gratitude

A terrible tragedy occured in our community this past weekend, and its left everyone feeling a little lost and heartbroken for the affected family.   At the same time, so much of the community has come together to help this family.   Thank goodness in times of devastation for some, others come forward with genorosity and kindness.

A friend of mine, in reference to what happened this week, posted this quote on Facebook this week. And since I read it, I've been thinking about it over and over. 

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow."


- Melody Beattie

We must always be reminded of what we have, and what we could lose at any given moment.  Life is a precious, fragile gift.

in a pinch, just a list

A quick list is all I can manage.  Each day I've looked at my poor, lonely blog and each day I scamper thru the day full force until my head hits the pillow.   I know I owe a post about our last full day of vacation, as well as a review of our Amtrak Auto Train experience.  I will, I will.  Someday.  Until then, another list.  I've been making lots of lists lately.  Christmas gift wish lists, which holiday cookies to bake lists, and lists about my other lists.

But for today, a quick catch up list of all things happening at  Casa de Lopresti:

• We had a fabulously quiet and cozy Thanksgiving holiday at my Mom and Robby's.  It truly was quiet this year, since my brother, SIL, the twins, and all my stepsisters were elsewhere.  Family friends came from the Eastern Shore of MD and we spent the day enjoying some mighty delicious food.  Always such a treat to spend time together. Thanksgiving is such a wonderful holiday. All the togetherness of Christmas, without the added pressure of gift giving.

• Every spare moment I've had, I've been on Amazon.com piling my shopping cart with gifts galore and really trying to knock out the bulk of my holiday shopping.  I'd love to get it done and just sit back and enjoy December and all the upcoming parties and events.  We've decked our halls and have enough cookie exchanges, potlucks and holiday parties to make a girl giddy.

• Logan has completely healed from his tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy.   He started back to taekwondo tonight and even got a new uniform, since his old one had become capri pants.  We think he is snoring less and as time goes on, we hope his quality of sleep will improve even more.  However, what we did learn this week is his iron levels (directly related to his Periodic Limb Movement Disorder) are still very, very low.  His ferritin (from blood drawn last week) level is now at 23.   In August, his ferritin level was19.   In order to 'cure' his PLMD, his levels need to be at 80 to 100.  So we have a long, long way to go.  He's been on a very concentrated form of iron twice daily supplement for three months, and we thought at his follow up appointment this week, his levels would have gone up much more.  Not only does he not eat a lot of iron rich foods, his body just doesn't seem to absorb any iron he does ingest.  He eats a TON of cereal, which is loaded with iron, but he never wants to eat it dry, always with milk. And calcium prevents your body from absorbing iron, as I talked about here.
  
  So we'll do another three months of iron supplements, and he'll have more blood tests done mid-February to see if his ferritin levels are increasing. Then about three months after that (sometime in May??), we'll likely do another sleep study and see if his apnea and restless legs are more under control.  As always, all in an effort to help his moods and behavior.

 

• Somewhere in between all of this, we decided to wish ourselves a Merry Christmas and buy all new furniture for our family room.  This time last year, we painted the family room, rearranged the furniture we had, and bought a big, new entertainment center and TV.  This year we're finishing the 'revamp' by adding a leather sectional, leather chair and a half, two giant leather ottomans and some new tables.  Photos to come soon!

Florida, Day 5. Last day at the parks.

Since we had Four Day Park Hopper passes, and we had hit all four parks at this point, we decided to use Day Four wisely.  We went back to Magic Kingdom and Epcot to hit a few things we had missed, and to re-ride some of our favorites.  We also wanted to end the park adventure with the Epcot Illuminations Reflections of Earth lights and fireworks show.

But first, a dip in the hot tub at our rental house.

As I'm typing this, I'm realizing I should have started out with the first vacation post being all about the first part of our vacation adventure - the Amtrak Auto Train.   I'll do another post about that at the end, because it was quite an adventure and I think I have some good tips for anyone ever thinking about doing it. 

But, back to the parks.

As we took the ferry boat into Magic Kingdom, we couldn't resist the chance to hug Pluto one more time.  I do think he's my very favorite. 

Then we hightailed it over to Adventureland, a whole section of the park we missed on the first day (which we spent most of in Tomorrowland).  The Jungle Cruise was completely packed, so we opted to skip that and instead got in line for the Pirates of the Carribbean. 

The boys also wanted another visit to the Frontierland Shooting Arcade.

Next, there was a huge line for Its a Small World, but I really wanted to take Logan on it.  Dylan and Andrew hightailed it over to ride Space Mountain again while Logan and I waited and waited to board the Small World boat.   I remember going on it as a kid, but now as an adult, all those dolls are actually kind of creepy. And seriously, once you get that song stuck in your head you're done.

A few more family photos...

And then we were done, and off to Epcot for the last half of the day.

Except first there was a little excitement on the Epcot parking lot tram.  Dylan was eating a Jolly Rancher and his tooth (a back molar which apparently had been loose but I had no idea) got stuck and came out.  Mouth full of blood, holding the sticky green candy in his hand and a big molar stuck to it.  The security guards were super nice and directed us to First Aid, where a super nice lady let him wash up and gave the boys tons of Mickey Mouse stickers.  After the trauma died down, he was pretty stoked the Tooth Fairy would be coming to visit him on vacation (and along with cash, left him a stuffed Mickey Mouse).

