I’m sorry that I didn’t take a picture of her getting off of the bus.  By the time I arrived at the church, she was off of the bus and had her luggage and was ready to go home.  She had a touch of sunburn on her face, and she’d had a long week.  She wound up being sick off and on at camp all week.  This was also the first year that she had a cell phone with her, so we were texting back and forth all week.  If the week was rough for her, the one benefit from camp is that she was so glad to come home and see her brother, and us.

Ep

So now that the “protesting season” is over, there have been several other things keeping our summer busy.

So one of the first things that I did, and I was in the mood to do until my muscles needed to recover, was to pull weeds in the flowerbed.  Then I found some perennials (and a few annuals) and a bag of bark, and made a 3 foot section look pretty.  There are many more weeds to pull, and flowers to plant, and I’ll take care of them, a section at a time.

Then, there was a trip to see my grandma and celebrate her 92nd birthday, in the area where I grew up.  Before I left, I went to the site where my grandparents used to have a dairy. and took some pictures.  There used to be another building on this site in front of the white building where the machinery and the cooler were located.    One of the most prominent memories from when I was little was being told to wear shoes (red top/ black rubber boots….year round) and being told to watch out for wet areas or puddles as it could be caustic soda, which was acidic and could burn the skin.  My dad came home a few times with some nasty burns from that stuff.  Yikes!  To describe it would just not please the imagination of the reader!

Then, there is the summer ritual for kids everywhere……camp!  Our church is having camp this month and my girl has been looking forward to this since June.  Thanks to us being busy with the road renaming business, there were many opportunities for her to watch her brother, so she earned most of her money that way, and a donation from her grandparents helped too.  We did all of the summer camp shopping (Do we have enough t-shirts & shorts?  Does she need a new swimsuit? etc).  I bought snacks for her to take with her to give out as “bribes” to the cabin inspectors there.    When the day came for her to leave for camp, I think that I received one hug good bye and she was on the bus, anxious to leave (however, this is our first year of her being at camp with her own phone, and I’ve been getting a lot of text messages from her all week).

So with her being gone all week, we only had one child at home.  What does a younger brother at home do with his time, without his sister at home to play with, or tick him off?

Well there’s time in the garage with model trains………..

Videogame time………

(and a little “Phineas & Ferb” to fill in the rest of the time)

Swinging and burning some energy at the park…

I think that the park made him the happiest.  He was able to run all over.  Then about a half hour after I took this picture, someone was smoking pot nearby and the smell was rather strong.  So we thought that it was time to go before the boy started to say something out loud like “People shouldn’t be smoking!”.

So we then went to the store and restocked our Oreo and chip supply (no, the smell from the park didn’t give us the “Munchies”, we just all have a sweet tooth and like salty food) and took the boy home.

More on our summer, as it progresses……………stay tuned

A few months ago, I posted a blog about how our governor had decided to change a state highway, after a friend who had donated to his campaign, at the taxpayer’s expense (during a time when he was telling our state lawmakers that we had to cut back on everything else during this recession).   Since then, my husband and the other co-founders of a group to stop it, started gathering signatures to get approval to put an initiative on the November ballot (they had no problem getting the 1,000 signatures for that…….especially if you go to a Tea Party rally on Tax Day).    Then, came a 30 day waiting period while the signatures are verified, and the Attorney general approves the ballot initiative, and then the 10 day period for anyone to complain about it.  When all was said and done, and we were given the green light to collect the 83,000 signatures, we had one day to do it.   We were given the “okay” to collect, one day before the deadline to have them in.    So, Mr. P. (my husband) and the other organizers, really had to be creative with how they could collect so many in such a short time.

So in the time leading up to “the day”, they:
~bought a banner featuring the name of their group and web address, as well as the date of the signature drive.
~spent a few days, holding that banner on the overpass that crossed over the highway in question, waiving & yelling.
~were interviewed on the morning radio program several times.

~because this was a statewide signature drive, and because they did have an online petition option (print it out, sign it and send it in), they rented post office boxes in 5 cities where those closest to them could mail them to us faster.
~also had volunteers (including me) gathering signatures in front of post offices all around town.

