Sunday, May 24, 2015

Rainy May






The week continues to be rainy here much more like April weather than May's.  It is somewhat annoying because it rained during times I had planned to do outside things and then is clearer when I had to do things indoor.  So it has messed a bit with my schedule.  Thanks to Gary, however, who delivered all of the neighborhood party flyers during a break in the weather on a day I was gone to meetings in Salt Lake.  That helped so much.

Monday night we went and saw "Over the River and Through the Woods" at the Hale Theatre.  It was a sweet story about two sets of grandparents and their relationship with their grandson.  Very touching!

Despite the ongoing rain, we fit in a couple of outside activities-- The Special Olympic Torch Run on Tuesday and The Final Rocket Launching for CHS Functional Skills class on Wednesday.

Jena could only attend the morning part of the Torch Run because of commitments at school and she rode in a car most of the way due to wet conditions and cooler weather.

The police escort coming into the Syracuse Wal-Mart
They got treats and drinks and high fives from
employees!

Jena rode with the Ballards so she and Jessica Ballard enjoyed the view from the back seat.

 
I picked Jena up from the Wal-Mart and dropped her off at school.  Here are her Special Olympic clothes but she was heading to the bathroom to change into "high school" clothes before joining her classes.

Tuesday was a long day for her as she had play practice after school and then Institute that night.  She headed to bed a bit early that night.

After I dropped Jena off, I headed to Salt Lake to a Select Health Awards Banquet.  We had received a grant from them for our peer presentation kit for the Utah Down Syndrome Foundation to help families teach others in the community about Down syndrome.  It was amazing to see all of the great programs which are being provided around the state.  There were 25 awards given out at this meeting and lunch.  It was a very great event.  We had a self-advocate Reed Hahn accept the award in our behalf.  He did great and then the wife of the governor who was helping with the awards stepped to the mic and talked about what a great man Reed was and what a great family who has been so active in the community all of these years.  I guess they are from the same basic area of Utah County and have known each other for years. It was very sweet.


My day was busy as well as I had to leave that early to meet with some of Ben's treatment staff with Ben, then get Jena from play practice and head off to school.  Gary went another direction as he and Allan started their summer bowling league that night.  For most of the first 20 years of our married life we only had one car, now with only Ben and Jena home, we would never make our schedule if we only had one car.  Crazy how life is.

Rocket Launching was Wednesday morning and the weather was great.  They had made their rockets earlier in the week so came ready to launch them.


I tried to get Jena and Gary to pose for a picture while she was preparing to launch...
And it is off....

Edward and Angelo, two of Jena's friends in functional skills, chased the rockets for everyone.  Jena helped some but they were the main guys.  They loved that part better than shooting their rockets and they even caught a few in the air.



This was Steven's first rocket launch and he loved it.  I loved the smiles on his face when he push the launch button and off went his rocket.


This one went straight up!

 And Angelo is trying to catch it.........



And while we were shooting our rockets, we had some Air Force jets fly over us.  Notice the black jet in the right center of the picture.

 
 And wasn't that cloud cover amazing.  It looked like batting on the sky.

 
And the group-- (Her teacher, Mr. Andreasen was away at meetings.) I took several pictures but couldn't get one with everyone looking in the same direction.  They were so great and did a great job helping each other and waiting for their turns.  We have been doing rocket launching or pinewood derbies since Jena was in sixth grade at the end of the school year.  I will miss it!  I am not sure STEPS will be interested but we will have to see.

This week was also unique because both of my grandchildren (and their parents) took airplane rides.  On Tuesday, Scott, Chantel and Scarlett flew to Florida to spend 10 days with her grandparents.

I pulled this picture off Facebook. They headed for the pool almost immediately upon arriving.  So far, we have heard that Scarlett loves the pool, has started walking all over the place, and has had her first encounter with a biting lizard and loved it.

The Wednesday morning, bright and early, Tosha, Austen and Niki headed to the Oklahoma Airport for their trip to Japan.  They flew commercial in two flights to Seattle, then had to wait at a hotel until the middle of the night and then got a military flight to Japan.  They have arrived but that is all we know since they left UD soil around 3:22 a.m. Thursday morning.

