Happy Easter 2010!

Here's Trevor hard at work on his chemistry assignments. He took a break for Mass & the egg hunt, and then back to work!

My little Easter decorations :)
This is an antique now - almost 48 years old. It's from when I was born, which was an Easter Sunday :)

Landscape bricks make good hiding spots :)


The druid emerges and collects the Spring Bounty - Eggs out of a tree..

There were 60 eggs to find. Trevor & Connor both got the same amount :)

29 Eggs!

I can eat the Peep!

Happy Easter!

Winding up Spring Break

Diana is already back at her place for college. She had a friend coming in from California & the dorms weren't going to be ready yet - so she offered her sleeping bag & a spot on her floor :) It was a better Spring Break for Diana this time - she got to go on a date, and hang out with friends. She did some drawing and a lot of sleeping in, plus the camping earlier in the week :) Of course, anything would have been better than last time - she had oral surgery last year!

Trevor apparently struggled last term at college - he needs to go in and talk to his counselor about his options. Something isn't lining up on his grade report and he needs to figure out what's going on with that. I think Lee will go in with him to make sure he understands everything properly. Sometimes things don't process right with Trevor's Asperger's.

Connor had a great Spring Break. He got to do all the stuff he wanted to do, down to making chocolate chip cookies today. He went on an Easter Egg hunt this morning that was put on by our local Respite Care folks. It was for anyone with special needs. I even saw a former student from my old job :) They had plastic eggs with candy, as well as real eggs :) I think Connor had a good time.

I got a lot of stuff organized & cleaned up. There's always more to do, but it's a good start :)

Spring Break Camping

According to the Facebook site, you should be able to look at the whole album by just clicking the underlined "Facebook" link above.

It was a good little trip. Next time, maybe we'll try for two nights instead of just one. This was kind of a trial trip - the yurt was only available Monday night anyway, plus Lee has work on Wednesdays. Thing is, you pack close to the same amount of gear whether you're going for one day or five! It's just the amount of food & underclothes that changes!

In any case, we got all loaded up and drove all of 15 minutes to get to the campground. They only have two yurts, but lots of regular camping spaces. We were up on the hillside, and very close to the 'nice' bathrooms with flush toilets & hot showers :)

The actual camp site was great. Besides the convenience of the yurt, there was a water fountain for drinking, as well as a spigot for cooking & washing water, right next to the large picnic table. The fire ring had a 4-level barbeque grate. There was also our own trash can at the site. Between the two yurts was the dump station for water with stuff in it (soap, food bits, etc.). They even left us some big chunks of wood :)

I had to be a good Girl Scout & pick up all the little trash bits I found around the site from the prior visitors. However, Diana & I did NOT do our other regular Girl Scout things - we didn't use the buddy system for the restrooms (okay - she's considered an adult now anyway). We didn't back the truck in so we could leave quickly in an emergency. I had too many coals under the dutch oven so the chocolate cherry cake wound up a little burnt-tasting (Cool Whip covered that up though). I didn't put my polar fleece blanket inside the sleeping bag with me, so I got too cold during the night (everyone else had them inside & they were fine - my mummy bag is apparently no longer good till 0 degrees - maybe from washing it?). We didn't divvy up the chores & we didn't have GORP. We DID have s'mores.

As soon as we'd unpacked everything - Connor was ready to go exploring on his bike. Lee took his bike & the two of them went all through the campground & the park. While they were off doing that, Diana & I went to hunt for a geocache. I was happy there were two listed in the park. We had a bit of a steep hike up a hill behind the yurt, but it didn't take us too long to find the cache. Someone left a dollar bill, so I took that - you're not really supposed to leave money. I left a geocoin behind.

We got back to the yurt about the same time as Lee & Connor. We set up the fire then & started cooking the baked potatoes in the coals. Besides those, we had hot dogs & baked beans as well. And I made the chocolate cherry cake for dessert. Connor just kept riding his bike around the parking lot for the yurts when no one was available to ride further out with him. When it got too dark, he skidded a bit, fell & decided it was time for bed.

