His Summer and Their Summer

The girls are loving having summer camp every day.

I know it's still the beginning of summer, but I have to say that this is shaping up to be the best summer we've had in years.

Sister thrives heavily on structure, routine, and being with other people.

I tried hard the last few summers to make a structured and scheduled home and activity schedule, but it was never a success.

The last few summers brought us many tears, frustrations, melt-downs and aggressiveness.

Sister started off that way.

Summer camp was totally new to her and she didn't know what to expect, therefore she feared it. It was such a struggle getting her there the first day and now I am scared for how she will be when it all ends.

Like clockwork, once Sister saw the great things that were going on at camp she didn't want to miss out.

At this camp they get to have special buddies to teach them, be with, them and keep them safe.

We were lucky enough to have Sister and Baby's first buddy by a guy who adores them and took some pictures so I could share some of their moments from summer camp.

Her goggles get me every time..

 

I'm happy that our girls have some camp to keep them happy and excited.

I also love that yesterday and this morning Brother has asked me, "What are we doing today, mom?"

He loves his time spent with me and I love that we have that time together

They didn't say it...

I've never personally heard someone call my kids retarded, stupid, or annoying.

Ever.

But I've had MANY people give the look or body language that that is what they are thinking.

I can't really be mad at them.

They probably don't have anyone in their lives the they care about who have any sort of disability or impairment.

I can feel sorry for them though.

Again, today, after taking the girls to summer camp I took Brother with me to do some grocery shopping.

I was a little sad because a couple of times this morning while getting the girls ready he kept saying, "I don't have summer camp, huh?" "That's OK, I don't have summer camp." "Can I go to summer camp."

It broke my heart a little so I wanted to make our errand running a little funner for him so he helped me with the grocery shopping.

Brother LOVES apples. They have to be green—golden delicious or granny smith. So we went to the market to pick up some apples and he was so excited to help pick them out. I was teaching him how to tell if they're crispy or not and in his excitement and desire to learn he made a couple apples fall.

A passing patron noticed and gave me a dirty look as if I had thrown them at her or something.

When he'd find an apple he thought would be really good he would sniff them and try to put it back if it didn't smell good enough. When he smells things he makes sure to press his nose right on whatever he is sniffing so I was trying to catch him each time so I could put those specifically smelled ones into our bag.

Again someone standing next to us looked disgusted and appalled that my son would act this way.

Brother was having such a great time helping me and getting the produce bags for me and helping me pick out fruit and vegetables. I was teaching him how to shop for fresh foods and he was smiling the whole time, so proud of himself.

I was looking at something, I can't remember what it was, but Brother decided we needed a bag for that. I hadn't noticed that he had walked in front of someone who was looking at produce so he could get a bag for me. When I realized what was happening I politely told Brother that it is not nice to stand in front of people and to wait for a better time. I told him to say sorry but he was too embarrassed so I apologized to the lady for him.

She ignored me but made sure to look at Brother with slight disgust.

This is where I start to feel embarrassed and I start trying to get Brother to stop acting like him... how sad. I became embarrassed because I was hurt by how people were reacting. I kept trying to shush him and started to discourage him from helping me.

I didn't want people giving us dirty looks and rolling their eyes as they walked away.

I think at that point I become defensive of both mine and Brother's feelings.

Then, I was quickly relieved of my worldly cares when Brother nonchalantly moved a lady's cart to the side so we could get to the chicken. I immediately leaned over to Brother and explained he should ask first and the woman interrupted and smiled at me and said, "It's OK."

Thank you.

To the lady that had enough sense and decency to see that Brother was only trying to be helpful and not trying to be rude or disrespectful, you are one in a million.

Maybe I've been that person at one point or other that gives the dirty look or the passing judgement.

If I ever have, I hope I never do it again.

I spent the rest of our shopping trip focusing on the people who were kind to Brother, like the sample guy at Costco who just chuckled when Brother snuck and extra piece of jerky or the lady who smiled when Brother was touching all the little girl night gowns deciding which one Baby would like best or the time he yelled at me and I told him, "I love you too," and people smiled.

So my UP today was the people who understood and accepted that today was my day with my son teaching him how to go grocery shopping, regardless of how many things he did out of the ordinary.

One of his proud selfies

Day 162 of 365 Days of Up

65% Chance of Scattered Stories

Today was such a simple day.

No crazy running around or deadlines to make.

It was nice.

I even had time to sit down and watch the first half of the first ever episode of Wonder Woman with Brother today.

Some of my childhood memories of sitting in front of our 20 inch analog TV on the orange carpet in our living room came flooding back to me.

The girls started summer camp on Monday and it gives a chance for me to spend much needed one on one time with Brother. Yesterday was our library day.

I loved sitting in the library watching Brother look through books and pick out interesting ones based on their cover art. He had quite a pile he brought to me while I was reading "Sleepy Hollow." He was proud of them, but didn't want to take them home. That would be too much pressure on him to actually read them, or really in his case, listen to me read them.

He put them all back and we headed down to the basement to pick out a movie for us to watch together. I saw the old Linda Carter "Wonder Woman" series and thought that Brother would get a kick out of watching it with me. We got the first season and headed home. There's just something a little magical about watching old campy TV shows with your kids... they were just so ... I don't know... fun.

In the evening we all went on a little walk as a family to take Brother to his Young Men's activity just a few blocks away at the church.

I didn't have a performance tonight so I was able to spend precious time with my family and I was relishing in every moment of it.

Baby had to keep stopping along the way to smell the flowers and try to pick them.

