Back to school.....

Back to school is bitter sweet for me! Zech LOVES school, but I now find myself missing him so and enjoying the time I now have for productivity, both at the same time! 

We have started, again, using the Fast Flash method of teaching Zech to read again. He does so well with this, I have no idea why I stopped! Time just seems to get away from me...oh Mr. Time please stay awhile! 

I can't believe it's the middle of August ALREADY!!! I need to tidy the bees this weekend and try to get them settled for the winter! Then what....Megan's wedding!!! Shower at the end of August, shower at the end of September....then the wedding! I don't  think there are any BIG projects after that. One year of nothing major will be nice...time to revamp the house then! 

I have came to a conclusion about life.....it is so much easier and less stressful when things are organized!! Unfortunately, I was not born with that gift. I constantly try...I can organize other peoples things...not mine though...what is it with that?!

Productive Day!!

Well, Macey took the "bar" Tuesday and Wednesday......YAY!!! She's done with that! She will get her results mid to late October, such a long time!! Now, we focus on Megan's wedding!

Today Zech had speech therapy with a "new" pathologist. She is new to us. She has 20 years experience....I like that!!! He did REALLY well! I'm really excited about his progress. After speech, Zech had an eye exam. This also went REALLY well! Zech's current glasses do not fit him well. We found a brand of glasses that are specifically for people who do NOT have a good bridge on the nose. We are going to try these. His prescription is also lower than what it was...Yay!! Maybe he'll stop looking over the top of them!

We then went for sushi and then allergy shots. Zech is such a trooper! When we got home Zech went swimming with La La(NA NA to Zech's cousins), his Aunt. Good times!!

Some recent pics

Super, super long time!!

It's been quite a while! Life seems to get so busy, and an author I am NOT! So a quick update on all the Dawsons (and Gurleys too).
Macey finished law school and her and Brad (her husband) have moved back to the Creek with us!! She is studying for the Bar and will be taking that next week.
Megan is still in Michigan ( :( ) and will be getting married in October to Mike. She is working two (2) jobs and doing well.
Zech....well Zech is KING of the house!!! He is still Mr. comedian, full of love and laughter!! My days are NOT boring!!

Tom is still driving over the road. He has a newer truck now, and loves his office view!! :)

Me, well....I try to keep a house together, though if you walked in right now you might think I'm slacking! I keep honey bees. We have 7 hives right now. We just extracted some honey from the hives and the "girls" were pretty upset that we took some of their hard work! Tom and Skylor both received multiple stings. I have actually started doing Bee Venom therapy on myself, my mom, and my sister (who has MS). The results are quite remarkable.

Back to my favorite subject, Zech, he's doing 3 therapies a week and doing quite well with them! I have noticed a difference in his speech and coordination! He also enjoys going, which is a plus!

We just got back from a Reece's Rainbow reunion! Loved it! So many remarkable kids and parents!! Makes me want to adopt again! Who knows what God has in store for us!! Tom and Zech seem a little more willing than me. Don't get me wrong, I'm willing, I'm just not sure if I could possibly Love anyone like I do Zech. I know I probably would, but how can I possibly spend any free time away from Zech? Would Zech suffer? Who knows....things to pray about!

Dis-Ability

So, the Webster definition of the prefix dis- is.....opposite or absence of.  They say children with Down syndrome have a dis---ability, which by definition means they automatically have an absence of ability! What?!

If you're reading this I'm sure you know my son has Down syndrome. Let me tell you some of his Abilities:

Zech has the ability to see, smell, hear, taste, and FEEL. He can walk, talk, run, jump, and DANCE. He can eat and drink.  He can read, write, do math, he can LEARN.  

Zech has the Ability to make a hundred people smile in a day, he can Love like no one I have ever met! He can melt the heart of strangers with just a simple passing by. 

Zech has the ability to HELP people, by bagging their groceries or patting their crying child on the back and saying "awe...what's wrong baby?" Or a hundred other little things he does.

Zech has the Ability to LAUGH and to cry.

He has the ability to be happy, mad, frustrated and sad. He has the Ability to know when adults or kids don't want to be around him because they don't take the time to Listen and try to understand what he's saying. 

He has the Ability to know when he's being ignored or left out of activities other kids are doing.

Most importantly though, Zech has the Ability to FORGIVE, to brush it off as ignorance, to be TRUELY Happy with who HE is!!

Life on the farm.....

Farm you say.....yep! We have our own little micro farm! Just starting, again, but so exciting. We are starting with smaller life and may possibly go to larger animals. Right now chickens and bees. Chickens arrived this weekend, four to start out with. Our bees will be arriving this coming Monday. Fresh eggs and raw honey, pretty nutritional stuff! We all had a great time putting the hives together, Zech did an awesome job!