That's when I went looking for his melatonin. A lot of kids with autism don't produce enough melatonin on their own, so it really helps to use it as a regular supplement for Connor. If we weren't sure it was effective, we were positive last night. I knew I had put it in a baggie, but I could not find the dang thing for the life of me!! So even though we went to bed a good couple of hours after Connor was in his sleeping bag, he was still talking and singing in his bed. After we were all settled, he was still not able to calm himself and be quiet. We had him come down from his top bunk to snuggle with Diana, because she thought that had worked in the past. Then he just got really upset & was sniffling & crying. We had him go back to his bunk, and I went up to calm him down. He was quiet for a bit, but then started back up again with the singing & talking. It's like he has all this stuff going on in his head, and he just can't rein it in.

Eventually, Lee took Connor & they both just drove home to get him a dose. They were back within 1/2 hour and 10 minutes after he was in his bunk, Connor was asleep. So, yeah. Melatonin works on Connor!

Tuesday morning we got up once it was light out. It was pretty darn cold, so we got the fire going first thing. Then I heated water for hot drinks. Connor had requested pancakes & french toast for breakfast. That was easy enough - they have the same toppings :) When it got warmer, he was back on his bike. We took our time over breakfast & Diana sat next to the fire until the sun started shining, I think :) Lee & I rode bikes with Connor down by the other part of the campground. We also went & found the second geocache - it was a micro, which can be hard to find, but we did!

Then we packed up and swept out the yurt. The truck packed up better this time without all the wood & extra food & such. Fifteen minutes later, we were home again & unloading. I got a good hot shower & that's the end of that adventure!

Liberty ball!

That's what Connor calls Liberty when she's all curled up into a ball to sleep by my bedroom door.

You thought this post was going to be political, didn't you?

Instead you get a cute photo of my son & our dog :)

Things to do on Spring Break

1. Get Diana for the week.

2. Clean, clean, clean.

3. Go camping in a yurt.

4. Figure out some kind of landscape plan for the backyard that we can do in smaller pieces.

5. Clean up flower/veggie/berry beds.

6. Go biking with Connor.

7. Figure out how to drive a back-hoe, rent a back-hoe, carve paths all over the backyard & move a bunch of dirt to level things out and pull out plants we don't want so we can put a patio outside.

Okay - that last one probably isn't happening, but it would be nice!

And don't worry - I'll be sleeping in every day, no matter what's on the 'plan.'

Jury Duty

I have no experience with this. I only ever had to tick off the "not a US citizen" box & send the form back.

This lack of experience bothered me lately with Trevor getting a card in the mail that said he needed to call every evening after 6:00pm to see if his number was called for the next day. I wasn't all that sure that he'd be the best choice for a juror. After all, social stuff is not his forte.

Today was his turn to go in.

This was actually incredibly lucky. He had his last final on Wednesday, and was able to sell his books back on Thursday. His number was in the later 500's, but earlier, it had looked very possible to be called on one of his finals days. We had him email or notify his instructors that he could be called to jury duty & may have to reschedule his finals. But that didn't happen, so everything was good.

He went in this morning, understanding that he couldn't bring any electronic anything. He had his sketch pad to keep himself occupied.

They asked general questions of the jury pool, and selected enough jurors for the trial before Trevor was asked anything specific. Once the jury was chosen, the rest of the people were dismissed and told they didn't need to call in again for the month, unless they needed to start again from #1 (out of 1000 possible jurors).

And that was it for Trevor's jury duty!

St. Patrick's Day Joke

What's Irish & sits on your lawn all summer?

Paddy O'Furniture.

Connor's new glasses

Poor eyesight for the entire family!!!

He looks very cute though. At least his teeth are straight :P

My silly dog

And yes, the higher my voice gets, the more excited the dog gets. :P

Squirt bottle

If a student purposefully and willfully spits in your face, you should be able to squirt them back with water. It's behavior-modification & works great on dogs.

My other option is use a poster or something as a shield. I'm not allowed to smack their face - which is my gut reaction.

The kid is lucky I have such self control!!

Seriously, I gotta convince the therapist that a squirt of water should be allowable.

Shrimp & Caviar

I'm doing this monthly Ladies Bible study thing since, oh, October, I think.

I was invited to be in the group because we're all around the same age, with kids around the same ages... We have the study sessions at different people's homes, after they host dinner. Seems a lot of ladies in this crowd have BIG homes - the one last night was in a gated community. Usually we get a note in the mail as a reminder that the study session is coming up, but this last month, our facilitator had surgery & she didn't get the note out.

