High Low Buffalo - October 2025

In this episode, Deonna and Rhandyl share the high, low, and buffalo (random thing that happened) from the past month.  From anniversary vacations, to speaking engagements, to family loss and emergencies, it's been an exciting past few weeks!  

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Deonna: [00:00:00] Hey y'all. Welcome back to Raising Disabled. So today's another episode of High Low Buffalo, and that is where me and Rhandyl just kind of recap what we've been up to for the last, few weeks. And we share one high or a couple of highs. A couple of lows, and then a buffalo, which is just something random that happened to us in the last few weeks.

And so today is Halloween when this episode is coming out, and so I love Halloween. It's my favorite holiday, I think. Really? There's no, yeah, I love Halloween. There's no pressure of like gifts and all that crap. Yeah, that's true. And you just, yeah. Get to have fun. And I love dressing up though. Like I've always loved dressing up as somebody else. It's just fun. 

Rhandyl: My husband, he, his birthday is Halloween. So Oh yes. Oh, nice. He loves Halloween. I do too, but I think he wants me to love it more than I do. Christmas is a top for me, but Yeah, it's not, like you said, it's not near [00:01:00] as stressful.

So Okay. The kids, Remi , for the last year, she's been obsessed with Bluey, so she's gonna be bluey and I bought a backup. Costume of Bingo because, everyone knows you gotta have a backup outfit and yep. Yep. So she has a backup costume this year. And then my son he had a birthday recently and he's already into like dressing up. All the time anyway, so he has like every superhero costume, multiple dinosaur costumes. So he's just gonna pick what he wants to wear today and uh, yeah, he, we may go through multiple, but yeah,

Deonna: I do have blueys mom's costume if you wanna throw that on. 

Rhandyl: Oh, okay. That's right. You guys were bluey a few years ago. I bet. Okay.

Deonna: It's one of those comfy jumpsuits, so you don't have to really overthink it. Yeah. We're doing trunk or treat well. I guess when this airs, we will have already done it, but we do usually do that on Halloween night. [00:02:00] But this year they moved it up a couple days because in Texas, football rains overall.

People have changed plans. But for trunk or treat, my son's dressing up with all of the girls. From his grade at church and they're gonna be the cast of Sandlot and so Oh fun. Cole's gonna be squints because, nice. He does wear glasses sometimes, and yeah, it'll be cute. And then oh, that's cute.

Allie, I, Allie talked me into letting her buy two costumes 'cause I'm such a pushover for Halloween. And so we're gonna be Addison and Nova from. Disney zombies movies. And so she's excited about that one. So we'll be that one for Trunk or Treat, and we have a whole trunk or treat thing that we're doing, with zombies and everything.

And so that'll be fun. Oh, cool. And we are gonna, I have to wear a wig. Allie doesn't have to wear a wig, but but I love it. It's [00:03:00] just fun. And then that's good. For Halloween night. Is going to be Zoe from. K-pop demon hunters and so Nice. I don't know if I'm dressing up actually on Halloween or something, either. But yeah I'll probably feel lazy by then and not wanna do it, but yeah, it'll be fun. I'm excited. I love Halloween. It's just chill and fun. I love it. 

Rhandyl: Yeah. I like seeing the kids be excited about it. That's like my favorite part.

Deonna: And Remi gets to go trick or treat at the administration building, right? Yes. For friendships. So that's fun. Yeah, no, she used to do it and we've actually seen. Remi there before, but yeah. No, she's not doing it, but it is such a fun event. I love that thing. Yeah, they have, it's so fun. 

Rhandyl: They have a lot of sensory friendly, so she is excited about that, but I love it. Yeah. So happy Halloween everyone. Yes. Yeah. Deonna, do you wanna start out on your high low buffalo? Yeah. Highs. 

