Making a change...

We have started a new website with new blogs for both Josh and I. If you didn't receive an email from us with the new address, and you think you should have or would like to see it, please email us.

What we've been doing...

It's a beautiful day here. Our landlord had our bedroom painted this morning so we decided to check out some local parks. As we were driving around, the sky was so blue. There was one stretch of very high cirrus clouds in the sky, they were so white and flat. I commented to Josh that it looked like someone had taken an eraser to that part of the sky and erased the blue out.

The first place we went to was called the Swetsville Zoo. Not your regular zoo though. A zoo of metal sculptures. It was best described as strange, but something that every new resident to Fort Collins needs to do at least once. We left there and went to one of our city parks that has a farm on it, aptly named The Farm. This farm had real animals. It wasn't all that exciting though either as cows, pigs, chickens, horses, goats and sheep do pretty much the same things in Colorado as they do in Indiana. It killed some time though. We had lunch in Old Town at a great sandwich shop named Elliot's Mess and got home for just enough time for a potty break before Jonah needed to be at school.

Speaking of school, Jonah is doing great. It's hard to get much information out of him, but he clearly likes going. His teacher says his favorite parts are the schedule and computer time. Jonah has taken to drawing on our computer at home, so it's not surprising that is enjoyable for him at school too. I love picking him up after school, he comes out in this mass of kids, usually kinda quiet like, then he'll look up and see me and his face lights up, then he runs into my arms for a big hug.

Last night we were feeling a little cabin fever and decided we had to get out of the house, so we decided to check out Fort Fun, a mini-golf, arcade, go-kart, batting cages place. Josh, Jonah and I (Cason rode through on my back) played a round of mini golf, and Jonah did pretty good for his first time. His form was lacking but his satisfaction at getting the ball in the hole was priceless. The sun set while we were playing and it was so pretty. Josh wanted to check out the go-kart track and got lucky as the teenage attendant was bored and let Josh and Jonah ride for free. They had a two seater, so Josh gave Jonah a thrill ride. It looked like a lot of fun.

We're looking forward to the weekend, making plans to get back up into the mountains.

Pictures..

A new favorite...

Yesterday morning we decided to do some more exploring. We've heard a lot about the Poudre Canyon, so we headed north out of Fort Collins to take a drive on Highway 14. Highway 14 goes through the Poudre Canyon, following the Cache La Poudre river. I'm officially in love with this river and I'm so glad we choose Fort Collins so we can spend a lot of time there. It's Colorado's first official Wild and Scenic River. That's definitely saying something for the beauty that surrounds this area. We stopped at the Hewlett Gulch trailhead and hiked around three quarter's of a mile up the three mile trail. Normally there is a mountain creek flowing along the trail (with 19 crossings), but being fall it was dry. We can't wait to do it again in the spring with the snow melt brings the water back. After that we drove a little further into the canyon and found a spot to hike down to the river and spent some more time throwing rocks into the clear water. No one got hurt this time! It started raining at that point so we decided to head back home. After arriving home, I realized we hadn't even gotten to the part of the river that is classified as "wild", so I can't wait to plan a day to go back and travel the whole length of the canyon. I'd really like to go all the way to Steamboat Springs which is 150 miles away, but takes 3 1/2 hours to drive because of the scenic, windy two lane highway. Anyone know of a Picasa-like program that's compatible with Macs so I can post pictures in a slideshow?

We drove out to Estes Park today to have some fun. It was busy there as there was a fine arts and fine crafts show going on. We had a great lunch and then set out to walk the street and do some shopping. I've had a cold the last few days and due to the dry air I ended up with a nose bleed. Luckily it wasn't bad and we continued shopping for a while after that. We decided that we wanted to get away from the crowds and find some place scenic for a while. The drive to Estes Park takes us through a beautiful windy road that follows the Big Thompson River. We pulled over at a park and started hiking.









