Marathon Moments--Day 2--7/2/2011

A little more success this morning....Gave up two cookies (of 4..HA!), had a banana, 3 Catalyst, and a Diet Coke.  :)  It's a little better, I guess?!?!

Start Time:  6:55am
Distance:  6.11
Pace: 10.12
End Time: 7:56 am
Calories:  850
Ended the week:  25.48 miles (Sun-Sat)

Tomorrow will be a rest day, which will include NO running, but I will do P90X Yoga X in my garage in 99° heat...so, that would be considered Bikram style??  Yes??  (I really think I would rather run!!)

Until next time...grace, peace, hope, love and prayers!

T

Marathon Moments--Day 1--7/1/2011

Well on Monday I got the news that I was in fact accepted into the Houston Marathon.  I'm anticipating that as the months, weeks and days pass, I will find myself full of excitement and probably on some days full of dread!  Today, I'm excited and full of hope.  I've decided that I really want to have a daily record of this journey, so those of you that get my blog because you love my cute and sometimes witty stories of my kids, it's not always going to be that.  However, just like my life parenting my boys and all that is autism, it's a journey and a struggle that I want to cherish and remember.  So today is Day 1 of my Houston Marathon Journey....

My Marathon goal is to complete it in 4hours.
Official Training Begins Sept 12 using the 26Point2 App for iPhone

Day 1
I've been mostly running at night 8-9 PM about 5-6 miles, 5 times a week.  I'm trying to log about 25-30 miles a week.  I'm a terrible morning runner, my per mile pace is about 30-60 seconds slower.  Today I decided I need to slowly start training my body for mornings.  Got up at 6:00 am, ate 4 cookies and drank a Diet Coke (what am I, an idiot??---dont' answer that).  Ran 4.18 miles, felt sluggish the whole time, but this thought kept creeping into my brain....what if I not only complete my first Marathon, what if I actually meet my goal of a 4 hour finish?  That's a good enough time to qualify for Boston!!  (THE Marathon!!)  Today, I really think I can do it!!  But I gotta start getting up early and NOT EAT COOKIES!! 

Stats for today:
Distance:  4.18
Pace: 10:42 per mile
Calories Burned:  580
Total for the Week: 19.37

Thought for the Day:
Nothing is Hopeless--If you ask me today if I can go out and run 26.2 miles in under 4 hours, I would tell you NO way!!  But this past week I've been studying Jeremiah 18 and I surely don't want to be like the people of Judah in verse 12 "But they will reply, 'it's no use.  We will continue with our own plans; each of us will follow the stubbornness of his evil heart'" My lazy heart tells me "why oh why are you doing this silly marathon, what are you trying to prove"...well my joyful heart tells me as does Proverbs 16:3 "Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed."  So you can surely see where my heart lies with my Savior and Lord and I have hope that my plans will succed.  And if this Marathon isn't part of His plan for me, well then so be it, but for now....I think it is!

Until next time....grace, hope, peace, love and prayers!

T

Oh yeah, he's got swag!

The last two days of picking Spencer up from school, he looks over at his Therapist Kori and says "eee, gon-k-ddis".  It's hilarious, he looks at her says it and starts cracking up.  She told me he's saying "redonkulous" and that he will look across the room even when they aren't working together, and say it.  I've been making him say it all the time, becuase it's so funny.  Well, the jokes on me, cause all along what I THOUGHT was a funny little word that he and Kori made up is actually "pop culture slang".  I heard it on TV last night and was like, whaaattt??? that's Spencers word, so I googled it and sure enough the Urban Dictionary has this definition....re.donk'u.lous adj. 1. significantly more absurd than ridiculous to an almost impossible extreme; without possibility of serious consideration.

Who knew, my boys got more swag than wiz kahfila. 

Have a REDONKULOUS weekend y'all!!


Until next time....grace, peace, hope, love and prayers!

T

It's the Little Things

It's been almost a year since I last blogged, but found myself reading those old posts and just about kicking myself for not keeping up with it.  The past week I keep telling myself, I'll blog later tonight and I don't.  Today I was going through my notebook..that dumping ground where I take notes from meetings.  It's a total wreck with work meetings, church meetings, etc.  I came across a sheet where I had given Spencer a highlighter and pen to "entertain" himself during one of these meetings.  I didn't think much of it at the time, but today as I was eating my "rabbit food" at my desk, I looked up and noticed a similar drawing from Feb 2010.  It probably doesn't seem like a big thing to most people that my son after 16 months has somewhat legible handwriting, but sometimes you just have to be thankful for the little things.

