Thursday 13 ~ Week 7 Edition G

Welcome back to Thursday 13 alphabetical style! I am not going to jinx myself again by saying that I am getting the post started at a reasonable time and should get it posted on Thursday. The last couple times I did that it was Friday before I got it done. But right now the girls are playing at the open window by our computer desk. They have their little princesses lined up on the ledge with Scooby fruit snacks yelling hi at our neighbor Willard as he mows his lawn. Joey is pulling on my pants leg ~ his way of saying "Mom, get off that computer and play with me!" And one of the cats has sprawled himself across the top of the desk. Prognosis of an actual Thursday 13 post getting out on a Thursday? Not good.

1. Goals ~ Joey's therapists and teachers set lots of goals for him. I am happy to say he meets and exceeds them all the time! Yay for Joe!

2. Giggle ~ The sound of a child's giggle just warms my heart. I am partial to a certain 5 giggles, but any child laughing is a wonderful sound.

3. Golf ~ Shawn used to be an avid golfer. Note I said used to be. No more time for that these days!

4. Grass ~ I love the smell of fresh cut grass. I actually don't mind mowing the lawn - just don't tell my hubby!

5. Glasses ~ John and Tommie wear glasses. I recently got my first pair ever a few weeks ago. It is so nice to see without squinting!

6. Grateful ~ I am eternally grateful for the many blessings in my life.

7. Garage Sales ~ Love 'em. I try to go whenever I get a chance. About 2 or 3 years ago, Shawn told me to take up a hobby or an activity to get out of the house. The result? Garage sales. Now he tells me I need to stop going and have one of my own. Let me see..hmmmmmm..NO!

8. Good Night Moon ~ One of our favorite books!

9. Grapes ~ A favorite amongst the kiddos! ( And me too!)

10. Gorillas ~ A must see when we go to the zoo. They can be so funny and interesting to watch.

11. General ~ Does John call me Mom, Mother or Mommy? No. He calls me General. (Affectionately, of course!)

12. Grill ~ We love to grill out when the weather is nice. Makes for easy clean up!

13. Gadolinium ~ The G word of the week. It is defined as 1. a ductile silvery-white ductile ferromagnetic trivalent metallic element of the rare earth group 2. A supposed rare metallic element, with a characteristic spectrum, found associated with yttrium and other rare metals. Its individuality and properties have not yet been determined.





Come back next week for some hair raising havoc with the letter H!

A day at Coco Key

Whew! What a weekend! Tommie recovering from his bout with bronchitis. Worrying that everybody else is gonna get it. Cold, rainy weather. Hit a couple garage sales. Out of town baseball games. Traveling. Getting lost. Freezing my behind off. Locking the keys in the car. Paying someone to get them out. And that was just Saturday! I kid you not ~ it was like 90 degrees here last Thursday and on Saturday, it was 35 degrees, rainy, a little windy and just downright miserable! And was I home baking cookies and slurping homemade soup? No! I was at John's baseball games communing with Mother Nature! Not that I am capable of baking cookies and/or making homemade soup but still I would have been where it was warm! Saturday was not my day! Shawn sure knew what he was doing when he sent me off to John's doubleheader in Lincoln ~ he volunteered to stay home with the kids and off I went. I will mention here that he told me slightly misleading directions to the ball field (he blames Map Quest ~ I blame him) and I ended up at a track meet before I found the game. That was just the beginning. Up the road from the field is a pizza joint that the parents got together and ordered pizza from for the boys between games. Do they deliver? Of course not! Me, being the kind soul that I am ~ and nothing to do with being able to warm up in the car ~ volunteered to go get it. I got back, parked by the bus, the players came for the pizza and inhaled it in like 2 seconds. I am not kidding ~ I'm not sure they even tasted it. So I go to get back in the car and I can't. Driver's door is locked. Passenger door is locked. Back doors ~ locked. Did I mention I had left the car running too? By this time, most people had gone back to the field (it was quite aways from the parking lot). Luckily, one of the coaches was around and he had a business card for a guy that can unlock vehicles. So I call. And I wait. Let's just say when the guy got there he had the door unlocked faster than I can blink. The good part was he only charged $20. Thank goodness for that! I think I was finally warmed up on Monday. No joke. I was chilled to the bone. The things we do for our kids!

