Extreme Dodge Ball

Sorry for the down time lately. Between Carters staph infection (which is responding very well to all the antibiotics BTW) and the life changing decisions (don't want to say anything conclusive on this just yet ;) ) we have going on for the family, I just have not had the time. Anyway, we seem to playing a lot lately. The weather here is so beautiful and we have been trying to get outside and enjoy it before the heat comes. We had a lot of fun with our friends at Skymania on Friday. This is Connor's favorite homeschool event each month. The kids play dodge ball on huge trampolines. The moms hang out and talk on the sidelines. Carter likes to get up on the trampolines and be bounced by all the kids. It worked out this time that everyone that was on his team this time is also in one of our homeschool groups so I thought I would post it for all the kids to enjoy :) The quality is not that great because I have to reduce it so much for the blog.

Please Turn the Volume Down!

I need a vacation. A solitary stay in a silent monastery sounds perfect. Actually, Mrs. Puff gave me the idea (if you know any child under the age of 15 you know who I am talking about). We were watching the episode where Mrs. Puff goes to jail and SpongeBob and Patrick insist on trying to break her out. I felt so sorry for poor Mrs. Puff, why couldn't SpongeBob just leave the poor woman alone instead of haunting her every moment with that insidious laugh and stupid smile? Jail doesn't really fit my style though. Somehow I doubt that jail bunks have the 600 thread count sheets I require for sleeping :) So, the idea of the monastery came to be. It would feel like a small piece of Heaven to be somewhere quiet for just a few days. It seems like everything around me is is just SO LOUD lately. Everything feels like noise to me. I know, I know, I KNOW it is because I feel some insane need to take on everything...the HOA Board, starting a new homeschool group, keeping a company going, taking the kids to everything that they take on, being a wife and mom in general I guess and I know that I am not the only mom in the world to feel this way once in a while. So, if you are a little stressed too, why not book a room with me......just please, NO TALKING!

PS...I am checking into the thread count at the monastery :)

The Boys Are Going Back to School!!!

This was an April Fools Joke people....

We are all so thrilled. It is rare to have one kid accepted into this program, but to have both boys accepted is a HUGE honor for our family! The boys will start school this summer at the Sandou Theatrical Circus School. Carter is hoping to train as a master elephant pooper scooper. Connor is aspiring to be the head trapeze boy. He really wants to earn his tights quickly. In order to pay for their schooling, I have taken on a teaching position with the school. I will be training the clowns to juggle and get in and out of the car. I was hired because of my immense experience in in this area. We are so happy and proud of our boys!



If you didn't guess already, April Fools!

More Nala

So far Nala has been too good to be true. We keep waiting for the other shoe to drop (or be chewed) but she has been an angel so far. She starts her vaccines today so it will be a little while longer until she makes her public debut. We are working on simple things like getting her used to a leash and collar and a walking harness. Her 'trainer' comes next week to get us all started. Us humans apparently need more training than Nala does so she works with the whole family.

Not much else is happening here. Bob took the day off to watch basketball with Connor. March Madness I guess....

Meet Nala

Our newest member of the family came home last night. This is Nala, our puppy. Nala was given to Carter by our favorite doctor. Nala will be trained as a companion/therapy dog for Carter. She was born on December 11, 2007 and is over 30 pounds now. Full grown she will be roughly 110 lbs plus and 3 feet tall. Here are some pictures of her homecoming. Chardonnay took to her right away and they slept together all night.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Those tricky leprechauns somehow turned all the water in our faucets green this AM! The toilets flushed green water, too! It was a big mystery for a while but then the boys started to figure bits and pieces of it out. They guessed that the Leprechauns must have put green paint or something in the faucets. After a lot of fun and teasing I brought out the fizzy tablets from Steve Spangler that does this. They had fun mixing the colors...Carter did not know that yellow and blue make green...I just assumed he learned that in Kindergarten (maybe he was absent that day, lol). Connor remembered back to 4th grade where I taught him chromatography and made black with the primary colors. Thank you Leprechauns for the fun color reminder and for leaving us extra fizzy tabs to play with! ;)

Welcome to Holland

One of my amazing friends whom I have never actually met in person is going through the very difficult loss of a little boy with spina bifida. Years ago I started an international support forum for people with spina bifida. I met my friend here. We emailed back and forth for years, we kept in touch when I had to shut down the board temporarily, I sent her stuff to help her son that they do not have in Northern Africa, we 'speak' weekly :) No, thank God, it was not her son. My friend is a support contact in her own right in her area where information about spina bifida is not so readily available. She is a source of inspiration to mothers all around her area who come to her for help and advice. It was one of these little boys that she has helped and loved. She remembered this poem (story?) and asked me to send it to her for the family. It reminded me that I should share it again for all the moms (and dads) for whom the birth of their child did not turn out quite the way they expected. It is one of my favorite stories of all time and it makes me smile and cry every time I read it.

WELCOME TO HOLLAND

by
Emily Perl Kingsley.

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.

But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.

c1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley. All rights reserved