Really bad blogger!

Wow! Way to long on the posting front, but I have excuses...many of them! Let's start with the visit from mom! This was a great success and I am so glad she came. She arrived on the 19th and we went to the DIA to see the Rembrandt exhibit-the faces of Jesus, had a large Christmas party, went to the movies, hosted an UNO tourney, went to church, hosted Christmas dinner at the house for our family and Jake's wife Cammy and his baby Cassandra,and many other little moments. I was able to take her for ahaircut, to try to find an easy care style for her diminished hand usage. I coloured her hair a nice shade of medium champagne blonde. I think it came out great! We went shopping to Kohls and I was able to buy her some cute things on my charge. I think she enjoyed sitting around watching the Christmas movies, hearing the stories and visiting when the kids were not at school.
On Tuesday morning we set out for NJ. The ride was so awful! It rained from the moment we left til we got to susan's, all 619.9 miles! But Jerry said that we beat the snow, which was filling in behind us in MI, OH and PA, so I was happy we left when we did. The ride home should be fine, Sunday is scheduled to be clear. I will head out then because Molly wants to watch football with Jerry, and Artie is off that day and I want to get out of his hair!
So meanwhile at susan's we are enjoying relaxing cousin time, shopping,game playing,etc. Life Is Good!

Bad Blogger!

Well Thank Heavens my blog-a-day year is up! Because I failed miserably this week..
Excuse number 1-Jerry traveling
Excuse number 2-Charlotte freaking out
Excuse number 3-I'm lazy
I'm stopping at three and I'll highlight(or low light!) the week...
Charlotte's issues began on Monday with hours of screaming. She refused to go to school and could not stop crying. I took her this week to the pediatrician,internist,pediatric opthomologist and head to community mental health on Monday morning.  This took alot of regular energy and even more emotional energy. Hopefully we are on the right track to help my sweet girl live happy.
Monday Shawne and I had a golabki making party, pronounced gwumpkee, stuffed cabbage in English. We had our book club Christmas meeting/dinner on Tuesday night. The book was The Zookeepers Wife, set in Warsaw in World War Two, and so our dinner theme was Polish. Along with the golabki we served pirogi,wisbiski kielbasa,creamed cucumbers,beet soup,, chrushikki(angel wing cookies) coffee and wine. All members save one were in attendance and we collected money to donate to literacy instead of exchanging gifts.
Wednesday Danny had his 11 year check up, and he weighs 87 lbs and stands at 57 1/2 inches tall. He was not happy at the two shots he had to get. He went to tae kwan do Tuesday night with Jack and on Thursday Master Kil told him he should test. Danny wasn't sure he was ready, but Master assured him he was. Danny had set a goal for himself to get his green belt by Christmas and he succeeded! I am very proud of him!
Molly trooped along. Choir rehearsal on Thursday, BBall Friday and Saturday, snowshoe practice, a school dance...and all her usual sports watching. Tonight she called down to Jerry,Danny and I  "do you want to see my dance?" We headed to her room where she unselfconsciously preformed a 10 minute dance to a Hairspray song. She was so proud of her moves, it was heartbreakingly sweet.
Me..I'm minute to minute, keeping the happy going as best I can. Today I went to Yoga again same class as last week. It was great, but I need to go more than once a week. I did the almost last of my shopping while Jerry took the kids to the U of M game. Then the girls went off to snowshoe and Jerry,Danny and I went to the jewelery store. Nope,can't tell you why!
I'll be back tomorrow to report on the cookie party!

Birthday Baby

Danny reading to Molly

Molly was and still is so excited with her little brother!

Danny is a class mascot in Miss Durbin's 4th grade room

Danny hung out with Nana and Molly at the lake

Swimmer Danny rockin the goggles!

God Bless America, age 1 1/2

Birthday Eve!

I can't believe that Danny will be 11 tomrw! "Where does the time go",the Mom wonders as she watches her babies head off into the world. "I'll be here if you need me!" she says with a smile, but she secretly worries that they won't....