Sunday was a much better day. It was Joey's 5th birthday! It's hard to believe that our little man is 5! We didn't have a party for him ~ for the second year in a row we have taken donations from friends and family in his honor to donate to S.M.I.L.E. ~ the place where he does his horseback riding. I will do a post about that in a few days and let you get a peek at our little cowboy. A friend of ours has a daughter named Madison who also turns 5 in April. Joey was born on the 26th, and Madison was born on the 28th. We were actually in the hospital at the same time! I used to babysit Madison before they moved to Omaha last fall. We have been friends with their family for years because I actually used to babysit Madison's mom and her mom's brother when they were younger. Confused yet? Anyway, Madison's birthday party was in Omaha Sunday at an indoor water park resort called Coco Key. It was a blast! The place is really great and everybody had a lot of fun. Madison and Kendra (her mom) cut a piece of her birthday cake for Joey to have a candle in for his birthday too. It was so sweet! A grand time was had by all. It was a wonderful day. Enjoy the pictures! WARNING: There is a lot of them! :o)





Emma ~ down the yellow slide!

Joey ~ swimming with the fishies?

They're gonna get wetter!

Splish splash!

Tommie coming to the end of a big slide!

Dad & Joe taking it all in!






Too much excitement for Abbie ~ she fell asleep!

Shawn had to go play ~ so Joey and I took over Abbie duty...

Emma ~ taking a Dippin Dots break...

It wouldn't be a party if there wasn't a pic of someone eating!

Abbie, Diane & Coco....

Joey with some cake...

Madison gives Joey a little help with the candle blowing....

Joey ~ 5 on April 26 and Madison ~ 5 on April 28...

The whole party crew...

Trying their hand at a duck game...

Basketball...

Joey loved this game ~ probably because he got to through things! lol

Happy Birthday Joey....

Five years ago today, a beautiful baby boy entered our lives. We named him Joey. We took him home, loved him, fed him, changed him, bathed him and cared for him with all our hearts. We also began to learn all we could about something we had never heard of before ~ Cornelia de Lange Syndrome. Joey, you have endured countless blood tests, scans, ultrasounds, doctor appointments, surgeries, procedures, pokes, prods, exams and therapies. And you have emerged triumphant. We are so proud that you are our son, brother, nephew, cousin and grandson. You have learned so much and taught all of us so much more. Thank you God for letting us see a side of life that we might not otherwise have known. It is a beautiful life, full of many rewards and blessings. Happy Birthday dear, dear Joey.

This one's for you Pookie...with love from Mommy...

Love Will Surround You

He may never say he loves you
But you know what's in his heart
From the moment his eyes found you
It was love right from the start.
The joys that he will bring
Will be more than just a few
His kiss, his laugh, his sweet, sweet smile
His emotions will be true.
God has chosen to give you
The best gift you will ever receive
The path may seem hard right now
But in Him you must believe.
The happy times and good memories
Will far outweigh the bad
The wondrous pride and love you'll feel
Will keep you from being sad.
Seek comfort and support
These things you'll surely need
Show your strength, love and joy
To curious passers-by pay no heed.
The love that will surround you
Will be more than you've ever known
Love this baby as much as you can
Because now you are truly home.


Getting ready to come home...

Tommie and Joey...


Our beautiful baby boy...

John and Joey...

He loved his bouncy seat...

Joey and I at his baby shower when he was about 2 weeks old...

His newest picture...where has the time gone?

Thursday 13 ~ Week 6 Edition F ~ On Friday again!

Well, here we are with F! I can't get around the fact that this is already the 6th week of my Thursday 13 posts! We have had another hectic day around here so hopefully will get the post out before midnight! Tommie was home sick from school today. He has had a persistant cough the last few days and not feeling 100 percent. I took him to the doctor and good thing I did because he has bronchitis and got put on an antibiotic. So we will have to see if this makes the rounds to everyone or not. Abbie was already fighting a cold last week so there must be some germs floating around somewhere. I am armed with my can of Lysol and Clorox wipes at all times! I figure I am going to struggle a little with our friend F but will give it my best shot. And you know what usually happens to me in the day or two after my alphabetical Thursday 13's? I think of so many other great words I could have used!

1. Fundoplication ~ Joey had this surgery in January 2008 to help with his constant reflux problems. It worked! He went from taking 3 meds per day and vomiting every other night to hardly any problems now and only 1 med every other day. WhoooHoooo!

2. Friday ~ My favorite day of the week next to Saturday. Although sometimes I am really glad when Monday comes around again. Also it is the day I am putting out this week's Thursday 13 even though I had good intentions and started it yesterday. :o)

3. Foundation ~ I am continually grateful for the CdLS Foundation and all the hard work they do helping our kiddos every day.

4. Forensic Files ~ One of my favorite shows. It's on the TruTV network. It's mostly re-runs but I enjoy the mysteries and how they solve the crimes. Maybe I should have been a CSI. ;o)

5. Favorite ~ I've used it twice already in this post and realized hey ~ I can use that for an F word! One of Joey's favorite things to do is play his pianos.

