From InfantBibliophile
It's Day 3 of Book Blogger Appreciation Week (BBAW), and today participants have been asked to answer the following questions:
Reading Meme
"We encourage you to be creative with this! Please choose one or two questions to answer or try to answer all the questions in five words or less. Or choose a picture to answer a question! Brevity is the goal of today!"
Do you snack while you read? If so, favorite reading snack? not often, if I do, it's grapes or crackers
Do you tend to mark your books as you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you? only if I am doing research in the books.
How do you keep your place while reading a book? Bookmark? Dog-ears? Laying the book flat open? laying the book flat open or a piece of paper
Fiction, Non-fiction, or both? Both
Hard copy or audiobooks? Hard copy
Are you a person who tends to read to the end of chapters, or are you able to put a book down at any point? Depends on the book, but due to the 4 small people in my house, I usually must put my book down whenever, rather than wait to the end of the chapter.
If you come across an unfamiliar word, do you stop to look it up right away? No, never.
What are you currently reading? Late, Lost, and Unprepared: A Parents' Guide to Helping Children with Executive Functioning by Joyce Cooper-Kahn in the hopes of helping Ella with her cognitive flexibility (adapting to new situations, transitions, handling frustrations), initiation (starting homework, chores, and major projects), working memory (following directions, note-taking, reading and retaining info), planning & organizing (completing and turning in homework, juggling schedules), and self-monitoring (making careless errors, staying on topic, getting into trouble but not understanding why).
What is the last book you bought? The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Are you the type of person that only reads one book at a time or can you read more than one at a time? I usually have several books going at once
Do you have a favorite time of day and/or place to read? no, no favorite place.
Do you prefer series books or stand alone books? Either.
Is there a specific book or author that you find yourself recommending over and over? No, there are a lot that I recommend over and over. Off the top of my head: Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers, Love and Respect by Emerson Eggerichs, Reforming Marriage by Doug Wilson.
How do you organize your books? (By genre, title, author’s last name, etc.?) I don't organize. Ask my husband. HE organizes his books, though.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Friday, September 11, 2009
Reflecting on 9/11/2001
The Doctor was working for a company called Capita Technologies during 2001. He had been doing a lot of business travel, teaching software classes, and working from home when he was not on the road. In late May, the headquarters informed him one Thursday that he was expected in Reading, England on Monday morning for a 3-6 month assignment.
We weren't really prepared for that, aside from the fact that my husband had a passport!
Our daughter, Ella, was about 18 months old when The Doctor left for Reading, to work at British Telecom. We quickly made plans for Ella and me to visit him during the month of July. We spent 3 weeks in Reading with The Doctor, making side trips to Wales, London, and a few other places on the weekends.
We spent 2 weeks driving around Scotland and visiting Aberdeen, Edinburgh,Dundee, Inverness, Dornie, the Isle of Skye, Glasgow, and Oban. It was absolutely magical. I had a wonderful time traveling, and Ella was a fantastic sidekick.
While in England, we were told that there was a plan to have The Doctor stay in the UK until at least Christmas, followed by a stay in Germany.
Upon returning to the US, I selected a realtor, put our home on the market, loaded everything up and put it in a storage facility, sold the house, and went to stay with my mother in law in the mountains until The Doctor was due to return to the States for his 10 year high school reunion.
He was due to land at Dulles during the morning of September 11, 2001. A fine fall day, which for us and many others started out beautiful, clear, and otherwise unremarkable.
I was still in bed with Ella when the first tower was hit. My mother in law received a phone call and turned on the tv. She came to get me, and we watched in horror as they replayed the images from the first tower being hit. As we watched, the second tower was hit.
When Ella woke up, I had never been so thankful in my life for multiple televisions and her love for the Nick Jr. morning tv line up! My mother in law and I were positively glued to the TV that entire morning and early afternoon, and Ella never saw any footage whatsoever.
If you are interested in showing your children the footage from 9/11, CalvaryGirl has the youtube videos linked on her site. I have been moved while reading others remembrances, and do not feel the need to include an image here.
I made many many attempts at contacting my husband. I had no idea if he was in London at Heatherow, in flight, if his plane had landed in the States, if he had been re-routed to Canada.
He was less than half way through his flight to Dulles when the captain was informed that the borders were closed and that the flight had been recalled to Heatherow. He eventually got word to a friend to get word to me, but I didn't hear anything until nearly midnight that evening.
When I think about 9/11, I think about horrific images of people jumping out of buildings because the heat was so intense they had no choice, I think about people running from the collapsing buildings, I think about the obliteration of Flight 93 in the field where there were hardly even scraps of metal. I think of many graphic and terrible things I saw that day. I think about bravery on the part of police, fireman, EMTs, doctors, nurses, American and international citizens, all coming together to do what they could to help in the face of the unimaginable horror of the crashes and explosions and clouds of ash and rubble.