Danny and Jerry went to a great event at the U this afternoon, a wrestling clinic and match. The clinic was run by two young Olympic hopefuls, then U of M went on to beat Wisconsin in dramatic fashion. 
We topped that off with coffee and pie with Karen and Eric. How happy to have the woman who cut the umbilical cord singing Happy Birthday with us...I am blessed.

Danny is more than I dreamed, a wonderful,smart,funny guy, who loves Marx brothers with Dad, HGTV with Mom, and Narnia with Charlotte. He reads like Jake, runs like Molly, and sleeps like Charlotte! I hope this year will be a great one for him! 

Caroling with the Campbells

We went to a Christmas Party! Thank you to Donna and Bob for inviting us. We sang until our lips froze off in the 20 degree temps! The food was great(Danny and I made an apple cake with fresh apples from Hanks trees) and the company was good too. I enjoyed visiting with Donna's parents  her Dad is a funny old Polish guy.
I also got my dupa back to yoga today! Went to an 8am class, while Jerry took the kids to SO BBall. Snowshoe was cancelled cause coach was sick, so we got to hang out and watch a couple of Christmas movies. We went to mass to at 5pm so tomorrow morning we can stay in bed in the cold. Yay!
We also had a nice note from Jake, he got his first Christmas package and loved it!
It was good to hear from him.

A hunting they will go!

Danny and Jerry headed up to Posen to go to the hunting camp and visit Aunt Reg.  She is in the rehab facility and doing very well. The guys headed up after mass this morning and made their first stop the camp.  They trooped around in the woods, hung out at the deer blind(didn't see anything) and just enjoyed the outdoors. Late in the afternoon they headed off to Roger's City to visit Aunt Reg. I had suggested that Danny bring his piano music in case the facility had a piano and guess what? They had a piano!! So after a bit of visiting Danny got his music and the nurses wheeled Aunt Reg into the dining room. What a surprise for her when Danny began his concert. The nurses station was just across the way and Danny heard them complementing him. He was very proud!

The girls and I went out to Wal-mart for a bit of Christmas shopping. I like to focus on the girls and their abilities and I tend to not focus on their intellectual disability. So sometimes it takes me by surprise and breaks my heart. Example: I dropped the girls at Wal-mart and scooted to Lowes to do a return.  The girls each had their list, which they had made, and I suggested they each get a cart and start shopping. Molly had put Claire,Jamie and Allie on her list, along with the family and Nana and Aunt Reg. When I got inside, about 10 minutes later, Molly proudly came up to me with a huge Easy Bake oven that she had picked out for Allie! Oh was she excited. I praised her for finding such a cool gift, and gently mentioned that it might be a little young for Allie. We looked at things for the "Grandma's" and then headed back to the toy area. When I told Molly that Allie was too old for the oven she burst into tears, it was all I could do not to cry myself. She was heartbroken. But we hugged and I made a couple of suggestions for other gifts, and we moved on. It was a reminder to me to tread gently with her, she has a heart of gold and less understanding than I sometimes remember(or choose to remember) Father Karl had a homily today that was aimed directly at me..and one of the things he said was "when you are tempted to give in to the struggles of parenthood, perhaps with anger or depression, you need to say, "No, more love here!" and of course ask GOD to help you with this.

So that is my prayer tonight. That I look at the girls and instead of feeling frustration I say,

More Love here!

Sewing Lessons Wednesday 12/7/11

Karol our fearless sewing teacher/friend has returned from her Thanksgiving family visit/babysitting job. Can you imagine how lucky her son and his wife are...she and Don watched the 7.5 and 3 year olds while they went on a NINE day cruise! Which they do EVERY year! Seriously--how nice is that?!  Anyway I digress..Karol came today for a sewing lesson and Danny finished his PJ bottoms! He did such a good job. He is so meticulous and patient. Karol even had him do the hem with 2 turns and ironing in between. He learned so much. And they even got me on the machine, finally! I finished my first project, which is a Christmas gift, with Danny's help. It was fun.
Danny went to Rollerama with Ryan and his family. He saw a bunch of pals from St. Pats and really had fun. I was super happy that he had a chance to hang out with his buds. :)

White Christmas Crunch Squares recipe

White Christmas Crunch Squares recipe

Boars Head Christmas Festival!!

