School and the end of summer vacation

School has started and Amanda is loving it almost as much as Tina and I.  Her homeroom class is small this year and we hope it can stay that way.  During the day Amanda attends a lot of other classes and activities.  Her favorite is art followed by adaptive PE and dance.

She also has therapy sessions throughout the week and is helping in the front office, so she is constantly on the move.  A major benefit to all of this mobility at school is how relaxed she is in the evening.  She just likes sit and visit or play a game of Uno instead of committing 100% to dominating her known universe.  It makes for a nice evening.  Then by 8:00 is actually demanding to go to bed.  She is asleep by 8:30 and then Tina and I have an opportunity to watch a movie, read or whatever.  I just love school.

New Ride

GeoTagged, [N33.42982, E94.11875]

I have lived in Texas for 34 years, which is most of my life. But you have to understand I'm not the typical east Texas male citizen. I don't hunt anything larger than a noisy cricket that keeps me awake, I don't worship UT football, I don't consider macaroni and cheese a vegetable and until very recently I have never owned a pickup.

This last point is important. Three weeks ago I traded off my beloved Malibu LTZ which was sneaky fast and fun, for a 2010 Crew cab Dodge Ram pickup. Why did I do this when I haven't even worn my boots in ten years? Well it is simple really. If I am ever to take my family with me beyond the borders of Texarkana I need to be able to take our necessities with us.

We aren't just a special needs family, we're a special needs a lot family.

Amanda's wheelchair and my golf clubs require more than even a Tahoe can accommodate. So I joined the Dodge revolution

This monster has nearly 400 horsepower, independent front suspension, rollout bed cover with locking tailgate and more interior room than my parent's old Buick Estate wagon.

So we've made our first road trip in it last week and it was the perfect vehicle. For the first time in ages we had everything we needed including space. When you are as together as much as we are personal space is very important. The front seats are even divided by a console with shifter.

So I'll have this vehicle for a while as we have discovered how much Amanda likes to travel.

I must admit, she's pretty dang smart

We went to the bench rather late this evening and were promptly met by mosquitoes.  I told Amanda we should go back in the house but she had a better idea.  "Back porch.  Use the fan and no bugs."  The kid is a genius.

While on the back porch I decided to follow one of the wild rabbits around the yard.  I was within four feet of him for ten minutes as I followed him all over the yard.  I only stopped because Amanda was calling me back to the patio.  That was a lot of fun.

Disney like

In the backyard tonight we had two young rabbits and a squirrel. We've had rabbits for years because my house is completely encircled by concrete roads and the backyard is fenced. It keeps the predators at bay.

It is quite peaceful.

Keeping it fresh

What I think is so great about being in a life long committed relationship, aka marriage, is that you never stop learning new things about your spouse.  Just last week I learned something new.

Years ago we moved into a new house.  Tina and I were setting things up in the kitchen when I heard a noise come from one of the bedrooms.  Being curious as to what it was I went back to check it out.  It was nothing more than a sound that came from the neighbor's air conditionor, but when I turned around there was Tina standing right behind me with a claw hammer.  I said, "What are you doing?"

My sweet young wife told me she was there to protect me.  I have to tell you, that made me feel really good and for the last seventeen years I have always felt like Tina was on my side. 

Now fast forward to last week.  Tina, Amanda and I are splashing around in the pool on a hot summer's day when I feel something hit my ear.  I reach up and start feeling around my head and ask Tina if she saw something.  She said she has seen a dragonfly buzzing around.  I turn my head and she screams and runs, splashes, swims and eventually leaps out of the pool.  I reach up to my ear and grab a small frog.  My response is a little different than Tina's.  I show the frog to Amanda and then toss it into the bushes.

Meanwhile, Tina is panting and pointing and telling me to check the rest of the pool for more frogs.

So what I discovered is this: if I am attacked by a frog I had better be able to defend myself because Tina will just let it eat me. 

Wheels on the chair go round and round

We just got back from Chicago and it was a great trip.  This was our first trip with Amanda's new wheelchair and it worked even better than we had hoped.  For starters, we were moved from row 29 to the bulkhead on both flights between DFW and O'Hare.  Score one for Amanda.

Second, getting through the airports is a breeze when you aren't dragging a child or worrying if they have wandered off or gotten run over in a stampede.  And finally, the best part is, Amanda was able to participate all day long.

We went to the Navy Pier where I learned that steep ramps need to be taken in reverse.  Amanda's eyes were as big as the Ferris Wheel when came sliding to a stop at the bottom.

Amanda covered a 100,000 square foot convention floor in three hours collecting all of the give aways from other companies.  Between her and my 19 year old beauty queen niece I think they even got somebody's laptop.

On Monday I had to work so Tina, my sister and her daughter took Amanda shopping.  I was back at the hotel before they were.  When I opened the door for Tina at almost 5 pm both she and Amanda had the most satisfied looks on their faces.  They just kept going all day and loved it.  I took the backpack from Tina and stupid me, I thought it was the same as when they left in the morning and would weigh about 5 pounds.  Nope, men climb Kilimanjaro with a lighter pack.

I asked Tina where they went.  She said it was easier to explain that they didn't go to Eddie Bauer.

The the wheelchair was a huge success.

And just to point out how helpful it was.  The next day when we got home I took Amanda with me to three places as her sighted guide.  She tripped over two thresh holds and took five minutes to get through a small store.

So all long distance journeys will have the chair, particularly when we go out of town.

I wear a lot of hats

It is a known fact that I like to wear hats.  I've worn hundreds if not thousands of them over the past 41 years.  My cub scout hat, boy scout hats, baseball hats, school hats - even schools I didn't even attend like  The University of California Bears.  One of my favorites was from my early teen years.  It was a Coors Light hat my sister gave me.  It made me look like a Greek fisherman minus the tan.  I kept that hat from the time I was thirteen to twenty five.  At twenty five Tina cleaned out my closet and threw it away because she thought it was ugly.  But I digress.

Lately I have been wearing a black and white Nike golf hat. It can be seen on a blog entry  where Amanda was playing softball.  But I have been wearing it to the gym and to play golf and even to mow the yard so it has gotten a bit used.  So this weekend at the Texas State Special Olympics I bought another hat.  It's blue and made for summer and is very comfortable. Since I bought it at the Special Olympics it says Texas Special Olympics on it.  It only makes sense.

So on our way home Saturday we stopped at a Starbucks to bring my level of caffeine up to a higher octane.  Tina took Amanda to the bathroom while I ordered our drinks.  The young guy behind the counter and I had the following exchange:

Young guy: I see by your hat you must be a nice person

Me after taking off my hat and looking at it to see what he was talking about: Well, my daughter thinks so.  The rest of the world has opinions that span the spectrum of all personality traits.  It just depends on the circumstances at the time. (Seriously, that is what I said)

Young guy: Your daughter likes you, that's enough.

Me: Thanks

I tipped him two bucks for making me feel better.  Between that and the Venti Vanilla Latte' I was set.

By the way, Amanda had a great time at the Olympics.  She was the youngest competitor in her events but she tried as hard as she could and was awarded a bronze medal for the 50 meter dash.  She runs as hard as she can and never gives up and it makes me so proud every
time I see try.

We didn't attend the opening ceremonies because it was just too hot.  Amanda was a little disappointed because she wanted to see all the policemen that would be there.  At dinner we ran into five officers who posed for a picture with her, so she was thrilled.