Deonna: Yeah, I had a [00:04:00] few highs since we last talked about stuff. , I got to do a speaking event and our friend Amanda Kurt Singer, had asked me to be the parent speaker. I think she wanted both of us to do it, but then yeah. You were out of town, which we'll talk about, but yeah. I, I said yes and you know, when you say yes before you really had thought it through. That's how this was. And it, it ended up being really good. Some of my friends showed up to watch, you know, or were there and watch.

So that made me feel good, but, and it wasn't like a huge crowd or anything, which helped. But it was the first time I had really talked about. Everything we'd gone through. Like in where people were in the public were looking at me. Yeah. Yeah. And it was like all these parents. So I knew that was gonna be kind of emotional, but it went really good.

I talked about I. Different ways that we show up or we [00:05:00] choose to show up Yeah. For our disabled kids. And so it may end up being a podcast episode someday. 'cause I put a lot of work into it, so Yeah. It should be. Yeah. We may as well yeah. Use it exactly. But yeah, it was fun. It. It's like scary.

'cause you get up there and you think you're shaking really bad and you are. But I watched my video back and you couldn't tell I was shaking. That's good. So I was like, okay, thank goodness. But that was fun and it made me realize I could do it in case. Me and you have to do it exactly in the future.

I know I can do it. And I liked what I was saying and everything, and so it was good, but it was hard. I didn't get choked up till I mentioned like you and the other girls in the crowd that were all moms of disabled kids. And. I mentioned their names and then just the water work started.

What do you do about that? But it was good. And then we got to speak at Texas Tech Health Science [00:06:00] Center for the nursing students like a few days later. And for that one, I took my nurse, Macy, and then Allie and Cole missed school for that. And we go up there and it's like a q and a and they just ask me and whatever they want and I go there. You know, I tell 'em that's cool. The truth about what it's like treating families like ours and stuff like that. So I love that. And we always do that. Shameless plug for home health. 

Rhandyl: Oh yeah, I know, right?

Deonna: Yeah. But they always think it's fun to talk to Allie and Cole and yeah. Everything Allie said, what my favorite part of it was Allie was like. It was like funny, but not, but they were like Allie, what's your goal every day? What's something that you, you know, strive for every day?

And me and my nurse and my son had already answered for ourselves, and she's like, just to like, generally survive the day like, like not die. And we were like, what? [00:07:00] And I was like well, that's a good goal, good goal. And so far you've done it. Gosh. Oh, sweet Allie. Oh, that's hilarious. I know, just survival in general, but No, not hilarious.

But yeah, if you knew we were in her personality, it's funny, but like it's not yeah. Oh my gosh. But whoa. My son's been playing football, so we've been going to a lot of football games and football just takes over our life. Even like we are in a fantasy football league. Us and a bunch of our family members, and it's just we are thinking about football all the time. We're at football games, we're watching it on tv. It's just crazy. But yeah. But yeah his season's coming to an end and it's been fun to watch him, but we're kind of okay with it. 

Rhandyl: Yeah, we're a big football family too. I'm Uhhuh Remi loves. It's so funny, like I was looking through my time hop, like over the last few months, in football season. And we, yeah, I remember even when she was at Texas Children's, on Saturdays, we'd go up there and she'd sit in our laps or sit on the couch and watch games with us. And if I look [00:08:00] back at the pictures and she's actually, yeah. Watching it. And then to this day, man she. She'll watch football over her cartoons any day. And it's crazy. And she like claps appropriately. Oh my. It's such a great sound. And we laugh because we're, my husband and I are like, someday we're gonna have her set up all of our fantasy football. And she's gonna be like, yes, she's gonna take over the world, all over the fantasy football world, but if team, she's gonna have her. 

Deonna: Yeah, Allie has her own team and I didn't think she'd be able to do it. Like I thought, ah, she's a little kid. Yeah. She won't get it, and she gets it. She's winning multiple weeks. That's awesome. She's won and. It's she's oh my gosh, I gotta get in there and my, fantasy and I gotta redo my lineup for this week. Yeah. Like she acts all stressed about it. We're like, wave wires. Okay. Chill. 

Rhandyl: That's awesome. That should be her goal every day. Yeah. She gets in there.