Danny with two of the three Kings

Ed Bedner, his engineer pal as the jester,Jer,Danny,Molly,Hannah,Mollie the jesters daughter,Charlotte,Sophie

Ed,Laura and Hannah Bedner invited us to join them at their friends Church up in Saginaw this afternoon. The church is in it's 27th year of hosting a Boar's Head Festival. Rooted in pagan times when the boar was the fist dish served at a Roman feast,, the colourful ceremony of the Boar's Head became part of the Christmas celebration at the great manor homes of the middle ages. In medieval England, the boar was a ferocious beast and sovereign of the forest, a danger and a menace to man, and, therefore,  the symbol of evil. The presentation of the boars head, carried into the great hall on a procession at Christmas time, signified the triumph of the Christ-Child over sin. The begin of the ceremony is not known, but the first one recorded was at Queen's College, Oxford, shortly after the founding of the University in 1340. It continues there to this day! The festival came to America in colonial times, performed in Episcopal churches and schools.
The church we went to has an amazing congregation. The many musician, including harp,bagpipe, heralding trumpets, and more are all members of the church. A full choir sang from above, while actors dressed in elaborate costumes danced and sang for us. The Christmas story was told, complete with live new born baby, three Kings and their entourages, and bewildered shepherds. Good King Wenceslas, court jesters and wassailers added to the fun.  What a fantastic, different way to kick off the Christmas season!!

Friday 12/3 A Great School Day

Danny and I had a great day of learning. My unit on Afghanistan went really well.  We viewed a DVD on families ,one from the country and one from the city. Danny did an online scavenger hunt and we read a bunch of books. I learned alot and I hope Danny did too!
Danny had Ryan come over after school, those two are so much fun to listen to. They never stop laughing and goofing with each other. Ryan is taller again, check back next month-they keep seesawing back and forth.
Shawne came over with Leah. Jerry and the kids headed off to Bball and she and I watched a movie together. Well, actually we talked so much we hardly got through it. I needed that!

Worked my monthly schedule at the library..in one night

oh my- my auto-deposit bank account will be empty soon at this rate. My hours for the month of December are 4 hours, and I worked it tonight! So I guess I'm grateful that Jer is the breadwinner because the hours at BDL are bad and getting worse.  The library will be closed on Thursday's now and it will be challenging for the regular staff to get their hours, never mind us subs. Well, I can't do anything about it, so I need to start thinking about my next career move..ideas are welcome!

Tough One--

Started off the day with a Charlotte freak out. Major. Like drive her to U of M psych ward freak out. Which I didn't do. I am just feeling so defeated, and while that is going on I am still needing to be on with Danny and his schooling. Yes honey, manifest destiny is...I scream over Charlotte while on hold with BCBS to find out my mental health benefits...
She eventually stopped after 3 hours, and she, Danny and I went to the library,the post office and Target/Meijer to pick up treats for Jake and giving tree gifts for church. That was fun!
Molly went to the movies with her friend Gary and spent the afternoon at his house playing Wii. We met at the Special Olympics meeting to plan the Polar Plunge and after throwing in our 2 cents we pick up Danny at TKD and head home. Danny and Jerry decide to play Oregon Trail to jive with the unit on westward exploration. Oh the memories of Jake and Jerry playing that same game together...I miss that boy.

And they're back!

This morning I tried to finish up my cleaning so it doesn't look a mess when Jerry walks in.  And also to hide the gifts I've been wrapping.
I don't drive today! Awesome!
Spend some time with Sooz and Mom on the phone, it makes me feel a bit lonely for them. Visit planned with  Mom for Christmas and then with Sooz for 12/27ish, so I don't have long to wait. We dish out Thanksgiving dinner round 2 when the travelers arrive, then they go to church. Danny and I start to unpack the village and get our planning going. I will post pictures when we have it set up. :)

Saturday 11/25/11 Cleaning Machine!

I set my alarm for 6:45 and jumped right at the bathrooms, before I lost my enthusiasm. By 10am they were all done, including sorting and clearing the linen closets. That takes time, doesn't show, but needed to be done. I also sort and actually take some of the Christmas decorations that I never use and put them in the Sally's bag. I will not pack them up again! Other than 5pm mass, and walking the dog,  I don't leave the house. But I feel like I accomplished alot.