The boys' favorite activity is throwing rocks in the river. We found a good spot and were having fun. Cason walked into the water and ended up plopping on his bottom. After that he stayed safely on the side. Josh and I had ventured out on some rocks to get a better look at the deeper parts of the water. Everything was fine until Jonah picked up a rock and cranked his arm to throw it, I didn't even see it coming, but I definitely felt it when it hit me on my mouth. For the second time today I was bleeding. So now I'm sporting a nice fat lip. It's split pretty bad on the inside, I'm just thankful it didn't split all the way through. Jonah felt very bad while I was crying, so I reassured him that it was okay, that he's just such a good rock thrower and I knew it was an accident. In the end, I think it's a worthwhile hazard to being a mom of boys. Better me than one of them.

Here we are after I had recovered a bit.

First Day of School

First Day of Kindergarten - 9/13/2007

I can hardly believe my little boy started school today. He was ready and excited to go at 9 o'clock this morning, it took some patience on everyone's parts to wait until it was time to go at 12 o'clock. We walked there together as a family.




Maybe just a little nervous.


The path through a natural area behind our neighborhood. The school is only about 1/2 to 3/4's of a mile away.

There was enough activity going on as we were waiting for school to start that I was able to hold off any tears that may have come. We drop him off right at an outside door to his classroom, so nice. Josh even got cornered by another mom to volunteer for a time slot running games at the Fall Festival on the 28th. I guess that will be a good way to meet people! The adaptive resource teacher came to help him out for the first 1/2 hour which was a pleasant and unexpected surprise.

Josh then went out to do some job searching and I relaxed in a very quiet house while Cason napped. The big snafu of the day came when it was time to go pick him up. I had planned on driving back so I could be there in plenty of time to meet him. I got Cason up and started searching for my van keys. Can't find them so I start looking for my purse thinking that's probably where they were. After some frantic searching I call Josh and ask if he knows where my purse is, he quietly says in my truck. Oh No! I take off walking as fast as I can with Cason in my arms, my Ergo was also locked in the van, so no hands free carrying for me. Luckily, even though I was sweaty and panting I made it to the school with time to spare. In fact more than enough time to experience how surreal the moment was standing in the midst of parents helloing and making plans, all the while I'm thinking how crazy it is that we just got to town a week ago and I'm standing there waiting for my son after his first day of kindergarten. It'll all have to hit me later.

His first day went great. His teacher said he did well. They went to the library today and he got to bring home a book. Sounds like his favorite part of the day was computer time as she said that was the station that he didn't want to be done with. She said the visual schedule for each day is written on the board, and that she was going to make a copy for him to have on his desk so he can reference it throughout the time there. I know he'll do awesome once he gets the routine down. He told me he met some new kids and I forgot to mention that we were told on Tuesday that there is another family who just moved from Indiana and they have a little girl who is in his class. Hopefully we'll meet them soon.

Quick update...

We have decided to go ahead and enroll Jonah in kindergarten. We visited the school this morning for a tour and then went back this afternoon to meet the teachers who be working with him and the principal. The kindergarten teacher is very kind, around our age, and seemed very dynamic. The principal and her asked us a lot of questions about our concerns for him and what they could do to help him transition into school. He will also receive assistance from what they call an adaptive resources teacher, so when they know there may be a situation that would be difficult for him she'll come assist him through it (i.e. the fire drill next week). The school also has para's so it's possible that after his 30 day evaluation that could be added to help him also.

The principal is a young guy, mid thirties. The first thing he said to Jonah was that he liked his name because it was one of his favorite Bible stories. We later found out he graduated from Messiah College in Pennsylvania. Very cool to have an openly Christian principal.

Another nice thing is the school is not that big. There are only three kindergarten classes, one full day, and two half day.

The biggest deciding factor for me in this was that I came to the conclusion that it would be more harmful to him to keep him out of school this year. Preschools in the area don't have programs for five year olds and even if we could find one to take him, we can't really afford that expense right now.

