Summer is here!

With the onset of Spring/Summer, that means soccer, bikes, and outdoor fun!

Soccer began after Spring break and both KT and AC have stayed with soccer. MD has moved to gymnastics and is doing very well there!

KT at practice about to kick the ball in mid stride:


Rei intently watching MD on the playground not too far away:


MD at the bottom of the tunnel slide with a sweet smile on her face:



Of course then comes the bikes!

AC on his bike with cool blue helmet, Colt's jersey, blue sunglasses, & all!



Close up of AC looking up at the camera:


Rei laying in the grass, looking right at the camera, tied out on a long red lead:


Boys will be Boys! AC up in the crab apple tree!


Close up profile shot of Rei watching AC off in the distance:


AC bent over and smelling the Lone Red Tulip along the property line:


AC squatting down and investigating pine cones on the ground under the big pine tree:


We all enjoy the good weather and are so blessed with God's vibrant colors and beauty!

Speedway United Methodist Church Special Needs Fair

In late April, Rei and I went to the Speedway United Methodist Church Special Needs fair. There were a lot of vendors there and we saw a lot of people we knew too through partners as well as other orgs that we were familiar with. :)

I did embroider a bag for thier raffle as follows:

Tan canvas bag with InDBA logo centered between the handles.


Close up of the embroidered InDBA logo:


Rei did very well the entire day, as it was a long day for her. I was surprised, that being the attention loving dog she is, she did eventually crawl under the table to get away from the people going by though. LOL!

Spring has Sprung!

Landscaping around our house has long gone by the wayside since having kids, however over along the property line to the neighbors house, there's been some faithful daffodils and a red tulip plant that comes back and blooms year after year. I've been able to get some really good pics of the kids as they were little and getting bigger in this location, so thought I'd give it a try with Rei.

So here's the pics:

Rei sitting and looking regally to the right side of the picture. A single large red tulip in front of her and a couple of daffodils to her right, with the sun shining on all, and her coat shining beautifully.



Rei sitting and looking intently to the left side of the picture. A single large red tulip in front of her and a bunch of daffodils to her right.

Kids- 20, Dog and Handler - 0...

This is a way behind but wanted to share.

Back in April (yeah I know, over a month ago) KT had a school portfolio night and bookfair. We invited grandma and grandpa to go with since the plan was for hubby and AC to be at soccer practice. However, work ran over for hubby and he wasn't home in time for soccer practice so hubby and AC went with KT, MD, the grandparents, and Rei & I to the portfolio night. It was nice weather out so we made the short walk over to the school without a hitch, other than AC needing to be carried since Rei was walking her speed zooming speed and he wasn't able to keep up. LOL!

So we get there and head to the cafeteria first to take a look at the artwork that KT has made. She did a really neat drawing of a snake in a southwestern motif, which Grandma was immediately interested in buying (they framed the art to be purchased as a school fundraiser) since it will fit nicely in thier house and thier southwestern motif that is throughout the house. :) Rei was doing very well guiding me through the tables and such and we weren't having too much interference. So then we head around to KT's classroom.

As we are walking the halls to the class room, it was the usual gasps and "Look! A dog!!!" froma lot of the kids and we just kept moving in stride. However it seems with the white walls of the school and the white tiles of the floor, I was really having a hard time with my perception of my place in space (if that makes sense). It all seems to blend together and I have a harder time being able to navigate and with all of the kids darting in and out, really was beginning to stress me pretty good. We had a couple of kids come up and ask to pet, which I said No, since we were walking and heading to KT's classroom.

Once in KT's room, Rei and I had a repreive from the kids, as all of the kids in KT's class are VERY respectful and have remembered since our presentation that they must ask first before they pet and to not distract Rei when we are walking. So we got to look through KT's papers and found that she's now doing awesome with her reading and is at a lexile score of over 1000! After we looked through the stuff there, we then decided to head to the gym for the bookfair.

We start off down the hall and goodness, kids were diving in from right and left to pet Rei and I had at least three kids run up and ask to pet as we were walking down the hallway. Grandpa said later that he was trying to manuever himself to block some of the kids but they were quick and determined. Once into the gym, with even more poor lighting, I was throughly stressed by this point with all the distractions, the sense of a lack of orientation from the lighting/white walls & floors, and all of the loud noise of kids running all over and clammering. I have to say that Rei did AWESOME though, and stayed focused and kept moving despite the hands that kept petting her and she did her job so well.

Once in the gym, hubby took KT and was looking at books for her. Grandma took MD and they were looking at some beginning reading books for her, and Grandpa had AC and they went to the side and was playing so AC would stay out of trouble. Rei and I kind of took a breather and immediately had a circle of kids around us, which was ok as we were still and I was slowly regaining my bearings since the floor was wooden and the walls are white. After a good while and a lot of requests for petting, we finally wrapped things up and headed on to make the walk home. Once home, Rei got a long belly rub and play session and I crashed on the couch thoroughly wiped out from the whole trip.

Talking with Grandpa the next day, I recalled that I was really surprised at how much difficulty I had that evening and how much it bothered me. I'd not experienced that before, at least not to that level with my guide dog. So that was a new experience overall for me and I was really glad to have Grandma and Grandpa along to help with MD and AC, as it freed me up to concentrate on Rei and getting around.

So I guess it was Kids-20 and dog & handler-0 that day....

HB1603 IN Service Dog Bill is on the Gov's desk to become Law!!! :D

I wanted to give the final update that the House has concurred and approved the Senate Amendments on HB1603! This means it is officially on the Governor's desk to sign into law and is now an Enrolled act! :D

Here are the actions from the last few days!

