Christmas concert night

Our year in pictures

 Read the letter, skim a few sentences, or just enjoy the pictures!

~2014 in a Reader's Digest sort of way~

Elia, Lars & Eden swimming at Bridgeport State Lakes in July

Lars hangs on tight to his dad's trophy dash winner plaque in June

Elia, Eden & Lars after landing in Detroit in June

Lars loves to pull Elia in his trailer

Grandma Kenny shows Elia & Lars how to card wool and spin it into thread (like Rapunzel only without the long hair)!

Lars, Elia & Eden all dressed in Denver

Eden meets Big Boy himself, in Bay City

We have the best cousins anywhere!

Aunt Meegan and Eden share a smile at Grandma Kraft's house in Marlette June.

Sarah and Meegan grab the bikes and hit the trails around Lapeer!

Eden, Mataya, McKenzie with Josh, Ariya & Ziana

Grandpa and the girls play Barbies (he never grew up)

The now infamous 1.25" shank screw nail

She's seen better days

Lars in is Cub Scout uniform and pack wagon

All smiles on the morning of discharge!

The girls share a smile at Seybolt Park

Allen all Rev'd Up and ready to race!

The Year of Our Lord 2014 brought some interesting moments in the Strawn household, but here we are at December, already looking at another Christmas. A long, cold winter finally melted into spring and the kids enjoyed their new backyard swing set/play house that Allen put together for them.  I liked the picnic table underneath it that would surely prove to bring about many summer picnics, in which the dog could clean up the mess!

 In March my mom came out to stay with the kids so I could attend an EMS conference in Norfolk, far off in eastern Nebraska.  She stayed a week and helped Allen keep things running smoothly, while I ate out every night of the week and ended my day in a quiet hot tub.

 In April, Allen's Grandfather died and he flew back to Michigan, where he was able to reconnect with some cousins of old and spend time with family.  At Easter, we adopted a Pomapoo puppy and named her Sprite.  She pretty much follows me wherever I go, including the bathroom, which I find somewhat intrusive.  She is a lot of energy and is a real snuggle hog.

Not to be finished with his travels, Allen headed to New York City for a joint pastor's conference in May.  I'm not sure who was more excited for the trip, him or the kids (who stayed home and went to school, but talked about it like it was a magical journey to "the place where James and the Giant Peach landed").  The kids ended school upon his return and jumped right into swimming lessons. 

In June, we hit the road to Denver and the kids and I flew to Detroit, where we spent two weeks vacation with the cousins in Michigan.  It's always so fun to watch the kids interact with each other, I think because they are similar ages in two different worlds of life. We were able to meet and spend a little time with Meegan's new beau, Brian. He took an extended lunch one night at work and took Meegan and I to Greektown in Detroit, driving along Lake St. Clair Shores, all while I thought my children were asleep at Grandma and Papa's house.  We stayed out all night like careless teenagers, only to find out Elia was up all night, sick. I spent the next day in the Emergency Room with her, because she (again) had a horrible case of hives that I just couldn't get under control and breathing difficulty was starting to set in. As un-fun as it was, the air conditioning was so efficient, I needed a sweater and long pants to stop from shivering. Meegan took the other two putt putt golfing, which relaxed me a bit.  Mom and Dad and McKenzie and the kids and I also spent a much more fun day at Greenfield Village, seeing my cousin, Jac, who works there, in the process.  Lars was thrilled with the Roundhouse and train rides, Eden liked the industrial equipment playground and Elia enjoyed the Carousel (as did Grandma)!  Allen joined us at the last for Chad's 40th Birthday party and we flew back home without Eden.  Six weeks later, I was one anxious Momma waiting at Denver airport for her to come home!  She had a great time with her cousins and Aunts and Uncle.  

The kids started school mid August, Eden to 3rd Grade and Lars to 1st.  Both are doing well, Eden is very much a procrastinator and will wait until THEE VERY LAST night to get an assignment done, stressing me out to the end of my stomach's knot and Lars has to get his homework done the minute he gets home from school, even before taking his coat and backpack off.  I hope Elia falls somewhere in the middle.  She is now four years old and is in her last year of Headstart Preschool.  I don't even want to think about that, really.

