Just Random Stuff

Work has been so busy lately. 

We recently had a memorial for a sitting mayor of a city near us. I'm sot sure how he died but there were about 500 people there to honor him. Lots of police officers, fire fighters and local dignitaries. 

The next day we had to set up for our Business Meeting so I had Beth come in to help us. There were 23 tables and a whole lot of chairs!

 Our Sunday school class went well. We've had a couple new students recently, the class is definitely growing although we only had a few this weekend. Teacher M is telling them about Jesus calming the storm.

 

 I picked Allie up from school on Tuesday and she got to spend the night with us because Sharaya went out with friends and knew she was going to have a late night.

 

Getting ready for school and for All Aboard

Today I went out to lunch with friends to celebrate one of their birthdays. It had been about a year since we all went out together and it was so good to get together.

Things around here have been pretty tame compared to other parts of the nation. Those of you living through the Polar Vortex, stay safe and warm!

A Love Without Limits - Paul and Kris Scharoun-DeForge

Have you heard of these guys? I read about them in the Readers Digest this month.

They are celebrating their 25th Valentines Day as husband and wife but they won't be together this year because Paul has dementia. He was moved into assisted living and it broke Kris' heart.

"He opened up my world," Kris said. "I looked into his eyes and I saw my future."

There is a picture of them sitting on the couch, her head is resting on his shoulder and her hands are wrapped around his arm.

They both have Down Syndrome.

It goes on to talk about how he proposed, how they worked together to organize their wedding and how they have served each other for the last 25 years.

I couldn't help but think of Beth and Nick. Of how different their relationship is from Paul and Kris.

The first few years that Beth and Nick dated, he talked non-stop (seriously!) about getting married. How they would get married and move to L.A. and he would become a firefighter and they'd live in a $500,000 home... none of it was realistic and he didn't want to talk about what a real marriage could be like. Even the good things! I understand having goals and reaching for the stars and all that, but no matter how much you tried to talk about this realistically or ask him honest questions about it, he would argue with you and insist this would happen. His mom finally put her foot down and told him no more talk of marriage. Not for a while anyway. We know neither one of them is ready for marriage (mentally or emotionally) let alone moving to another state by themselves.

Nick is very controlling and Beth is very meek. She often gets angry at him because he texts her almost constantly but she never says anything to him about it.

Beth won't look at Nick. Her head is usually down and she'll kind of grunt but they don't have conversations. Not face to face anyway. When they're with each other, she barely looks at him.

In fact, I've had her practicing saying Hi to herself in the mirror. To look at her face, or her chin or nose if looking at her eyes is too hard and say "Hi!" Just to get comfortable with looking at a face when she talks. 

It's things like this that show us they're just not ready. And that breaks my heart for both of them.

Their first date - on her birthday 2014

  
Last month he was banned for a week from All Aboard because they can't keep their hands off each other. Beth was put on a separate bowling lane for the same reason. Last week we stumbled upon... a situation... that has us concerned. Right now it's harmless (because neither one of them drive and they live 45 minutes from each other) but it could lead to some more serious issues.

There's just so many things going on right now with the two of them and I don't know if it's going to to escalate or eventually die down and become nothing.

I'm so torn because they are both adults. I feel for them, I understand what they're going through. But, even though they're adults they don't understand the full impact of some of the choices they're making.   

Texting

For many years Beth has answered my texts with one word, usually 'Okay'. Sometimes spelled okey. Sometimes it's Yes or No. Or 'Thanks' or 'Yes I did'. Just simple answers, one or two words.

Beth lives at a slow speed. She walks slower and when she does chores around the house it takes her longer to do them than it would you or me. At the grocery store it takes her a while to get all her groceries on the conveyor belt thing.

But technology isn't something she has to do quickly. She can sit at her desk for as long as she needs to figure out how to send a photo or change her ring tone. And she loves her phone!

We've given her a laptop but she just never used it. We've tried getting her to use our laptop to get on Facebook but she just doesn't want to. But using her phone, that's a whole different story!

To be honest this is something I never even considered when Beth was born. Our concerns were about her sitting up and walking. Not 'Will she be able to navigate the internet?' The internet hadn't even been invented yet! Yet she has just grown with the times and learned the technology right along with the rest of us.   

In the last 6 months or so I've noticed her texts are becoming more complex. She combines two topics and uses various words.

Instead of always answering with 'Okay' now she'll sometime use 'Alright'. And it's spelled right too!