So last night, it was just one other lady & myself at the hostess' home. She had gone through a LOT of trouble to make asian food - kimchi, something like a potsticker, spring rolls, sushi. She had even taken the time to make half of it vegetarian. Well, vegetarian meaning "not pork or beef." Everything had shrimp in it, or some other fish/crab (I think the sushi had eel besides the caviar on it).

I felt bad because instead of the 8 to 10 guests she'd cooked for, she only got two, so I went ahead & ate all the 'vegetarian' stuff. I was hungry, and it's only for health reasons that I do it anyway - so I could cave a bit. I do eat tuna & salmon, but dang - I haven't had shellfish in a LONG time.

We didn't get to do much bible studying (maybe a couple of things from the book we're using), but we had a nice conversation over dinner :)

And when it's my turn to host, it's gonna be a baked potato bar - haha.

The Bike

Big win here. We weren't sure if he would care one way or another, but he's gotten too big to ride the trail-a-bike (the one that hooks on to an adult bike & makes it like a tandem).

So the high school guy who has watched him for us a couple of times will be moving to his dad's in CA after graduation. Turns out he has a couple of bikes that he's not using, so he was fine with giving Connor his old trick bike.

He'd had it painted green - which happens to be Connor's favorite color.

I took it to the sporting goods store & the bike guy happened to be there today & he fixed it up for us. It needed a new tube and some straightening on the wheel frame. He greased up the chain & everything - all for $8.99. Nice, huh? He was impressed with the paint job - he thinks it was done by a car shop or something :) It's a good solid bike.

I'm thinking we'll be out getting Connor to learn to ride this weekend :)

The cake was vanilla, with vanilla frosting. It winds up being a lot sweeter to me than a chocolate cake. Maybe if it would have had a layer of strawberry or something in between? But he wanted it plain like that.

All in all, good birthday for the kiddo :)

Happy 12th Birthday, Connor!

When asked what he'd like for his birthday, the answer was "Presents." *sigh*



So we go for the sure fire things he'll like - mostly food that we don't typically get him.



Lucky Charms is his favorite (he usually eats Chex).



"Green Chips" are his favorite potato chips.



The Mac & Cheese crackers are new & had a good commercial, so he kept wanting to get them. Okay, for his birthday, sure.



The Hershey bars are to make s'mores.



He's been enjoying puzzles lately, so he got one of those.



Trevor got him the movie, Wall-E.



The bicycle comes this afternoon... He doesn't even know about that yet & he's already having a GREAT birthday! There will also be cupcakes at school & we'll bake a cake this afternoon when we're home from school. Dinner is his favorite: Hot dogs (veggie) and baked beans.



Happy Birthday Connor!!

Best of MADE - Biggest Surprises

Hee! Diana made a "Best of" episode!!!

http://www.mtv.com/videos/misc/455062/dream-date.jhtml#id=1626017

Click the link to see - It's copywrite-protected, so I won't post the actual clip here.

Still - cool beans!

:)

Countdown to London 2012...

Closing Ceremonies are being recorded on my DVR. I spent 6 hours watching the hockey game & then the delayed cross-country competition today already. I haven't joined in on the WoW meetings with Robert & Shoo, so I'll do that tonight :) I need to move my bike back to the computer.

Wow - what a game. So close & so well played. It was pretty much anything a hockey fan could wish for, with non-stop action and no way to know who would come out on top.

Being Canadian, I was rooting for Canada - but when the US were behind, I rooted for them to tie it up. That last goal in the final 20 seconds to tie up the game for OT was just outstanding. The neighbors were probably wondering what was up with all the noise coming from our house :)

Isn't it funny the medal results were exactly the same for the hockey women? Canada Gold, USA Silver, Finland Bronze.

For Canada to start this games with a drought of no host country gold, and then to go on to win the MOST GOLD EVER for a host country is just phenomenal. My mom couldn't believe it. She called me three times on Saturday as Canada kept winning golds - she wouldn't say who won what, but she just had to share it with me. Well, she did let slip on the curling, but she didn't realize I had it on the DVR for Lee. That's okay :) She was flipping through three channels with a live feed to see everything she possibly could.

