blasts from the past..

Several of the boys and I spent part of our afternoon watching two episodes of ChiPs... if you are 40 or older, you will probably remember the California Highway Patrol--Remember Erik Estrada as Poncherello? I think I even named a stuffed animal "Ponch." Mark got the DVD set from Tyler for Christmas and the kids are loving watching them.

All the nostalgia reminded me of the Bay City Rollers. It was the first big concert I ever went to with friends in 7th grade. I still have the ticket and a newspaper article about the concert. I remember buying Teen Beat magazine with my babysitting money so I could read about Derek--the one pictured in the middle. He was my favorite.

I am trying to remember what it was like to be in Junior high...sometimes, I get so frustrated with my middle schoolers for acting like they are in "middle school" if you know what I mean. It reminds me to extend a little grace their way....

Life in a big family...

Life in a big family (with special needs) can be stressful but it has it's humorous moments....

Like the time:

• We went to Church one Sunday morning in June. Most of the kids need some sort of help to get ready but a few of the kids can take care of getting ready by themselves or so we thought...I was thrilled that we were made it to Church on time and when I looked down the row to admire our accomplishment...I saw Brennan sitting there in his swim trunks.


• We like to get in the 15 passenger van and go on adventures. One day, Dad decided to bring all the kids deer hunting when I was out of town...Mark does not deer hunt the traditional way. They drove around looking for deer on the country roads by our house and when they spotted one, they stopped the van and all the kids yell "bang" out of the windows. From what I heard, they got a few bucks...


• We went to an adoption family camp at Camp Heartland (usually this camp is used for kids with HIV/AIDS but was being rented out for our group) and when we left for home, they gave each of the kids a juice box and a snack for the ride home. I heard one of the kids asking Jordan, then 10 years old, why his straw was so big. I didn't pay much attention and just assumed that he just got a different juice box than the other kids. As we were pulling into the driveway, again, one of the kids said to Jordan, "Are you sure that is a straw??" By then, I thought I better check it out. As we got out of the van, I saw something that is obviously NOT a straw sticking out of his juice. It looked like some tubing that the end had been gnawed off. I brought into the house, and asked the nurse if she recognized the tubing and she quickly told us it was tubing from a cholestomy bag! Okay, now that you are probably thinking that we are sick to think this is funny...you would have to understand what it is like to live with a child who has FAS. If something looks like a straw, "it is a straw." There is no convincing him otherwise. He had found tubing on the side of bunk bed at the camp--the camp was spotless but they must have missed this between the mattress and the bed frame on the top bunk. But, Jordan found it, hid it, chewed the end off and drank his juice from it! He did not get sick from it but we did describe in detail where that "straw" had been and why it is never a good idea to drink anything out of something you found somewhere!
  
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• One of the kids said to me "Why is the dog so sticky?" I had no idea but I went into the house to investigate. There was a trail of something very sticky all over the carpet, over the couch, down the hall and into the sunroom....Kaden was the likely culprit as he was looking sheepish in the kitchen. There I found the empty Costco sized maple syrup container behind his back!