What We've Been Up To: Part I, Road Trip and Room Makeovers

Joseph's & Michael's room

The last month of summer went by in a flash.  We were SOOO busy.

Joseph's & Michael's room

Andrew's room

Decided the younger boys' rooms needed to be redone, big time!  We pulled EVERYTHING out, cleaned carpets, painted, and then only put things back in that passed inspection.

Result?  Rooms that are nice and fresh and you can actually see the carpet!  (It helped that they all wanted the same color walls.)  We finished just in time for school to start.





The month started out with a long-awaited trip to Arizona, which almost didn't happen.  We got everything ready.  Extra batteries, oxygen, etc and everyone in the car.  All ready to go about 7:30 a.m. on July 28th (okay, so not quite the beginning of the month.  It was close).  Turned the key and..... click.  Nothing.  Yeah, not good.  A fantastic neighbor came over and helped us figure out which of the fuses needed to be reset and an an hour and a half later, we were on our way!

Trying frosting from cousin Camden's birthday cake, yum!

It's been five years since the kids have been down to see my family in Arizona.  A wedding, Gramma & Grampa in China for two years, and then Aaron's challenges kind of got in the way.  We had an uneventful trip (yea!) down there and even had time for a swim before bedtime.

Santi!

On Monday, I had a great treat!  Little Santi has Trisomy 13 ring and lives in the area.  He and his siblings and mom came over for the afternoon.  He is sooooo adorable.  And so energetic!  He was running all over the place when not in his wheelchair.  Give me so much hope for Aaron someday being able to walk and run.  And his smile was absolutely infectious.  I couldn't stop grinning.

Gimme Five!

What are you guys talking about?!?

All the kids who were with me.  Missing Matthew
who was with Dad at an Order of the
Arrow Conference 

My room at Gramma's

My bed!

Kids and Lots of Cousins!

An Escapee who didn't want to be
in the picture with everyone else.

Fabulous Cake!

Go USA!!

We had a lot of fun swimming, watching the Olympics, and playing with cousins.  The older kids (from Andrew on up) helped out at the Bishop's Storehouse (kind of like a food pantry) with Gramma & Grampa, helping others who are in need of some extra care.  Joseph celebrated his 12th birthday with a fabulous cake made by Aunt Liz.

Feet!!  Me and 6 of my 7 boys.

Flip!

Saturday morning we took Aaron for a swim (and found our first scorpion!)   Aaron had a lot of fun in the water, but I kept flashing back on that creature, and had a hard time letting go of the "what ifs".


What isn't told in that blog post is what happened that night.  I had been sleeping down in Aaron's room and just getting up for meds and alarms the first several nights.  But knowing that I needed some good rest before driving back home, Deborah started staying up with him a few nights before we left so I could sleep well.  I was sound asleep at 11:30 when my cell phone rang.

"Mom, there's a scorpion down here!"  Yeah, I woke up fast.  As I went down, I thought, I should just get the stick and kill it.  No, Daddy's here.  So I woke up my Dad and he was more than happy to get up and help.  Then he took the blacklight and went looking around the whole house, again.  (They'd already gone scorpion hunting earlier and found some outside, but not inside.)

Me and three of my four wonderful sisters.

Monday we headed back home to continue the room makeover process we started before we left.  It was soooo wonderful to see everyone down there.  I miss my family so much.  I couldn't ask for a better one.

To be alive, to able to see, to walk…it’s all a miracle. I have adapted the technique of living life from miracle to miracle.

-Arthur Rubinstein