The Davis Daily

Happy Birthday, Sweet 'Chele!

2009-04-13T21:05:00.000-07:00

My baby girl is 17 today! My only girl. The calm in the storm that is sometimes our life. It's gone so fast. She'll be leaving us soon, and I'd like to keep her around longer. She's always been my little cup of joy, making everything in my life a little brighter. God has blessed me so much with my children. I say that alot, I know, but they really are about as good as kids can get. The love me, they love each other, they love God. If I don't do anything else in this life of much importance, I will leave behind children who will make this world better, brighter - and hopefully, above all, continue to please God and follow after him. And I know Michele will be a bright spot wherever she goes. Thank you my sweet girl for being such a blessing. I hope this, your 18th year, is one of fun and blessings for you - better than all the ones before. You deserve it.

I love you! And I'll never stop thanking God for blessing us with you.

(Note - I'm not sure what's going on with Blogger, but I posted this on the 14th - at about 12:05 - just barely the 14th, but still. Not sure why blogger says it's the 13th, but lest there be confusion on anyone's part, Hannah Michele Davis was born on April 14, 1992 which does indeed make her birthday today, regardless of blogger's confusion on the issue.)

(Another note - not only is she sweet, but she's funny too - check it out - justachele.blogspot.com/2009/04/i-am-sixteen-going-on-seventeen.html

Day 3 skiing and stuff

2009-01-14T17:35:00.000-08:00

Views from a lift.

Dad, Steve, and Keith

Two trails

Just trees

Trees, mountains, snow - some of God's best ideas.

This one's for Michele.

Our skis...and the ground...way down there...

Evan - he wasn't too happy with me juggling cameras, gloves, poles, etc. to take pictures on the lift. And you should have seen him when I answered my phone. ...It was Michael and I wanted to talk.

More stuff by the river.

A tree in the river

Our picture window - from the deer's and ducks' perspectives.

The ducks again.

The one odd duck. He's the only one like that and he's very pretty.

Deer at the river. 20 seconds later she was halfway up the mountain.

The most enthusiastic deer. She liked carrots.

The window again...our side.

and skiing again...

Hot chocolate...yum!

Warm stuff...

...The End

Random stuff from day 2 of skiing

2009-01-13T18:47:00.000-08:00

Evan and Me

Icicle dripping and the icicle's shadow dripping (imagine that!) and another drip below that's a light spot on the shadow below the icicle. What?! No really - look closely.

My favorite cousin, Keith, and his wife, Felicia, who incidentally is my favorite cousin's wife...type person...?...favorite spouse of a cousin?...favorite cousin-in-law? Whatever...anyway...I thought it was a cute picture.

Evan with MeMa and PaPa.

Yep, more icicles. But aren't they cool?

Dripping icicle. See the drop!

Really long icicle.

Icicles hanging precariously to a sheet of snow sliding off the roof.

Icicles from inside.

The hot tub and the lift from our place.

The river steaming and pretty stuff.

Better picture of the river steaming.

A duck.

The deer...again.

Okay, that's all for now. More later...maybe.

First Day of Skiing

2009-01-13T18:10:00.000-08:00

Just some pictures from the first day of skiing.

That looked cool with the jet flying up over the mountains.

Brrrr!!!

2009-01-13T07:26:00.000-08:00

It's 4 degrees this morning. But it doesn't feel that cold when you're skiing thankfully. We actually got hot yesterday.

Day 2

2009-01-12T19:16:00.000-08:00

Here's a little taste of the scenery from our cabin.

The view out our picture window.

The river with our friendly ducks.

The river and some house at the foot of the mountain. I want to live there.

One of our deer and the lift that goes up from right beside our cabins. We're right at the foot of the ski mountain. Pretty cool.

The view from our balcony.

Over the top of the roof. We're in a section that is two story and we're the end room, so our views are great with windows on three sides and balcony on two.

And from the other side of the balcony...
Our buck. All the animals are very curious and not at all scared of people. They only get skittish when there is noise behind them.

I have more pics and will try to do more later. I'm still not feeling great and for some reason too much computer time makes me feel worse, so I'm trying to do these in small bursts of time.

Red River

2009-01-11T17:40:00.000-08:00

For those that don't already know, Evan and I are going on a little skiing adventure by ourselves (well, except for my mom and dad, brother and wife, and my cousin and his wife). We left the rest of the family behind, since Michele is skiing at Spring Break, and Michael went over New Years. Mark had to work and Aaron prefers home over most other places. It seemed like a good chance for Evan to get to do something by himself. So off we have gone and here's...

Day1

The growing number of windmills in West Texas

Llamas - that was a new one.

New Mexico.

Flags

Leaving the flatlands. Now the pretty stuff.

Moonrise. I later learned that the moon was closer to the Earth last night than it normally is. I'll have to look into the particulars of that one. I know it certainly looked larger.

Blogger's whacking out on me and I have a sick boy on my hands, so I'll work on day 2 tomorrow (on day 3). Hopefully, Evan will feel better and I'll maybe have some skiing pics then.

Great waves

2008-05-31T12:44:00.000-07:00

The waves were amazing. I'm not sure you can see it in the pictures.

Michael and Michele trying to get further out to catch a "big one". Someones head bobbing about behind them. I think it's Evan.

It was hard getting out past them.

The whole gang. Some pretty good waves in this one.

Lots of fun.

Beach therapy

2008-05-31T12:09:00.000-07:00

We all love the beach, but Aaron seems to thrive there. He seems more at peace and comfortable there than any other environment we've seen him in. Of course, I guess most people find a certain therapeutic something about the sand and ocean. What's not to love? Well there was that sunburn thing, but I'm blaming that on sunscreen failure - or maybe ozone layer failure? Not sure, but I'm ramping up my SPF factor next time.

He'll just lay in the sand and let the sand and water run through his fingers for ages.

He loves to lay right at the waters edge and let the surf wash over him.

And the day's not complete without a sand castle.