Eden is again a Brownie Girl Scout with Mom as the Leader and we do have fun together at her meetings.  Lars joined Cub Scouts and Allen goes with him to his pack meetings.  He sold popcorn this year and attended the Chuck Wagon Skills day, where he got to shoot a BB Gun with no precision and throw tomahawks at a target.  He even earned a patch and was very proud!

Allen's parents came out for a week long visit in September, arriving in time for the shoot out at the race track to see Allen race.  They haven't been out here since his mother's stroke three years ago, so it was nice to see them out and going again.  The kids and I also went to Denver for Cousin Lea's first baby (Caleb John K)'s baptism.  We had such a great time with Aunt Karen, Uncle John and the whole Karavais and Vega families.  It was a short but wonderful visit, and well worth the drive!  Didn't know then that I'd be making the Denver trip again so soon!

In October, Elia swallowed "The Nail".  The story was played out in several days with numerous photo updates over Facebook and I won't bore you with the details, but the Reader's Digest version is this:  Elia came running down the hall from the bathroom to the kitchen where I was doing dishes and with a look of sheer panic on her face said, "Mom, I just swallowed a nail!"  To which I said, "I am leaving in 15 minutes for a very important meeting and I don't have time for this.  You did not swallow a nail, now go get into the bathtub RIGHT NOW!"  To which she insisted she indeed swallowed a nail.  We looked for "the nail" for about 20 minutes while Allen panicked and I muttered the improbability of swallowing a nail that size (I'd seen her holding it at supper) without her mouth bleeding or coughing up blood or seeing any other sort of trauma to her throat.  When "the nail" wouldn't turn up,  I walked her to the ER with not even my handbag or wallet (Oh wait, those got stolen out of my car the week before, but I digress...)  As I chatted light-heartedly with the nurse on duty, Elia totted off down the hall with the X-Ray tech.  A few minutes later, I wandered down to the X-Ray room just as the tech looked at me and said, "it's positive".  I was stunned.  I looked over at the picture and sure enough, a nail in her gut.  In no time at all, we were looking at  trip to Rocky Mountian Children's in Denver, over 3 hours away. I called the guys and told them I wouldn't be at the meeting, sent a photo to Allen and power walked home to pack an overnight bag.  I grabbed some cash and fully expected to be home by supper tomorrow.  WRONG!  Five days and a change-of-plans-for-homecoming-weekend later, Allen and the two older kids met Cousin Lea and I in Sterling, CO for supper and a ride home.  Lea lives about 20 minutes from the hospital and kept me sane by bringing me clothes, her new baby, and a real live adult for conversation.

Lars in a forever world of construction trucks

Since then, life has been back to normal for us.  I am still running on the ambulance and was promoted to EMS Administrator this past fall.  Allen is finishing up his 8th year as Pastor of St. Paul's here in Bridgeport and the kids are looking forward to Phase One of the New School being finished over Christmas break, where they will be moving into a new building when they return in January.  Lars has gotten a couple private tours of the new school, and is comfortable knowing where his classroom and bathrooms are.  Eden will see it with her class on Friday.

We hope this finds you well and that you can enjoy the season of Advent and the Birth of Jesus Christ!

Cowgirls in the making!

We live in Western Nebraska, we can't help the wardrobe

Sprite

Eden is Nine

Happy Labor Day to me, I guess. Eden turned 9 on Friday. After taking rice krispie treats and drink boxes to school, she had a friend come home from school with her, go to the racetrack, and sleep over.

On Saturday, the two girls rode bikes all over town, collecting more friends, and by 4:00 in the afternoon, had most of the children on our street and several other friends over for what was supposed to be swimming in the backyard and running through the sprinkler. However, for about the second time all summer, it decided to rain. It clouded up quite suddenly and rain it did!  In a matter of about 15 minutes, we had a half inch of rain to contend with.  I quickly ran downstairs, cleaned up Lars' train set, and pulled out board games, panicking a little that the party might go to pot and everybody would be bored. How wrong I was.  Before I knew it, the kids were bare feet running through the puddles and into the flooded streets. They played for over an hour in the muddy water, laughing and splashing and giggling.

