Where Dreams come True

After a long sabbatical, it's good to be back online and back home. As you can see we've had a summer vacation, and I might add, it was magnificent. We wound our way through the south, stopping at one of the nicest beaches I've ever been too (Destin, Fl), on our way to none other than the very place where "Dreams come true"...DISNEY WORLD. The destination of all summer vacation destinations.

I was surprised at how easy the drive went, compared to road trips with my family when I was a kid. Back in the olden days we didn't have CD players, Nintendo DS, and cell phones to keep us entertained and connected with our friends while we were away. My daughter was content in the backseat snuggled up with her pillow and cell phone, happily texting away with her friends about nothing in particular. The boys entertained themselves with movies and games and hubs and I spent our time going back and forth over which road to take...darn GPS things...it created more controversy than an old fashioned map, but that's another story. What short cut to take and where the best restaurant was located all faded away, once we reached the Magic Kingdom.

Disney World

I Said It's Too Dangerous

What is it about kids, when you tell them something is dangerous, it makes them want to do it that much more? Our trampoline is in disrepair. The safety net that enclosed the trampoline got torn in several places (because our wild kids and their friends would throw themselves at the safety net and bounce off again), so we took it off. The bumper pads that cover the springs, have come to pieces in spots and it needs to be replaced. I mentioned this to my husband, the fact that we needed to get a new safety net and bumper pads, because the kids hadn't jumped on the trampoline in months. Well wouldn't you know, they all heard me complain about how dangerous it was to have this thing on the hard concrete in our back yard, so they just had to all pile on it, husband included.

One of their favorite trampoline games is "crack the egg", and the 2nd favorite one is "flip the bacon". I won't tell you the rules, but you can imagine how safe those games are in this trampoline. When the yard apes finish off this trampoline, I guess we'll get another one. Until then, I'll just keep the video camera close by and maybe you'll see us on " America's Funniest Home Video's".

Whose Race Is This Anyway

The Pinewood Derby is an annual event that kicks up a lot of excitement in our Cub Scout community. This year was my son's third year to race and he captured 3rd place in his age level. I thought his car was great and he had fun building it. He was not entirely happy with his placement, you might notice the attitude in the post race picture and the crossed arms as he's receiving his award. Last year he got 1st place in his age group and was on top of the world, but that's how it is when your the car to beat! Competition gets more intense every year.

This year we had his den over to our house to cut out and sand the body of thier pinewood derby cars. One of my son's friends (actually his mother) made a point to get my husband to cut out a car identical to my son's winning car from last year. That car captured first place in the race, and my son noticed. He was a good sport about it, but he learned not to share his racing secrets with anyone (yes, there are racing secrets and it's very confidential I might add!) The Cub Scouts have to check in their cars the day before the race. At check in everyone has the opportunity to get a look at the competition, and I have learned enough about pinewood derbys that I can spot the potential winning cars. I can spot the winning families by how much graphite they have under their fingernails (including me, my husband, and my son in that order I might add, and that leads me to make the statement "Whose Race is this?"). The top cars are usually within a few tenths of a second difference in times, so you can imagine how competetive it can become.

The races are run very well with a computer software measuring the finishes. It's quite a thrill to see the times flashed up on the video screen that's set up for the fans. Racing music plays in the background while parents and kids all fill up on pizza and coke. Oh, the thrill of victory.

A New Year

Happy New Year blogging friends. I hope that you and your family had a wonderful Christmas with all of the blessings of family and fun. Our family had a great Christmas break and now we're back to our regular routines. I am thankful for that. Having so much fun can be tiring. We traveled north to visit family and got to actually see a little snow. Those of you who see it all the time are probably rolling your eyes right now, but where we live, snow is a rarity so it is really special when we get to actually see some of the cold fluffy stuff. I couldn't keep the kids out of it so they were soaking wet after a few minutes.

Since pictures are worth 1000 words, I'm going to share several thousand words worth of pictures...and a glimpse into our holiday festivities.

Merry Christmas to all

No, I haven't dropped off the face of the earth, but I have been celebrating this season of Christ's birth. It's amazing what I can get done when I don't blog!