After a full day of signature gathering, and making trips to the post office boxes, we only had 1,117 signatures.  So Mr. P and company, took those signatures to the Secretary of State’s office (they couldn’t accept them as there obviously weren’t enough) and then to the Governor’s office with a handwritten note, so that he could see, just how many  people were opposed to this idea.

So, what do we do now?  Well, Mr. P, and his co-organizers are now running for office (two of them are running for State Representative and one is running for State Senator).

It’s interesting, in that we had no idea, when this started, that the road we were fighting for, would lead to this.

T

Today, we had a rare treat.  The kids and I met up with my grandma (the lady on the right) and her sister (the lady on the left), her daughter, their niece and her daughter.  My grandma, Theda, is originally from Texas and her sister, Bessie, still lives there.    These days, they don’t get to see each other very much.   My grandma is in her early 90’s and doesn’t travel as much anymore.  Aunt Bessie is a little younger ( and a few inches taller) and she isn’t traveling as much either.  She flew out to  the state that her daughter lives in, and then her daughter drove her up here to visit.

You know, there are many folks who believe in population control and that having just 2 kids is more than enough (however, if those two kids are of the same gender, then it’s ok to have more until you get the opposite), or if you have reached your 40’s, you should stop.   Now if my great-grandparents had followed that logic, these two sweet and fun ladies wouldn’t be here (and neither would I for that matter).  You see, they are the fifth and seventh out of seven children.   Their parents started off with two children, a son and a daughter, and it was that way for about 10 years.  Then suddenly, they started having children again and within a few years added five more.   I think that there is 21 years between the oldest and the youngest.  Aunt Bessie was 5 when she became an aunt for the first time.    Over the years, all of the children married and had children of their own.  .  The cousins age range from the first to the last grandchild is about 40 years.    Anyway, these days, my grandma and her sister are the two surviving siblings, and they are very special to us.   Bessie starts her journey home tomorrow and I bet they’ll be talking on the phone on Sunday (or Saturday)

(I would type more,  but my computer is being slow and my husband is in bed nearly asleep and it’s getting late..and I “need” to check my Facebook…haha)

I saw this question posted at “The Joyful Journey” blog so I thought that I’d post my answer to this same question.

Hmmmm….five years ago…my kids were still shorter than me.  My son was 7, and not ready to read (now he literally reads everything…out loud!).  My daughter was still somewhat of a little girl and now she’s a teenager starting highschool in the fall.  My husband and I were still in our 30’s then as well.

On a more personal note, but with getting into specifics, five years ago,  I was living  with a lot of uncertainty in my life and and wondering, every day, if it would end on a good note or a bad one.  My life  was going in a direction that I hadn’t planned on,  and I found myself  feeling like I had been forced onto the scariest, fastest roller-coaster in the amusement park, when I was only in line for the kiddie one.    Everyday, trying to keep things calm and normal for my family while I was being whipped around.     Now, I don’t have as much uncertainty, however I deal with a lot more stress than I ever have.   Things have slowly improved, and hopefully, in five years, I can look back and report that things have improved even more (I’m praying that they do anyway).

Check back in 5 years and see!

Ok, this is my boy.  He will be turning 12 soon, and we’ve been planning his birthday party.  Now due to his autism, his mind processes and plans differently than ours.  He’s very “obey the law or rules” type of person.  However, he’s very into everyone else obeying the “laws” that HE makes.   So today, he made a list of rules for his party.
Keep in mind that what he wrote has been influenced by what he’s heard in the news lately, and from reading and making “Neighborhood Watch” signs for our house.

“BIRTHDAY PARTY WARNING!
Birthday Partys are Required by Permission Please whrite for who & the time&the Date the Month & the year & the Place & your R.S.V.P. Zipcode & there Adress & there city & there State & there Zipcode & the person who has the party have to be a Legal Resident Under property Laws.  & Non Legal Residents are Prohibited in birthday Partys.  having Non permision birthday Partys you can be arrested or Prosecuted.   it is Legal to have a birthday Party with Permision.  having Partys without Permision is illegal Violators will be Prosecuted.”

