May in a nutshell

I posted about the beginnings of my garden on April 30, then I looked up and it was mid-May, then May was gone. Oh how I have missed blogging. I am going to share with you in photos a re-cap of how May went for our family. You will realize, then, why I missed posting.

My birthday is May 1. I turned 46 this year. I don't feel it and if you ask most folks, they will tell you I don't act like I am 46 years old.

Vintage Postcard postmarked Jan 1910 and its mine :-)

David got me a Kindle Fire for my birthday and I just love it!  THEN a couple of days later he surprised me and was able to take his R&R two days ahead of schedule, so he arrived on the 6th instead of the 8th. While he was in route coming home from overseas (he is a civilian contractor over there), I used the information I got when I watched "Homestead Blessings: The Art of Making Candles" to make beeswax tapers. The night I was working on these, I was continually texting with David while he was in a holding pattern waiting to get on his flight home.

We traded in my 2009 Dodge Caravan and David's 2004 Avalanche in on a new truck! It is a 2012 Ford F150 Crew Cab. The new models have so much space in the back seat, it would compare in side to a small car.

This gorgeous machine drives amazingly & rides like a car!

While the kids were spending some days with their father, David decided we would take a road trip and head to the casino in Clinton, OK. It's only 2.5 hours away and was nice to spend the time together. On the way back, we stopped in. Shamrock, TX and saw the vintage gas station that was depicted in the movie "Cars".

David being his typical silly self.

"Look at that price! $.38 per gallon!"

Then we headed on down I-40 back toward Amarillo and stopped in Groom, Texas to see the GIANT cross.

The next adventure was to Palo Duro Canyon. It is less than a half-hour from our house.

Even though I have been several times....the canyon is still gorgeous to me!

Whew and I am only to the 13th!

We have been trying for the past couple of months to decide what to do about where to live. I currently have 1.17 acres with a 1981 very small manufactured home on it. David and I have gone through so many scenarios about what we want. This piece of land keeps calling us thought, to stay right here. So, we ordered a new manufactured home! OUR NEW HOME! Together. It is 320sf larger than the one the kids and I live in now. NOW this little homestead is OURS. We just found out yesterday that the home is built and will be in Amarillo sometime this coming week.

 

Ours is hunter green on the top and beige on the bottom.

We went with a single-wide because we don't want to put too large/pricey a home here and price it out of the area when one day we decide to sell the place.

The next thing I have to tell you is not easy to talk about. Many of you that have been reading my blog back to my old one, are familiar with Roosevelt, our Serama rooster. He hatched in my hand on January 2, 2010 and played a vital role in Gregory learning to talk. One afternoon, Felicity went out to the barn and found him dead. We don't know what happened. But I am thankful that David was here. The kids and I were in tears for quite a while. Losing Roosevelt was a huge loss for the kids and I.

Rest in peace our special little man.

Next, we headed to David and I's hometown, Leesville, Louisiana. I am the youngest of eight kids and we have not all been together in one place since 1983, when we buried our father. This weekend...we were all together! I am not sharing photos, because I don't know how they would feel about it.

Margo our Poodle, Petunia our Chihuahua

Bailey, our Maltese mix

Yep, all FOUR of our dogs went on the trip with us. (Ariel is in a later photo) They all did amazingly well and enjoyed the travel and meeting all of the new people.

I started and finished my first ever knitted project while we were on the road!

My daughter, son-in-law and first born grandchild, Madeline.

On Saturday of that weekend, we all headed out to Toledo Bend Lake for a day of fun in the woods (and on the water).

Toledo Bend Lake

Later that week, David and I enjoyed sitting out by the pool at our hotel and watched the kids swim.

Favorite things to read for me while watching the kids.

David was "pondering"...I don't remember what, though.

This was really the first time to swim in a big pool for Gregory, to the best of my memory. He loved it! It took him a few minutes at first, but then he realized his floaties wouldn't let him go under water.

Felicity loves to swim. She is now 11 and as tall as me! She is such a wonderful big sister to Gregory, too.


Oh how I miss the green of Louisiana! I love the State flower, Magnolia.

Then before we were ready, it was time for David to fly back overseas and the kids and I to come back to Amarillo.

We stopped in Canton, TX at a little place called Dairy Palace for lunch and Gregory actually ate BEANS AND RICE!!! Of course, I mashed it all up together, but he ate it! This is MAJOR for him! He still has such problems with food textures.

At the end of our first day on the road headed back to Amarillo, we stayed in Dallas. I took the kids to Bass Pro Shop because I thought they would think it was pretty neat. We were in that store for 2 hours! Felicity really enjoyed it...Gregory not so much.

We were all exhausted at the end of the day. Even Ariel our 3 month old puppy.

I ended the month of May with 15 fewer chickens due to a dog that got into the yard while we were gone. BUT on a better note...my first harvest of the year. HERBS!

 

Basil, Chamomille, Oregano and Cilantro.

Hope you enjoyed your little tour through our month of May. I will be back to blogging now and am so glad!

