all other things finanacially. And a very sincere thank you to Tammy Leach for all the time and work she has, and still is, putting into creating and keeping up this amazing foundation. I'm getting emotional, so I'm done. Thank you.

Monday

Today we went for a trip around the block and worked on real life obstacles. This is my favorite class because we get to go outside. It was like 80 degrees and it was hot! They tell me its cause the altitude and we are closer to the sun. I'm going to die when i get home because its over 100 already. My whole racing career I wanted to do altitude training. Who would have thought that I'd be doing it in a wheelchair. I got to try out a devise called the free wheel. It's a big wheel that goes on the front of your chair and it lifts up the front caster wheels and lets you go through rough terrain, rocks, grass, dirt. You know, like Moapa, except for the grass part. Haha. It was very cool. I will have to get one of those!

Off-roading!

Thats me of course, crammed in the very back. WTF?! :(

Mackenzie is still working me pretty hard. She is in charge of making sure I can do everyday things. Getting dressed, shower, bathroom, brush teeth etc. I have pretty much got that handled so she threatened to get the stop watch out and make me try to beat my times getting dressed. I talked her out of it. So now she is having me try everyday house hold jobs. Pull weeds, take out trash, mow the lawn!! I thought that is what I had kids for. Lol! I wish I could go back to training full time. This is going to be a adjustment when I get home lol.

Pulling weeds...

Using my Frederick charm to get out of it. Lol!

I had to practice putting on socks, but i didn't have any, so thanks to Ian, i got to use his. Tiff saw this pic and thought these were Kacee's socks. Haha! Sorry Ian.

Tuesday

My rec therapist, Claire, grabbed me after class and asked if I wanted to go for another spin on the hand cycle bike because she knew I was serious about getting one for home. Of course I jumped on it. We even got Ian to go with us. We had a great time even though it was a little sketchy riding on the Denver roads. Thursday I am getting fitted and ordering my own hand cycle! I am so stoked!

Ian and me getting ready for our hand cycle ride :)

I followed Claire until the last hill and then I made my move to the front. She wasn't very happy about it ;) She is extremely competitive and is an animal on a road bike.

Well, Kacee n Ian went back home tonight, and Tiff should be on her way back here now. It was hard, but really good for me to see that I can do this without her constant help. It takes me longer to do stuff on my own and I have to be more prepared, but I'll eventually get it and my daily routines will run much smoother, hopefully soon. I hope you enjoyed my outlook on the week. Thanks again to everyone.

"You never know how strong you are, until being strong is the only choice you have".

 

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