Thanksgiving

 We had a lovely Thanksgiving holiday yesterday… E and her crew were out of town, and we missed seeing them a lot, but B, K and J were here and we had a wonderful, relaxing day. 

I forgot to take any pictures, of course, but B took a few pictures of M with her new rescue dog and I especially love this one. 

Now it’s on to the big Christmas push.

 I have to say I’m not looking forward to all the Christmas “extras”, (shopping, cooking, more shopping, more cooking, oops forgot something… which means still more shopping), but I am looking forward to the joy, memory making, and happiness of the season. 

Kayaking

M and R just finished up an indoor kayaking class. It was offered through a therapeutic recreation program at a rec center about 45 minutes away. It was a bit of a trek to get them there each week, but they did have fun and learned so much. Watching them in the water, enjoying the kayaks so much, made me wish we had a nice pond or lagoon nearby that they could kayak on. They have seen video of their Uncle Steve in Ireland kayaking and at each class R talks about wishing he could see her... So here are a few kayaking pictures for Steve... ` M liked to just paddle around, he wasn't wild about getting wet.... `   R on the other hand, loved practicing rolls... ` ` ` And spent a fair amount of time working on building up strength to flip herself back upright... ` It was an awesome class, and well worth all the driving back and forth we did!

Let me be brave in the attempt...

M loves sports.

No... M LOVES sports!

Not watching them so much... he likes to participate. He loves joining a team and getting out there to catch, shoot, dribble, pitch, pass, bowl and hit the ball and run bases, the track, the court, and the field.

So, of course, Special Olympics is important to us. M couldn't participate in sports without Special Olympics... He plays basketball and swims in the winter, soccer or track and field in the spring, softball and sometimes bocce ball in the summer, and bowls in the fall.

He missed a couple of years of basketball when he had his hip surgeries, but he's back now and the regional tournament was Saturday. As always, the tournament was well run, but also had an element of chaos about it. There were six games going on at once, one after another, all day... and one after another award ceremonies going on all day in the lobby. (The Olympic theme song, played each time a team was awarded their ribbons, was played approximately every 10 minutes the whole time we were there...)

Both M and S played in the tournament. R doesn't play basketball... It's the only sport I let her sit out. M really likes playing basketball with a specific Special Olympic team (not our regular team) and R doesn't know the kids well, and it makes her anxious to have people running towards her on the court and trying to block her shots, etc... so I don't fuss at her about not playing.

I didn't take pictures of M and S playing... I've already got countless mediocre photos of the kids playing sports... I just can't get close enough, and things happen so fast that I end up with blurry photos, or photos where it's impossible to tell who is who because they are so far away.

But I did take a few pictures after the tournament...

S after playing both her games and the award ceremony...





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M after playing both his games...



He does go all out when he plays, ;) and his tachycardia makes his face turn all kinds of interesting shades of red... sometimes even leaning towards purple!

M's team... he is on the left with his fist in the air.



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The "Three Musketeers", ready to head for home...





M has three more games before the season is over... R and I will sit in the stands and cheer him on. (S plays on her school team so, except for the tournament, we aren't able to go to her games.)



*The title for this post is taken from the Special Olympics motto, "Let me win, but if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt." M doesn't know this motto, but it could have been written for him...



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Miss me yesterday?

I've been trying to keep to a good blog schedule lately, and I really enjoy posting regularly... but despite my good intentions, no blogging happened yesterday.

That's because the kids and I were busy wrapping up the fundraising drive we've been doing for our Special Olympic team. The fundraiser started about a month ago, after I'd done the research and choose a company that promised pretty good profits. I passed out the order forms to the kids, explained to them and their families what the fundraiser was for, and begged asked them to help.

I underestimated the kids in our Special Olympics team... I expected a smallish order with a modest profit. But they went out and SOLD cookie dough! (A funny story... the order form I gave to each of the kids to collect orders on had space for 18 orders. One of the boys on the team thought he had to completely fill up every single line... So he sold cookie dough until finally his mother made him stop (with 16 orders!). He got a prize for being the teams top seller. ;) )

Our order was delivered early yesterday morning and it was a lot bigger than I was expecting. I spent virtually the whole day sorting, packaging, checking and rechecking the kid's orders. This morning we packed the car full of cookie dough and took it with us to bowling practice so the kids could pick it up and make their deliveries.



It was a LOT of work, but so worth it... we ended up making about twice as much profit as I'd anticipated. Yay!

With the fundraiser done, I'm spending the rest of the day relaxing, taking it easy, and trying not to eat my cookie dough order right out of the freezer... :)

winter blast...

