Spelling to Communicate

 I have no idea if anyone still reads this blog. If you do and if you have a non, minimal or unreliable Speaker find a Spelling to Communicate (S2C) practitioner at I-ASC.org and give your child the ability to communicate! 

Will has been spelling for just over two years and can type on a held keyboard and is working on independent typing. He can request pain medication now. He chooses what he wants to do on his birthday. He told us what he wants to do for Christmas. He asked for piano lessons last November. He can play games with the family. He told me he wanted to snorkel and because I knew he did I could confidently coach him through doing it even though his body wasn't cooperating.

 

Cheesecake and Rolls

I called my friend Katherine to talk about what she is bringing for Thanksgiving dinner. She asked if I was making rolls. "No," I responded. "They never turn out and I only try every couple of years."

"It's good for a half hour's worth of conversation," said Katherine. "It's not too late to make them."

"I feel like I am letting down my pioneer ancestors by not being able to make rolls."

"It's not too late to make them."

"Don't worry, I have a cheesecake fail that's definitely going to use up the half hour of conversation tomorrow."

---

Because I started making the crust but couldn't find my spring-form pan.

I found two chocolate graham cracker crusts and tried to adjust my recipe to fit them -- I didn't do a good job.

I decided to pour the cheesecake mixture back into my mixer to add more cream cheese and the crust came with it. --- I know!!!!

Result -- One cheesecake in a chocolate graham cracker crust with broken up pieces of the second crust mixed in and another crust-less cheesecake with half the crust mixed into the cheese cake.

I think I have a new way to disappoint my pioneer ancestors.

I don't know why

Two days ago I walked upstairs and followed a curious fruity smell into the bathroom.  On the floor was a pillow.  Will had ripped off the allergy case and the cloth that covered it.  So the pillow was a lumpy, cottony mess carefully covered with a bottle of apricot body wash.  He covered the apricot body wash layer with an entire package of pads that he had taken out of the plastic wrappers and had removed the backings from the adhesive.  He carefully covered the entire "pillow" with two layers of pads and discarded the plastic wrappers by the door.  The backings were left in a different pile.  When I moved one of the pads to take a closer look at the orange body wash Will ran over and fixed his art installation.

Germany and Belgium

Maybe this has turned into a travel blog?  My dad called me at home yesterday to ask if I was still in Germany.  Of course, I said "yes."

My husband and I went to Germany last week.  We left Saturday and missed Bri's concert.  She is in the River's Youth Symphony and they played in WGBH's sponsored cartoon something at Symphony Hall.   So, that's a once in a lifetime event we missed.

We had a layover in Berlin so I signed us up for a 4 and1/2 hour walking tour.  It was so cold by the end I just wanted to go back to the airport and find an air vent to cuddle. Then we flew to Cologne for the night.  Monday we drove to Brussels.  We saw a couple of things bought a lot of chocolate and bought some lace for my girls to not appreciate.

Tuesday we drove to Ghent.  That is a very cool town!  We saw Gravensteen Castle, and climbed up a billion stairs to the top of a bell tower.  We stayed at the Marriott which had original building fronts.  They upgraded us because my husband has platinum status to one of the pained windows rooms at the front.





Wednesday night we drove back to Cologne because my husband had to work the next day.  We had a nice dinner with his European colleagues.  The next day I went to the Lugwig art museum and walked around the cathedral.  We had dinner with more colleagues. Friday I went to the NS Document Center because I like history.  We flew back Saturday and it took literally 3 days.

I have a New Mantra

One of my friends said, "You are a little bit sasstastic."  I'm not sure what that means but I take anything this woman says very seriously because she is fantastic!  I mean it's not everyone who can go to law school at night, take care of their toddler during the day, have another baby, clerk for a state supreme court justice and study for and pass the bar while pregnant with their third child and end up as one of the two valedictorians. (Can you tell that this woman impresses me immensely?  Well, to be honest, she also makes me want to take a nap.)

President’s Day

The most appropriate President's Day I have spent thus far in my life occurred Monday February 18, 2013 at the JFK Presidential Library in Boston.  We listened to an Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses and Julia Grant reenactors.  

Boom – I am now way more patriotic that most people because 3 Presidents in one day!

Will sat through two films – one about JFK and one about the Cuban Missile Crisis.  Even considering that he spend most of the Missile Crisis film sitting on the floor I AM DELIGHTED!  Because it is amazing because he hates watching movies in a theatre.  (Maybe he is fine if it’s a documentary?)

Elizabeth bought a plastic imitation of a straw hat because she likes to waste money.

The saddest part of the day occurred when we drove to Waltham to go a Chinese Restaurant that closes on Monday, urggg.  So, we were forced to close out our President’s Day with a more appropriate late lunch of Mexican food.

Partriot’s Day 2013

Yesterday Elizabeth and I went to watch the Marathon with the Raskells.  On Saturday they bought Elizabeth a “Marathon Cowbell” in Hopkinton so we rang it and yelled out the names of the runners.  We saw Jake’s middle school principal running and a family friend.

I decided about a half hour before leaving for the marathon to have a barbeque so we invited the Raskells and the Davis’s over.  I took Elizabeth and Davin to the store to buy hamburger and hotdogs then we went home to prepare.  The Raskells arrived and Tiffanie’s phone started ringing.  People asking if she was alright.  Don joked that the only injury we’d received was my sunburn.  Then we realized what happened.  Erin left the room to call her husband who was at work in Boston.  He was right there and heard both explosions.  He was on his way home.

We didn’t feel like celebrating anymore and watched the news rather than play games.  Then Rebecca threw up on my dining room floor which seemed to be an appropriate end to the day.