She Carries A World On Her Hips

I wasn't sure about writing about this before, because it wasn't real to me.  I'm still not sure that it is real, and I don't know exactly what the future will hold, but here's my news:

Actually, here's my disclaimer: no, I'm not pregnant.  When I told Rachael and Dad that I had some news, both of them asked me if I was pregnant right off, so I know that's what people expect.  Quite frankly, I have wanted to announce that I was pregnant for some time, but it hasn't happened.  We have been half-heartedly trying for about two years, and admittedly it was not so much trying, per se, as it was not preventing.  Taking care of Benjamin is so much work that I'm not too sure it would be fair to him to divide our attention so much.  I know it would be too much for me right now, because a) I will not work full-time if we have more than one child, and b) we can't afford to live on Allen's income alone.  So there are plenty of reasons why it hasn't happened; though I might just need to accept that this family will only have three members.

The news that I was getting to before that tangent, is that Benjamin might be able to attend the Carmen B. Pingree school next year.  This school is one of the best resources for autistic children in the state of Utah.  It is not easy to get into (though it is considerably easier if you can afford the $20,000/year tuition), but it is definitely worthwhile.  A few months ago, we were told of an opening if we could pay the tuition.  I felt considerable guilt over not taking it, because we probably could afford it if we scrimped and saved and got friends and family to contribute.  I felt very selfish, because I didn't want to have to work two jobs and send almost every penny I earned to the school, no matter how good it was for my child.  When Benjamin was first diagnosed (January 2011), they told us about Pingree, and recommended that we talk to our school district. Well, we got on the waiting list for the "publicly funded" positions, and took Benjamin to Granite School District.  He has been in preschool for over a year now, and he has made considerable progress.  It is amazing to see how far he has come, but I know he has so far to go, if he is to have a "normal," self-sufficient adulthood.

Anyway, last week, I got a phone call from the Pingree school.  They told us that there would be a publicly-funded position open for the preschool next year (this coming fall), and they asked if we were still interested.  Um, yes!  So they sent out some paperwork and scheduled him for an evaluation.  I filled out the paperwork the other day (which took me a couple of hours to do . . .), and we went in for his evaluation today.  I didn't really know what to expect, but this is what happened.

We arrived shortly before 10am and went into the office.  A secretary took the paperwork from me, we briefly met a speech therapist, then we walked to one of the classrooms.  We left Benji and the speech therapist there, then I went upstairs to speak with Dr. Yao, one of the Child Psychiatrists.  We talked for about an hour, much of which consisted of me trying to rack my brain for when Benji reached certain milestones, what his first words were, when I noticed certain things, how he acted when he was a baby, etc.  It was difficult.  I don't remember what Benji's first words were, because he babbled for such a long time.  He still does, though I can make out actual words here and there (Benji is usually surprised when I do!).  I don't remember much of what he was like when he was a baby, because I went back to work full-time six weeks after he was born.  I do remember noticing that he was falling behind at about one year old, when he had just barely learned to crawl.  The delays got more and more pronounced, and we should have gotten some early intervention (another failure on my part), but I think I was still in denial that he might actually be autistic.

Anyway, we talked a lot about Benjamin, and a little about our family life (which I don't love talking about, since it usually ends up with me in tears).  He then took me to meet with Sara, a social worker, and we developed a care plan for Benji.  It just has some goals we can work for: a "Life Goal" of being self-sufficient, to go to school, hold a job, have social relationships, and to be as normal as possible.  The care plan also has some short-term goals.  They are: a) learning and developing communication skills, b) being able to recognize and acknowledge other peers and to develop parallel play, turn taking, and sharing skills, and c) to be able to engage in developmentally appropriate play and to become less rigid or restricted in the ways he plays with objects (which basically means to play with toys in the way they are supposed to used, i.e., rolling cars on their wheels, not turning them upside-down to see how the object spins).  All of these goals are to be accomplished by attending the day treatment program 30 hours/week, which includes intensive applied behavior strategies for skill development, with daily and weekly data collection to assess progress.

