Living & Loving, Autism & Deafness
Our Journey with our loved ones and our lives
http://www.flickr.com/photos/criscollrj/sets/72157602827792657/
We are okay – sorry it’s been so long since I posted! We all had the horrible fall cold, and I’ve been typing endlessly. We had a fun Halloween – see pics! Now the race begins – how fast will Christmas come THIS YEAR!!?? Probably the fastest ever since I’m not at all prepared.
time to also prepare for Thanksgiving and take some serious time to pray and give thanks….
Had a ball with him this day — he’s such a sweet little pet and he’s just ignored way too often!!
We saw this theater walking today to get menus for Sunlark in Akron. Also took pictures of the Aeros stadium, etc. I should have gotten more pictures but forgot. We went today to work together for Sunlark but also to have a “date” to celebrate our 20-year anniversary (which was in June, but ahh well! ;D )
But boy, the memories here. I believe we saw Amy Grant/Michael W. Smith here in Concert in 1984. We also I believe saw Glass Harp there in about 1988 or so. What a beautiful theater.
We also saw the old Mr. Bilbo’s restaurant that we ate at in 84 and 93 (with our Mr. 2-year-old Christer when we toured Quaker Square and historic Akron – will have to post THOSE pics sometime!). It’s now known as the Lime Spider – here http://www.myspace.com/thelimespider It was closed or we would have looked inside. As dedicated Lord of the Rings fans we were very interested in that place….
We walked our legs off and got very good exercise and made some $ too…
It was nice to have a day out. We used a coupon we had and ate at Cracker Barrel with it – yummy free lunch! http://www.crackerbarrel.com/
Now, back to life, dirty dishes, laundry, and lining up transcription work for next week…
Kids are all back in school and doing okay. It’s nice to be back in a routine. though it gets a little tiring getting up at 5 every day!!! Next week will be the first week they all go to school every day so I plan to work 3 days. Only had gotten in 1-2 days per week the last few weeks.
Almost 2 years ago we moved out of this house. I’ll have to link to the old pictures later. But this is the house after our in-laws made superb renovations. They sold it just yesterday (closing date) and we had our last time in our house where we lived 12 1/2 years and boy what memories! Chris was 2 when we moved there, almost 15 when we moved, and now he’s going to be 17 in November. Colleen & Ryan were born there.
It was neat to see it all one more time and clean out the attic completely, etc. Saying goodbye, and all the blessings and luck to the new people going in it…
One newly-outfitted teen out the door, one to go. Colleen went off to 8th grade this morning to the high school, on the bus leaving at 6:35 a.m. Next comes Chris’s bus, and he’s standing at the door waiting for it now, at 7:09, and it’s due to come at 7:12.
Then Ryan will go to his bus at 7:30, and he just got up and ate. Then I have two appts. today.
The summer went JUST as fast as I thought it would. I’m glad I didn’t wish it away. I had one pool day, one beach day, and a lot of nice walks, including a few in the woods. I did work some, but not to excess.
I think the kids were VERY bored at the end.
Next entry will be pictures!
Colleen graduated last Sunday from her boating class, which was very cool. It was a very beautiful day, which was a blessing as we were at the beach for about 4 hours, before we had to leave and go to her camp that she was at all week. During the boating class, which lasted all summer 2x a week, she learned to canoe, kayak, jet-ski, sail, and probably other things that I can’t think of at this moment. I am really glad she had the opportunity with our park system to do this, and I highly recommend if your state has a boating program for teens that you have them join in!
She wasn’t able to join in the boat ride here but spent a lot of time swimming and had a good time. Afterward we had a wonderful dinner that was SO filling, croissant sandwiches, chips, mac & potato salads, fruit salad, pop. Yum!
After dinner, certificates and packages and a new life jacket, to keep, was presented to each student. We could not wait until the end of that because we had to pack up and get Colleen to her 4-H camp. She got her package just in time for us to receive it and had to go to the car!
A hectic time was had then as we rushed home for Colleen to shower the sand off, pack any remaining items and we went and dropped her off for a fun-filled week at her 4-H camp. Unfortunately the perfect weather did not last through the week, and she had 2-3 days of a lot of rain. Made good use, I’m sure, of the extra shoes and outfits packed! She made a lot of friends, saw old, close friends, and had fun singing the Numa song with her camp-mates in their talent show.