And a sand angel.

More waves, etc.

2008-05-30T19:00:00.000-07:00

I'm doing these in stages and in order which will make it appear backwards to you who are reading them from the top. I'm too tired to do one long one and fight with it or do them backwards so they go in order for you all. What?!? Anyway...... Back to the beach.

Michael teaching Aaron the finer points of surfing - well not actually surfing, really, but we called it surfing. Boogey boarding? Not sure. It was fun though.

The board kept getting away from him at first.

Almost!

And he made it.

Mo-om! Yes, I'm taking another picture! So Smile!

Okay, I have boys wanting computer time, so I'll let them on and try to post some more later.

Let's go surfin' now

2008-05-30T18:28:00.000-07:00

The boys

Various kids trying to catch the perfect wave.
I'm not sure if any of the pictures do them justice, but the waves were crazy.

Turtles, Turtles, Everywhere

2008-05-30T17:37:00.001-07:00

Our first full day, we decided to start with the NOAA Sea Turtle Facility. We knew we wouldn't want to leave the beach, once we got there, but thought the turtles might be fun to see. If you're not familiar with it, it's basically a facility whose function is to rebuild the Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle population which is the most endangered species of sea turtle in the world. They had a barn full of turtles ranging in size from a few inches to a couple of feet long. They were very cute. Most of them looked like they'd really like to get out of there though. It's hard not to feel sorry for the little guys, but I guess the alternative is extinction, so I suppose it's a good thing.

Evan standing by one of the medium-ish guys (girls?)

Aaron and Evan giving a size comparison to the skull of an adult sea turtle.

This one wanted out more than any of them. He just kept crashing into the wall of his little "cell". He never stopped the whole time we were there.

My poor kids posing for yet another picture. The younger boys with their swimmer-bedhead hair-dos. Two out of four with decent hair in that sea air is pretty good. There will be no picture of me as my hair went totally whacko. Not a pretty picture at all!

One of the little ones. Very Nemo-ish.

BEACH!

2008-05-26T19:43:00.000-07:00

We've arrived and are now hoping everyone else is leaving. It was soooo crowded when we got here. Of course I know it's a major holiday, but the beaches were all wall to wall people - yuck! We were spoiled the last time we came in early May. It felt like we were the only ones here. I really am hoping everyone has left by morning - and yes, I mean everyone - I really would like to have the entire island to oursleves - not too much to ask, is it? And we're hoping the weather holds. The reports keep changing - from mild and sunny to thunderstorms. I needed the get away just to rest, but I was hoping it would include several days of sitting on a beach, not looking at the beach through the rain out our living room window. And my allergy/migraine/whatever is now trying to turn into bronchitis. I'm hoping the sea air helps - can't hurt, certainly. I'll try and keep you posted on the (leaving) people, weather, illness and all other manner of drama and mayhem my bunch seems bent on inflicting on me - they all seem so LOUD, but maybe it's just the fifth day of a bad headache talking... Mark and the kids are playing poker in the living room with doritos and Aaron is singing "Pinky and the Brain" in Spanish beside me here in the bedroom. I think I'll take some more medicine and go to bed. I'll try to get some pictures up tomorrow.

Fun stuff

2008-05-09T08:01:00.000-07:00

I found a fun new widget for all of us that love books. You can't see it if you're just popping in to see if I've said anything new because it's down on the page a bit, and since I have nothing of interest to say, just go see my new bookshelf. There's a link if you want one of your own, because I know you all have so much spare time (like me), except here I am blogging about my cyberbookshelf, so obviously, I have my ways of squeezing a little fun into my otherwise boring workday. When I was building my shelf, I didn't know you could have layers of shelves, so I was just trying to pick a selection of my favorite authors and some of the books my kids loved, plus I wanted to get it on the blog and see what it would look like. I'm sure I left off some great ones, so I'll be adding more when I get time. And it will work on facebook too - and it can all be done by clicking buttons - no fancy coding stuff required. And now I'll stop rambling about it so you can go see it.

Happy Birthday, Michele!!

2008-04-14T05:48:00.000-07:00

My baby girl is 16 today!! It's hard to believe. I don't have any baby pictures on this computer, but she was a doll. She's pretty cute here with Katherine too. It's been a wonderful 16 years. I can't say I have much to complain about with Michele. She started out sweet and peaceful from the moments she was born. (And believe me, it really was noticeable from the moment she was born. The difference between her temperament and Michael's was totally different from birth. He came out "supercharged" and has stayed that way. She came out with this hard to described peaceful glow around her.) She continues to be sweet and peaceful - a joy to be around. She hasn't exhibited any of those crazy teenage girl hormonal episodes or anything else associated with the negative side of teenage-ness(?) She's been a help to me from the time she was a toddler, or before. Since Aaron came 18 months after her (surprise!), she quit being the baby quickly. Although, frankly, I think she's one of those "old souls" you hear people talk about. She never acted like a baby - always seemed to exude this wisdom beyond her years. So she fell quite naturally into the role of big sister and became a "little mother" to the littler boys. She's still filling that role in helping with them. I really don't know what I'd do without her. I can really see God's hand in the design of our family. Any other "configuration" of children would not have worked quite as perfectly as this, especially as it relates to life with special needs. She has been an absolute wonder with Aaron. They've always been very close. She can get him to do things that the rest of us can't. I could go on and on about her, but I'll just say that she is completely wonderful. I really don't know what I did to deserve such great kids. When I hear about people who's kids are complete messes, I know how blessed I am. I mean, I know I did some things right, and I'm an okay parent, but I'm so far from a great parent, I know it's nothing but the grace of God that has carried them to this point in such an amazing way. I will forever be grateful for the blessing of raising my great kids. They are a joy. And Michele is the posterchild for Joy. I'm so thankful God blessed me with the one girl - a kindred spirit in our very male dominated little world. So today, on the dawn of her 17th year (oh dear, I'm not sure I like the sound of that - but I guess it does make 16 not sound quite so bad!), I want to thank her for being such a complete joy and blessing to us. I want to thank God for entrusting such a sweet little spirit to our care.

