eSpecially Ben

If you have not seen this yet, check it out. It is a free personalized video message from Santa. This will be our third year receiving one from Santa: Ben's Message from the Portable North Pole Make your own message!

Power a Bright Future Logan and Sean attend a local Montessori school. The school is in the running for a grant through Clorox. Please take a look at this and if you feel comfortable, vote for their school. To Vote: 1. Text 2439pbf to 95248   or 2. Vote online at Power a Bright Future You can vote once a day per device until December 19, 2012.  Vote from your phone by text, your work computer, your home computer and your ipad.  Just VOTE! Create an innovative TV studio where students collaborate Highland Mill Montessori, Charlotte, NC Program Detail: Bringing innovative technology and local artists together will help our students become 21st century learners by creating a state-of-the-art television studio. We will collaborate to implement Montessori Philosophy, Common Core, and Media/Technology curricula through planning, research, and using the technology skills needed to produce quality broadcasting, which will result in helping our stud...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Clearly, Ben's brothers were more excited about the trophy than he was about it. But then again, they were more excited about the whole baseball thing too. Oh well!

The  shoes  Ben is wearing are especially for use with AFOs. Every six months, Ben is allowed to receive new braces (ankle foot orthotics), shoes and socks through insurance and Medicaid. If for some reason his foot should grow too quickly in that amount of time, we could ask for special permission. We have not had to do that yet; luckily six seems like the magic number. After being cast, it takes about 2-3 weeks for the braces to be made. We use Level 4, a company that makes its own braces. Our orthotist, Steve, is involved throughout the process, to ensure Ben gets the best fit. This time, before we went in for casting, Ben visited an orthopedic surgeon. I wanted a new set of eyes on Ben's pronated feet, which seemed even more pronounced lately. The surgeon suggested Botox, something he did not do, but our neurologist certainly would do. After the trip to the neurologist and a very definite "no" about her office injecting the Botox, we were sent to a p h...

We waited six months to receive Ben's NOVA Chat 10 . It arrived about three days before the burglary. It sat on the kitchen counter with one sheet of paper covering it. It looks like an ipad . That it did not catch the thieves' eyes, I can only believe it was Ben's guardian angels hard at work. This is the homepage for a helper to use first. Each button goes to a field of  two for Ben to make a choice. After many hours of setting up a simple platform we can use with Ben, we started using it just two days ago. We all expected that it may take a year or even more for Ben to get the concept. I believed that if we stuck with the process, he would eventually "get it". It took 30 seconds or less for Ben to "get it". Let me give you a few examples to illustrate what I am talking about. In each of the examples below, Ben was given a field of two choices. 1. Smoothie or Cottage Cheese, Ben chose Cottage Cheese. He ate it, three different meal times. ...

We are more than a week away from the break-in, and with information, a few more locks and the advantages of a surreal experience, all is settling down at our house. First, our insurance company, Allstate , has been generous with their coverage. At the time of the break-in, I had absolutely no idea about what would be covered. Unbeknownst to me, our insurance agent, whom we have been doing business with for over 15 years, had us covered for every possible scenario. Allstate has an express office to handle some claims over the phone and computer. Fortunately, our situation called for use of this service. Within 24 hours of turning in my list of stolen items, they had a settlement for us. We have 6 months to make changes, add items and dispute the claim. The police investigation appears ("appear" is the operative word here because no one is telling me anything) to be moving along. Since the burglary, we found out that two neighbors saw one of the perps (always wanted to use ...

We were robbed yesterday. I came home at 1:30 pm and as I walked to the back door, I saw one of the French doors wide open. Let me stop there - for those who know our family, it is not unusual for a door to be wide open with no one at home. My first thought was that my husband came home for lunch and used that door for some reason. But then I saw the glass and got back in my car quickly. I have yelled out loud too many times in the movies as the ominous music plays in the background and the disposable character walks into the dark house with a blood trail leading up to it. I was not that fool. I drove to the front, called Ryan and then the police. At the same time, our new neighbor came out. After I told him what I saw, he said he had seen someone running from our yard at about noon. He had a fairly good description of him. When we finally entered the house, it was a shock for me to see our stuff thrown around. In some rooms, it was like what you see in a movie with dumped drawers ...

Let me tell you first that this video is 21 minutes long. And it does not get all that interesting until 6 minutes into it. With that said, it is worth listening to, even if you listen while you do other work. The pictures in the presentation are not as important as the story. At the center of the story is a boy named Kenny who has several severe special needs. With the support of his parents, teachers and other people, he is able to find himself working at a chicken farm in NYC. The presenter goes on to tell stories about other people who have found their special place in this world. Thank you to Cousin Angela for sharing this with me.

At my last trip to the public library, I found a DVD of children's stories being read aloud. A story we just read,  The Man Who Walked Between the Towers  was featured. Having been only four years old when Phillipe Petit made his daring walk between the Twin Towers, I was not familiar with the story. After reading the book, our whole family was intrigued by this stunt. I snatched up the DVD and surprised the kids with it. We ended up watching this particular  DVD  at least two times. There are three other stories after The Man Who Walked Between the Towers . There are several reasons why I liked this DVD. As the narrator read the story, the words were highlighted on the screen. The camera panned over the illustrated pictures throughout the book. There were no added caricatures or moving parts. The focus was on the words and pictures and not on added frills and thrills. At some point, I realized Ben was still hanging with us. Usually, our family movie nights are...

Ben's Fish About two months ago, Sean sold his train table and used the money to purchase fish and equipment for a tank that was given to us. With some encouragement, he graciously let each family member choose something to add to the tank. All was going well until we got overzealous with cleaning the tank and altered the balance of good bacteria, causing the fish to get ich  (pronounced ick), a fish illness, caused by a change in the environment. Similar to Oscar Wilde's statement about art imitating life, this was clearly an example of the aquarium imitating life. Ben's fish, named John, was the sole survivor of our fish fiasco. Not unlike Ben, John handled the changes in the tank without stress or white spots. And if you are wondering if we flush our fish, we do not. We may be the first family with a fish cemetery. Each were buried in a pudding box with the site marked by a stone. Ryan oversaw these services and closed with a prayer. Sean chose a new fish to...