Life as a Leach

OFF WHILE AWAKE!!!!!!!!!!!! Abby is officially off of the vent whenever she is awake and only needs it while she is sleeping.  We go to the pulminologist next week, where she will decide if Abby is ready for a sleep study.  This is when Abby will spend the night in the hospital hooked up to a bunch of machines that will monitor her breathing patterns and let us know if she is having any apnea.  If she's not, we will hopefully get the go-ahead to start weaning her sleeping hours too!  (We'll start with naps and work our way up.) This is sooooo exciting for us and we are really enjoying the freedom without the vent.  When Abby gets her helmet off for good, she will really be "low profile!"  (People don't seem to notice the trach nearly as much as the helmet, which is funny since the helmet is the much lesser issue.)  We haven't gotten brave enough to go anywhere without having the vent in the car yet, but it's nice not to have to bring it into the re...

KGB (it's kind of like Groupon) has a deal going on right now with Lock and Lock.  You can get $50 worth of Lock and Lock products for $23.  You pay $23 to KGB and they send you a code to use on your next L&L purchase.  You don't have to use the coupon code right now, so you can save it until you find something on sale that you like.  You choose what you want to buy, so it's a pretty good deal.  They've had this deal before and it's gone quickly, so order now.  I'm not sure how long it will be up.  The coupon code itself is good until March of 2012. http://742abf67-0490-4ddd-afae-994058699313.kgbdeals.com/ If you use my link, I get credits on my KGB account.  :) Also, to sweeten the deal, you can enter kgblnl811 and get $10 added to your KGB account for future purchases.  Let me know if anybody takes advantage of this deal!  Happy Lock & Locking! 

...let me show you around my neighborhood.  All of these were taken on Wednesday, four days after the hurricane hit.  We have a looooong way to go before this mess gets cleaned up. The roof is tarped because a tree fell on it.  This family is lucky to have gotten it fixed so quickly. Power lines...sort of... This pole snapped in half Lots of dangling wires This made me so sad.  :( These are supposed to be running electricity!  Not so much! more dangling poles This poor family can't get out of their driveway! We know this family!  That tree put a hole in the roof.  :( That's a really neat stack of firewood.  If you have a woodburning stove, I think you'll be all set for the winter with this abundant supply! The tree knocked the shutter so it's crooked! We had to go under this tree that was arched over the road.  The picture doesn't do it justice.  It was a very tight squeeze! This one is dark, but this tree...

Did anyone else have that song in their head a lot during all of this?  NO?  Just me?!  Well, we survived the storm pretty well, I have to say.  We were much luckier than many of our friends and neighbors.  There are still a lot of people without power and many with trees that have caused damage to their houses.  If you're not local, understand that this was bad.   We only lost power for about 24 hours, and our generator did its job very well (except during the storm when the wind was so powerful that it kept blowing the motor out, which was extremely scary for us!!)  Caleb wasn't too scared during the storm and loved sleeping in the basement.  "It's an adventure!" Below are a whole bunch of pictures of the storm damage taken on Sunday, the day after the storm hit.  Please note that all of these were taken on main roads, because many of the side roads were not passable.  They were also taken as we drove by, so the quality isn't...