I also think of being apart from my beloved when the borders to our country had been closed, with him on the other side of the Atlantic. I think of how many times a day I called him before he came home in October. God, in his graciousness, decided to interact on behalf of my obsessive need to talk to my husband during that time. To call internationally, the first three digits you dial to get out of the country are 011 I think. When my phone bill came, all the calls I had made overseas in the month of October were listed as going to an Alabama area code (011) rather tahn overseas. I was so humbled to realize that God was even paying attention to me and to our finances during this time of loss and fear in our country.
I also think about how our lives changed course due to the attacks. We had tickets to leave out of Atlanta on 9/16 to relocate to England. When 9/11 happened, the work that my husband was doing in the UK nearly ground to a halt, and all the extra contractors were let go.
We lived with my mother in law for several weeks before we relocated to Odenton, MD, between Baltimore and Washington, DC. Capita had no real idea what they were going to do to employ my husband, but they figured he could do some consulting at the nearby air force base once his clearance was increased. I had several graphic nightmares, I am sure many who were personally touched or who watched from afar also did. Mine were probably due to the fact that were were 15 minutes from Baltimore International Airport in our apartment.
My birthday is September 15th, and each year as it approaches, I stop to consider those who were lost and affected by the tragedy of 9/11. I will never forget, and I hope you won't either.
We weren't really prepared for that, aside from the fact that my husband had a passport!
Our daughter, Ella, was about 18 months old when The Doctor left for Reading, to work at British Telecom. We quickly made plans for Ella and me to visit him during the month of July. We spent 3 weeks in Reading with The Doctor, making side trips to Wales, London, and a few other places on the weekends.
We spent 2 weeks driving around Scotland and visiting Aberdeen, Edinburgh,Dundee, Inverness, Dornie, the Isle of Skye, Glasgow, and Oban. It was absolutely magical. I had a wonderful time traveling, and Ella was a fantastic sidekick.
While in England, we were told that there was a plan to have The Doctor stay in the UK until at least Christmas, followed by a stay in Germany.
Upon returning to the US, I selected a realtor, put our home on the market, loaded everything up and put it in a storage facility, sold the house, and went to stay with my mother in law in the mountains until The Doctor was due to return to the States for his 10 year high school reunion.
He was due to land at Dulles during the morning of September 11, 2001. A fine fall day, which for us and many others started out beautiful, clear, and otherwise unremarkable.
I was still in bed with Ella when the first tower was hit. My mother in law received a phone call and turned on the tv. She came to get me, and we watched in horror as they replayed the images from the first tower being hit. As we watched, the second tower was hit.
When Ella woke up, I had never been so thankful in my life for multiple televisions and her love for the Nick Jr. morning tv line up! My mother in law and I were positively glued to the TV that entire morning and early afternoon, and Ella never saw any footage whatsoever.
If you are interested in showing your children the footage from 9/11, CalvaryGirl has the youtube videos linked on her site. I have been moved while reading others remembrances, and do not feel the need to include an image here.
I made many many attempts at contacting my husband. I had no idea if he was in London at Heatherow, in flight, if his plane had landed in the States, if he had been re-routed to Canada.
He was less than half way through his flight to Dulles when the captain was informed that the borders were closed and that the flight had been recalled to Heatherow. He eventually got word to a friend to get word to me, but I didn't hear anything until nearly midnight that evening.
When I think about 9/11, I think about horrific images of people jumping out of buildings because the heat was so intense they had no choice, I think about people running from the collapsing buildings, I think about the obliteration of Flight 93 in the field where there were hardly even scraps of metal. I think of many graphic and terrible things I saw that day. I think about bravery on the part of police, fireman, EMTs, doctors, nurses, American and international citizens, all coming together to do what they could to help in the face of the unimaginable horror of the crashes and explosions and clouds of ash and rubble.
I also think of being apart from my beloved when the borders to our country had been closed, with him on the other side of the Atlantic. I think of how many times a day I called him before he came home in October. God, in his graciousness, decided to interact on behalf of my obsessive need to talk to my husband during that time. To call internationally, the first three digits you dial to get out of the country are 011 I think. When my phone bill came, all the calls I had made overseas in the month of October were listed as going to an Alabama area code (011) rather tahn overseas. I was so humbled to realize that God was even paying attention to me and to our finances during this time of loss and fear in our country.
I also think about how our lives changed course due to the attacks. We had tickets to leave out of Atlanta on 9/16 to relocate to England. When 9/11 happened, the work that my husband was doing in the UK nearly ground to a halt, and all the extra contractors were let go.
