Zombie Halloween 2011

LOL!! He looks like he is so upset about the chips!!

I never knew being a zombie could be so much fun!

Josh was so freaked out by Tyler he had to go to bed early. Strangely, he didn't act as if I looked strange at all. Not sure what that says about me.

This is part of a series of pictures we took that tell a story of Melissa being attacked at a party. This is the best picture. I want to crop it and frame it.

And this is how our confrontation ended, because as Melissa said, if there was a zombie apocalypse, she would of course have a shovel in the dining room.

Tasty baby!

So creepy.

Awwww! Cute family

I don't know why I didn't get pictures of Rick and Abby, they looked so amazing. I am sure they have pictures somewhere if you are interested...which you should be. And although you can't tell by the pictures, I swear there were more people there. I don't know why I didn't take pictures of more people.

So much fun on Halloween!

Getting ready for Halloween is one of my favorite things. This year I am even more excited because my amazing brother made the focal point of my costume and (like everything he makes) it is amazing. I am being a "steam punk" chick. And these are my goggles:

If you were paying attention, yes, that was a working light on it and on the other side are magnifying flip down thingys ( like on Toy Story 2 when the old guy fixes up Woody!). They are made with leather sewn with bronze wire. Yes, you can sing his praises now. He is the most amazing artist I know.

So to begin with (for parties etc.) I will be just plain steam punk but then for actual Halloween I will be a steam punk zombie. I need to be a zombie because Sharon is throwing a zombie party! All zombie themed and everyone must come as some one related to zombies. As "entertainment" (if you have seen me dance you know it is laughable) we will be doing a Thriller dance! I wish it was this one. But alas, we are all busy so it will be this one.

Josh is totally into the spirit as well. He has a Batman costume and a ninja costume and he wears them daily. I am hoping to talk him into being Batman because that costume fits over his braces better. Either way, he is adorable. Now I just have to figure out how to have him say "trick or treat" this year. Every year I have him sign it and everyone asks if he is deaf. Do I just give up and pretend that he is? Or do I find another way? A PECS picture maybe? That will confuse people really nicely. Maybe they will be so confused they won't ask. I would love to give him an easy way to do it. With signing, I have to be right there saying it for him or people don't know what he is saying. No matter what old people tend to think he is being rude. If he handed them a picture saying trick or treat they probably couldn't read it. I don't know. I just wish he could be more independent with it. I am open to suggestions!

This is going to be an awesome Halloween.

Crazy life

Its an old picture but I love it. It is so Josh.

So life is crazy. I am at school (or on the road there and back)for at least 10 1/2 hours a day for 4 days a week. I have an insane dissection lab that I love. What an opportunity to learn about anatomy in a hands on way. I find myself laughing every week as I read what we are going to do. Laughing in a nervous mildly insane way. After all when you read something like, "milk the rectum upwards before tying the string around it to minimize rectal leakage" or "today you will be sawing your body in half" you either laugh or cry...I laugh.

My classes are awesome. For Kinesiology, we learned all about torque. Then we learned about the correct way to wear a backpack to decrease torque on the lower back. We then worked a booth (Backpack Awareness) at the Utah Health Fair. So fun to use what we have learned in a real OT way and to help people learn how to wear their purses and bags to not hurt their backs/shoulders.

Hot Chelle Rae has a song called "Tonight, Tonight". The first month of school one line kept replaying in my mind, "I don't know if I'll make it, but watch how good I'll fake it". That is exactly how I have felt about school. Put on the smile, if you look like you know what you are doing they may not catch on that you are as lost as they are. Apparently it worked because other students began asking me to help them study. This past week we had our first round of tests and I can finally take a deep breath and know that I am going to make it.

We have had all sorts of craziness with Josh. He broke his elbow and wrist falling off the jungle gym at school. He had surgery to fix it and now it is in a cast. He is doing really well except at night. He can't sleep which is making him such a ray of sunshine during the day. He has started to become pretty ambidextrous, it is rather incredible.

My posts may become even more scarce.

So I am beginning to understand that my life is going to be insane.