Our family has enjoyed several Christmas Parties and Christmas Musical Celebrations. My daughter is now playing the Clarinet in the band (she gave up the viola for the clarinet) and she is suprisingly good at playing the clarinet (much better than the viola, ouch, I can testify to that, if your reading this honey, I'm just kidding you were ok at the viola, you're just better at the clarinet). So far, she has managed to stay in the first chair spot and I don't have to remind her to practice (which is a big improvement over last years episodes of "Nagging Mother knows Best")

While I lectured her on signing up for two many activities, she managed to wrangle a speaking part in our church's yearly Christmas Pageant. The show was great and she did a good job.

I am now ready to sit around with family, sip hot cocoa, play silly board games, look at christmas lights, and share the season with friends and family. I pray that you are having a Merry Christmas as well!

Our Week in Pictures

Monday Monday

I can remember when I did not like Mondays. Monday morning always came to soon, and I was dead tired from a busy weekend when the morning alarm pulled me out of a deep sleep. If I had rested or played all weekend I would probably have not had such an aversion to Mondays, but because I worked all week, my weekend consisted of all the stuff that stay-at-home moms take care of during their week; going to the grocery store, shopping for kids clothes, replacing things that break around the house, paying bills, not to mention the standard housework, yard work and other non-fun stuff. I didn't have that free time to regroup and reorganize myself or the kids, so when Mondays came I was wishing for an extra night of sleep.

I can remember slapping around on the night stand in a half awake stupor, trying to quiet the buzz buzz buzz that interrupted my drowsy world. When I'd finally opened my eyes enough to see that I was running late, the adrenaline rush would catapult me from my cozy cocoon and get me up and running in a frantic rush to do everything that I should have taken care of the night before but didn't have the energy (like lay out my clothes and the kids clothes and pack the diaper bag for daycare).

I'd feed and dress the toddler and the baby, take them to daycare, peel them off of me and head for work. Of course, no morning is complete without that dose of Mommy guilt that comes with leaving my children at daycare. It begins with the babies crying Moooomeeee" and holding their chubby little arms out as I drive away, which I would think about over and over, all day, until it distracted me so that I'd have to call the daycare to make sure that everyone was still alive. I'd work all day, watching the clock slowly wind it's way towards quitting time. The moment the clock struck 5 I was outta there, heading for the daycare to gather up my little chicks to take them home, play with them, feed them, bathe them and put their sweet little chubby cheeks to bed, only to do it all over again the next day.

It was an exhausting time that taught me to trust in God and that he would provide all we would need, even if I could not imagine how he would do so. This is my verse, the one that I held on to during that time:

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future...Jeremiah 29:11

I am happy to report, I no longer have to take the kids to daycare. My oldest, the one with Down Syndrome, (he was 4 at the time) bit a daycare worker in the stomach and got kicked out! So I quit my job. That was ten years ago and I am still at home, and I don't mind getting up on Mondays.

Wisdom In A Pan of Biscuits

My grandfather lived more than 80 years in a tiny Oklahoma farm community. His formal education stopped at the 8th grade, but I thought he was the smartest man around. He was a tomato farmer during the depression. He was a husband and father to three girls. My grandparents eloped when they were teenagers, because my grandmother's Papa didn't think that my grandfather would be able to support his daughter. He would tell my my Grandmother, "he ain't no count". I understood what that meant when I learned how to play 42. Fortunately for all of us, they enjoyed a long and happy marriage, I was a teenager when they celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary, and they went on to have many more anniversaries.

By today's standards, he would be considered a progressive man. He used to brag to the grand kids that he could cook breakfast better that my grandmother. He said that by the time she got the biscuits cooked, her eggs had gotten cold. And if she cooked the biscuits first, then they'd have cold biscuits when the eggs got done. He would tell us, "I can take 'em all up at once, Granny can't do that!". Meaning not only could he cook the biscuits, eggs, and bacon, but he could time it so that they'd all be done at the exact same instant and he'd put them all on the table at the same time. Surprisingly, he could do that, and my grandmother would just laugh and let him do all the cooking when we were visiting. Now who's the smart one there?

