Disappointed

We are a little bummed.  No rain here in a good while and all firework shows have been cancelled.  Also, fireworks in general have been banned.  Which is not good for all the tents that popped up last week trying to sell them!  

Fires are starting.  Last night I went outside and the air was thick with smoke and the smell of fire.  Other people on Facebook in the area were talking about the smoke too and they live 20 miles away.  But we do live in a valley so the smoke settles.  No word on what was burning yet.  

War Memorial Hot Air Balloon Show

Last week, when I was leaving class, I saw the Goodyear blimp.  I called Sahara and told her to go outside and look towards the college to see if she could see it.  They could and thought it was pretty cool.  The next day it was in the paper that the Goodyear blimp had made a rare appearance over Arkansas.  I realized, this was probably the first time they had ever seen it.

Saturday morning I was up before the kids and saw on facebook that there was a hot air balloon show in Little Rock that day.  Since we didn't have plans, later that day we headed to Little Rock.

The first thing Canyon spied was a fire truck...and if that's all we came to see, he would have been happy.

It was super hot and food was outrageously priced.  Plus you have to wait in one line to buy food tickets, then get in another line for the food.  Next year, if we go, we are bringing our own food and drinks.  Many people did, but we didn't know the rules.  $30 for 4 corn dogs and 4 lemonades and 2 icees to share was crazy.

 

After the icees we were cooled down and the balloons started going up.

 

 

The pilot of the monkey balloon was dressed as a banana and all the pilots gave out trading cards.  

Canyon's first card was a monkey card!

 

 

The pilot of the balloon in the middle with the diagonal pattern (below), let Canyon get in the basket and turn on the fire.  He really liked that! Jared took a picture on his phone but I don't have it to post here.  I had to stay back and guard the chairs while they collected cards.

 

I was disappointed that there was only 10 balloons when the news said 20-25.  But there was a breeze and the 'ride' balloons (for $200) were cancelled.  Without the breeze we would have had heat-strokes though.
We will probably go back if we aren't doing something else, but next time we will bring our own eats and drinks!

Look what Sahara did!!!

Before:
 

 

 

 

 

After:
 

 

Her hair is being sent to Locks of Love :)

The Body

They're baaaack.

The other day, Canyon was talking in his room.  This is typical and if you ask him he usually says he is talking to an animal of some sort, a known pet, or a known person.  This time Sahara walked in and he was waving to the wall.  Sahara asked, 'who are you waving to?' Canyon said, 'the body.'  This freaked Sahara out and she grabbed his hand and they bee-lined it to the living room.  Later we all went in Canyon's room and I asked him where the body is.  He went up to the wall and patted it.  I said, 'the body is in the wall?' he said, 'yeah.'  We tried to get more information like how big or little the body was or if it was a girl or a boy body, but Canyon wouldn't answer us.

This morning I woke up to a mans voice that said 'thank you' in my ear.  When I told Sahara about it, she said she heard a voice in her ear that said, 'I don't know.'

Later today, when Sahara was blow-drying her hair, Malaki was staring at the wall ( a different wall ), then he got in the puppy- play-pounce pose, growled at the wall and took off down the hall.  Sahara looked down at him and he was standing there looking back like 'is it gonna come chase me?'

Sahara asked if the house was built over something that is making this happen, but I told her stuff like this has happen all my life (and hers) and we are just receptive to it, so no matter where we go, it will still happen.  Nothing bad or really scary has happened, just stuff that's unexplainable.

Canyon calling it 'the body' is a little creepy though.

No more oopsie

Sahara's little Sunfire is back from the doctor.

Bye HHR rental.  You were fun to drive and zippy.

 

Baseball BIG league

The boys, Jared and Jonathan, are on a new baseball team and league this year.  Jonathan actually was on it last year too because he is a year older then Jared.

So, the girls had to make t-shirts to support the team.  It took about 3 hours to get them painted.  The livingroom was a clutter of teens, paint, and lots of sparkles. ( the R's are glitter)

The team doesn't really have a name.  They are Russellville Post 20.  Jonathan says last year they called themselves 'The Goons'.  Don't ask.  But neither of the girls wanted to put Goons on their shirts.

The boys will be getting navy blue uniforms, but they aren't in yet so they just have simple white ones for now.

