Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah

"Real men in wheelchairs do zip lines."-Duncan Cumby age 8

At Lion's Camp, we went to the Challenge course where we were given the opportunity to do the zip line. I passed on this opportunity as I had my hands full trying to discover my inner-self and all. Yeah, that's it. However, my daughter did not. Here she goes up the very tall ladder.

And here she is at the top of the 55 ft. tower. I thought perhaps she would get scared. I was scared.

She wasn't scared. That one is all her Daddy. She screamed- in a good way, like on Space Mountain. She loved it. She wanted to go again. She made her father very proud.

This one made his mother extremely nervous. This is him on the way up. For obvious reasons, he couldn't climb that very tall ladder so they hoisted him up on a pulley system. I asked how they would keep from smacking his head (actually, I used the word face) against that rock wall behind him. The man said, "Don't worry. We've been doing this for the last three years." Great. I feel better now.

His Daddy went up first so he could meet him at the top. Daddy didn't get hoisted. He climbed the rock wall all the way up. Duncan announced before going to the top that he would not get scared half-way up and come back down as several kiddos had already done. Somehow, I figured that was true.




Here we go. Apparentally, he wasn't afraid at all. Just ready to go.

I know the pictures aren't great. I borrowed Caroline's camera as a way not to have to lug mine around. Didn't consider taking the time to figure out how to use her's. Sorry.

And then we let Dad come down. He's a pro at these things by now though.

Change Your Shirt, Change Your Life

Yesterday, we attended Lion's Camp as a family. It's become tradition in our family. Lion's Camp is a day camp for kids with disabilities. It's also technically for kids with chronic illnesses or insulin dependant diabetes but we have never been to camp with any children meeting those descriptions.

We all go together because as Dunk would say, "that's how we roll." And it is. We operate as a team. Partly out of necessity, I suppose. More so, for me, because I know we're better together than apart.

But, here's a secret, I have never liked Lion's Camp. It has served, in the past, as a slap in the face for me. It's pretty harsh reality. And I would often see those realities and think to myself, "Thank God that's not Duncan" and leave. And probably somewhere in my shallow little mind I thought that had something to do with me. Like my superior mothering skills had allowed him (and I) to avoid the more invasive disabilities. The all consuming ones. The ones that affect your mind not just your body.

I would go home and pretend that Lion's Camp was a world where we didn't belong. He's not that kind of kid. I mean, yeah, he has a disability but it's physical and he's special. Like nobody elses kid is special. What a bitch I was.

No, seriously. I kept to myself and prayed that another "normal" kid we knew would be there because I just didn't know what to say to the other ones. Now, I felt bad about it. I did. But I really had no idea what to do about the way I felt. And the way I felt was basically, "we don't belong here". Somehow, because of a horrible medical mistake my son, who should have been perfectly normal, isn't. BUT it's only a physical disability and he doesn't really belong to this club. And, therefore, neither do I.

God has been patient with me. A quality I could develop a little better in myself, I'm sure. He's taken me on a journey for about the last year and half and I have learned things about myself I would have preferred not to know. Ignorance, isn't bliss though. Because I have also learned I am capable of things I would not have thought possible. I think I am beginning to find the person I am meant to be. Cheese ball, right? Yeah, I get that but I mean it. I am finding a wife who is self-assured and confident. A mother who is loving yet firm. A woman who is happy and content. I'm not sure I knew she was in there.

Yesterday at camp I was asked to complete a task I would have run from a few years ago. And I would have felt completely justified in doing so. But yesterday, I didn't run. And the rewards just keep coming.

The task? Changing a shirt. Changing the shirt of a young adult male who as the result of a failed suicide attempt is wheelchair bound and doesn't speak.

Changing this young man's shirt was a big step for me. I am a big believer in personal space. Here I was about to completely invade his and he couldn't even give me his permission to do so. Oh man. I put a smile on my face and approached him and in that moment I realized something. Something a little bit Earth shattering for me. I do belong here.

Yeah. This camp with kids with Autism, Tramatic Brain Injuries, Cerebral Palsy, Spina Bifida, and kids who are mentally retarded. Kid with disabilities that they cannot even diagnose. That's where I belong. Those are my people.

And my reasoning is simple. I belong here because I choose that. I choose to do the hard thing for me- talk to them, touch them just like I would a normal kid. And in doing that I find it's so easy.

I completed my task of changing the shirt and moved onto to the next which was passing out name tags. I asked a woman her first name and she asked mine to which I replied,

"Misty. I'm Duncan's mom"

And she said," Oh, I know who you are"

Guess I was the only one who didn't.

Finding the Inner Snack Lady

Don't you just hate people who won't update their blogs? I don't know what my problem is lately.

Last week was VBS. I feel awful even saying this but I am super glad it's over. I was a crewleader for the second graders and well, let's just leave it at that. God has shown me before that teaching a class of school age children is NOT where I should be serving him. 'Bout time I started listening, I think.

To make matters worse on Thursday morning about 7:30 A.M. literally as I was walking down the hall I began to break out in a rash. It started on my forearms and by the time the second graders and I were in Bible Blast it had spread to my legs and the tops of my feet. How do I contract this bizarre crap? Anyway, I tell our Head Crewleader that I am jumping ship for the day and gather my own children and head home for Benedryl. I passed out for the afternoon after the Benedryl took effect and hoped for the best. Not exactly what I got.

Still had the rash on Friday and Saturday and all of my joints started hurting at some point on Friday. Oh goodie. Still don't know what the heck it was but it's mostly gone now. Anyway, enough about that.