Megan and Zech on our way to cruise.

Zech relaxing on vacation!

He loved the cruise!

Back by popular demand.......

9 months?! Wow, I could have had a baby since my last post....sorry to say that's not the case! I think LIFE just kinda overwhelmed me, and I wanted to withdraw. It seemed the only people that were reading my blog were the same people that were in my daily life that already knew what was going on, so why bother?! Well, I have realized this is more like a journal of our journey through life. An exciting journey I might add, and its fun to go back and read about it!

So, to quickly bring you up to speed on our life I will start with me. I am currently working out of the house, and I LOVE it! I am more a stay at home mom than "work" with the public, but I enjoy it so much more than I realized I would!!! I make some scrubs and facial products and also make bees wax candles. I am still doing my scans and light therapy. We have just ordered bees (two queens and 6 lbs) that will be(e) arriving in April.

Tom is still working over the road, but he is excited about the bees too! So thankful for that!

Megan is still in Michigan :( ...but is very happy! She has a wonderful job and is currently looking for an apartment (we just sold our house up there).

Macey is a busy bee ( ok, I had to get a pun in there about bees some time...lol) with school. Brad is still working and is right beside Macey in all she does!:)

Zech has grown so much! He is getting so much taller and gaining weight. He is doing great at school and is catching up to

Summer begins...

Ahhh, YES! Summer is here and so is Macey and Brad!! I'm so excited! They have been here a little over a week and that is why I have not blogged lately. We also had 9 other guests for one night and 2 days. I was actually amazed that everything went so smooth, but it did. Good times!!

I am still working on the organization issue. There has to be a "cure" out there for people like me. If not, I WILL come up with one! One thing I have done is re-purpose some mason jars. I love them. I have put holes in the lids, placed a grommet in the hole, and a straw fits great!

Megan is happy with her new job. SOooo proud of her!

Zech, well, he's.....a LITTLE tornado!! I'm not going to lie, I do get tired, but I LOVE his giggles, smiles, and energy!! I wouldn't have it any other way!

Tom, he is working...working...and oh yeah, working. His truck was broke down for a week, so he's playing catch-up right now. Luckily it was in Mi, so he was with Megan.

As you can tell, not really "feeling" the blogging right now, I probably won't post much this summer. We'll see.

Until next time....

Some of Zech's art work

Two of my favorites!

Four days already?!

I can't believe it's been so long! Things have been crazy here trying to get the interior of our house done. By done I mean some rain damage fixed. We have the new roof (antique brown metal roof now...yay!) There was just some slight dry wall issues and it's taken forever to fix (at least it feels like forever)!

Tom is home now. He got home last night. Today we have spent running around doing errands. Long day.

So, tomorrow is mother's day. I am extremely thankful that I am here with my mother, but also extremely sad that both my girls aren't here with me. I just seen Megan a couple weeks ago, and Macey will be here in a week. So that's good!

I think some friends of ours from west Tennessee are coming Friday, at least for a day. It will good to see them!

We are getting ready to go eat some steak taco's....Sooooo good!! Then, it will be time to hit the hay! Awe....sweet sleep! It will be welcomed tonight!

....Education

If pages worked the way I wanted them to, I would be posting this under education. They don't, so I'm posting it here.

The iPad....approximately $600. Is it worth it? YES! Zech's speech has really improved lately. Now keep in mind I'm doing a few things and I will continue because it seems to be working. I have been using Articulate it! Plus several other apps on the ipad. I have been doing biofeedback once a week. I do bal-a-vis-x at least twice a week (I wish he would do it daily). I give him 1 tranquil sleep (l-theanine, melatonin and GABA) every night. He also takes a multi, zinc, and a drop of iodine. Sounds like a lot for most, but I can notice a HUGE improvement in receptive language and even expressive. When he is tired he kind of shuts down, doesn't talk much and may seem a little more confused.

I have noticed that more times than not, he doesn't say the ending of a word. Example..."bean" he says "bea", "Kite" he says "Ki". Not all the time.. for Megan, he says "gagen". Now I know he can make the sound for 'M', but he uses 'g' with Megan...don't know what that's about unless maybe that's how he started saying her name and just continues with it? Don't know. I actually recorded him speaking earlier today, and played it back for him. I don't think he liked it at all! He immediately quit trying to make the sounds then. So, I won't do that again. Right now I guess I'm going to work with the ending sounds of 'n' and 'm'. Beginning sound 'f'. We'll see how that progresses.