Jonah was frustrated with being at the school twice today and not being able to stay. He was ready to jump right in. He even let us give him a haircut tonight with no fuss because we told him it was a kindergarten haircut.

So it looks like his first day will be Thursday. We thought it would be good for him to ease in with two days this week, then there's no school Monday, so next week will only be four days.

I guess that wasn't so quick, oh well!

Need some specific prayers on something. The school system here is suggesting that Jonah start kindergarten. I wasn't planning on it until next year, but he is of age here in Colorado. The public preschool is resisting taking him because he meets the cutoff for kindergarten and I'm afraid most private preschools would be the same. I'm told the school he'd go to is very good and has resources for autistic kids. The would follow his current IEP for 30 days and then reassess his needs and add more support if needed. It would be an afternoon program, after lunch (one of my biggest worries for him). Would it be a big deal that he didn't start at the same time as the other kids?

I've only looked into private preschools briefly and the cost is high, but I'm sure I could do more research on this. I also have the name of the principal at the public school so I'll likely call tomorrow to talk to him and try to set up a time to come in and see what it would be like.

Jonah's been doing really well lately, amazingly well. I don't want to hold him back if it is time, but I also don't want to rush him if he's not ready.

Thoughts??

Not enough time

These first few days have been so busy! I'm really enjoying having Josh around, but also look forward to being back into a normal routine.

Our drive across the country went very well. Cason had some bad moments because he was teething, and because my kids don't drool (anyone ever heard of this before?!) that meant some nasty diapers along the way. The worst was on our last morning driving. I was feeling alittle melancholy that morning as it was sinking in how permanent this discision is and my mind was struggling with fighting my old tendencies towards anxiety. Cason had a huge blowout, all over him, all over me when I picked him up. Not fun! But despite feeling quite overwhelmed on the first two days, God is proving himself faithful every day.

Now that I'm not so tired, each day holds new experiences to enjoy. Yesterday we went to look at a sofa and loveseat at a garage sale. We saw it on craigslist and called, they said they were having a garage sale and the set would be out to be seen. I'll just say, God really works in mysterious ways. We got there and starting chatting with the gal selling it and find out she's a speech therapist. Josh asked if she worked for the school system, which she doesn't, but it led into him telling her that Jonah has autism. Jonah obviously talks alot and talks well (if a bit formal), but speech therapy has actually been recommended to us to help his language comprehension. She told us the organization she works for just got an autism grant and hired an autism specialist and that their services would be FREE to us. More than just speech therapy, the autism specialist will come to our home and spend two hours with Jonah and give us advice on things that concern us. Can you say amazing?! One of our goals for this move was to find therapy for Jonah, and God provided before the first week was done.

We bought the couch set too, but when we got it home, discovered that it was truly the ugliest thing we've ever seen. It at one time was a dark sage green, but has badly faded and is best described as camoflaged now. We're hoping for a quick turnaround sale via craigslist.

There is more from our first few days to write about, but I need to get up and going. Pictures of the kids from our time at Bounce! later.

We're still here...

We made it to our new home and are getting settled. Josh was able to get our dsl working last night so we're finally back in cyberspace. Busy day today looking for furniture, doing laundry (at a laundromat), farmer's market and unpacking. Longer post later on tonight with what has been going on the last few days.

So far we're loving it, feeling totally surreal that we actually did this. Can't wait to get into the mountains!

on our way...

We had a good, uneventful first day of travelling. Jonah was very good for Josh, Cason whined 85% of the time for me. Really annoying annnnhhhhh annnhhhhh annnnnhhhhhhh, whining. Luckily, we only drove for 6 1/2 hours. We got to our hotel by 5:30 local time. I'm really glad we aren't rushing to get there and can take the drive slowly. Josh just got back from working something out with the truck (nothing major). The boys and I have been relaxing.

A little bit ago, Cason walked over to Jonah, wrapped his arms around him and said "I love you" (I lav lou). So precious!

More tomorrow.