Happy 16th!!
I love you, sweet 'Chele!!

I'll try to post some pictures of our weekend and party, etc. after I do my taxes. And no, I haven't done them yet. You can see some ballpark stuff on Genny's blog. And now, we'd better get out of town so I can get the dreaded taxes done - bah humbug!!

Okay, this is smaller print on my edit page but it keeps staying big on the post - and I don't have time to try to fix it, so just pretend it's small print.

Autism Awareness Day

2008-04-03T19:23:00.000-07:00

Oops, I missed it. The United Nations passed a resolution declaring April 2 World Autism Awareness day in perpetuity with yesterday being the first. Oh well, it's pretty much been Autism Awareness Day every day for the past ten years at our house. It is good to see Autism becoming more widely known and understood, but the only reason for that is the huge increase in numbers of children diagnosed and that is not a good thing. Our life with autism is so much better than some people's, and for that we are very thankful. Aaron continues to be a joy and amaze us with all the new things he accomplishes that he was never supposed to be able to do.

One of his latest things - Upon hearing of Clayton Ross's trip to Africa over Spring Break, he is certain that there must be some way that he can go too. After much explanation of how and why Clayton was able to make this trip, he decided that he'd like to be a missionary so he can live in Africa. We're not telling him yet that Clayton is returning for an entire semester. He might try to stow away. He's talked of living in Africa for a long time. It used to be mostly when he was angry or upset. It continues to be a strong fascination for him.

Finally Michele!

2008-04-02T11:07:00.001-07:00

Okay, she's up and running in blog land. Check it out at justachele.blogspot.com
Sorry I've not been around much - too much travel and work. Thank you all for the suggestions. Sharon, you'll see she went with a variation of yours. We changed it a little bit, I think. She'll probably post way more than me, but I'll try to do better.......

Michele's blog name?

2008-03-12T19:38:00.000-07:00

Michele is thinking of making herself a blog and wants input on a name. Any ideas? She says there's nothing clever to do with her name.

She's been updating mine. She's adding neat features I don't have time to figure out. Notice my cool new music player and my new colors picked to match the music player. The designer in her just couldn't stand unmatched elements. (Have I said lately how great she is?) And my new favorite song is "Cinderella" by Steven Curtis Chapman by the way. Check it out if you haven't heard it yet. She's going to add a slide show when she has time and whatever else fun she can find. Anyway, let us know any name ideas.

Brrrrrrr!

2008-01-31T05:41:00.000-08:00

It's 17 degrees below zero this morning. Crazy! But there's no wind, so it really only feels like 17 below. See - it could be worse.

Starting Home

2008-01-31T05:18:00.000-08:00

We start home this morning. We had even more snow last night and the temperatures have been way below freezing for days so there is lots of snow and ice packed on the roads. If any of you read this this morning, pray for safe passage down through the mountains. It shouldn't be bad once we get out of the mountains, but it will take us awhile because we'll have to drive so slow.

Day 4

2008-01-29T20:17:00.000-08:00

Our second day of skiing dawned with a heavy snow and the ducks. Evan was trying to get one particular duck to come to him. We fed these guys too. They were quite serious about their food.

The view out the front door. The doors were frozen shut on the cars.

Here's what we were skiing in. Very windy, very snowy all blowing in our faces.

Michele and Evan braving the elements. I was braving them too. Not fun! This picture doesn't do the wind or the snow justice.

Aaron's sledding adventure. Fun but also very cold, especially since they kept sinking into the massive drifts they were sledding down. He was definitely the champion sledder. He went further, faster, higher and longer than anyone else.

ITS TOO COLD!!

2008-01-29T11:18:00.000-08:00

and too windy. And a tree took out one of the lifts. That's all.

some day 3 pics

2008-01-28T20:06:00.000-08:00

Our first day of skiing - I took this picture about half-way up the mountain with Michele. That's the town down there.

Michele and Logan (my nephew) on the mountain

Aaron and Michele on the lift

Evan and Michele. Michele was very sweet to ski with Evan and Aaron on the bunny slope.

Evan falling. (He got lots of practice getting up.)

Today was nasty with snow and strong winds. It's not as much fun with the snow blasting in your face. It looked really pretty, but there was so much snow that it made skiing very difficult. The snow was so deep in spots it would stop you in your tracks and throw you down.

We took the boys sledding and they kept get getting stuck in drifts. Aaron went in up to his waist once. We had to pull him out. We haven't downloaded pics from today yet since it was my turn to cook supper. Tomorrow's going to be 10 degrees but it's going to feel like 10 below.
Sounds like fun, right?

last of day2 pics

2008-01-27T20:33:00.001-08:00

Feeding the deer on our back porch. Our back door is right at the base of the ski mountain and the deer just walk right down out of the mountains across the ski trails and come down to eat. They keep food out for them so they are not afraid of people, but they spook pretty easily.

I haven't checked out the "Jesus stuff" yet. Will try to do that soon.

Michele's attempt at the torchlight parade (since my batteries died). I must say this is the first time I can say that digital photography didn't way outshine our old 35mm photos. I know that I've gotten some good ones in the past. But digital was way better on everything else.

still more pictures

2008-01-27T20:10:00.001-08:00

The winding road and the mountains

The mountains in Taos

There is an ordinance in Taos that all buildings have to look like adobe. That includes the MacDonalds, Burger King, the banks, and even the churches.

Lots of snow.

more pictures

2008-01-27T19:36:00.001-08:00

Sunset - day 1

Day 2 - Frozen lake and first snow mountains. The kids wanted to stop and ice skate. I'm pretty sure it wasn't quite that frozen.

The icy climb into the mountains.

ya think!