Deonna: Yeah. But, oh, it's hilarious. I love it. But that's funny. Yeah, it was a brutal weekend to be a Texas Tech fan. We thought we were [00:09:00] maybe gonna win and then we didn't, so I was sad. Our street came to an end, but we went to homecoming in my hometown and that's always fun and just, hanging out with family and everything.

But yeah. The other thing we did was last weekend we went and saw Phil Wickham and Benjamin William Hastings and these other Christian seniors and. We've liked Phil Wickham forever, but me and Ali and Cole went and we sat on the floor at United Spirit Arena, which I had never done. And so that was fun.

Oh, and it was just like a fun, it was basically like church, with yeah, 20,000 people. It was, I don't know how many people fit in that arena, but it was just so fun. And we got introduced to all these new. People and it was fun. Oh, cool, cool. All these people saw Ally and it was just like a fun night. So that was good. But what were your highs since we last talked? 

Rhandyl: So the biggest one I think was my husband and I [00:10:00] took a vacation for our 15 year anniversary. We've been planning it for six months plus. , I was so nervous about 'cause we ended up going to the Dominican Republic and we stayed in Punta Cana and just planning it all and getting all the travel insurance and stuff. I just, in the back of my mind I was just like, it's not gonna happen. I think that's, yeah. 

Anyone that, I get it. That is, yeah. Anyone that has a disabled kid or medically fragile kid, like you get that, but I just we gotta get all the insurance, 'cause it's definitely not gonna happen. We hadn't went out of the country since our honeymoon. Yeah. . 15 years. So we had to get all new passports and all the stuff. Oh, for sure. But we made it and we had a village. My mother-in-law and my mom they were able to split up the time that we were gone.

We were actually able to be gone for an entire week. And so we stayed it was actually Cap Cana. It's a fenced area in Punta Cana that's like safer and there's [00:11:00] multiple resorts in there. Yeah. And when you look up the reviews, it's more of the chill, zen vibe and then like the other resorts outside of there like, like the party, night scene. And that's definitely not what we were going for. Yeah. And oh my gosh, we finally got there. Like the travel. Yeah. The whole time we were there, we stayed. In the all inclusive resort.

The one day we left the resort, we went on a guided deep sea fishing trip, which we love to do. Yeah. And so we ended up, it was like a 10 hour fish and it was awesome. Like we were nonstop catching fish. We weren't even 10 miles off the shoreline. And we started catching and we caught like a boatload of mahi mahi. The bummer of it was, you can't bring it back. Yeah. Okay. 

Deonna: You guys love deep because we're so used freeze situation. 

Rhandyl: Oh yeah. We have lots of good meat and things in our deep freezes, so Yeah. Yeah. So we're used to fishing in like the Gulf here in Texas, or we go to Louisiana and fish. And so we always have [00:12:00] all the coolers packed in the car. Yeah. And then get to bring it back. But our fishing guide, had connections with the. Really nice restaurant at the marina and took some of our mahi to the restaurant and then booked us a reservation for that evening and we went and they cooked a five course meal, like appetizer. Maine dish, like all these different things. Yeah, out of the fish that we caught all these different ways and they like made sui. That's crazy. They made these filets and then they fried some and I mean we were just like, how are we going to eat all this fish? It was just us. We were like, yeah. But it was so good. Oh my gosh.

And the food there was just amazing. Like everyone was so nice. It was very relaxing. , That was really the only plan we had. And then I knew we wanted to do a spa day. And so that's my vibe. We actually, yeah, we actually scheduled that on our anniversary, which was later on in our trip.

That we were like, [00:13:00] let's just do that on our anniversary and then we'll go to the, all the restaurants were nice in the resort, but we booked the nicest one for our anniversary night. The only day that it rained really bad all day was on our anniversary. So it was actually perfect 'cause we were at the spa the whole day and 

Deonna: it's like rain sounds. Oh my gosh. 