Ah... a little blast of winter can be nice. I do love being outdoors, working in the garden and puttering around outside... but I also love a snuggle-up snowed-in kind of day.

Like today...



We were supposed to getting together with M's Special Olympic team today at Red Robin for lunch and awards... I was looking forward to the fun the kids would have had, but dreading the struggle to find something M could eat there. Because of his gastroparesis he must stick to a very low fat diet, so eating out is hard. It's especially hard to eat out with a group of his friends who are all eating hamburgers, fries, burritos, etc. (and he's eating a bit of grilled chicken!)

So anyway... I was happy to see the snow.



I filled the bird-feeders yesterday and they are popular places this morning.

The "little guys" (finches, sparrows, etc) are at the feeder on the south side of the kitchen...



... leaving the feeder on the east side to the "big guys" (magpies, doves, pigeons, etc).



I'm working on a bunch of house projects right now (why I've been so quiet this week), I'll update with some pictures soon.

Happy Monday (one day late)

Things that make me happy today:

**Letters from K (dd#3) that came yesterday from Ghana!

**And resources for M and R...

...we are so blessed to live in a community that offers so much for children and young adults with disabilities. Some examples are:

*Special Olympics! M is finishing up his basketball season and is also swimming, R is swimming and both are looking forward to Track and Field starting soon. We are part of Special Olympics Colorado, and an easy way to support them is by clicking on the link below to a YouTube video of the Colorado Rapids doing the "Harlem Shake" immediately before the Polar Plunge about a week ago. Each time the video is viewed, they will donate .10 to Special Olympics Colorado... up to $10,000!! So go watch the video... and then watch it again... and again... and again.. (you get the idea)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJhvD3DNHxc&feature=youtu.be

*The Rotary Community Corps (RCC) hosted by our town's Rotary Club. It's designed for young people with disabilities, and allows them the opportunity to give back to our community, while making friends, learning, and having fun. What an awesome program. You can read an early write-up for the program here  http://yourhub.denverpost.com/parker/rotary-community-corps-parker-first-colorado/pzD1bFOjiPQ443VsV7FXHP-ugc

*Our homeschool group. After 10 years with the group we still find support, friendship, and educational opportunities through the group. You can find them here: http://www.freewebs.com/cchf/

*I can't forget M's worksites... I'm so happy that we've found such wonderful places in our community where he can volunteer and learn job skills.  Back six years ago when I first had the idea of "internships" (there is a link to my post just above my header, unfortunately it's almost hidden by the search box...) I had no idea it would turn out so well. It's been a long road getting here... Being derailed in our first "internship" attempts by a poor choice of worksite (Chick-Fil-A just wasn't willing/able to accommodate), M's instability and his hips surgeries. And then following another path (the Bridge Transition Program through DCSD) which looked great but ended up being a dead end and causing more harm than good. Until finally, now six years later, M has two "internships" or worksites, is happy, learning, gaining skills, and we are looking to increase his time at one of the sites. Yes... this makes me happy.

Have a happy day!

~basketball~

Is the name of the game... at least for the rest of the month.

M LOVES Special Olympic sports, and his favorite sport is basketball. This is the first year in several he's really been able to play through the season... The past few years he either hasn't been able to play at all (recovering from hip surgery) or only been able to play a little now and then (because of hip pain). He still has pain from his hip dysplasia and the joint disease in his hips, but he's determined to play this year and LOTS of ibuprofen has been getting him through the season.

Here are a few pictures taken at a "practice" tournament this past week... (M is #27)



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The BIG tournament is next weekend and once it's done his hips will get a break... Luckily Special Olympics swimming practice has already started... hopefully a little water therapy will help his hips feel happy again.

Tournament!

Yesterday was the kid's Special Olympics softball tournament. I actually remembered the camera (!) so have a bunch of pictures to share...

R up to bat...

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Unfortunately, she was tagged out at second and didn't make it home...

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M's turn...

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He made it all the way home!

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I love the next two pictures... They were taken, literally, two minutes apart.

The first is R's "you've got to be kidding, Mom" face when I said I was going to take her picture. The second is the same child (can you believe it?!) just moments later when her friend S came to be in the picture too.

I'll probably use the first picture to blackmail her in some way when she's older...

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All in all it was a great day and a wonderful time was had by all.

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my series of unfortunate (and fortunate) events

The other day Renee at A Baker's Dozen wrote a post about her Series of Unfortunate Events at Church. I love reading Renee's blog and felt her pain as one thing led to another for her that chaotic Sunday morning.

