I have been TERRIBLE about posting lately.  Why?  Well, my plate seem so full these days… 

Spring Cleaning: Hubby and I have been spring cleaning our house… and let me tell you, It feels SO GOOD!!!  The poor trash guys must hate us.  There were at least 10 bags of trash as well as boxes filled with junk.  We cleaned out our bedroom (which has been the dumping ground for everything in the house), the boys’ rooms, and the laundry room/pantry.  Goodwill has been getting a TON of stuff from us.  There is a load of baby accessories to go to a women’s shelter, clothes and toys to friends with kiddos smaller than mine, and craft supplies to the church.  Whew!  Anthony finally has a closet.  We have been in our house for 6 years and the closet in his room (which used to be our office) has been filled with “stuff” and now it is HIS closet!

Down Syndrome Leadership conference:  I am at the end of the second day of a three day conference.  It is AMAZING!  It is all about Board and Executive Director leadership skills and tools.  I have had a LOT of reading to do prior to each day about case studies etc.  It is basically a semester long course of non-profit leadership wrapped into three days.  It is very similar to the Project management processes and tools that I used in my previous life, but spun to the non-profit needs.  I told my DSACT president that I was going to be dangerous after I leave here tomorrow.

DSACT “Stuff”:  I am hosting a potty training workshop on Saturday.  We have a specialist that will come in and talk about some tips and tricks to potty training as well as helping parent to troubleshoot the problems that they are having.  I am preparing for our InkDots (social group for kids with DS 0-5yrs old) on May 9th.  We are having a Music play group.  My friend and another Godparent to my kids, Nancy will be helping me to host this event.  We will have Music, instruments, movement and play… as well as a craft for Mother’s Day.  I am also working on rewriting the new Parent materials, which is hard to do without concentrated time to write.

Bible Study:  I just started a Beth Moore study on Daniel, which I am very excited about.  I miss not having a formal study going on.  My spiritual bucket has been dwindling and a good study will help recharge me!!!!

All of this and having time to spend with my kiddos and hubby.  Whew!  So, as you can see, I am a tired lady these days.  I have some great and fun news about Sydney that I will save for tomorrow when I am back home and can download the video off of my camera.  How is that for a teaser?!?

Last night Randall and I got to get away for the evening.  How did we pull this off, you ask?!?  We have the most AMAZING friends on the planet!  Really, no kidding!  Our friends Arthur and Kathy gave us a gift certificate to a hotel, dinner, and theater tickets that they purchased at last year’s Buddy walk silent auction.  I was stunned and humbled by their gift.  You see, we bought something similar, a night’s stay at a local bed and breakfast, as well at the silent auction last year and when we tried to redeem it, we discovered that the business had folded.  BUMMER!  About a month or so ago, Kathy handed me three envelopes with their gift certificates and said “We will watch the kids, pick a date and have a nice get away”.  I puddled up, I was so floored!  You may have remembered my talking about these two before.  They are very special people to us.  They are dear friends that we met at church and have bonded to for life!  They are our family, and Godparents to our kids.  I could really go on and on about them, but just know that God blessed us with these two amazing people.

Okay, so what did we do?  We were unable to get the hotel room at the designated hotel until late June, so we had to stay in another hotel.  Randall got a great package on Priceline and we stayed at a historic hotel in downtown Austin, the Stephen F Austin which was built in 1924.  Our room had a view of the capitol building and overlooked Congress Ave.  We used the Hyatt certificate to eat in their South West Bistro which overlooked Lake Austin and the Congress bridge.  We ate dinner and watched the sunset, the bats fly, and the Austin skyline slowly light up as the sun went down.  My camera battery died, so I added links so you can see what we did.

We walked to the Paramount Theater and saw the comedian Lisa Limpanelli.  She was funny, but an equal opportunity offender.  Her tagline was the Queen of mean.  Needless to say, we did not know what we were getting into.  She was funny, but not really my kind of humor.  Let’s just say she is known for roasting people and her idol is Sam Kinneson.  Enough said.  After the comedy show, we walked in the rain and found a club to hang out in on 6th street. (popular clubbing area for Austin).  We decided that we were a little old for the 6th street crowd and I was WAY too covered up to blend in, so we wandered to 4th street where the 30-something crowd goes.  We hung out, laughed and chatted and had a few drinks, then wandered back to the hotel.

