Taking the Scenic Route

Grammie Gifts

13th July 2009

Grammie Gifts

Much to our delight and surprise, a package came in the mail from Grammie.

Zora got this neat magnetic dress up doll. She carries it around the house with her and encourages people to talk to it. She carries the pieces around in her doll stroller, and she keeps trying to talk us into taking her with us in the car.

Zane got a marble maze thing. He LOVES toys like this and spends a lot of time playing with it.

posted in Papo (Z's Dad) & Grammie, The Kids | Comments Off

30th December 2008

Zach’s Dad and the Christmas letter (split from a post about autism)

This holiday was difficult because of the loss of Zach’s dad. We found ourselves having to correct ourselves when presenting gifts from “Grammie” instead of “Papo and Grammie”. We are still really struggling to adjust to the idea that he isn’t here any more. We are finding our thoughts wander to him and his absence feels really profound, despite the fact that we didn’t see him very often. My thoughts often went to Zach’s siblings, knowing that they are likely feeling his absence much more immediately than we are, and how difficult this holiday must be for them. Even for us it was enough to make it impossible to write the traditional Christmas letter and card because I just couldn’t find a way to state the obvious without feeling competely ovehwhelmed with grief. I have thought about just sending the cards late, but honestly, I don’t think I can. It is just too much for me right now. The grief is just too fresh and raw.

Until I talked to my mom about it, I didn’t even realize that it was just this year that Zach graduated with his Master Degree, and, realistically, we did actually have some good news to share in a Christmas update. Before talking to her I felt like the whole letter would be: Zora is growing, Zane is still autistic, I am still fat, and Zach’s dad died. That pretty much summed up how I feel right now. It isn’t fun, it isn’t uplifting, and it is a picture of people really working to keep our heads above water. I WANT to feel empowered and happy, but I don’t most of the time. I feel pretty fragile most days to be honest. I take things much more personally than I should because I am just struggling to hang on most days. I know it will get better, and I know I have the strength to keep going, but some days it is just really hard. I feel so very, very human many days.

As I look towards the next year, I just hope it is better than this year. I look forward with hope and resolve to do everything in my power to make it as good of a future as possible.

posted in Christmas, Death, Papo (Z's Dad) & Grammie | 2 Comments

1st November 2008

Saturday Night, the last night with the family.

As they day wound down and people left, we found ourselves lingering until it was just us and the other siblings with Jennifer. I think it was the first time it really felt ike family with the siblings for Zach and I. The uncomfortableness was gone and we were just connected.

All through the week we learned things about Dad, his relationships, how he lived, and our siblings. I am not going to share them on the blog because they are too personal, but I will say that we had some misconceptions. Zach and my heart healed a lot this trip, in ways I could never have anticipated. I hope they are also wanting to continue building a relationship with us.

As sad and hurt as I was that Jim had never met Zora, I am not any more. Although I realize that he could have made different choices, I understand that he did want to see her. That was good to know.

Sidetrack into autism stuff:

I still don’t really understand why nobody knew that Zane was autistic other than the siblings. That was a little weird for us throughout the week. I was confused, at first, why we were getting *that* look, but figured out that nobody knew. I guess I forget that “Autism” is still a scary word full of stigma for other people. I know he was tight lipped about things, but I was just really suprised that they hadn’t even told Jennifer’s brother, a doctor. He actually hunted us down on Saturday, shortly after he had found out about it. He had a granddaughter (I think…my brain was so foggy when he talked to me I am not 100% sure) who was non-responsive and showed many autistic traits as an infant. He did a huge amount of research and used biomed techniques (specifically, treatment for yeast overgrowth) and she is now indistinguishable from peers. (seriously, I didn’t notice any of the kids with any sort of autistic tendencies…so if that child was there, she really is indistinguishable even to the somewhat trained eye).