This could be a huge blessing for us, but I'm still not sure it's will actually happen.  During my meeting with Dr. Yao, he looked at one of the forms I filled out.  There were a bunch of statements, saying "My child does this," then there were numbers to circle which corresponded with certain aspects of a diagnosis of autism, things like social, physical, and verbal habits, etc.  Anyway, Benjamin's number was 81, and Dr. Yao said something about the cut-off being at 73, or something like that.  I don't know what that means--if they have a protocol to take kids who only fall within a certain range, or if Benji is more or less severe than his peers . . . I just don't know.  It worries me, because it all seems too good to be true.  I guess the team will meet together on Monday to discuss a treatment plan, and decide if he gets to attend or not.  They gave me a list of other resources, and they said they will contact us, so now we are in a holding pattern.  I'm hoping and praying it all comes together, even if I don't deserve such grace.

Because Grace makes beauty out of ugly things.

Can You Feel The Love Tonight?

I'm not ignoring you; I have been sick.  My throat started hurting on Thursday, but I didn't think much of it.  When I got up on Friday, I felt like death.  Seriously.  I had to call in sick (which I do very rarely, because I like to save up my PTO and I usually feel better once I get moving).  I just couldn't do it.  I have spent most of the past couple of days asleep, either on the couch or in bed.  The congestion seems to drain a bit better with my head elevated, so I think I may sleep out here again tonight.

I'm feeling somewhat better now.  I had to teach in church today, which was okay.  I didn't have much voice, but luckily there were people willing to participate so I didn't have to speak the whole time.  As soon as I was finished and sat down at the piano to play the closing hymn, my throat started burning.  It was nice that I could forget about it during the lesson, but it sure didn't let me forget afterward.  Gah.

I have been meaning to write more about the Cruise.  I did spend a few hours editing the family photo from Monday, 2/27.  I'm still not very satisfied with it; the quality isn't great, and if I had made a few more adjustments (ISO probably would have made a big difference) before I handed over my camera to a complete stranger, it would have been nicer. Grrr!  I have such a long way to go before I'm actually satisfied with my indoor photography skills!  In any case, here it is.

I had to do some "head swaps" (which I'm not very good at), and some other color adjusting, so don't look too closely.  I just couldn't get one of Sabrina looking good; she was in total meltdown mode.  And I wasn't a huge fan of my being placed on the front row.  That's usually Lexy's place, and I probably should have made the switch, but someone had to hold onto Benji.  He was pretty excited watching the glass elevators, so we got a decent smile, even if he isn't looking at the camera.  Oh well.  That is everyone, and it may be one of the few times we get everybody together (dressed formally, no less!).

Since I'm here, I should probably do a recap of Monday.  It was a day "At Sea," so it was pretty low-key after all the drama on Sunday.  We started out with the character breakfast.

Tumi made some fun napkin hats for our peeps; I think Zekey was Robin Hood, Allen was Pluto, Seuao was Mickey, Lex was Pocahontas, and Papa was Rapunzel.  Mia got a little jealous over that one.  I'm not sure what Rebecca was, though I'm pretty sure Lance was Captain Jack.

We got a few good pictures; I had a hard time alternating between flash and no-flash, so a lot of the pictures didn't turn out very well.  But between everybody's cameras, I thing we got most everything.

In the bottom right corner is Mickey making a little heart sign for Lily.  For some reason, she wasn't to fond of him, and he knelt down and did a little "heart you" sign for her.  It was pretty sweet.  They all did autographs, too.  I'll admit--I never had anyone sign for Benji.  He didn't care, and I couldn't be bothered to keep up with it, so I guess we missed out that way (or not).

And Sarah showed up (looking fabulous) just as we were finishing.  Well done, Sar. ;o)

Anyway, after breakfast, we took Benji up to the Oceaneer Club.  It was an open house, so I got to take some pictures.  This is where the boy spent most of the cruise (and he loved it!).

There's a cute little stage where some people and characters come, and there are computers and tv's and a slide and rope ladders and dress ups and places to color and stories and snacks and dancing and all kinds of fun stuff to spin.  It's pretty much kid heaven, and the counselors were fantastic.  We had to go check on him every so often, to make sure he wasn't stinky and such, but it was totally worth it.  Folks, if you have kids, this is why you want to go on a Disney Cruise.  Good times for everyone.

I don't remember what we did during the day; I wandered around a bit with Mom, but it was kinda cold on deck, so we didn't do much outside.  I did get a cool picture through Mom's window.  We saw some dolphins, but I never got a picture of them.  Oh well.

Then it was time to get ready for dinner and pictures.  You saw the end result at the beginning of this what-was-supposed-to-be-a-short-blog-post, but here's a few pics of the preliminaries.  It takes a lot of work to get that many people together!  Mach and Wow got their picture taken with the Captain, but I cropped him out.  He didn't look too happy, so I didn't feel too bad about it.

