Benism's

Hello everyone!

Ben and I are settled into a routine. I keep both of my blogs up - Ben's Blog is called With Ben (click to go there) and my original blog -fightingmywayback. Ben also has a facebook page so I can add pictures easily - here is the link for that.  I decided before school that blogging was important to me and I was going to continue to make time for it. So I am - well at least so far. It's only two weeks into the semester.

School is a little boring which is good. I need boring. I'm taking only nine hours - Women in Society, Women in Cult Culture and Introduction to Political Science which is about perfect for both Ben and I. I thought I would share a few Benism's since most of my Ben news and personal news is up on the other blogs. I don't share Ben's quirky traits on my blog since Ben's trainer reads it and she is a little high-strung and would likely be concerned about Ben's not-so-perfect behavior (hey he can't be perfect all the time!).

Anyways, Ben has a tendency to say hello to people. He seems to know when he is very welcome somewhere and he will prance in with me and look at people. When he looks at them he gives a low "ru-ru" sound to say hello. This especially happens at church. I've just taken to shaking my head as it is very quiet and it seems to be his way of saying thank you for loving me.

He makes friends easily. When he is on his vest for the most part he behaves well (except we need to work on our leave-it command). The command 'go say hi' means that Ben can break for a moment and go up to someone and say hello. His butt always shakes when he does this and he comes right up to them to beg for pets. However, I made the mistake this week of sending him to greet someone who was scared of dogs. I was talking to a student from India and he asked if he could pet Ben so without thinking I sent Ben to him. He looked terrified. We had been talking about how he thought it was amazing that Ben could do all of those things and how in India that never would have happened. It didn't occur to me till too late that he had probably never been around dogs and Ben's enthusiastic greeting may have scared him a bit. Later I had him pet Ben when he was in a down and he gingerly did two quick pats. It was neat to talk to someone who had no knowledge of service dogs and was so excited to learn.

Ben has learned that every evening we got for a walk. He will sit on my lap and give me these puppy dog eyes until I get up to go. He will literally settle in and not move until I get his leash and agree to take him. So we have been going earlier and earlier for his evening walk. However, next week I'm taking charge and we are going later again. It's too hot to go right after dinner no matter how much Mr. Ben wants to go.

Ben has a tendency to give me looks. He appears long suffering if I put his vest on and then get my things together. He keeps looking at me like 'well, I'm ready why aren't you". He knows what "let's go to work means' and he jumps up and heads for the door every time. He loves to work.

One last Benism is that he sleeps on my back. Ben is so good with his weight distribution that I will be sound asleep on my stomach and he will jump on my back to sleep and I will never wake up. I love waking up in the morning to find him there. It's very comforting. So there are more Benism's but there are a few. And below are a few pictures from our first weeks together.

The Rivers Ripple

Well, here we are about 3 months post our last post.  I feel like lots of changes have happened in the past few months from our stable, routine, day to day life.
Sarah is still staying at home with Olivia, and has recently been reminded how valuable that time is.  As of July, she is no longer watching Alex (his schedule changed and with more changes coming this fall-it was time).  While we miss him, we can see that having Monday and Tuesdays free will be good for us.  Sarah is also finished with consult visits for Rainbows (as I said above, lots of changes!).  It was good for her to help out, get out, and keep some feeding skills fresh, but time to refocus.  She may continue to do some Sensory Profiles for them on a per diem basis.  By the end of September, Sarah will phase out playing with the brass.  Again, sad, but time for her to be home for the valuable family time.  Don't worry-she'll be on the sub list for them and will rejoin when able.  On a day to day basis, Sarah entertains, cleans, plays, cooks, and does all of those little things that are involved with keeping everyone on track.  As we head into the fall, Olivia and Sarah will be having theme weeks (just like with Alex) and will be getting out for playgroups, library, and the zoo.  Sarah continues to work PRN for ViaChristi Rehab and enjoys her Saturday out of the house.

This Elmo balloon was a BIG hit!

Dan worked extra, super hard to roll out a Catch It Kansas App for the iphone in a one-man show that has taken up his work time throughout the summer and caused some stress.  He is amazing, as this is a project that is usually tackled in teams and he did it solo.  KWCH has recognized this value even more and he will be a making a few visits this fall to stations owned by the KWCH company and has had various meetings with corporate.  He has been playing gigs with the group Bayless.  We took the summer off from church responsibilities and have just begun to resume Sunday school and playing with the church band.  It was a nice break for all of us.

Alex and Olivia in the pool--one of our summer favs.

Olivia is 21 months old, testing some boundaries, and learning new things every day.  Her vocabulary is increasing and she is putting more and more words together.  At the grocery store Friday, her comment was "milk", then "more crumbs milk" (we had crackers earlier in the week which ended up in her milk and she liked the milky crumbs...).  She loves to play and have you play with her.  Her favorites have been the balls, babies, and her dress up box.  We will be trying some potty training this coming week, as Olivia has expressed an interest.  Pray for Sarah--they'll be hanging out in the house for a few days...

