Fun-Filled Weekend

We had a busy and fun-filled weekend. It started on Friday, when I went to a baby shower for a friend from my previous school district. It was fun to catch up with friends I haven't seen in a while. I then went on to Bunko at Cassie's house. I have kind of been honorarily adopted into Cassie's neighborhood for these kind of events. What a great group of ladies - I literally laughed until I started crying at one point. Not only did I make it to both destinations of my girls' night out in one piece (click here to see what happened the last time I tried to go out for a girls' night), but I had an absolute blast!

Saturday we had our monthly MGD (stands for Mesirow-Gold Dinner), and it was time for us to go out with NO kids. Grandma Lou Lou and Grandpa Chuck got to babysit this time around.

For those of you who don't know, Jeff and his brother, Ryan, grew up with Josh and Dan Mesirow. The Mesirows are as close as family to the Golds. For about 4 years now (and quite a few kids later) we have made a monthly tradition of having dinner together, rotating houses each month. On the 5th month, just the adults go out for a group date. It has been a wonderful tradition, and amazing to have our kids truly grow up together.

Last night was no exception to how fun this group is when we get together. We started out at a great little restaurant, called Friars Folly. We then went bowling. That's right, I said bowling! None of us had been in years, but that didn't mean we left our competitive spirit at home.

Just in case you can't tell, that's Cassie on the floor!

Here's me after a not-so good round.

Not a great picture, but I forgot I had my camera until the very end of the evening, so I had to take what I could get.

I don't think you can tell, but this is the score-board where I actually won!

Off-center, but a cute picture of the victors of bowling night.

We had so much fun with so many wonderful people. But man-oh-man my back and neck are screaming at me for the bowling. Oh well, it was worth it.

Mommy, my muscles don't work?

Well, Jeff and I knew that the questions would be coming soon from Caleb about why he's "different" than other kids. It still caught me somewhat off-guard when it actually happened, though.

Today we had a wonderful day at Sea World. We watched the Shamu show, and the Pet's Rule show, looked at the turtles, and just had fun seeing all the sights. On the way home, out of the blue Caleb says, "Mommy, my muscles don't work?" I was a little floored, and didn't quite know how to answer my little boy. We have always been open with other inquisitive children in front of him that ask, "Why is he in that?" (referring to his walker or his wheelchair). Our answer has been that his muscles "don't work as well as theirs, so he needs this to help him walk/get around."

As I stumbled over my words trying to explain that his muscles had a harder time working, he started moving his arms and said, "My muscles work, see!" I stumbled a little more, then Jeff jumped in and explained that his muscles just work differently than other people's. "Oh," is all he said. Then he was on to the next subject. There was a peace about the question he asked and the answers he received. We know more questions are around the corner. Hopefully, we will have the guidance that brings him toward acceptance for the beautiful soul he is.

Passing the Time

With Caleb staying home sick today, we found a few ways to pass the time. Check out some of our entertainment...

(Don't forget to pause the music on the right-hand side if you want to hear the video better)

Hope you had as much fun watching as we had hangin' out :)

When, Oh, WHEN will this season be over?!

So Caleb has yet another cold, as do I. However, Caleb's the priority since he is the fragile one. So mine just gets to linger and persist due to lack of sleep while I'm up with Caleb, both of us hacking. Caleb's in good spirits, as always, but just has a runny nose and the cough for the umpteenth time this season.

We kept him home from school, which meant I stayed home from work today. But we had all these Valentine's to give to his classmates, so we stopped by for a brief visit. All his friends were out on the playground when we got there. We were leaving when they were coming back inside, and one of the little boys had the biggest green goobers running out of his nose. All I could think was, "I am SOOOOO glad I kept him home today!"

Hopefully he'll lick this one au-natural. I'll keep you posted if anything more comes up.

Tagged, Again...

You would think that people would figure out that a tag dies with me, since no one else in my circle blogs, that is, except for the ones who tag me. Regardless, I got tagged. And since I'm a type-A personality, ultimate pleaser, I feel like I would be breaking the rules of the blogging gods if I didn't do it.