Last night we had our own Series of Unfortunate Events, so... believing that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery... I've decided to post my own series of unfortunate events (with a few fortunate events mixed in too... )

R was signed up to participate in the Miss Colorado Pageant last night as a "special princess". It's really a wonderful opportunity for girls connected to Special Olympics to be partnered with one of the Miss Colorado contestants and to be introduced with them on stage at the pageant. We aren't pageant kind of people (it kind of doesn't really go along with mucking out stalls and digging around in the garden!) but we've done it a couple of years anyway... it's fun for R to exchange her normal wardrobe of jeans and mud boots for a dress and heels once in a while.

Anyway... the pageant was last night. It was up in downtown Denver and we had to be there at 5, which meant a 30 mile drive through Friday night (the worst!) rush hour traffic. M was staying home with Ruth (his
respiteformer respite provider), so it was just R and I to get dressed up and ready to go. I'd retighened R's locs that morning, curled them, and wove tiny silk flowers into them, she was wearing her FAVORITE dress of all time and new high heels and jewelry. But 3:15 we were ready to go. (Yes it would take that long to get to town... plus we had to pick up some prescriptions on the way.)

Unfortunately Ruth was late getting to the house... which made us late getting on the road. Ruth has been doing respite for us for a couple of years so I didn't think I needed to give her detailed instructions... she knows about M's GI problems and that he can't just eat all the time while we're gone, and she knows he can be edgy and just needs to be "handled" most of the time. So I quickly got out his bedtime meds, told her what I'd planned for them to have for dinner, and we left.

Unfortunately the car was almost out of gas. There was barely enough to get to the gas station... much less all the way to Denver. So we stopped to fill up. It seemed to take forever...

Unfortunately now we didn't have enough time to stop for the prescriptions. The pharmacy isn't open on the weekends, and M couldn't wait until Monday, so a quick call to Joe... Could he pick up the meds? (Fortunately he could... whew... one thing off my plate!)

Unfortunately traffic was terrible... stop and go the whole. way. into. Denver. It was also HOT outside (at least for here) up in the 90's. This will become important later.

Unfortunately I missed my turn for the parking garage (just slightly lost) and was circling around (through downtown Denver at rush hour!) when M called in a panic. R took the call and told him I couldn't talk. I was busy trying to figure out which lane to stay in, where the entrance to the parking garage is, and how to avoid being hit by the taxi the was swerving around me.

Unfortunately M couldn't wait so as I pulled into the parking garage entrance I took the phone from R because, by that time, M was completely falling apart. He was crying and starting to disconnect..  Ruth had tried to force him to do something (or not do something) by threatening him with no dinner. What?! Was she trying to trigger an episode? And anyway... she can't withhold his dinner.  M was frightened (when he starts to disconnect he becomes paranoid), afraid to go into the house with her, was in the garage (full of potentially dangerous things) alone, was falling apart, and I was 30 miles away. I paid the parking garage attendant as I talked to M, grabbed the parking stub, and drove through the garage and parked the car without really paying any attention to anything but M.

Fortunately we made it to the pageant in time. R looked stunning, her friend A was there so R was thrilled, and R is independant enough that I was able to keep trying to talk M down while she joined the rehearsal for their part of the pageant. I hung up long enough to call Joe to tell him to get home quickly and get Ruth out the door because M was escalating, then called M back and kept him on the phone until Joe was almost home.

Once the rehearsal was over there was time for pictures with a lovely backdrop (and a professional photographer posing the girls while he also took their pictures). Finally off the phone with M I pulled out the camera to take a slew of pictures of my beautiful daughter...

Unfortunately I'd forgotten the memory card at home, in the computer, and couldn't take a single picture.

The pageant went well. R was paired with "Miss Littleton"...  a sweet, lovely, girl, and they had lots of time to visit and plan their short "routine" for the pageant. R looked amazing on stage... so poised and happy. After her part was done we stayed and watched the rest of the pageant, until we were both tired, hungry (no time for dinner earlier, and it was 9:00 by then), and headachy from all the noise and commotion. At intermission we left and headed for the parking garage.

Unfortunately I'd been so busy trying to calm M down when I was parking the car, that I had no memory of parking it. I wasn't worried though.. I'd memorized the elevator we needed to take us to where we had parked. (I did think to do that!) So we took that elevator (level 4, elevator 5) and expected to see the car someplace close.

Unfortunately it wasn' t there. We looked all over level 4 and our car was definitely not there. Poor R's feet hurt by then, but I couldn't just leave her someplace while I found the car, so she followed along behind, sore feet in high heels, as I looked up and down the rows. It seemed unlikely that someone would steal an older Kia Sedona...  Where had I left the car?!

Fortunately after 20 minutes or so of looking, I decided to check level 5 elevator 4 and found the car right away. We were sooo happy to see it, and we immediately started deciding where we could find a quick dinner because, after all the walking, we were even more tired and hungry than we had been before.