The kids had a good time at VBS, I guess. We had several "challenging" children and that makes it more difficult on all the other kids. The hard part for me is that these kids are usually "drop-offs". In other words, we're their parents free babysitters for the week. I am always in awe of people who take advantage that way. And why do they do it? Just because they can? It gets really frustrating when the kids start commenting that they already did the craft at such-and-such church or such-and-such-church did different motions to the song. Thanks random strangers who drop off your challenging children at every available VBS in town. Appreciate ya.

Eh, I don't want to be totally negative about the whole thing. But truly, I felt pretty negative about the whole thing this time around. Perhaps I have reached VBS retirement? It's pretty bad that I hope that's true.

Nah, I just need to go back to being snack lady. At Selden, I did snacks. That, I am good at. Making fake sushi out of cream cheese and tortillas is easy-cheesy compared to spending the day with challenging children. Fake sushi and I can get along. Me and the second graders, not always.

My last year at Selden we did a Treasure Island theme and I made all the kids treasure chests out of graham crackers and icing and filled them with candy. I had a good time that year. Sometimes I really miss Selden, VBS time especially it seems.

Yes, definitely need to be snack lady. There are many benefits of that job. No one else wants to do it, so no one bothers you. You are in charge because you're doing all the work anyway. And, you get to leave early. Yes. Really need to go back to that job.

Outfits

Earlier this week I had the opportunity to spend the day with my neices and nephews, which would mean my kids got to spend the day with their cousins. A rare opportunity as these particular cousins live out of state. We went swimming and then had cookies and IBC rootbeer to celebrate some birthdays. Much fun was had.

My youngest neice is an all-out girly-girl and such a cutie pie to boot. She was telling me, after the cookies and rootbeer, how she got to wear three outfits that day. I asked her if it was good to get to change outfits that many times and she replied," Uh, yeah. It's AWESOME!" Remember being that excited about your "outfits"?

I had these Luv-It jeans with matching t-shirts- man, was I the bomb! I had some with strawberries that were pretty cool and on my gymnastics pair my mom sewed these metal labels on to the pockets with my name on them. Talk about sweet! My very favorite pair had popsicles on the butt pockets, though. I have had a strange fascination with images of popsicles my whole life. It's really quite bizarre, I guess. I don't care to eat popsicles much, they are too messy. I dunno, I'm weird. But you already knew that.

Oh and I almost forgot my crayon nightgown. I coveted that nightgown. The day I finally got it, was like the best day of my life! It had a rainbow of crayons on it and all these squiggly lines going down it like the crayons had actually colored on it. I loved that nightgown. I wish I had one like it now. I would wear it all the time. My husband already thinks I'm nuts anyway, what do I have to lose?

Caroline definitely followed in my footsteps with the "outfits". She found a pair of Toile capri pants at Old Navy when she was 4 that she just had to have. Mercy she wanted those pants. After we left Old Navy, without the pants she told me, " I really miss those pants" A pair of capris that you love so much you actually miss them? And at Old Navy prices! They needed to belong to her, so I went back and got them and gave them to her for Christmas (yes, that's why I didn't buy them the 1st time, it was December) She immediately put them on. She loved those pants.

She's moved on to new favorites these days. A pair of patchwork madras shorts from the Gap. I do love the Gap. She got that from me, too. Makes me miss the tiny little girl in the Toile pants. Not that I don't like the tweenager in the madras shorts because she's pretty cool, too.

I Would

Wow! Time is really flying by now, isn't it? Can't believe I left my blog for so long. Just too many things happening at the moment.

Kiddos are now out of school. We have all breathed a sigh of relief. And in case you live in a decent climate or haven't been outside in a week- it got hot. It's now to the holy-smokes-we-live-in-the-freakin'-desert stage. By July it just becomes the Oh-dear-Lord-I-think-I'm-gonna-die kind of hot. Fun times.

So, part of what I have done with my time over the last week is clean backpacks, lunchbags, etc. And as I sorted through Dunk's last day of school papers I find a fill-in-the-blank All About Me! page. Totally up my alley, right? And I was so thrilled that his teacher actually had them doing meaningful stuff right up until the very last day. Let's just say that wasn't the case for everyone.

So I am reading through this assignment, which he wrote all the answers himself, and it's a pretty long assignment. Endurance is probably the biggest skill he needs to do something like that, it takes him so many more times the effort it would take you or I. So, that he filled in all the answers on a two page assignment himself and I can read them all.... well, that's a pretty big deal.

But the answers, man, they are the best. Seriously, funniest person I know.

6. I can hardly wait until I do anything.

And that is actually true. He doesn't really care what we do or where we go, he just wants to do something, right now.

11. I would like to be invisible sometimes because I'm hiding.

I am actually a little surprised he didn't add Duh! at the end of that one.

27. Something interesting about me that no one else knows is that I am 1/2 Indian.

Um, he isn't. In fact, not even a 1/4 Indian. Casey and I weren't sure he could even qualify as an 1/8. Nice story, though.

But by far, the funniest thing I have read in quite some time was number 25-

25. I wouldn't mind being a butterfly because I would.

I said to Dunk, " You didn't finish this one. What would you do if you were a butterfly?"

"What?" he replied with a puzzled look.

"It says I wouldn't mind being a butterfly because and you only said I would. You would what?"

"Mind," he says"bein' a butterfly"

"Oh, right"

Man, that little dude is funny.