Rhandyl: Yes. Yeah, it was fabulous. Perfect. Yeah. We mostly just hung out around the pool, the beach yeah, just slept in. Oh my gosh. Had no agenda. And that's the best. Yeah. We paid for our phone service to be overseas and we made sure we could be, reachable. Like you could. Yeah. But it was still not, getting like. When I got back in into this funny was like she ended up texting my mom because we, me alive, I wasn't getting like any of my text messages. And once we got back into the states it was nuts. Like I got so many texts and then like my computer had some and my phone had some. It was so weird. It never came through all. Oh my gosh. It was. But [00:14:00] yeah, it was so nice and my husband surprised me with new wedding ring bands. It's so pretty now. Yeah. It was such a special thing that we got to do that.

And another high, a bunch of my college roommates and friends that we all went to Texas Tech and their homecoming was a few weeks ago at Tech. Mm-hmm. And they all came. And we all went to the game together and sat together. And it was just a blast. It was a blast. Getting to see them. I hadn't seen a few of them in like probably five plus years. It's crazy. Yeah. None of 'em live here anymore, but yeah, that was fun. But down to our lows house. Yes. What's your low

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Deonna: mine? I'm trying to remember when this was, but my one low we've had was the other night, Ali's been doing really good and it, oh, it was the day that we spoke at Texas Tech.

So, you know, I'm at Texas Tech telling everybody how amazing she's doing and I said she's been doing really great. Ha ha Ha. And I said, knock on wood, which I hit this like plastic table, which I'm like that's why that happens. But and we have a whole episode about how crazy and superstitious we all are, but [00:16:00] I, yep.

We went home and everything was fine and our nurse Tanya was at the house and none of our current nurses really have experienced. Ally having an emergency because she just hasn't been doing it very much. And she's had little mini baby ones, but like nothing that was like uhoh we're going downhill.

And she asked us and I'm sure a lot of parents can relate to this story because she told me like. In the evening she's like, I feel funny. I feel like I need a new trach. We swap out her trach, every few weeks mm-hmm. or whatever. And we do it once a month, but if she needs it earlier, we do it, it's fine.

But yeah, we were like, yeah, we'll do it. And we'll do it when you get in your room so that one of your nurses can do it. So they can get the practice. 'cause me and Dana have done it a million times, we want these nurses to get the practice. So we're like, we'll wait. And she's okay, we're about [00:17:00] to go in there.

And she's like, I need a new trach. And I said, okay, we're doing it right now. She was laying in the bed and I am, I'm talking to her nurse and we're just like. You know? Mm-hmm. Messing around, just talking and all of a sudden she just drops and her oxygen just started to plummet and Oh no.

I looked over at the pulse ox and I'm like, oh, here we go. Like again. And it's gonna be my fault this time. 'cause she's warned us multiple times that she needs a trach and we didn't take her seriously. And Ally's cognitively. Totally fine. So we should listen And we didn't, we were being stupid, but Dane was like in the other part of the house with my son and I see her start to desat and I tried to suction her and it, messed up the suction cath. Like the suction cath fell right, which has never happened before. And so I'm screaming at my [00:18:00] husband and I'm like yelling at him to go get a new trach to go get a new suction cath. So my son is getting the cath while I'm like trying to deal with her.

Problems and the nurse is helping me and you know, everything. And I just felt bad for her because like she hadn't seen Ali turn gray or blue. And she went down to 50 something. I don't remember what it was, but you know, they're supposed to be at a hundred, so Yeah. But fifty's not good. It sucks.

No, 50 is not good. Like you can die when you get down in there, but she just turned blue and was. I was like, keep talking to me. Stay with me. And you're just yelling at them to stay with you, even though they're not really Yeah. She didn't lose consciousness, but afterwards, 

Rhandyl: yeah. I'm sure she felt so weird.

Deonna: Yeah, it's bad. But it just sucked because we were kind of at a practice like for the real deal. Like every once in a while I pretend stuff's wrong and go through some motions, but it just had been. Like a [00:19:00] year. Yeah. Since she had a significant dsat, which I know you can't relate to 'cause Remi's dropping like constantly, but it had just been a while, like Yeah.