Niki did great on the US flights.  When they got on the plane for the second leg, they put him on the seat while they put stuff away and he tumbled out and got a black eye.  They left bad.  He has been a very content baby to sit and play with toys but has become a "mover and a shaker" now.  Here he is at the hotel in Seattle with his "tough" black eye.


I haven't heard how the plans have gone this weekend for these two little families but it might be possible that one set of them played in the Gulf of Mexico at the beach while the others were taking their first dip in the Pacific Ocean.  Hard to believe that my grandchildren's first trips to the beach and I missed them.  Oh well, we will make sure to have a trip or two to the beach with them some time.  I love the ocean and I hope they do too.

I think I can no longer tease my mother-in-law about a story that occur shortly before we left for Hong Kong in 1987.  We were visiting on a Sunday just a few days before we were leaving.  She introduced me to someone at Church and commented that we "might" be moving to Hong Kong.  I laughed because we were being packed up and leaving that next week!  We were moving to Hong Kong at that point.  As I Face-timed with Tosha, Austen and Niki (and their good friend, Erica) on Tuesday night, I understood her feelings.  It is hard to see part of your family going so far away and know that your contacts will be different and it will be a while before you see each other again. 

I have some advantages over my mother-in-law however--now we have emails and Facebook to keep in touch.  We will be able to do Facetime/Skpe also.  (I think we figured there is about a 13 or 14 hour time difference.) Also because we have done this ourselves, I truly know what a great opportunity it is for them to have this experience.  I can't wait to share in their adventures from a distant.  And we hope to make a few trips out there to spend time with them as well.  Like I told them, first is jet lag--then the next two months are amazing because you feel like you are on vacation--then there is 6 months where you are "oh no, we have to live real life here." -- and then you grow to love it and it becomes your home and when you leave you will be so sad and so grateful!  At least that is how it has been for us wherever we have lived and then moved.

While these guys have been traveling for fun and for work, Jessica and Elessia have been busy finishing up preparations for little Liam's arrival.  They report that they are almost done with the painting--one more coat on the ceiling and some little touch-ups here and there.  The crib should arrive this week and the new carpet the week after.  The carpet will probably come after he does but they are keeping him in a cradle near them the first little bit anyway so he doesn't care about carpet in his room.  Doctor reports that everything is looking good.  I also finally completed the quilt top for Liam and will take it to the machine quilter to quilt next week.

Our nephew Eric and his wife Brianne had their baby boy on Friday--Hyrum Ericson McKinney.  We are so excited for him and Liam to be friends.  He came a week early (he was due on May 27) at 8 lbs and 11 oz.

Look at all of his hair.
Eric, Brie, Emily and Hyrum
Friday, Gary's Aunt Glenna passed away after struggling with her health for a long time.  Her husband passed away at Christmas time last year so that is a lot for their children, but at least they are free from the physical limitations they both had for several years.  This is Mom Hall's last sibling which is a hard moment in a person's life.  She has been a great support and sister to Glenna especially over these past few months since Carl passed away.

Ben was able to transition on Friday from the CRU to day treatment which means that he comes home at night at 8:30 ish and then goes back in the morning.  They also are allowing him to stay home all day today which is nice.  Technically on day treatment they are not allowed to miss a day unless they are very sick but Ben has been trying to attend the Singles Ward and they supported that by allowing him to be home the whole day.  It is nice to have him sleeping here at nights.  Medication still is a struggle for him but hopefully he can find a balance he and we can live with.

Jena is busy getting ready for a play at school and one at Centerpoint so her life is filled.  It is less than 2 weeks until her high school graduation!  It is so hard to believe that it is finally almost here.  She is so excited (and I am counting the days when I don't have to get up at 6:00 everyday of the work week.)  Her next two weeks are the normal craziness of senior life with events and activities and play practices to keep her busy.  Love that girl, too.

I did get some yard work done yesterday including planting some flowers and a couple of vegetable plants.  While in school it is craziness to think I can manage more than a few plants.  Especially as our August is shaping up to be very very busy!  Gary and Jena went around and cleaned out the flag poles in preparation for Memorial Day tomorrow.

I think that sums up the week.  Hope you have a nice Memorial Day as well.

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