That’s enough detail for the blog-world.  Let’s just say, we had a wonderful time!  We slept in, had a nice breakfast and picked up the kids at noon.  It was nice to sleep without one ear open for the baby monitor!  I didn’t have someone pounding into my bedroom early in the morning wanting bagels with butter and some oj.  I realized quickly that I could get spoiled easily, so back to reality we went.  The kids were glad to see us, but had a GREAT time with Arthur and Kathy, whose house is akin to Disneyland to our kids!  (The last time we picked up the kids from thier house, Anthony ran into the other room and said “I don’t want to go home.” )  Thanks to Arthur and Kathy for some needed respite care, and thank you God for such wonderful friends!!

Napkins have a weird history in my house.  Back when Zachary was little he used to say “lapkin” instead of napkin.  We decided that it was a pretty accurate description and it stuck.  Well, nothing else extraordinary happened with napkins until last year.  Some of you may remember a post I wrote about talking about manners and my boys.  I made up a rule that you must put your napkin on your lap when you are sitting at the table.  In order to enforce this rule, IF you get caught, you have to leave the table and walk to the front door and hit it.  So, we all take great joy in catching each other and making someone go to the front door.  Anthony insists that we do this EVERYWHERE that we go, including restaurants.  When we were in Reno two weeks ago, he enforced the rule there too…. on everyone.

Well, this weekend we had a slumber party for Zach.  There were 4 nine year olds and one 5 year old boy.  They ate dinner and breakfast in the dining room (we were in the kitchen) and I overheard Anthony telling everyone about the napkin rule and they all thought that it was a cool idea.  I heard several hits on the front door through both meals and lots of giggles.  It made me smile!

Then today we went to Taco Bell for dinner (don’t judge) and Sydney swiped my napkin and put it on her lap.  Now THAT made me smile!

I think I love napkins!

My heart has been in a bit of a spiritual valley lately.  With my attentions all focusing on the Down syndrome association, I have not been as involved in my church activities or bible studies.  Every usual activity like studies and women’s groups, etc. have been trumped by DSACT board meetings, strategy sessions, social activities, etc.  That on top of the job situation and my grandfather’s health, I think I have just gone into my own little world. 

Well, as God is so good at doing, he reminded me that He provides, and I need to keep my eyes focused.  I must admit that I have been more concerned about the job hunt that I have led on.  I am the one in our marriage who needs to feel security and who subsequently feels lost without a safety net.  This is something that goes WAY back for me.  As a child I never ate all of my Halloween candy (my brother typically stole some), I never used the last piece of stationary, I rarely use all of something up.  It’s what makes me a packrat (which I am working on overcoming).  Anyway, back on topic…

For the record, we are really okay financially NOW, but as time goes on, the net gets smaller.  This reality has been nagging at me in the back of my mind.  So, right before our impromptu trip to Reno, we got a call from Dell telling us that Randall was short changed on his severance.  Woo Hoo!  A little extra.  THEN, as we were celebrating this new addition, we got a second financial bonus, TAXES.  Yes, you read that correctly, we got a break on taxes.  We had money set aside to pay taxes this year (like EVERY year since we’ve been married) and due to the massive reduction in income last year (my quiting in May) we actually got a refund!  I was floored! 

I decided that this was a reminder from God that he does indeed provide for us, and always has.  He has a way of bringing just what we need, when we need it.  I will close this with one of my favorite scriptures  Jerimiah 29:11

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

I got this from Renee at My Special K’s

Random Survey - just for fun!