In training

Gregory has never asked for a pet. We have had pets Gregory's entire life and even when we go to pet adoptions, etc., he never really pays attention to them nor asks to bring any home. For new readers that do not know, Gregory is 8 and was diagnosed with Autism at the age of 25 months old.

Up until today, we had three dogs, after having to evict Cody (story earlier in blog). Bailey is a terrier/Maltese mix and definitely Felicity is her girl. Sure, we are all great, but Felicity is her girl. Bailey is 4 and we have owned her since she was a little puppy.  Petunia is a chihuahua (and SO chihuahua), she is also 4 and we have had her too, since a puppy. Petunia likes Gregory and is patient with him, but is really a family dog, but I am "Momma" to her.  Margo is my poodle that we rescued 6 years ago. She is around 10 or so years old. She is MY dog, no other way. She is patient with the kids, though, but she definitely is "Momma's girl". Margo and Petunia have a mother/daughter type relationship and Bailey rules the roost around here.

Our neighbors have a litter of Heinz 57 puppies. Felicity has brought this cute little girl one home before to show me, and yes, she is cute, but I said no more dogs. Then yesterday, Felicity brought the puppy to show me again. Gregory saw her this time and said he wanted "Oreo to live with us". He has never said that before about a pet! He loves the chickens, but never wanted us to add another dog to the family.

Gregory helps out with feeding the dogs and letting them out of their crates in the morning, then outside most of the time after letting them out of their crates. Lately, he has been trying to get Bailey or Petunia to sleep with him in his bed, or even just sit with him on the couch sometimes and they just usually get down. So after he asked to keep Oreo yesterday, I got to thinking that maybe he needs a companion of his own. So....

Meet Gregory's "service dog in training".... "Oreo".

Oreo is 6 weeks old. She is a total Heinz 57 from what we can get from the owners of the Momma next door. Some Pit-Bull, likely some Heeler and a lot of who knows what. Her paws are tiny, so I am hoping she stays somewhat on the smaller size, but he will love her no matter what.

We hope to be able to eventually get her certified as a service animal for him, but have not looked into the process yet. We will train her and teach her that she is Gregory's dog. We will teach him how to feed her (correctly) and play with her, walk her, let her out to potty and everything involved with having a dog. I will put together a chart to teach him, but I am aware I will do most of the house-breaking initially and that is fine with me. If he is happy, we are all happy.

We made the "puppy" trip to Petsmart today. Food, toys, bowl, collar, crate....whew! Free puppies definitely ARE NOT free. Tomorrow it's to the vet for her first shots and check up.  Bailey, Petunia and Margo are doing great with her so far!

Welcome to our family, Oreo!

When God gives you a special child

This is a re-post of a post I did in 2008 on my original blog.

When we lived in the Houston area, one of Gregory's therapists gave us this story (for lack of a better word). It was soon after Gregory's formal diagnosis of autism, and she knew we could use some inspiration.

"The Beauty of Holland" by Emily Perl Kingsley

"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 guidebooks 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 guidebooks. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you never would 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. Holland has tulips. Holland 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 go away, because the loss of that dream is a 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."

We keep a copy of this on the refrigerator. It's our inspiration on bad days. A reminder that Gregory is, indeed, a very special child.

Amazing and beautiful

Those of you that don't already know, our 7yo son, Gregory, has autism. He was diagnosed at 25 months of age. Videos such as this are very special to my heart.

Autistic man sings the National Anthem

And then there were three

Boys, that is.

We picked up our 2nd prospective foster-to-adopt son on Wednesday night. This will be his second extended visit with us to evaluate how all of the children do together.

I won't say that it is easy with four children, two of which are special needs; but we feel that things are going quite well. Mike and I do have our *days* but that is to be expected.

Sure, there is bickering and arguing, but it is manageable.

I will call this little guy Bradley here on the blog until the adoption is complete and I can use his real name.

Bradley, from what we can tell and know so far, is neuro-typical (non-special needs), with the exception of an ADHD diagnosis from over a year ago. He has his new psychological eval scheduled for next week, so then we will have a true and up-to-date diagnosis.

Bradley adores Felicity and she him. Bradley is patient with Gregory, but does argue and boss Timothy some (as does Felicity). Due to Timothy's Aspergers, he is definitely more annoying to the NT children (Felicity and Bradley) than is Gregory. They have a much more difficult time understanding that Timothy is not *normal* because he talks, looks like and generally behaves like a typical 7yo boy. BUT then there are the aspy traits that come out and they just don't *get it*.

Gregory gets along with everyone, so he just goes with the flow.

Mr. Quite Contrary

Mr Quite Contrary - How does your garden grow?

With crying and whining and broken rules; and consequences all in a row.

Timothy is still with us. He will be with us forever, unless there is something that changes drastically. We hope that this never happens.

I won't say that this has been a cake walk with him. It definitely has not. But we have a definite diagnosis now and are moving forward more easily with what is needed for him.

Aspergers and ADHD. Exactly as Mike and I initially concluded before ever meeting Timothy.

Now we know exactly what we are working with and where to go from here. We have asked for an exception to allow Timothy to attend Hands on Achievement where Gregory goes. CPS has told us they see no problem in getting it approved. It's what is best for him.