Bryce's little birthday celebration at school.

Bryce's 8th birthday is on Sunday, so since it doesn't fall on a school day, I asked his teacher what day would be best to do a little celebration with his class and she suggested today at P.E. time.

So I decided to bring Bryce lunch from McDonald's, his favorite, and his Grandma (my mom) and his Great Grandma (my mom's mom, who just recently arrived for the winter from New York) met me at the dining hall for lunch as well. I also brought Mary's three oldest something from McDonald's and Brianna joined us with her lunch, so we had a table or two full.

After lunch they go to the playground. After playing and running around for awhile, the class came over to the cement picnic table that has been there for as long as I have been alive (at least if I remember correctly) and I had brought a couple dozen or so home baked chocolate chip cookies and those single serving ice cream cups. The kids chowed down, even though they had just had lunch. Bryce's Grandma and Great-Grandma joined us over there as well and his Papa (my Dad) even stopped by for a bite or two and a couple pictures.

Bryce really liked his little mini-school celebration and thanked me several times and told me I was the "greatest Mom in the world". I'll take those words from him any day!

The 2nd grade class of HSCA Making silly faces

A picture with Papa and Grandma.....
.......with Katie-bug added in.

My sweet and special big boy and I.

Groundhog Day versus The little things in life.....

Do you ever wake up in the morning and feel like you are in the movie Groundhog Day? I have never actually seen the whole movie, but know enough about it to know that a guy keeps waking up and reliving the same day over and over again, and at times that is what I feel like when I am making the same beds up every morning, getting the same school clothes, backpack, lunch boxes, etc.

After getting Bryce his breakfast and making sure he is eating, I go on to Connor and get him dressed for the day, his bed made, his room in order and give him his breakfast. Then on to Bryce's room to get his school stuff together, his bed made (yes, he is at the age where he can make it himself, although I always have to go behind him and make it correctly, and he does so on Saturday's and Sunday's, but school days it's easier if I just make it myself). Put laundry in.....well you get the picture. I am not in any way complaining here, just stating facts. After taking both boys to their two different schools, I come home to start a second shift which includes then making our bed and straightening up our room, laundry, kitchen, etc.

So this morning, it was a nice little surprise to walk in the bedroom and see our bed all made up really nicely, pillows and all, the bedroom all straightened up and the floor was even vacuumed. Thanks Babe for doing these special little things once in a while. It was very sweet and thoughtful of you and I always appreciate it and it makes me appreciate you a little more each time.

Another sweet video......

Check out this link of an event where Sarah hears there is a little boy with Down Syndrome near by.........


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goBLdEYJ0ow

A sweet little girl with Down Syndrome gets to meet Palin/McCain

I will be honest, I am not a huge fan of Rush Limbaugh. I know he has some great things to say, but I just don't care for the man himself and the way he conducts himself at times, but none of that matters to me for this post. I am all for anything that brings attention to special needs children and to their parents. I saw this story on a friend of mine, Dori's, blog and she also has a special needs child. I thought it was a neat story and obviously it meant a lot to the family that John McCain and Sarah Palin took the time out to meet them and take pictures with them.



That is the one thing that I love about both Sarah Palin and Cindy McCain is their love and devotion to these sweet little special needs children.











Family with Down Syndrome Child Meets John McCain and Sarah Palin
September 9, 2008


BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Kurt in Pittsburgh, hello, sir. Nice to have you on the EIB Network, and how about the Steelers defense?



CALLER: How about those Steelers, huh?



RUSH: How about that?



CALLER: Hey, listen, Rush, longtime listener, first-time caller, one of those Bible, family, gun clingers from western Pennsylvania.



RUSH: Thank you.



CALLER: And I wanted to share a story with you. A week ago last Saturday we went to the Palin-McCain rally in Washington, Pennsylvania, was the day after he announced her, and we have a five-year-old daughter with Down syndrome, and we made a sign that said: "We Love Kids with Down Syndrome." So when they pulled in in their bus the sign did catch their, McCain and Palin and the rest of their family, it caught their eye, we could tell, they gave us a thumbs-up from the bus, so we were all excited just by that --


RUSH: Wait, wait, wait. Who gave you the thumbs up, McCain and Palin?



CALLER: McCain, Palin, Cindy McCain, we could see them from the bus. We were in a position where we had eye contact with them --



RUSH: Oh, cool!



CALLER: My wife was holding our daughter.



RUSH: Very, very, very cool.