Black Friday Fun

Jer came out with me-I think he felt sorry for me because I don't have any shopping pals here. We headed out at about 7am. We went to Art Van and got the bunk bed for the lake and a new pub style table for the basement. There was a line of about 2 hours, and so Jer asks the guy if we can come back and  pay later, and he says that I can call with the credit card info later! So out with go, see you later all those people on the line! We went to Staples, Loews and Wal-mart and were home drinking coffee at 10am! It was awesome. Then Jerry took the kids to the lake til Sunday! Double awesome! I have time to shop a bit but mostly I clean and do the Christmas stuff. I am the one who has so many decorations, so it is my job to haul it all out and decorate! I get a bunch of wrapping done and watch a funny corny movie called My Families Wedding.

Thanksgiving Day--I am Thankful!

Well, at 5am I didn't feel quite as thankful as I might have...we are up and off to downtown Detroit. The weather, which was supposed to be warm and sunny, was foggy and chilly. Oh well! The coolest thing was the skyscraper, the RenCen, basically disappeared into the fog  before our very eyes! My slick Detroit boy zoomed us downtown and into a parking garage right at the foot of Woodward Ave. We were at the start within minutes! Jack Reilly was super happy to see Molly and welcomed her back to the event. While she waited for her cue, Jen and her husband Buddy arrived and cheered her on. Charlotte,Danny and I joined her on the dais and helped her recite the oath. Suddenly there are Sam and Eric Stewart..they followed the sound of Molly voice! They cheered Molly on too! I say hooray for friends!  Molly did a great job with the oath, then we all got into our corral to wait for the start of the race. With 21,000 runners we had a bit of a wait! Molly took off and ran a 1.00, Danny was next with a 1.01, and Charlotte, Jen and I rolled in at 1.07. Yes, I did a cartwheel at the finish line, at Charlotte's request! We headed home and Jer made a mess of scrambled eggs while I got the turkey in the oven. Then I took a hot shower and cooked the rest of the sides. I served around 3:30pm(and everyone was happy to get away from the Lions horrendous performance!) The meal was great, and later that evening I even made a Michael's run to use my 30% coupon for some Christmas shopping. I am thankful for my family here, for Jake, for my NJ family, for our house, for my church, for so much. I am a lucky girl!

my runners!

Ready to eat!

here is my dinner!

says it all! Start!

Shopping and decorating for an early start to Christmas

I guess I'm thinkin Christmas! After mass this am, Danny,Molly and I went home to change and grab Charlotte. We dropped Mol off at Ashley Court to help out with church service and coffee and donuts. Danny Charlotte and I continued on to the library to drop off our giving tree gift and to get books. Then we hit Marshalls and Target to do some Christmas shopping and get ideas. It was fun! Home for lunch, then Molly went back to AC for a couple more hours to assist with the Thanksgiving craft project. Go Molly! Danny and I enjoyed the great weather, warm and mid 50's , by playing with the dog, shooting baskets,raking and hanging outside lights. Our house is looking good. Danny did night 3 of TKD and I got the clothes ready for our 5:30 am departure for the big race. Turkey is defrosted, potatoes mashed and carrots cooked and glazed. It should be a great Thanksgiving.

Danny suits up for daily mass

Danny kneeling in his altar garb and behind him, Dan Oleksa mentoring him through solo altar serving. They looked so cute together! Danny did an awesome job and we prayed for Aunt Reg, who is back in the hospital. We stayed after and did the perpetual help devotion too. Snuck in a Joanne's run, then went to piano. Then I got to meet Judy Parsons for coffee at DD! A great break for me. Throw in Ryan Arbor play date, TKD and a trip to Wal-marto in the driving rain, and you have my Tuesday!!

The intrepid traveler returns! No Thanks to US Airways!

UGH! In spite of arranging with US Airways to have a companion accompany Charlotte from  gate to gate in Philly, They Don't! Charlotte asked the attendant what she should do and the attendant told her to take the tram=and that was it! So Charlotte set off across the airport on foot and by tram, and made it to her gate. By the grace of God though, and the watchful eye of Grandpa I believe! I really think that US Air needs to get their game on when it comes to travelers with disabilities, how do they communicate the information that you put in the computer to the flight staff?  You KNOW I will be finding this out.

i made it!

