It's really hard to believe we were in the UK last year this time. I think back on that time and I remember how sick I got, and how miserable I felt. And also how many seizures Max was having. And the feelings of denial that they would just stop, and we would be able to stay. I miss our friends. I miss being able to have dinner, or walk to the store and get a basket full of groceries I had never heard of before. I miss meeting new friends, and watching new tv shows.
And I miss London too. London is like it's own country. I know so many people just can't understand the connection to that place...and maybe I can't even explain it well. It's just so strange to feel so "at home" in a foreign country, and know you can't live there. I feel the same way every time I see pictures of videos of India. I don't know how to explain it.
I guess I'm just feeling sentimental and the wishing some travel was on the horizon! Instead, there is laundry, and calls to insurance companies, and a grumpy little boy who can't be happy unless I am no less than 2 feet away from him today.
Ho-hum...
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Monday, February 16, 2009
Chill Out Chair...
Today we went to the other side of Denver, what we lovingly refer to North Dallas, to pick up Max's new Chill-Out Chair!
For those of you who have been following along, this chair has been in the works since September! The vendor with Freedom Concepts came to Max's therapy clinic to show off the bikes they offer, and we went away with the obsession to get this chair!
We worked with Variety Colorado to get funding for the chair. They are an amazing group that's mission is
"Variety – The Children’s Charity’s mission is to provide life-saving and life-enriching assistance to children challenged by physical and mental disabilities, poverty, abuse and neglect."
We filled out all of the forms and finally got word after the New Year that it was approved, and we would be getting his chair within the next couple of months. I got the call last week that it was already here so we set up the time to come get it!
We went out to Kid's Mobility to pick up his new chair. Kid's Mobility is another incredible organization based in Denver that supplies children with gently used durable medical equipment. I've donated several of Max's pieces of equipment to them. They have a warehouse of DME that they pair up with the kids that need it and keep the cycle going.
I wished Max was feeling a little better today for his big reveal, but unfortunately, he's coming down with a little something. Here are a few pictures of him in his new chair once we got home. He does love it! He sat up in it until bedtime when he was nodding off and we finally brought him up to bed!
He's getting a little excited in these photos because he's singing opera!
And here he is eating...
And here, trying to see if he can get out of it...he can not!
There are a lot more pictures on flickr, and I'm sure this will be his new backdrop for most of his photos!
We are so thankful to Freedom Concepts for showing the chair to us, and getting us in touch with Variety Colorado, and also Kid's Mobility for their partnership too! We are definitely going to get every bit of use we can out of Max's new chair!!!
For those of you who have been following along, this chair has been in the works since September! The vendor with Freedom Concepts came to Max's therapy clinic to show off the bikes they offer, and we went away with the obsession to get this chair!
We worked with Variety Colorado to get funding for the chair. They are an amazing group that's mission is
"Variety – The Children’s Charity’s mission is to provide life-saving and life-enriching assistance to children challenged by physical and mental disabilities, poverty, abuse and neglect."
We filled out all of the forms and finally got word after the New Year that it was approved, and we would be getting his chair within the next couple of months. I got the call last week that it was already here so we set up the time to come get it!
We went out to Kid's Mobility to pick up his new chair. Kid's Mobility is another incredible organization based in Denver that supplies children with gently used durable medical equipment. I've donated several of Max's pieces of equipment to them. They have a warehouse of DME that they pair up with the kids that need it and keep the cycle going.
I wished Max was feeling a little better today for his big reveal, but unfortunately, he's coming down with a little something. Here are a few pictures of him in his new chair once we got home. He does love it! He sat up in it until bedtime when he was nodding off and we finally brought him up to bed!
He's getting a little excited in these photos because he's singing opera!
And here he is eating...
And here, trying to see if he can get out of it...he can not!
There are a lot more pictures on flickr, and I'm sure this will be his new backdrop for most of his photos!
We are so thankful to Freedom Concepts for showing the chair to us, and getting us in touch with Variety Colorado, and also Kid's Mobility for their partnership too! We are definitely going to get every bit of use we can out of Max's new chair!!!
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Book Club...
Well, that was fun! Now that we all agree that the first class I went to was an absolute nightmare, let's move on to something else!
My friend, Jenny, has this "Goodreads" badge on her blog, so like a monkey, I clicked on it to see what it was, and found a gem of a site!
Goodreads is a site that catalogs your books, allows you to write reviews, recommend books to your friends, make comments on your friends' book choices. I loaded my books into my list, and put my own badge on the side of my page here. So go ahead...click on it...you know you want to!