Unfortunately this parking garage has a policy that without your parking stub you can't leave the lot without paying the maximum parking fee ($33!).

Unfortunately I couldn't find my parking stub  (I'd been so focused on calming down M, that who knows where I'd put it!)  But I'd already paid... and I was hungry, tired and wanted to go home. I was able to show them the receipt from when I'd paid going into the lot but, at first, that wasn't enough.

Fortunately they decided to make an exception to their rule and let us go... without paying again. (Although I did get a lecture about keeping the stub!)

Unfortunately we'd only driven three blocks when the car died.

Unfortunately it died on Colfax, right in the middle of town, six lanes... cars zooming around us, horns honking. I tried to get it to start... but it was not happening.

Unfortunately R's anxiety immediately kicked into high gear and she was close to total panic, especially when a couple of homeless guys came walking up to her window.

Fortunately they were just asking if they could push us out traffic. I said yes. What sweet guys.

Unfortunately the only place they could push us to was into a bus lane.

Fortunately I have AAA.

Unfortunately they said it would take 90 minutes to get there.

Fortunately R's anxiety was starting to calm down because...

unfortunately I'd left her anxiety medication at home.

Fortunately the tow truck was there in about 45 minutes (much better than 90!)... he hooked up the car and we headed towards home.

Fortunately the tow truck driver was really nice because...

unfortunately it took an hour to get home.

Unfortunately R's anxiety kicked in again, riding in such a BIG and noisy truck and I had to " talk her through" the whole ride home.

Fortunately we got home safe and sound (as did my car) and the tow charge was less than I expected, and the beeping of the tow truck didn't wake M up (who'd had a decent evening once Joe had sent Ruth home, and took him out for dinner!).

Fortunately it appears the car had just vapor locked (too much heat on the slow ride up there) and started right away once we got it home.

Fortunately it didn't break down on the highway or on the way to the pageant.

Fortunately R was still awake enough once we got home, paid the tow truck driver, and ate something (dinner at 11, how cosmopolitan!), for a few pictures.

Fortunately they turned out pretty good. Don't you think?

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It was a wild evening, but I'd do it all again in a heartbeat for this smile....

starting fresh

As years go...  2010 really kind of stunk.

At least for us.

I was extremely happy to kiss it good-bye and start fresh with a new year.

I think that feeling of a new year/a new start has been driving my mood lately.

I've been possessed by cleaning out-throwing out-giving away. I've gone through the basement and it's gone from a place you could barely walk through, to a place that's so cleaned out that I'm going to start gathering estimates for (finally!) having it finished. When we bought this house, six years ago, finishing the basement was the first thing we were going to do... But then we discovered the rest of the house was in dire need of major repairs and the basement project was put on long term hold.  It's a small space, but I've had fun playing around with ideas of how to do it...

I went through every box and shelf in the storeroom... getting rid of everything we don't need or use, and keeping only those things that are really important.  I love the process of cleaning out like that... It makes me feel lighter somehow to let go of "things".

I've taken one large load to the Goodwill, and have another ready to go.

I've gone through all the old photos and organized them and boxed them up... Then I went through 25 years of school papers (the older kids papers, they went to public school) and pulled out what I wanted to save for myself, and then organized the rest into a keepsake box for each girl, holding school papers, report cards, school pictures from each year, award certificates, etc.  It was a fun project and I think the girls will like them.

Like my sister, I love new beginnings, and I love starting off having everything cleaned out and pared down.

I'm not spending much time at the computer. I just don't have the patience for sitting at it right now...

We're getting lots of school done, and (unfortunately!) still spending plenty of time on insurance and medical stuff connected to the accident. We're also just relaxing and enjoying what is turning out to be one of those lovely calm spells we have from time to time.

The kids had a great time on Wednesday at the Special Olympics basketball camp with the Denver Nuggets. I was very impressed with the players... They seemed to be truly enjoying spending time with the kids, and it looked as though most of the team was there. I took some great pictures of the day, but unfortunately lost my camera somewhere between leaving the arena and getting home... so no pictures. If I don't find my camera soon I'm going to have to get another one... I don't mind buying a new camera (the other one was needing to be replaced) but I am sad about losing those photos. For now, I'm using my extracamera (the one I use for close-ups), and it's ok... but not the best for quick snapshots.

Well.... this has turned into a long rambling post so I'll close now with a picture I took this morning of the sunrise.

We love snow...

I didn't realize how much we loved it until it didn't snow for almost the entire autumn. As the dry, warm, days that were our autumn continued, I felt unsettled... as though something wasn't right somehow. We needed snow...