This is the 'true couples' according to, well, all of them! haha

Updates on several things

Sahara's car is in the body shop.  There was an insurance issue because the driver of the other car was excluded from the insurance of the car she (the other girl) was driving.  But, I have under-insured and uninsured on my policy (THANK GOD) so everything is covered.  Including a rental car for up to 20 days.  This is necessary because I am taking summer classes this year and Sahara has to be responsible for getting Canyon to his three therapies every week.  Plus, this will not leave them trapped at home all day while I'm in class.  They can go to the library, park, rent a movie,...  This morning, she took herself to Tech to take her ACT again.  If we didn't have the rental, we all would have had to get up at 6:30 to take her.

Summer classes are a week underway.  4 more weeks to go for summer I then I have summer II.  It has been HARD.  I'm in class for 4 hours, home for 2 for lunch and to get as much homework done as I possibly can, then back for 2 1/2 more hours and home again with another 2-3  hours of homework.  My kids are not happy.  Canyon especially.  He does not like Mommy being gone.  He may sit in his room for hours watching movies, but he just wants to know I am here.

About 2 months ago I took Canyon to the doctor for constipation issues (again).  While there the doctor did the regular check up things and noticed that he wasn't getting any response to his reflexes.  You know, how they tap on your knee and your leg kicks out a little.  So, he had Canyon do a series of neck x-rays.  Canyon only co-operated for the first 7 but he was suppose to have 12 pictures taken.  7 was good enough.  Then we were set up with an appt at the neurologist.  We went last week.  She had Canyon do something such as squeeze his hands together while she did the tapping.  That worked.  He does have reflex, he just has to be doing something else with a different part of his body for it to be seen.  That appt led to conversation about other issues.  He has sleep apnea bad.  So, we are scheduled for a sleep study the day after his birthday.  He also has not been seen by the Genetics Clinic for several years because the last time I went we were there 3 hours past our appt and we just left.  The neurologist assured me that there is a new doctor in that department and highly recommended that we go again.  She said, of course, all the doctors are very familiar with Down Syndrome at Children's, but that they always rely on consult for different issues with a specialist in the field.  So, in November we head back again to Genetics.

That's about it.  The house is a wreck, we have no food, the laundry is piled up, the bills haven't been paid.  I don't have time for anything during the week, so...I better get busy now!!

Oh no!

Coming home from Taco Bell last night, Sahara got rear-ended.  She was about to make a right hand turn and saw the lady behind her not slowing down. In Jared's words: she was coming in hot.  Sahara thought about running into the ditch to avoid her but said right when she thought that, she got slammed.  It is actually a good thing that she didn't do that because the ditch at that area is deep and curved and she would have damage on both ends and probably need a tow truck to get her out too.


She called me as soon as it happened.  I headed that way, a mile from the house.  On the way I called 911 for them.  When I got there, Sahara and Jared were walking around and the other lady was in her car.  I went to check on her.  She was young too and teary, but ok.  Her car was in worse shape. 
She blamed her brakes failing, but we are all pretty sure she was texting.  Her car was pretty new.

I had Sahara call Blake (her bus driver/ Cheif of Police)  Then I had them all move to a safer location because another wreck nearly happened while we were waiting for the police.  Blake came right away and beat the police by 5 or more minutes.  He stayed to make sure it was all handled ok even though he wasn't on duty.

We filled out the reports and another guy helped both cars get drivable.  Sahara's muffler and bumper were rubbing the tire.  Jared drove it back to the house.  We go Monday to the police station to pick up the report.

Monday my summer classes start and I was relying on Sahara to take Canyon to therapy on Monday's and Tuesday's.  The reason I got her a car in the first place was so I could take summer classes and not leave them stranded. 

Oh well, we will figure something out.  At least everyone was ok.

End of season

I it always so hard to get a picture when contact with the ball is made.  This one is looking pretty good though.

Between ennings there is singing and dancing.  Canyon was not a big participater this year.  Jared actually got to see the devil in Canyon when he got mad at him and Sahara, picked up dirt and threw it and spit at them.  He was really mad and this doesn't happen very often at all.  It's a completely different side of Canyon.  Below is the Canyon we know very well.

Canyon gets his trophy from Mark (the guy who puts this together every year)

Team pictures didn't happen this year because of a mess up in the schedule.  So after the last game, before hotdogs, chips and soda, the teams got together and the parents took their own team pictures.