Brisco had a bad allergy outbreak just before vacation which led to an ear infection.  We got him medicine and cortizone and he is looking the best he's looked allergy-wise in many months.  We are constantly on the watch, as his wheat allergy reaction is almost immediate and wheat is in most of Olivia's snacks and food.  He's been a bit needy, probably because he knows more changes are coming.

Olivia plays at the Magic House in St Louis

Baby Rivers #2 is growing, kicking, and is slatted to make an appearance at the end of the year or around January 2, 2013.

Baby Rivers at ~18 wks

On a carriage ride in St Louis

We enjoyed a recent vacation to St Louis, MO, some time with friends and family over the summer, and time with each other over the past few months.  You can always check out what we are up to on our blog: theriverscurrent.blogspot.com

Welcome to our Chicago Home!

Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

Grand Prismatic Spring

After a tour of the state of Wyoming on our way to and from the Van Cleave reunion in Yellowstone we had 48 hours to pack-up the apartment in Lincoln and get it into the truck for the trip to Chicago.  Fortunately, we had some family help as Mom, Dad, Erik, and Sam'l came up to help us pack.  We actually did so well that we were finished packing by the mid-afternoon and drove all the way to the Quad Cities at the Iowa/Illinois border.

That got us to Chicago by lunchtime the next day and allowed us to do a quick cleaning of the apartment before the move the next morning.  After an enormous breakfast at a local pancake house we blocked off the alley with the truck and set up an assembly line.  Again, we were blessed with a strong contingent of helpers as Erik and Dad came with us from Lincoln.  They were joined by Katie's mom Patti, brother John, and John's friend Matt.  We unloaded even faster than we loaded up and were finished within 2 hours!

If you want moving pictures, you can ask Dad for a sample.  We've tried over the past 10 days to clean it up somewhat, but here's the grand tour.  It's a courtyard building, set around 3 blocks west of Lake Shore Drive (which runs next to Lake Michigan) and about a block and a half east of the El.

The apartment has about 1000 square feet with beautiful wood floors and an open concept living room, dining room, and kitchen.

We have a small dining room table that should be arriving soon from Katie's grandparents' house in North Carolina that they recently moved out of.  That will fix the hole that is in the middle of the dining room pictures.  I tried to get little connections between each photo but the kitchen photo is taken from the couch in the living room and the dining room photo is taken from the tv.  The back of the apartment is connected by a hallway that has the front door, the bathroom and the bedroom in the back.

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While somewhat small, it's enough for 2 and has great finishes with quality appliances (including Katie's required washer and dryer).  You're all welcome to visit anytime!  

We also wanted to pass on that we've more firmly decided on October 12, 2013 for the wedding.  You still have over a year but just to keep everyone up to date!

A big thanks!

Something a little different, but I thought I'd just take this time to share just a few of the many "thank you"s I owe. (No update on school I'm afraid, that's all quite boring)

1. Living in (kind of) my own house has definitely made me thankful for all the work the parents do day to day: whether that's coming home from work and making food for everyone else (even one one of us (me) has whole days off at a time and is perfectly capable of doing it), doing the dishes, getting their showers out of the way, fixing all the small things that are always breaking, dealing with all the crises, etc, so thank you parents for that.
2. By extension, this makes me thankful for all the work both Aunt Pam and Grandma and Grandpa did as we were growing up to do about the same thing for Kate and I when they babysat. Thank you for that!
3. Kate: I definitely owe you for a lot more than you might realize. Pretty much more than half of the stuff I learned before coming to WestMo was passed down or picked up from you.
4. I owe everyone in the family for their constant encouragement and interest (even if that's feigned, it's still nice!). Just showing interest is often encouraging enough. 
5. Grandpa: thank you for all those things you built when I was young. Little things like that table for my LEGOs definitely didn't stick out but were all the more important for it: so important that they became a part of growing up. Also, for that year you helped me with my woodworking project. And finally, for getting me that job at the Friend's Shop, because without it I would never have discovered the philosophy textbook that inspired my interest.
6. Grandma: thank you for always hosting the family holidays and for serving as a calm point everyone could gather around. Those gatherings had such an effect on my understanding of what it meant to be a family, where I fit in a family, what sort of things we owed to each other as family members, etc. Those are ideas that I've already started to act on in making my friends sit down together for Sunday meals. And of course, for teaching me to bake!
7. A big thank you to everyone who's sent me something at school, be it a package, postcard, or email. I always enjoy them.
8. For everyone else, I realize just how much work so many people in my life have done to get me this far (often a struggle, I know!). As more and more time passes, and the responsibility for being an adult passes on to me, I constantly have these realizations about all kinds of effects everyone in the family has had on me...If I could remember all of them, I'd make this list a thousand times longer just so I could show my appreciation a little better.

So once again, thank you all!

Better Late than Never

Sorry this is a day late but I am sure you have all heard by how that
Grandpa has pneumonia again.  He went into the hospital early early
on Monday morning.  Both his doctors were into day and say he is
doing better but will be there a couple more days!

Anyway wanted to send a few pictures of family dinner last week.

Ben and Darcie (the trainer) joined the family for a fun evening.

After supper fun outside.

Here are a few pics from the Kinast Reunion at Topeka on Saturday.