He talked to me at length about Zane’s symptoms (and man did it make me dig in my brain…usually I can list off all of his tests and evals and treatments off the tip of my tongue, but I was really fried and was struggling to make my tongue work. lol). He got me a script for some non-systemic anti-fungal and I am going to get with my doctor here to have him work with me on doing yeast treatment on Zane. Thankfully, he also agrees with going low and slow so it isn’t hard on Zane. I started him on a low dose of the meds when we got back and am doing a lot of reading on the diets I am going to need to implement. The diet part is really going to be rough because it looks like almost his entire diet is yeast-feeding. (except for meat) I plan on starting to change the diet tomorrow, the day after Halloween. (He has been looking forward to Halloween for the entire month and I was not going to tell him he can’t have any candy on Halloween…it could wait a few days)

So, I am back to evaluating poop on a daily basis. Fun. (no changes yet, btw)

There was also another person there I was introduced to who worked with special needs kids. They worked with a new program where you strengthen different parts of the brain to help increase learning. It takes into account which hand/foot/eye/ear is the strongest and develops a program based on that. I didn’t totally get it (again, major brain fog), but it sounded interesting. I have to dig through my stuff though because I know they gave me a pamphlet of some kind that, presumably, has the name of the program on it. The only thing I can remember of the name is the picture I have in my head of the “Little Giant Ladders” that I have seen infomercials for. I am not sure if the name has something to do with “ladders” or “orange ladders” or “little giants” or some other weird thing that I remembered that way for some reason. lol. Sometimes a visual memory can be really confusing.

And, back to the subject…
I am really glad we went. Zach was resistant to going for a while, but I knew he needed to, and I knew it would be a good thing, but I don’t think I even came close to understanding how true that was. When every body is raw and stripped bare by the trauma of such a sudden passing, it can go either way…either it is the last event that forever rips a family apart, or it pulls everybody together even closer than they were. In this case, even though we feared the former, we most definatly experienced the latter.

And, to finish on a lighter note, at the end of the day our camera was full. Zane picked it up wanting to take pictures, so Zach went through the camera and erased a few pictures so there was space for Zane to take about 3 pictures. The first was the back of a Ritz box, the second was the cool lighting fixtures in the kitchen, the third was this, confirming our suspitions that he really connected with Tirza:

posted in Autistic Life, Biomed, Death, Extended Family, Papo (Z's Dad) & Grammie, San Antonio, The Kids | Comments Off

31st October 2008

After the Memorial, at his Dad’s house

I didn’t take any photos of the Memorial Service because it just feels odd to me to take pictures in a church…weird, I know. The service was totally appropriate and very uplifting, and the service was largely a celebration of Jim’s faith and his affect on those around him.

One thing that stood out to me was watching Jennifer’s mom, sitting next to her. She is quite old…I think in her late 90s, and was just widowed this last spring. I can’t imagine having to watch your daughter go through the same thing when the pain of your own loss is still that fresh.

On a rather funny note, we got lost going there. Twice. It was the one location we had been to several times before and yet, we still managed to miss the turnoffs. Zach, who is frustratingly polite driving most of the time, actually got honked at twice pushing his way into traffic trying to get there. We had to laugh. In direct contrast to Zach, his dad’s aggressive driving was legendary. He seemed to enjoy making passengers squirm and was honked at regularly. Frankly, we were amazed he died of natural causes and not a car wreck. We figured the honkers had his dad’s eyes twinkling with his amused smirk in heaven. lol.

After the service, we went out to his Dad’s house, about a half an hour into the Hill Country near a big lake. The area sort of reminded me of the Sand Hills that are South and East of Hutchinson, and my Maternal grandparent’s home place. Well, except that there were gates here, but they weren’t to keep the cattle in. lol.

Zane and Zach took a long walk around the property to really look at what Jim had done. Jim had designed a myriad of intertwining paths and “rivers” of rock. Zane wanted to walk the maze of rocks and so he and Zach spent a good amount of time just enjoying the intricacies of the landscaping. Zane picked a rock out that he really liked and brought it home with him. It sits in a place of honor in his room. Here he is showing it to the camera.

The pool was just beautiful and the center of the action for much of the day. Jim designed every aspect of it.

The tree he was planting. When we were at the viewing one of their neighbors came over and planted it so that nobody would have to come home to it still being undone. What a thoughtful neighbor.