Drawing from Feb 2010

Drawing from June 2011

A good friend gave me a slip of paper that stays clipped to the first picture that gives me hope...

"I know that recovery lies ahead.  I believe that if we were the ones chosen to endure this hardship, then God will give us the grace to endure...My hope isn't based on my circumstances.  My hope is based on my decision to hope.  Hope is a choice." --Brenda's Choice--the choice to focus on her future beyond the storm.

Until next time, grace, hope, peace, love and prayers!

T

Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the Lord.
But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him.
Jeremiah 17: 5 & 7

He Amazes Me When I Least Expect It

Many of you are intimately aware that Spencer is not potty trained. Okay, well maybe he is, but only if I remember to take him. Call me lazy, forgetful, scatter brained, whatever; I'm just not very good at remembering to take him. We (okay so maybe the therapists mostly) have been working TIRELESSLY the past year on teaching Spencer to "mand". (I think I've explained this before, but "manding" is basically the skill of "asking" or "requesting" something.) This is CRITICAL to move to the next step in getting him OUT OF PULLUPS for good! (Cause let me tell you, a 9 year old poo is no fun at ALL!!). This is the one thing that makes me crazy and completely irritates me about having a kid with Autism. I mean, come on I have been changing diapers for 11 years! ENOUGH already! (You might be thinking, geez Tami, if it bothered you that much you would not be so "forgetful" in taking him, but oh contraire it is not that simple...we do really good for a few weeks, but then I give up, thinking it will NEVER happen. The only thing worse than changing a pull up is changing real clothes that have been poo'd on...YUCK!)

Well, we had a little break through at home yesterday. I got home and was a little sleepy, so decided to lie down on the couch and read a little while. Spencer was quietly playing his video game. (He loves his video game, but more than that, he really likes to watch someone else play.) So as I was reading I started to doze off a little bit. Next thing I know, I feel a little tap, tap, tap, on my arm. I think to myself, that it's probably Parker needing something, but as I open my eyes, there's sweet little Lou standing there with the Wii control in his hand looking at me. I asked, "Do you want mommy to play?" He says "ess".

Please pray that we get to see more manding, I feel like we are so close!! More than that please pray we get him out of pull ups before he turns 10!! :)

Until next time...grace, peace, hope, love and prayers

T

The Amazing Music Man

Most of you know how much Spencer LOVES water, specifically water in motion, like sprinklers and splashing. You also probably know how much he likes music. Well, last night I went to pick him up from my mom’s house and she said he was making music with the water. We talked for a minute about it, but I really didn’t actually witness him doing it. We get home about 8:30 and needed to water the front plants, so I hand him the hose to help me out, his favorite job of all!!

After about 10 minutes my neighbor Bekkah pulls up with her friend Darian in the car. Both of these girls absolutely adore Spencer; Bekkah babysits for us and Darian is his caregiver at Promise Land. They hop out of the car and come over to talk to me and visit with Spencer. We start chit chatting and Spencer goes on about his way of watering the plants. Now that he realizes I’m not watching, he starts watering everything else; the house, the windows, the concrete ground, the grass, ME, the girls, everything. As he was doing so I noticed he seemed to be not only watching the water but listening to the sounds the different surfaces made when they were sprayed with water. (He especially liked the reaction he got out of us when he sprayed us!) I started thinking about what my mom had told me and realized YES, he is making music with the sounds of the water!! He would “spray, spray, spray the grass, then spray, spray the windows, then spray, spray, spray the grass again, and then spray the door, then spray, spray the windows again. I know that probably doesn’t make a lot of sense reading it and you have zero perception of the different sounds it was making. If you were there listening to it though, you could start to recognize he was making a pattern, and I like to believe he was trying to make music!! He is AMAZING….The Amazing Music Man!!! I think he may be on to some cutting edge new music movement!

Until next time, grace, peace, hope, love and prayers!