I remember one morning he pulled the biscuits out and they were flat instead of fluffy. I said, "grandpa, what happened to those biscuits?", and he said, "they got cooked in the squat". "What do you mean?", I asked. "Well", he said, "they squatted to rise and got cooked in the squat. That happens to people sometimes too". He went on to explain that sometimes people get all ready to do something great, and something happens that discourages them, or causes them to doubt. So instead of doing that "great thing", they quit. Just like those biscuits, they get cooked in the squat, about to rise to the occasion, only to fall instead.

So on those days when things don't go as I had planned, and my enthusiasm gets squashed, my kids are less that helpful, and I can't find any clean socks in the laundry, I think about my grandfather. I think about how difficult his life was compared to mine. I remember his wisdom and his love for his family and I am glad that he warned me about getting cooked in the squat.

It Was Just Right

We had the best weather for our Girl Scout camp out, not to hot, not to cold, it was just right. And I felt like little Red Riding hood, traipsing through the woods, but instead of looking out for the big bad wolf, I was dodging spiders and poison ivy.

We did archery, games and a ropes course.

The Girls

By that evening everyone was beat. We finished up our day with skits around the campfire, and peach cobbler baked on the coals. Yum.

A perfect end to a perfect day.

Let's do the Twist

Halloween is not my favorite holiday, but it marks the beginning of the march towards my favorite holiday; Christmas! Halloween is fun for the kids. We've already started our pre-Halloween activities such as pumpkin carving, and I've made a couple of costumes this year. The inventor choose Link, the guy from the video games. My daughter choose to be the Ice Princess, the wicked lady from Narnia. I did not make the ice princess costume, however I did make her a poodle skirt for a 50's dance that about 100 kids from her grade (that would be just about everyone) attended. There's a local dance instructor in town that teaches ballroom dancing to kids and she is enrolled in that class, and yes they have to dance with the boys. It's done really well, the kids switch partners every 3-4 minutes so that a girl will dance with every boy in the room by the end of the class. They also teach manners; thank goodness. The boys and girls are given etiquette lessons, how to introduce themselves and others, how to behave at the punch table, the boys have to bring the girls the refreshments, open doors and escort the girls out of the room after class. They are taught how to accept a dance and how to cut in on someone. It's a lot of fun to watch (there's a window into the dance studio that parents like me peek in on the class, and I duck every time my daughter looks to see if I'm watching). There's also a dress code for class, the boys have to wear dress pants, shirt and tie and the girls have to wear dresses. After the 50's dance class, about half of the kids and parents went to a local favorite pizza place. This is a great group of kids and parents, and we are lucky to have such a fun, safe introduction to preteen socializing.

The State of the Fair

I love looking at scrapbooks, because each page holds so many memories. I haven't scrap booked my pictures in a long time, but for awhile I was pretty good at keeping up with it all. I don't know about you, but I re-live the moments when I look at pictures I have taken of our family. I think that's what appeals to me about Blogging, it's a little like an online scrapbook. As I finished downloading my State Fair pictures, I had to laugh, because looking over the pictures made me remember the day...

Here we are in front of "Jack's French Fries" one of our favorite haunts

The State Fair is an annual event for our entire family, and has been for many years. My Dad (now 76) used to tout the fact that he hadn't missed a State Fair since he was in 4th grade (because of health reasons, he missed for the first time last year).

We usually start at one end of the Midway, ride a few rides, and eat our way towards the exhibit halls, craft tent and finally the car show.

Every year they have the "new" food...this years new food was fried coke. I didn't try it, I stuck to the old favorites. The kids on the other hand, had a bit of almost everything, candy apples, corn on a stick, cotton candy, Fletcher's Corney Dogs (of course), French Fries, Hot Dogs, Grilled Cheese, Nachos, Chocolate dipped cheesecake on a stick, chocolate milk, you name it someone in the group had it. It wasn't long before the heat and the smells got to "the inventor". I have to admit he is prone to this type of behavior. We were leaving the food court when he announced the he needed to go to the bathroom real bad.