Then we went to dinner at Parrot's Cay again.  It was nice.  Ella is at the stage where she thinks that bunny ears in photos is the funniest thing ever.  Brina decided she was "not crying," and Dad decided he would smile only under coercion.

Doesn't that picture of Mia in the upper right corner just scream "Little Renee"?  Seriously.  That girl cracks me up.  We thought she was Mini-Beck for a long time, but she's actually Mini-Renee.  Love it.

After dinner, we took Benji back to the club, then we went to the "Golden Mickeys" show.  It was pretty good, though I don't remember much about it.  I'm pretty sure that's when they did "Can You Feel The Love Tonight," and I just fell in love with those two performers (the ones who were Nala and Simba).  They were fantastic.  I'd see them around on the boat, and I was totally star-struck.  I should have been the one getting autographs!  Geez!

Afterward, we went to see the Hypnotist show.  That was seriously funny.  Poor Lexy really wanted to do it, but she totally tripped on her way up to the stage!  Face plant!  She thinks everyone thought she was really drunk, but whatever.  It was pretty funny.  The funniest part was the hand-puppets to "Bohemian Rhapsody."  I was dying!  There was a little One-Hit Wonders dance party after that, and I rocked at it.  I knew most of them, but I didn't volunteer for many.  There was a "reward shot" for anyone who got the artist and the song correct.  When I got up there and told him I didn't want the shot, he gave me a non-alcoholic one.  Of course, the family didn't know it was virgin, so when I downed it, they were pretty shocked!  I wish I had seen their faces!  It took me a while to convince them that it was indeed fruit punch.  I guess I'm not very trustworthy, eh?

So that was it for Monday.  Busy, relaxing, formal, fun.  It was a good time.

I've gotta sleep.  You see, this is why I'm having a hard time blogging this thing!  I'm up way too late, and I have to work!  You're welcome! ;o)

Let Me Put You On A Ship

It's hard to even start writing about our vacation.  There's so much that happened, and I took more than 1,000 pictures (yeah, yeah, I know I have a shutter problem).  I'll try to stick to very basic photo editing so that I can get something on here while it's still fresh in my brain.  I am going to have to do it in installments.  I'll start with an overview, then I'll probably do more detailed posts later.

Friday, February 24: Allen had given me a gift certificate to "Just Perfect Salon" for my birthday, but I hadn't had the opportunity to use it yet.  I really needed to get my hair done before the cruise, so I made an appointment for 11am.  I had hoped we could get out of town earlier, but the hair took priority.  It  only took her a couple of hours, and now I am much more blonde (and I look much more put-together).  She also put in some strawberry (reddish) highlights, though those have mostly faded.  It's okay, though.  I'm liking it more and more.  We ended up leaving about 3pm, and drove to St. George.  We met up with my friends Shelly and Shauna for dinner, and we stayed in Shelly's mom's basement for the night.

Actually, I've changed my mind.  I wrote a rather long blog entry while staying at the Adams' house, and I can't think of a better time or place to put it.  Alors, voila quoi.

............................
2/24/12

It has been a long day.  I can't believe it was just yesterday that I went to "Parent-Teacher Conference" with Miss Erika (and with monsieur in tow).  About the conference--I seriously love Miss Erika.  I love that they love Benji, that they know him and his quirks and they are sincerely trying to help him.  Anyway, she gave me a report on his progress for the year so far.  As far as understanding and completing commands, he's not really there yet.  The goal was/is to hear and obey two-step commands.  He can perform one-step commands (when he wants to . . . he can be a bit stubborn), but two-step is still a way off.  So are social skills, and playing with toys appropriately.  He'd rather spin toys than play with them the way they were intended to be played with.  There's not a lot of progress, but there is some. They gave him a huge jump in language and speech, (75% increase!), because he has started counting and using words and signs to communicate wants and needs.  He can recognize and repeat letters and numbers.  He likes to count to himself; he usually skips 5, but he does pretty well up to twelve.  Then he fudges a little, and gets to about twenty (at least, I think that's what he's saying!).  He does very well with "Book Awareness," meaning that he can tell if a book is upside-down, and he'll put it right and go to the beginning and "read" it.  He has been doing that for a long time, so I don't think that's such a huge deal.  Whatever.  He certainly has a long way to go before he'll be on-par with regular kids, but considering where he started this year, he has come a long way.  I really am proud of him.  

