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Rhandyl: Hey y'all. Welcome to our newest episode of High Low Buffalo. It has been since right after the holidays since we updated you guys on our lives and life has been busy, like always. , Deonna and I have been recording a ton of episodes with. A lot of guests and they're all so good and it's so hard to wait to launch them. Mm-hmm. Honestly, there's so many good ones. But we are ahead of the game this season, which has been really nice. It helps us out so much with planning and editing and just really good content for our listeners. So we have really great things coming up. So please follow us on social media and set reminder notifications on your raising disabled. Podcast wherever you listen to this. That way you won't miss an episode and we promise you will not be disappointed this season.

So we'll start out today with our highs. I guess I'll get started. So in January I had my [00:01:00] birthday, so woo woo, just another day. But I scheduled a spa day. And so I had scheduled it the week of my birthday, and I usually do this once a year. And it's just such a relaxing experience. I mm-hmm. scheduled like this,, glorious facial and they have this awesome quiet room and they serve mimosas is usually my go-to. I usually get there like 45 minutes prior to my appointment, hang out, relax. I try to not even bring my phone in there, just like chill. Mm-hmm. And enjoy like, soak up every moment I can, whenever I have a minute to just let my brain chill and be alone, which is not very often as yeah, as for most moms. But. That was really nice.

And then my sister had a. A baby and it was the first girl on our side of the family born since Remi was born and Oh my, so there's five boys in [00:02:00] between these two girls, so ooh. Yeah. Yikes. Her name is Clara and she is absolutely. Oh, that's cute. Beautiful. And so, yeah, it was a big deal. Obviously new babies are always a big deal, but we were also excited. To have another girl. Yeah. In the fam.

So Remi got to meet her for the first time recently at my dad's birthday if you guys have listened to previous high low buffalos. My dad in August had a really scary cardiac incident that ended in a open heart surgery. He's recovering wonderfully. He's. Back to his self and is doing really well. But this year it wasn't like a big decade birthday or anything. It was just, , like, Hey, you're live. Thank God for another birthday. But we all went to Shamrock. My siblings and I, and all of our families were there for his birthday weekend and we. Scheduled a big family photo session out at one of his farms. [00:03:00] That's cool. And so that was, it was really nice, especially since, you know, we have the new baby and mm-hmm. everybody's family, you know, is updated per se, like per photo, for photo op.

But it was also just a celebratory awesome weekend. We had a big. Dinner and then all of us went to church together and my dad he just randomly went up. No one knew he was gonna go up to the pulpit, and he made the waterworks come out. Oh my gosh. Yeah, so we were like, 

Deonna: like during church? 

Rhandyl: My mom had no idea. Yes. He walked up there and interrupted the preacher, as he opening the Bible and was like. Hey, can I say something? And he is like, well, yeah. And he, yeah. So it was, 

Deonna: so what did he say? Just talking about what had happened and everything. 

Rhandyl: Yeah. He actually it was a testimony of, my gosh, things that happened in the hospital. Um, Oh man. And, you know, being grateful for, of course his kids yeah. And family. But he, he told a, [00:04:00] basically it was like a testimony of visions and things that he had in the hospital, during all of the surgeries and prior and after and all the things. So, 

Deonna: oh my gosh. It was it was your mom like, what are you doing? 

Rhandyl: She,, I was sitting right beside my mom. Yeah. And she was like that, Scott. Oh my gosh. And then when he starts talking, she's just like bawling, crying and somebody threw, throws over a tissue box to her and oh, I man, of course we're there with, I mean, all the kids are in church, so it's like five rowdy boys that are all like under eight years old. And I am just like distracted trying to keep them separated slash quiet. And honestly was about to say I wasn't paying attention. And then all of a sudden I hear my dad's voice and I look up and I'm like, you're like, what the, what is going on?

And I was like, mom, did you know? And she's no. So anyway, that was, 

Deonna: that's cool that he did that. 'cause that was probably really scary for him to do that.