04/27/2009 H House concurred in Senate amendments; Roll Call 523: Yeas 89, Nays 0
04/28/2009 H Signed by the Speaker
04/29/2009 S Signed by the President Pro Tempore

Here is the link to the enrolled act itself:
http://www.in.gov/legislative/bills/2009/HE/HE1603.1.html

Thank you EVERYONE for your help, emails, phone calls, and just support in general on moving this bill through Indiana legislation! :D

Please share the good news and since we have requested a signing ceremony, will update when we know that is. :)

New look...

I've been growing my hair out for a good while, nearly three years and while I love it being long, my hair just will not hold curls in it. So I'd been toying with the idea of getting a perm for a little while. Well then the opportunity presented itself in that the Moms to Moms group had a Moms night out at the E.M. Salon. Anything that we booked for future appointments on that night was 50% off, so I took the dive and scheduled myself for a perm, a full manicure, and pedicure.

I was really worried about the perm, as every perm I've ever gotten, I've seriously looked like Weird Al Yankovich for 3-4 weeks after getting the perm. I explained this and Kara, my stylist re-assured me that with the right haircut I would not look like Weird Al. So I turned over control and took the plunge. Not to say I didn't cringe as she cut and cut and as I watched the many clumps of hair fall to the floor as she used the thinning shears.

However, while it is a lot shorter than I was expecting, I will say I've been very happy with the perm and it's look. I've gotten lots of compliments on it and it's been pretty easy to take care of, just spraying it with water to wet it down and combing through it.

Here's a picture from the night of having the perm done, a really bad one at that though.



Kacie looking in the mirror and head shot only.

The manicure and pedicure were awesome as well and the pedicure much needed for the calluses I have. Hopefully this fall I'll be able to have the surgery needed for my feet, when I can fully commit t staying off of my feet for approximately 6 weeks at a time!

Easter- He is Risen! & Katie is growing up, she knows the scoop on the Easter Bunny, Santa, and the Tooth Fairy...

In years past I've done the full Easter baskets and such, however as our relationships with the church and God continues to grow, I continue to have this conflicting battle going on within me about doing the whole Easter Bunny thing with the kids, when Easter is about Jesus rising from the grave and saving all of us for eternity.

It's hard enough with Santa, however I can still reason that the concept behind Santa is the giving of love and heartfelt gifts to the children, just as Jesus gave his life to all of us, his children. But the whole Easter Bunny thing, isn't setting so well with me anymore. So instead of loading up baskets, I picked up a few things from Walmart to give to the kids, A Disney princess pillow & blanket combo for each of the girls and two Disney princess pop up hampers. For Alex I'd picked up a microfiber Incredible Hulk blanket and a white bunny rabbit that I had in my Easter box stash. I then had bottles of bubbles and a container of sidewalk chalk for each of them.

I wasn't really able to give a reason for all of this, but not wanting to leave the kids out when we've done the Easter Bunny in past years and they had been talking about it all week. However we did talk as a family for the morning about why Easter was so important to our family and the significance of Jesus dying on the cross for our sins. I had also taken Alex's Angel he'd made at preschool the prior day and set it up in the midst of everything and we talked about the reason behind Easter and what the importance of it was, not the gifts that people receive.

As the kids were going over thier goodies, Katie flat out asks me, "Are you and Daddy the Easter Bunny?" I looked at her and since she has been sitting on the fence since before Christmas with the whole Santa concept, I wasn't going to flat out lie to her since she'd directly asked me. She hadn't directly asked before, but since she's been onto the concept for a while, I went ahead and simply said to her, "shh, not right now." She said ok, we can talk about it when Meaghan and Alex aren't around, as they had ran into the other room engrossed in what the Easter Bunny had brought them.

Alex and Meaghan take off to play with thier new chalk and I answer Katie truthfully, that we are indeed the Easter Bunny. She quickly asks if we were also Santa and the Tooth Fairy as well. I answer her truthfully on those as well and then follow up that while she understood who these people really were, that I asked that she didnt share this discovery with Meaghan and Alex yet, to let them enjoy a few more years of believing in these things for now. Katie happily agreed and all was good.

The goodies:


For the afternoon, we walked over to Dad and Sue's for a brunch, an Easter Egg Hunt for the kids, and general fellowship.

Mike & the kids walking ahead of Rei and I down the sidewalk to Dad's house:


After we arrived, the kids and I made this really yummy Monkey bread that Sue had the recipe for. You cut up bisquits and roll the quarters into bals, and then roll them in the cinnamon/sugar mixture and place it in the bundt pan to pour a butter, sugar, cinnamon mixture over the top and bake it for a while.

AFter completeing this, the kids were ready to head outside, but we wanted to keep them clean in thier easter dresses, until at least until the rest of the family arrived.



Katie in a spring dress blowing a bubble.



Alex dressed in his vest, shirt, and dress slacks and dipping the wand to blow some bubbles.



A close up of Meaghan looking over her bubble wand


After everyne got there, we changed the kids into thier play clothes while the adults hid the easter eggs for the kids. Each had a separate area to hunt for eggs in.



Katie kneeling down under the bench to pick up egs and put in her grocery bag.



Alex bent over picking up a hidden egg n the stones.



Meaghan bent over picking up an egg out of a flower pot.




Katie and Great Grandmother looking for eggs in the ground cover together.



Rei relaxing in the grass with the sunshine glowing off her coat.


Once all of the eggs were found, the kids gathered at the bench and were comparing and sharing each other's bags checking out what they got!


All three kids hovering together in a circle aroudn the end of the bench, bent over thier bags and peering in to see what they got.


Once all the eggs were found, everyone went inside for the kids to sit at thier kiddy card table and open up thier eggs for what they got. Grandpa helped Alex with his eggs as Daddy collected the plastic eggs to be recycled for next year. :)



After all the fun, egg hunt, and just spending time together, it was time to say our goodbyes and head home.