Well, the nutritionist came on Thursday and my little turkey ate like a champ!  ARGHH!!  She made a TOTAL liar out of me.  The Nutritionist and my ECI specialist both said, “I think mom isn’t giving you enough credit”.  NOW, to all of you in the blog world… let me set the record straight…  Sydney does NOT typically get through a meal and eat everything that I offer her!  This is RARE!  Sasquatch has been spotted more than this eating phenomena happens!  We sat down at the table and I offered her some American cheese, she ate it!  Then I offered her some mac-n-cheese, yup you guessed it, she ate it…. with a fork even!  Then, just to top it all off, I cut up some apple in matchsticks and she ate that as well.  They commented on her great technique and control.  They noted that she ate with her mouth closed and used her fork well.  They even marveled that if she got too much in her mouth, she spit it out into her hand then when her mouth was clear, she ate the rest.  So YES, I am delighted that she ate a nice lunch, but frustrated that she didn’t display the issues that I see… like REFUSING all food, throwing her hands up, tossing food, throwing it off the tray, and the ever fun one of chewing a mouthful then just spitting it out in her lap.  I have been telling ECI for months that she is CAPABLE of eating and eats a variety of textures, so it’s not ability but rather desire.  So, they determined that she was doing fine.   I didn’t learn much, but I did get a few reminders and pearls of wisdom.

I did get some advice:

• A list of foods to offer her (most of which I have, but there were some new ones which I will try)
• Cut up food in sticks not bites which is good for grabbing and biting.
• Try to find ways for her to “dip” food (I did this with the boys but somehow forgot about it)
• If she is done at the table, give her crayons and paper to keep her occupied while we finish
• bring a few offerings to the table, but don’t get up and fix something new

Basically, I am doing the right things, but she is not only stubborn but persistent.  So in other words, I need to out-persist her.  Sigh!  so much for my hope of a magic bullet.

As for the liquid issue, she will not drink ANYTHING except formula. They were more interested in me getting her off of the bottle and onto a straw cup.  They suggested that I cut the bottle and put her formula in a straw-sippy cup and only “other” liquids in the bottle.  That would force her to use a sippy cup.  Right now she sucks the liquid into the straw then spits it out down her chest, regardless of the sippy cup or straw cup or regular cup.  If it’s not a bottle, she spits out the liquid.  So, their method would tick her off, but eventually it would accomplish getting her off of the bottle.  My concern is this…  I give her a bottle to go to sleep.  With my other two kids I changed the bottle to water, then changed that to a sippy cup, then cut it all together.  Sleep is precious here and I don’t want to screw with that!  So, after chatting with my wise mother, I am choosing to battle the food NOW then the liquids later.  If anyone has additional tips/tricks/advice, etc.  I would love to hear it.

In my house, food is a constant battle when it comes to Sydney.  We are desperate to get some variety into her diet, but this is such and uphill battle!  Sydney is 20 months old now and we are stuck with bottles of formula and level 2 baby food.  She does eat some regular food, but she is terribly inconsistent and VERY picky!  The good news is that she is thriving, so no worries about her not getting enough nutrition, but I would love for her to feed herself and get off the bottle.  (I know, it sounds like she is hitting the whiskey! ).  We have decided that it is NOT a texture thing, she will eat several different types of food, just not consistently.  For example, she will sometimes eat canned peaches which are very slimy, and she does like Cheerios and baby goldfish crackers which are crunchy, and sometimes eat mac-n-cheese or buttered noodles.  She will eat a few bites of fresh apple once in a while but does consistently like freeze dried apples, bananas, and strawberries and of course french fries (Hey, don’t judge!!).  so, when I say that she is not consistent I mean that one time I will offer her something and she eats it, then other times she will just toss it on the ground.  Most of the time when I give her something she doesn’t recognize, she will throw her hand out at me in protest and turn her head and give me a distinct “AHHHHH”.

Topping of this lovely food battle is the battle of the liquids.  She will NOT drink anything other than formula and ONLY in a bottle.  Any other liquid in a bottle gets thrown, not “tossed”, but thrown!  So, trying any liquid in a juice cup, and YES we have tried them all, will result in her putting the liquid in her mouth, looking at me with a wry smile then spitting it out and down her front!   AAAARGH!!!!!    (Did I mention how much I hate to mop?)