Isn’t that the welcoming party that you want to be invited too?  If I didn’t personally know the author of this piece, I’d be puzzled, but since I do, I have to chuckle a bit.  Just one of the many, many unusual things that he’ll come up with.

Lp

I’m sitting here surfing the net and trying to make improvements to how my blog looks (trying out new things) on a Sunday morning, during a time when I would normally be leaving for church.  Before I go any further, I will say that the picture of the rose above is huge!  It’s from our yard (last year), and to represent spring, I thought it was appropriate.  It just really stands out doesn’t it?

So as I stated, I’m here instead of going to church, and that is because I went to church last night.  My daughter & I are teaching 2 & 3 year olds during the Saturday night service this month.   So we can sleep in for both days of the weekend and not just Saturday.   After August, I’ll need to leave that job because my son will be graduating to the Jr. High group in the fall, and because of his autism, he really can’t sit in the regular church service alone.

So it’s Sunday morning, and we’re home and ready for it to be our son’s bedtime already.  This kid is all over the place looking for old pieces of cardboard on which he had drawn signs, as well has the large fat pens he used to draw with.  He can’t find them, and he doesn’t look very hard.  This is a boy who will walk into a cluttered room, scan it and then declare, “It’s not here!”.    He’ll sort of ask, in a demanding tone, that we help him find them.  However, when we help him, he stops looking.  If he doesn’t find what he’s looking for, then he’ll declare that it/they were stolen (yes, robbers came in, and stole cardboard and markers and left all of the electronics).  Then if he still can’t find them, he borders on having a meltdown which includes tears.  So we as parents are constantly trying to help him stay focused, and think things through and not to get discouraged, and remind him that he needs to control himself and watch his attitude or he could lose his “good report” and his trip to Sonic in a week and a half.

So after typing that whole paragraph, the boy finally found the markers and the cardboard.  His sister had been using the markers on a project in her room (not on the walls!).  So now all is well in his world, at 10AM.

Now, I’m debating on whether or not, it would be wise to take a walk.  The sun was shining when we woke up, but now the skies are cloudy and in Oregon, there’s always a good chance of rain (light rain would be ok though).

Happy Sunday!

A little over one month ago, something happened in our county, that unexpectedly changed whatever plans we had for our lives for the next 5 weeks following:

The powers-that-be in our state (Oregon)  and city we live in, decided to rename a long stretch of highway that runs through our town.

Now, originally, we had heard on the news, that on the following day, the city counsel & the mayor would be voting on whether to change the name from it’s current name, to the name of a former state transportation commissioner, a prominent businessman in our town, who had passed away a little over a year ago.  When we first heard about it, we didn’t think that it would happen, and didn’t seem as concerned.  However, on the following day, we heard on the news, that the city counsel and the mayor had indeed decided to change the name.    Well we didn’t agree with that idea, especially when we found out that the change was going to cost a quarter of a million dollars, of tax payers money, during a time of recession in our state, when money is tight and other roads are needing to be repaired.  When we are being asked to vote to raise taxes to maintain roads, paying for road renaming (when we have plenty of other roads, bridges, bike paths etc that are new and nameless) just didn’t seem right.

So, my husband, is a regular on Facebook and he created a page for those who were opposed to the name change and wanted to be a “fan”.   The fan base grew rather quickly (and my husband brought in a co-admin for the page) and within one week, someone came up with the idea of staging a protest, standing on an overpass over this stretch of highway.    So on a Saturday afternoon, probably 15 people (maybe more) showed up with signs (some of which my son made) and protested for a couple of hours (I didn’t go as I had told the kids that I would take them to a movie and I didn’t want to blow them off).  Well this protest caught the attention of one of our local news stations, so that night, my husband was on TV.    By this time, there were over 600 fans on the page.   After this protest, there was talk of having another one at another area of this highway, on the following Monday (“Have fun storming the castle!”).     Then on the following Friday & Saturday, there were protests again.

