Pam and Randy's favorite reads.

Pam:
My favorite books to read are children's books.  Any kind make my day!  The old lady series are fun as they have them for each season and holiday now!  The secretary at school and I enjoyed reading these to the Kindergarteners a couple of years ago and finding all the objects to have her swallow.  The secretary just told me the other day that she gets to read these to the Kindergarteners again this year - what fun she will have!

Randy:

Magazines-Time, The Economist, National Geographic and Discover in addition to 25+ computer trade publications. These provide insight into various initiatives and developments around the world in addition to big news events. For fun, Peanuts and other comics as well as history and religion still provide pleasure reading.

 

Rivers Ripple

September 20th, 2016 (I wrote before my trip to NYC, but didn't get pictures added until tonight.  And as interesting as I am to read...I know you all are visual learners.)---
How is that time goes so quickly as you get to be middle aged?!?!  3 months has come and gone.  We had a full summer--lots of things to keep us busy.
Dan has fully transitioned into his job with Gray Communications and goes into the office about 1x/week, working the rest of his days from the "man cave".  He is playing with the church band at Renew, the first service there was this past Sunday.  Dan will run a 10K on Saturday and plans to run the Prairie Fire Half Marathon in October.
Sarah has been juggling the three children's schedules, appointments, and etc.  As we have started school, most mornings the Rivers Minivan Shuttle runs non-stop.  In an effort to keep her sanity, she is getting her regular workout routine at the YMCA back--two days a week to start (often with a friend).  She is participating in MOPS at Ascension and helping to lead some of the meetings as we are without a coordinator.  Sarah also participates in a Special Needs Support Group at Aldersgate.  Between MOPS and the support group, she is out on Thursday evenings most weeks.  Sarah did start a bullet journal in August in an effort to keep both a journal, to do lists, and etc in a nice consolidated way.
Olivia had a full summer, attending Preschool Summer Camp 2x/week.  She had lots of fun with her friends and doing fun activities.  We filled in the other days with other experiences--trips to the zoo, botanica, visiting Hutch, gymnastics, splash pads, the swimming pool, swimming in our backyard, library storytime, etc, etc.  Unfortunately, Olivia was bouncing in a bounce house on the Saturday before the 4th of July and someone bumped her and she went down.  Her right ankle was very swollen and hurt.  An x-ray on the 7th didn't show any fractures, although the ankle continued to be swollen.  We opted for a round of PT as this ankle has been a problem on and off since Feb. 2015.  After 3 sessions of PT, and no change we were referred to a Sports Medicine doc.  They did another round of xrays and yes, it was fractured both in her lateral malleous and fibula.  So the day before Kindergarten started Olivia got a walking boot.  She wore it for 4 weeks and is now doing her ADLs and has even done some gymnastics at home and seems to be doing well without it.  It was not quite healed on the xray, but the doc said we may not get complete healing.  Olivia has been the trooper and is now well-known by many people at school thanks to her walking boot.  She likes Kindergarten, especially music and the bus ride home on Tuesday/Thursday.  Olivia's imagination will usually take her on quite the adventure in the afternoon--house, class, ponies, boats, cooking, etc.

Kinley had a good summer--see all of the above experiences and fun things.  She started Preschool at the end of August and is adjusting to it.  (She's a very black and white kind of gal and likes for people to follow the rules so I heard about a little girl stealing toys and snacks...and finally had to ask the teacher.)  Her favorite parts are the music.   Kinley and Sarah and Emily are participating in Starlets (parent/child preschool) through Maize Early Childhood.  Kinley likes to do the learning activities and art there.  Kinley has continued to struggle with allergies or some other contributing factor.  Anyway, we will see an allergist on October 20 (first available appt at the beginning of August).  Most recently she had what we think is a bug bite of some kind flair up enough that we had to visit the doctor on Monday to check it.  Kinley is trying dance through the YMCA.  Aside from her sensory issues and the meltdowns tights and having to pull up hair cause,  (We've since decided that a leotard and ballet shoes are sufficient, and her teacher is fine with that.)  she really enjoys it!  She'll tell you quite a bit about it.  Kinley loves to color.  She also really likes Doc McStuffins right now.  And the surprise pack ponies.  She still enjoys her Lalaloopsies.

Emily is a go-with-the-flow gal.  She is now 7 months old.  She smiles, coos/goos, growls, and blows raspberries.  She also laughs.  She likes tummy time and can roll both ways.  She takes her time but can also roll to get something/off the blanket.  She is eating some baby food solids.  Her favorite so far is bananas.  She dislikes green beans and doesn't care for water.  Emily had a cardiology appointment at the beginning of July--her perphrial pulmonary stenosis is resolved and her ASD (hole in the heart) is almost closed.  She made a trip to Kansas City to the Down Syndrome Clinic at Children's Mercy at the beginning of August.  It was a good trip for a round robin check.  And they drew chromosomes to confirm Down Syndrome.  She continues to have therapy 2x/month and has started to do Hydrotherapy (swim) with Sarah 2x/month.  We will do the Buddy Walk on Oct 8th to encourage awareness and advocacy for people with Down Syndrome!  Emily enjoys toys that she can make make noise (ie rattles, crinkle toys).

On any given week we've visited the doctor at least once for someone in the family, played hard at home, done 6 loads+ of laundry, done 4 loads of cloth diapers, picked up toys numerous times, played outside, read books, been to the grocery store once, loaded/unloaded the dishwasher 7 times, and gotten in and out of the van 16+ times.

