Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Influenza

It is December 27th.  Just a few days left in 2014.  As I click through the photos that captured our Christmas celebrations, I start to look back over the year.

As with any family, there are ups and down.  Triumphs and heart break.

I am going to gloss over the trials--Ellie's gastrointestinal and sleep issues, my torn hamstring and chronic back issues, my canceled trip to see my best friend, Andrew's wisdom teeth removal, my good friend's cancer diagnosis--and focus on the joys for 2014.

Nearly 1 year ago, Andrew left his long-time job at IBM to take a position with Red Hat, Inc. (I have no idea what exactly he does, but it involved tech stuff).  I was excited by the prospect of moving to the Boston area.  After all, I moved to Texas from the East coast and my best friend lived just an hour away.  Andrew was elated he found out that he could telecommute.  In mid-January, Andrew packed up his office and relocated his place of business to  . . . our dining room.  I so did not win the "let's move to Boston" argument, but Andrew is much happier now that he can roll out of bed and go to work in his PJs while working for a company that he loves and believes in.

We celebrating an early Christmas with my parents. 

Andrew also started to work on a bench to go with our kitchen table.  After 11 months, this large, gorgeous oak bench with tons of storage was finally completed and it made its home in our kitchen just 2 weeks ago.  Andrew really has a talent for architecture and wood-working.  There will be a future blog post on Andrew's DIY activities and believe me when I say you will be impressed!

The year of 2014 is the year that Ellie started to really communicate with us and all around her.  Andrew and I started to see changes in Ellie around February and since then, her communication skills have exploded.  Her signs are more fine-tuned.  She continues to make up signs, which confuses us until we finally figure them out using our powers of telepathy.  She is trying to vocalize.  In fact, with prompting, The Bear can say "I want red juice, please"!

We spent Christmas day at my BIL/SIL's new house in Celina.
For once, Ellie didn't run away from me at picture time.
To avoid the stink-eye, I tickled her.

Over the summer, The Chunky Chicken rode a horse for the very first time.  We thought that she would be scared seeing as she was petrified to go near a horse, but she was a rockstar.  Now, every Monday evening, Ellie has horse therapy.  She tells us "horse" and "key key" [donkey]. The changes that we have seen in Ellie are remarkable and I know that horse therapy is one of her favorite things to do.  Dance classes started back up this Fall and with it, Ellie's gross motor skills have progressed.  She is also imitating everything! She also has several of her own "fashion" posts--on this blog, Instagram, and Facebook.  Oh and did I mention that my BABY turned 5 years-old???

A very sleep deprived Ellie was an ornery little thing at her
classroom Holiday party.  She dumped plates of fruit onto the floor and shook her juice
onto the table.  However, when it came time for the piñata, she waited her turn!

As for me, I got my life back on track.  After years of yo-yo dieting and suffering from poor body image, I finally took control of my life and lost almost 30 lb.  In April, I participated in a 21 Day Fix challenge and I saw a significant change in not only my body, but also with my mental health, sleep, and energy levels.  I then decided to do something that was both exciting and scary--I became an Independent Beachbody Coach and run my own health challenges that focus on physical activity, clean eating, and mental health.  These past few months have been both exciting and challenging as I am now self-employed and trying to figure out the home-work-family balance.  This year, I will not be making the resolution to "loose weight", but rather focus on loving myself, becoming stronger, and creating healthier versions of my favorite foods.

Ellie was a little overwhelmed by all the presents at my in-laws' house.
She also didn't understand that some of those presents were not for her.
Well, maybe she did understand and just didn't care!

In May, our little family went to Madison, Wisconsin for a family vacation.  We stayed with my parents in a rented cabin along Lake Kegonsa.  The weather was gorgeous, the scenery was beautiful, and the company was the best.  After a week in Madison, we headed on down to Rockford, Ill where I gained a sister!  That's right, my baby brother Matt finally found a woman to put up with him.  Amber is the sister that I have always wanted and I am so happy that Matt finally got around to proposing to and then marrying her.  I would have been really unhappy if he let her "get away"!  Goal for 2015: convince the Bruns family to move to Austin.

A few weeks ago, my parents came to visit our little Austinite family for a week.  Mom and I got to see Trans-Siberian Orchestra, which was full of complicated guitar and electric violin rifts, amazing vocals, pyrotechnics, laser lights, and creative stage scenery.  I do hope that we can make Trans-Siberian Orchestra a tradition.  Of course we did our usual baking cookies with my mom, dining at Z-Tejas, and visiting Santa Claus.