Rhandyl: But he's not that kind of person. He's not daddy either one to go up there. No. I remember when we were young, he's been a deacon at that [00:05:00] church. Forever. But he, yeah, they would ask him to pray and he is like, no, 

Deonna: my dad was, he's not like that too. Like my dad was a deacon, but he was a very like behind the scenes type guy. So yeah. Mm-hmm. I'm just, if he's like my dad, that would've been, yeah. Just very shocking. I, yeah. I saw your mom post about your dad's birthday and I almost started crying just seeing the Facebook post. 'Cause I'm like we know this life is. So unpredictable and crazy and I mean, whew. Like it just, I was happy your dad was still here. I'm like, yeah. Oh my gosh. Yeah. That's crazy that he got up and talked. But yeah, I bet it was cool. Felt, 

Rhandyl: he just felt the pull and, it was really good. It was really good. But 

Deonna: the spirit lead him up there. 

Rhandyl: Yeah, for sure. So that was fun. And Remi, got to meet the baby and she's not ever been the biggest fan of. Babies. But she loves when they cry. Crying babies. Yeah. She loves Oh, she likes it when they cry. Yeah. She likes when anyone cries. Honestly. She's so twisted. Yeah, she is. She's so twisted. And so she finally, like the [00:06:00] last day, she got really curious because, you know, she's on the floor a lot. And so then baby Clara was on the floor. Yeah. Close to her and she crawled over to her and she was looking at her and then. She smacks her. Of course, but she, I think she, 

Deonna: I was wondering if she was gonna do that, 

Rhandyl: was trying to get the bow off of her head. I don't know. Yeah. But I was like, she was not gentle, so I was like, okay. Ing Exactly. I tried to explain it and she's just laughing like. She really didn't care. I was like, oh my gosh. But anyway, she's like, whether baby's excited or not she may be jealous because she's not the youngest girl and the family now. Oh man, now, but, oh well. What do you do? I know.

Okay. So the biggest Remi update, that's like a high We recently got accepted. Into the Undiagnosed Disease Network for her, and I've talked about this a lot on the previous episodes. We have been trying to get in this case study for [00:07:00] years. Mm-hmm. She will be 10 in August of this year, and so. We first applied when she was an infant, when she was still inpatient at Texas Children's. Oh man. And we were denied because of some variant gene that they found that they thought she was diagnosed . And then since has not been proven to be true. So, yeah, we've been working with geneticists and doing all these things, medical records, and then we finally got the go. And so now the next steps entail, of course, more genetic testing, but we will be going to Houston this summer for some outpatient appointments and things with. Baylor Genetics and it'll be like three days worth of outpatient appointments. Yeah, it's exciting. And the cool thing about it is once you get into this program, they help fund 'cause there's a lot of genetic testing and things that insurances won't pay for. Oh. And so, yeah. So that's kind of been a, a. Loophole [00:08:00] or , something that we've been challenged with the past few years. Yeah. Holding her back. Yeah. 

And so now that she's accepted into this network, they help fund extra testing. And they also help with travel and lodging expenses, which is gonna be very nice. We already go to Houston every summer anyway, so we're coordinating those visits with our pulmonologist there. But that's good. 

You know what does this mean? Well, really it's just getting all of her DNA, her chromosomal all medical records into the system so that. They can continue to research, and other people that get put into this network. Yeah. And if there's, if there's like a match match or mm-hmm. Um, in the future. 'cause genetics is , it's still the forefront of this whole genetic so complicated. Yeah. So, we're excited about that. It's uh, been a long time coming and, you know, I'm okay if we don't get answers, but I'm just [00:09:00] happy that we're at this point finally. So that's a, big high, but, okay, I'll stop rambling. What about you guys? What have y'all been up to? 

Deonna: We really have not been up too much. I was going back through our photos and I'm like, we haven't done this that much stuff, but we did. So there was a big snow storm that everybody probably listening was affected by, and it was during the week of Ally's birthday.