I get up at 5:45, leave the house by 6:15 to get on the bus by 6:25. Get to school at 8:00. Study until my next class. Classes until 2, with a couple breaks (not long). Thursdays cadaver lab from 2-5:15.

Ride home on the bus takes an 1 1/2 hours. Back home to make dinner, clean up dinner and spend some time with the family.

So I think it is time to turn this into a picture type of blog. But before that, here is one last real post.

5 years and 1 hour ago I got the greatest gift in the world. I had my adorable baby boy Josh. It has been a long hard road but I wouldn't change it for the world. I was going to write more but he is tired and just started having a meltdown. He needs me. I am so lucky.

Special Kids Rodeo 2011

It took me 45 minutes of convincing but he finally let the clown paint his face. Since he was so worried about it, she did it in record time (just about a minute flat). He was so excited after it was done that he could not contain himself.
He refused to ride the cow version of this, I guess he is just a Bronco buster.
They raced their stick horses. It was pretty close but I think Chantelle won.
He kept calling it a horse but either way, he roped the crap out of this hay lamb.
He still loves Sundance. I don't think he remembered him at first but it didn't take long before they were playing kick ball. Josh just loves him so much!

Vroom! Vroom!

For those of you who don't know, we are crazy and bought Josh a battery powered 4 wheeler. He loves it. He worships it. He lives to ride it. He rides for hours at a time. He is willing to ride in the cul de sac now (he wouldn't before because that is where he crashed) and has even taught himself a few tricks: standing up while riding and going off of curbs.

It looks like this:

We were out and about and suddenly he is screeching and doing his hand signal for 4 wheelers/motorcycles/anything with wheels not a car/truck/etc.

I look everywhere. Cannot see what he is talking about. He is still doing his signal but has now started making motor noises but they are still frantic. I am beginning to feel frantic, my son is crazy. He is seeing invisible motor vehicles. Maybe he changed his hand sign to mean something else? What is going on?! As Josh's antics start to reach an all time high I see it. I can't help but smile. I let the irony wash over me and I can't help but laugh. Josh confirms what he is talking about is this sign:

Things I want to remember from this week...

My son is a toughy. He rolled a 4 wheeler and by the 7th day, all his scabs have come off and he looks normal again. Let's not do that again honey.

Josh has been taking "trips". He says goodbye to everyone then rides off in his wiggle car or tricycle. He may or may not "call" you to talk to you while he is gone. Then he rides back over and insists on everyone cheering for his arrival. Hugs and kisses for everyone. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

I am pretty sure I caught Josh arguing with his shadow. He was leaning over, looking at his shadow, yelling and shaking his head "no". He would also shake his finger in a "no, no, no" fashion. Very Peter Pan.

We went to the movie at the park with Abby. They were playing Tangled. Josh was so excited to see the Disney castle at the beginning. When he sees that he knows it is a movie for him. He clapped and yelled his approval all the way to the beginning of the movie. He had me hold him the whole time. I had one of those moments where you try to suck in every detail, every sensation so you can appreciate it and hopefully remember how wonderful it was. How he smells, how his hair feels on my cheek, the way he giggles when someone is hit by a frying pan. He still fits so well on my lap. I will cry the day he outgrows it.

We went to our city celebration thingy and saw "The Flying Ninjas" (a gymnastics, acrobatic, group, some dressed like ninjas with a VERY loose story line). So much fun. Josh loves ninjas so he watched with such intensity that I don't think anything could break his focus. I tried to get him to go give one a high five afterward but he was too shy. In between performances, all Josh wanted to do was play the instruments at one of the vendors. He would play the drums until someone else came along and wanted to play, then he would play a keyboard. The moment their butt left the seat he was back over at the drums ready to play again.

Josh pooped in the potty today! He felt that he was going and asked to be put on the potty. He still hasn't peed in the potty but I feel that this is a big step. We will see how the next few days go.

Olivia Kate was born today. She is so sweet and beautiful. And Chantelle didn't look like she had even broken a sweat! Neither of them was red or mottled, not even a hair out of place! I can't wait to see them again.

It has been a great week. I hope I can remember it.