And so we just got complacent and so it was good practice I guess. But um, you know. practice can scary it kind of, it's kind of good when those things happen, if your kid's okay afterwards. 'cause you are like, oh, you know what? We didn't, yeah, we need to set our game up. We didn space where it needs to be, or we didn't do that or whatever.

But it did suck pretty bad. Oof. My son was very upset because he hadn't seen her look like that in a while, yeah. And I just. It sucked. And Allie was really scared. Honestly, the nurse was scared. It just was such a Yeah. New thing, and so sure that was not fun. But, 

Rhandyl: And I always, after those things happen at least for me, my husband and I, we will, after it's all done, one of us will say at least she., Talking about the nurse, like at least she got to [00:20:00] see and act on it. It so that if it happens when we're not around, they're more, 'cause it's so hard to simulate, like you said, it's been a year, so you've had different nurses in the last year and they haven't seen her yeah, I have,

I remember. Not that this is, I'm glad that I really can't simulate it anymore. But when Remi was younger, the sound of the vacuum cleaner Yeah. Would make her clamp down and turn blue. And so when we'd have a new nurse. This is horrible, but I was always like right there, but I would casually get my vacuum and not say a word to the nurse and just start vacuuming. And then she would turn blue and then I would go in and be like, okay, this is what we do. And do it do it and make Yeah. Yeah. But anyway 

Deonna: yeah. My nurse was okay, but it just was so shocking. 

Rhandyl: Sure. Because it happened, I don't know. Yeah. Quickly. 

Deonna: It sucked, but it's over. That's good. And every, we always debrief afterwards. I always go talk to Dane and we're like, okay I fixed some things and then I talked to the nurse and was like, okay, if I hadn't been here, this [00:21:00] is what I would want you to do. I talked to my day nurse about, it was like, if this happens at school, this is what you need to do. So it gives you learning opportunities, but. It's not with someone else's kid, it's like your kid, no, it's with your kid. So it just 

Rhandyl: Yep. Really sucks. It's not with the like practice dum dummy in a Yeah. Classroom. Yeah. So there's a little more involved. It's, yeah. This time of year, I feel like Remi gets more plugs in her trach. And I think it's just seasonal, allergies, that's what it was possibly.

Yep. So we, we've had to do more trach changes recently too, just because we'll notice she's breathing funny or we can't get the suction catheter down or something. Go through. Yeah. But thankfully, nothing as scary as what y'all had. That's especially been so long and. Or cold. It's like a reminder to all of us sometimes oh mortality. Yeah. Yeah. Not the best. 

Deonna: I didn't think it would scare her that much, but it did. She really freaked up, so I was like, [00:22:00] oh my gosh. Poor thing. Yeah. So what was your low? 

Rhandyl: My grandpa passed away. Yeah. And he lived a, very long, great life. He was a day shy of 94 years old. , Yeah. Almost made it. And yeah. But we were all glad he didn't pass on his birthday. Yeah. But yeah, . And my grandma still lived together, alone. They live in the same town as my parents. And it was just so cute. Especially the last probably five years or so, they're just like this little team. They were always pretty independent, like when I was growing up. And then just to see them grow old together. Mm-hmm. And thank God they still had their minds, and they were able to do that, but , yeah. He passed away and so we, we went home.

It was obviously an unexpected planned trip back home for the whole family. Yeah. But it was nice. It was a celebration of life. Of course there was sadness. Yeah. But we were all my cousins, my dad's brother, they live in Florida, but their sons live. One lives in [00:23:00] Washington State and one lives in California, but they were all able to fly in and make it to the services, and it was honestly such a. Peaceful service . , Most of us grandkids, like especially myself and my brother and sister, we got up and spoke and then my dad and then his brother. Oh, you talked. Yeah. Yeah. Oh my gosh. It was, that's to do, it was like a packed house. So yeah, we we all, of course just had a short under three minute little yeah.

