Story of Alferd Williams

Somehow stumbled across this story and had to share. You may want to read this background information first.



Alferd has appeared on the Ellen Degeneres show, and has been in the media quite a bit recently. His story is inspiring and reminded me of some little things that I take for granted every day - like being able to read the signs above the grocery store aisles.

Stop killing me!

Yesterday went by too fast. Can we rewind and have a do-over? I don't really want to change anything about the day because we had a great time. I just want MORE time.

Jim had to work yesterday, so after some research on AtlasQuest, the kids and I headed out for some letterboxing. I made sure everyone had on bugspray and brought water because we were going to a park I hadn't visited before.

We spent lots of time at the park, and it was HOT. We took turns being the web-catcher on the trail. It took some willpower not to laugh at the girls when they did their "EW! I just walked into a web!" dance. (Just a side note - these are the same girls who fight each other to catch frogs.) No luck on the letterboxes. Bummer. Nice park though. I want to go back - when it's about twenty degrees cooler and the spiders have stopped stringing webs across the trails. We went home and re-energized and waited for Jim to get home from work. Then I talked him and the kids into trying for one more series of boxes. We had wonderful luck with those and added six boxes to our lists. Then we went to Red Robin (YUM!) and chowed down.

Everyone showered (again) when we got home then we settled in for a family game of Call Of Duty 4 on the Playstation. Caleb is the best player and I'm the worst, but we have a blast playing. He loves it when I play because I laugh every time he kills me. Or we do silly things like jumping on cars and then blowing up the cars to see how high the body will fly. Once in the game Resistance: Fall of Man, we put a grenade on a merry-go-round (that just happened to have a body on it) and then started spinning it to see what would happen. The body slid off and the grenade blew up. Not nearly as exciting as we hoped. Yes, we are warped. Then again, it's just a game.

Sample conversation from game:
Conner - 'Stop killing me! You've killed me four times already! Go pick on someone else. Mom, Caleb keeps killing me.'

Me - 'Caleb - stop killing your sister. Come kill me instead - but you can only use a knife! No guns or grenades!'

Caleb - 'Conner! Don't kill me now! I have to go find Mom and kill her. Hey - do you want to help me?'

Me - 'Conner - don't help Caleb - come and help me! Maybe we can gang up and kill him before he kills us!'

Yep - we are a warped family. Oh, Caleb's awake now and has asked to play so I have to go and be killed again. And if you are curious - Yes - today's agenda includes more letterboxing. (I hope!)

Best race ever

I think everyone has a bit of car geek in them. My inner car geek starts drooling when it sees a Bugatti.



Drag racing a fighter jet. Sweet!

Could you repeat that please?

Overheard today:

Conner – “Play with me Caleb! I’m bored. Why won’t you EVER play with me?”

Caleb – “Conner, mom put stuff on my legs and it has to dry.”

Conner – “What did mom put on your legs?”

Caleb – “Some stuff for poison ivy.”

Conner – “EEEWWWWWW! Caleb has poison ivy infested legs! Don’t touch me!”

And to keep things fair….

Caleb’s interpretation of the Ballroom Blitz song:

…And the man at the back said
Everyone attack and it turned into a ballroom blitz
And the girl in the corner said
Fire on the walrus it’ll turn into a ballroom blitz
Ballroom blitz, ballroom blitz, ballroom blitz….

Infested legs. Fire on the walrus. I don’t know where they get it. Honestly.

Crayons Unite!

It’s that dreaded time of year again – back to school shopping time. Is it just me or have school supply lists gotten longer and longer? I’ll be off to hunt down composition notebooks, highlighters, two-pocket plastic folders, and the ever elusive “Expo Dry Erase Markers – 2 count, medium point, NOT low odor.” One of the lists that I saw was even specific about colors for notebooks and folders. They had to be Blue, Yellow, Purple and Green. Sounds like all the colors of a nasty bruise.

Ever notice that there is always at least ONE thing on the school supply list that is hard to find? Why is that? Retailers are great about making copies of supply lists available in stores, which is great. But do they actually read the lists and try to stock up ahead of time? I think they must not or else I wouldn’t have to scour the internet for dry erase markers. Sure – you can find lots of packs with multi-colored pens, broad tip pens, low odor pens – but that isn’t what I need.

And crayons. Can we talk about crayons? Do you realize how many partial boxes of leftover crayons I have? Is there a crayon recycling place where I can ship these? Surely they could be melted back down into their respective colors and made into new, whole crayons again. I know crayons are not expensive but I would rather ‘recycle’ the stubby ends than throw them away. Honestly, do you know any kids who like to color with the broken/leftover pieces?