This is "the inventor" with a mouth full of cotton candy, just minutes before his "I need to go to the bathroom real bad" announcement.

I am apparently incredibly dense about these subtle hints of impending doom, because I turned around to him and said that classic mom statement, "why didn't you go before, when everyone else went?", and with out another word, everything he had eaten came up and out. Well we couldn't have been in a worse place, right in the middle of a crowd of people in a food court trying to buy their lunch, while my child was in the process of loosing his lunch. I'm sure sales plummeted at the Gyro stand, which we were standing in front of, when this calamity broke forth. He had that wild eyed look on his face, like there was more where that came from. So, I hurried him outside to finish up, and he did.

This is "the inventor" about 5 minutes later( notice the new shirt, moms think of everything)

As you can see within moments he was back to his usual self, and having fun, but sadly no more snacks for this boy, or for the rest of us for that matter, we were all sufficiently "grossed out". Except for that one little tiny, itsy bitsy incident, all went well at the Fair and I look forward to next year.

The Thrill Of It All

At the request of my daughter, and against my better judgement, my mom, my sister and I took all the cousins to the State Fair on the hottest day imaginable. Not only was it hot, but The Jonas brothers were performing a free concert out on the Main Stage and it was crowded. Crowded actually doesn't even begin to describe the claustrophobic atmosphere. I've never, in person, seen so many tween aged little girls swooning over a teen idol. It was a throw back to the Elvis or Beatles early days where girls would line up screaming and jumping up and down with excitement and with the anticipation of seeing someone up close and personal, that they had previously only seen taped up to the walls of their room.

The heat was so bad that before the concert, the concert organizers were out on the stage telling the girls to hold up their hands if they felt dizzy or felt that they needed medical assistance. Then they proceeded to spray down the crown with fire hoses, which 30 years ago I would have thought that was great fun, but not anymore, so we kept our distance. Luckily, I had been to my share of out door concerts as a teen, and had come prepared with lots of water, sunscreen and snacks. My sister and I also didn't let the girls out into the wild crowd until the very last minute. The mistake outdoor concert goers make, is they cue up early to get a good spot, then they end up waiting a long time for the concert to begin, all the while getting sunburned, hungry and dehydrated. What the newbie little girl concert goers don't know, is that if you travel light, you can shimmy your way to the very front at the last minute. So my sister and I filled the girls up with a good lunch and lots of water, and sent them packing with extra waters and a cell phone, to brave the little girl crowd of concert goers. As I expected, the two of them worked their way through the crowd and ended up front and center with a great view. My sister, my mom and I and the boys then sat at the back in the shade, sipping lemonade and eating popcorn in our portable soccer chairs that we had brought with us. It was great. They got to get up close so they could sing along, yell and scream, and we got to sit in the shade and relax. Sometimes it's good to be old.

Hi Ho Hi Ho it's off to work we go

We spent our Saturday washing cars. It was a fund raiser, a family event with moms, dads, brothers and sisters. My daughter and her Girl Scout Troop were raising money to fund their service projects. The girls really did a good job washing cars and it was almost a party atmosphere as the girls soaped up cars and sang along with the radio to the tunes of "High School Musical". I could tell as the day wore on, they became less enthusiastic about soaping up the cars and more involved in soaking each other and everyone around them. The grown ups went home with sore muscles and sun burns, but the girls seem full of energy, probably from the gallons of soda and dozens of donuts they had consumed. When we got home, my daughter bounced in the door of the house and said, "That was sooo much fun, when can we do it again!?!". "Hopefully never", I thought to myself, feeling like Grumpy from the 7 dwarfs, I guess I'm officially old.

Inquiring Minds want to know

The first half of this tale, was my previous post about the Molar Mystery. I did sneak into his room with my flashlight to try to see if he had lost a baby tooth (molar). I thought he was completely asleep, he doesn't fake snoring. So I whipped out my flashlight and went to work prying open his mouth so that I could peer inside. Wouldn't you know, he started to stir and roll around, fighting me off in his sleep. I gave up, not wanting to risk waking him up. I'm such a coward. I started having flashbacks of when he was a baby. The one thing that strikes fear in the heart of a tired mother is the alert and wakeful look on her infants face right after a 2:00 am feeding. Those of you who are mothers, know what I'm talking about don't you. Little Juniors ready to get up for the day and play at 2:00 am and mom's so tired she can't see straight. Scary. So I left my child's Molar Mystery for another day. The next morning he would only let me get the tooth brush in his mouth, but wouldn't open it any further. Now I suspect he's hiding something, maybe a tender spot where a tooth used to be?