Crazy truck driver passing us all on icy roads in no passing zones. Thankfully there aren't too many like that.

hopefully pictures

2008-01-27T18:51:00.000-08:00

cotton bales

cotton bowls

cotton picker

The kids wanted to finish the cotton picking in some unfinished fields. I got some really cool cotton bowls and plan to make some more cotton bowl angel Christmas ornaments - love them.

gas wells and tanks painted in bright, clean, matching colors, I guess in the hopes that it would somehow improve on the disagreeable aspects of the acquisition and storage of said gas - they were much prettier than the plain ugly black ones, but it didn't improve on the smell at all

This internet connection and blogger are not playing nice, so I'll try to send these and try some more in a separate post.

more day 1...

2008-01-26T21:20:00.000-08:00

But not! -because it's not working. I'll try again tomorrow. Here's the summary. Even more windmills, lots of gas wells, lots of cotton, cotton picking, lot of old water towers, lots of feed lots (not a pretty sight - quite odiferous), lots of Wal=Marts, and a pretty sunset, etc.

And then there was day 2 with lots of mountains and snow and stuff and lots more Wal-mart stops. Finally arriving, feeding deer on our back porch, eating my dad's barbecue (nobody makes it better), and the aforemention torchlights and fireworks.

Day three will be lots of skiing and shopping after that. My favorite kind of day. And if this silly computer will talk to blogger, I'll try again to post pics. Going to bed now, so I can get up early.

I tried sending just this last night and it wouldn't even work - I'm trying again.

Red River Adventure - Day 1

2008-01-26T20:23:00.000-08:00

We have arrived in Red River and are ready to ski in the morning. It's so cold! Watched the torchlight parade down the face of the mountain complete with fireworks tonight, but my camera batteries died right before it started. And it only happens on Saturday night. Very annoyed about that one. Michele got a couple but I don't know if they came out very good. I've taken tons of pictures.

West Texas was covered with windmills. They put way more up since the last time I was out this way. One stretch of road side had over 100, and that was just the ones I could see. We saw 3 18-wheelers in Fort Worth one day carrying a blade each for one windmill. You realize they are big, but not quite that big. Another stretch had way more that that. They went on for miles.

Okay - computer's doing strange things, so I'm going to send this and try to post some more pictures and I can't figure out why it's underlining this either. Very strange!

I'm not ready!

2008-01-24T19:21:00.000-08:00

We leave in the morning for skiing in Red River and I'm still packing. I'll probably be up all night. Trying to think of everything that everyone will need is making my head hurt.

If we have internet access, I'll try to post some pictures. If I get everything packed and get us all out of town, that is.

Wow! Who new?

2008-01-21T13:34:00.001-08:00

For some completely unknown reason, I clicked on my own profile and found out that I'm apparently an accountant in Afghanistan. Go figure. Anyone know how that might have happened?

Christmas

2007-12-25T21:50:00.000-08:00

Well the day is over and everyone is in bed. It's been an unusual Christmas. It was our first Christmas in Brownwood in our new house. It was our first Christmas that Michael wasn't living with us. We were all a little excited waiting for him to arrive on Christmas Eve. We love spending time with him. Aaron was extremely excited about everything this year. He woke us all about 7:00 yelling "Wake up, wake up Christmas it here!" over and over. So we got up and checked our stockings. (We open presents on Christmas eve in what Mark claims is a very messed up Christmas tradition and what had Santa having to make two visits to our house as I was growing up. We never questioned how he managed that. It is a little strange.) We took Christmas PJ pictures - Michele's one request for this year. I used to take them when they were all little. We watched old Christmas videos which were soooo cute and completely hysterical. Unfortunately, right before lunch time Michael suddenly fell quite ill. He spent the rest of the day semiconscious on our floor. The height of the beds made him sicker or something. He finally felt well enough to move to the floor of Michele's room tonight. Michele's is taking the couch for the night. I hate when my kids are sick. And there was nothing we could do for him. He slept a good part of the day. We're still not sure why he's sick. I still think it may be that he's completely run down from just working too hard at everything. I'm hoping he can get rested and healthy before he has to go back to school on top of working full time. He'll be forced to rest this week since there's not a lot to do here anyway, and being sick, he doesn't feel like doing anything anyway. The rest of the day was mostly checking on him and wishing we could help.

I still enjoyed this Christmas and the chance to be together.
I hope everyone had a great Christmas.

Happy Birthday, Michael!

2007-12-14T13:13:00.001-08:00

19 Years!! I know it's sounds so repetitive and cliche, but where does the time go? And it also makes me feel so old to have a 19 year old child. And I didn't start that early on the baby thing, so actually, I really am old - depressing! But I digress (most of the time). This is supposed to be about Michael. (I just typed Aaron and Michele before I finally got Michael down.) Sorry Michael, it really is supposed to be all about you, at least on this post on this day.

What can I say about Michael, but that he's amazed me from the day he was born - sometimes in an overwhelming, "what am I supposed to do with this kid" kind of a way, but more and more as he grew older, in a "Wow - what a great kid" kind of a way. He's wanted for many years now to serve God and please him in the things he does, and I found that because of that, I didn't have to worry a lot about whether he was making good choices or doing things that I found pleasing. I know he's not perfect, but he works hard at trying to do the right thing. I'm very proud of the person he's becoming. He's working his way through college, working a full time job and a few part time jobs and doing an amazing job of staying ahead in all his classes. I don't think I did near as well at that my first semester of college. Anyway, most of you already know all about everything he's doing, so I won't go on about it, but to repeat how very proud I am of him and how thankful I am that we've had the privilege of playing a part in the person he's growing into. What a gift he's been to us.

I know I probably sound really sappy about my kids, but I do feel so blessed in the children God has allowed us a part in raising. They really do give me very little to worry about and mostly lots of joyful moments. And I know better than to take much, if any, credit for the way they are turning out. I just keep thanking God for playing a bigger part in their lives than I could be able to handle right. Most of what is good in them is because of Him. So I thank Him again on this anniversary of my firstborn's first day - for my first amazing child - and for His help in guiding all of their lives.

