{special}

Yesterday was the Special Olympics at CSULB.

We LOVE going to the Special Olympics and go every year.

We tell all of our friends and make sure they come

and play and cheer on the athletes with us!!

As soon as we got there we ran into friends family.

Pa Pa and Nana brought cousin Andrea to play. 

We LOVE Jeri!!

Those Cute Andersen kids came to play!! 

What is a party with out our good ol' pals Mickey and Minnie??

We also made some new friends that gave high fives........

and kisses!!! :)

We played TONS of games at the carnival.

Regan worked on her modeling skills. :) 

Andrea does not play around when it comes to games....

 she takes it VERY serious! wink!

Then it was time to cheer for the AWESOME special olympians!!

Bubba's favorite EVERY year is the basketball games.

He wants to be down on the floor with the players and gets so excited!

I know he wishes his legs worked a little better

 so that he could get out there and play with them.

The refs and everyone were so kind to him. :) 

Then the best part of the day.....

Bubba tried to steal a bus! :)

{maybe next year bud!}

We need your prayers....

We need your prayers for Regan and Bubba's Coach (grandpa).... today my mom and coach found out that it looks like he has leukemia. Next week he will have a bone marrow biopsy to see what kind it is.  It is breaking my heart that I am not there with them right now. We are praying for CHRONIC, not ACUTE.  PLEASE join us in prayer. Thank you so much! God is good and prayer is powerful.

we like to shake it, shake it............

Jason had to work on Saturday and the kids and I wanted to do something fun.

We decided that we did not want to go on our adventure alone so we invited a friend.

Well, Regan invited a friend..... it was too funny.

Regan tried calling friend's mommy and she didn't answer 

so then she asked me if she could call her grandma.

Her call to grandma went like this "Hi friend's grandma... this is Regan.... I am trying to find friend... do you know where she is. I want her to come and play with me." Then I could hear grandma on the other side....."is your mommy there Regan?????????????????" Oh, I LOVE that girl of mine! We were able to locate her friend through all of her awesome work and phone calls and she came to play with us. :)

They were having Polynesian activities at "our" Aquarium and we knew that we HAD to go!

{I promise that our friend had fun...despite her face :} 

I LOVE this picture!!!! 

The girls made their own lays....... 

and everyone got tatoos!  

We watched the pro's shake it....... 

then it was time for the girls to......... 

SHAKE IT!! 

and last but not least what is a post with out a BIG Bubba smile!

Going out in style............

I have been busy....with THIS and THIS  

and we had a BLAST on Friday at the kid's end of the school

year/ closing the school down/ PTA needs to spend all of our money party :-)

You name it was there and it was all FREE!!

There was.......

rock climbing...... 

Bubba's favorite..........

Mommy got a good work out going on it over and over again :) 

there were.........

Balloon animals......... 

face painting........ 

a magician.....

a photo booth... 

and LOTS and LOTS.........

of fun!!!!

We don't want to see this wonderful school closed but if it has to....

Well, we are going out in style!!!!!!!

Run baby run..............

Today was the Jog-a-thon at the kid's school.

I LOVE being able to volunteer at the kid's school!!!

I LOVE walking around and hearing "hi Regan's mom!!!"

I LOVE seeing able body children run like the wind and our

special buddies working so hard to walk or being pushed by their loving aids.

I LOVE being able to cheer them on!!

I am not ready to say good bye to their school.

Reality

I think we make the best out of our reality most days but there are some days that the simple little things hurt. We have not had a nurse for Bubba in over five months now. We are trying desperately to fix this problem but for now we just make the best of it. I am grateful that I have such AMAZING in laws that watch the kids so that we can get much needed date nights here and there but for the most part there is little respite from our demanding job of being Bubba’s parents. Don’t get me wrong I LOVE being Bubba’s Mommy and wouldn’t want it any other way!!! I have to admit though that I am a little jealous of friends that can call the local awesome young woman and have her babysit at last minute notice. When my baby sis and mom where here I asked baby sis if should would feel comfortable babysitting the kids so we could sneak out for a bit. Her response was honest and pure…. “I don’t think I can…. I am too scared.” The reality is that Bubba’s care can be scary. All of the many night time medications, having to hook him up to a machine, and heaven forbid he start to have seizures or vomit. She told me… “it’s been a while since I have had CPR training”, my eyes were opened to the deep and heavy responsibility that people view taking care of Bubba can be. I guess it is all so “normal” and second nature to me that I forget that our reality isn’t “normal” after all. For those like my mom and baby sis that only have the privilege of seeing him once or twice a year it is very SCARY because so much changes between those visits. This is a reality that I am fine with, I don’t mind missing an occasional party or going weeks with out a date night because finding a sitter to fill in for Pa Pa and Nana is impossible but last night was an exception. Last night was Regan’s violin recital, they were even playing at a local high school!! Here was the dilemma, Regan wanted EVERYONE to be there. Daddy was lucky enough to have the night so we knew that he HAD to go. Then she asked her Nana Pa Pa {who was out of town} and great grandma Jo to go as well. I knew that we could not all attend. You see, the recital started at 6pm, Bubba’s medication time. He has a very strict bed time schedule and you can not break from it. So, I told everyone that they must go and that I would stay home and take care of my sweet Bubba. I am blessed to hear her perform every week at her practices.

Jason took Regan out on a special dinner date before the recital and got some much needed and very special Daddy/ Daughter time. He was so good about sending text messages the entire night. “She is so confident and not nervous one bit.” “She just finished her duet and she played perfectly!” We are all so proud of her! Daddy took video and pictures so that I could enjoy watching my baby girl playing on the big stage but I have to admit it just wasn’t the same. I wish that I could have been there. I am grateful that Daddy, Nana, and Great Grandma Jo got to go and would not change that for a second!!!!!!! I just wish at times that my reality was a bit more flexible.