On the side table next to his chair in the bedroom.

Landscaping binds the generations together in Zach’s family. A lot of Zach’s memories of his dad growing up are going with him and doing landscaping. His grandpa also did a lot of gardening, grew an orchard, and was always working with the landscaping with Zach too. This yard was a challenge to him because he had never worked in this kind of environment. I think it is easy to see he was a master, and his yard was his masterpiece.

I overheard somebody say that firepit was the first thing he built when he started landscaping this property. It is at the back of the property and opens out to wild land. It is so peaceful sitting out there.

Most of Jim’s grandkids were there that day, so we gathered them up and tried to get a picture. The first pictures are before Rocco was brought into the picture. Sloan is the only one I see missing. (in one of my previous posts, she is the one in the raspberry stripped Hannah Andersson dress, going down the slide)

From left to right: Zane, Zora, Soren, Tirzah, Noah, Brenna. In front later is Rocco.

posted in Autistic Life, Death, Extended Family, Papo (Z's Dad) & Grammie, San Antonio, Zach | Comments Off

31st October 2008

Family Luncheon at Jennifer’s Brother’s Estate

I love going out to their estate. It is so peaceful and comfortable there, and they have always worked to make it a place where people can really relax. It was a great atmosphere to sit and chat and share stories and memories.

I think the playground area is new, at least in the last 5 years or so. The kids just loved it. It also made life a lot easier for parents because it kept the kids in the same general area (particularly Zane, who tends to wander off if he gets bored or overwhelmed).

They had a local restaurant cater, and had all the ribs, brisket, and some poultry and all the sides. There was enough selection that I was able to eat some of it, which was really nice. Later on, the kids all had an ice cream treat too.

All of the kids were nice and played together well. It made me wish we lived closer.

Zora and Brenna really hit it off. (Hayden & Amber’s younger girl, about a year and a half older than Zora) Brenna seemed to love being the older girl and telling Zora how to do stuff. I saw them holding hands for a while too. They both have strong personalities and seemed a good match. Zora also seemed to get along with the boys running around. My rough and tumble little girl.

Zane and Tirza (Hayden & Amber’s oldest, six months younger than Zane) seemed to make a connection too. Zane even pushed Tirza on a swing. (which made me really excited…attempting to join in play like that is a huge deal) Tirza commented to her mom that Zane must not have realized she knew how to pump her legs, but she let him push her anyway…she is such a kind hearted kid. She seemed to “get” Zane more than a lot of people do.

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31st October 2008

The Burial

Today, Zora was going with us and Zane was being dropped off at the church. If you are in San Antonio, the Community Bible Church has a great Special Needs ministry, and they are the ones who watched Zane during the burial. The next day, when we pulled into the parking lot for the Memorial, Zane happily asked from the back seat if he was going “back to the school?”. A sure sign of approval.  I am not a conservative, by any stretch of the imagination, but the church seemed like a great church if that is your style of worship.  We were there a few years ago, and the growth is astonishing.  I heard someplace that they are now the 17th largest church in the nation.

At the hotel, ready to go

Anyway, we dropped Zane off at the church and took Zora with us to the burial.  Kirsten’s (Zach’s step-sister) in-laws volunteered to watch over Zora and Rocco during the service.  The other kids were all either attending, or still in school. 

I have never been to a military burial, so it was a new experience.  I have also never been a person in the “sitting” area before.  I hope it is a long, long time before I “get” to have that experience again. 

They started with three gunshots, one for service, one for honor, and one for something else….I can’t remember what right now.  One thing, without a doubt, even though you are expecting it, it is very startling.  It very effectively jumpstarts the tears.  Then they followed with a beautiful playing of Taps. 

When they folded the flag, I couldn’t help but think of all of the wives/mothers/fathers/husbands that have watched the same thing for their loved one.  Including my natural grandfather.  And when they knelt down in front of Jennifer, and told her the flag was from the president in appreciation of her sacrifice, I was choking back tears, not only for Jim, but knowing my grandmother stood there as a new widow with a preschooler and infant, and was told the same words.  The feeling of it all being greater than this one death was overwhelming.  I will never be able to watch a military burial on TV the same way.  The solomn and magestic ritual of it all was so powerful.

