Aunt Susie & the girls

Hot Chocolate Time

Drifty's favorite activity - cuddle time

Steve chillin' out in his hangout - watching DVD's & reading

This year Steve brought up his new 1000 piece Mosaic Mural puzzle. We started around 2pm Sunday afternoon and Steve worked on it until it was finished at 10pm. I have watched him build puzzles for years and have never ceased to be amazed at his skill and persistence. It was a lot of fun because Steve let us really be a part of building this puzzle and he seemed to be so happy to be hanging out with us.

The beginning!

Half-way point

Finished!

Happy New Year!

Here for your enjoyment is Steve’s new floor!

Here's what Steve's room looked like before we started

The new floor, awaiting installation in our kitchen

Steve’s grandpa John came over and helped clean out the room. Things went quickly with multiple hands doing the work.

The room is empty, carpet and carpet tack all removed

This morning (Friday) the installers came. They sized up the job and went to work. There were two workers and they had the floor completely installed in about 2 hours. Seemed quick, but what a difference the floor makes!

New floor, lookin' good!

Lookin' good!

When Steve got home, he was expecting to see a change. I think that he likes it! I love the comment he makes at the end. For the uninitiated, Steve expects cameras to flash and make sounds. That is why he keeps saying, “Cheeks” (we don’t know why he does not say cheese) and making the sound of a camera taking a picture.

Steve and I moved his things back into his room. He seems very happy with his new floor!

All set up!

Steve in his new room!

Steve has an abundance of stuffed animals and they occasionally have need of surgery. Max, the dog from The Grinch that stole Christmas was about to lose his head this past week. As I walked by Steve was examining Max and said to me “Sue sews?” To which I answered – but Daddy is sooo much better at sewing! Later that evening, Steve approached his dad with my sewing kit and Max.

Delicate Surgery

The next story comes from David. David was driving Steve home from church on Sunday and the boys stopped at Arby’s for lunch. As they approached a rather steep hill David began to encourage his little car (Myrtle is her name) . Myrtle does not always have a lot of get up and go and tends to take it real slow up the hills. As David was encouraging Myrtle, Steve leaned over and patted the dashboard – “Myrtle’s tired” he said. I think that rendered David a bit speechless and made me just howl with laughter!

Miss Muffet and the spider

Obviously, Miss Muffet was traumatized by this event in her young life. But she overcame, she grew up, learned to stifle her screams and back away from spiders. She never ever sat on a tuffet to eat cottage cheese again. She always ate her cottage cheese at the table, of course this was after she checked the surrounding area to make sure it was clear of spiders.

Eventually Miss Muffet married and had children – all boys. The interesting thing about boys is they like to scare their mothers. They hide behind things and jump out yelling, hoping mom will jump out of her skin and have a heart attack. They rarely get that reaction but will settle for a good scream. Boys tease their moms by getting into precarious positions and grinning about it. Boys then grow up to be teens and they text their mothers – “mom I had an accident”. They do this knowing that it is all that will pop up in her text screen on her phone – thus causing her to drop to her knees, praying as she opens the text with trembling hands to read “…I spilled ketchup on my new shorts”

Miss Muffet has learned that some days require more than just one cup of coffee. And some days she wishes that she kept the coffee pot next to her bed. Today was one of those days.

Miss Muffet crawled out of bed, a bit bleary – her contacts were not quite ready to work yet so things were slightly blurry. As she opened the bedroom door, a black blob on the floor began to take on the shape of a rather LARGE spider. Not a small spider, either – but one the size of a tarantula. Her heart stopped and so did she. Several things started to rush through her mind 1) there are no tarantulas in the Pacific Northwest. 2) it must be a fake rubber spider. 3) Oldest son is away at college, so this can’t be his prank. 4) This spider is hanging out in front of youngest son’s door – but he is away as well – she hopes there is not an infestation of spiders in his room.

Without coffee - this looks suprisingly real

Miss Muffet’s brain starts to click into gear – the light switch would help. Sure enough it’s not a real spider. Rather it’s a small beanie spider (which was flipped over so it’s stripes were not visible). This beanie spider had evidently crawled away from the rest of it’s companions. This leaves Miss Muffet with only one conclusion. Her quiet middle son, the one with autism, who rarely shows his sense of humor, had set out to prank his mother. It worked. She is now on her third cup of coffee wondering what else is in store for the day.

Back in May Kevin, Chris and I packed up and headed off to Scotland to visit Kevin’s brother and family. This was my first overseas trip – hard to imagine since I was a military brat growing up – but that’s the way it is. I can’t tell you how excited I was for this trip. The idea of getting to see a part of Europe, see places I had read about and seen in movies was enough to get me giddy. Getting to see Dan, Sarah and Hazel – good grief – its no wonder I couldn’t sleep for about 2 days before we left!

Upon our arrival in Glasgow our biggest challenge was staying awake to try and get our selves in the right time zone. Thankfully, Dan & Sarah have done this with other visitors and have the right plan of attack. We walked over to visit the University of Glasgow, not far from their apartment. It was just far enough to keep us awake and going and not fall asleep in our dinner later.

I think nearly everyone in the family has had their picture taken here! Can you tell we love the architecture?

Hazel and her well traveled monkey!

Kevin & Susie - University in the background. Gorgeous park!

After a good night’s sleep and a wonderful breakfast (Sarah is a fantastic cook!), we headed off to see the sights in Glasgow with Sarah and Hazel.  Of course one of the first shops we hit was Cath Kidston.  Girlie heaven!  Trying to contain myself and not damage the budget for the rest of the trip was really difficult!  After Hazel and Sarah headed home for naptime, the three of us wondered around the town and eventually ended up in a little Tapas place for lunch.  Totally yummy!

