The Visitor

Yesterday was Scouts and I was kind of looking forward to it because we were teaching the kids how to tie knots. I know, fun stuff. I envisioned tying the children to the chairs, but I was in charge of the target practice and magic tricks. I was pretty much prepared with old socks filled with rocks tied to long ropes and I had practiced my magic trick which I didn't quite get, but was ready to give it a shot anyway.

When I walked into the Primary room, the other two leaders were there getting the boys settled with some opening games. One of the leaders, Jenny, brought her whole family including her husband and 4 kids. Since Jenny belongs to another ward, I hadn't met her kids before. I knew she had one boy that was handicapped but never had the pleasure to meet him. Today was the day.

I noticed her 3 girls right off the bat, they were toe-headed, cute as buttons, little girls. They were full of energy and playing and running around and having a blast amongst all these cubscouts. Then, my eye caught a child's stroller in the corner of the room, in the stroller was a little boy who was obviously severely handicapped. I put down my ropes, and gear and went over to meet him. He was by himself, listening to the bustling noises all around him. I crouched down and began rubbing his legs and told him how excited I was that he came to visit our scouts today.

He tried to look at me and my eyes met his and I was filled with happiness. Wow, what a strong spirit this special boy has. As the meeting began, I was still distracted with our little visitor and didn't want to leave my spot. I heard the other leader ask Jenny if she wouldn't mind introducing the boys to her son before we started our activities.

Jenny came over to him and picked him up out of his stroller and walked over to the boys who had formed a semi-circle. They were all interested and attentive when Jenny started to say.

"This is John, he is my oldest son and he is 9 years old."

Now, all of our boys in the Bear den are 9 as well. John looks a little different then they do. He is the size of a 3 year old boy and doesn't sit or stand. His arms are deformed and he only has 3 fingers between his two hands. As Jenny continued to talk about John, she asked if the boys had any questions. Some boys were a little shy, others were ready with questions. All of them were touched. I was watching their eyes as they tried to understand and get to know this special boy. Some of the questions went like this.

"What does he eat?"
"Can he talk?"
"How do you understand him?"
"Why is he so small?"
"Does he know his name?"
"Why does he wear a bib?
"Will he grow bigger?"
"Has he been baptized?"

These boys were learning so much more this day at scouts then how to tie knots. They were learning about the Lord's plan for each of us and how we all have the same mission, to return to our Heavenly Father and live with our Families Forever.

We talked about the Resurrection and how John will have a perfect body then. His Mom told them he had beautiful brown eyes, and she knows she will recognize him when she sees him when he is Resurrected. His Mom also told them that he will get his Patriarchal blessing to learn more about the Lord's plan for him. This lead to more questions and more answers.

We finally had to cut them off and start on our activities that we had planned. John went back to his existence. He laid down on a blanket while the other boys played tug of war and enjoyed building relationships with one another. I made sure before I left that day that I gave John a big hug and thanked him for his influence on our Bear scouts this day.

He was a special visitor that they will not soon forget.

5 More Months

Yesterday after Brett left for school, I was cleaning up the dishes and headed for the shower. Josh was just waking up and asked me to play Wii with him.

"Mom has to get ready honey!" was my answer.

"Please??"

Well, okay.

"Come sit right here and snuggle with me Mommy, while you watch me play."

As I was sitting with him snuggling, I thought, how much longer do I have of these days where we can hang out in our Jammies on a Wednesday morning and play Wii and snuggle. Then it hit me..5 More Months!

I sat there, curled up on the bed with my 5 year old holding on to him, loving this time with him. Five months will travel so fast and he will be a big First Grader. These moments will become fewer, but for right now, I will take these opportunities and love to play Mario with Josh.

Parent-Teacher

Stop the presses. Two posts in one day. I think the rain has gotten to me. I just got back from Parent-Teacher conference and wanted to share my thoughts.

First off Kindergarten teacher, this is the easy one. Counting numbers, check, writting letters great, check, no warning slips sent home from the teacher, check. All smooth sailing. Then at the end she says, "Oh, one more thing I need to talk to you about." Uh oh..my heart sank. Today after school, Josh hit a kid with his umbrella. The teacher told the mother of the victim that she would have a "Talk" with me. As she was explaning it, my mind was full of reasons why Josh would do such a thing. My million excuses started with,

He just got over being sick
He is tired.
Was he provoked?
It's raining!
They were probably just playing around

But, I squashed my comments and kept them to myself. The teacher told me he was crying and he felt bad and that I needed to tell Josh it's bad to hit people with Umbrellas. Really.