So I spoke at that and it was special. I was able to keep it together until my brother the one person that I thought was like, he's Mr. Not emotional and very dry. And he gets up there and he starts choking up. And I was like, no, that's when I lost it. But yeah.

It was special. And he had a military service, the boys and their grandpas. It's just different, I know. Yeah. But they did a military service out at the cemetery and that was so special. Oh, that's cool. Yeah. Yeah. Those are cool. Yeah. So everybody, I love that everybody [00:24:00] had one of those that I yeah.

I was nervous about. I thought they were gonna have the rifles go off, but it was just taps the guns. Yeah. And then the folding of the flag. Yeah. 'cause I was already preparing the nurse. I was like, okay. So I will give you the cue and I'm gonna park really close to go to the car, go to the car before the guns go off. 'Cause Remi's still no, she would have, caused more drama at a funeral with that. But LA they didn't do, 

Deonna: Allie was worried about that, the 21 guns or whatever. She was worried about that too, at my grandpas, and they didn't do it either. I'm like, is that going away? I don't know what the deal is, but 

Rhandyl: I think it's probably just. Hard, they ended up having to back the plans up a day or so, just so that they could have the military service. I think there's, maybe less veterans that are doing those anymore. I don't know how it works. But it was nice getting to unexpectedly, see all the. First cousins. 'cause my cousins on that side, they're my age. And so it was really neat to see them.

Deonna: Is one of the cousins the one that wrote the [00:25:00] song that we use? Yes. Oh, that's cool. Yeah. 

Rhandyl: Everybody belongs. Yeah. Andrew Barefoot. Yeah. But that was my low yeah, but he's in, heaven now and he got to be reunited with his oldest son who passed away on the football field of an unknown heart condition at 18. So that was all of our first thoughts whenever we were like, he's getting too. Be reunited with Kerry. And of course a lot of other, 

Deonna: yeah. When you think about that, it just makes you feel better, even though you miss 'em. It's just oh my gosh. 

Rhandyl: And my sweet grandma reunion, we laugh. Yeah. My sweet grandma, we laugh because we always say she has FOMO. They always were at every single event, no matter how far away out of town it was, no matter if it was like a piano recital, a party animal sporting event. And so it was funny when I asked her a few, a few days after we got back home, I called her and checking on her and she was like, he's just up there having all these reunions and I'm just missing out. I was like, it was so funny. I was like, that's [00:26:00] so you, 

Deonna: she's I'm just gonna kick it out of here. I'm done. So you, yeah. That's hilarious. Hey, it's okay to be a little homesick for heaven, right? Yes, for sure. That's pretty cute. What's your buffalo? My buffalo is the other day, so I don't really talk about my husband being a policeman very often on social media because yeah, you know, people hate concepts.

But it is what it is. But he is a police pilot for the state of Texas, and so the other day he was gonna be landing at my daughter's school for the kindergartners for something which allie's in fourth. But yeah, they were doing some thing for them. And so he does this he'll land at schools and talk to the kids about being a policeman someday and stuff like that.

And so I've never watched him do it. He's done it like tons and tons of times. Yeah. But I've just always been like lazy and just [00:27:00] didn't go watch. Yeah. And so he was doing it at Ali's school and so I went down there and they were gonna let Ali leave class to go watch. Cool. Oh, cool. Him do it.

And so that was fun. Like I, I actually haven't seen him land the helicopter since Allie got hurt. We used to go visit him at work a lot and do stuff like that. But we just don't do that stuff anymore. Yeah. And so it was fun. We went down there and got to watch him land on the playground and That's so cool.

He got out and all the kids are like screaming and Ali's like, yeah, it's just my dad, just the dad. Who cares. Yeah. I, we were like, these kids are treating you like a rock star celebrity. Chill out kids. That's so cute.