Happy 19th! We love you, Michael!!!

And I know I said I was going to try to keep up my blogging better, and except for my boys' birthdays, I'd have posted very little here lately, but I really do have lots of great pictures and stuff to post from the last weeks. I'll try to get that done over the holidays, I hope! And if life stays insane, then Michele has a birthday in April, and I guess I'll be back then.

Happy Birthday, Evan!

2007-11-25T14:13:00.000-08:00

Today was Evan's birthday. Eleven years old! It was a little anticlimactic because we celebrated on Friday while Michael was still here, but I thought I should still mark the day, on the day. And he's pretty happy since he got everything on his list (at least the original list before all the "Oh yeah, and did you remember that I wanted?s" kept being remembered by him after all birthday buying trips had been completed. He must be pleased with the selection as he's been playing with most of them since then. Got some cute pictures, but if I wait until I can get enough computer time to download/upload I figure I'll never get anything on here, so the account in word only will have the suffice for now.

I heard from Michael, and he and Clayton have made it back to FW after their big (very cold) backpacking adventure, so I think everyone is back home safely from all holiday travels. Are you home, Barb? It's not that I don't trust God with everyone's safety, but I like to know everyone is back where they belong. Let's me rest easier. I'll be in FW on Tuesday, hopefully, barring any major problems. So I'll see everyone there soon - yea!

My list

2007-11-21T19:25:00.001-08:00

of thankful things.

hot roasted marshmallows and a gas stove the roast them on - just don't ask me to cook on it
dark chocolate
molten chocolate from Chili's
old pictures of my kids - they're so cute!
new pictures of my kids
my kids in real life
my biggest kid with us all week
scrapbooks - anyone's and especially my own, although I need more
down comforter
feather pillows
music - listening to it, playing it, singing it, everything about it
computers that work and allow me to keep up with people when I'm far away
clouds
stars
many, many more things, but I'm going to
my bed with a down mattress topper

Good night and Happy Thanksgiving!

Feliz Cumpleanos, Aaron

2007-10-19T08:44:00.000-07:00

Today's the big day. Aaron turns 14! We are not at all ready for the party and he keeps adding things. Like 15 minutes ago (after I'd just returned from what I hoped was my last trip to Wal Mart for the day) - he goes to Michele and says, "I think my party needs a theme. How about rainbows... no, PINK, Think Pink..... I just made that up!." Oh dear! I think the package of balloons has 1 pink one in it. Anyway - party details will come later as they are apparently still in development.

On birthdays, it's hard not to look back on the days we've had with our kids - and boy what a journey it's been with Aaron. Life with special needs is an interesting one and one that affects the whole family. It's hard in so many ways, with the loss of dreams we have for our children and there's sadness for the hard things we know our kids will have to deal with in this world that puts so much value on conformity and being normal. It's also a life that bring special moments and an appreciation of all (or most of) the moments with not just the special ones, but the others too, (who are special too, in a different way). It adds a little more joy to all the things, both big and small, that all the kids accomplish. It's not a life I'd change. We (special needs parents) are all often asked, if we could change it, would we choose for our kids not to have whatever they have, which is a ridiculous question for so many reasons, but I think the answer for almost all of us would be that that is not even a thought we would ever even think - changing one part of them would make them totally different people - what makes your child your child is all wrapped up in who they are from the day they are born and how God created them and you start loving who they are before you ever even meet them and you continue to love who they become and if you are really blessed, they become amazing people who you really like too. And I am blessed - my kids amaze me every day and mostly they bring me nothing but joy. And Aaron brings a special joy all his own. He doesn't let me forget that joy, which could easily be swallowed up in the busy-ness of life, for very long. And there's something else Aaron has taught me over time. After reading many depressing books on the subject of austism, which mostly dealt with the fact that they will never really be able to communicate or understand people or emotions, blah, blah, blah...., we did finally get someone to confirm our suspicions. The first thought I remember thinking, was How will he ever know God, if he can't even know himself or anyone else? It took time, but Aaron taught me first, that all the books were rubbish and then with God's help, he helped me come out of the fog and realize that God created everyone with the capacity, and even the need, to know Him - why are any of us here but for that. Now I may never know how he is able to know God, but I know God can reach him even when we can't. That stays truth whether I can see or even understand how. And that has to be enough.

As you all know, Aaron keeps us constantly entertained and he makes our life very full. I'll keep recounting the events and you all can read them or skip them. I'll try to post the party details this weekend.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AND FELIZ CUMPLEANOS, AARON!

WE LOVE YOU!!

And while I'm on the subject (well actually I'm off it, but I'm getting back on it), the goofy (changing them) question is no different that asking us, if we could pick a different kid than any of the ones we have, would we trade them off for another - that's slightly offensive if you think about it, although I guess there are people in the world that would jump at that opportunity. Oh well. Thank you, God - my kids are keepers.

And if you made it this far in my post, thank you for listening to the long-winded ramblings of this mother on her baby boy's special day.

Birthday requests

2007-10-08T10:42:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to get Aaron to give me some ideas for his birthday. He's kept saying, "I don't know." (Notice the proper use of pronouns.) Finally as I was leaving the house this morning, he followed me out and said, "Maybe you could just get me something that you think I might like for my birthday." And then he reminded me of a couple of games he'd been looking to buy on the internet just in case I didn't get his hint. How far we've come from the last minute crazy lists of years gone by. I'll never forget the year of the reptile. What was it Genny - something like 5 days or so until his birthday, maybe less - and he gave me this list:

A T-Rex blanket
A stuffed stegasaurus
A stuffed narwal (I know, not a reptile, but close enough)
A brontosaurus pillow
A comodo dragon that says, "Hey, there's a slug on my tail!"