And so, we basically were home with Ally and had a birthday. Week instead of just one day. So she kinda liked that you know, we just partied for a whole week. But yeah. She turned 10 and it was really just a fun double digits and a few days at home. I know, it's crazy. I mean, when you have a kid that's been through what a lot of our kids have been through, making it into the double digits is wild. Like I. I, I really thought we were gonna lose her when she was five, you know? Right. So it's crazy that, well, four and five, [00:10:00] but sure. Yeah it's a miracle that she made it to this number.

But we had fun. Like she had a wicked themed birthday. 'cause she loves wicked. Yes. And so me and her, she has one of her little best friends lives a couple houses down from us, and so she was at our house. A lot that week. And so Lakin helped us decorate Ali's birthday cake. I kind of can decorate birthday cakes and stuff, but yeah, you're pretty good. Don't, Don't, she? Yeah. I mean, I'm all right at it. I'm not gonna make one for somebody else, but I can do 'em for myself. But she she helped me ice it, so that was kind of fun. 'Cause Ally was cute. Got to, you know. Be a part of it. Yeah. And her friend got to learn how to ice the cake and everything. And of course they pick out the most complicated, you know, thing. They wanted me to I don't know if anybody decorates cakes, but they wanted me to do half the cake in pink icing and half in green. [00:11:00] Well, that's not that easy to do. I thought it would be easy, but it's, I. It was still pretty hard.

But no, we had a good time and just made the cake watch movies later around for that whole week. 'cause they couldn't go to school. I mean, nothing was shut down happening. Yeah, it was actually really freezing. I, me and you both have generators so. I don't get that stressed out about that stuff, but yeah. You know, yeah. I don't think we ever lost electricity or anything, so that was good. I was like, as long as we didn't, the wifi stays rolling. We're good. If the wifi goes down, allie's gonna freak out. But so we just kind of had a fun little at home birthday and then she went to Dave and Buster's a few days later. Once all the snow went away. 'cause that's what we were gonna do. Yeah.

But we had a good time and then we went to. We always go to my college, I went to LCU. We always go to their homecoming. They have this thing called Master Follies where all the sororities and [00:12:00] fraternities do like a show and it's really fun. Yeah, we go every year, me and my kids. And so it was cool. Like you always get to see these people you haven't seen. In a while or, you know, things like that. So it's a good time. But 

Rhandyl: did your sorority win this year? 

Deonna: They did, but I didn't. Ah, yeah. So they won, but I voted for a guy, sorority or fraternity. Fraternity. And yeah it's really fun. It's such a hard thing to explain to people outside of that school, but it's just a good time. But yeah, we really didn't. Do a lot. I mean, we've kind of been just at the house a lot. Yeah. Except for doctor things and things like that.

So, so what have y'all's lows been?

Rhandyl: Really just the biggest low so February for Remi has been really hard health wise. She,

Deonna: us too. 

Rhandyl: Yeah. She just there's been like two weeks out of the month that she basically ran fever all week. One of them, she ran fever for [00:13:00] like nine days or more. And, she tested positive for just a random viral cold, yeah. That she had never previously tested positive for. So, we just assume, hey, it's her immune system's, first time to fight it. Just taking it her a while. And then , her other one, her fever only lasted like three days, but they were both just viral things and she just is not a fever runner, so it's been very strange , this season. Mm-hmm. Just her having to, but thankfully respiratory wise, she's been able to handle it fine and we're able to manage our, that's good at home. Yeah, previously she's had. Things like rhinovirus that , she ends up in the hospital with and yeah. 'cause it's just really affects her respiratory drive and everything. But no, she's handled them like a champ. It's just, I've hated, 'cause she loves school so much, but mm-hmm. She missed a lot this month, unfortunately.

I remember, in the fall, she got this award for [00:14:00] perfect attendance and I kind of laughed. Like, oh my gosh, it was the first time ever . And then of course we're like, never again. Yeah. Well. That's not happening in the spring. No, No. But yeah,, that's just really kind of been our biggest low is just that she's, had these viral colds but otherwise really things have just been kind of steady other than that. What about y'all? I know you've been sick too. 

