Chip & Joanna At It Again

You can’t NOT like Chip & Joanna Gaines. 

Another reason to love them this week: 

“As part of Chip's annual Chipstarter program, the Fixer Upper stars gifted a Missouri couple with the $16,203 they needed to adopt a two-year-old boy with Down syndrome from China. Jason and Melinda Simmons, who applied to Chip's contest earlier this fall, are now able to bring their son home.”

Gaines help the Simmons adopt

Quick Trip to Chicago

My oldest friend from 1997 (??) adopted her daughter back in May... it was a long and winding road filled with lots of detours. I knew I wanted us to all go hug Megan, her husband Chris, and their new daughter, Lily, who is now five months old. 

We didn’t have a lot of time and didn’t want to spend $$$, so we only took a Friday off. Drove up that day and stayed at a Holiday Inn Express out by O’Hare. It was a new facility and very clean and family-friendly, so we were happy. 

We spent the day with our friends - putzed around their area and avoided downtown Chicago due to the marathon being Sunday - ! 

It was so nice spending time with them - it’s always easy to pick right up where we left off. I’m so happy their family is complete now! 

Fall Photos

Busy life means lagging in posts... 

We had our annual Family Cabin weekend a town over with our friends. We’ve had this fun tradition since Nora was just one! 

Stu and Hannah are only two weeks apart!

Milford had three days of fall break. One day they went to the zoo with the sitter: 

One day was spent at Grammy’s house - Grandpa took advantage of naptime : ) 

And fall temps finally arrived - we literally went from A/C to heat in one week. I hurriedly had to swap out clothes in closets in one weekend! 

New Nike Runner

Another video you can’t NOT tear up at. Nike signed Oregon runner Justin Gallegos to a contract for three years - the first runner signed with Cerebral Palsy! Glad Nike saw the potential in Justin and that he’s just as capable as typical athletes! 

Justin Gallegos

Two Princes

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle had an extra-special visit with a boy in Australia who I think most of us are fairly certain has Down syndrome. Many women are very jealous he was able to get past security and touch Harry’s beard 😆

Very appropriate for Down syndrome awareness month in the U.S.!

The Boy and the Beard

Special Needs Spotlight: Hannah!

I’ve been following Miggy (real name Amy who lives in the Cincinnati area!) for a bit now – she’s a strong voice in the special needs community and I love her fervor. She reached out for volunteers for her Spotlight, I did, and she quickly responded for me to answer her questions!

I’m very honored that we are featured, especially during Down syndrome Awareness month (October)!

Thank you Miggy!

Special Needs Spotlight: Hannah

Bittersweet Ending

Earlier this summer, a man - whose daughter has Ds and part of the DSAGC family - choked and died while eating dinner at home. It was incredibly heartbreaking as the mother stayed home with three children. 

Their story had a positive ending as Clete was an organ donor and saved John Mock’s life.

A bittersweet ending and glad to see Carrie is slowly healing.  

Meet Goldie 2.0

Goldie 2.0

Oh you don’t remember Goldie 1.0? You shouldn’t because she literally only lived half a day. 

I’ll back up. 

Nora has been relentlessly asking for a cat for damn near a year. You know we aren’t giving into that. However, she is clearly smart enough to adjust her request for a “simple” fish. We figured it would be easy and not too costly. Hm. 

Saturday we went to Petsmart. I asked questions and didn’t quite realize there was a bit of process to get your water conditioned and acclimate the fish from the store water to your tap water. Ergh. I’d prepped everything based on what I was told, even a follow-up call I made to Petsmart to make sure I was clear. 

Well, by the time Nora went to bed, Goldie 1.0 wasn’t looking too well. When Tim and I went to bed around 10:30, Goldie was a Floatie. Whoops. Poor Nora woke up at like 5:50am on Sunday to tell me she thought Goldie was dead. She was just a touch sad, seemed bummed only in a general sense. 

We took the fish back - because thank God they have a 14-day turnaround - and we got a new one free of charge. This new associate told me we had to ADD our tap water little by little to the fish bag to help it acclimate to our water. No one told me that the day before. 

So I was more cautious with Goldie 2.0. However, I also realized I didn’t look at the water conditioning cap dosages close enough. I basically put 5X too much conditioner in the water so poor Goldie 1.0 was probably shocked to death. 😖

I added clean water for Goldie 2.0 and she made it through the night and ate her breakfast right up - so I’m praying to the fish Gods to be gentler on Goldie 2.0. 

If she doesn’t last, I give up the fish baton to Tim and he said he’s moving to a Beta Fish because those are heartier. 

The End.

Potty Progress (?)

Tim ran out to get some items yesterday. Hannah said she had to go potty but pushed me out of the bathroom and closed the door. 😳

I’d heard she’d started this behavior last week when I was gone. I was nervous that she’d pee all over the floor or just go to town playing with toilet paper. 

I kept checking in with her and she’d growl back “No!” At one point she let me in and she was stark naked! AND there was poop in the toilet! Sooo... good? But then I started freaking out that I had to check if she’d wiped. 

She hadn’t. I flew around getting wet wipes before she sat down on a chair! Thank God I was speedy before THAT mess happened - !! 

But then the turd (har) refused to put on clothes for a good 20 minutes! I laid a kitchen towel below her chair just in case. 🙀

Regardless, I’m proud Hannah is gaining some autonomy with her potty skills!

Not Fall Yet

Sunday Nora wanted to “go somewhere” - she asks this every weekend. Our local farm, Shaw Farms, had just kicked off their Fall Festival, so even though it was knocking on 80˚ outside, we went in the morning. Not too hot, but definitely not fall weather. We’ll go back in October to actually enjoy some apple cider and hot chocolate. 

Hannah has been toting her little pumpkin around the house : )