Side note: Benji and I were in the hallway of Lincoln Elementary while we were waiting for our turn, and a couple of different kindergarten classes walked by.  Benjamin is the same size as most of those kids.  Some were bigger, some a little scrawnier, but he could easily pass for a 5-6 year old.  I don't really mind that; it's just a little frustrating when people think he should be able to carry on a full conversation, respond appropriately to questions, take himself to the bathroom, etc.  Yes, I get to "have him as a baby longer," and I shouldn't compare him to other kids.  It's just really hard not to.  And when he does go to Kindergarten, he'll be one of those bigger kids.  I just hope the others don't make fun of him.  But then, Benji wouldn't care what anyone else thought.  I guess I should be more like that, too.

Well, after PTC, I had to go to work.  It was a pretty good shift--quite a lot of plastics, which I enjoy.  I got to scrub a gnarly GSW to the hand (in case you were wondering, you probably shouldn't put your hand in front of a loaded semi-automatic weapon when you have a finger on the trigger.  I'm just sayin'.)  Also, don't use Meth.  To quote from Super 8: "Drugs are so bad!"

So I came home after work last night, and cleaned.  I had left Allen with a list of things to do, since I know they wouldn't have been done otherwise.  He did start the dishwasher, but I kept finding dishes all over the house and loading them in, when I realized it was onto the drying cycle.  *sigh*  So I had to start the whole thing over again.  I folded some laundry and wrote thank-you notes for Benji's birthday.  When I finished that, I had some other things to do, but I was so exhausted that I fell asleep on the couch.  I stayed there all night.

When I woke up this morning, I tried to get rolling fairly early.  Allen was still asleep, and the boy was talking to himself in his room.  I got him up and tried to take him to the potty, but he wouldn't go.  So after about 30 minutes, I got him ready, started another load of laundry, started packing, and took a shower.  Then I went to the "Just Perfect Salon" to get my hair done by Sarah's hairdresser, Nikki.  She's really nice, and she did a good job.  Instead of the ugly, faded mousy brown, it's now more of a strawberry blonde, and she cut off a good 4-5 inches.  My hair really picks up anything red, and the roots were so grown out that they picked up a LOT of color.  So it looks a little bright and brassy at the roots and darkish underneath, but in a couple of weeks, it will look FANTASTIC.  It's much better now than it was, but it will take me a while to get used to it.

Anywho, after the salon, I went home and packed.  Gads--what an nightmare!  I'm sure we forgot some stuff (like Benji's soap and toothpaste . . .).  It also took a bit longer than expected; we didn't leave town until after 3pm.  When we finally did get on the road, we had to make a couple of stops.  One of those was, yes, at the 7-Eleven for some Diet Coke.  I almost felt guilty about drinking it.  Yes, it's the first time I have had one in 2012, but I was a little bothered by the whole thing.  I did break it open eventually, and it tasted divine.  I'll probably give it up again once I get home, but for now--I'm enjoying it.  And you can bet I'll be taking advantage of the free refills. ;o)

I'm not sure if I blogged about it last month, but I read all three books in the "Hunger Games" series over the course of about 5 days.  It only took me that long because I didn't have the second book; I had to go purchase it.  I bought it and read it that same night, then read the final book the following night.  They are pretty quick reads (and I'm a fairly fast reader), but the real reason why I devoured them like that is because it is such a good story.  It is violent, but it is very well-written.  Anyway, I wanted to re-read them before the movie comes out in a few weeks, so I brought the books with me.  I may not do a lot of reading on the boat, but (thankfully) I can read while in the car.  I asked Allen if he wanted me to read to him, and he said, "Sure."  It does serve several purposes: it means we don't have to listen to Allen's terrible electronic "music", it means we don't have to talk, and it keeps both of us awake.  He is a better long-distance driver than I am; I tend to get sleepy.  So I don't mind reading (though my voice is a little hoarse).  I think he's liking it so far; we are about 1/3 of the way through the first book already.