I managed to get some good biking in - faster than my usual pace, too. I made two scarves & most of a hat, I got papers sorted & filed. I capped a bunch of supplement pills for Connor, and mended clothes. There was also a puzzle in progress on the table in the living room, but you have to actually look at that, so that was more for the rest of the family while I had control of the TV.

The sport I didn't really care for in the past was ice dancing, but the two top teams (Canada & US) made it much nicer than the past dancers. The Russian couple were still from that mode, and I really had a hard time seeing their dance through the icky costumes. I really don't like the outlandish, overly-sequined costumes. Especially on the men!! (I know you have to be true to yourself, Johnny Weir, but dang!).

It was a great games. I'm proud to be a Canadian, and wanting to go and visit Vancouver again really soon :)

And yeah - the US still won the most overall medals - I was happy for Shaun White, Apolo Ono, Chad Hedrick, Lindsay Vonn, Bode Miller and all the other medalists. It was just a great games :)

And now the countdown to London starts... Hopefully I'll be on vacation & able to watch it in Canada with my mom. She has better TV coverage :P

Can't really sit still

As everyone knows - I'm watching a lot of Olympics. I am using my DVR to record anything NBC's main channel here shows. There's also some coverage on USA, but I thought that would be a bit too much.

I do tend to fast-forward through heats when there's quarter finals & semi finals on most events. I will watch in regular mode if something unexpected happens (usually a crash) and when the winners cross the finish line. Fast forward is silent, and I like to hear the cheers at the end :) I watch the whole race when it's for the medals.

I zoom through most of the hockey games as well, especially when one team has a huge lead. That Canada game last night though - I only saw the highlights of that one - I would have probably watched the whole thing with the game being so close! Wow!

I have been using my stationary bike, but I don't ride for 6 hours - that's a little more than my posterior can do - even on a gel seat. So I have been doing busy work - 2 scarves knitted so far, mending clothes (buttons sewn, holes in sweaters closed, etc.), laundry and cleaning stuff. If I had silver, I could polish that - hah.

This weekend, we are done with Special Olympics skiing for Connor, so I'm home to finish off the final weekend of the games in real time. I will knit a little more, and I might park the sewing machine in front of the TV. I don't know how well that will work. There are a few more quick mending things I can do on the machine, but I won't attempt anything that requires concentration. I already shoo everyone out of the house when I'm trying to really sew.

I might also bring the laptop into the living room and do some data entry stuff for my TOPS club. I have to present awards next week, and I can prep for that as well.

Next weekend, I have to check if the snow is good in the mountains. We might try another run of cross country skiing with Lee on Sunday...

Please vote for Connor's Summer Camp :)

Pepsi is donating money to different ideas - Connor's Special Olympics Sport camp in the summer is up for a $5,000 chance.

Please click the link & vote - they are ranked #28 and there are two days left to vote!

Thank you!!

http://www.refresheverything.com/YMCAPartnerSportsCamp

Oh - there's a cool slide show if you have time. Connor shows up in group shots & there's one of him getting his ears checked at the beginning :)

Another Kelownan still in the hunt!!

BCLocalNews.com - Omischl to aerials finals

Kelowna in the Olympics!

Kelowna's Kelsey Serwa takes part in Olympic history

I got to watch her through all her runs, up to where she missed a jump in the semi-finals - so close!! It was very exciting to be cheering on someone from my Mom & sister's town!!

Renee & Baby Robert

You can see, Renee is cracking up here - Connor wanted to put his arm around baby Robert & she had to position his head so Connor's arm wouldn't be in his face! Connor thought he was great, though!

Such a loving (but tired) Mommy!

He's such a little guy! Of course, Diana was my lightest baby at 7.6, which is more than Robert weighs right now...

Eat & sleep, eat & sleep, pee all over mom, sleep some more.

Robert was confused by the funny faces Lee made.

See? Tiny!!

Thanks for coming to visit, Renee! I hope you get some sleep!

Skiing movie

Last Ski Session with Special Olympics

It was absolutely beautiful at Diamond Lake yesterday! The weather was great! We brought Diana & Liberty along, since we were going to take our own van.

We hadn't had any new snow, so it was a little icy for skiing, but the snow pack was deep enough that it was okay. It just made it harder for Connor to eat the snow :P

By the way - this is how I like to drive to the snow. No snow on the road!!