Deonna: Ours is the same. We've been sick con like chronically for three weeks or four weeks. Like we, me and Cole both got strep together, which I'm chronically getting strep now.

Like it's just a part of me, I guess, and I'm like, you know how like our daughters can colonize. Certain things like in their trach. I'm like, I think that's happened to me with strep. And people are like, just get your tonsils out. I'm like, I don't want to do that. 

Rhandyl: I've heard that's terrible as an adult.

Deonna: Well, and I've witnessed Cole go through it as a little kid, and it was not the funnest experience. So I'm like, I would have to just [00:15:00] chronically have it all the time for me to consider that, but I'm like, no, but we both had strep together. Cole got COVID. I got some mystery illness that made me very sick for six days straight.

I never get so sick I can't like, just keep going. Yeah. But the other day I told Dana I gotta go lay down, which really upsets my kids. If I ever have to go lay down, especially Cole, it just blows his mind that I. Need to go lay down. If a dad goes and lays down, no one cares, but, oh yeah, I go lay down. They're like, oh my gosh, is she okay? I am like, I'm fine. I'm just really sick. Like I need to go lay down. But it cracks me up. He's like in there checking on me every 10 minutes.

But, yeah, we've just been so sick. Our nurses have had all kinds of things, like flu and things like that, and so we were just exposed to so many things. We exposed them like, [00:16:00] yeah, i, you always feel so bad when one of your nurses gets sick from you. You're like, I know. I'm sorry, but it's just a part of this, you know? I was like, life selling my house. Yeah. As I'm sick, we're resoling the house. I'm like, this is like shoveling in a snowstorm, but whatever. Right. 

And then we also I know I mean, I can't complain about this because everybody listening has the same experience, but we go see so many doctors at the beginning of the year. Like it's when we. I don't know, that's just how it ends up. Medicaid re you know, re-upping Medicaid and things like that. Right. So we've just been in the doctor so much, like all me, like I have ms. So I have to go to the doctor and all this stuff. And the other day you know, I always go to the doctor and they're like, you're doing great. Everything's amazing. Well, the other day I went and they were like. I did blood work and uhhuh, [00:17:00] I got a little message back saying my blood work was ready and that it was abnormal.

And I'm like, what the heck? Like I, I never have that come back like that. And so one of my liver enzymes was high. I. That kind of freaks me out because my family, like my dad and my grandpa both have liver issues and I'm just like, oh my gosh. You know what is going on? Oh, no. Yeah. Well, they were like, well, one of your meds might be raising it, or maybe it was some environmental thing, which I've been sick and things like that, so I have to redo that. But they were like, well, just change your med. You know how that is oh, when you have to change a med, it's such a thing. I just am like, please, no. So I have to get rechecked in June. I'm hoping that number yeah. Goes back down. But it's just hard. I don't take, I do take good care of myself with the MS stuff. Yeah. As far as I can, but I never think about me having. Right. Like a [00:18:00] problem because that's just what Allie, you know, like that we just focus so much. 

Rhandyl: No, we can't focus on ourselves. On her. Yeah. 

Deonna: Yeah. So when they said that, I was like, oh, that I was just like, caught me off guard like, oh, I could have problems. Like still, ugh, no. Some days it's just too much. But no, we've just been sick. We've been in the doctor. I'm like, I'm ready for the sun to kind of come back out and us. I, although it sucks because in Lubbock then it's like windy and you have allergies really bad. So March is a rough month for Lubbock people, but 

Rhandyl: it's, the dirt is horrible.

Deonna: Yeah. What do you do? So what is your buffalo? We, I always remind people of buffalo is kind of like a random, funny thing or just like some random thing that you did this month. So what's your buffalo for this last few weeks? 

Rhandyl: Well, you mentioned the snowstorm, so we got Yeah, a pretty good amount of snow and of course, that was the first, sickness that Remi had was during that. So she didn't really get to [00:19:00] enjoy the snow festivities, but anyway, my buffalo we always go snow skiing. Every winter. I try to at least go once a winter because I love snow skiing. If I lived closer to the mountains, it would be something that I did leisurely all the time. Yeah. But we were unable to this year, so I was like. Bye. Golly, I'm getting on skis whether it's in the mountains or not. And so, oh my gosh. 