We had to stop in Cedar City for gas.  Benji had taken a pretty long nap earlier, and I had given him a granola bar to tide him over before dinner.  Unfortunately, Benji tends to get carsick.  He had dry-heaved a bit, but nothing came up.  We stopped at a gas station, and I hopped out and washed the windshield.  Then I opened Benji's door to check on him, and he was covered in puke.  Poor little dude!  He looked so sad!  It was all over him; he had even gotten it in his hair.  So I walked him to the restroom in the gas station and cleaned him up and changed his clothes.  The pros: he did pee in the potty for me, and he was clean when we met up with Shelly and Shauna at Red Robin.  The cons: I ended up clogging the sink after rinsing out his clothes, and he decided to wipe his grubby little hands on my pants.  Very classy.

He did okay the rest of the way to St. George.  We had a nice dinner, and he ate his apple slices and drank his lemonade.  He didn't touch his chicken fingers, but he ate a couple of fries.  I thought that wasn't too bad, considering how yucky he was feeling.  It was fun to sit and talk to Shauna and Shelly.  I love those girls!  I can't believe we have known each other for almost 15 years.  I was roommates with both of them in college, and they are both smart and funny and cool.  We keep up with each other (by blog mostly), and usually Christmas cards.  I did send one to Shelly, but it was the wrong address.  So she didn't get one (sorry, babe).  Even so, we can just sit and talk and there isn't any pretense or weirdness.  I'm so glad I got to see them.  

While we were driving, I texted Shelly to let her know we were on our way.  She asked where we were staying tonight, and I still didn't know.  I hadn't made any arrangements yet (I'm such a slacker!), so she offered to let us stay in her Mom's basement in St. George.  I'm so glad she did, because a) it's free!, and b) Benji totally puked up his dinner in the five minutes it took us to get from Red Robin to Shelly's mom's house.  Honestly, I have never seen him puke that much.  Ever.  He looked so sad when we got him out of the car.  I took him straight in and put him in the bathtub.  Then he had his own little room to go to sleep in.  He does much better in his own room, so I'm very glad he'll get a good night's sleep tonight.  THANK YOU, SHELLY (and Kathy), er, the Adams family.  "Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike."

So now I'm sitting on the couch in the Adams' basement, typing about this crazy day.  Oh yeah--I forgot.  When I tried to brush Benji's teeth, he got one taste of the toothpaste and spewed it out.  And a lot of water, too.  It even came out of his nose.  :o(  I'm a little worried about him!  I don't know how he's going to do on the boat!  I know he's dehydrated right now, but I'm not giving him anything else by mouth until morning.  We'll have to stop at Wal-Mart and get some Gatorade and some anti-nausea medicine.  I hope they have something he can take, or patches he can use.  If not, I think we'll find an Instacare and maybe get some i.v. fluids into him.  He was pretty perky going to sleep (he likes the queen-size bed!), so I hope it will get better in the morning.  Here's hoping!  California, here we come!

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Okay, back to the vaycay overview.  And no, I didn't take any pictures on Friday or Saturday.  Sorry.

Saturday, February 25: We drove from St. George to Los Angeles, and did fairly well with time, only stopping in Primm for gas.  I finished reading The Hunger Games (Book 1) that afternoon.  We went to Tollene's house and hung out for a bit.  We went out with Dom for some karaoke, and stayed in a hotel that night.  Yes, I sang (The Scientist by Coldplay {a horrible choice for karaoke, btw} and later Don't Stop Believin' by Journey).  I'm a much better singer in my car than I am into a microphone, but it is fun.  It gets the adrenaline pumping a bit.

Sunday, February 26: We had some errands to run, then we picked up the boy and drove to the Port of Los Angeles.  We got a little lost, but I'm glad we set out early.  Allen's mom came with us, and she drove my car back to her house so we wouldn't have to pay for parking.  When we arrived at check-in, they asked us if anyone in our party had vomiting or diarrhea.  We mentioned Benji's motion-sickness puking (there was a lot of it, and I have a bit of an honesty problem), so after getting everything else settled, they put us in a side room to talk to a nurse.  It turns out that the registration gal marked vomiting and diarrhea, and when the nurse took his temperature, it was 99.7.  Gah!  I was getting worried we would miss the boat!  Eventually we convinced them that he was okay, and they let us on board.  We weren't the very last, but there weren't many people behind us.  We got to our room, then went to Guest Services and to the Oceaneer Club to discuss Benji (we missed the sail-away party).  There was a nice gal named Tess who really helped us with him and reassured us that he would be okay.  Anyway, we went to dinner at Animator's Palate and met Chatchai and Tumi, our servers.  Here's a picture of me there.  For the most part, I tried to avoid the camera (why do you think I have such a nice one?), but Sarah got this one of me.

