Keychains and my ADD (LOL!)

So, when my ADD kicks into gear, I try to do something constructive (not necessarily productive!) and today was one of those days. Here's what I worked on:

My presentation with Janet

Here's the description of the presentation that I will be doing with Janet (my idol!) Can't wait!


"Hey, What About Us?" - Supporting Families of Young Children Who are Hard of
Hearing

Authors/Presenters: Janet DesGeorges, Melissa Wagner

Room: Grand Ballroom A – 1st Presentation

30 Minutes

For families whose young babies and children are identified as hard of hearing, the support
needed as they journey through the EHDI system often brings with it a myriad of questions and
unique considerations when sorting through information and decision making. Assumptions are
often made about children who fall under the “mild – moderate” range of hearing loss by both
professionals and parents. This session will be presented by two parents of children who are hard of hearing, and will discuss the journey from the standpoint of the emotional reaction to the
“news”…to communication decision making…to transition/school planning from the viewpoint
of the “hard of hearing” experience.

One of my favorite songs and Anna

Hey all...I've been thinking a lot about my upcoming presentation for New Orleans and I wanted to pass along a little of what I presented when I was in Chapel Hill, NC. The above song is by a group called Nickel Creek. My sister Samantha got me started on them and we've attended at least 3 of their concerts (or is it more, sis?) Anyways, this song I posted is called This Side. It reminds me of Anna. As I was thinking of things to write about for my presentation, I think of how my journey with hearing loss has taken me from being scared to being totally at peace with how life's path has changed. The lyrics talk about it being foreign on this side and to me, that represents how I felt. It didn't seem right, like we were somewhere we had never been and people were talking in a language we didn't understand. There's a line that says, "There's no path to follow once you're here. You climb up the slide and then you slide down the stairs." There is no path for parents that have a child born with a disability. No one way is the right way, but whatever choices you make for your family are the ones that are right for you. (Haha! To all my H&V readers, you know where I got that statement!!) So, anyways...I need to get back to working on my presentation. :-)

Michigan Association of School Boards 2007 Education Excellence Award Winner

This is something I stumbled on and had forgot about. Back in...May, I think, our PAC (Parent Advisory Committee) (I'm the Mason County Central rep, by the way. There are parents on the committee from each school district (or at least there is suppose to be in theory!)) won an award for our DVD project! How cool is that? For the majority of the project, there were only 3 parents involved. Me, Lora (who went to Tampa with me) and Laura (who has since moved) spent quite a few nights working on this with Dick (who is an AMAZING producer among other things!!). I am really proud of this DVD. It's a tool to help parents that are new to the special education process. Anyways, just another shameless plug for one of my projects. ;-)

Finally....PICTURES!

Yes....she's cute AND knows it.

This is as close as Cam wanted Anna to be to him that night. ;-)

Samantha and Julia working on puzzles.

Wayne using Poppa's dinosaur dial-up

Me and JuJu Chang (yes, there is a real JuJu Chang, but she's Korean)

Anna and me hanging out, waiting to do presents
Cam and Wayne
Julia and Grandma Darlene
Ok...here's the scoop. This is a bread bowl. A HUGE ONE! My mom bought it for dinner, it's full of Christmas colored rolls. I thought it was pretty cool. Kids liked eating red and green rolls.

Julia took this picture of the salsa. No idea why, other than it was sitting right in front of her.

Here is Poppa, me and Anna.

My superstar Showgirls!!

The girls acting all silly

Presents/Stockings

Cam, Julia and me
Wayne in the U of M Wolverines hat that Cam got. Too funny!

Cam finally wearing the hat
Little brother (aka nephew) and Big sister (aka Aunt)...acting all of their age

Another famous Samantha and Melissa photo...tired of them yet?

Theresa and JuJu!

Another goofy pic
Anna trying to get me to act like a Vegas showgirl!

Julia peeking in on a great photo of Poppa and Tyler
Julia took this one of me after I put her in the her carseat last night.

