Update: August 20, 2005
Summer has brought many exciting activities and some big changes for Marla
and her family. The weekend of July 23rd and 24th,
Mary and Leo moved from their home of thirty two years in Glenwood Springs, to a
new duplex in New Castle, Colorado. New Castle
is about fifteen miles west of Glenwood Springs. Marla, Mary and Leo worked very
hard to fix up the house for sale, and to down-size
their belongings in order to fit into the new house. A garage sale helped them
pare down, and accompanied by several weeks of
hard effort to pack boxes, they completed the move. It has been an
adjustment settling into a new house, but it is starting to feel more
and more like home, and the house has less yard and infrastructure to care for
on a constant basis. The family still has many boxes
to unpack and a storage unit to clear out. Hopefully, once they are settled,
Mary and especially Leo will have more time to pursue
activities and hobbies. Marla was sad to leave her childhood home, but she likes
the much larger bedroom and having her own bathroom
at the new house. She continues to participate in activities with her friends in
nearby Glenwood, including her sorority, swimming a few
times per week at the Hot Springs Pool, volunteering at Valley View Hospital, as
well as her continuing physical, occupational, and
speech therapies.
Marla attended a two-week speech therapy program hosted by the University of
Colorado at Boulder Speech Sciences department.
She lived on her own in the Kittredge dormitories for two weeks while attending
the program (by coincidence, her room was
located about five doors down from the second floor Arnett Hall room in which
her brother Mark lived during his sophomore year at CU).
It was a big step for her independence, since this was her first extended trip
unaccompanied by family since her accident!
She had fun getting to know her roommate Shannon, and had a great time going on
evening and weekend outings with
friends in the Denver area.
The July 4th weekend found the family visiting Marla's grandparents in
Montrose. Mary and Leo had a great time re-kindling ties
with their fellow graduates of Ouray High School during an "All-Class" reunion
in Ouray that weekend. Marla had fun visiting long-time
friend Jenny Hart and her new daughter Mica. Marla and Mark also had fun on a hike in
the mountains above Ouray. On another
July weekend, Marla also went on a fun weekend outing with her sorority group to
Durango, where the group had a great
time shopping, dining, and spending time outdoors. In late July, Marla attended
a weekend women's challenge camp in
Winter Park hosted by the National Sports Center for the Disabled. Activities
included a bicycle ride, horse and carriage
rides, rafting, and hiking. Marla drew some beautiful watercolor paintings of
her experiences, which you can view in her
photos section.
During a recent checkup, x-rays show that Marla's right arm continues to heal
nicely, and on-going treatments of botox in
her right hand are helping to improve its flexibility and utility. She is
getting very good at increasing her use of her right
arm. Her speech continues to improve incrementally day-by-day, and she
still surprises Mary and Leo regularly with new
words. Her strength and endurance on her bicycle are getting much better--she is
really able to power up the hills now, and
she loves getting out for rides in the great outdoors, including several rides
on the bike path in Glenwood Canyon.
Thank you for visiting and checking in on Marla. Her progress continues
to amaze family and friends and we are so happy
to have her in our lives. Feel free to leave a
message, or visit the
updated photos while you
are here!