FUN on your way to work?

Seriously,  how many of you GET to have this much fun transporting your son to work?

Me, I prefer quiet.  I like music, but not loud rock'n roll music.

Nevin, however, seems to need it to "wake up his brain".

So this is our routine trip to his work in the  morning.

Clutters my brain,  but gets his going!  

(and yes, I was driving... but I wasn't looking at my camera,

 just taking a chance it would turn out)

sometimes, we trade off parts..... 

air guitar, air drums and air piano

"bye Nev, work hard, make me proud!!"

(he always does.... but likes to know how proud I am)

"bye mom!! " 

oh, my,......thank you God for this blessing!!

Quarry Quest: Part 2

Yaba Daba Doo!!

Some of us need to practice our salute a little bit!  :)

Salute!!

Nevin has a very deep respect for military, 

and always wants his picture with soldiers.

 Yes, sir!!  

"I'm in the Army now!!"  

..... and next..... the BIG crane!!

He loves that this picture looks like he's operating the crane himself!

The voluteers were all wonderful.  She is congratulating him

for his expert crane operation.

Then..... Nevin climbed the sand mountain......

 He stood at the top for a long time,

I was worried that he couldn't figure out how to get down.

(he really does struggle with depth perception and going down stairs...

 so it was a legitimate concern.)

 .......then........

I figured out he was just waiting for kids to clear out and make way.

He came rolling down, arms and legs flyin'.  

 this was the first "dumping" of sand ..... 

but we kept finding it in pockets for days.

lastly..... Nevin's very favorite!!

The Lift (or cherry picker, depending on who is talking)

.....can you tell that Nevin is anxious to do the lift?  :)

 He was REALLY proud of the fact that he talked ME into doing the lift.

He knows I hate heights......

This was the best I could do with one hand white knuckled on the rail

and one hand to run the camera!!

It was a wonderful day!!  We are definitely going back next September!

Commercial break.....

I know I promised more pictures from Quarry Quest...... I promise..... I will post them later this evening.   But want to do a quick post to support  Perfect Lily and her mom, Patti as they work hard to help raise money for the Quinn family.   They are working hard to bring home their daughter from an orphanage in Eastern Europe.   Please join in supporting them with prayer and with money if the Lord so leads you.   They are sponsoring an iPad2 giveaway to raise money.

Help get Autumn home!! (known as Donna on Reece's Rainbow)

Quarry Quest: Part 1

My cousin, Karyn and I took "the boys" to Wisconsin to visit Uncle Jeff (my brother) AND to go to Quarry Quest!!  WOW, what a day!! (click here for news article..... reportedly 15,000 people shared the day with us!!) I highly recommend it!! especially if you have any young people who have a special interest in diggers, cranes and dump trucks.

Or if you have someone who makes everything fun  :)

Oh, the excitement as we arrived, got our complimentary safety vests.

We reviewed the rules and headed down into the quarry.

The first line we got in, was for the "diggers".    ....... and we waited........

but Nevin helped with entertainment of the "restless"   :)

then..........   finally.......... our turn!!!

(and despite the "lapful",  Nevin's enthusiasm always lends itself to acceptance)

Then the post adrenalin "strut"!  :)

***stay tuned for the lift, the crane, the sand mountain........ 

Blue Man!!!

We went to see a Blue Man Group show in Cedar Falls last night.  

 It was as much fun to watch Nevin's excitement as it was to watch the show!
We splurged, our seats were in the 6th row!

oh, my.... it was fun to watch his reactions!

It was definitely Nevin's kind of show!! 

No talking,  all visual.

(I didn't take this video of the balls, 
someone in the upper balcony took it and posted it on youtube.) 
Wow, did Nevin ever enjoy this part!  The balls were about 6 foot in diameter and Nevin got to hit them several times.   I got lot's of "look out mom!!"  and then giggles.  

Even more excitement after the show, when he got to pose with the band.

and the band member on the right.........

blessed him with drumsticks from the show!! 

WITH PAINT on them!!

Can you say EXCITED!!

(a hood of the car pic... think I need a little tripod)

The adrenalin rush kept him talking, drumming, singing

..... all the way home.

ugliness.........

I had another post planned....... but then I read this post written by a hurt, angry mama bear.  A search engine searching for words "ugly", "r&tarded", "baby girl", "toddler"......  Imagine their surprise when what came up was a picture of absolute PURE BEAUTY.   A picture of the face of God, in his image.  

While I know we live in a broken world, it still makes my heart hurt to know this ugliness exists and is directed at our children.  It makes me angry,... it makes me sad, ....it makes me want to work harder to change the world and at the same time it disheartens me.

 The internet has been a wonderful place to connect and become part of the "larger"  down syndrome family, but it has also proven to be another vehicle to spread ugliness.   This type of hate, this type of ignorance is why I do frequent searches using Nevin's name, or other combinations of descriptors such as ds adult, ds teen, r&tard, etc. .......to try and protect him as best I can.   I have had several instances of his picture being used inappropriately, but at least by people willing to take it down (for e.g. his picture in an article that promoted prenatal testing to avoid ds.)  I haven't been sucker punched by "hate driven" searches yet.  But I've also avoided using the words down syndrome and his name together very often...... is that me just being chicken?......  am I failing at advocating?  ...... I know that I may not be connecting with as many people as I could because I've been "timid".    Not like I'm a powerful blogger or anything..... but it does make me think?

If you get a chance go over to this mama bear's blog and let her know what a beautiful daughter she has (even though she knows that..... a little extra lovin' can't hurt!!)  tell I sent you.   ummm..... tell her Nevin sent you  :)

a walk........

I've been quiet lately.   I just haven't had words that were organized enough in my brain to write them down.   There has been much happening........  much to think about ........ much to pray about.

In the meantime, the weather has been wonderful.  My foot is finally better enough that we can get out for a walk.   But Nevin and Rosie were more interested in a "run"  :)

It was a little reminiscent of the "runner" days.  :)  But they stopped and waited when we called and told them to wait for us.   THAT was different than the "runner" days. 

 When Nevin was little and would "go missing", the joke was that we would first check the  perimeter to see if we could see his dust, before we wasted time checking the house and yard, etc.  The above picture made me think of that.

Nevin loves Rosie.   It bothers him when she gets "tangled" in the leash..... I tried to tell him that she doesn't mind...... but he continued to insist on "helping her".  

Nevin was just a "little" perturbed with our slow pace.   

He was glad when we got to the water so that Rosie could swim! 

 He really got a kick out of watching her jump in the water and paddle away.

And Nevin was proud of HIS photography skills, too.
 I'm thinking we need to get him a camera.  :)

It was a good day!