CALLER: It was really cool, Rush. I was like, "Wow, that's awesome," because I love Governor Palin and so I thought that's really neat. So then we moved around as the bus was getting ready to pull out, we kind of positioned ourselves so we could just wave them on and a Secret Service agent came up to us and said, "Hey, can you come with us?" I was like, "Do we have a choice?"



RUSH: (laughing) You shouldn't have worried. It's not the Clinton administration.


CALLER: Right. So we accompanied them up the hill, we went right to the bus, where it was, and Governor Palin, Senator McCain, Cindy, Todd Palin, they're all standing there. We're in this inner circle with just us and them, and the Secret Service agent, and they came right up to us and thanked us for coming out, said they loved our sign, and Governor Palin immediately said, "May I hold your daughter?" and our daughter Chloe, who's five, went right to her, and I have some pictures I'd love to send you maybe when I'm done here, but Governor Palin was hugging Chloe, and then her little daughter brought their baby Trig who has Down syndrome from the bus, he was napping, and Chloe went right over and kissed him on the cheek, and my son Nolan who's nine, he thanked her.



RUSH: This is amazing.



CALLER: I will send you all the stuff, Senator McCain was talking to my son, and we thanked him for his service, and he asked my son if he wanted to see the bus, and we were hanging out and it was very surreal. I felt like we could have had a pizza and a beer with them, they were so warm.



RUSH: You know what? I want to put you on hold. I want Snerdley to give you our super-secret, known-only-to-three-people here, e-mail address.



CALLER: I will send you everything, Rush.



RUSH: And then could you send us these pictures? Would you mind if we put them on the website?



CALLER: I would be honored, and my main thing is they are warm, kind, genuine people, and they represent the best of this country.



RUSH: That's right. And when you send these pictures, make sure you identify them. I mean, we'll know Palin and McCain, of course. Identify yourselves.



CALLER: I will, I will identify everybody in the picture, Rush, and God bless you for being a beacon of hope and truth in this country.



RUSH: Oh, no, no. It's nothing, it's nothing. You're doing the Lord's work.



CALLER: Well, we're very blessed and I want people to know what a blessing it is to have a child with Down syndrome. These kids, they're angels.


RUSH: That's the thing. There's always good to be found in everything that happens. It may be a while before it reveals itself.



CALLER: Absolutely.



RUSH: Right, and when she hugged my daughter I said, here's the difference, this candidate embraces life and all its limitless possibilities.



RUSH: All right.



CALLER: That's what she is.



RUSH: Terrific, okay, I gotta run here, but I'm going to put you on hold.



CALLER: Thank you, Rush.



RUSH: Thank you, Kurt. I really appreciate it.

The sweetest song....beware, tissues needed.

I was searching today for a picture of a child using a special breathing machine for a Mom on my Spina Bifida list. They just found out their child has to use one and the little boy is scared and wanted to see another child using one. So I went on a search on the Internet hoping to help this little boy work out his fears.

In doing so, I stumbled across a blog of a Mom who has a sweet little down syndrome girl. The title of her blog was Upwithdowns, I thought that was clever. At the bottom of her blog she has posted a video called Brittany's song.

When I first watched the video called Brittany's song, I was so focused on the little girl and was pretty much a blubbering mess with tears streaming down my face. It was so sweet and precious. I was shocked when the song ended and up popped the album and it was Jonathan White. I said right out loud "Hey I know him". Jonathan was in the Brotherhood quartet back in the day, but since then has been traveling around singing and releasing Christian albums. I just didn't recognize him at first because he has "grown". :)

I met Jonathan a couple times and thought his voice was beautiful back then. I knew he was still singing but haven't heard much about him since then. I have since learned that he and his wife had a daughter and thought everything was perfect. Perfect pregnancy, etc. but right after giving birth the doctors realized there was a problem with Brittany. A few years later they had a son, and even though he is the younger one of the two, he is like the big, protective brother.

Jonathan wrote two songs that he sings for Brittany. The first link is when she is younger. The next one is a different song when she is a little older and the third video is an interview where he talks about the journey he and his wife went on when they found out Brittany's diagnosis and then he sings to Brittany again and this time she is 13.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=25857482


I love the innocence of her in this one. She doesn't have a care in the world, doing her fish lips and all. So sweet!
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=25853898

Here is the interview and then him singing with her again.
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=26034962


To make this even more real for you, you can go to Jonathan's biography at http://www.jonathanwhitemusic.com/biography.php. It is really amazing what he has dealt with and the ministry he has in spite of it all.

Just a thought.......

"Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune; but great minds rise above them."

Washington Irving
1783-1859, Author