I sent her Diana's birthday list.
"I got it already mothera"

Do you want to watch the movie with us?
"No thanks I'm good"

I tell her I'm going to Safeway.
"Okay and can you get my lunch for Wednesday please"

"Can we go to Safeway and dollar tree after work is done please?"

"I do want to go shopping for groceries and new cd player and batteries to"

It's been kind of fun! 

Quiet

Things have been a little quiet around here the last few days. Sharaya and Allie come over for dinner, lunch actually, on Sundays and then sometimes Sharaya will go grocery shopping while we hang out with Allie. I told Sharaya that Allie is 9 now so we're almost beyond the 'babysitting' stage. She's grown up so fast.

 

We watched Christopher Robin and I got out all my Winnie the Pooh stuffed animals. When I was in high school some friends came up with the Pooh Pack. Each one of us were given a name of one of the characters that matched our personalities and we'd have sleep-overs and parties, all around the Winnie the Pooh theme. Since I was a senior and they were all underclassmen, they would ask my advice on situations at home and help with school so naturally I was Kanga. I've had some of these stuffed animals since high school but the big ones our girls bought when they were little. I just can't bare to part with them!

The weather's been really nice, cold but sunny so I took the cover off the fire ring and when Sharaya got back from the grocery store we sat outside until it got dark, talking and drinking hot chocolate.

Today Beth is at All Aboard and Chuck is working. I've had a few hours to myself, doing laundry, filled the dishwasher, emptied the trash, but no real responsibilities, no deadlines, it's been very nice.

So how's your week going so far?

One of Her Favorite Things

Beth loves to shop. She'll often ask me if we can go shopping and did you know there are different kinds of shopping?

There's grocery shopping. 

There's running errands where you go to the drug store for cough drops and EmergenC or to Home Depot for a hammer. 

But her all-time, absolutely favorite kind of shopping is 'shopping for fun' as she calls it. That's completely different from all other kinds of shopping! Well, today we went shopping for fun.

And she came home with a brand new phone.

She's been downstairs playing around with it and learning to text again. You should have seen her face when I showed her all the emojis!! She is so happy!

When was the last time you went shopping for something fun?

The Lion KIng!

For Beth's birthday back in October we got her tickets to see The Lion King at The Paramount Theater. Our tickets were for January 1st and we were so excited!

Sharaya and Allie came over on the 31st and we celebrated at midnight by clinking our glasses of Sparkling Cider and watching the fireworks at the Space Needle.

(Thanks Google!)

These two pictures are from 2017 but it's pretty much what happened this year too. 😊

We slept in January 1st and just hung out all day. We had a quiet, lazy day, it was nice! Then around 3:00 Beth and I started getting ready. 

I have absolutely NO sense of direction so I had been on the computer and had 'driven' to the theater on google maps. Chuck then gave me some directions and I wrote those down and studied them. Pitiful I know.  😅 But I was so nervous driving downtown by myself!

But we made it!! We sat in the parking garage for a few minutes and even I was surprised at how much I was shaking. I. Do. Not. Like. Driving. Downtown. 

But we were there and were so excited we could barely stand it!

Once we got inside we headed to the merchandise area and bought a mug and Beth got a key chain and a bag... 

When it started Rafiki came out on stage and blew everyone away! The actress was phenomenal! The whole show was amazing! It grabbed you at the very beginning and never let you go! We had so much fun!

  

The End of a Remarkable Week

Even though we decided to go somewhere together instead of buying gifts, we still did stockings on Christmas Eve. We all bought one or two items for each stocking so that it wasn't left up to one person to do it all.

 

 

Plus Allie got her Christmas Eve pajamas and stuffed animal. It's a tradition Chuck's mom started with our girls when they were little. When Sharaya had Allie she asked if I could carry on this tradition and I was more than happy to!

 1994

 1998

2018 

Allie opened a few more gifts on Christmas morning and Sharaya and Diana fixed dinner for everyone. It was so nice to not have to cook or really have any responsibilities that whole week!

Reading Luke 2, about the birth of Jesus 

 

We watched home movies... oh my gosh we laughed so hard over those! This one was Christmas morning of 1997 I think. 

 

Then Sharaya and Diana took a walk down by the lake while Chuck, Beth, Allie and I scrambled to take down all the Christmas stuff and put up birthday decorations! We were trying to make it a surprise but I think Diana probably knew what we were doing. 😁

Her birthday is on December 27 and since we were leaving on the 26th to come back to Seattle and she was flying home, we celebrated her the night before we left. 

Happy Birthday Diana!

 

 

  
I keep thinking about everything we did and how much we laughed... do you do that too? Go over everything again and again, reliving it because it was just so amazing?!