Fall 2009

School started, Miracle League Baseball started, horse riding started and a busy season for us.

Spencer started back at the Middle Tyger YMCA afterschool program and is doing great. The kids there really enjoy him and he has fun with them. He however likes to manipulate the counselors....surprised...not really.

We had a great season of baseball and we are finishing up horse riding until the spring. He loves both of these activities. In Oct we had our Down Syndrome Buddy Walk and seen several old friends we hadn't seen in a long time. It was a fun day.

Here are some pics from some of the activities that have kept us busy! HAPPY FALL!

Where have all the summer days gone........

Yes, summer for us is almost over. Only 8 days until teachers start back and 15 days until students begin. The next thing it'll be Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, snow days, Easter, flowers and wow summer again!!! Time is flying by!
Our summer has somewhat been different. Only a week after school was out a storm came throught destroyed our pool. There went that routine of pool time in am, lunch and pool time in pm. It took until July 25 to get through insurance, adjustors, new pool people, install, levels of chemicals balanced....now we've been in it non stop over the past week.


At the beginning of July, Spencer and I went to TN with my brother and his crew and my mom. We had a good time, but way to many people!! We did Dollywood and Dixie Stampede. He loved the horses at the Dixie Stampede.



After leaving TN we went to WV for the Spencer Family Reunion. My Dad, the youngest and Uncle Glenn, the oldest are the ones left of Grandpa Lloyd's children. We had a great time seeing all the fam and it is so fun to reflect on memories!

At the end of July, Spencer went to camp for 5 days....ALL BY HIMSELF!! He loved it and the counselors fell in love with him. While he was at camp, Mommie and Mamaw went to the beach for some relaxtion. Everyone enjoyed themselves and it was a good trip!

So here we are.....at the end of vacation. This week we will travel to WV one more time before school starts. Spencer will stay with Mamaw for 5 days and then return to SC for school. We will do the Cherry River Festival in my hometown, Mike's family reunion, my home church's reunion and who knows what else. This will be the quiet time we need to reflex on the upcoming school year and what goals we want to achieve!

Oh my...where did May go....

Last post was about Spencer having his tonsils out...did great and went back to school on the 18th of May. On the 21st of May his Dad has his removed....totally different stories, alot of pain for him and was out of it for about 6 days....7th and 8th days were not good either. He is starting back to work tomorrow but still has some pain. This has been very hard on him and all of us. I'm not used to him being the one under the weather...he is my stong hold and I hope I was of help to him. We both need a break and a vacation. On the other hand only 3 days of school left and I'll have one....Mike however is a different story...no time for him to take off, so we'll hopefully do a long weekend soon!

Tonsils

On May 6, Spencer had his tonsils out. Since it had been awhile doing the hospital thing, I was a nervous wreck. But things went great....He was very calm before taking him and I was crying, but he just pointed his little finger to my eye and I know he was wondering why is my moma crying. The surgery took about 30 min, but then they did a echo and ekg on his heart. As far as we know, everything is fine with those tests. For 10 days now, Spencer has been on pain meds and I'm beginning to wing him off this weekend; you see they've made him a little "rattlesnake", striking at anytime! I know he has experienced the pain, but I also know that he is sleeping much better. I don't hear on the monitor the tossing, turning, no breathing, catching his breath...you know the classic sleep apnea characteristics. What I do hear is nothing and I have to go in his room and check to make sure he's ok. He is, sleeping ever so quietly. Also he's sleeping longer in the mornings, which with summer coming will be very nice. Dr. Brown said his tonsils were the size of his thumbs. I imagine they were in the way of his breathing and another thing, last night when I checked on his he was breathing through his nose, not his mouth! How excited I was to know that this has also helped with the mouth breathing! We go back May 21 for a follow-up and guess what....that day Spencer's dad is having his tonsils out. Don't think he'll be as brave as Spencer was!

Spencer's First Special Olympics 2009

What a milestone we have hit......Spencer's 1st Special Olympics Track and Field Event... the beginning of many years of competition! He ran the 50 m dash and did the softball throw. His class also toured Olympic village and played many games. He had a great time. I was able to be there as my students also participate in Track and Field. Spencer even got a new pair of New Balance tennis shoes to run in. In Olympic village, Spencer threw a nerf football as if he were a professional quarterback. My son has a arm.....

I love the Special Olympics Oath..."Let me win, but if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt." Everyone should live by this.

Boy what a slacker!