In other news, Danny ran six miles with Jer and Charlotte and then went to Taekwando! What a nut! And we baked 15 loaves of pumpkin bread for teachers and other friends. Boy does the house smell good! And whilst hurriedly scooping refried beans from the can for our tacos, I slice open a knuckle. The food was fine--my hand, not so much! Tried stopping the bleeding, and band-aids, but it kept on bleeding. Check out my awesome bandage!

Make your own free digital collage

Baking for the Army man

Danny and I spent a lovely morning baking together and listening to the third and final story in our Peter and the Starcatchers series. The audio narration by Jim Dale is something I enjoy so much. We baked spice cookies, and from-scratch brownies with white chocolate and butterscotch chips. They are cooled, saran wrapped 3 times, put in a plastic bag and bubble wrapped! I hope they arrive edible!

spice cookies are Jake's favourites!

I had the opportunity to chat with Jake today via google. This was wonderful. Nothing major said, but I felt close to him being able to talk in that way. God Bless the computer!
Loaves and Fishes dinner tonight, we brought sloppy joes and our smiles, and served about 60 folks. Ron played his guitar and sang, which made it quite festive. I love serving with the family.
Charlotte flys home tomrw. I hope it all goes well. I am excited to see her, I missed her!

In the car, out of the car, in the car...you get the idea! Saturday11/19

I knew it from the time I got up=this whole day would be spent driving. And so it was..TaeKwando, home, get molly and shop-vac, drop at church for Jerry(busily manning the poinsettia sale at church for SO) back to TKD, back home, feed Danny lunch, go back to TKD for testing, which last 2 1/2 hours!! Danny gets his senior yellow=good, interminable length of testing =bad! Home with Danny, get Mol, drive to Gary;s house, pick him up, drive them to snowshoe. wait for them for 1 hour, bring them home, serve dinner, drive to Howell for communtiy theatre production of White Christmas. Sit and relax and enjoy the aesome show! Drive home! Goal tomrw---stay home ;<)

Friday means basketball means free mom time!

Well we had a busy but excellent day. Sewing lesson with Karol(2 this week because she is going away for Thanksgiving) which lasted 3 hours! Progress made on the PJ bottoms, and learning continues. Leah was dropped off at 10am, and we played, coloured, lunched, then headed to her house to catch the bus. No sooner had we hopped out of the car and moved to the end of the driveway than we saw the bus chugging down the street. We were high fiving each other on our perfect timing as the bus pulled to a stop. When the driver opened the door, she said "no power at the school, classes are cancelled"! Oh my! So back home we went to play some more. Shawne came to pick up Leah and stayed for a nice cup of tea and a great visit. When she was leaving Leah  decided that she might as well stay the whole day and go to BBall. So she did, which is awesome cause the kids love her. I made a Target run, but then just crashed. The week of solo Mom-ing is tiring me out :)

Colour me Proud!

Oh boy! Molly and Danny are both phenomenal! The fashion show was tonight and they both did so great. From modeling duties for Molly to hobnobbing and auction bidding to shoe tying for Danny. Barb Binkley did a wonderful job as always, and one thing she did this year was play Molly's commercial and feature her as a successful  ARC client. Afterwards she introduced Mol who took a waving stroll down the runway! Her modeling went well too. She was escorted by her high school pal Zack Nichols, who is a football player and was on the TV show RealWorld. He was always so kind to her at track practice, and he is still just as sweet. Danny enjoyed the auction and we got somrthing special for Jer for Christmas..sssshhhh!

Happiness is a bird eating seed from your hand!

after patient waiting, a little bird  visits Danny

and trys the seed!

in spite of the cold, Danny stood like a statue

Danny took this awesome photo of a hawk through the binoculars!