Anyways, time will tell. If anyone has experience with this, please let me know....Thanks!

Ahhhh....Rain!

Yay, it's raining this morning! We SO needed it! The sound isn't as loud as I thought it would be on our new metal roof. I am very thankful it's not leaking into the house now though!

Has anyone noticed that I have tabs on my blog now? I was going to try to organize some thoughts, but with adding pages you can not keep adding posts to them, only on the home page. So, I will probably delete them, sorry for any confusion.
Zech goes back to the DR Monday for a follow up on his urinary procedure. I think all will go well, he seems better. Within the next month he goes back for an MRI to follow up on the (now gone!) abscess. Just to make sure his brain is healing correctly and all is well. I trust the Lord that it is!

Megan starts her new job on May 14th. She's so excited and I'm so proud of her! Congrats again Maggie Mae!

In TWO weeks my baby girl will be here! And yes, her hubby too! I'm so excited! They should be here about two months..YAY!!

The pool is finally up and running! Yesterday was the first day a swam for a while and then just floated around. I'm so sore today! From swimming....I did get a burned too, but it's tan today...no pain from that! Burt's Bee's carrot lotion and Kathy's Healing Lotion always do the trick! Zech got to swim a while yesterday too. Nori picked him up from school early and they both came back and swam.

I want to talk about adopting kids with special needs and how much support people get from their friends and families. I won't do the post today, so be thinking about the topic and let me know you're feelings. Be honest...I would like to here from actual parents that have adopted and I would like to hear from family and friends of people who have adopted special needs. I will keep everything confidential, so be honest! Do you have support? How do you feel now that there is a "special needs" person in the family? How do you feel when your loved one that adopted is tired and needs help? Please send me some feedback via email.

Thanks and God Bless!

...a few days later

I haven't written anything for a few days now. Megan came into town...YAY!! She's staying until Tuesday, wish it was longer! We've done a few things, mainly just hung out which has been great!
We ate at Foglight in Sparta, it's a great little cajun restaurant in the middle of nowhere. Love it! We had sushi at Maggie's favorite sushi spot in Cookeville. We drank Calfkiller beer (a local brewer who has WONDERFUL flavors!) We bought flip flops. We drove the "loop" home. We sat and held hands. We went to Ma and Pa's. We watched Oprah's Life Class Tour and ELLEN. So, all in all....we had a wonderful time!

Megan left yesterday....yes, I cried! So, this is what I have determined. I cry when I'm happy. I cry when I'm sad. I cry when I'm angry. I really didn't think I cried a lot, but obviously I do.

I feel like I have so much to write about, but I'll save some for the coming days. One thing I wanted to talk about was the Life Class show we seen. To sum it up, we are suppose to have a grateful heart and mind. We are suppose to live in gratitude ALL day, every day! I know, when asked you automatically say 'I am grateful for everything'...'BUT'.....Come on, You know you do! You probably are thinking...well I am grateful! But, do you really LIVE it?! Do you really FEEL it every day?! Do you find the good in the bad, the happy in the sad? Most of us don't.

I will tell you that I am one to ALWAYS talk about speaking and thinking positive. I preach it, write it, SAY positive things out loud (even when no one is around). But guess what, I didn't FEEL it. I didn't automatically go to the positive all the time. I think I did more than average, but not all the time. UNTIL.....until that day.....that day when I thought my life was about over. That day when we thought we would lose Zech. That day when all I could do was go to my knees. The day I really didn't know what to do, what to say, what to ask for. That day that I was TRULY humbled before our Lord. That day I REALLY knew what I was thankful for. My husband, who held me up when I couldn't stand. My daughters who were there to SHOW me what I had always preached. My son!! My son that God gave me when it was the last thing on my mind, having another child. That night when I went to the chapel in the hospital to pray, all I could do was just keep thanking God for Zech. Thanking him for picking me to be his mommy.

With all that being said, I really feel a thankful heart all the time. Now, please know this doesn't mean I don't get sad, or mad. I do, but definitely NOT like I use to. Things that bothered me before, are just not important anymore. So, every day I am going to write down 5 things that I am thankful for. I will do it here, and on facebook. I would really encourage you to do the same...5 things...how hard is that? Come on....it won't take long!

1. My family
2. A new roof
3. Time I got to spend with Megan
4. My pool
5. The smell of honeysuckles

I am also thankful for you. For any and all who read about my family.

Daddy and Zech playing guitars

At the aquarium.

So good at dentist!

Cutest fireman ever!

Such a monkey!