Now, I am not a protester, I don’t normally get involved in anything political.    However, I did go to support my husband on this issue (numbers help) and I don’t agree with the name change.   By this time, the fan base for the page had reached over 2,000 I think.

So, for the Saturday protest, my husband had our son make a new sign (maybe one day I can post a blog giving tips on how to protest comfortably and effectively, hahahaha).

My son made this sign too and it’s the sign I hid behind (because this is really out of character for me, but my husband wanted to take this picture of me).

And here’s my husband, with his new sign.  What you don’t see, and I wasn’t ready for, was his use of a bicycle horn, and his hollering.  I have never heard him make so much noise before (considering that we’re always telling our noisy son to quiet down).  So this was new to me!  (and for being in this protest, and the one on the day before, I was treated to a dinner at the Olive Garden and a movie)

So as the weeks progress, our local paper started publishing revelations that there were some possibly unethical arrangements between the family of the new namesake, and the governor and the transportation commission.    Then, the governor and the commission decided to change the name partially and only put two new signs on the highway, one at each end, costing only $1,500 of the taxpayer’s money, and change the rest of the signs when they’ve “worn out”.   Well, who is to say that the commision or department of transportation won’t decide that the signs will have worn out within the next year and still be spending the $250,000 that was originally planned?

Kevin and his co-admin started gathering signatures  to have an initiative put on the ballot, to prevent this from happening in the future (anywhere else in the state) without the citizens of the state being able to vote on it.

The new plan was going to be voted on by the transportation commission on April 20th in a coastal town about an hour and a half away from our town and the road in question.    Several from the Facebook group (which by now boasts nearly 9,000 fans) planned to go as well.

And what kind of homeschooling parent would I be, if I couldn’t turn this into a field trip?   Not every kids has the chance to see “Robert’s Rules of Order” in action, supposedly.

On the afternoon of the 20th, we gathered at a local department store with about 12-15 other folks from the Facebook page, and everyone wrote on the car windows what our cause was.

Now, Heather looks like she’s cool with everything.  Really, she’s tuned into her iPhone, listening to the Jonas Brothers and trying to tune out the song “Convoy” and the various 70’s & 80’s tunes from her parents’ childhood that were blaring from the CD player.  Kylin was just happy to be going to the coast and despite the weather (rainy) and being told that we probably wouldn’t be going to the beach, in his mind, he was going to the coast and that means beach.   To quote Mr. Bean, “To the beach!”

One of the news vans from our town, following us to the meeting (because by now, this was a news worthy topic).

I think that our two kids were the only ones at this shindig.

After opposing testimony from about 10 people and testimony from one person in favor, who was also an employee of the family of the namesake, the transportation commission voted in favor of the name change.  So, that was a disappointment to this convoy.

After the meeting, several of us from the FB group, met at Mo’s for an early supper/snack.  For those who have never been to Oregon or at least the coast, Mo’s is famous for their clam chowder.   Our family hadn’t eaten there in several years because we don’t eat any kind of meat, and the primary purpose of this restaurant is to serve seafood.   We were able to find something meatless on the menu however, so we didn’t starve.

After our dinner, our son was very persistent about going to the beach.  It was not “go to the beach weather” at all.  It was so windy that it was shaking our van, and the rain that was coming down, was actually coming in at an angle.    The rest of us in the car, really had no desire to go outside.  However, Kylin, in his mind, was disregarding the weather.  We were at the coast and we must go to the beach.  So we found an area where one didn’t have to climb over a dune (in the wind & rain) to see the ocean.   Kevin ventured out with the boy so he could have his wish fulfilled.   Heather & I waited in the car, and stayed dry.  At one point, we did receive a text from Kevin that just read “Brrrr!”.   After about 20 minutes, they came back, and Kylin’s shoes were wet because he was close enough for the water to come up on shore and soak his feet.

So after a long day, dealing with this political venture (and in Kylin’s case, wet feet), we headed home.    Below is one of the signs we came across (several times)  on the trip:

Interesting, when you consider why we were making this trip!

LP