Andrew, Ellie, Sophie Dog, and I made the drive up to Plano, TX to visit Drew's side of the family for Christmas.  The car ride up there was very difficult since I haven't been able to drive more than 20 minutes due to my back, but Ellie was very chill in the back seat.  As opposed to her usually screaming after 2 hours in the car.  We had a really nice visit with my in-laws complete with Dunja's awesome cooking, Charles delicious pies, and movies!  We finally saw Gone Girl.  Mama Dunja and I had a hard time holding it all in since Drew and Papa Charles didn't read the book. We also got to see most of my nieces and nephews and one of my great-nephews!  The drive back was excruciating and required frequents stops and limping (sciatica sucks), but I do not regret making the trip.  In the Theurer household, nothing is more important that spending time with family.

We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in Plano.  Ellie got a kick out of
Grandma Dunja  showing her the camera.

True to Ellie Bear form, 2014 is ending with a BANG!  Ellie was just diagnosed a few hours ago with Influenza A and an ear infection.  Girlfriend certainly knows how to ring in the New Year!

*The photos in this post are from: Breakfast with Santa at North Austin Mother's club, Holiday Party at Ellie's school, Lakeline Mall Santa, Christmas with my parents, and Christmas with Andrew's mom and step-father, et al.



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Therapeutic Horseback Riding-ERCT

We are fortunate to be a member of the Austin Special Needs group and the founder is a wonderful woman who tries to find all sorts of activities for kids with various abilities.  She recently set up a visit with Equine Rehabilitation of Central Texas [ERCT].  During this trip, Ellie had the opportunity to feed and groom horses and to ride a horse.

More on how this went with Ellie in a bit!

I have heard of hippo therapy and equine therapy, but I never really understood what it was.  Here is wiki's take on it:


Hippotherapy is a form of physical, occupational and speech therapy in which a therapist uses the characteristic movements of a horse to provide carefully graded motor and sensory input. A foundation is established to improve neurological function and sensory processing, which can be generalized to a wide range of daily activities. 


Equine therapy, also known as Equine-Assisted Therapy (EAT), is a treatment that includes equine activities and/or an equine environment in order to promote physical, occupational, and emotional growth in persons suffering from ADD, Anxiety, Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Dementia, Depression, Developmental Delay, Genetic Syndromes (such as Down Syndrome), traumatic brain injuries, behavioral issues, abuse issues, and many other mental health problems.^[1] Equine Therapy can help the individual build confidence, self- efficiency, communication, trust, perspective, social skills, impulse control, and learn boundaries.^[2] Since the horses have similar behaviors with humans, such as social and responsive behaviors, it is easy for the patients to create a connection with the horse.^[3] Riders with disabilities demonstrate their remarkable accomplishments in national and international sport riding competitions. Equine-Assisted Therapies all over the world have developed as a medical field recognized by most major countries.

Photo courtesy of horserct.org
This makes me so angry.  I am happy to report that he looks much healthier.

Ellie was under the mistaken assumption that we were going to go ride the horses, aka carousel, at the mall.  Imagine her surprise when she realized that they were real horses.  At ERCT, these horses were neglected and rehabilitated back to health before being trained to serve as therapy horses.  Upon arrival, girlfriend was led into the barn to feed the horses hay and carrots.  It did not go as planned.  She was afraid of the horse.  Excited, but scared.  She took great pleasure in gathering the horse feed and placing it in our hands.  Giggle of delight escaped her lips as Andrew and I fed the horse.  Giving Ellie the feed elicited cries and frantic shaking of her head  "nooooo".

Now Chicken was due to ride a horse and I am not talking about a Shetland pony here, folks. I mean a horse.  Big horse.  Imagine our surprise and shock when Ellie hopped onto that horse!

Riding the horse worked dramatically on her core strength and it wore her out more than any other activity.  Not only was her core working and her legs working to hold her up but also her mind.  She needed to channel all of her concentration into staying on top her horse.  Take that ADHD!  Her communication was also put into practice.  She had to give commands to her horse such as "walk on", "stop", and "go".  Ellie has to sign walk and stop sounds a bit like "op!", but her "go" is perfect.  Finally, her fine motor skills were honed in while she was forced to hold the reigns.

Next week, she will start regular lessons and learn to groom and feed her horse.  She will learn to care for her saddle and will also build an unspeakable bond with her horse Mickey.  Er, Icky!

*ERCT is a nonprofit 501(c)3 that is run by volunteers and donations.  It can cost upwards of $3,000 to nurse a emaciated horse back to health.  Lisa, the owner, is always looking for people to volunteer.