The next day Kevin, Chris & I ventured out to Edinburgh on our own.  Kevin had been there before with Dan and knew how to get around with the trains, etc.  We toured Edinburgh Castle, had lunch just off the Royal Mile and then wandered into another section of town and came across the largest used book/rummage sale I have ever seen!  A couple of churches put together this sale every year during Christian Aid week.  There were books everywhere, in and outside the church.  Chris was very excited – he did buy some books and spent a very happy hour or so perusing the tables.  We then walked up Calton Hill to the highest point in Edinburgh – it is also the location of a national monument, started – but not finished when the money ran out.  After that we headed back down to town and Kevin took Chris and I out to the Hard Rock Cafe.  Another new thing for Chris and I – never been to a Hard Rock Cafe before.

Bound for Edinburgh

Edinburgh Castle

Chris

Edinburgh Castle

The book sale - there were 40 or more tables each side of this building plus the entire inside was full of books!

Calton Hill

Don't ask me how they got up there!

Kevin's haggis burger

It was a totally incredible day.  I wish I had worn my pedometer!  All I really know is that we walked a LOT!  I think I will stop here and save more of the trip for another post.

Tuesday found mom & I headed out to meet Erica for some girl time i.e. Manicures and pedicures! We ended up being 1 of 3 groups that included a bride getting ready for a wedding.

Wednesday was a big day for Steve & Kevin. They got up very early so that they could be at the train station to ride the Alaska Railroad from Anchorage to Seward. This is an incredibly scenic trip and Kevin took a lot of pictures.

My mom and I made a side trip to Girdwood to pick up some handmade chocolates for the rehearsal dinner and then met Kevin & Steve in Seward. We had lunch, drove around town trying to kill a little time before we checked into our bed and breakfast.

The view off the deck

After settling in – we met up with my dad and the 5 of us headed off to have dinner at Apollos.  This was the start of some great food in Seward.  If you are ever in Seward and want great pizza or calazones – this is the place to go.  Yum!

We turned in fairly early as mom & dad & Kevin were heading out early for a charter fishing trip with members of our family and Erica’s the next day.  I really should let Kevin write about the fishing trip – it was pretty cool and they had a great time.

Steve and I headed out to the Sea Life Center on Thursday while everybody else was fishing.  We saw seals, sea otters, fish, octopi, sea lions and birds.  Steve loved the birds!

Tales of the fishing trip and wedding in the next installment!

Our trip to Alaska was by far one of the best trips with Steve ever! God was so very good in so many ways!

We arrived in Anchorage on a Friday night – having survived security at SeaTac Airport. Steve had a little trouble with the metal detector and then was randomly selected for more screening. Thankfully they decided that mom could take the screening for him. Of course then Kevin was selected for more screening! Yikes! But the agent decided that since I was being screened and that would leave Steve unattended, another person should be screened instead of Kevin. Lots of mercy and grace going on at the airport!

Saturday we headed out to Girdwood and popped in to see my brother Steve at work in the bike shop at Aleyeska and then rode the tram up the mountain.

Steve takes Dad's picture

Kevin & Steve at Aleyeska

After the ride down we headed out to visit the Wildlife Conservation Center. If you have ever been to a zoo with Steve you know that he can see everything there is to see at warp speed! So we thought this too would be a quick visit! Boy were we wrong. We walked with Steve and spent a lot of time viewing moose, bears, bison, elk, caribou, and an eagle or two. The bears were putting on a show playing in the water and chasing one another and Steve watched them for nearly a half hour. Totally awesome!

Stag Party

Steve & Grandpa

Watching Moose munch

We also visited Uncle Steve at the Girdwood Volunteer Fire Station! We got to see the trucks Uncle Steve drives and all the equipment! Cool stuff!

One of the great things about the drive between Anchorage and Girdwood is you often see sheep on the mountainside as you drive by – and my dad claims that any time my kids are there – the sheep show up.

Hello!

Binocluars are helpful

Can you spot the sheep?

As amazing as Saturday was – Sunday was enough to blow us away! We took Steve with us to church with not a whole lot of preparation other than to tell him it was church and a bit different than our normal church routine. What happened was that God blessed us in ways we could not imagine. Steve sat between Kevin and I for the entire service – singing with lots of instruments and a volume level he was not used to – with no banging on his ears or complaining. He sat through the breaking of bread portion of the service and then continued to sit and quietly write on some paper for a 50 minute sermon – a total of 1 1/2 hrs plus and all in a chair not the floor. Believe me I cried a few tears of joy and thankfulness afterwards. Of course seeing him eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch just topped the day off!

1993 Ski Nautique

It is a 1993 Ski Nautique. It needs a lot of work, even though in this photo it looks quite good. It needs some body work, some of the seats need to be re-done and oh yeah, it didn’t come with an engine or transmission.

It currently is in our garage where I am piling up parts and stuff to repair all the broken pieces. It is going to be a blast to fix up.  I’m looking forward to working on in and I’ll post some progress photos as I go along.

This afternoon, after kind of a tough day at school I saw Steve in the backyard sitting quietly. I ran and grabbed the camera. Now – these are not the shots you would see for most Senior photos and he is far from wearing his best clothes – but these are actually some of the better photos that I have ever gotten out of him.

I was really encouraged by Steve’s cooperation and peacefulness – I kept him talking about movies and I was able to by pass most of the “cheeks!” and funny noise he usually makes every time we take a picture. I think we will call this a practice session and try again later this weekend!

And then come August…it’s David’s turn!