There were a few more, but I've forgotten them now.
Genny and I were trying to figure out how to come up with at least some of these and of course none of them were available, so I managed to make the blanket, the stegasaurus, and the pillow with Genny's help and sewing machine. I found what I hoped might pass for a narwal, but of course he knew the difference and immediately identified it as an angler fish. Can't get much past him. Actually, I'm not sure I've ever gotten anything past him. We tried the come up with some way to approximate the talking comodo dragon but of course the zoo had sold it's last comodo dragon after closing that exhibit. He seemed pretty satisfied with our efforts at least. I think that will go down as the craziest birthday list of all time. You can't say the kid's not interesting. I think this year's requests will be easier to fill. We'll see. And hi Genny and Paige - you girls and me seem to be the only ones left in blogging land - thought I'd note that. I hope the rest of you are well. I'm actually sick now, but I'd rather do this than work. Guess I'd better try to accomplish something though.

Our House

2007-10-07T13:17:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd post a picture of our house since you've now seen the insides of my walls. The only one we have of it is from the snows last Easter which is good because it actually looks best dressed in snow. It was built in the 1920s sometime, so it's very old.

And this can be my contribution to the moving along of the seasons too. Fall, Winter, I'll take either one.

Youth (is wasted on the young?)

2007-10-07T13:06:00.000-07:00

I forgot this part of the plumbing adventure. I've got the cabinet in and the sink on and I'm fighting with the leaking pipes still. And by this time I'm starting to feel the pain. Aaron walks in and says, "You're not as young as you used to be, are you?" Yep, that pretty much says it all. But I'm still a better plumber than anyone else in the house, so maybe I've still got some life in me.

Adventures in Plumbing

2007-10-06T19:51:00.000-07:00

As you may know, I was going to have to do a little plumbing repair today. When I got into the wall, I found the reason. Our resident mouse had chewed a hole through the rubber connector that connects the pvc pipe coming from the sink drain to the old lead pipes inside the wall. I hate mice. We had one in FW once that ate our dishwasher though. At least this was cheaper than that. We'll be setting some traps or poison or something to deal with the culprit.

This was Aaron's answer to the leak - posted beside the sink.

The water ran straight into his room.

This is me and my spectacular plumbing skills at work. I didn't have to cut too big a hole in the wall thankfully.

Me again. And notice the lovely moldy wall from all the water pouring into it.

Yuck!!

My lovely new connector without a hole in it inside my 80 year old wall.

Moldy wall bleached, cleaned up and painted and the cabinet going back in. I rotated this picture, but when it came up here it was back sideways, and I'm too tired to try to fix it. Sorry, you'll have to rotate your head.

And the sink going back on.

That's all Michele got pictures of. Of course then I still had to hook all the hose back up and of course one of the supply lines leaked, so I had to go get a new one. That was after my first trip to three different hardware stores, because all the plumbing supplies were closed. It's Saturday people - when am I supposed to do my plumbing repairs? Thank goodness for Home Depot. Then the drain pipes leaked which really annoyed me. A little teflon tape seemed to solve that problem, so the sink is back in working order. We don't have to share our bathroom any more. Every joint and muscle in my body hurts. Can't quite figure that one out. What a fun day! But I'm thankful I got a little of the plumbing gene from my grandfather. I'm sure a plumber would have charged me a small fortune to do that.

More Aaron

2007-10-05T20:03:00.000-07:00

He's counting down until his birthday - 14 days until he turns 14. I can't even wrap my brain around that. I mean Michael 18, Michele 15, and Evan 10 is one of those "Wow, time flew" kind of things but Aaron and 14 just doesn't seem right. He's still changing alot. He now says, stuff like "Hey, 'Chele, can you do this" or "Mom, what does this mean?". And he now uses pronouns correctly and refers to himself in first person. Supposedly autistic people don't understand pronouns and how to use them. He's always known exactly what he was doing, he just enjoyed the game. And he no longer calls himself Darren - he's Aaron now. And we no longer have other names either. (Sorry Stella!) I guess he thinks it's time he grew up and put away childish things. I kind of enjoyed the games and those things never bothered me like they seemed to other people - like the people when he was in school who wrote into his IEP that he would not write his name in a box 70% of the time. I tried to assure them that I did not think he'd write his name in a box his entire life and even if he did, he'd probably have bigger issues than that to deal with, but they were quite adamant about the apparently unwritten rule stating thou "shalt now write thy name in a box." And that was before he started calling himself Daaron and then Darren - probably in response to the boxed-name worriers - they'd have surely been bothered by that. So although he's putting away so many of the games he played - and that's how I've always seen them - as games that he played so that we'd join him in his world - he's interacting with us much more and in what the world would see as "normal" ways. It's is really neat to feel him so "present" with us. He still enjoys his alone time, but he seeks us out much more. It still amazes me how he's changing and so fast too.

He's not feeling well tonight. He said his lungs and his stomach hurt. (And odd combination.) He's also never been able to articulate how he felt if he was sick - we'd basically never know he was sick at all until he was very ill, and even then, he wouldn't tell us anything was wrong. We'd just have to figure out on our own - like when we knew he had strep throat because he was drooling profusely because he couldn't swallow and when he broke his arm and only told us it was "bent". If it hadn't been bent we'd have never known it was broken. Both required rushed trips to the emergency room. I'm not sure how to take it now that he can tell us he's feeling bad and how. I worry that he's really sick only because he's never told us before. But then I figure that's changed with everything else, so I'll just watch him I guess. I always hate for my kids to be sick anyway.

I will miss seeing everyone in FW as we'll not be there this weekend. Michele and I saw a Star Telegram in the DQ tonight. (We stopped in for Catfish Friday Night - woohoo.) We were tempted to jump in the car and head that way, but we'll stay and try to get some things done here. I might unpack a few boxes. Got to play plumber first - got a leak in a wall - that should be fun! We hoped to do some fun stuff to the house like paint or plant some flowers, but we probably won't even have time for the unfun stuff that needs doing the worst. Maybe we'll post pictures of Michele's room. It's getting really cute. She has a little more time than I do.