She loves flowers and she makes them come to life.

That was my big UP today watching her play with the flowers.

It was one of those times that I was in no rush to hurry her along so I sat on the sidewalk by her and just took pictures of her making the flower blossoms talk to each other.

I've been trying to teach her not to pick other people's flowers so she is carefully keeping them on their stems as she plays.

I think this is where they were singing to each other.

She eventually decided to bring her friends home:

As I was walking by her I was laughing at our long-cast shadows that, ironically, remind me now of my Mary Poppin's character costume. (Look at our long legs!)

On Monday night Marc and my mom and dad were able to come see me in the play. It was so much fun to see them afterward and to hear all the praise they had for me! It's always nice to get compliments, right?

Marc was such a good sport about letting this goofy-looking gigantic character hug him for photos!

The wig is the kicker...

My proud parents!

And of course I had to get a pic with Mary and Bert. 

I don't even know if I have the right words to express the love I have for the people in this cast!

It was especially nice to see the cast Monday night because our Saturday night show was rained out... really, really, really rained out. It was a torrential downpour that included lightening, thunder and hail.

We were all eager and pleased to see each other again and that was expressed with hugs, jokes, laughter and "Break A Leg" wishes.

Yesterday I had a group of 30 girls and Young Women leaders there to watch me! My sister and her family came too.

I danced as much as I could in my heavy stilts and had a great time doing it.

It was fun to be rushed afterwards by my family and Young Women, I felt like a movie star.

I don't have pictures of me with the Young Women Group—hopefully someone will send me a few of those.

I do have the ones with my family last night:

I was even able to hold up Lil MissB so we could get a cool picture!

Then the fantastic night was topped off when I found this letter in my purse. I had to take a picture of it because it made me so happy.

Tonight, while Brother was still at the activity, I received a text from a friend to show me that she could see Brother from her backyard... so cute.

Also, yesterday, Brother and I took Ranger for a walk up the Prove Canyon Trail.

That hour-long time span was memorable and priceless because of the care and concern his friend, Cece has for him. This pictures says a lot.

We even spotted a butterfly that kept our interest for a while and I tried to get a decent shot of it on my phone.

Monday was great but I want to show you the moment that I had to capture:

She loves lipstick... she usually will watch me and then want to try too. She's concentrating very hard...

I had to take a picture of my half eaten dinner I was snarfing on the way to the play because I was so happy that I actually took the time to make pizza.

OK, I think all that about covers the last few days.

Days 157, 158, 159, 160 and 161 of 365 Days of Up!!

Let's Go Fly a Kite!

Because that's how high I feel right now!

Don't worry, I haven't neglected blogging because there have been no UPs.

I have had so many UPs that I haven't taken the time to blog about it.

I should.

And I will.

Just not today.

I just didn't want you to think I had forgotten to think of my UPs every day. I still am. I just haven't been really good about putting it here.

So here are a couple pictures of what's to come in my catch-up post, which, I hope, will be tomorrow!

Time to Share

Rehearsals for this play have been long and hard.

This is the third play I have been in and it hasn't changed the way I feel during rehearsals. I love the people I am with, I love having something of my own and I love how close Marc and the kids get each time, BUT I always question if I am doing the right thing being gone so much from my family when there are times of just getting dinner ready as I have to leave so I am not able to sit down and eat with them or being the one to read them stories at night, or sitting with my husband in bed talking about the day.

Then comes opening night.

I LOVE to be part of something that can brighten a person's day, inspire them to be better or just get them to laugh when they haven't for a while.

Last night's audience was so responsive and so involved! I could hardly handle the adrenaline and excitement that was coming from all of us as we fed off of their reactions.

It was beautiful!

I was reminded, again, as I am every time, that I love to bring joy to peoples lives.

Growing up I sang and performed with my mom and siblings. My mom wrote the songs and we performed them alongside her.

This is one of the younger pictures I could find but my brothers aren't in here. I really need search through my parents stuff and get some actual performance pictures from when we were young. We were just so cute!

When I got older (junior high age—you know, when you know everything) I would get upset with her because we looked unprofessional by not singing on the stage that was at the venue.

She always wanted to be down at the level of the audience so she could laugh with them and see them smile. She would get more intimidated if she had to be above them and not looking right into their faces while we sang. She loves and still does enjoy bringing people joy.

She paints furniture as a business and always sells her things for way too cheap just because she wants everyone, even if they don't have a lot of money, to find joy in the things she paints.

She loves making people happy!

She came over yesterday because she knew I'd been sick and decided that instead of flowers she would bring me popsicles for my sore throat and cough. She even stayed and cleaned my kitchen.

It was good to have her there.

My kids couldn't stop telling her about the play and how great it was and how much they loved it and the different things that I did.

She's coming to the show on Monday.

I know she is going to be so proud of me.

Not because I have a big part in the play or anything, because I don't really, but she'll be so proud that I am following in her footsteps and bringing joy to other's lives by sharing my talents.

Just like she does.

And after seeing the joy our kids expressed to her about the play yesterday during her visit I realized they were proud of my too.

It's moments like that that I think maybe I am giving them enough love and attention that they are OK to let me have my time to share with others and do something that brings me my own joy.

I even did a chalk drawing to commemorate our opening night.

Even after a little rain it is still there and my kids are so proud of it because Sister sat alongside me and did her own art and Brother helped me color in Mary's dress and even helped draw Bert's face. He is still so proud of his artwork that he has gone out 3 times already to admire his artwork.

Maybe he want to share his talents to bring joy to others.

I'll try to be a good example.