Then Allen and I went to (a second) dinner at Palo, the adults-only restaurant.  Both meals were incredible, but Palo was outstanding (and quiet!!), even if we missed the show that night to eat there.

I didn't take many pictures on Sunday because it was such a struggle to get everything done and settled.  Here's a slideshow/link to my Sunday picture album on Picasa.



That's all I'm going to write tonight.  More to come, I assure you.

A Pirate's Life for Me

***Be ye warned . . . lots o' pictures!***

On Saturday, February 11, we had Benjamin's 4th birthday party.  Here's the invite:

Front

(Yes, I designed the heart pirate myself.  You'll see the inspiration for it on Benji's birthday shirt, courtesy of Gymboree, but I did make this one!  I used a combination of GIMP and Picnik to do it.)

Back

It was supposed to start at 2; I was up until about 5am the night before trying to finish everything up (I may or may not have been slightly distracted by watching Downton Abbey at the same time . . .), so it was a little late starting.  I didn't get any pictures of the decor, but that's okay.  It was just some jolly roger flags and crepe paper, really (red, yellow and black; it easily could have been the same for a Lightning McQueen party!).

I originally thought about doing a Monsters, Inc. party, since Benji thinks that Mike Wasowski is hilarious.  Then I had a small epiphany: since there will be a pirate night on our Disney Cruise, I decided we'd have a pirate party and outfit all the lil' buccaneers with pirate paraphernalia.  There's a LOT of stuff on the internet for pirates, pirate parties, etc.  Not much of what I did was original, but it turned out to be pretty fun.

After some of the kids put on their shirts (which I made using skull & crossbones cardboard stencils and Martha Stewart any-surface paint from Michaels), we started with "Pin the Eyepatch on the Pirate."  Everyone got their own bandana, which was used as a blindfold for the game.  Above is Noah, observing his doo-rag.  He later admitted he could see through it, which is why he got it his patch on closer than anyone (his was #3).  Poor little dude--he wasn't feeling well.  :o(  He was a trouper, though.

 

Next was opening the package with a hook.  The hook got bent pretty quickly, but the kids had fun doing it.  It was a big candy bar, and I wrapped it in a few layers.  We gave them each 30 seconds (one minute was too long!), so it took a few minutes.  After we shared the candy bar, we went downstairs for the "boat ride."

Phoebe waiting to be towed. 

Allen tying the tow-rope on

This was actually an original idea; I had this little unused dolly, and I thought the kids could paddle themselves across the living room.  Well, that might have worked except for the carpet.  And the box which I covered with brown poster board wasn't very sturdy, so most of the kids fell out of it trying to get out.  We did a little I-Spy thing, where the boat rider had to close their eyes, and find

Ella waiting for her turn in the "boat

the red sash.  I intended to sew those, but that didn't happen.  Instead, they frayed all over everything, but they did look pretty good.  I also wanted to make a spotting scope out of empty cans.  Yeah, that didn't happen either.  I just ran out of time!  Everyone managed to keep themselves busy, between watching Seuao's rugby (or was it soccer?) game in the background, taking funny pictures, etc.


As I was taking this picture, I believe Sarah was taking the picture below with Zekey.      BTW, I owe a huge shout-out to Sarah for taking so many great pictures.  I was a little busy, and the ones I got were pretty pathetic.  Thanks so much, babe.

Love this one! 

Lex channeling John Lennon

After the marginally successful boat-rides, we had a treasure hunt.  I didn't get pictures of the clues, but I printed them out, and tried to make them look old by soaking them in really concentrated herbal tea.  I think it works better if you use real tea, because mine just turned an ugly shade of pale yellow-green.  *sigh*  Well, the kids seemed to like it anyway.  The first clue was:

"Where the Wild Things Are and the Skies are Blue
Is Where You Will Find Clue #2."

It took them a little while to get it (though Nanny was pretty excited when she figured it out!), but it was in Noah's bedroom.

Ella took it upon herself to read all the clues, and while I'm not sure the other kids appreciated it, it was fine.  The age difference makes it a little hard, and she really does put up with a lot.  Ella's such a good kid.  Anyway, the second clue read:

"In the Back Yard, Under the Tree
Is Where You Will Find Clue #3"

I put in the little notes, just in case you were wondering how much work I put into this thing.