I am!!! It's been almost a month since I've blogged and that makes me angry....angry that my time just flies by and I don't get done what I want to. This time of year is busy, Miracle League, IEP's to write, after school speech, staff meetings, softball, just playing outside, etc....The days are longer, but time still flies. Anyway, things have been good. Spencer has mild sleep apnea and will have his tonsils out in June, Mike needs his tonsils out and I have anemia again. We keep on pushing on as the song says. Spencer and I are heading to WV Saturday for a few days of much deserved R&R! I hope we don't have any snow, but beautiful spring time weather. He loves going to WV and playing with cousins and seeing Mamaw and Pappaw. My Grandmother entered a nursing home last Monday and as the nurse told my Moma...."she's a catbird"! TO funny...loved to be a fly on the wall watching that! Take care and have a great day!!!!

Grandma Benny

That is what I called my Grandma when I was little. I remember asking Mom if we could go down to Grandma Benny's? Grandma and I had alot of fun together....camping on Cranberry, our trips to Williamsburg, VA to see Tim, hanging out together, taking her to the dr, fixing her hair, celebrating many of her birthdays, etc. Now after 96 1/2 years my Grandma Benny doesn't remember me......dementia has set in and she comes and goes, not sure what she talking about and the signs of old age. We had seen this over the past few years, but I always thought Grandma would outlive us all, she was to stubborn to do other wise. Now, her mind is gone...her body is the same, her face, her eyes, her hands, but when she talks, it's not Grandma. I called her the other night and she talked and I thought good she remembers me, then she asked...."who is this?" I cried, because at that point I knew I had lost my Grandma Benny. I had planned to take my Mom and SPencer to Florida for spring break, but now, I am led to the mountains of WV for a visit with my Grandma...she may not remember me, depending on the day. My heart breaks for my Mom, it is so hard to see her Mom, the one that she has had for 75 years, say horrible things to you, things that hurt you, have no recall of things and search for things that are long gone. It is hard to see someone you love act differently, I can't even begin to imagine. So in ending this post is a tribute to my Grandma Benny, remembering all the good times shared and a tribute to my Mom for being a strong lady! I love you both with all my heart!

Sleep Study!

As I sit here in the quiet of my classroom.....my assistances are helping out by giving me 30 minutes......I reflect back on last night.....I'll call it the "night from HELL!" Wish I had a copy of the pic they took of him, but I don't so use your imagination. First Mike and I are loudly discussing in the way to the hospital, then we hit a terrible storm on 85 where everyone thinks they can still drive 70 in rain that is blowing sideways, we pull into the hospital lot, Spencer starts with the "....um, um, um..." sound he makes when he knows we are entering the medical community, make our way to the 5th floor, he starts flopping like a wet dishrag, brush teeth, say prayers, sing song, read "Goodnight Moon", he's out! THEN......enter the sleep tech, who was very nice and patient with him I may add, but she started for get it, he's flipping, flopping, rubbing off wires, pulling off cords, working his toe to get the SAT monitor off, you name it. Dad and the tech gave up, I stayed out thinking it would be best. Then we let him get back into sleep again and here we go....3 of us now. The SAT monitor is attached, little toe working really hard to get it off....fighting us all the way, but we keep putting things on because at this point I know he'll wake up period if we touch him while he sleeps......2 hours of hooking up probes, wires, monitors, etc.....and finally everything is attached. For these 2 hours I'm laying on the bottom part of his body holding his legs, waist and left arm secure....Dad has the head and right side. OK....we're done, but now his is sticking his Gene Simmons tongue out trying to lick off the things attached to his face....let it never be said my son does not have problem solving skills, because he CAN figure his way out of things! The tech leaves so we can calm Spencer down and hopefully get him asleep. This takes much longer than it should, about 45 minutes. He still is fighting and by golly he's a strong little man, scares me when I think about him getting older, so finally he starts to fade out. In a last ditch effort, he raises his head in a swift jerk and POW!!! head butts Daddy....I heard the crackle in the nose. I sent Dad out so I could hopefully finish calming and putting to sleep. I did and for about 2 hours he slept, then started waking and pulling things off, removing everything. Around 3 the tech came in to where I was sleeping and asked for my help...he was in a tangled mess. As she was taking the leads off she asked if we could try and put them on again. I asked if she had any data when he was asleep and she said yes for about 2 hours. "Fine with me" I said! Dr. Gualt can live with that because I refuse to wrestle with him to attached all the hundreds of lines again....by that time it would have been 5 and there is no way he would have went to sleep. She agreed and said that was fine, so @ 3:00am we're headed up 85 home. HOME SWEET HOME!!!! We got in went to the potty, ate a cereal bar and drank some milk and then off to bed for the remaider of the night @ 4:30am. At 5am, my freakin' alarms go off.....so I'm up and off to work....no day off for me since I'm out of days and can never seem to catch up with the drs we see, but that's ok. Dad is home with Spencer, they are relaxing and enjoying the day and I'm here @ school fighting to keep my head above water, but.........Edward keeps me going!!!!!! Thank you fantasy world!!!