6. Friends ~ I am very thankful for all the friends we have made through our journey with Joey and Cornelia de Lange Syndrome.

7. French toast ~ A winner around our house!

8. Fast ~ Joey does this cute knee walking thing and man oh man is he fast! When he walks I think he will be really speedy!

9. Fourth of July ~ Sorry to all you fans of the fourth out there but this is my least favorite holiday.

10. Four ~ The current ages of Joey and Emma. Emma turned 4 on March 14 and Joey is 4 (until Sunday and the big 5!). We have a 6 week span between their birthdays where they are the same age for awhile.

11. Five ~ The number of children we have. Hey ~ F isn't turning out to be as hard as I thought!

12. Farm ~ I grew up on a farm. My dad was farmer and I've layed many an irrigation pipe, drove many tractors, and fed many cows.

13. Fanion ~ Our random F word for this week. By definition, fanion is a small flag used by surveyors or soldiers to mark a position &/or a small flag sometimes carried at the head of the baggage of a brigade.

This has been fantastically fun! Come around next week for our grand get-together with G!

Busy, busy weekend...And we met another CdLS Mom!

What a weekend! It is already Wednesday and I am still recovering! Monday and Tuesday were outrageously busy for me too but I don't dare get into all that! Let's just say from the minute my feet hit the floor Monday morning I was off and running. I finally have some time to blog and catch up with everyone else before I get Joey and Emma from school today. Friday night, we went to a carnival at Joey and Emma's school. It was fun! I got "volunteered" to work a shift at the duck pond game so I got to put in some quality time. There were games, prizes, food, inflatables and kids galore! Saturday morning Shawn and Tommie had to leave at 5:30 a.m. for an out of town baseball tournament. The little ones and I stayed behind with John as he was to have 2 home games but they ended up being cancelled cause the field was too wet from all the rain we got last week. I don't know what possessed me ~ maybe it was the fact that we were down to the last bread crumb in the house ~ but I decided to take the little ones to WalMart Saturday morning for some shopping. Surprisingly, it didn't go too badly. Joey was a champ and I managed not to lose the girls so we can classify it as a success. Sunday, Tommie was back to the ball field (his team ended up getting 3rd in the tourney) and John, Joey, Emma, Abbie and I were off to Council Bluffs, Iowa to an event called Kidz Explore. I know, we live in Nebraska and you are probably wondering why in the world I would take 4 kids across the border to go to an insanity in the waiting activity. But actually it is just on the east side of Omaha and is only about a 1 1/2 hour trip for us. Plus, my friend Brenda had won 4 free passes on the radio and gave us 2 so how could I pass that up? Thanks again for thinking of us Brenda! We had never been to Kidz Explore before and the kids had a blast. There were all kinds of games, food, inflatables, shows, booths and free stuff! And the best part? We happened to meet another CdLS Mom! We were just hanging out, and all of a sudden I hear "Oh my gosh ~ that's Joey!" Here comes Staci, mom to four boys, the youngest being Vinny who has CdLS. We had never met in person before ~ although we met through facebook and blogging ~ and she recognized Joey from his picture. It was awesome! We hugged, we laughed, we cried, we talked ~ we probably could have visited all afternoon! She had her older children with her but unfortunately no Vinny! So we didn't get to meet him yet but it was so great to connect with Staci. If you haven't checked out their blog yet, please do so. Vinny is adorable! You can find them at Mi 4 Boys. All in all we had a great weekend ~ I am carnivaled out for awhile. We've got more baseball this weekend and Joey's birthday is on Sunday so we've got another action packed weekend to look forward to. Enjoy the pics! (Sorry there's so many ~ I couldn't decide which ones to post!)

Friday night school carnival...Balloon animals and games...




Emma coming down the slide...

Bean bag toss...


Joey even played the bean bag toss...he loved it!

Joey and Brandon doing the snack walk...

Daddy and Abbie waiting for music to start at the snack walk...

Huge inflatables at the school carnival...


Our trip to WalMart...note how Joey is perfectly content in the cart while the girls find it necessary to do their own thing...



Sunday Kidz Explore Expo...Emma loves the inflatables!

The girls getting the Princess treatment...


Joey and Vinny's Mom Staci...

The girls in a big inflatable chair...

Spinning a prize wheel...

Do you think this tiger is going to bite Joey's foot?

Joey loves music...here he is playing some instruments!


John and Joey taking a little break...

Filling bottles with sand is so much fun!


Balloon arch...

Oh, I wish I was an Oscar Mayer Weiner...