That's Mt. Theilsen from the car :)

Lent 2010

We got our ashes on Wednesday. Trevor & I did the full evening mass, while Lee just received ashes at the lunchtime service.

Most Catholics use this time to reflect on their mortality and try to do something to change something about themselves. You may have heard about kids giving up candy or people fasting or not eating meat for the six weeks of Lent. It's meant to have us feel a little bit of suffering to identify with Christ. Giving up something you love makes it that much better when you are once again able to receive it at Easter.

But I prefer going the other direction - do something more spiritual on a daily basis. You can decide to pray more regularly, do a service to others, etc. You can even make a pledge to be a better parent, or whatever.

I'm attempting to pray a rosary every day for Lent. I like praying the rosary - it's a wonderful meditation. It just takes a little time and to remembering to DO it. I struggle with the beginning & ending prayers - the version of the Apostle's Creed I use for the rosary is different from the one we use at church - more "thee" & "thence" Old English. And the other one is "Hail, Holy Queen" that you say at the end. I stumble over that one as well.

Hopefully by the time we reach Easter, I'll have those both solidly memorized!

The pressure is on...

I am now a full day behind on Olympic coverage. I had a meeting last night, and could only catch up from the last two hours of normal, and then two hours of late night coverage from Monday.

So I'm about 6 hours behind now.

Those athletes are going to be racing in x2 mode until the finish in total silence so I can catch up tonight. I hit the normal 'play' button just when they're getting close to the finish line.

Ah yes, the Olympics!!

Canada Gold

Hooray for CANADA!!! FINALLY!!!
In case you were unaware, Canada had not won any gold at an Olympics IN Canada - ever. They hosted the Winter Games in Montreal & Calgary, and now Vancouver. They medaled, just not the gold.

That changed on Sunday when a young freestyle skier (moguls & jumps) managed to hold the edge on his super-fast run to beat out the favorite, an Australian (who was actually born in Vancouver & has dual citizenship!).

I am doing my best to keep up with the DVR, but the West Coast feed winds up getting done around midnight, so I have to miss the last couple of hours & catch them up the following afternoon. So I know who won the men's downhill & the snowboard competitions last night, but I didn't see the pairs skating final.

I am biking to the more exciting events (downhill & snowboarding last night). I just leave the exercise bike in the living room.

Most of the time, I don't watch all that much TV, so I'm also doing other things while I watch - I cleaned the living room window, capped a bunch of supplement pills for Connor, did laundry, and I'm knitting & almost done with the first scarf - and it's only the 4th day of competition! This afternoon I'll get paperwork sorted & boxed away from last year - I still need to add a w-2 to the taxes, then that's done.

I am really enjoying the games though. It's exciting and I just get a thrill out of the whole experience. Lee is off work today & he'll get to watch his favorite sport (which he's still never gotten to play). Curling.

Another skiing run

Connor did even better on Saturday than last time. He had the right sized boots for the skis, and we went 3 miles along Diamond Lake to a Pizza restaurant (the store part was closed for the season), and then the 3 miles back to the lodge. This time there were more hills to go up & down, but he saw other people doing a little jog on the skis, so he was doing that too!

I can keep up with him unless he's doing that jog, but that doesn't last too long, and he still likes to stop & eat snow now & then, and I can easily catch up :)

He really liked getting the pizza in the "Alaska Pizza Restaurant" (Snow-covered mountains make him think of Alaska).

Next weekend we'll see if Diana can come along, & maybe we'll bring Liberty as well. :) It will be the last weekend of cross country practice. The following weekend the other athletes will head over to Bend for a few days for the State competition. I hope they do really well :)

Time for the GAMES!!

Last night, I encouraged my TOPS club members to exercise along with the Olympic games. I said, if it gets exciting, just go ahead & jog along with your favorite athlete! They all laughed.

I was totally serious.

The exercise bike is going into the Living Room after the Opening Ceremonies tonight, and that's what I'll be doing for my evening exercise :)

Don't worry - I'll still get some 'real' exercise with Connor in the mountains on Saturday too :) I love the DVR!!!

:)

Special Olympics Winter Sports :)

Ouch

So, I'm not in horrible shape - however most of my exercise tends to be on a stationary bike. It's an 'easy' workout, especially since I'm not even paying attention to the exercise.