After you click on it...and look through my books, let me know if any of them look like something you'd like to read together. I want to do a sort of a book-club hosted on my blog. Maybe we can host it a month at a time on eachother's blog. If there is any interest, let me know in comments. I have a couple of ideas for a book choice, and of course, if you have any ideas you can comment those too.
I've never participated in a book club, so I don't really know how it all works. My best guess is we all read the same book, then comment on it. Seems easy enough. I know how to read, and have opinions on what I have read!
So, what about you?
My friend, Jenny, has this "Goodreads" badge on her blog, so like a monkey, I clicked on it to see what it was, and found a gem of a site!
Goodreads is a site that catalogs your books, allows you to write reviews, recommend books to your friends, make comments on your friends' book choices. I loaded my books into my list, and put my own badge on the side of my page here. So go ahead...click on it...you know you want to!
After you click on it...and look through my books, let me know if any of them look like something you'd like to read together. I want to do a sort of a book-club hosted on my blog. Maybe we can host it a month at a time on eachother's blog. If there is any interest, let me know in comments. I have a couple of ideas for a book choice, and of course, if you have any ideas you can comment those too.
I've never participated in a book club, so I don't really know how it all works. My best guess is we all read the same book, then comment on it. Seems easy enough. I know how to read, and have opinions on what I have read!
So, what about you?
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Smile...you're on candid camera!
Sometimes I wonder just why I am the one to be put in such ridiculous situations. I have a feeling because I won't keep my mouth shut in said situations. I will say what needs to be said, and make sure that the next person doesn't have to deal with the same issues I had to.
Last night was one of those situations.
I went to my CNA class without really knowing what to expect. I signed in, got my packet of supplies, and books and sat in the very back...my favorite place to sit in any class.
The class consisted of 10 other students, mostly women, one guy. The teacher came in and started right off with telling us "a bit about herself". She said she got started 38 years ago as a CNA "just like you". "Only, I had just had an illegitimate daughter...you know what illegitimate means don't you?, It means I was an awful person...I had a daughter without being married...so that made me an awful person...they charged me more for car insurance...I didn't have a job...and after the second time of her being in the hospital for dehydration-the nurses asked me what I was going to do with my life-and that's when I decided to be a CNA. So then I moved to the big city with me and my illegitimate child and got a job at a hospital, and met a man and got married, had another child who was disabled, then had another child and when that baby was 6 months old I got a divorce. So I was on my own and had my oldest daughter, and my youngest child, and I couldn't handle my 5 year old disabled child any more so I had to give her to foster care. That's when I got my LPN and have been working in nursing homes ever since. ".
**--BLINK--BLINK--**
Yeah...that was the first ten minutes of class.
She went on to tell us about the "Moslim Man" she had to work with..."You know about the Moslims...they don't like women...that's why I left and started my own school" This is when I choked on the drink I was taking. She mentioned to one of the young ladies in the class that she didn't need a man in her life, she would do fine as a single mom, and once she got this training she wouldn't need to worry about paying rent because she could afford a good apartment, that's what she did. "Even though we had to sit around on the floor like Chinamen, it was still fun.", oh yeah, this student...she was Asian.
Once we got past the introductions, she started into the packet information. Where she told us that if you have a felony or were crazy you would never get to be a nurse. (Really...because woman you are C-R-A-Z-Y!!) She also told us that she didn't want any "crazies" in her class, and if anyone had a mental illness to just "take your medicine-I don't want to deal with any crazies"...then she got off on a story about the nursing home that takes care of "the crazies" how they were the worst of the worst. But also the most fun to take care of, because "they won't remember you from one day to the next anyway.".
She told us about the Rehab hospital here...about how it's the best in the nation, but "I wouldn't work there...I can't stand seeing 16 year old kids in wheelchairs, knowing they'll never walk again.".
Oh my gosh...it was awful...this is just a peppering of her ignorant remarks, she gave horrific story after horrific story about the local nursing homes, and how "it's my job to teach you how to deal with all of their behavioral issues, about how they'll lay down in front of the door, but you just have to step right over them, because they are acting like children looking for attention.".
But the kicker for me was when she pointed out "all you moms with special needs kids, when we go to clinicals, (meaning going for the 8 hour days in the nursing homes), don't be talking about your special needs kids and all their disabilities...or how sick they are...or that they're dying...nobody wants to hear that.".
