Ack - I can't believe how long it's been since I've been on here - just indicative of my life at the moment, I guess!
I got Will and Ben off to Prom Alternative today. I'm a nervous wreck about Ben. He's got Will, so I know he'll be ok, but I'm still nervous. However, I did have fun getting pics of the boys together, all dressed up! It was just one of those, "Ahh - I'm so glad I decided to be a mom!" moments...They're going up to Minneapolis. Ben is so, so excited about going to Mall of America. We were just there 5 years ago - wonder if he remembers that?
Let's see, let me get caught up here: I mentioned in my last post that Lizzie and I were going to the ballet the day before Easter. That was really neat! She was so excited that she was bouncing up and down in her seat before it started. Afterwards, she couldn't wait to meet Snow White in person! I realized that I had never been to a ballet myself, either. I think of myself as being a pretty "low-brow" type of person when it comes to the arts, but I really enjoyed watching the show, even though I do not "get" ballet (to me it's still a bunch of people hopping around on their tip-toes. How many times and in how many different ways can one do that?). In fact, I may even be able to wrangle up a Jewels post out of it. The thing about ballet, I discovered, is that you are forced to think during the performance, unlike any other entertainment that provides speaking and singing for the audience.
Ben had his Special Olympics field day this past Tues. It was gray and rainy (April in Iowa) but we only got rained on once. He did well and got 2 red ribbons and one yellow. I'm so thankful he didn't score any blue ones so we don't have to go to Ames for the championships! He will have to go up there one afternoon in May for bocce ball, but that's it. I had one of those "pure joy" moments that always take me surprise because of their rarity. Ben was finished with his last race and the Olympics were pretty much all over for everyone at that point. All of sudden, Sam and Lizzie just spontaneously started racing each other on the Simpson track. It was so fun to watch! They each made it half the distance before collapsing.
This past Monday I visited a sheltered workshop in Indianola called Genesis. The school is wanting Ben to start working there a little bit next fall. I wanted to see just what this place is before agreeing. I'm ok with it, but if it's going to happen, it's going to be on a limited basis. Learning to wash and fold laundry (the facility takes care of the laundry needs for several area hospitals) is fine for Ben, but it's not going to be the sum existence of his possible job training. I really intend to push the school into providing numerous job training/shadowing opportunities for Ben in the next couple of years. I was able to meet yesterday with the new sp. ed teacher the school hired after Spring Break. I was really impressed with him, even though I am quite sure I am old enough to be his mother! Well, I know I am. He told me he just graduated from college in Dec! Technically, he's just a long-term temp, but I plan to put a bug in the principal's ear, for whatever it's worth, that I would not be opposed in the least to the school choosing to hire him full-time after this year ends.
Paul and I took our permit-to-carry class last night. It was interesting. I don't know that I am any more anxious to buy my own gun, but I'm going to. I definitely see the need to be able to protect myself and the kids. Losing my fear of firearms is the first step.
Did I mention that David, Sam, and Elli all had the chicken pox? They got them two weeks after Ben did. Elli's wasn't too bad of a case, so she might get again later on. But I'm pretty sure David and Sam are taken care of!
Being sick didn't dampen Elli's mischievousness, though. In a space of four days, she flooded the kitchen ceiling, tipped over a 7' cabinet and breaking off the door, and furiously scribbling over freshly drywalled and painted kitchen walls with a red crayon (and when I scrubbed the crayon with a magic eraser, the paint came off). This week she took an ink pen to David's Bible. He was one very unhappy brother!
They had a nice write-up about Will in the Marion Co.newspaper a few weeks ago. Actually, it was a terrible write-up, but it still made me proud. The paper does what they call "senior spotlights" every spring where they publish a senior's picture and the results of a survey they send them. Will gave a really strong Christian testimony and talked about how his biggest influence was his dad, who lives his life "according to God's Word" and things like that. In fact, one lady at church told me that reading it made her "proud to know Will"! Now, if I had about 10 more hours in every day, I would march down to the Knoxville office and demand that they hire me to take over the current editor's job. I have never seen such poor writing in my life - this woman switches tenses, misspelled my name, wrote in fragments, misspelled words, capitalized things when she should not have, and didn't capitalize when she should have. I'm still not over it - just shuddering. It's almost as bad as when my mom recently told me the Waterloo Courier published a sports headline that talked about some team "widdling" down the competition. Help me - I think I'm going to need medical help soon!
Ok, need to start supper. I'm caught up - good for a couple of weeks, I think!
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