Life in the Garden

I found Angela and Dudley laying on the floor.

Me: Angela, what are you doing?

Angela: Resisting arrest!

We may have trouble on hour hands in the future.

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Some of the kids are done with summer school, some are half way done and others are just starting, This is because I don't have enough trouble remembering the daily schedule from one day to the next. 

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Axel was walking to the bus stop last week. 

Dean: "Bye Axel! Have a great day! Love you buddy!"

Axel: "Bye Dad. Peace out!"

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My friend Mary brought over a lego table her kids had outgrown. Axel is in heaven. He builds everything as symmetrical as he possible can.

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When Abel is done with therapy, if he didn't have any problems, he gets to spin a plate. Not an activity everyone would choose, but its his favorite activity and that's what's important! He is a master plate spinner. Lot of kids at the therapy center are trying to figure out what's so neat about this plate spinning thing and are now trying to compete with him. Here's a really short video. He hadn't quite yet gotten "into" it. In other words, I could still talk to him. Another minute and he is 100% engrossed and the plate spins for several seconds at a time. If you're familiar with the sport of Curling, he brushes the table similar to the way curlers brush the ice with their brooms. 

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My son Tyler has been helping us a lot this summer. I don't know what we would have done without him! He loves to do Audrey's hair. It is almost long enough to get into one ponytail. 

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Asher is spending his summer playing with or in water. 

Summer Days

If you want to keep kids busy, give them a bucket of water and paint brushes, and ask them to "paint" something outside. And don't tell them, but it's a good way to sneak in a little occupational therapy.

Since the kitchen remodel project is long-since done, Dean has been replacing our interior doors; removing all the old1970's hollow-core doors and replacing with oak. He's been been sanding them one at a time. Unfortunately the boy who doesn't want to let Daddy get out of is sight doesn't really care for the noise of the sander.

Learning to pound nails = teaching life skills. 

A week ago (the day of Destany's funeral) Angela left for a week at camp. She goes to Camp Wawbeek, part of the Easter Seals of Wisconsin programs. I think this is her 5th year at this camp, and she talks about it all.year.long! This is one of her counselors, Amy.

This hat is signed by all the other campers and counselors. When Angela got in the car she talked without taking a breath for 15 full minutes when she suddenly stopped. I looked over to see why she stopped...to find her sound asleep! LOL

While she was telling me her camp stories, she told me several stories about a counselor "Garby". I wasn't sure I was understanding the name right, and I asking her, "Are you saying "Garby" or "Darby?" She tried repeating the name for me, but finally gave up saying, "Ugh! Never mind! Just call him Jake!"

Axel was glad to see Angela. He missed her all week! I think next year he will get to go.

Asher was pretty glad to see her too! 

This should prove to be a fun holiday week, then the 9th the kids start summer school which will run for the month of July, only they'll be missing a good portion of it because we'll be taking a road trip to Washington D.C. to attend the 40th annual National Down Syndrome Congress Annual Convention.

Aaaahhhh let the summer rush begin!

Angela's last day of school was Thursday, June 12th, can you believe it? Friday we left for our 13th annual family Christamas at Ivanhoe weekend (which hasn't been at Ivanhoe for 3 years, but I digress.) This is Christmas gift from my parents. They rent out all the cabins of a local resort up in Walker, MN (just happens to be right down the road from their house.) and all my sibings and I, along with our families, take over the resort for a long weekend. It's the one time every year that I know I'll see my sister from IL. This year I got to see my great nephew Payton and great niece Madison for the first time. Beautiful babies who I got to love on for four whole days!

Ivanhoe weekend is the official start of our summer. Seems weird this year since we're already to the middle of June! Today I'll run Angela to swimming (she missed the first couple of days since she was still in school) then come home to start working in the house! We have a big party here on Saturday. Here's what needs to get done before Saturday morning:

1) Finish painting kitchen. 2 coats of 2 different colors.
2) tile downstairs bathroom
3) replace broken deck board
3) pressure spray 3 season porch
4) repaint said porch floor
5) wash basement windows
6) pick up odds and ends around outside
7) CLEAN THE OFFICE
8) Clean carpets in upstairs bedrooms
9) clean, clean clean the rest of the house.