We lived with my mother in law for several weeks before we relocated to Odenton, MD, between Baltimore and Washington, DC. Capita had no real idea what they were going to do to employ my husband, but they figured he could do some consulting at the nearby air force base once his clearance was increased. I had several graphic nightmares, I am sure many who were personally touched or who watched from afar also did. Mine were probably due to the fact that were were 15 minutes from Baltimore International Airport in our apartment.
My birthday is September 15th, and each year as it approaches, I stop to consider those who were lost and affected by the tragedy of 9/11. I will never forget, and I hope you won't either.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Reading Motivation and the 6 year old!
Over the long weekend, Maddie suddenly developed reading confidence! Until now, she has had zero motivation to read, and doing so with her was like pulling teeth. I read her a Margaret Wise Brown book called "I Like Bugs" before bed on Saturday night, and she asked if she could stay up to sound it out herself. This was the first time she has ever asked to read after going to bed, and I agreed. She came out about 20 minutes later and read a large portion of the book to her father. She came out to the kitchen to find me cleaning up dinner dishes, and asked me to come into the living room while she read a more difficult book. Maddie, The Doctor, and I sat on the couch and helped Maddie work through the book "Ten Little Ladybugs". Some words she understood from the visual clues on the page, some were sight words, and others were brand new to her. She was very tired after she finished, but seemed very proud of her accomplishment!
Yesterday, Maddie went to work with The Doctor for a few hours, and on their way home, they stopped at Barnes and Noble to pick out some Level 1 books. Maddie wanted books that had a 1 on them (Easy reader level). She picked out one for herself, one she could read to Annelise, and one she could read to Teddy. The Doctor and I both thought that it was adorable, and admirable, that she would choose to buy books specifically with topics that her younger siblings would enjoy.
During school today, we will get out one of those Level 1 books and see how motivated she is. Stay tuned at http://Mimzywood Academy to see how school goes today!
Yesterday, Maddie went to work with The Doctor for a few hours, and on their way home, they stopped at Barnes and Noble to pick out some Level 1 books. Maddie wanted books that had a 1 on them (Easy reader level). She picked out one for herself, one she could read to Annelise, and one she could read to Teddy. The Doctor and I both thought that it was adorable, and admirable, that she would choose to buy books specifically with topics that her younger siblings would enjoy.
During school today, we will get out one of those Level 1 books and see how motivated she is. Stay tuned at http://Mimzywood Academy to see how school goes today!
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Seizure Disorders, Connecting, and TalkAboutIt.org
I have not mentioned that in addition to Ella's Apergers and Sensory Processing related diagnoses, she also has an "unspecified seizure disorder" that started in toddler hood. She has been seizure free for about 4 years, which is AWESOME, but by no means do I assume that her seizures will never return. She had fewer than 10 total in the course of 3 years. Three were simple partial with secondary generalization seizures, 2 were complex partials, 2 were grand mal/tonic clonic, and 1 was a series of myoclonic seizures. Because her EEGs and MRIs (even 24 hr video EEG and 48 hr take home EEG) never showed any activity, they told us that her seizure activity must be too deep in the brain for them to pick up. It was very disconcerting. Through all that testing, we found that she had a myelin deficiency, which may or may not contribute to her sensory issues and her being on/near the autism spectrum.
It is an unspeakably frightening thing to watch your child having a seizure. You never know how long it will last, sometimes they cannot tell you afterward how they are feeling because of garbled nonsense speech or lack of ability to speak, and many times there is no memory at all of events leading up to the seizure or of the seizure itself. It is one of those totally powerless parent moments where you watch and pray. I was blessed to have majored in Special Education and Psychology in college, and had some familiarity with seizure types when Ella started at 14 months. It did not make it less scary, but having that knowledge from school did make it less intimidating.
Last night, I had a friend on twitter whose child had a seizure. Her daughter had been diagnosed as having absence seizures already, but this was a new kind of seizure and it terrified her mom. I knew about these different types, and was able to explain and reassure to her that the kind her daughter had experienced was a complex partial seizure, and describe the impaired consciousness that my daughter had experienced when she had hers as a preschooler. It reinvigorated my desire to research and help others connect on the subject of epilepsy.