There is one thing we used to buy (back when I was a kid, you know – a hundred years ago) that isn’t on the supply lists. Can you guess? Watercolor paints. Remember those rectangular boxes with the little ovals of color in them? Didn’t you hate it when some other kid would use your paints and get the colors all muddy?

I’m off now to Google “crayon recycling” and see what I can come up with. The stubby pieces in the art box are giving me the evil eye. I think they are conspiring with the leftover watercolor paints to stage a rebellion. Or maybe they are in league with the paper clips and rubber bands that multiply in my desk drawer. Whatever the case may be – I better figure out a way to take care of things before they watch Pinky & the Brain and figure out a way to take over the world.

Nesting hawks

Caleb and I had one of the "WOW" experiences this evening.

We went for a walk on a trail while Conner was at gymnastics. While we were walking, we could hear birds calling to each other and I thought it sounded like hawks. Self-doubt set in because we were in the middle of the city and surely there wouldn't be any hawks that close to people. Ummmm... it WAS a hawk. Actually, it was more than one. It was a pair of hawks.

We started on an open area of trail, then headed into a wooded area. As soon as we got in the wooded area, we could see the hawks and had one swoop right over our heads - within a foot. It stopped ahead of us and sat on a branch staring at us.

We froze. We were whispering about it and watching it to see what it would do. It looked at us for awhile and then flew a bit further down the trail to its nest. Yes - it was building a nest in the top of a tree that was right off the trail. We very quietly walked on past so we wouldn't disturb it again.

On the way back, we didn't notice the hawk in or near the nest which was a bit disappointing. Then we saw that it was hiding under an evergreen right at the edge of the woods. I'm guessing it had found a rabbit or some other tasty treat but we didn't see any evidence of prey when we walked by. (Another person on the trail startled it away before we got close.)

Ever notice that little moments like this are what stick with you? Although Caleb might argue and say that it was just as much fun when I jumped on the cart in the parking lot at Target and told him to push me to the car....

dynamic days and second weddings

Mom called this morning because my horoscope was showing that I was going to have a DYNAMIC day. Five stars. WOOHOO.

I'm still waiting.

While I'm waiting for something dynamic to happen, I'm pondering the dilemma of what to wear to get married. I've been looking at dresses online and I guess I'm way too picky because nothing I've seen has really caught my attention. I'll keep looking for that "second marriage" category that has dresses for people who don't want to wear white or ivory, but still want something pretty. If you find it before I do - send me a link.

And stop laughing. I used to wear dresses every day - in grade school.

My BIG Surprise!

Ok, vacation is over and I'm back home. Tanned and tired.

I got a HUGE surprise while sitting on the beach Sunday evening. Jim and I were sitting in our beach chairs, watching the kids play in the water and dig in the sand. The sun was going down, the weather was perfect, and he proposed.

Yep, pulled a ring out of his pocket, slipped it on my finger and asked me to marry him. I was laughing and crying at the same time. The kids were in on it and so was my dad - they knew he was going to ask and had seen the ring - but managed to keep it a secret.

I'm still in shock and incredibly happy. What a guy! (and OMG - what a ring!)

vacation

I'm on vacation this week - and loving every minute of it. Lots of sun, sand, surf, and swimming. And I got a big surprise too. More on that at another time - but the kids and my dad were in on it. The guys went fishing today. Jim caught the biggest fish of the trip. They grilled it tonight and said it was tasty.

to be able to do this....

What fun it would be to do this...

on a mission, or... not

I was on a mission tonight, but then I got sidetracked. Ever had that happen? You know the old saying - best laid plans and all that?

Sometimes I think it's God's way of saying - hey, chill out. Or what's the old saying - if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.

So I got sidetracked. I enjoyed every minute of it. Instead of doing what I had planned, I spent some quality time catching up with a friend. Now, I'm going to relax, watch Animal Cops on TV, and carve some more stamps.

Animal Cops is the new favorite TV show in our house. When the kids are here, we all usually end up piled on the living room floor - or my bed - talking about the show and wondering what will happen to the animals. Conner wants to adopt every one of the critters, and sometimes so do I. Last night on the show they rescued tigers and bears. It was fantastic and by far my favorite ever episode.

You know - I used to get tense when things didn't go the way I 'expected' them to go. I would get bent out of shape and grouchy. Sometimes I still do - probably more than I want to admit. I'm trying to be more flexible because I've figured out that sometimes the curve balls are what you really need. Like catching up with a friend tonight - I needed that even though it wasn't what I had planned. I didn't plan on watching Animal Cops tonight, or carving stamps - but I know Conner will want to talk about the show and will be happy that I watched it, and Caleb will be happy that I worked on his stamp. And I will get the satisfaction of seeing them smile. Yeah - keep the curve balls coming - I'm starting to like them.