A little More Recap and Father's Day

While the kids were here Chuck had some doctor appointments, and like Beth's these were also in downtown Seattle. He got the scans done on Monday and we went back for the results on Tuesday.

We've spent a lot of time in this waiting room the last few years. This time the doctor told us that all the scans came back clear, and he is no longer 'in remission' but he is now cancer free! It's been five years so no more yearly scans and monitoring are needed! The doctor shook his hand and said it's been a pleasure treating him, but he hopes he never has to see him again! 😊 We told the kids when we got back to the house and we all celebrated! God is so good! 

The day the kids left for home we all went out for an early breakfast, I hugged them good-bye at the restaurant then headed to work. It was a 12 hour day, overseeing a local private school's graduation ceremony at our church.

Rehearsal began at 9am, then class speakers and the choir rehearsed throughout the day, and the ceremony was in the evening. I took this picture from their social media page - 

We estimated about a thousand people were there and once everyone was gone and the busses left with all the seniors for their all-night grad party, I headed home.

Saturday I did laundry and packed my suitcase. Sunday morning I flew to San Diego to be with my sister when she had surgery. 

For now I want to wish all the dads a Happy Father's Day. 

Me and my dad - 2011

My dad and his girls

Debbie, Kathy, dad, Merrilee, me

Chuck and our girls

Well, I just spent w-a-a-ay too long looking for more current pictures of Chuck and the girls. 😕 I know I have more around here somewhere. 

Oh well. I'll write about my time in San Diego soon. I hope you all have a wonderful rest of your weekend!

Deer, Darling, Dreaming

 Hello, 

 

It's about 2:00. I got home from work a little while ago, fixed some yogurt, berries and granola for lunch and ate it in the backyard.

 

I'm in the process of creating a small sitting area in a corner of the backyard, nestled up against the house where none of our neighbors can see us. It's very secluded. And sitting out there today I was overwhelmed with the view. We look out onto a green belt, filled with so many different trees: we have Pine and Hemlock, Elm and Cedar. And the birds. Sometimes it's hard to hear all their calls, there's just so many. It's beautiful, and I can't believe I get to live here. I'm so blessed.

 

I worked 15 hours of overtime the last couple of weeks. We had two graduations back-to-back. Plus rehearsals, receptions. One was for our own preschool, and the other was for a local private high school. The seniors had to go down to the preschool area to the room where they would assemble before their event and they were so enamored with the preschoolers, and the preschoolers looked up at them so wide eyed. It was pretty cute. Can you tell which set up was for which class?

 

 

Chuck had a good Father's Day. We went out to eat at Moonshine BBQ, he loves that place. Many of us had pulled pork burgers and they were so good! Came back to the house for games and gifts. Chuck got a coffee pod holder, and tickets to see the Seattle Storm!

 

 

My birthday's on the 17th so we often celebrate them together. The girls got me some gift cards, and mouse ears! We're going to Disneyland in a few weeks and they've been talking about getting some for themselves on-line. I thought about getting some but didn't want to intrude on 'their' thing. But they got me a pair! And not just any ears. They're Bambi ears! Oh my gosh I love them! 

 

Summer's about here and we've got temps in the 70's this week. It's pretty close to perfect. Well, that's about all from here. I hope you have a great start to your summer!

I Love It When a Plan Comes Together!

In my last post I said the rabbits were hoping and to be honest I don't know if they were. I DO know they were hopping. 😊

Okay, on to my post...

We've spent the last two weeks planning for this surprise! I posted recently that Sharaya graduated with a degree in Education, but because the school was in Arizona she decided not to walk with her class.

So...

We secretly went on-line and bought her cap and gown, plus the sash, tassel, the whole thing! Then we checked with Diana to see if she had time to fly out here and she was able to get tickets for Father's Day weekend.

It was so hard keeping it a secret because Sharaya and Diana are so close, they text constantly. And we didn't want to tell Beth because she's not that great at keeping secrets like this. I couldn't write flight information or anything on my wall calendar in case Sharaya came over. We watched Allie last Wednesday night and she loves to hang out in the den so I had to move the cap and gown into our closet... I was so afraid we were going to spill the beans!

The night Diana's flying in, I decide to tell Beth. THEN, Sharaya asks if she can take Beth shopping so she could buy something for Chuck for Father's Day. Yikes! I ran downstairs and told Beth she couldn't say ANYTHING about Diana coming! Chuck suggested I tell her things she could talk about (great idea!) and as soon as Sharaya dropped her back off at home she texted me, "I didn't say anything Mothera!"