She found new friends that liked her comic character Inuyasha as much as she does.
We spent the week just caring for the two rambunctious boys, and know Chris will be eager to go back to school Monday at his day camp that will last three weeks. Ryan just has about 2 weeks left of his day camp. Then, amazingly, it will be only about 3 weeks until regular school starts.
This is similar to the classroom Ryan has this summer, and also to the one he will have in the fall. He loves his summer camp! They attend field trips once a week. It’s a quick 2 hours (I arrive home at 9:30 after dropping him off, and leave about 11:40 to pick him up) but he’s just really enjoying it.
And Chris LOVES his camp – they go in water EVERY day and are well equipped for getting Chris out when they need to.
So, we’re enjoying our summer, and planning for fall. Come fall I plan to work about 15-20 hours, probably 3 days a week. I’m going to try and plan some larger housecleaning projects the 2 days I’m off. I need to do MANY things, organize cabinets, deep-clean bedrooms, clean basement, organize some painting projects, and even just trying to adhere to some sort of exercise plan.
Happy rest of summer everyone, and hope all are peaceful and healthy!
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Chris has been staying up until 2-3-4-5 a.m. the last week. He always ends up falling asleep lately and gets up then about 10 (I have to force him up) – sometimes he sleeps until 11. I try earlier but it’s impossible.
So last night I wanted to take a bath, was trying to wait for him to go to sleep. He was still up at 3 so I gave up and went to sleep. Had aches and pains so had trouble going to sleep until 3:30 or so.
So TONIGHT was the night. I was definitely taking a bath (I haven’t had a chance to take one since May when all the kids were in school). At 10:30 I locked myself in the bathroom and ran the water all the way up. I heard Chris at the door but figured he’d just stand there like he always does when I just take a quick shower. Mind you, he can’t hear, so he wouldn’t know the water is on. And he’s never broke in before.
So I get in for ONE MINUTE. He UNLOCKS the door. He’s never done that before. Now RYAN has, which is why I never shower when he’s up (and he’s usually up at 6 so you can imagine how hard it is for me to shower when I maybe have this window from maybe 10 at night – well, now that Chris is opening the door, I don’t know WHEN I’ll shower, either.
I tried to hide thinking he wouldn’t see me (dark shower curtain) but I left the BUBBLE BATH out. So he’s grabbed the bottle, getting ready to get in, so I had to get out. I’m trying to push him out of the room, getter madder and madder (he is down from 230 down to 188 with his med change, but he’s still got me by 11 pounds). But I couldn’t win. I did grab my still pretty full bottle of bubbles and hid them in the bedroom.
So, no bath, and couldn’t even rinse the bubble bath off. I feel worse now. Sweaty and not rinsed. Blach. My plantar fascaiitis [sp] on my foot is acting up – I wanted to soak it for a while. Couldn’t do that either…
I’m just going to go to bed – he’s happily enjoying my raspberry creme bubble bath. I need a good night sleep – please pray he just goes to sleep on his own and doesn’t bother me….. 4 1/2 hours sleep last night wasn’t enough (I was very lucky Ryan slept until 8).
grump over.
Couldn’t get an actual entry to post from flickr, just the test thingy— hmmm.
Well, here’s the post:
I made a flickr page for this blog. It’s at http://www.flickr.com/photos/78584348@N00/ Just thought you guys would like some recent pictures to look at. (2020 – wow, had not idea I had another flickr ID besides the one at yahoo — )
I hope everyone is well – I’ve gotten extremely behind as I do every summer. We are preparing to send Colleen to camp tomorrow and she’s also finishing a boat camp she’s been attending in the evenings a few days a week.
But a beautiful summer day here and we’re enjoying it actually IN the house, not outside. Chris doesn’t seem interested in staying the pool.
Well, I’ll catch up more soon — dori
Wonderful picnic at Rick and Nancy’s, and then fireworks after. Unfortunately my camera died when I wanted to get all kinds of pictures of fireworks—
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Jessie_Davis
and right in our backyard — Cuyahoga Valley National Recreational area is one of our favorite areas to drive to on a beautiful summer day [or any time of year] to go to a gorgeous park for a hike. I shall never go without at least fleetingly thinking of Jessie Davis, now, and her precious daughter, now in heaven.