People that don't know about Lubbock or west Texas where we live, it is flat. You can see for miles, no hills and miles and miles. There's nothing. Yeah. And so basically it was, it was a little bit of a cross country ski situation out in the front yard. And we had, oh my gosh. We had been sledding, my son had been sledding behind the truck. Yeah. Like we're. Redneck like that. We have a lot that we have next to the house and hey, I've done it. It's fun. It's so fun. So, my husband and I were taking my son's sledding and then after that we had taken the sled off and I [00:20:00] put my skis on and my son was like. Mommy pull me. And I was like, I don't think I can., But I tried and I did. , And everybody's like, oh my gosh, how did you do that? But, so I pulled him just not very far. 

Deonna: Oh, you pulled him while you were skiing? 

Rhandyl: While I was skiing, yeah. 

Deonna: Oh, heck no. I wouldn't be able to do that. 

Rhandyl: It was definitely a cardio workout. For, and then I just made you a little appreciate the lmp.

Yeah, for sure. I skied a little route in the front yard and I was like, okay, well this is not near as fun as you know, 'cause I like to go fast downhill. So, yeah. Um, Not much for the greens, but yeah, that was my buffalo. I actually got green girl, my uh, skis on and. Get in the snow for just a little bit. But 

Deonna: that's good. Did y'all watch the Olympics? 

Rhandyl: Oh my gosh, yes. We watched so much Olympics this year. And 

Deonna: Remi, what was your favorite life moments or whatever? 

Rhandyl: I loved the the gold medalist in the women's ice skating. I loved, 

Deonna: oh yeah. That was [00:21:00] fun. Yeah. 

Rhandyl: Yeah. 

Deonna: She was so fun to watch. 

Rhandyl: Yeah, she was so fun to watch. And I just loved how. She was so open about, she had taken a few years off mm-hmm. Really ice skating and just lived life. And then was on a random ski trip with friends and went to an ice rink and picked it up again. And then just kind of realized, hey, I can show my art this way and not be so pressured into the mm-hmm. the awards and all the things. Yeah. And so I loved that story and you could just tell by the way she skated she was just so relaxed and yeah. She looked released carefree. Yeah. It was awesome. 

But of course the USA hockey teams, men and women's that was wild. So exciting. Yeah. That was fun. So exciting. And we were actually, when that game was going on is when we were at home for my dad's birthday and we're all watching it before church and we just all just start screaming The men's, the men's game. Uhhuh. Oh my gosh. We all are just going wild because it had been so long, since [00:22:00] 1980. I know. Since they won the gold. 

Deonna: I know. I love the whole 1980 story. Me too. That movie Miracle has gotta be in my top five favorite like sports, movies, ever. 

Rhandyl: Such a great movie. 

Deonna: So I thought that was cool. There was so much there was so many fun stories. I liked the girl winning the. Gold. That was fun. We always liked to watch the snowboarding. Oh yeah. Me and Cole had fun watching the, oh man, it's like the race. I can't think of what they're doing. The, what is it called? Moguls. Oh, yeah. Or the, you know, the little bumps. Yes. But then they have to do the jumps. Right. Me and Cole had fun watching that one, but it was, their legs look rubber. I don't know how, oh my gosh. Their joints there. Was there,

there were so many fun moments from this Olympics. I feel like. Yeah. I had fun, like following all the different athletes on social media and just seeing the behind the scenes of everything, yeah, it was. It was a fun Olympics. I feel like it was, it really was. It was pretty cool. Yeah we had a good time watching all that stuff too. It cracked me up how that guy got his teeth [00:23:00] knocked out and then he, I know, continued to play. Oh yeah. If I had gotten my teeth knocked out, I'd have been like, bye, y'all. 

Rhandyl: Yeah. Those I'm telling you what those hockey players are. They're crazy. Are a different breed for sure. 