Molar Mystery

My oldest came home today with someone else's ice pack, and a tooth in his lunch box. I didn't know that he had a loose tooth, he never mentioned it. Not that he would... mind you, he dosen't chat alot. But then again, most kids with Down Syndrome & Autism don't have normal chatty conversations, especially in Junior High. So I held out the tooth, and I said to him "Is this your tooth?", and he said "tooth". I know, not alot of information, but that's how it is...usually one or two words and he finished with his part of the discussion. So of course I did what any mother would do, I said "open your mouth, let me see if this is your tooth?", and he then gave me an emphatic "NO!" and he was off. End of conversation, he would have none of my prying into his business, or his mouth. I began to suspect that it could be somebody elses tooth, so I dropped it and quickly washed my hands. It's one thing to hold your own kids tooth in the palm of your hand, and quite another to hold a strangers tooth. After closer inspection of the tooth, it appeared that it was not brushed regularly and I know that I've been overseeing the brushing of my little darlings teeth and they are pearly white, so I am beginning to suspect that this indeed is someone elses tooth. It would have been really nice if the teacher had sent me a note home saying "Junior lost his tooth today at lunch and we put it in his lunch box", but that would have been too easy. My plan of action now, is to sneak into his room tonight after he is sound asleep, pry open his mouth and shine my halogen flashlight down his little throat so that I can count his teeth and look for the proof that this is or is not his tooth. Wish me luck and tune in tomorrow to find out the answer to this riveting mystery! Good night.

Favorite Fotoz

Cleaning Up Popsicle drips

Is it me, or has this summer flown by? I seems like just yesterday we were eating Popsicles by the pool. Oh, I guess that was yesterday. I was just settling into a routine and all of a sudden it's time to hit the stores for school supplies! I'm not really the shopping type. I don't mind going alone, maybe with a Cafe Mocha in hand as I browse, but I have to have a list, a mission a purpose. I don't like to go shopping for the sake of shopping. School starts on Monday so I unavoidably had to head to the stores with the kids. Yes, I took the whole circus to shop for school clothes and supplies! We bought clothes, shoes, backpacks, lunch boxes, notebooks and other miscellaneous school supplies. My daughter likes to pick out her own clothes and most of the time we'll both like the same things. Every once in a while, what I thought looked darling on her, would make her eyes roll back in her head and she'd dash back into the dressing room as if I'd asked her to parade around in a clown costume. My youngest, the inventor, was yet another challenge. Everything bought for him had to be red. It sounds simple but nearly impossible to do. My oldest, and you'd think he would be a little help but he 's not (he has Down Syndrome & Autism), was busy picking things off of the shelves and adding them to the pile of clutter in the basket while my back was turned, causing me to have to go through every item at the checkout counter to make sure it was meant to be purchased. What's more incredible about his antics was that he was in a wheelchair. Yes, it seems he can reach any store shelf with ease, darn those wheelchair accessible engineers. This wheelchair has really been a lifesaver, it folds up and I can toss it into the back of the car. He likes it too, and he rides around in style, sipping on refreshments and snacking on what ever I've packed for him. After a long day shopping, he's the only one who's not dog tired. We got it for him, not because he couldn't walk, but because he could easily wander off from us in public while my back was turned. He also had this bad habit of sitting down where ever he was when he was tired of walking. That was fine when he was little, I'd just pick him up and carry him, but I can't manage 100+ pounds on my hip now. We are now officially ready for school to start. I am finished with the shopping and ready to move on to other intellectually stimulating activities, like cleaning the Popsicle drippings from the inside of my freezer. I hate leaving summer behind, it was really fun.