Course, we left for the airport before they got back so I texted them both to say we were... uh... going to watch the sunset. Which we did, we stopped so I could get a picture for our alibi. 😊 I posted them about the time we arrived at the airport

By now I'm a basket case. I am so excited to see Diana and we still had the actual surprise the next day!

We told Sharaya we had gotten her a little graduation gift and could we meet for brunch on Saturday? The 4 of us get to the restaurant but they wouldn't seat us until the entire party was there! So we were standing outside when Sharaya walked up. She seemed to stare at Diana for about 3-4 seconds. Then her eyes lit up, "Oh hi!!" 

It. Was. Awesome!

We gave her a few gifts and took some graduation photos. We're just so proud of her. What a huge accomplishment. And, I'm so glad everything worked out! No one spilled the beans and Sharaya was completely surprised!

 

Hard Work, Perseverence and Blood, Sweat & Tears

Sharaya's spent the last few years as a single mom, working full time and getting her teaching degree. It hasn't been easy and she's taken breaks to go to Denver to help Chuck's sister recover from surgery, to San Diego when my dad died... but when she gets home she gets right back to it. Well, she sent us these pictures the other day:

Her diploma!! She got a Bachelor of Arts in Education Studies. And graduated Magna Cum Laude! What an accomplishment! She's worked hard and we're so proud of her!

I have school pictures around here somewhere but for now here's her Kindergarten picture:

This And That

We hosted a large graduation at work last month. I worked a 12 hour day and walked over 18,000 steps. But everything went well and the graduates had a great time!

 We saw Toy Story 4. Without giving away any spoilers, I will say I didn't like it. Well, I didn't like the way it ended. Honestly. Toy Story 3 will always be the final movie for me.

 

I had a meeting for all the custodians. 

 The laundry piled up.

We're doing more construction at work.

And one night I came home, lit a fire and sat outside until after 10pm. It was quiet and peaceful and just what I needed!

Have you seen Toy Story 3?

What did you think of it?

One of the Most Interesting Things About Raising a Child With Special Needs

One of the most interesting things about raising a child with special needs is the reaction from the people around us.

When our family walks into a restaurant and the host seats us, I'm usually in the back. You know, to  make sure all the kids follow dad and make it to the table.

I can see the other customers faces as the host walks by, then Chuck, then usually Sharaya or Diana and they keep talking to the person they're with or they take a bite of food. But then Beth walks by and almost every single time they stop... fork half way to their mouths or mid sentence - and they turn to look at Beth. And they watch her walk all the way past.

Sometimes they look up and catch my eye and the look on my face varies. I'm sure it depends on the look on theirs. Sometimes it's knowing - an older couple with great big smiles and they'll wink at me. I wonder if they have a child or grandchild with special needs.

Other times it's people who just don't know what to think about her. They just look.

Still others will whisper something to the people they're with and kind of point to Beth, like they're saying, "Quick. Look at her." They don't smile. They just stare.

It's hard.

But then there are people who look at your child with love. They look at her and know she can do anything she puts her mind to. They look at her and are proud of her accomplishments.

I actually caught one of the moments with my camera. It was at Beth's high school graduation in 2004 and she had just walked across the stage, shook the principal's hand and received her diploma. Then she made her way down the stairs, past some of the faculty and was headed back to her seat when I snapped this:

 
She's completely oblivious to them but you can tell they're celebrating her accomplishment. They're genuinely excited for her! That doesn't happen all the time and I love the way they're looking at her!

For Sale

It's been a quiet week. I watched Allie last Saturday, we went grocery shopping, colored with her colored pencils, blew bubbles and just hung out all day.

Seattle's been in a heat wave for the last few weeks. Temps in the 80's and 90's with no air conditioning! But we go shopping and out to eat (definitely don't want to turn on the oven!) and we set up a lot of fans when we're home.

I went to a friend's sons graduation party. He's also leaving in two weeks to join the Army. My friend C made dozens of cupcakes with camouflage cupcake liners, there was fruit salad, steak kabobs... enough food for more than 80 people! C really knows how to party!

I'm helping this week at a huge 'yard sale' at our church. It's to help raise money for our men's recovery home. This sale takes place in our gym plus outside in one of the parking lots. People have been bringing their stuff for weeks, there's thousands of items! I'll be helping in the hotdog stand for a couple hours then heading inside to help wherever needed.

C took these today after they finished setting up.

 

 

 

It's gonna be a fun weekend!