Christmas morning 2007

Merry Christmas and Red High Heels

First, let me start by saying Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays or Happy Whatever-Else-You-People-Celebrate. ;-) (Remember this is my PC blog...haha!) I hope that everyone is having a great time with their friends and family. After the snow storm we had Sunday night, I was deciding that I'd sooner be somewhere warm and south...New Zealand perhaps? They are having their summer time right now. Although, what is Christmas without snow? It's nice I tell you!!!



So Saturday morning was spent with my dad's family at the Stewart house in Pentwater. It's still weird to be there with no Grandma and Grandpa around. I have fond memories of eating M&M's, getting new jammies and slippers as presents and sitting in the "backroom" playing cards and hanging out with my cousins. Now's it different that I have a family of my own. But, we still manage a good time. Sorry, there are no pictures of this event as I forgot my camera at home. Imagine that heartache. Any fellow family blogger knows that you can't leave the house without a camera in hand. Ugh.



Moving on to Sunday. We spent the afternoon at my mom's parents house in Hart. We're there like every weekend, so it's no biggie to be there. :-) Too much food as usual. My Aunt Pam makes the best shrimp dip. MMMmmm....didn't help my diet, but it was good. The kids had a great time and I did remember my camera, so there will be pictures to follow.



Last night we went to my parents house for dinner and presents. Theresa surprised us with a HUGE gift certificate to Great Wolf Lodge for our family. My parents also got us one. The kids can't wait to go. You've seen pictures of us there before, it's a giant indoor water park in Traverse City. We have a great time (and now I can walk around in a bathing suit not worrying what I look like!! Wohooo!) and the kids love having dinner there. Samantha got me 2 really cute porcelain dolls that are dressed in Chinese Christmas outfits. I couldn't figure out what they were at first, but...they are really neat and will match my collections of Chinese things. Again, I remembered my camera and will be posting pictures.



This leads up to this morning. The kids are heaven unwrapping gifts and showing us everything that they got. Anna loved the white stud belt we got at Hot Topic and Julia really liked her puzzles and Aquadoodle. Cam got a new bike and some really cool new Ps2 games. It feels great to be able to give your kids the things they wanted for Christmas...except.....

RED HIGH HEELS

Yeah...we had one small meltdown over red high heel shoes. Apparently Anna has been listening to Kellie Pickler a little too much on the iPod. LOL! She had wrote Santa to ask for a pair of red high heel shoes and mom wasn't going for it. So hence no shoes to open this morning. She cried, I explained that Santa thought the shoes were a bit too grown up for her and that maybe when she was 8 years old that she could get some. She liked that reasoning, but was still a bit ticked over not getting the shoes. This kid got her OWN iPOD for Christmas! What has this world come to?? HAHAHA! She's a good kiddo, just has some very interesting taste. You'd think that she had a dominatrix as mother. ;-)

Well, here are the family photos that you all have been dying for. Have a great Christmas and I will thinking of all my regular readers today. Take care!!

(FYI...Pictures will come later. Blogger is giving me grief and I can't get to the photos! WEIRDNESS!)

Julia sings

School Parties

Julia's friend Jordyn. I love the red tights and white shoes. ;-)

Another friend, this one is Jessica...she makes me laugh.

This little girl, is one after my heart. Nothing like starting out the tattoo freaks early on. Woohoo!

Julia's feet...Dawn, want to add this to EmmaLi's collection? LOL!!!

Jordyn again...

Julia opening the present she brought for the class.

Sister...can't ya feel the love? (Shameless plug...The girls are wearing bows from the Amazing Tonni at 4Princessbows go check it out if you'd like some like this!)

Show girls?
Cam and Julia at his party today.
Cam and Alexis
Ok...this is my neato pic of the day...MICE!! They are chocolate covered cherries (the butts) with the stem sticking out for tails and Hershey's kisses for the face with almonds for ears. By far the coolest school treat I've seen in awhile.

Another avenue...

Ok....so my niece Kate wanted me to make keychains for her externs that she works with. This is what I came up with. Don't everyone rush at once to have me make these, as I haven't prefected my technique yet. But...I thought it turned out great. :~)