That was towards the end of the class. I gathered my things at the end and barely got to my car before I started crying. What an awful human. The head of this school that puts out the workers that go and care for those who can't care for themselves. I was sick.
And before you ask why I didn't get up after the first racial slur, I had no idea what the implications were for me leaving. If this was the only class I could take for this program, or if I could go to another school. So I sat through the first class. And called first thing this morning to the agency who sent me there.
Thankfully, they were absolutely supportive of me. And said they would get me into any other school I wanted. I chose another one, and will be starting March 9th. It's a bit further from our house, but hopefully it will be better. The agency also said they aren't going to use that school any more, and they will offer the other mothers in the class to take another class somewhere else.
So...that was my fiasco of a class. It made me sick...and mad...and cry. I still believe I only had to go there in order to blow my siren about it. And I am more hopeful about the other class.
Last night was one of those situations.
I went to my CNA class without really knowing what to expect. I signed in, got my packet of supplies, and books and sat in the very back...my favorite place to sit in any class.
The class consisted of 10 other students, mostly women, one guy. The teacher came in and started right off with telling us "a bit about herself". She said she got started 38 years ago as a CNA "just like you". "Only, I had just had an illegitimate daughter...you know what illegitimate means don't you?, It means I was an awful person...I had a daughter without being married...so that made me an awful person...they charged me more for car insurance...I didn't have a job...and after the second time of her being in the hospital for dehydration-the nurses asked me what I was going to do with my life-and that's when I decided to be a CNA. So then I moved to the big city with me and my illegitimate child and got a job at a hospital, and met a man and got married, had another child who was disabled, then had another child and when that baby was 6 months old I got a divorce. So I was on my own and had my oldest daughter, and my youngest child, and I couldn't handle my 5 year old disabled child any more so I had to give her to foster care. That's when I got my LPN and have been working in nursing homes ever since. ".
**--BLINK--BLINK--**
Yeah...that was the first ten minutes of class.
She went on to tell us about the "Moslim Man" she had to work with..."You know about the Moslims...they don't like women...that's why I left and started my own school" This is when I choked on the drink I was taking. She mentioned to one of the young ladies in the class that she didn't need a man in her life, she would do fine as a single mom, and once she got this training she wouldn't need to worry about paying rent because she could afford a good apartment, that's what she did. "Even though we had to sit around on the floor like Chinamen, it was still fun.", oh yeah, this student...she was Asian.
Once we got past the introductions, she started into the packet information. Where she told us that if you have a felony or were crazy you would never get to be a nurse. (Really...because woman you are C-R-A-Z-Y!!) She also told us that she didn't want any "crazies" in her class, and if anyone had a mental illness to just "take your medicine-I don't want to deal with any crazies"...then she got off on a story about the nursing home that takes care of "the crazies" how they were the worst of the worst. But also the most fun to take care of, because "they won't remember you from one day to the next anyway.".
She told us about the Rehab hospital here...about how it's the best in the nation, but "I wouldn't work there...I can't stand seeing 16 year old kids in wheelchairs, knowing they'll never walk again.".
Oh my gosh...it was awful...this is just a peppering of her ignorant remarks, she gave horrific story after horrific story about the local nursing homes, and how "it's my job to teach you how to deal with all of their behavioral issues, about how they'll lay down in front of the door, but you just have to step right over them, because they are acting like children looking for attention.".
But the kicker for me was when she pointed out "all you moms with special needs kids, when we go to clinicals, (meaning going for the 8 hour days in the nursing homes), don't be talking about your special needs kids and all their disabilities...or how sick they are...or that they're dying...nobody wants to hear that.".
That was towards the end of the class. I gathered my things at the end and barely got to my car before I started crying. What an awful human. The head of this school that puts out the workers that go and care for those who can't care for themselves. I was sick.
And before you ask why I didn't get up after the first racial slur, I had no idea what the implications were for me leaving. If this was the only class I could take for this program, or if I could go to another school. So I sat through the first class. And called first thing this morning to the agency who sent me there.
Thankfully, they were absolutely supportive of me. And said they would get me into any other school I wanted. I chose another one, and will be starting March 9th. It's a bit further from our house, but hopefully it will be better. The agency also said they aren't going to use that school any more, and they will offer the other mothers in the class to take another class somewhere else.
So...that was my fiasco of a class. It made me sick...and mad...and cry. I still believe I only had to go there in order to blow my siren about it. And I am more hopeful about the other class.
