Pretty Awesome!

Hello everyone! I have two announcements to make, one big and one not as big but still makes me happy.

First the big! This Saturday (yes, tomorrow) two of my children, Dom and Paisley, are having a lemonade stand up at Stokes Marketplace's parking lot from 11-2 and get a cold cup of lemonade. This isn't just a regular lemonade stand and this is why...

A few weeks back Dom came to me pretty upset. At recess a kid teased (I'll be nice and call it that) Dominic about his older brother, Seth, and called him a very hurtful word that starts with "R". Dom and I talked for a few minutes and he calmed down. Later that night he asked if he could make a YouTube video to tell his point of view towards his brothers and sister. With the help of my sister-in-law, Dom made his video.


Just days later Dom and Paisley wanted to find a way to earn money, actually work, so they could help buy their brother a specially adapted bike for Seth. I had to support them in this. What kids come to their parents and ASK to WORK for money? Then not want to use the money for themselves but get their brother something that would make him happy. I'd say some pretty awesome and unselfish kids, that's who.

The two asked the grocery store manager if they could use the parking lot and gained permission. I posted the event on Facebook and bought ingredients to make some juice. Well, the events invited grew to over 1000 in two days and so far over 100 people have replied to come. We made another trip to the store and bought some more lemonade.

A local newspaper contacted me a few days after the Facebook post and asked to run the story. This brings us to the second announcement. The editor of Cache Magazine allowed me to write the article. I'm published! Here is the link to the write up in Cache Magazine.

So there you have it.

If you get thirsty tomorrow, I hear it's going to be in the high 80's, come up and get a cup of lemonade.

Paisley said.....

The other night while putting our son to bed we couldn't find his little dog. He loves this pet, it's his therapy. Me, not so much of a fan of something that will piddle on my carpet. But anyway, you do anything for your kids to be happy and calm.

Well, Seth would not go to bed with out this dog to sleep next to him. He wondered around the house whimpering, "Chester, here boy." After ten minutes, no response my husband and I call out for him.

The little voice of my 4 year old daughter yells out, "He's in my room. He was tired."

We walk into her room and find her snuggled in her bed smiling. My husband asked, "Where in your room is he? I can't see him."

Paisley's beautiful blue eyes brighten up as she smiles. "He's in my closet."

Why she locked the dog in her closet is still a mystery. What made me a little nervous for the future, this was the same smile and giggle she made when we opened the door and found the dog in the dolly bed.

Way to go DADDY!

I knelt down and rummaged through the leaves, hunting for our daily treats. The deep red fruit begged to be picked. Paisley’s tiny hand reached for the ripened strawberry.

“Howee Hell! The stupid bird ate it.” She stomped her heal and placed hands on hips.

I froze half way in my attempt to grab a handful of strawberries.
“What did you say?”

With her nose crunched, she pointed at the half eaten berry. “The birds ate my strawberry!”

“I see it did, but what did you say before that?”

“I don’t want to say it again.”

“Where did you hear that word from?” I held back a smile because I already knew her answer.

“Daddy. He says ‘Howee Hell' all de time.”

“Well, I think we need to talk to Daddy when he gets home.”

“Yeah, and he’s gunna get his a** kicked huh?”

SAY WHAT???!!!!
Here we go again……

It's Something Special

I get asked how I can stay so happy and so positive while having two children with disablilites. My first answer is, "Why wouldn't I be happy?"

I know it's not proper to answer a question with a question. Well, don't you want your child to grow up as happy as they could? No matter what kind of personalities they have you plan to make the best life for them. Yes, I admit. It is hard sometimes but isn't being a parent, period, hard?

The best way I can explaine what it's like to be a parent in my situation is with one of my favorite poems.

"Welcome to Holland"

By Emily Perl Kingsley, 1987. All rights reserved.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away...because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss. But...if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.

My little 3 year old had her first dance performance. The teacher asked that the girls wear Christmas colors and left it at that. I'm so lucky, because I have a "princess" for a daughter. She wanted to wear a tutu. Well, Princess doesn't own a Christmas color tutu. I asked the other mothers what they were going to dress their daughters in, most said sweats.

*Now, I have to admit when I was little my mother put me in dance pants for my Christmas dance program, but I remember seeing the pretty skirts on the girls performing a scene from the Nutcracker. I longed to look like one of them and wanted to hide in my white t-shirt and pants.*
So, the resourceful (and prideful) motherly traits in me thought up an idea and quick.

“I’ll make her a tutu!”

Later that night I told (bragged really) my boss at how cute my daughter was going to look. Her client had two granddaughters in the same class and asked if I’d make one for each of them too.

 “Sure why not.”

 (That way my daughter wouldn’t look out of place being the only one)

The next morning, I took the tutu’s to dance practice and gave them to the two girls. NOT A GOOD IDEA! Groups of mothers loved them. Some how I agreed to make more. How many more you ask?

12 more….. In two days.

*Yes I have a stamp on my forehead that reads,”SUCKER. DOESN’T KNOW HOW TO SAY NO”.

I thought about what had happened and realized only 4 girls wouldn’t have a tutu. (I’m tender hearted) I made them some too, all the way until 3 AM!

The day of the performance arrived and I brought the tutus, passed them out and met a big surprise. Each mother had donated $5 toward the tutus. Cha-ching!

Worth every second of sleeplessness, because the tiny pre-school dancers looked like little peppermint patties out there.

So cute.

My Very Own House

Welcome to my playhouse
We will have a tea party

But, NO brothers allowed!

Paisley got her own playhouse from a friend of ours. I'm trading hair for it, I love it when you have skill to bargain with. We made her a sign and she wanted to paint some flowers with me. She ended up painting her hand and smashing it on the board. So, I left it. I thought it looked cute.

She loves her playhouse, she is always outside in it. Now she is asking for new carpet to cover the grass, Oh-, what am I in for when we hit her teen years. HAHAHA! *evil laugh*

Paisley's Birthday

Paisley had her birthday a few days ago. All morning she kept saying, "Happy Birthday!" She eyeballed her presents all day and pick them up to shake saying, "It's a princess!" or "It's Dora or Diego!" (her two at the moment obsessions). She helped decorate her cake, we had two because of how big our many family members were going to come over. Paisley had to place the princess figures where she wanted on top of the cakes and got to shake the sprinkles on too. By the time she was able to open her presents, she was trembling from excitement! She couldn't open them fast enough! When she blew out her candles, I had snuck some trick ones in and thought it was amazing they would re-light. She said a ghost was lighting it again. All in all, she had a great day turning 3!

My Sweet baby girl ended up getting surgery on Thursday. I noticed a lump in her ear, I thought it might be a plugged duct or some thing and kept an eye on it. Well in a span of 4 months it doubled in size and hurt Paisley if it was touched. Her balance was getting so she fell down a lot and her speech was not getting any better. I took her in to get it looked at. It ended up being a tumor growing in her ear. It was putting pressure on the ear drum and that was what was causing her balance and speech problems. When they removed it, the doc told me it was the size of a grape and he found an other one in the other ear the size of a pea. Man I am glad I noticed this before it cause major irreversible damage. While she was coming to. I was holding her in my arms and it reminded me of holding her when she was born and it kind of made want to cry thinking about my children in hospitals. She is doing great now and is playing so full of life again keeping her balance now so she can RUN.

Paisley our 3rd water bug. On these hot days she isn't fully happy until she is out side in the water! Her new discovery is splashing the people standing by the pool, so watch out or you'll get wet!