The service was ended with a short message, then a hymn (I can’t recall which one it was off the top of my head, but it was familiar enough for me to get most of the verses without benefit of the lyrics, which I somehow missed when they were handing them out).  The service was concluded with a beautiful doxology, lead by Jennifer’s extended family.  (a very musical family, blessed with beautiful voices)

After the service one of Zach’s cousins told him that they often let family members keep the shells spent during the gun salute, so Zach went over and gathered some for himself and his siblings and gave it to them.

It was hard, but as Zach said, it was harder the night before.  I initially asked him if was harder because he had to talk to people, and he said that it was harder because it was the last time he would ever see his father’s face, and his father’s hands.  It was harder because that is when he said good-bye to him.  I agree.  It was sad, and final, but the night before was harder for me too.  Looking around that day, I think the same was true for a lot of people.

The feeling standing there, after the service, was so odd.  It was a beautiful sunny day and the kids were playing and laughing amongst the gravestones and along the road near the pavilion.  Such a contrast to see them with the coffin off in the background and the adults gathered into little groups, all in dark clothes.  For Zora, it was the first time she was around kids in days, and met some of her cousins.  (she met the other cousins at the estate later, when they got out of school).

There were a few people with cameras there.  Me taking a picture of Lauren taking a picture of Mead taking a picture of Wright (I think)  I know there was at least one other photographer and now I am wondering if she was standing behind me.

And a group picture.  This is Jim’s sisters and their husbands, and all of the cousins (in Zach’s generation) except Jim’s girls. (Kirsten & Amanda)   In the front, from the left:  Cady, Mead, Sandy, and Joyce.  In the back:  Wright, Bob, Zach, Dan, Lauren, and Hayden

We were able to be there precicely an hour, and then they started kicking us out.  We went to pick up Zane, who was not totally convinced he should have to leave, and went out to Jennifer’s brother’s estate for the family meal and social time.

posted in Autistic Life, Death, Extended Family, Papo (Z's Dad) & Grammie | 2 Comments

30th October 2008

Thursday Morning and Early Afternoon, before the viewing

Thursday morning was the first time we started seeing family. We met up with Aunt Joyce and Dan down at breakfast. We talked for a while, and when we realized they planned on making two trips to the airport to pick everybody up, we told them we would come along instead. With all of our luggage out of the vehicle, we had the back seating area free for either their luggage, or more people.

They made a test airport run while we went back up to the room. Pretty soon we got a call from Hayden (Zach’s brother) to see if Zach wanted to meet with the preacher with the rest of the siblings, so he went with him to do that while I tried to settle the kids in. Zane was clearly agitated, but got a little better when I pulled out all of the blankets (yeah for overpacking) I had brought with us and covered the loveseat and made a little nest for him.

Zora was loving the tv at her level.

Although we had been talking about what was going on to a degree, I still had to talk to Zane, more specifically, about what exactly was going on and what death was. I had to practice saying “dead” over and over again so I could say it without bursting into tears. He had a mini-meltdown and closed himself in the bathroom, trying to block the door, and I knew it was past time to have that talk.

The Talk
I sat with him on the floor of the hotel bathroom, rocking him, and explaining in the simplest, most literal terms possible that Grandpa Papo died.

His body was broken and the doctors couldn’t fix him. When our bodies get a little broken, we go to a dr to fix us. (then went through different people to ask “Is mommy broken, is Zane broken…ect, to make sure he understood the concept of broken body and not broken body)

In video games, when you die, it is a pretend die. You can start again and you are alive. In real life, when you die, you stay dead. You can’t start again. You can’t talk to the person, or hug them, and they can’t breathe or see or hear any more. They look a little bit like they are asleep, but they are not asleep. When you go to sleep, you wake up. When you die, you do not wake up. You can tell the person is dead because they don’t breath or open their eyes any more. (again, asked questions to see if he was comprehending)

Inside of all of us there is an invisible part that makes us alive, called a spirit or soul. When the body breaks too much for docters to fix, the spirit goes to heaven to live with Jesus. His alive part, his spirit, is happy because he is with Jesus. Mommy and Daddy are sad because we won’t see his spirit for a long time and we will miss him being on earth. We miss being able to talk to him and hug him. (again…questions to confirm comprehension)

We will be going to see his body. His body will be in a special box called a coffin. He will look a little like he is alseep, but he will mostly look different (as it turned out, there was no question he wasn’t just asleep, and he looked quite a bit different). He won’t be breathing and he won’t open his eyes because his alive part is not in his body any more. His alive part is with Jesus.