When Connor wanted to use my cross country skis, and I swapped him for his snow boots & the snowshoes, I knew my toes would be squished. Connor's feet are about a 1/2 size smaller than mine. That's okay. I could deal.

I also had to walk and even run a bit to keep up with him (and keep him from skiing into the other athletes - altho he did run into one). I could feel it in my legs a bit while we were out on the snow.

When Connor was getting more tired, and started falling even more, I wound up having him hold the ski poles, and I held the ends and pulled him along. He's still learning to keep his feet straight anyway, and it was good practice. I didn't expect to get sore from that.

On Sunday, I noticed a tightness around my sternum. It almost felt like heartburn. It took me a bit to figure out I had stretched my pectoral muscles further back than normal.

Advil helps.

5 Days to go!

On Friday, I'll be glued to my TV watching the Opening Ceremonies for the Olympics in Vancouver, B.C.

I'll be wearing my torch-bearer mittens (at least for part of it) and various other Olympic gear I've collected in the last few years since Vancouver found out they were hosting & Connie's store started selling Olympic stuff :)

Yes, I'm a little obsessed. There's something about a good chunk of the world gathering for friendly competition. Some people come just to represent their country with no chance of a medal, others have a heavy weight on their shoulders to perform or risk embarassing themselves & their country.

I love all of it. The stories about the athletes, the views of the host country, the highs & lows of the competition. I will DVR the whole thing, and try to watch as much as I can when time allows. I plan to bring my exercise bike into the living room & bike along with the races, at least an hour a day, maybe more depending on the excitement level. Trevor should be happy because that means my computer will be free for him to use :)

Because of my excitement, one student in my class was not happy with me. She doesn't care about the Olympics and couldn't understand what I was going on about. We had a "meeting" with the staff & students in the room last week so she could let us know what about us was bothering her (therapy classroom, just go with it). Turns out the thing that bugged her most about me was the Olympics. Ha. Her question was, "Why are you so excited about the Olympics?" I said, "When I was growing up, it was a time that my family got together and watched - it was something to cheer about and talk about, and I have a lot of good memories of that. That's why I love the Olympics." She seemed to get that, and moved on to the next person.

On the flip side, the skills trainer asked if we could tell the girl what bugged us about her.

I requested she not scream in the classroom.

So when she screams, can I start talking about the Olympics again? (Evil grin)

Snowshoeing & CrossCountry with Special Olympics

I found out a couple of weeks ago from a friend that Special Olympics does snowshoeing and cross country skiing during the Winter months. We hadn't heard about it yet - which was why we had signed Connor up for Basketball. Basketball is actually pretty darn loud and crowded - not the best combination for Connor.

This friend attends my church & also has a Special Olympian daughter. She let me know they'd be going up this weekend & where to meet. Since I have my own skis & Special Olympics provides the snowshoes, all we needed was to pack a lunch :)

Its about 90 minutes to get to Diamond Lake, where there are plenty of nice trails & a lodge with a restaurant & restroom. The lake is actually frozen over right now & covered with snow. I wasn't expecting that :)

Connor put on his new Kamik snowboots & a couple of folks helped get him into his snowshoes. Within 10 minutes though, he was teary-eyed. He wanted to ski! Most of the Special Olympians are on the snowshoes, mainly because it requires a lot less coordination. Well, Connor's pretty dang coordinated, and lucky for him, our feet are close to the same size. I swapped his boots for my cross country shoes, and got him hooked up on my skis.

Apparently, he's a natural. The folks that put the SO stuff together were very, very impressed by how quickly he picked up the skiing. I was impressed that he kept going, even when his arms hurt from using the poles (at the beginning, when he was using them to push himself). He fell a lot, but got right back up - well, once he'd sampled the snow from where he was laying.

All in all, he skied a good three hours, with a lunch break in between. We missed the deadline to compete this year in Bend, but I'm pretty sure he'll be on board next year!

Happy 50th Birthday Connie!!

My sister, Connie, hits the big 5-0 today.

If I could, I'd show up at the door & surprise her with flowers.

I will take her out when we get up there in the summer for a delayed birthday celebration.

When I spoke with my mom on Saturday, it sounded like Connie was going to do a lot of celebrating this weekend anyway, so that's all good.

Happy Birthday big sis - I'll give you a call later today :) Love you!!