This one comes from my sister's sister-in-law, Diana. She is HILARIOUS!!! I wish you all could check out her blog, but it's not a public one. So, I've included her intro to this tag to give you a glimpse of her hilarity:
"Let's not deny it. When you fancy no one can hear you with the water pouring down around your ears and a locked door between you and the rest of humanity, you might get a little overconfident in your singing abilities. Maybe lose some of those inhibitions that hold you back. And you sound good my friend. I mean real good. So good you sort of wish a talent scout would accidentally wander into your house because you know he would be blown away by that shockingly awesome voice of yours. Perhaps you should invest in a kareoke machine. Perhaps you should try out for American Idol. Perhaps..."you're worrying the children. Are you wounded?"Here's to those songs that enhance all your embarassing moments, those songs so cheesy they give Velveeta a run for its money, those songs that make you laugh and dry-heave and break out in melodramatic song simultaneously.

Here are my nominated "Top Five Sappiest Love Songs You Sing in the Shower"... Because you know you do."

1. "My Heart Will Go On" -Celine Dion
2. "On My Own" -Les Miserables (yes, I'm a Broadway geek)
3. "Fallin'" -Alicia Keys
4. "I Will Always Love You" -Whitney Houston (Oh, come on! You know you sing your heart out to this one!)
5. "Near You Always" -Jewel (although not a well-known love song, it's one I sing often since it Jeff and my "song")

A visit from Auntie Shana...

A few weekends ago Auntie Shana came to visit with Nathan and Hayden. The main purpose of the visit was to give the two of us some much needed sister/girlie time. As a side-effect, the boys all got to play together (when I say boys, this included Jeff, too). Click here to see what Shana and I were up to. Us girls had an el cheapo glamour-fest. We dyed our own hair, painted our own toenails and gave ourselves mini facials. It was so much fun and so needed for both of us.

Caleb loved playing with the boys, and we had a great day at the Wild Animal Park the day following our glamorous evening. Here are some pictures...

Visiting Caleb's favorite, the elephants.

This elephant was having fun splashing in the mud (it was pretty warm that day).

Nathan and Hayden striking a pose.

Can't you tell Caleb's having so much fun (it's another photo-phobia moment)

Hayden was very excited about pushing Caleb's wheelchair.

That's almost a smile, Caleb. Well, it's a great picture of Shana and Nathan.

The boys had so much fun spinning around and around in these turtle shells. Here's Nathan's best impression of a turtle. It's actually pretty good.

Caleb posed on the turtle shell.

After a little while and some coaxing, I finally got Caleb in the turtle shell...it was a short-lived experience.

Here's Nathan doing his best impression of a bird...I think he's got some real talent for impressions!

We had so much fun with them (as always). We hope to do it again soon!

A Moment

Our family likes to take a "moment" before we eat our meal. Other families may call it a prayer, but whatever you call it, it's just a time for us to get re-centered, reconnected and focus on what we are grateful for. Sometimes we get out of practice with this, especially because Jeff works late Mon-Th, which is what has happened as of late.

Tonight I sat Caleb down for dinner on his own, while Jeff and my dinner continued to cook. Out of the blue, this is what came out of my wonderful little man (keep in mind that as a speech therapist, I like to dictate language exactly how it is spoken by a child), "Mom, a please take a moment." I replied, "Of course. Do you want to lead us in the moment?" "Yeah." We then held hands and Caleb's moment went like this, "I wanna sink (think) about food and it will be longer and longer, and now I wanna watch Sesame Street, please. Amen."

I'm not sure if this was just an extra cute way to get Sesame Street on while he ate dinner, but it sure was a great reminder to just take a moment to be grateful for all that we have. Amen.

Amazing Fundraiser

Jeff, Caleb and I just got home from our first restaurant fundraiser for Caleb's Crew. It was so amazing and pleasantly surprising to see so many familiar faces eating dinner to help our boy and our quest to find a cure. Family, neighbors, coworkers, even one of the checkers from Costco was eating at Chili's to help us raise money. It was such a beautiful reminder of how many lives our amazing boy has touched; how many people he has inspired; and what a wonderfully supportive community we are surrounded by.

Thank you to everyone who is helping us on this journey. No matter how big, or how small you may think your assistance is...it all adds up quickly, and we feel every bit of love sent our way. Thank you for being part of our lives.