There will be other people there to see Papo’s body. A lot of them might be crying, or sad, and that is OK. It is good to cry when we are sad. We all miss Papo being alive, but we know his inside part, his spirit part, is happy and living with Jesus. If you are sad, it is good to cry. If you are scared, it is good to tell us. Mommy and Daddy will be with you and keep you safe and give you hugs if you want them. If you are not sad, that is fine. It is ok to not be sad.

I asked him a bunch of question afterwards to make sure he got the concept (as much as he could…nobody *really* gets death). I also knew that the only way he was going to understand what dead meant, for sure, was to take him to the viewing. Every part of my soul wanted to spare him that, but I knew that I had to.

Right after Zach returned from his meeting with the siblings, we left to pick everybody up at the airport. They were coming from three different places in the country, but all managed, somehow, to end up on the same plane the last leg. Amazing. We exchanged a few quick hugs, got people and luggage arranged in the vehicles, and headed back to the hotel.

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30th October 2008

Hearing the News & Getting There

It was Monday night, 8:30pm or so.  It was the “witching hour” where we are trying to round everybody up for bed, just a bit on the late side that night and the kids were that overtired crazy they get when they need to go to bed.  I picked up the phone, and a business-like voice asked for Zach.  I assumed it was his work because they were starting the move from the old facility to the brand new (in fact, not totally finished…some areas are still “hard hat only” areas) and Zach is the go-to guy for computer stuff, especially oddball problems.  Zach quickly went downstairs, away from the melee, to have his conversation, but that just “confirmed” my thought that it was work.  I will never forget the look on his face as he walked the last few steps up the stairs back into the living room a few minutes later.  I sit here with tears rolling down my face remembering it.  He stuttered out that it was Hayden and Dad was dead, and was choking back tears.  That is when the world started spinning. 

After holding each other for a while, I told him to call his mom and let her know.  (his Dad and his wife celebrated 30 years, so the divorce happened shortly before their marriage).  For the next few days, we were almost always on at least one phone, but often two phones and the other one would start ringing.  We have prepaid cell phones that had barely been used up until this week, but we had to keep adding money to keep them going over and over again because they were seeing such heavy use.  

Zach didn’t really start crying hard until he had to tell his mom.  I was on the phone with Zach’s best friend (very close friend of mine after all of these years too) and was telling him what was going on.   I wasn’t going to have him come over that late, until I heard Zach start sobbing, big heaving sobs on the phone with his mom, and Robert said he would be right over.  It was so good to have him here.  For a while we considered having him come along with us, but realized that wasn’t the best idea for us or him.  It was nice of him to offer to come with us though.

A few more phone calls with Amber and Kirsten and we discovered that nobody there had numbers for Zach’s Aunts, Jim’s sisters.  They were considering sending messages via facebook out of desperation, but I told them to give me a bit and see if I could find them.  I knew we had addresses, but when I looked in my Palm Pilot, there wasn’t a phone number there for Sandy.  I started googling and came up with a number in the same town, with her dh’s name and called.  Wrong person.  (that was fun).  Then I googled Joyce and  went to compare addresses, discovered I did have Joyce’s number and called her.  That was one of the hardest phone calls I have ever had to make.  She said she would call Sandy.  After a while, I posted on my blog.  Much to my horror, that is how some of the cousins found out.  (it was late and, thinking they had gone to sleep, Sandy was going to tell them in the morning)  I think it was meant to be though because the chance of them seeing it when they did is just amazing.