The Inventor

When asked, "what do you want to be when you grow up?", my youngest child will say "an Inventor". He loves to rig up things in his room, and he has motion detectors, electric eye/laser alarms and all kinds of fun stuff he likes to tinker with. I have to be careful when I go in there, I might set off a booby trap, stumble over a tripwire, or set off an alarm of some kind. He says he has to protect his stuff from his big sister, but there's not a thing in his room that she would be interested in. If I can't find the scissors, tape or string, I go to his room and rummage around. He has his own tool box, with real tools. He's built a motorized bug (with a photoelectric sensor so that he can control it with a flashlight), he's built a motor with magnets and batteries, and he uses all of the paper out of my printer to draw up plans for his inventions, which at the moment happens to be a robot. Once when he was 3, he took apart the bathroom scales, because he wanted to see how it worked. I could not figure out how to get it back together, so I just threw it away.

He called a child

It's summer time and the ice cream flows freely around our house, especially on hot afternoon's like today. I've just finished dishing out the cold creamy stuff to my three. My oldest, however was not interested in joining us for "Cream". He was dancing around outside of the laundry room door ( I keep it locked, lol, and that's another story), because he wanted the DVD player inside, which is in time out at the moment. He was very grumpy, because he wasn't getting what he wanted, and he was on the brink of an all out melt down about this DVD thing. After I had the bowls of ice cream ready, I told my other two at the table to sing the favorite song...(that would be the Happy Birthday song). I knew if they sang it, my little "Grumpy Gus" would break out in a big smile and run to where the singing was going on, because he knows that ice cream or cake is being served. Sure enough, we hadn't gotten a few words into the familiar tune, when here he came, happy as could be, with all of his frustrations and grumpiness forgotten, running at full tilt towards his bowl of ice cream. It reminded my of how Jesus told his disciples (Matt. 18:1-4) that unless they changed, and became like little children, they could not enter the kingdom of heaven.

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?". He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 18: 1-4.

I wonder if they knew what he was talking about at the time. The first time I read it, I did not have children, and it's full meaning was lost on me, until I experienced motherhood. My oldest, was born with Down Syndrome & Autism, so even though he is a teenager (14) he is very much a child and will always be...and that's how God created him. He gets frustrated, grumpy, angry, stubborn and pitches a fit when he doesn't get his way, but he has the heart of a child. He forgives, he forgets his troubles and moves on. He will never get puffed up on his own accomplishments, self righteous or any of the stuff that trips the rest of us up. He doesn't get bogged down in grown up worries. He is happy to be who he is, loving, laughing, trusting his parents to take care of him, just like we should trust our Heavenly Father to take care of us. Wouldn't it be great if the Happy Birthday song brought us running with a smile on our face to our Heavenly Father, knowing he has something special for us, maybe cake, maybe ice cream, maybe heaven!

6 Seconds

It may not seem like much, but 6 seconds is a long time when your talking about a race that lasts less than a minute. Our last swim meet of the season was this past weekend, and my "I don't want to be the last one out of the water" daughter was less reluctant to compete, than she has been in the past. She is actually quite a good swimmer, much better than she realizes, but she's scared of coming in last (which she has never done), she thinks everyone is looking at her (and they're not, just me, everyone else is watching their own kid) and she's afraid she'll lose count on her laps or get disqualified (DQ'd) . In past swim meets, all of the aforementioned fears have paralyzed her, sometimes to the point of tears. On one hand she loves being on the team, but she does not like to compete. Until recently...and that's because prayer is powerful. I got some of my favorite BSF prayer warriors (thanks girls) all over it, and nothing can stand in the way of praying moms. So you can see how I was pleasantly surprised this past weekend when my child comes running up to me all smiles, dripping wet, and says "did you see that mom, I knocked off 6 seconds in the 100 Free!" Of course I saw that, and I was thankful. Thankful she was no longer afraid, thankful that she was not comparing herself to others, thankful she was working to obtain her personal best, thankful that I have friends to pray with, and thankful that God answers our prayers. And here is the verse that has been on my heart through all of this:

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition,

with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. Philippians 4:6