We got about 10" of snow with the storm, and it's been so bitter cold that it's all still around. I love looking outside and seeing the back pasture blanketed with white... with only the tips of the yucca plants and tall prairie grasses poking through the snow.

I love that the kids can grab their sleds and head out back and sled until they are covered with snow, hands and noses red with cold... and they come back in laughing and ready for hot chocolate.

It's been a good week so far... we're back on track in our school work, the insurance stuff from the accident is mostly done, and life seems to be getting back to normal.

R, taking advantage of the snow...

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We're off to Denver today... The kids are going to a basketball clinic, through Special Olympics, with the Denver Nuggets. It should be fun...

Is it Thursday already?

This week is passing by in a blur... I can't believe it's almost the weekend already.

M is doing ok.  Physically he's doing very well... He has physical therapy here at the house three times a week (Mon. Weds. Fri.) and is now able to use his crutches to get into the bathroom (with help), so no more commode in the bedroom. (hurray!) His gut finally started working again, and so he's feeling better and is eating better. He's cooperating with being hooked up to the CPM (continuous passive motion) machine for 8 hours out of every 24, and we've worked out a pretty good schedule for getting that done.

Unfortunately the psychiatric piece has been tricky... When he's hurting, or tired, the psychiatric symptoms increase and it gets pretty scary. He's not aggressive, but he becomes paranoid and that interferes with being able to care for his physical needs. One night, in the hospital, he was so tired... and hurting... and became agitated and then disconnected... believing that the oxygen he needed to keep his O2 level up, was really poison. I eventually convinced him that it was safe and he accepted it... but it was a rough episode. Also in the hospital, during physical therapy (and the reason they decided to stop doing PT with him) he got tired and was hurting, and became extremely anxious... to the point of panicking... and froze while still on some PT equipment. He's too big to just lift off, and even though we tried to calm him down and reassure him, in his panic he got himself down and walked away... putting full weight on the bad leg! (Which increased his pain dramatically, of course, and led to more agitation.)

We've had a few of those kinds of episodes since we've been home... two minor ones and a major one last night. Yesterday had been a busy day, with an HHA (home health aide) here, and the PT... and he was overly tired by evening. His agitation level got very high, and he wasn't safe (towards himself mostly...). I was so worried that he would  start grabbing at the incision... or get up and try to run out of the room. I was able to get him calmed down, but it was a very tough evening.

The hardest part of this operation is dealing with the psychiatric issues... not the physical recovery.

It's too bad he doesn't have a psychiatrist, or any decent mental health support.  (Technically he has a psychiatrist, but all she does is write prescriptions...  Back in January when I told her that M was having this surgery... rather than offering, or arranging, extra support during a difficult time, she told me to call her three weeks after surgery and let her know how things had gone.)

A bright spot this week was a package that M got from "Coach John" (from Special Olympics), who came to visit him in the hospital. John had told M that he was going to send him something, and I was looking for a card (or something small) to come. Imagine my surprise when this box came in the mail for M...



... and inside was this very cool Avalanche jersey, personalized with M's name on the back!



M was thrilled... and has the jersey hanging in his room where he can see it from his bed.  We have run into some of the most amazing people through Special Olympics... what a blessing they are in our lives.

I'm hoping that today will be a quiet day, giving M (and I) a chance to recover from the drama of yesterday. Hopefully he'll be more settled, and it will be a good day.

the dance....

The highlight of the kid's social calendar each year is the big "Night to Remember" dance put on through our Special Olympic team... It's a family event, and our SO team coordinator goes ALL out for it... It starts with dinner, and the opportunity to have professional family portraits taken and wander around the Wings Over the Rockies Museum where the dance is held each year. Then the dance (complete with DJ and disco ball), starts...

The dance is, of course, the highlight of the evening for the kids.

When we found out a few weeks ago that M needed surgery, I told the surgeon we could do it anytime... after Feb 6th. There was no way M was going to miss this party just to get his hip fixed... the hip can wait... this party only comes once a year!

Here are a few pictures...

R, M and S at the house, ready to leave for the party



S and R at dinner...



...and later, dancing.



M dancing with his friend E..



S, a friend from both our homeschool group and Special Olympics came, he and R and S hung out together a lot...



S seems to "channel" Michael Jackson...



M's girlfriend R got there, and, to his delight, he got to dance his first "slow dance" with someone other than mom. (poor R, I think I caught her in mid-sentence).



They all had such a good time...



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One last slow dance... on stage!... before it was time to head for home.



Many thanks to Rocky Mtn Team Special Olympics for creating such a wonderful evening for us...