Monday, June 21, 2010

Banners and Blogs

So I changed the name of the blog. Thoughts? I've always thought the old title was way too long.

Pretty soon our family will attend my grandmother's 90th birthday. Luke is in charge of decorations.



He worked really hard on his banner.




Isn't it beautiful? I couldn't fit the entire banner in the frame but it is huge. I wonder how much tape we'll need to display this beauty.
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And today Luke apparently has the stomach flu. In mid June. Seriously? After a couple of episodes this morning he seems to be feeling much better. Praying this is short lived and not communicable.
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After I changed the blog header last night, the blog did some very strange things and I was afraid some posts were ruined. And I panicked a little, thinking I'd lost some memories. Thankfully a refresh corrected the problem. But the incident got me thinking I really do want a hard copy of our blog. Have any of you readers printed your blogs? Any recommendations? How much work was it? I expect a flood of comments from you three readers.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Walk Like an Egyptian

Where have I been? I've been VBSing. VBS is an insane amount of work. But worth every minute of it, or at least most of the minutes. And I'm really uninspired to write tonight, but if I don't do it now I don't know when I will. It's funny how just the other day I was thinking I needed some new direction for the blog. At the time I didn't feel like autism affected our daily lives that much any more. And then autism hit me the face today. Or maybe it was just a bad mood. I can't remember the last time we had such a challenging day. That'll teach me to get cocky!

So back to VBS. Joseph's journey from prison to palace. As people loaned and donated things to church over the last few months, I put together my costume. And at the last minute I realized Lamar needed one too.


Lamar informed me he was not an Egyptian but a Hebrew. Fine, he was a Hebrew living in Egypt. He told me he was likely from some tribe (no clue on the name) many believe rose to power in Egypt during the time of Joseph. Yep, that's what I was thinking.



Luke ready to enter the palace gates.




Luke and a friend pose in front of the sphinx, cleverly disguising the Information Center. Our decorating crew was genius! So good I'm not in charge of decorating. We'd have a few pyramid posters and that's about it.


Inside Pharaoh's palace, where Joseph shared his stories each night.

So this year I was a "family group leader" and put Luke in my group (the perks of organizing the groups--the only perk). He was so excited about VBS, but nervous. I'm doubtful he could have handled it without having me nearby. But he did really super.


Ancient Egyptian game tug-of-war.




Luke in the Egyptian marketplace Beauty Salon preparing for his first "shave". He let a stranger put shaving cream on his face. Wow.






Luke gets a turn holding our family group sign.



After getting beautiful at the salon, the Red Corn family poses with Pharoah. Everyone is thrilled.

During our "family time" one evening we played a blindfolded/leading game. Luke had three volunteers to lead him. And he might need about 3 women to keep him in line.


Egyptian cart races.




Lots of adult Egyptians (and Hebrews) ready to help out if the cart gets stuck.



Luke and friends in the jewelry shop. He had just created the lovely headband.



Another night in family time, learning our memory verse.



Tuesday night as the kids were dismissing (It takes a while to safely dismiss 400+ kids) Mr. Jonathan let Luke answer some questions in the mike.

And then he got to try on the famous hotdog hat. That's the Nile behind us, if it wasn't obvious.


Our final night we made a mummy from toilet paper of course.
Luke really loved VBS but was so tired by our fourth and final night. Night time VBS is pretty exhausting. But he understood and eagerly (I mean really eagerly) participated in every single activity. I was most amazed that he didn't even mind the loud times in assembly. He tolerated screaming "Booster!" really well and even participated. He didn't want to miss a minute of anything.
So when we sat in the assembly and Luke sang, with all his heart, "Savior, he can move a mountain," I thought, "Yep, he sure can."

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Summertime

Have you heard? It's SUMMER! We're a little excited.


Our first sprinkler run of the summer.


That is Luke running right through (more or less) the middle of the sprinkler. I think this might be a summer of all sorts of crazy firsts.



And we played golf in the backyard . . . barefoot! Craziness.



And smiled nicely for a photo or two . . .


Before getting a little annoyed.



Oh and for some reason we drew on our faces with sidewalk chalk. And yep, that's a photo of me on the blog with no makeup (well, other than the chalk blush). Scary how much I don't care anymore.
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And we went bowling with our buddy Andrew.


Luke very excitedly watched from the van for him to arrive. (I promise he looked really excited right before I took this photo).






The boys played three great games.







Andrew had the best throwing style EVER.




And he cheered with great enthusiasm. We do love enthusiasm around here.





Buddies, despite the slight height difference.
So far we're a fan of summer. Luke keeps asking me if he's going to school and when kindergarten starts. All this hype for so much waiting! Hope he can maintain the enthusiasm til August.
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I got a new swimsuit the other day. The first time I wore it Luke enthusiastic voiced his approval and told me I looked like a "Deal or No Deal lady". Might need to redo his vision test.
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Luke's definitely mastered "why" questions lately. Tonight he asked me what dying is and why someone died. This is a brand new parenting phase for us.
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So happy summer friends! Enjoy!