T

The Little White Rocking Chair--CBTX Part 2

Last post you got to hear all about Parker’s time at Camp Blessing but the heart of that story lies with his brother. Spencer went to Camp Blessing for the first time last summer (Camp Barnabas back then) and had an amazing time. I can’t even begin to tell you how nervous I was about sending him. This is very ironic if you know me very well, I am super laid back in my parenting style and pretty much give my little birdies their wings and then gently shove them out of the nest to fly on their own. Parker was sent to a week long overnight camp at the young age of 7. But with Spencer it’s very different; he seems so “helpless” for a lack of a better word. He struggles with very basic things…showering, eating, dressing; and he is a big time wanderer. I was so worried about him getting lost, forgotten or yes, I even thought what if someone mistreats him or “takes advantage” of him and he can’t stand up for himself or defend himself. And to add to that, he can’t talk so how would I even know what happened at camp, and even worse if something bad happened!! The drop off last year, I was a complete basket case, I cried the whole way home. So worried about him!

This year was TOTALLY different!! I was so excited to send him! This due to the amazing time he had last year and the very special friendship we have since formed with his counselor, Mike. A few days before he left Mike asked if we were okay with having him be Spencer’s counselor again this year!! Of course, we said yes!! I felt so comfortable him being there, I honestly didn’t even think about it once while he was gone!! (Last year I think I emailed the camp director every day!)

When pick up day came around, I couldn’t wait to see him!! We first went by Parker’s cabin to get him, because I was most curious about his experience as a sib. We then headed over to Spencer’s cabin, we walked in the door and he got a big smile on his face and gave us all big hugs but was quickly back to being interested in looking at his camp book with Counselor Mike. Spencer can’t tell us what went on at camp, but I KNOW he had a great time.  But for us to know about his time there, we have to rely on what his counselors tell us and our own feelings and impressions of the experience.

There are so many things I would love to share about my impressions and feelings, but so much of it really can’t be put into words. I could probably sum it up that the people there are probably the closest example to Christ like love that I have ever witnessed!! In the world of parenting a special needs child, we are often faced with adversity, prejudice, side ways stares, and sometimes people being down right nasty. (But then again you see that everywhere no matter if you have a disabled child or not) To see such an out pouring of genuine love for all the kids is such an amazing testament and at the same time reassuring that there is good in this world. On top of that, many of our special kids have behaviors and tantrums that aren’t for the faint of heart and as parents we deal with them in hopes of a rare smile and hug from our kid. But to see these volunteers willingly and boldly stand up to the challenge and give so much of themselves for very little in return, is truly amazing. Man, you can just feel the presence of the Holy Spirit when you are in the room during closing ceremonies.

Okay, so those are some of the things I felt, but here are a few little tidbits I got from Mike when we picked him up….

The Cross Carry
I think this is my favorite story from camp. During the last night at camp they have a Cross carry where the Cross goes from cabin to cabin and as it does each group comes out stands around the Cross and they pray over the week. Mike said they had some “challenging” kids in their cabin, so as they were going around, the counselors would say things like, "thank you for giving me patience", "thank you for giving me wisdom", etc. Mike said when it came around to him; he felt kind of bad because Spencer is such a joy, he prayed, "thank you for joyfulness, smiles and laughs." I just LOVE that!!

The Little White Rocking Chair
At the end of camp the parents come and they have a closing ceremony where we all gather in the main room, the worship band plays, they show a video and the Directors talk about the week. As we are sitting there, Mike leans over and said “see that little white chair over there with the drum? That’s Spencer’s chair. He got to sit there every night with the worship band and play his drum.” Right about that time, the band started getting into position to play and Spencer hopped right up, went on stage and sat in his chair and played along with the band. I LOVE IT!! (Wish I had a picture, but here's one of little drummer Lou)

Everyone Loves a Spencer
As we were about to leave, we were saying our goodbyes and KT, the keyboard girl from the band, came up and introduced herself and said how much she loved Spencer and wants to come hang out with him sometime. Well, about that same time a few others came up and were saying how much they enjoyed spending time with Spencer. Mike, then says to me that they have decided that he can’t be Spencer's counselor anymore, because he needs to share the Spencer love with the other counselors. I said, “they are going to have to get my approval first.” But seriously, it fills my heart with so much joy and love to know that these complete strangers have grown to love both of my kids so much in just a few short days at camp.  (here's a picture of Spencer banging it out on KT's keyboard)

When I get frustrated with Spencer and his autism, I remind myself that I wouldn’t have experienced this powerful example of Christ or have these people in my life if it weren’t for autism. Man, I am humbled beyond words, because I am so far from exhibiting this kind of love. It’s a powerful message that I have A LOT of work to do….

Until next time…grace, peace, hope, love and prayers


T

Mike gave Spencer the award for Joyfulness and chose 1 John 4:7

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.