So, to make a long story short, I ratted her out and called in the cavalry.  Thursday a Nutritionist is coming over to work with us.  I am keeping a food diary and hoping for the best.  So, in true child fashion…. as soon as I told on her, she is going to make a liar out of me.  Yesterday we went to a Vietnamese restaurant and she ate noodles!  The little Turkey!!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Tomorrow is one of my favorite holidays.  I haven’t always been the biggest fan because of the days that precede Easter.  The season of Lent ending with Holy week, Palm Sunday, Holy Wednesday, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday are some tough days.  I am still not the biggest fan of some parts of these services.  Reliving the days leading up to the death of Christ are difficult to go through.  For the last several years, I have missed the services (including this year) because I can’t see taking the kids to a solemn service.  It’s hard on them and I can’t concentrate anyway trying to keep them quiet to respect the other people.  Anyway, this year was a weak Lent for me.  I took on nothing new, and I gave up nothing to observe the pennetent season.  Sigh!  With all of the “life” changes going on around me, I just let the season slip by me.

I am VERY excited about Easter tomorrow.  I love the celebration at church of the Resurrection.  The sanctuary is decorated in white, the kids parade in with poles topped with colorful ribbons, the Alleluias come out in the songs and liturgy, and the whole church is in full celebration mode.  The other plus is that we will see some old faces who will come to church tomorrow.  I will stand with my family and my father and celebrate that Christ died for us and he is risen.

And BTW, I have it on good authority that the Easter bunny will be visiting our house while we are at church tomorrow.  We will come home and have a lovely Easter dinner with family.  What could be better?

This was my challenge of the trip to Reno last week.  My grandfather’s health is slowly deteriorating.  He has not been healthy for over a year, and as time goes on he gets hit with one issue after another, each one taking a toll on him.  He is suffering from repeated bouts of pneumonia, viral infections, etc. then to add insult to injury, he is suffering from Dementia.  So, two weeks ago, my grandmother was told by the rehabilitation home that he wasn’t going to leave alive.  I had JUST talked to him on the phone the day before and he seemed SO WEAK!  We decided to take the trip and within a week we were on a plane.

Since we took the whole family, we tried to make the best of the trip.  We went to the rehab center several times while we were there.  He had never met Sydney and had not seen Anthony since he was two months old.  We had some nice visits and I am glad that Anthony has some nice memories of his Poppa and Nana.  While we were there, he was hit with another viral issue and that shortened one of our visits.  Anyway, other than the saddness of seeing his Dementia and weakness, the visits were upbeat.  The last visit was the hardest.  I had some serious moments of silent self-control.  I really just had to NOT think about the fact that it was going to be the last time I was going to see him alive.  If I did think about it, my eyes would puddle and I would get a lump in my throat.  I didn’t want this to be a sad thing for Anthony who was oblivious to anything other than “fun” visits.  As we were saying our final good-byes, we all laid hands on him and prayed for him.  Randall led the prayer and as much as I wanted to chime in, I couldn’t get one word out.  It is choking me up just to write this.  I am SOOOO very glad that I went.  The time was priceless!  I will end this post with some pictures of the visit with my grandfather Bill Burrous.  I will post again later with the “vacation” pics from the other part of the trip.

This is all of us…. My mom, grandma, Randall, Sydney, Me, grandpa and Anthony. 

Anthony LOVED pushing “Poppa” through the hallways  I think Poppa was impressed with his strong great-grandson!

Sydney was exhausted… can you tell?!?

Well, I was going to post pictures and talk about my trip… but alas, I am putting it off for another day.  Last night was our first night home and Sydney was up for 2 hours in the middle of the night.  UGH!!!   I was up and out of the house by 6:45 this morning (4:45 Reno time) … going all day… then off again to a DSACT board meeting downtown at 7:00pm then FINALLY home at 11:30pm tonight.  Sooo, As you can imagine I am a tad tired….  I was in a fog all day…. Obviously…. check out what I saw when I looked down while waiting for the door to open for my board meeting…