At this point, I was trying to hold onto Benji and take pictures and help with the clues, but the boy ran over to the trampoline.  So I tried to get him off while the kids went onto the next clue.  I didn't get any pics of that one.  This clue read:

"Close to some Flowers And Near the Front Door
Is Where You Will Find Clue #4."

Of course, there weren't any flowers (hello, Mary--it's February!).  But the clue that was there read:

"On the Back Porch In Sand Without Measure
Is Where You Will Find Your Buried Treasure."

This wasn't an original idea.  I read it on some blog, and I thought it would be really cute.  I put Allen in charge of purchasing and hauling sand . . . well, it didn't cost much, but it was pretty gravelly (is that a word?).  Anyway, by the time I got Benji off the trampoline, the kids had found the "buried treasure" (I had Dave put little pretend jewels and kaleidoscopes and the swords in the sand, which was in the ginormous bucket that Mrs. X gave us to bathe baby Benji in.  At least it has come to some use!

So that was the end of the games.  Benji wasn't much of a participater; he's so caught up in his own world that being social (even at your own birthday party!) just isn't a priority.  Oh well--the rest of the kids had fun, and we are all a lot closer to being ready for Pirate Night!  Of course, Lex is going above and beyond by making awesome costumes for her crew.  If she weren't so freakin' sweet, I'd totally have an inferiority complex around her.  But then, Lexy has threatened to moon me, so I guess I'd better watch out anyway. ;o)

Captain Dave.  Awesome.

Nanny helping out the Cap'n with his sleeves, and Bex ever-ready for the picture.

We then did cake and presents.  (P.S., thanks for making the cuppy-cakes and the GORP, Mach.  You're a lifesaver.)  The cake was pretty pathetic--a red velvet cake from Costco, but when I bought it, the decorators had all left.  So one of the bakery chicks did it for me.  Not great, but I didn't have time for anything else.  Oh well.

I love the look on Benjamin's face!  Four big ones!

I didn't (i.e., Sarah didn't) really get any pictures of the presents, but that's Benji wandering around in the background, while I'm sitting on the floor opening gifts.  Lily was looking pretty tough here!

Benji got some great gifts--lots of books and puzzles, some finger paints, some clothes, etc.  Everyone was very generous, and Benji is loving them.  We haven't put him in the cute dressy outfit, but we will on the Cruise.  Thanks for the gifts, everyone!

Here are some more random pictures.  Again, Sarah got most of these. 

Allen, in all his scruffy glory

Great shot of Bex and Zeke

Phoebe!

Nanny and Sabrina (with her sword)

Auntie Sarah and Benji, who was very excited to see himself on the screen

Well, that's about all I can come up with.  A lot of the party was, erm, half-baked, but all in all, I think it came off okay.  I'm glad it's done, and I'm glad the kiddos had fun.  Happy Birthday to my sweet little valentine!  I love you all the way to the moon and back!

Make This World A Happy Place

As some of you may know, I was recently called to be a Relief Society teacher in my ward.  Do you know how long it has been since I have taught adults?  A long time.  And it has been even longer since I have actually read the manual.  In trying to do this thing without totally screwing up, I was reading through the George Albert Smith manual, I came across this amazing quote.  I wanted to put this up in my home, so I felt the need to make it into Subway Art.  This is my first foray into that world, but I think it turned out pretty well.  FYI, I used GIMP to make this. 

Isn't that quote just beautiful?  President Smith wrote it shortly after the end of World War II.  I think it's equally appropriate for today's world.  It really spoke to me, especially since I realized that George Albert Smith was called to be an apostle at age 33.  Guess how old I am.  I don't think I'll ever be as righteous and good and kind as he was, but I can bring {some} happiness into this sad world.

I think the art turned out pretty nicely too, even if it made me almost late to work today (that and the ridiculous parking situation . . . grrrrr).  I made it into a .png file with a transparent background, so you can change colors if you wish (I used a gradient fill for this version).

You can also make it pretty with digital scrapbooking, like this (paper courtesy of Shabby Princess--the Plentiful collection):

You should be able to click on these and download them if you wish.  The black & white and the rainbow one are .png files, and the golden version is a .jpg.  They should all be printable as 8x10's, but I hope there is enough resolution and margin for enlarging and/or cropping to other sizes.  I hope you can appreciate this quote as much as I do.  Please leave me a comment if you download it; I might consider making more.  :o)