Where did I go??

Yep, I started this venture and then left everyone hanging. So much happened during the summer. I am now working as a family partner for the mental health/mental retardation center! I get to help families with kids/teens with emotional disturbances and I truly love doing it! Now that I'm settled in there, I'm back!

My daughter got a scooter and now she thinks she is in absolute heaven! She's about to be 14 and I can't believe it! She seems to have started some of the hormonal stuff, though it is hard to tell because she is moody anyway... just part of the deal! So here she is on her scooter. It is a Buzz Around Lite, and she loves to buzz around in it. She can make it a red one or change the colors to blue or silver, so she thinks that's the coolest thing. So far she has only run into a planter, with no damage. She's a better driver than me! So here she is...



That's my girl! She zips around the sidewalks in our cul-de-sac, and mom and dad worry about her crossing the street, even though in our cul-de-sac there is never any traffic and all the neighbors watch for her... we hope. It's a nerve-wracking thing being a parent.. then throw a special needs kiddo in the mix and you just have to LET GO a little and let them LIVE a little.

Let the insanity begin!

I can hear the cries of excitement among the young ones and the cries of anguish among the moms.... it is the last day of school It barely even qualifies as a day, since they will go, eat junk food, watch a movie and then come home, sort of just a cruel tease for me... And then it begins... summer - the good, the bad and the ugly! Wow! It always starts off great, pools, camps, etc., then the "I'm bored....," eating me out of house and home, neighbor friends coming in and out of my house, cleaning literally thousands of little fingerprints off my glass door. Okay, let's just call summer off now that I think about it.

Bethany, my 13-year-old girl with cerebral palsy and mild mental retardation, will be attending a day camp every weekday. She loved this last year. They get to bowl, play at water park, see movies, go to the park, and the list goes on, and the MHMR staff are so great working with the special needs kids. So she's pretty much set for summer. The boys (10 and 7) have camps, etc. throughout the summer which I practically have to get another mortgage to pay for, but worth it right... for their personal growth and experiences in life and of course, a worthy investment in my sanity. I personally love the lazy days at the pool. I reserve my reading of actual novels until summer because only when am I AWAY from the house do I not feel compelled to be productive. At the pool life is always good, dishes don't matter, bills don't matter, time does not matter! My favorite part of summer is the pool and I would spend my entire summer sunbathing with a book if I had that option.

So yes, I guess I'm ready. I just wish my 40-year-old-had-3-c-sections-and-never-fully-recovered body was a little more swimsuit ready!! Oh well... no one but the other old moms and dads like me are there to see me anyway because to anyone under 25 we are all just old and not much is expected of us. This is also when I do my thing where I think how I definitely look better than that person, or that person, or that person... it's my little game, wrong maybe, but I keep it to myself and it helps me take a little less pressure off myself to be superwoman.

Cerebral Palsy Awareness Day, March 25th

I did not know this was a day and I missed it! But... maybe the beginning of something great for a debilitating problem that affects so many lives, more and more as babies can survive earlier and earlier out of the womb and their risks of CP increase with each day they are premature. Take a look and share....



A Beautiful Ride!

Blog... blog... blog

So blogging.... what a strange word and what a strange thing it is to think that people actually care enough to read each other's ramblings about nothing. But I am reading about random people's lives when 10 years ago I was just learning how to e-mail!!! It's the ultimate alternative to Reality TV. Reality TV is everything but real. Blogging, now that's real... or is it? I could write that I just won the Pulitzer Prize and you'd never know I didn't.

What made me decide to try this blogging adventure was the fact that when I look for blogs I find a lot of stuff, but not much from someone like me who is just having a routine chaotic life with all of the struggles that come with raising my family...... with the one exception that I have a child with a disability, or rather, a "specially-abled" child. A special needs child puts a unique twist on life, for all the family members. But you know what... we're still a normal family and we have normal stuff going on just like everyone else, we just juggle that with our not-so-normal stuff. If you are one of these families, then stay tuned..... and be prepared to have a nice mix of useful, even inspirational information and information with very little value whatsoever, depending on my mood!