FB & Edward have a hold on me!

I swore I wouldn't get into the Twilight series, but lo and behold the media specialists at my school hooked me hook, line and sinker.....already finished Twilight in a week and started on New Moon Thurs and over 1/2 through it....so hooked and Mike can't believe I'm reading them! Besides Edward, FB(facebook) has me hooked also. I can get on there for hours and read about my friends, updates, the groups, the quizzes, etc....then of course there is 24 on Fox that I absolutely love and I really think Jack Bauer could take care of all of our problems with terrorists!

OK, so much for my world of internet, Edward and tv....more importantly, Spencer goes in Wed night for a sleep study at G'ville Memorial. Hopefully this will give us and the dr insight as to why he is having sleep problems, waking through the night, sleepy during the day, some behaviors, anxiety, weight gain, sensory issues, etc. I really like this young sleep dr who talked alot about down syndrome in children and that sleep is a big concern especially when it effects the heart. He seems to truely understand Down Syndrome and doesn't link all children who have Down Syndrome in the same catergory like "these kids". I am anxious wondering how Spencer will handle being hooked up to all those wires, stickers and strapped down, but we'll see. He amazes me lately how cooperative he is with some people who are patient with him, not Mommie though 'cause the more he doesn't cooperate the more upset I get, thus, we'll let others handle hooking him up. Make sense?! Say a prayer or keep a good thought for us tomorrow night as we go through this sleep study. I'll hopefully post this weekend as to what they found out with the sleep study. Along with the study I have to keep a sleep log for 30 days and we see Dr. Gault on March 5 to see what route we will take.......

Meanwhile I hope you all have a HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!!

Brother and Sister?

OK, well it's no secret I'll probably never have any more children, but on this day it was amazing as I watched and snapped pics of Spencer and Bubbles(the dog) playing as if they were a brother and sister. It's amazing the connection Spencer makes with Bubbles and how loving Bubbles is to him. Spencer hits @ Bubbles and Bubbles takes it, never once getting mad or upset with him....that would be 1 difference between 2 "real" siblings. Bubbles licks, kisses, nips and gives Spencer all kind of attention. On this Saturday, I thought it was so cute how Spencer was trying to urge Bubbles into his bedroom to play. He would try and lure her by flinging a sock @ her then take off down the hall. Bubbles didn't follow. Finally Spencer got her in there and I left them alone for awhile and then went to check on them. I opened the door and there they were both on top of his bed "wrestlin'" around and Spencer laughing out loud. What a memory and what a thought.....even though Spencer will probably never have a sibling, he has one in his doggy, Bubbles, who loves him and us unconditionally always!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Cupcake Makin'

It always seem like I put off things.....and boy I did this time. I should have started cooking with Spencer years ago, but on the weekend time just seems to get away from me with the "have to do" things...you know, cleaning, washing, organizing, folding clothes, ironing clothes, cooking, groceries.....the list goes on. So by the time I have time to cook with Spencer I'm wore out! On our snow day I made a decision that yes this day was the day we were making something....no matter what. So I said @ 10am we'd start, I do better with a schedule. So we did and what fun we had. One of his classmates for Christmas bought all the students the cutest apron and chef hat with their names embordered on them....so we put that on and got busy. Check out our slideshow! It was fun and the beginning of many more days cooking I'm sure!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

SNOW?

This was sight out my back door on Tuesday morning after getting up and starting to get ready for school.....then I find out there is no school in S'burg Co. Districts...WHAT????? I mean come on now.....I would rather go since I'm already up and not have to make it up. Well we have to make it up. It's all weird, but I'm hoping for some REAL SNOW between now and spring!!!! Some good snowman making snow, some good sleigh riding snow and some good snowball snow. I miss that!

MLK Day

Martin Luther King Day.....I'm not really sure, but I think I understand, but then again I don't because I have not been through what some people have been through with racism. I'm just not talking about the Blacks, but the Jews, Indians, Hispanics, Asians, Middle Easterns, people with Down Syndrome, people who have disabilities, people with glasses or braces, people who are overweight, people who are skinny, people who are tall, people who are short and my list could go on and on. I truely believe that on that day when MLK gave his speech he was not talking only about people who are Black or White, but for all people with differences! Let's face it, aren't we all just a little different from each other? So on this day I think about all people who have ever experienced racism, not just one group! Thank you MLK for giving all people a dream to hold on to! Just my thoughts!