One or the other of us was on the phone almost the whole time until past midnight.  I tried to rent a van, but the first one that was available was Thursday evening.  We called airlines and quickly realized that wasn’t a possibility for us.  (besides the fact that there have been multiple stories of autistic kids being kicked off planes and I knew Zane was not going to handle a plane ride well under this kind of stress) and I knew I could not handle it if that happened.  It would break me. At about 1am, we realized the kids were still up and put them to bed.

Our first big decision was whether or not to take the kids with us.  At first, we thought about leaving them here.  My parents would watch them.  Since this family doesn’t see each other often, and Hayden and Amber were bringing their kids (and the other siblings live in San Antonio area) we decided to bring the kids because it might be a while before we meet up with everybody again.  A few people in the family had met Zane, but nobody had met Zora.  If anything good was going to come out of this, at least they could meet our kids.

My parents immediately said that they would loan us the money we needed to rent a van, and mom said she would come up the next day to help me shop.  I had an outfit, and Zach had work clothes and a sportscoat, but when I pulled the summer clothes back out, all of Zora’s clothes were bright and cheerful, and the only remotely sedate clothing was meant for cold Kansas winters, not warm San Antonio.  (it was still in the 80s there).  Zane had some stuff, but needed shoes that weren’t bright green crocs.  Both had outgrown their summer church shoes. We ended up getting Zane a sportscoat, which seemed appropriate because almost all the pictures Zach has of him and his dad has Zach in a sportscoat just like his Dads.  We found some stuff on clearance for Zora (summery, but more sedate).

I also needed new make-up. I realized that most of my make-up was left over from my wedding. I would buy new mascara and eye liner when I needed to wear make-up, but I know the last time I tried to use the eye shadow the little sponge brushes literally disintegrated in the make up when I tried to put it on. It was time.

Tuesday, I spent the morning trying, again, to find a car to rent in Wichita sooner.  I was hoping for a van, but there was nothing.  Mom came up and we took Zora and went shopping, and Zach stayed home with Zane, next to the phone, talking to family as plans firmed up and trying to get a car sooner because the viewing was moved to Thursday instead of Friday. 

Eventually, Zach got a Hertz agent to understand what was going on and they started working on their end to get a car into Wichita ASAP.  We were willing to drive to surrounding towns, but Wichita was the main hub in this area for cars and nothing else was available either.  We think they called down to KC and brought a van from there (it had MO plates) and they said they would try and get it to us by noon on Wednesday.  It was clear they were pulling strings and really going the extra mile because every time they located a possible car, they would call to see if it was ok…the first was a 2 seater, but strapping the kids to the roof seemed like a bad idea.

It was weird to go shopping in a rush like that, but we always feel so…I don’t know…inadequate, around that family.  We always feel like the poor relatives and that feels really yucky.  I know that we aren’t as dirt poor as we once were, and it shouldn’t have mattered to me (and I am sure that it didn’t matter to them), but I already have to walk into that crowd as the fat one (I hate how I look…HATE.IT.  My hair is ugly, my body is ugly, and I feel so freakin’ frumpy.), and that couldn’t be changed in an afternoon, but at least my kids could look nice. 

I shouldn’t have felt that way.  It was a fear that I realized was totally unfounded when I got there.  Everybody was warm and welcoming and I knew instantly that nobody there cared one iota what we were wearing, they just cared that we were there.  It’s weird what fears and insecurities come up when facing stuff like this though.  

Between the time we found out on Monday evening until Thursday night after the viewing, I had a total of *maybe* 6 hours of sleep.  I found I just couldn’t sleep.  I couldn’t even sleep in the van on the way there either.  On Tuesday night I sent Zach to bed so he would be awake to drive and I stayed up packing. 

Packing was very erratic.  I couldn’t make decisions and ended up packing pretty much every weather appropriate outfit we own, all of our toiletries (including bandaids and some first aid stuff that actually came in handy) and a very strange selection of toys for the kids.  I packed snacks for the kids and even had stuff like spoons for yogurt and knives for peanut butter.  I packed and packed and packed.  You would think we were moving.  lol.  Luckily, we don’t actually own very many clothes, so it fit easily into the van.  We went to Germany for two weeks with one carry-on rolling suitcase each, the computers in Zach’s briefcase, and my purse.  That was it.  We had enough room in them to buy several bags of stuff there and have it fit in our luggage.  We left for a 4 day trip to San Antonio with enough stuff to live there for a year. 

