Phoenix

Like a phoenix rising up from the ashes only to be blown out of the sky by an Okie duck hunter was my return to playing indoor soccer goalie after two years of retirement. Things can only get better after the 12-2 thrashing we received tonight. Hopefully, my return to blogging will go a little more smoothly.

There's a lot of ground to cover here so we'll use some pictures to help things along. Over the last 2 months there have been good times...


and bad times...


We've played in the legendary mole hills of Bixby. It's "Don't make a mole hill out of a mountain" around here.


We've inaugurated the tricycle era.


And for Father's Day, I received the first ever painting on canvas by the Shirtless Picasso (note the trademark blue ear). I believe he's calling this one "Something to Do Before 2nd Breakfast."


But mostly, Benjamin has been spending time with his two true loves - books...

...And his girlfriends.


As you'll see, the two seem to go together.

Sara Hill came over to our place and read some books for Ben. He was mildly excited about this.

And now you know the way to Benjamin's heart.

I think that pretty much sums it up. Ben hasn't had any surgeries for the past 6 weeks which has been very nice. His next one is coming up on August 5th, and it's a big one. The surgeon will be taking out Ben's trach and putting in a new one that will allow Ben to attempt to breathe through his nose and mouth. Before he switches out the trach, he'll go in and repair the damage that was done to Ben's airway when they put the first trach in. This means that everything above and below Ben's vocal cords should be pretty close to normal after the procedure, and putting this new trach in will let us see how much work the doctor still has to do to open up the airway between the cords. We'll be staying in the ICU at OU Children's Hospital in OKC on the first night after the surgery, and we're hoping he can go home on the 7th.

It's good to be back with y'all again, and thanks as always for praying for Benjamin.