When it was finally time for presents, lasagna & cake and ice cream, they walked back to our house, wrapped in warm towels and borrowed sweatpants, and settled in for the evening. Eden had a great time, and the adults finally showed up to relieve me, as well.

Happy birthday Eden, love you lots!!

Future city worker?

When I was in the 8th grade, a new friend of mine told me that she'd have a hard time being the mother of a handicap child. The context of the conversation was appropriate but I remember thinking "what's a handicap child"?

My best friend in the whole world when I was growing up had a sister in a wheelchair and I didn't think of her as handicap, I thought of her as my best friends older sister. That had clout.  We stayed with her almost every Friday night while their parents had a night out. If it wasn't Friday night, we hung out together practically every day after school and twice that in the summertime. She was family to me and it never dawned on me until that statement was made that their family was any different than mine. I guessed later that not everybody had somebody in their life that was so-called 'handicap'. (I realize now the terms vary and society has pretty much settled on "special needs", but you get the picture.) It was an odd revelation to me at that time but my relationship didn't change. 

After all, I had a second cousin with a severely handicap child, a blind girl in high school that I helped walked to lunch, and people that came to church every Sunday with their wheelchair-bound and sometimes screaming children. None of that ever bothered me. And frankly,  I'm sure I didn't think much about it. There are all kinds of people in the world. It's who you love.

My parents taught me to hold the door for my elders, give up my seat to anybody who appeared to need it more than I did and to take people's coats when they came in the house. Along with my brother and sister, I was a candy striper during my Jr high summers with the American Red Cross and volunteered in a local nursing home. We were not allowed to play with empty wheelchairs, my sister's crutches after surgery or any walkers that belonged to any Great Aunt. Grandpa's walking stick was out of the question, too.  This was part of an unspoken yet understood rule that these tools didn't belong to us and we didn't need them to survive the day. Somebody else did.

I dont know many parents who choose to have a special needs infant; they dont shop for baby clothes, toys and gadgets during pregnancy hoping for something less than perfect, but still, it happens. And it's ok. Eventually.

Now, on to my point: I'm all grown up now. Call it what you will, but I'm the mother of three pretty normal looking children.  They all have needs that are unique to them but one is especially needy about 90% of the time. He's not in a wheelchair and doesn't walk with a limp, he is now fully potty trained, except when there's a big change coming, and for a six year old, I seem to think that he is very smart. He can be really funny when hes not trying to, he gets teased by his sisters & screams accordingly, he rides a tricycle with dept speed and no agility whatsoever, loving to pull his little sister in the trailer behind, finally dresses himself with no help, eats healthier than anybody I've ever met, and wakes promptly at 6:15 every morning. He has an annoying knack for remembering the oddest of details and will mimick himself or others for hours on end. He has no filter on his mouth, no volume control,  self control or body control.  He clenches his teeth probably 15 hours out of the day and tries really hard not to bite anything he's not supposed to.

When Lars was two, a fellow mother told me that, among other awful realities of having no compassion, no love and no real emotion , he would have no imagination of his own and not to expect any natural creativity. Now, I ask you... who do you think spent his early morning screaming and crying about the injustices in his little life (I think it is the oddly cool and rainy days we're having), then after a half hour of deep pressure went downstairs to create this masterpiece?

My Lars. That's who.

You'll notice a complete city with hospital and helipad, fire station and clock (Clokk, bc he couldn't find another C) making factory, a Ford factory, a river running through the town with draw bridges for cars to cross,  Lake Huron with a freighter on it and lots of little buildings like grocery stores and the post office.  Down the road is Flintstones village with parking all around and the community center in the middle.

Yes, I have my days where I won't last till he's 18 and they are peppered with moments such as these. God is good. Even when I'm not good at it.

Nebraska From Above - Best Highlights Montage (HD)

Port Huron

A day in Port Huron was the right way to end our summer vacation trip to Michigan.  We drove along the Lake St Clair shore to Lake Huron, found a park to picnic at near the lighthouse ship, walked along the water, swam at the beach, got stopped by the drawbridge, saw a freighter pass by at the boatnerd.com dock, and ate ice cream by the shore.  The weather was warm and everybody seemed to have a nice time.