The drive itself was long and hard, but the van was nice.  We left Wichita at about 2pm, discussing how we were going to get around in San Antonio (we printed off 1 google map and forgot to print anything else) and, despite the fact we have lived in Wichita the majority of our adult life, turned the wrong way on the interstate.  About 25 miles out, we saw a sign giving mileage to Kansas City and realized our mistake and turned around.  How on earth we managed to do that, we have no idea.  I joked with mom that maybe angels turned us around to keep us out of an accident.  

A few hours later, as we were getting ready to enter Oklahoma City, they were talking about a major pile up that had occurred on I-35.  I started watching for the location and realized, when I saw it, it was about an hour from where we were when it happened…had we not taken the hour detour, we might have been in the middle of it.  Maybe it really was angels.

The kids actually did reasonably well on the drive.  Zane played his DS and Zora, somehow, managed to entertain herself with the oddball contents of her “sparkle purse” (she puts helicopters, cars, dollhouse dolls and other odds and ends in there) and singing at the top of her lungs.  We stopped at fast food places with those play structures (even a stand alone chick-fil-a…I had never seen one of those outside a mall, so that was odd) and let the kids stretch their legs while we ate, and then they ate when we got back in the van.  We also discovered a magical concoction of extra caffinated coffee for Zach.

We rolled into San Antonio at around 3:30 or so, and it took several misturns to figure out how to get to the hotel.  We could see it, but we couldn’t figure out how to get to it for a while.  We unloaded everything and set the room up for the kids to be more comfortable because everybody was too wound up to just go to sleep.

We slept a few hours, then dragged ourselves out of bed for breakfast downstairs, and met up with Joyce and Dan at breakfast.

posted in Autistic Life, Death, Extended Family, Friends, Papo (Z's Dad) & Grammie, San Antonio, The Kids, Zach | Comments Off

28th October 2008

Family Photos from the funeral

We talked briefly with some other family members about making a place where we can all upload our photos together and share the pictures.

I made an account at Walgreens. The username is our last name, and the password is (the other) Jennifer’s maiden name followed by the number “1″ (you have to have both letters and numbers in the password).

I am just now starting to load pictures on there, so if you see this message right away, it might be empty, but there should be pictures there later today.

PLEASE feel free to add your pictures. That is what it is there for.

ETA:
The username starts with a capital letter
The password does not.

Sorry if this caused confusion.

The pictures are all raw footage. I will be going through them and doing red eye corrections, etc. If you have one/some in particular that needs a bit of photoshop work, let me know and I will do that for you. I also just uploaded with the default settings. I don’t know if that means it is the original size, but if not, again, tell me and I can try again. I haven’t done this much, but I chose Walgreens because they actively support integrating autistic and developmentally delayed adults into the workplace and have a really high percentage of disabled workers.

posted in Death, Extended Family, Papo (Z's Dad) & Grammie | Comments Off

23rd October 2008

We are in San Antonio now

We drove straight through and arrived at 3:30 or so, but didn’t get settled until 4:30-5am.  We got up at 8am and went down to breakfast and met up with Aunt Joyce &  her husband.  We are following them to the airport this afternoon to help pick up Sandy &  Bob, Wright, Mead, Cady and Lauren who are all, amazingly, arriving on the same flight.  About 2 hours after we pick them up is the family viewing, then we don’t know if we are going to the house, or hanging out with the family.

This morning Zach’s brother-in-law picked him up to go to the family meeting with the minister.

posted in Death, Papo (Z's Dad) & Grammie, Stress | 3 Comments

  • Zane's age

  • Zane is 22 years, 2 months, and 22 days old
  • Zora's age

  • Zora is 18 years, 2 months, and 26 days old
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  • Anyone can become angry, that is easy…but to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way…this is not easy — Aristotle

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