Deonna: They're insane and it's so cool that they won. Like the girls and the guys both going like that. 

Rhandyl: I know in the same scenario, 

Deonna: the girls have been winning forever, but the guys finally got it together. 

Rhandyl: Same. Yeah, in overtime, you know, one to one. It was so cool. 

Deonna: That was, That was wild. And I don't, I guess like when we live down here, you don't think of us as like a hockey. Right country. But I feel like if you're in the north, maybe you'd think differently of it. Oh yeah. Like we've, I've only seen one hockey game in my whole life. Me, it's me too. 

Rhandyl: I loved it too. You know, wild. And after we went, it's wild. We were like, we've gotta come back more. It's just, you know, we gotta go all the way to Dallas to. 

Deonna: To go to Stars. Yeah. They had a little semi-pro team when we lived in El Paso. And we went once and it was really fun, but wild. 

Rhandyl: They used to have a semi-pro team in Lubbock actually.

Deonna: Mm-hmm. But the Cotton Kings. Yeah. [00:24:00] Yeah. So they need to bring it back. I know. Come on. 

Oh man. Well, my buffalo is super weird and random, but i'm a huge. Downton Abbey fan. That show is my everything. Like I've seen it a million times and it's like one of my little comfort shows. I just put it on.

I actually watch it every year from like October to Christmas. Like it's my Oh, that's cool. Little holiday thing that I do. But they had an exhibit at our live or at our museum. The tech museum. Yeah. And it was really cool. Have you ever watched the show? 

Rhandyl: No. 

Deonna: You maybe would like it. I don't know, but it's very British and stuff.

Rhandyl: Yeah, no, I think you would like it. 

Deonna: Yeah. It's fun. It's very dramatic. It's about the, you know, different classes back. Like in the. Early 19 hundreds. But it was really cool because they took all, not all the costumes, but they took a lot of the costumes from the show and [00:25:00] they made this really big, like Downton Abbey Museum exhibit. Oh, nice. It would have the outfit, which I'm such a nerd about the show that I would know okay, this is the outfit like that, you know, Mary was wearing when this happened. I just know 'cause I'm psycho. Yeah. I, because you've watched it all so many times. Yeah.

But it's so cool seeing their costumes and you know, just getting to look at 'em up close. They were all like, so over the top. Oh yeah, fancy. And so that was just cool. That show has just always, I've always loved it so much, and so it was so fun. Now it made me wanna go watch it all over again, but it was fun getting to go see all of these, you know. Things that I love that's really neat in the show, but kind of random, but I, no, my show I shared about it and then all these people that like the show are like, oh my gosh, I wish I could have seen that. I'm like, you find out all the people that love the show with you. 

Rhandyl: Yeah. And you probably liked it. It like, I didn't [00:26:00] even know about it until you posted it.

Deonna: Yes. No I'm a huge fan of the show, so I was like having my country show. I was the only one in there having a great time. 

Rhandyl: That's funny. No, that's great. No, my comfort show right now is Emily in Paris. It's

Deonna: I love that show. 

Rhandyl: Yeah. It's fun. 

Deonna: I know I'm always watching these shows that have like subtitles and stuff. My husband's like, how do you do that? I'm like I don't even notice it after a while, but yeah. That show. And I don't know, there's a lot that I watch. I have subtitles,

but so that's kind of what we've been up to. It's been a little bit of a rocky beginning of the year as far as like illness and stuff goes, but it just, it is what it is with us. Like anytime our girls get sick, you're just like, oh crap. Like what? Is going on. But yeah, they've both been okay so far. So it's been a good beginning to the year and so that's what we've been up to. We like to keep you guys updated since we don't necessarily [00:27:00] always talk about our day-to-day when we talk to other people and things like that. And so that's what we've been up to and we will see you guys next time.

**Disclaimer

Before we go, I wanna remind our listeners that this podcast is for the purpose of education and entertainment only, and is not a replacement for seeing a doctor. We suggest you seek out the help of a trained professional for help with your child's specific situation.