But it was fun getting to watch him land and all the kids like get so excited and everything and Aw Allie hadn't seen him do anything like that. Probably that she even remembers, wow. Because it's been such a long time. Yeah. So we got sprayed by the dirt in our faces. But it was worth [00:28:00] it, and I'm filming.

Them get out of the helicopter forever. I'm filming who I thought was my husband. No. And then 70% of the way through the video, I realize I'm filming this other girl's husband that works with my husband. I'm like, oh, how funny. I can't even tell which one's which. They all look the same. They all have the same like clothes on and the same shaved heads. Yeah. But it was fun. But yeah, that was my buffalo for the last few weeks. What was yours? 

Rhandyl: So we went to this pumpkin patch. It's in a small town, like 50 miles from here, Floydada, Texas. It's a family tradition that we've, we started a few years back and so we went we didn't have a nurse that day, but we went on a Sunday afternoon and it was a. One of the first days that it actually felt fall-ish, like that morning, it was actually really cold.

It's been hot. Yeah. And that morning it was actually cold. I was like, yes. And so I picked out the kids' outfits, they're wearing pants and [00:29:00] sweatshirts and I get all dressed and, oh no, it's after lunch. And my husband comes in and shorts and a t-shirt and he's. Do I need to change? And I was like, I don't care what you wear, like you 

Deonna: don't work. It's not the aesthetic. I was going for change. 

Rhandyl: I don't care what you wear. And he was like y'all are wearing winter gear. And I'm like, not really, but it's chilly. He was like, no, it's not. It was in the seventies. We dealt with it and, but we were out in the middle. This place is out in the middle of nowhere in the middle of fields. But the kids loved it. My son threw the biggest fit when we were leaving 'cause he didn't wanna leave. And we had been there for almost two hours. And Remi was just cracking up laughing. That he was mad and it was just a whole thing. It was funny.

But they have this little pumpkin train that hooks up to the back of a four wheeler and they drove the kids around. I had to ride in there with them and I was. And they're like a sardine sharped in there because I'm like tall. And these little, they're just built for small children. Oh, I know what you're talking about. Yeah. Yeah. So we did that, and then they have a little carousel and a few little [00:30:00] things that they can ride on and a petting zoo. Oh. And then I love, I wait and get all on my pumpkins there for like decorating pumpkins for the house and for the porch and stuff. Because ,, it's locally grown, and they're not near as expensive as buying 'em at a grocery store. And they're usually really unique pumpkins. And yeah, I like all the funky looking pumpkins and stuff. We did buy a jack of lantern pumpkin. So that's gonna be fun to do. . So yeah, 

Deonna: We're terrible. We never carve a jack of 

Rhandyl: lantern. We haven't done it in years. I decided, I was like yeah, like Barrett the age that he'd probably like it. I think one year when Remi was really young, I did it and then she freaked out and hated the feel of it. And like it was a, this, it was a gross's, like never again. This is stupid. It is a gross feeling. I usually put on like gloves 'cause I'm a dork, but 

Deonna: Because we have medical gloves everywhere. I use medical gloves for everything now. And Dane's like me too. Really? Me too. If I'm opening a thing of raw meat, I go [00:31:00] put medical gloves on for that.

Rhandyl: Yeah. If I'm like mixing up meatloaf and stuff, I am like, it's. Yeah. Heck yeah. I'm all about the, yeah. And my husband will do funny things like he'll tell me, Hey, make sure and order a size large gloves on the next order. 'cause I have something to do. 

Deonna: Yeah. Oh, I'm about to do something. I know. It's so true. I know. We haven't carved a pumpkin in forever. I asked Ally 'cause her school has a pumpkin contest. And I was like, do you wanna do it? She's like, nah. I was like, okay. Whatever. We don't buy pumpkins for our front porch. We're being lazy. I don't, 'cause I always do Christmas right after, like I'm gonna be doing Christmas in the next few days, so it's yeah, I'm not, I know. I'm like, it's too late now. My pumpkin. But the Floydada thing is cool. I had a friend that was from there and yeah, it's a lot of the pumpkins in West Texas are from there. 

