The Bright Side

new red belt!

 

Congrats on the new red belt, Ryan!  Way to go, kid!  

 

Keep up the good work! 

Oh, and congrats on earning the one-year award.  That's so cool!

 

 

congratulations to my karate kid!

Congrats, Ryan, on earning a silver medal in your first karate tournament!  Way to go, karate kid!  Good luck on your upcoming gold belt black stripe test.  We are very proud of you!

chrissie's great adventure

My daughter, Chrissie, is on a great adventure.  She is in her final semester of college and she is student teaching at an all girls school in a town in England. How cool is that? She traveled there with 3 other girls from her university and they are staying with a host family. The first 2 weeks were spent traveling through Europe with the other girls. They visited many cities in Spain, including Madrid, Malaga and Granada.

They also went to Rome and Florence, Italy.  Ah, gelato!  Yum!

The red rooftops of Florence.

Looking up in the Duomo.

In Germany, they toured Munich and Berlin.

Naturally, that included a stop at the famous Hofbrauhaus beer hall, they are college students after all.

Here's a memorial of the Berlin wall, these stones follow where the wall really stood across the whole city.

Now they are back in England and have begun their student teaching. Chrissie has a class of thirteen 3rd grade girls. They told her the first day that they love her voice, which is so funny because I think little English kids have the cutest accents ever!

So, her adventure continues and I can't wait to hear more! I'll keep you posted. Be sure to check out other beautiful life adventures at The Inspired Room's Beautiful Life blog party.

celebrating

Well, it is almost midnight on September 30th, time to celebrate just a bit!  Our oldest son, Alex, who has severe autism, made it all the way through the first month of school without asking to go home!  You are going to have to trust me on this. This is a Very. Big. Deal.  Last spring, he asked to come home from school every single day, from February until the end of the school year.  He was miserable and anxious and did not want to be there.  We got a call almost every day from school to come and pick him up.  Can you image?  It got so bad, that the sound of a ringing phone made us all a bit crazy.  It was not a fun time for anyone.

But, I am very happy to report that in the month of September, we have not gotten a single phone call from school.  Alex has been happily rushing out to the bus each morning.  Phew!! His teachers and assistants came up with an awesome schedule for him which keeps him very busy.  So far, so good!  Only 8 more months to go....

Wish him luck!

my hero

Now I'd like to introduce my oldest son, Alex. My hero. This photo was taken on the night of his graduation from high school.  He was so happy and we were so proud of him. 

It was a beautiful summer evening and we had all adjourned to our local T.G.I. Fridays to celebrate. The smile on his face says it all. He was pretty pleased with himself and rightly so.

  

Life for Alex isn't always so rosy. He has severe autism and he isn't able to speak, or read or write.  He uses pictures and a device to communicate. That communication is pretty limited, though. 

The world is often overwhelming and beyond his comprehension. But, he had made it through the high school years. He had worked hard in all of his classes and his work experience jobs. He navigated the very busy halls of his large high school like an old pro. We were thrilled.

Over the years, there have been many challenges. Many difficult behaviors. Many days that weren't so happy. But, when he smiles like he was smiling that night, and I know with ABSOLUTE certainty what he is thinking and how he is feeling, those times are priceless. You wouldn't believe how many conversations my husband and I have where we are trying to figure out what he needs, how he is feeling, is he sick, etc.

The last few months he has been going through a really rough patch in his new transition school. Our little family is in serious survival mode. This blog is my attempt to gather my strength and resolve to keep us all moving forward and not get bogged down in the negative. He seems to be feeling a bit better this week and it almost feels like he has turned a corner and we are headed into smoother waters. Did I just mix metaphors there? Well, you get the idea.

I'm not going to delve into the whole subject of autism here as that is plainly beyond the scope of this little blog. But, there are many wonderful blogs out there which do. I tend to steer clear of the hard core "cure" and political ones.  I prefer the ones that deal with how all the people involved live their lives with autism a part of it.  You know the ones that deal with the day to day challenges and triumphs.  Those are the ones that make my heart go zing.  

Two of my favorites are Teen Autism and Little Cotton Rabbits.  I have included a few others  in my list of favorite blogs. I'm looking forward to posting in the future many positive posts about Alex and more of his "lookin' at the bright side" moments like this one:

Happy trails,

makin' an offer he can't refuse

Bright spot number 3 in my life. My man, Paul. Here he is trying to talk himself out of another jam. Actually, he doesn't get in many jams, he's just a funny guy (or so he thinks). Truth is, he's a good man.

Our day to day challenges would be a lot more difficult without his laid back attitude and dare I say, sense of humor.  Shh, please don't tell him I said that.  It would only encourage him.  Some days, when my older son's autism threatens to swamp us all, this man is the only thing keeping us afloat.

He's always cool in the face of disaster.  He works really hard, he's brilliant and he has such a good heart. He works with sick children.  Very sick children.  And I love him for that. Sometimes, I wish he would come home earlier, but, he's the kind of doctor who parents love.  He takes all the time they need to talk.  He's honest, and he tries his best to answer all their questions.  Even the hard ones. 

Anyhoo, he's my guy and I love him.

so, here's the deal

What I propose to do, in an effort to look on the bright side of life, is to capture one bright spot in my life each day with my camera and post it here.  In that way, I can look back on the accumulated bright spots of my days and see that there are a lot of good things about this life and this world.  I just need to keep my eyes and my heart open to them.   

This lovely girl is my one and only daughter, Chrissie.  She is the oldest of my 3 kids.  She's a senior in college studying for her elementary education degree. She's a really good kid (I mean, young woman - geesh the time is flyin') and has been a great daughter.  

 

I love this picture of her. It is not one of her favorites, so shhh... don't tell her it is here.  I wouldn't normally go against her wishes in such matters, but come on.  I think it is an adorable picture.

 

lookin' on the bright side

Everything is a mess. Life is difficult right now and I feel like I am drowning here. But, come on. Look at this face. It's impossible to look at this face and not look on the bright side of life.

Do you feel better? I know I do. And that my dears, is the whole point of this blog. My world and THE world is kind of falling apart at the moment. But, if I open my eyes, take the time to look around, I'll bet there is plenty of joy to be found. This blog is to be my record of what I find. So, let's get busy.

Meet bright spot number one in my life. This young man here, with the giraffe on his head, is my youngest son, Ryan. We've been homeschooling Ryan for 3 years now. He's an aspiring cartoonist/zoo keeper. His passions are drawing and animals. He LOVES the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes. He IS Calvin, only sweeter. He also loves Garfield, Marmaduke and the whole Peanuts gang. He's made it his personal quest to convince the creator of Calvin and Hobbes, Bill Watterson, that he must go back to work and create an animated version of the series.