Update on the Play

I had an IEP meeting for Josiah yesterday. Well, not IEP exactly (we weren't making an education plan) but a meeting with the speech therapist, the occupational therapist and the teachers. I got some good advice, helped start a plan for Middle School (OMG!) and learned a little tidbit that has my head spinning a bit....in a good way.

Josiah's name was drawn out of a hat for that part. His name was not even in the hat, but just before the teacher drew names he announced that his name needed to be in the hat. She threw his name in and it came out for the dog.

Part of me finds that hard to believe, the other part has come to expect things like that. You can call it "luck" if it makes you feel better, but this was a little too specific to be pure chance. God does some pretty amazing things sometimes. Most of life is pretty amazing if you stop and think about it, but sometimes God's hand is way too obvious to ignore.

We have a good God and he is good to my children. For that I am profoundly grateful.

Just say, "No".

As I'm sure I've mentioned before, they are building a "McMansion" next door. A "mansion in a box". A huge house on every square inch of available property. This has had many frustrations, not the least of which is the racket of power tools early on Saturdays and the rumbling of our house caused by backhoes and bulldozers and they dig, fill and re-dig the drainage.
Sometimes what they do is downright scary...like putting in the steel i-beams by hand....trust me, it was scary.

Today:











They're covering the eves. Two poles, a ladder in between, attached to the house with bolts. Not two poles at each end. Two poles. Period. At the back of the house, that extra pole is from scaffolding at the back of the house. Which was rocking violently this morning as a guy walked across it. 8^0











See the guy hammering on the support down on the ground? While the other guy is up on the scaffolding?










Some things I do not want to know. The sound a man makes when falling that distance is one of those things. I really hope to live my whole life never knowing that sound. And I hope that guy gets paid well.....or at least has good benefits.

And, yes, that's snow. It's been there for about 11 days now. It's cold.

Announcement:

If you would like to see a clip of Josiah in his play, please send me an email (or a comment with your email addy if I don't have it) and I will send you a link. I have decided not to post it straight to the blog because it features other people's children. I'm not sure why that bothers me this time, but it does. Odd, eh?

The Star.....

I just found this post in my Drafts. What? No wonder no one knew how it had gone!!! Here it is in retrospect:

Alright. To assuage your curiosity and tide you over until the video is ready, I'll give you the low-down on the play. It was, of course, really great. We went to and videoed both showings, one at 9:15am and one at 7pm. Isaac was home sick that day but we drug him out to both. Poor kid. That's probably why he still feels puny. For the 7pm showing, the Kisers came! Or should that be, "The Kisers came for the 7pm showing!"? Probably. Either way, they were here. They even spent the night! (they had a conference out this way) They worked nicely in lieu of grandparents. (No, they are not old enough; they just made a nice substitution.) :^P

O.K. The nitty-gritty. Josiah was fabulous!!! He was the only kid in the entire 5th grade who was not self-conscious at all. He couldn't have cared less how many people were watching, he was having a grand old time! His fidgeting, twitching, pulling on his costume and playing with the coon-tail on his fellow actor's costume were perfect for a dog character. He said his lines right on cue, with great inflection, and loudly. He was the loudest singer in the group and he was the only one who improvised choreography while doing his song. I laughed so hard I couldn't take pictures. (Don't worry, Todd got plenty of footage.) He really was the star of the show. I'm not sure what everyone who doesn't know he's autistic thought, maybe just that he's a ham, but all who know him were almost as proud as me! Warning: when we post the video, have a kleenex handy. Just sayin'. If the pride doesn't get ya', you'll be crying with laughter.

Acting Debut

Josiah will be in his first play tomorrow. O.K., not really his first, I mean there were many church pagents and 3rd grade choir-type things but this is his first time as a major character. He'll be Lewis and Clark's dog. His lines are few and simple, but he's in the whole play and even has a musical number. I'm not nervous. No. Really. Yet. That'll come tomorrow morning before the first performance at 9:15. Part of me really hates that his grandparents can't be there. The other part is glad they won't have to deal with the stress. They can just watch the video after they know it's all gone well.
Even if it's a disaster, I'm so proud of him! And if it is a disaster, what a great story it'll make!


Meanwhile, say a little prayer for us tomorrow.

Pay it Forward.

My friend Manda posted a blog around Christmas Eve. By dint of my holiday laziness, I was reading blogs and came upon hers before the required "3". What? You'll see. Read on!

Pay It Forward… it’s a simple idea, really. If you’ve been paying attention to the Starbucks cups, it’s sort of like when you’re in line and you decide to pay for the person’s coffee behind you, and you hope they return the favor to someone else. If you’ve ever SEEN the movie Pay It Forward, it’s even MORE simple.
The idea has been floating around blogland, and I decided to take AtomicKnits up on her offer, so I am returning the favor!
“The idea of the exchange is I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on this blog post requesting to join this PIF exchange. I don’t know what that gift will be yet, and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.”
I could definitely knit you socks, if you want. Or not. It would probably be sooner than a year, but I make no promises. Be one of the first three people to comment on this post with a valid email address, and I’ll send you a little sumthin-sumthin.

So, Manda hinted at the possibility of socks. I'm not that brave. But I will send something hand-crafted. I guess with a whole year to comply, I could do socks. As with Manda's, all I ask is that you Pay it Forward. Promise the same thing on your blog. If you don't have a blog and really want to participate, get creative. If you're creative enough, I'll let you slide. Leave me a comment (with your email if I don't have it) and let me know what type of goodie you are interested in. I paint, sew and knit......and cook.....and occasionally make soap. I do not clean. Or organize. Ultimately, I'll choose what to send you, but I will take input as I make my decision. ;-)

And if you're related to me.....just call me! All you have to do is ask. (yeah, Mom, I'll mail those socks directly. really I will.)

And I leave you with a friendly warning:

When knitting with bamboo needles, be careful how you put them in your backpack. Even with a padded back, they can become weapons of doom! I didn't even know these were poking out until my screen door shut on me while I unlocked the wooden door. Wow! I almost skewered my kidney!

Another meme

Aunt Rita, I know this isn't what you thought you'd get when I promised to post later today. It wasn't what I thought either, but it does look fun. It's a meme from my friend Rhonda's blog.

Here is what you do:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random The first article title on the page is the name of your band.

http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3 The last four words of the very last quote is the title of your album.

http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/ The third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

Use your graphics program of choice to throw them together, and post the result as a comment in this post. Also, pass it along on your own blog, because it’s more amusing that way. If you don't have the software and/or blog, just do it for the fun of seeing what you come up with.

I only cheated a little. "Multiphase Flow" is a great band name but I threw in an extra word for the album name. "You Accept the Fact" just didn't sound right. I could have gone one word short too. "Accept the Fact" would make a good album name, is it not so? I also cheated on the picture. The first time I uploaded the page, the 3rd picture was the lamest one of all. It was a picture of unidentifiable food on a plate....but not even cool unidentifiable food. I refreshed the page. But only once...and I stuck with the 3rd pic, even though there were cooler ones on the page. Then I put it together in Word...which was not transportable...then I sent it all to Todd and let him put it together. O.K. So I cheated quite a bit. But I stuck with the spirit of the thing! And I'm passing it on. See?

Meanwhile, the world carries on. I just haven't really felt much like talking lately. I know. Not normal at all. Maybe tomorrow......or as Bob would say, "It'll be better tomorrow."