Rhandyl: Yeah. It's huge, crazy, and it's crazy you drive by on your way there and it's field's full of pumpkins and you're like, the season's almost [00:32:00] over. And we actually used used to, whenever my husband and I would go home, before kids, we'd go home every weekend during the season to go hunting and deer love pumpkins. And oh, do, they would reach out to pumpkin farmers that, had pumpkins just. Volunteer pumpkins that were out there that they weren't gonna farm. And they'd say, yeah, just load up the back of your truck. Go and grab what you want. And some of 'em were like half rotten, but the deer don't care. And you smash 'em and then the deer love to eat the inside of them's. And we have so manys of like deer head. Up in a pumpkin and they like put it way up and then so it just looks like a pumpkin, headed of deer. It's like stuck and they're like trying to get the all the seeds out of it. It's so funny. 

Deonna: It's like the headless horseman or something. Basically. Yeah. It's funny. A sleepy hollow. Oh my gosh. Yeah. It's like Jack, we have not the pumpkin king. We have not been to a pumpkin patch since in, in El Paso. There was one route outside of El Paso called LA Union. It was a huge, like one of those really cool ones.[00:33:00] 

Mm-hmm. And I guess I just cannot bring myself to go. I don't know why we've had offers to go. Yeah, but I just know with Ally it's gonna be so hard. And I'm just like, yeah, we haven't tried that yet. That's been one thing. We have just not been motivated. I think we have so many good memories of that patch knowing. Yeah. You don't wanna spoil it Allie. Yeah, I know. No, I get that. It's like there's some things I just. I don't know, like 'cause of the trauma you've been through, you don't wanna mess up your memory. And I think that's one of them. 

Rhandyl: There's one, yeah, there's one pumpkin patch here that I don't like to go to. Because we had a really terrible first experience. It was one of our very first times to take Remi out in public after getting her home. And it was horrible. Like I came home and cried for hours and just 'cause 

Deonna: of how hard it was or were people being weird 

Rhandyl: both. Remi was not having fun. She was clamping down both. We were bagging her the whole time. People were staring at us. Oh my gosh. We were just trying to have a fun time, do something like, have a normal [00:34:00] experience as a family and it was awful. And so I was like, never again. And then when Cole and I were on vacation my mom actually took both the kids to that. Specific pumpkin patch. Oh my gosh. Because they had bluey and bingo there. Yeah. And so the nurse was like, Hey, we should do this. And so my mom was down for it and took 'em and you should see the pictures of her there she is just like all smiles and happy too. And so it made me like, okay, at least I didn't have to go, and have to be nervous about it, that she got to go and have fun. Oh. But it was, yeah, that was terrible. So floydada it is, 

Deonna: this time of year is this time of year is weird for us because Allie's injury was on November 7th. Yeah. And so I love Halloween, obviously, but every time Halloween's over it's okay, I know that the anniversary is one week later. You know what I mean? It's 

Rhandyl: that's probably why we start decorating for christmas. 

Deonna: Like I think it. Maybe it's we used to decorate on the day of her injury, but now we do it [00:35:00] whatever weekend is like before it. Yeah. But it is crazy. I don't know, like when you've been through trauma like me and you and so many others, listening like, yeah.

Yeah, those times of years just remind you of tough stuff. And I think that's also sometimes why I avoid the pumpkin patch and all these things is 'cause I'm just like like we did that right before, like just you know what I mean? You're just like, no, I get that freaked out, but yeah, it's a crazy time. But yeah we're gonna do another one of these, I believe. When we come back after our break, which will be sometime in the beginning of 2026.

So this is just everything we've been up to up until now. And at our next high low buffalo, we'll be. The Thanksgiving and the Christmas and just all the great stuff. Yeah, it'll be fun. And so that'll be a fun one. I hope it'll be lots of fun stories. We'll do like no lows, right? No, yeah, [00:36:00] there's always a low. Unfortunately, we, but I know, but we hope these are fun for you guys, and so we will see you 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.