Thankfully Dean's parents will be around to help out over the next couple of days. Needless to say, I won't be around much. Oh, and I have PCA lined up for all day Thursday and Friday so Angela will be busy, although I don't know what I'm going to do about the state Special Olympics track meet. I *really* don't have time to spend the day down there. Her PCA can take her, but....man...I feel like a rotten parent if I miss it.

Summer Line Up

I'm hoping this summer Angela will be busy, busy busy! This is the first year we've opted out of extended school year services (aka summer school for special education students) because I'm hoping we'll be too busy! LOL

Angela will be swimming Monday-Weds mornings for 3 hours. We have Camp Friendship arranged for the first week of August, (we're still waiting to hear if she got into the horse camp, or if she's going to the fishing camp) and one weekend per month at Have A Heart Farm in Wisconsin.

Yesterday I interviewed a new high school graduate to do summer PCA for me. She was planning on going along with us to Angela's swimming lesson so she could see where it was at. Then she mentioned, "I used to swim at *insert name of school here* every day on the Blackline team." HA!!! That's where Angela swims! So when we walked in, it was like Old Home Week for this young lady, as she knew all the swimmers and coaches. So, at least I know she's comfortable around the water! In fact, she was able to show me a shorter way to swimming lessons. LOL She spent 3 hours with us and I got to see how she interacted with Angela, and I think she'll work out just fine for summer. She'll be doing 5 mornings a week, and one evening. I'll just have to figure out how to keep Angela busy and cool during the long summer afternoons!

The Countdown

Seven weeks.

That is how long we have until Dean's annual family reunion, and it's our turn to host it. Keep in mind the weekend prior we'll be out of town! Dean and I work well under pressure, so I'm sure we'll be fine. Yes, I'm sure of it. No...really...we'll be just fine. We won't even kill each other!

The last time we had a big thing here (his twin brother's wedding) we totally re-landscaped the yard in that amount of time! We do know ourselves well though, and when working under such stress, some days one of us might say to the other, "Don't talk to me today. Really...it would be better not to."

Here's what needs to get done by party time:

Remodel basement bathroom (It's been 1/2 gutted for 3 years now. Since not one thing has been purchased for this project, this will prove to be the most interesting project of all) All that junk in the background is where the shower is supposed to be, but has now become kind of a storage area....sigh....(I really didn't want to post the picture, but it'll be fun to show an "after"!)


Do SOMETHING with the *^&# pond!! I want it filled in. The pond is huge, and honestly as much work as a pool, and if I want that much work, I want something I can use! Here's what it normally looks like


And here's what it looks like now. This may not LOOK like much work, but that is an entire weekend project you're looking at. And those rocks? H-E-A-V-Y, and I can't lift anything so it'll be up to Dean and Tyler. This will need to be done before the fence goes in.


Get fence installed in back yard (Containment for Angela and the dogs. This will be a HUGE stress reliever on several different levels)

Finish stripping kitchen wallpaper, then paint. Here's what it looks like now:(project I started LAST summer, now needs to get done.)


Cleaning the garage would be a good thing too! Two years ago I took this picture to PROOVE that we really could fit two cars AND a motorcycle in there! Now? Can't even get ONE car in there because there's a junker, TWO motorcycles, and lots of JUNK!


Do some planting outside to replace stuff destroyed by the dumb Chemlawn guy last summer. (You'd think they could tell the difference between a hosta, clamatis, and weeds! OMG, I'm so furious about what they killed! 5 years of growth in the gardens GONE!)

Haul a load of junk furniture to the dump (old couch, some odds and ends of crap.)

Repaint floor in 3 season porch (This is the room where we serve food when we entertain in the yard. But there were puppies in there last fall, so it needs to be thoroughly scrubbed down and repainted. The dump couch is the "dog couch" from that room.) Sorry, but I will NOT be posting a picture of what this looks like right now! Just imagine the worst.


Professionally clean basement carpet (We have 4 dogs, need I say more?)

Re-seed the yard. I got the front about 3/4 done a couple days ago, and have a huge BARE spot fenced off so the dogs can't walk on the heavy seeding I did there. That was the favorite wrestling and "let me make toothpicks with this stick" spot.


Find a place for all the dogs the day before and day of the party (This is so that not only are the dogs not underfoot in the final hours, but also so that we're not re-cleaning AND we can get rid of all land mines before company comes.) Look at these four lovely, well-behaved dogs, who wouldn't want them for a couple of days?



Anyone need a dresser? It's in my way!