No Prince

2007-09-27T12:28:00.000-07:00

Michele and Aaron and I were in Michele's room today looking on the internet for something that Aaron wanted to buy and we heard him making kissing sounds. We turned to see him kissing one of Michele's many frogs. He said, "I'm kissing it to see if it will turn into a prince.... It's not." with this serious expression. So he tries one more time and then says "Nope - still the same." and then he tosses is over his shoulder. He had this little twinkle in his eye. I'm sure you had to be there, but it was so funny if you were. I think back to the days when trying to get any eye contact or any language from him was practically impossible and now he's a comedian. Of course then a few minutes later he was inconsolable in tears because I got orange soda instead of grape - oops. (I tried to make a guess at the store and guessed wrong - I should know better by now. I mean what are cell phones for?) It's the whole "gotta keep even numbers of things on the shelf" thing. He's definitely still autistic, but he's an autistic comedian at least. He's so cute lately.

Hi Ho, Hi Ho

2007-09-20T06:50:00.000-07:00

So I was leaving the house this morning and of course Aaron's the only one of the kids up - he usually ignores me of after the "Good Morning, Ma". But this morning, he asked me where I was going (work), and am I going to be home tonight (probably for lunch), so I'll see you tonight, right? (yes, okay). So as I'm going out the door, he says "So Long, Ma! I'll see you tonight." and then starts singing "Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's off to work we go", complete with whistling which he's just learned to do and waving. He serenaded me all the way out the door. He also told me he was waving, just in case I missed that part, I guess. Believe me, I didn't miss a thing. Goodbyes are another of those social things he's never felt a need for, so another big deal for us. He has no clue how we're jumping for joy on the inside when he makes these big leaps - he'd be annoyed if we made a big deal about it. So we go along with it like it's business as usual. Wish we could acknowledge the change - maybe he'll eventually get to a point where he can accept and even look for our approval and excitement in his accomplishments. Who knows - he's certainly not following the textbooks in all he's accomplished this far.

He's also started calling Michele "chele" which is what we all call her, but she's been Winifred Michele for quite some time to him. These changes seem socially based to us in that it seems he's trying to conform to what other people are doing, not because we've worked to achieve that conformity in alot of these insignigicant (to us) things like the names he gives people, but because he's realizing the differences and trying to make changes to be "like everyone else". I'm sure all the experts and (I know all the) non-experts would totally disagree with the way we've dealt with Aaron all these years, but it's really gratifying to see him developing in a natural progression and making changes because he sees a difference and apparently has an understanding of some sort of need to conform and is comfortable making those changes. Michele said "I think I'm going to miss being Winifred Michele". There's that bittersweet in the growing up process - but we still rejoice in it. And he gave her a nickname of Curly Hair so maybe that will soften the blow. He seems to be working on nicknames for everyone. There's apparently a difference in his mind between nicknames and the alternate names he's given us for years. He's making changes so fast it's hard to keep up with him lately. So I'll keep posting here so I won't forget it all. I wish I'd had this when they were all little - it goes so fast and you lose so much in the busy-ness.

Internet!!

2007-09-12T17:45:00.000-07:00

We finally have internet at home! So now I can post at home and add pictures. But not now, because I think my head's about to explode. We have a phone too, but it's mostly just annoying. I didn't really miss it at all. I'm going to go find a dark room and try to stop this headache. Maybe I'll post something later if it stops.

Hello?

2007-09-07T15:55:00.000-07:00

Any one out there? I think we're all too busy, because I'm missing reading as many new posts from everyone. I'm back for the weekend to my sick girl. She went to Iowa for Anna's wedding and was going to spend the week here visiting, but she came back sick and spent the week in bed running fever without Mom to take care of her. ( A whole week in Fort Worth and all she felt like doing was sleeping. That's bad!) She said she enjoyed the quiet though. I took her to the doctor today and she has bronchitis. When I told him she keeps getting this same thing every 6-8 weeks, he said it's very possible her asthma is back. She had it as a toddler, but outgrew it. I sure hope it's just bronchitis, but I'm afraid it's the asthma. Her temps back up to 103 this evening. I'm a little worried that it's that high even with tylenol. Pray that the antibiotics work quickly. She's so pitiful right now.

(Oh, and Paige, I'd love an update on all your little guys and the walk the line club. No pressure or anything, but they are entertaining.)

Good Morning, Ma!

2007-09-04T12:48:00.000-07:00

That's how Aaron greeted me this morning. He's never initiated greetings of any kind. He doesn't really even like to respond to them. So this was a big deal. These moments that Aaron springs on us are both exciting and bittersweet in a strange way, if that makes any sense at all, like any milestone with our other kids maybe. I guess it's a sign that even Aaron is growing up and gradually growing away, which of course is what we want, but those moments always feel even more profound with him. Reminds me of the Karen Kingsbury books Let Me Hold You Longer about how we notice all the first with kids but seldom notice the lasts. I guess with Aaron we notice those changes more and are a little sad maybe, but really excited that he's made such a huge leap for him. Like when we had to take Kate (our foil daughter which he made because he couldn't talk me into providing him with a real sister - "It's really easy - You just go get them at the hospital" - Yeah, right!) complete with beach wardrobe - hand me downs from Michele - to Galveston last year. All the kids were slightly horrified that they were having to help cart their "sister" around, but then shortly after that, we found Kate rolled up in a ball and set aside. With no fanfare or warning or anything, Kate was no more. We'd had her for several years by this time - she was even in our church directory pics - I know people thought we were strange, but that makes for a neat memory now. Michael and Michele were in Green Bay for a month and when they came back to find that Kate was gone they were really sad. We all were, but we knew it as a huge growing-up thing for him too. I know - we're all CRAZY! But back to the greeting of the morning. I responded to him with something with a "sweet" in it because that's how I refer to all my kids except him when I'm thinking clearly (sweetpea, sweetie, sweet-whatever - they probably all hate it, but are too nice to say anything). Aaron doesn't like sweet or nice anything because "it's yucky". But instead of getting upset with me, he said, "I'll just pretend I didn't hear that." So I say "I'm sorry." And then he says, "You don't have to be sorry." Maybe you have to be really familiar with Aaron for that to seem like a big deal, but trust me, it's a big deal. It seems like since we've always tried to join him in his world when we can, he's trying harder all the time to join us in ours. I just had to share, and I know at least Genny's always up for a good Aaron story. And this may be the only way I ever keep a record of those moments. I never seem to have time to stop and write them down.