On to Brett's teacher. I was prepared. We, mostly I, laughed about how much he needs to be moved. She told me he is a social butterfly. I told her, he can carry a conversation on by himself, people don't necessarily need to respond back. He has a gift. His work was great, his English grade needs to improve and we went over some other things. Then we talked about the Field trip coming up. I told her I would love to come. She said, "I wish!" We already have our chaperones lined up and you would have to pay to go. I thought, how nice, she likes me and would want me to be there. I then told her that I would have to see how much it was and I would ask Brett if he would want me to go.

As I was leaving, she said, "It would be nice if you could come, then you could keep an eye on Brett!" Ugh..I guess she wants me there for reasons other than my sweet personality.

Rainy Day

Today it's a rainy and I usually LOVE rainy days, but today I feel trapped by it. The last four days Josh has been sick and Mike went to Rocky Point with his brother for a golf trip right around the time Josh started his fever. So without any backup, the last four days have felt VERY long!!

This week, the kids have a shortened school day because of Parent-Teacher conference. I only have 2 hours, rather than my regular 3 hour break. I was ready to get out by myself and walk the aisles of Target in peace, but alas, it was raining and my motivation to brave the elements was not very fierce.

So I decided to eat lunch, read and go through some bills and mail. I also got caught up in blog hopping which is always pretty entertaining. I looked through my pictures and found some I took of the kids and their cousins as we visited the zoo last week. I only have an hour until it's my turn for Parent-Teacher conference. I am going to have to face Brett's teacher as she talks about how she has to move him once a week. Seriously, this kid can talk to anyone, I don't think there is a place in the class that is safe. Ughhh!

I hope it doesn't rain tomorrow :)

Utah Day Trip

A few weeks ago I joined my brother and sister-in-law and flew up to Utah to visit a couple of special people. The first is Kayla, she is my niece. I haven't seen her for a couple of months because she is living in Utah right now. I miss her. I didn't realize how much until I saw her. I cried when I hugged her and didn't let go for a while. Right now, she is trying to find her way, she is trying to get healthy and find her purpose in life. I feel sad that she has to deal with so much at such a young age, but I know her struggles will make her a strong woman.


The Second special person is my newest Nephew, Brock. He arrived here safe and sound although his Mama has a few battle scars from a hard pregnancy. He is perfect and I had to wrestle Kayla for some time to hold the baby.

We only were able to spend about 5 hours with them, but it was worth it! Can't wait to see them again soon.

The Big Brother- Brandon



Kayla and her Birthday Cheescake - Happy 17th!



The Backyard which Grandma is convinced that the children may be eaten by Mountain Lions. A good reason to move back to AZ where we have fences.



Brock and Kayla

Sharpies

I don't buy Sharpies, but I always have them around my house, courtesy of Mike. We have red, blue and black and I have always hid them. I haven't been very diligent lately because Josh is getting more wise in his old age and SURELY wouldn't write on the walls or counters with Sharpies.

 

I can't believe BRETT hasn't learned his lesson yet. I am sure Josh will be disappointed in his big brother when he gets in trouble by his Mom. Silly Brett.

Sunrise 2010

We took a long weekend and headed for the cabin. We knew it was going to snow, so we tried to get the kids to ski the day before the big storm blew in. This is Brett's 3rd time snowboarding, so he had it down pretty good. He was sick of the bunny hill and wanted to go to Midway, but I wouldn't let him go by himself. This was Josh's first time skiing and we put him in lessons. The first half of the day was pretty long and they didn't get that much accomplished besides learning how to get in and out of their skiis. The second part of the day, Mike joined the group and helped out the ski instructor, I am sure the ski instructor was excited about that :). But by the end of the day, Josh was skiing down from the top of the bunny hill. He really enjoyed it!

 

 

 

 

Then we buckled down and waited for the snow storm. My favorite part was sitting on the couch, looking out the window while the snow fell. The kids favorite part was heading outside to play in the snow. We tried a happy medium where we spent time indoors and outdoors. But, I kept gettin' dragged out there to watch the kids play and play with them. We had so much fun. I am glad we made it down the mountain before the second wave hit. Pinetop lost power and people were snowed in for the week. Sunrise shut down for almost 2 weeks to recover.