Olivia, Kinley, and Emily

Celebrating Mom and Dad's Anniversary in July

We swam--a LOT!

Making butterfly wings.

Adding glitter glue.

Emily in Mommy's dress.

Olivia on the first day of KG--by the garden.  Note the walking boot.

Kinley.  :)

Emily

We had a block party at the beginning of Sept--have we mentioned we love our neighborhood?!?

Baby doll Em

Emily playing guitar with Daddy

The girls loved Cave Quest VBS!

Kinley is taking dance!

The girls ran their first 1 mile race.  It was wet, but fun.

One of our friendly garden spiders, and it's egg sack.  We watched the spider for a long time late summer and now we'll watch for baby spiders in the spring! 

Emily after swimming therapy.

Kinley started preschool.

The Good and Bad

Hello all!

In the last three months since I've written a LOT has changed. Let's start out with the good:

I started dating for the first time, since I broke up with my college boyfriend in 2009, a guy named Tyson Rowland. I have actually known Tyson for four years where I met him and his boxer, Lauren at the Kennel Club. We talked at the club off and on since then but recently I invited Lauren over to play with Gus. Shortly after that he asked me out on a date. I wasn't going to accept but he asked both Gus and I out which I thought was thoughtful of him so I accepted. We've been together since then (August 5th or 6th?).

Gus sorta approves. He's jealous and can be somewhat annoying when Tyson is over but he also likes Tyson so he's a very conflicted doggy. Shona is in love with him and can't get enough of him. She does have an issue with his dog though and they are still getting used to each other. Lauren is a very sweet dog who loves to cuddle which I absolutely adore and have missed. Which brings me to my second piece of news.

Benny passed away on August 29th. He was sick for about 7 days before hand. I have always known that Benny would not live the normal life expectancy of a dog his breed. Epilepsy already shortens their lives and on top of that Benny has been exhibiting sighs of aggression. I had assumed that I would have to make the decision to put Benny to sleep because of aggression issues. I'm very grateful this did not happen and I did not have to make that choice.

My most favorite picture of Benny ever. 

Benny's bowels stopped working. They don't know why but I suspect and I think the vet does too that he had some sort of brain tumor which was also affecting his behavior and causing his seizures. We had several days with him when I knew he was dying. And for many of those days he was happy and got to do things he hadn't been able to do in months. His old steady and sweet temperament was back. His visited Grandma (possibly his favorite person), he went through the drive-through at Bogey's and got a treat, he went on several walks which I can't even remember the last time he could do this because of his anxiety and aggression. So his last few days were spent mostly happy. And we had time to say goodbye. When he left us Monday he gave me deep pressure for the first time in weeks which was always his favorite task and he hadn't been doing because I think it hurt his stomach. It was a beautiful gift to both him and I.

So that has been hard. I miss Benny very much. There will never be another dog quite like him. Benny was completely unique and I am glad he was in my life even if it was only for a short time.

Gus on the Plane

Mother, Gus and I traveled to Chicago last weekend to visit my friend Katie who I have gotten to know through three years of facebook messages and to see my therapist Beth's presentation. We also got to see Andy and Katie while we were there which was so fun! Gus was such a pro! I was unbelievably proud of him. He handled the airplanes and the airports flawlessly. Rode the train without flinching at all and walked the incredible many blocks to the hotel where Beth's presentation was (Andrew, we must have different definitions of "far" because that was very far to us and you told us it wasn't lol). Beth's presentation was extremely emotional. I was glad that I got to see it but I was not expecting to cry the amount of tears I did. Next year I hope to go to the entire National Eating Disorder Awareness Conference  instead of attending just one session. Beth has assured me her presentation was out of the ordinary.



My visit with Katie was so much fun. She has a service dog, Phoenix, who I have heard so much about and finally got to meet. We were as alike in person as we seem over messenger. We have similar mental health issues and similar likes and dislikes. We also look like each other to top it all off. When I met up with her I'm not even sure we said hello and instead just dived right into talking. We didn't stop till 10 hours later at 1:30 AM when we decided we should get some sleep. The rest of the weekend was like that. Constant talking and dog working. I can't wait till I see her again.

Well, that's all for now I think (that's a lot!). I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying their fall!

Love,
Kate and Gus

From Wichita:

Our end of summer into fall time has seemed to be fast also.  We visited Hannah and James with a quick trip over labor day.  They always have a new place to eat.  This time we did a BBQ that we hadn't tried before and an outdoor beer tasting and played phase 10.  

 It has been a fruitful year for hedgeballs.  Here is one day we picked up some so we could mow.

Last week we went through some of the new apartments in old town.  They had open houses in some that have been made from old stores and warehouses.  This one even kept the pulleys in the hallways.

Good news the grass is coming up in the front.  Third time is the charm and new grass seed is a good idea:)

Tim is doing Homecoming activities in Winfield this weekend.  And the private students finished the first competition event.  10 out of 12 students will be going to state piano.

Samuel has been writing new music, starting a terrarium, and tending his pets.  He also built a shelf from boards and concrete blocks to hold all his records.  

I'm gathering info and materials to start some updating on the house!!  I have paint for the living room and dining room.  Contacted someone to give a bid for the upstairs bathroom.  Progressive has been giving points which turn into gift cards and I am loading it onto one for Lowes:)

Happy Halloween to everyone.  We might have the Blowup yard of the year in our neighborhood!

Vicki, Tim and Samuel