Which, very happily, leads me to talk to you about Greg Grunberg, one of my favorite celebrities. Greg has done work on movies as well as tv shows, but I first discovered him in Alias. I was thrilled when he showed up in Heroes, which is probably my favorite tv show. Greg is also in a really AWESOME band called Band from TV . The lineup is mindblowing: Hugh Laurie from House on piano, Greg on drums, Teri Hatcher on vocals, Bob Guiney from the Bachelor on vocals, Jesse Spencer from House on violin... The band plays gigs to raise money for charities, and Greg's charity of choice is one close to his heart, The Epilepsy Foundation . Greg's son Jake has epilepsy, and he has further created this fabulous website called Talk About It . While its focus is definitely epilepsy, the encouragement is there to talk about special needs. Talk about disability/different ability. Take away the fear and normalize these conditions so there is less misinformation, less looking out of the corner of the eye, less whispering while staring. I would encourage you to check out Band from TV and Greg's website. He is a multi-talented guy with a huge heart, and is working so hard to make the world a more accepting place for his son.
My daughter, Ella, would recommend two books on the subject of normalizing special needs: Don't Call Me Special and All Cats Have Asperger Syndrome
I would love to hear from you, and please pass my post and its information on to anyone you know who has a child with epilepsy!
It is an unspeakably frightening thing to watch your child having a seizure. You never know how long it will last, sometimes they cannot tell you afterward how they are feeling because of garbled nonsense speech or lack of ability to speak, and many times there is no memory at all of events leading up to the seizure or of the seizure itself. It is one of those totally powerless parent moments where you watch and pray. I was blessed to have majored in Special Education and Psychology in college, and had some familiarity with seizure types when Ella started at 14 months. It did not make it less scary, but having that knowledge from school did make it less intimidating.
Last night, I had a friend on twitter whose child had a seizure. Her daughter had been diagnosed as having absence seizures already, but this was a new kind of seizure and it terrified her mom. I knew about these different types, and was able to explain and reassure to her that the kind her daughter had experienced was a complex partial seizure, and describe the impaired consciousness that my daughter had experienced when she had hers as a preschooler. It reinvigorated my desire to research and help others connect on the subject of epilepsy.
Which, very happily, leads me to talk to you about Greg Grunberg, one of my favorite celebrities. Greg has done work on movies as well as tv shows, but I first discovered him in Alias. I was thrilled when he showed up in Heroes, which is probably my favorite tv show. Greg is also in a really AWESOME band called Band from TV . The lineup is mindblowing: Hugh Laurie from House on piano, Greg on drums, Teri Hatcher on vocals, Bob Guiney from the Bachelor on vocals, Jesse Spencer from House on violin... The band plays gigs to raise money for charities, and Greg's charity of choice is one close to his heart, The Epilepsy Foundation . Greg's son Jake has epilepsy, and he has further created this fabulous website called Talk About It . While its focus is definitely epilepsy, the encouragement is there to talk about special needs. Talk about disability/different ability. Take away the fear and normalize these conditions so there is less misinformation, less looking out of the corner of the eye, less whispering while staring. I would encourage you to check out Band from TV and Greg's website. He is a multi-talented guy with a huge heart, and is working so hard to make the world a more accepting place for his son.
My daughter, Ella, would recommend two books on the subject of normalizing special needs: Don't Call Me Special and All Cats Have Asperger Syndrome
I would love to hear from you, and please pass my post and its information on to anyone you know who has a child with epilepsy!
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Random Dozen Meme from 2nd Cup of Coffee
1. When you go to Wowmart, what one thing do you get every single
time, besides a funky-wheeled squeaking cart full of frustration?
Three Cheese Crackers! Esp at Super-Wowmart. I had such a hard time
finding them where we live that my parents used to send me packages
with them inside!
2. What is something that people are currently "into" that you just
don't get or appreciate?
Mafia Wars and Farmtown on facebook
Reality TV. All of it.
Little dogs as child substitutes, esp on errands in cars!
3. What is something that really hoists your sail that other people
might feel "ho-hum" about?
GLEE on Fox!
Science Fiction tv shows and movie
4. Favorite song to sing in the shower or car?
Today by Iona
5. A really great salad must have this ingredient:
hard boiled eggs
6. Advice in a nutshell to new bloggers (one or two sentences):
I have no business giving anyone advice about blogging yet!
7. What was the alternate name that your parents almost named you? Do
you wish they had chosen it instead of the one they gave you?
Bernadette.
hell to the no.
8. What in your life are you waiting for?
contentment. seriously.
9. You get a package in the mail. What is it, and who is it from?
my mom!! unexpected clothing/underthings for me, sweet items for the
kids she has found and just decided to send because she loves us
10. Today--what song represents you?
Flood - Jars of Clay
11. What is one thing that blogging has taught you about yourself?
I am able to be as transparent in my writing as I am in my conversation
12. How are you going to (or how did you) choose the clothes you're
wearing today? What do they say about you in general or specifically
how you're feeling today?
a) they were clean!
b) my shirt says that I support my daughter's school
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