The boys wanted to go on this ride again, and during the course of learning about the creation of the universe and space travel, we got to create a personalized plan for our future on a screen in our moving vehicle.

The boys insisted on going the Mission Space ride again.  I absolutely hated this ride with every fiber of my being.  You are locked into this four person space ship, its very close quarters.  The whole experience tosses you while you're screen showing giant meteors (and other things I can't tell you because my eyes were closed the whole time we went on it on Sunday), you crash and land on Mars and all kinds of stuff, there are lights and buzzers going on and I seriously thought about barfing and praying, in that order. 

However, the boys LOVED it.  We had done the more subdued version of the ride the first time.  The boys wanted the FULL experience this next time.  I opted out, thankful to warm a park bench while the three of them got their 'space' on.

After that, we met up with our group again and headed towards the World Showcase to grab some dinner and eventually see the awesome fireworks show.  But not before a stop into Club Cool for a taste of sodas from around the world.  Logan particularly loved this, of course, since he's our sugar-aholic.

We ended up somehow snagging a table for ten in the United Kingdom (it was very crowded), and settled in for some Bangors and Mash, Fish and Chips, pints of cider and Yorkshire pudding.

A great way to finish out our days in the parks. 

We still had one more full day left of vacation, I'll post about that soon.



A Scholarly Week

This whole week, our school celebrated American Education Week.  All the grades had different programs everyday, along with an awesome book fair.  Parents were invited to come and spend time at school and cafeteria.  Its always a great week at our school, and this year even better since today the kids also got to take part in a special celebration for being one of only six public Virginia schools awarded the distinguished National Blue Ribbon Award.

On Monday, we got to visit Logan in his kindergarten class, make a special craft, watch the kids perform several adorable songs they've been practicing for weeks, and visit the book fair.

Logan was all the way at the furthest end from where I could stand, so its not the best close up video, but the song is just adorable.

Third graders had a very special project.   Weeks ago, each third grade student chose a famous person they wanted to impersonate in a Living Museum project.  The kids were to memorize facts about their famous person, dress like that person, and come to life as that person today in the museum  They all wore a  "Press to Talk" button, and as the parents passed up and down the 'museum' hallways, kids gave their speeches every time their button was pushed.  

Dylan chose George Washington as the famous person he wanted to become.  He memorized these facts:

• Hi, I am George Washington. I was born on February 22, 1732.

• I grew up at a little farm house in Virginia.

• I was a good horseback rider and I liked to hunt.

• I was good at math and had a surveying job.

• My army defeated the Red Coats and we won the Revolutionary War in 1783.

• I became the first President of the U.S. when I was 57 years old.

• My nickname is “Father of Our Country.”

• I became ill and died in December 1799.

Here's George himself:

Dylan LOVED this project, as history is one of his favorite subjects.  He also loves and excels in math and science.  He does not take after his mother.  We're hoping to take him to Mt. Vernon over the winter break, so he can see George Washington's home.

The boys also both brought home their first report cards of the year, and I'm so proud of them both.  They both did excellent!

Its been a great fall so far, and I'm so thankful for all we have, for the boys school and love of learning, and for our family and friends.

Day Four - Animals and Movie Stars

On the fourth day of vacation, we finally used the 'park hopper' option of our tickets and visited two parks in one day - Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios.  It was our first time ever to Animal Kingdom.  Visually, its a great park with tons to look at, and its very pretty.  But, its low on rides and our boys wanted some action.  So after a few hours at AK, we mosied on over the Hollywood Studios to finish out the day.  It was another beautiful weather day, and we discovered our very favorite roller coaster ever, the Rock-N-Roller Coaster, as our last ride of the day.

As were were strolling thru Africa, we got to participate in an impromptu jam session!  I wish we had a video of this because we were all shaking our booties!

Then the boys got to meet Baloo and King Louis from the Jungle Book.

I have no idea who this dude is but we got his autograph anyway.

Learning to play macala..

The Tree of Life.

Asia

Our last ride at AK ended up being the Dinosuar ride, which I was expecting to be an innocent little tour thru prehistoric times.  It ended up being so scary I about peed my pants (but the boys loved it).

After that little adventure, we moved onto Hollywood Studios.  On the tram ride in from the parking lot, the boys were eating Jolly Rancher candy.  Dylan suddenly announced his tooth fell out.  He held out his half eaten candy with his first molar stuck right in in, mouth covered in blood.  Very exciting!  We got to go to Hollywood Studios first aid, where he got cleaned up and the staff made it all better by showering the boys witih Mickey Mouse stickers.  You can see all the water on his shirt in this photo below.  Dylan was excited the Tooth Fairy would be visiting him during vacation, and she bought him $5 and a Mickey Mouse stuffed animal that night.

We arrived at HS just in time for their awesome Pixar characters parade, and got a great seat, after particpating in a street dance-off video.

Incredibles

Monsters Inc

Up

Toy Story

Getting ready to ride Star Tours

The boys got to watch Jedi Training

The Indiana Jones Stunt Show was really cool