Speaking of Birds....

shout out to the Blue Hen, though I haven't seen one at our feeder. :)

Tuesday 11/16/11 Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

No, that doesn't refer to my kids...it is the book club book for tonight's meeting! We had a great discussion about this tale, was the boy autistic? did the door knob stand for the house in Dresden? were the something and nothing spaces an analogy for marriage? We really had a back and forth interesting chat. Then Renee brought out the fancy cupcakes from the new place in town, Just Baked. Flavours like strawberry cheesecake, bumpy cake, and samoa girl scout cookie had the club oohing and aahing! Then she left the extras! OH NO! Next months book is The Zookeepers Wife by Diane Ackerman. Have you read it??

Back On It!!

It's Monday and I'm writing about Monday--GO ME!!
I had an 8am meeting at Pathways with Chantal and Jane to discuss Charlotte's school path.  She hasn't been to school in 2 weeks and not a soul from BHS has even called to see what the problem is! Same old same old over there, and my hopes for her to have a good experience in the TIPS program have not panned out. We are still working on it, but it looks like Charlotte will be moving over into adult transition after Thanksgiving.Danny had a long sewing lesson with Karol in which he learned to pin a pattern,cut it out, baste and sew the seam. He is doing wonderfully. Danny and I also enjoyed playing chopsticks together on the piano..what fun! Walked the dog and gave hom his first bath at our house...he is so good, he just stood in Danny's tub and shook.
Tae Kwan do kicked Danny's dupa tonight, fast and fitness oriented. He was sweating buckets.

Sunday 11/13/11

We went to Mass at 8:30am. Danny subbed as a server. Newspaper reading and coffee drinking follow that...but most of my day I felt like was spent driving in and out of town. To and from kids friends houses, Meijer and Target to try to find a blind for the garage window, all that jazz,
Molly ended up at Anne's for dinner and Danny got home from Scott's ate and got ready for bed. We watched our new favourite show Property Brothers.

11/12/11 Aahh, Saturday!

A lazy, raking,football watching, Saturday. Charlotte and Jerry took off at 8:30 to start the long awaited trip to Delaware and NJ. Jerry sent lots of pictures throughout the day and I felt like I was there.

hoodie-the highlight of any campus visit!

campus cuties

north campus part of the tour

 Shawne and I went to JCPenneys and did a bit of shopping with her 30%coupon! Whoot! Danny and I went to Blockbuster and got a couple of movies-watched one called A Far Off Place about a couple of kids that make there way across the Kalahari desert. It was quite violent, much more than I imagined, but we enjoying sitting in the chair together in front of the fireplace...Molly? where do you think she was? Downstairs watching football of course!

Friday 11/11/11 Greenhills invites us to T. Wall Bball Day

What a blast! We head down to Greenhills again, this time with our friend Gary in tow, to attend T. Wall BBall. This is a special day sponsored by a former teacher Tom Wall. It is the joining of a Greenhills student with a special visitor from a local school to play basketball and have fun together. There is a carnival, disco, face painting a cake walk and crafts. Our student team consists of Anna and Anya, juniors who love cross country and the arts respectively. We won our bball game, boy Gary can sure rebound and the girls couldn't miss today! We played carnival games, danced in the disco, made masks, and Danny,Charlotte and Gary went to the petting zoo. All the students and staff were fabulous..maybe the talk Molly gave helped with this. This is a wonderful school and we love being a part of the family. The kids each got a trophy and Tom Wall insisted on meeting Molly before we left,it was cute!

team we played against, we WON

our team!

charlotte and Anna

pretty crafty ,eh?!

nice!

maori

Molly and Anya

Boo!

go team!!

I went to the movies with Shawne. We saw Anonoymous, the Shakespeare movie. It was good, costumes were great.  We also went to Renees Pampered Chef party, and as always, that was fun.

Thursday 11/10/11

Catch up---
rescheduled piano lesson and Danny gets Christmas Tunes!
banking and food shopping
Laundry with a capitol L!!
plans for Charlotte's trip
Work at BDL, my big 4 hours this month!
but catching up---does it ever really happen??!
What do you think?!

Wednesday- I guess we're really Grandparents...

We had a nice visit with Cammy and got to meet baby Cassandra tonight. Jerry went and picked them up, and they took the van when they left. We thought we could loan the van to them since neither she or Jake had a vehicle. I made a tasty meal and got the place tidied and organized.(?)! Here are some pictures..