SUDS!!

2007-08-28T14:25:00.000-07:00

I don't think I even had time to share this with anyone personally while I was there this weekend, so I'll do it here. I was met upon my return to F.W. with Michael telling me the dishwasher was leaking. It's fairly new, so I was a little concerned that it was already broken. Anyway, I pulled it out and started it running so I could check all the hoses. I didn't see anything leaking, so I just let it keep running to see what would happen. I did think it was odd that the water coming through the hose to the top spin-sprayer look very foamy, but since I don't usually have it pulled out and uncovered, was willing to see what that was about. So I'm cooking supper, and suddenly, I see foam start pouring out the bottom of the door and washing across the floor. When I opened the door, there was foam all the way to the top. It was like an "I Love Lucy" episode, (sort of). So after I ran for towels to stop the flow, I called Michael downstairs and asked who had started it and what kind of soap they had used. He asked, and the guy who had done it (who shall remain nameless, because I'm just thrilled somebody there washes the dishes) came and said that he thought it was one of several bottles that he pointed out under the sink, none of which were made for the dishwasher. It was somewhat strange because he's used the dishwasher before many times (as I said, he's the only one who really keeps the dishes washed). I think he felt really bad, but I just thought it was very funny. It takes way more than that to get me worked up and I was thrilled it wasn't broken. Anyway, after about 5-6 runnings(?) of the dishwasher, we were finally foam free and ready to wash. And that was one very clean load of dishes. So hopefully everyone will choose dishwashing soap carefully from now on. Michele and I didn't think to take pictures until about halfway through the defoaming process, so they aren't as impressive as they could have been, but you can get the general idea.

Notice how few dishes guys consider to be a full load. But, as I said, I'm just glad someone washes them.

Guys - gotta love 'em (I guess) - I've certainly got more than my fair share of them.

2007-08-23T16:41:00.000-07:00

The Internet is working at home and Michele is cooking supper, so I'm going to try to post some pics from Groom. I'll do a few separate posts in case it decides to shut down on me.

I'll start with cross pictures because I like them. For those who don't know, Groom is home to the tallest free-standing cross in the Western Hemisphere. I don't know if you can tell how tall it really is from the pictures. It was evening, so we got to use the sun for some nice effects.

The cross stands in a large circle that is surrounded

by a progression of scenes of Jesus carrying the cross.

The shadow of the cross. That's a great song, by the way.

After you make the entire circle, there is a depiction of the

last supper and then up a hill, the crucifixion.

A view of the cross from the hill.

There were a couple more, but it kept cutting off before it finished uploading, so I'm going to try to post this much and maybe add the rest later.

Because of my AMAZING editing skills...

2007-08-23T09:59:00.000-07:00

This is Michele by the way, anyway I edited the picture of Michael that was on the last blog. So I decided to post it. I think this looks better.

Good luck at your first day!!!!!!

First Day of School

2007-08-22T09:48:00.000-07:00

4 Months

4 Years

18 Years

I'll ask the question again. How did our babies get so old? Time flies so quickly. Michael's first day of COLLEGE is tomorrow. He will be attending The College at Southwestern. He'll be taking 4 classes and working 30+ hours at McKinney Bible Church. I think that job will involve less stress than the managing job at Sonic. (Dealing with the crazy people all day was getting at little old.)

I hope you have a great year. I know you'll work hard.

I love you, Michael!

My cute little skiers at 6 and 2!

My cute bigger skiers!

We gathered those pictures for Senior Recognition Service but thought I'd share them here, since those were kind of hard to see.

The other kids have started school already. They usually start with some enthusiasm, which quickly fades. We're still in the enthusiasm stage right now. Evan keeps telling me I'm the best teacher EVER! Of course, I'm the only teacher he's ever known, so with no competition, I'm not sure what sort of endorsement that is. Michele is insisting that she's going to finish in two years which is a year ahead of schedule, according to her age and starting point (since we moved her up a grade) - we'll see if she will keep up a pace to accomplish that. Aaron is still uniquely Aaron. I'm still looking for a language course in Swahili for the budding linguist. He was concerned last night that he can't type as fast as me - was becoming quite disturbed by the fact. I finally convinced him he just needed to keep practicing. He's been quite a good (and correct) little typist for several years (thanks to Timon and Pumba) compared to my texting children. They type very much like they text. They are very fast, but a typing teacher would probably have a fit watching them, and I'm pretty certain their method is not the most efficient. Note to self - pull out the Mavis Beacon (or Typing with Timon and Pumba) and try to convince them they'll thank me later if they master typing the correct way now. Teaching them all (or the three remaining ones, I guess) gets more challenging all the time especially while working too. I sometimes wish for the days when they were small and we all sat around learning together, studying anything and everything, reading wonderful books together - those were very special days. I'm so thankful we had them. I hope they've shaped in a small way the great kids they are growing in to. I love you all!
I hope it's a wonderful productive year for all of us.

And I hope this post works, since I've skipped out on work all day to figure it out.

And since I think I also figured the picture thing out, I'll post some of the other kids "doing school" soon. I'll see if this post works at all first.

I couldn't figure out how to get rid of these pictures, so I'll leave them here at the end. I'm afraid to mess with this post too much more in case I mess it up.

Just Trying...

2007-08-20T17:52:00.000-07:00

to figure this stupid thing out for my mom (this is Michele by the way) and it wont let me download any pictures. does anybody know why???