Tuesday Tidbits

We've been waking up to some beautiful scenery with the frosted trees

Because of the snow storms last week, we had a few rough days of getting Faith to school and back. Thankfully, my friend Tina was able to help out with her van and also one of our neighbors, who also has kids at Centennial, was able to push Faith up the hill one day. Rob and I both think that maybe it's time to get Faith on the bus. I thought it would be easy enough, since the bus goes right by here every day and that all I would have to do is make a phone call and it would happen just like that. Not so fast, I learned!

On Friday, I had a meeting with Faith's special education teacher and she explained that to get Faith on the bus, her IEP team would have to meet and decide that because Faith doesn't have the necessary transportation to get to school, she will have to be picked up by the bus. Even after all parties agree that Faith needs to take the bus, it is not guaranteed that the bus will come right to our door to get her. Which makes no sense to me, since it is often our parking lot and sidewalk that is the hardest to get Faith through.

Also on Friday, I attended a meeting where Faith's instructional aides were getting trained to help Faith use her buttons to operate a laptop computer which is eventually going to be mounted on her chair at school. All of the reading tools that Faith's class uses are going to be downloaded onto her computer, which will be another way of helping her learn to read. It was fun to see the excitement in Faith's face when getting to use her buttons to operate the computer!

Joining us in that training session were two University of Mary students as part of a mentor program for those wanting to work in some way with special needs children. One of them is an occupational therapy major and the other is studying social work. It is a wonderful program that allows students to get a first-hand look at some of the challenges and the joys that are involved in having a special needs child.

Also last Friday, despite the storm that dumped about six inches of snow on us, we had our CP Support Group Christmas dinner at China Star. Rob came in late as he had to drive from Selfridge, South Dakota in the crummy weather. At the restaurant, we got a nice surprise that our friend, Susan who works at China Star, has moved back to Bismarck from Indiana! Faith will be so happy to see her!

Over the weekend, Faith and I got out the Christmas decorations and started to decorate. While decorating, we played the CD I made a couple of years ago that Rob titled, Cari Jean's Essential Christmas Songs. Faith thought many of the songs on the CD were too sad and she wanted to listen to her favorites over and over again - Feliz Navidad and Jingle Bells.

The Jingle Bells on the CD is a swing version by Denver and the Mile High Orchestra. When Faith was smaller, I would have her in my arms and dance around the room with her while listening to that song. I even did some swing moves with her where I swung her to the left side of me, then to the right, than between my legs. There is no way I can do that now! But we were being silly and singing and "dancing" to the song and then she yelled, "You Rock Mommy!" And every once in a while throughout the song she would yell, "Break it down now!" and I would yell back, "Hit it Faith!" We had so much fun!

Another high note from the weekend was that the NDSU Bison Football Team beat Montana State and will be traveling to play Eastern Washington next weekend in the quarterfinals for the NCAA subdivision! The game is going to be aired on KFYR and a few other stations in North Dakota and also on ESPN. LET'S GO BISON!