Monday, February 9, 2009
It's a new day...
Today I start my CNA training, to be Max's certified nursing assistant. It's a four week class, that once I'm state certified, I will be paid by the gov't to be Max's CNA. It will be good to get paid to do what I already do for him daily, and will help off-set his monthly expenses.
I'm not necessarily nervous for the class, I think more like I don't think I should have to take a class. ;) It's all good though, I'll get through it quickly and then have a skill I could use outside of caring for Max if I ever needed to.
There's only one test at the end of the course, and they say most people pass it. The pros outweigh the cons...but I'm trying to not get hyped up. I don't like school stuff, I haven't been in 10 years, and I just hope I can handle the info and then clinicals at the end of the course.
Max will be hanging with Daddy for the 4 weeks at night from 5-9. At least his potty issues are tamed waaaaaaay down now so I don't have to worry about that too!
My biggest fret right now over it all is dinner. I am cooking dinner now, to be done by 4:00, so I can eat a bite before I go to class. Because I hate eating late! And it will be nearly 10:00 before I get home and settled, and then it will be time to go to bed!
Did I say I wasn't nervous? Sheesh...this whole post sounds like a ball of nerves. I am confident in my ability to learn new things. I am confident in my ability to be around other people. I have just not been away from Max or my home for more than a couple of hours at a time in 5 years! It's all so new and strange!
Wish me luck! I know I'll be posting more throughout the month!
I'm not necessarily nervous for the class, I think more like I don't think I should have to take a class. ;) It's all good though, I'll get through it quickly and then have a skill I could use outside of caring for Max if I ever needed to.
There's only one test at the end of the course, and they say most people pass it. The pros outweigh the cons...but I'm trying to not get hyped up. I don't like school stuff, I haven't been in 10 years, and I just hope I can handle the info and then clinicals at the end of the course.
Max will be hanging with Daddy for the 4 weeks at night from 5-9. At least his potty issues are tamed waaaaaaay down now so I don't have to worry about that too!
My biggest fret right now over it all is dinner. I am cooking dinner now, to be done by 4:00, so I can eat a bite before I go to class. Because I hate eating late! And it will be nearly 10:00 before I get home and settled, and then it will be time to go to bed!
Did I say I wasn't nervous? Sheesh...this whole post sounds like a ball of nerves. I am confident in my ability to learn new things. I am confident in my ability to be around other people. I have just not been away from Max or my home for more than a couple of hours at a time in 5 years! It's all so new and strange!
Wish me luck! I know I'll be posting more throughout the month!
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Old photos...
I have been busy scanning old photos this weekend...here are a few of my favorites so far! And since this is my blog I can post as many as I want!!! ;)
Get on down...
(me dancing at my cousin's birthday party at Chucky Cheese!)
Bologna, cheetos and kool-aid...
In nearly every photo of me and Charlie early on I am hugging or kissing him...I guess I thought he was pretty neat!
This is my favorite picture of me and Abbey
This is one of my favorite photos with all of my siblings...because none of us wanted to take it...and check out Charlie's shoulder.
Abbey day 1:
Max day 1:
Me watching Little House on the Prairie...how can I tell? Because I am wearing my Little House on the Prairie bonnet...which I wore while watching Little House on the Prairie.
My favorite dress...ever...it had jingle bells
Here I am bringing handfuls of flowers to whoever is taking the picture
My favorite clown outfit!
my BABY brother and sister...
and this one...perfect capture of all of us...especially Angie
If you are one of our friends or family on flickr, you can see the rest of them there.
Thanks for indulging me on my walk down memory lane!
Get on down...
(me dancing at my cousin's birthday party at Chucky Cheese!)
Bologna, cheetos and kool-aid...
In nearly every photo of me and Charlie early on I am hugging or kissing him...I guess I thought he was pretty neat!
This is my favorite picture of me and Abbey
This is one of my favorite photos with all of my siblings...because none of us wanted to take it...and check out Charlie's shoulder.
Abbey day 1:
Max day 1:
Me watching Little House on the Prairie...how can I tell? Because I am wearing my Little House on the Prairie bonnet...which I wore while watching Little House on the Prairie.
My favorite dress...ever...it had jingle bells
Here I am bringing handfuls of flowers to whoever is taking the picture
My favorite clown outfit!
my BABY brother and sister...
and this one...perfect capture of all of us...especially Angie
If you are one of our friends or family on flickr, you can see the rest of them there.
Thanks for indulging me on my walk down memory lane!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)