Mike has worked his last day with the US Navy! His retirement ceremony was August 1st, and he no longer has to make an appearance between now and his official retirement date of September 30th. (Which is also my birthday!) With all that we have going on in our family, it worked out just perfect the way the dates fell. He has registered for college and signed up for all his classes and will be starting school the last week of August. He also has two jobs in the works (one is a "backup" plan), as he will be working full time while going to school full time. It's a good thing he's still pretty young! Morgan jokes with him and tells him that he better not be going to school flirting with the teachers....since they will be the ones who are around his age. :-) He is also taking an online class right now to get his real estate license. His actual degree is in finance and real estate, and he plans to double major and get a degree in engineering also. If all goes well with his first job prospect, that real estate license will come in handy! (Details when it happens.)
Mike preparing to celebrate his retirement!
Morgan will be graduating high school, one year early, on August 13th. She actually should be attending high school for one more year, but has spent every summer since 8th grade taking extra classes that allow her to "blow this joint" early. (Her words, not mine.) Because she's been going to school non stop for a few years now, she is taking one semester off and will be starting college during the spring semester. She plans to become a speech therapist. I think she is going to miss High School more than she thinks she will. Right after her graduation that afternoon we are having a celebratory picnic here at the house for her. (Yes, Mike gets one for retirement but that is next month! I just could not fit it in our schedule this month!)
Good bye Friday night lights, goodbye cheerleading, good bye wearing pajama pants to school...she's going to miss you when your gone!
Madison has spent most of the summer back in our hometown visiting with all of his grandparents. He is the one having the hardest time with the move to the beach and he gets homesick. He finally comes back home this weekend! Just in time to join in all of the festivities coming up! I suspect he is really coming home to check on his xbox, but Winston has been keeping an eye on that for him.
Madison's favorite part of the beach IS the beach...and his xbox. In either order.
Madi and Aspen have a sleep over planned for tonight. Feel my pain. I am not real sure what they have planned but there was some talk about scaring someone out of their mind with a rubber snake. I sure hope that plan wasn't intended for me. (I also should tell you that we had alot of screaming going on around here last night involving a water frog getting loose out of a fish tank.) If I'm still alive and well tomorrow after all this sleepover business I will let you know how the snake attack works out. If it attacks me, I may not want to talk about it...
Madi with the silver ears. Aspen with the red striped ears. There will be no picture of the snake.
Winston's just sitting around watching airplanes....
As for me, I met a celebrity at the Oceanfront. Check it out....
Worst picture of me ever, but Elmo looks great!!!
Ok so now that we've gotten my Elmo sighting in there, I know you all want to know what is going on with Spencer's Wish Trip...
We are all set to leave on August 15th and come home on August 21st. (Note: Our home will be guarded by friends who are coming all the way from Rockbridge County to house sit, one of which is a police cheif, and some big mean dogs!) We have been wondering how they get our tickets, expense money, and all that to us and today we found out: They send volunteers with cake and balloons and they have a send off party here at our house for Spencer!!! We got a call today from some more of the fabulous Make A Wish volunteers and they let us know they are coming by next Friday around 7pm, and we should be ready to have a fun filled time. Back in 2002, when Madison went on his Wish trip, we didn't get that...of course we lived way out in the middle of nowhere and it was harder to get volunteers out there...his stuff came FedEx! :-) For those of you who don't already know, Spencer's wish is to go to Seaworld and feed a dolphin. We will be staying at the Give Kids the World Resort in Florida, and they will be providing EVERYTHING for us...including tickets to Seaworld, Disney, and Universal. We've also got quite a few other things in store for Spencer that he doesn't know about yet...
This is Spencer on his last trip to Disneyworld...watching the nighttime Electrical Parade on Main Street at the Magic Kingdom. He loves everything about Disney, but has never been to Seaworld. And never fed a Dolphin. Smiles x infinity, coming right up!
Going on a Wish Trip is like winning a lottery that you never wanted to, or intended to, enter. This will be our second. I can't begin to express to you the power of a wish. Or the magic handed out by the Make A Wish Foundation. For my older son, it meant one week of no worries. No hospitals. No bad news. No needles. ("Vampires mom! They are all vampires!") It meant ice cream all day, and being treated like royalty. It was a week filled with the word "yes" and literally never a "no you can't do that". And now he gets to revisit the time of his life with Spencer!
Madison's Wish trip 2002. Meeting Scooby and Shaggy at Universal Studios.
I can only imagine that Spencer's wish trip will be even more amazing. Most of you will never experience the magic that is Disney on a wish trip. (And I hope that you don't need to.) There is nothing they don't think of. Nothing that they overlook or do halfway. It's all about one week of pure happiness in the life of a child with a terminal or life threatening illness. Madison will always have to worry about his cancer returning. (Childhood cancer operates different than adult onset cancer. He will always be considered to be surviving cancer. 1 in 10,000 children every year are diagnosed with cancer. Of those children diagnosed 1 in 200 will develop a 2nd cancer in their lifetime....Madison already did. Of those children, most will later develop a third type of cancer before their 18th birthday. Madison is now 13.) Spencer will always have Muscular Dystrophy. Right now there is no cure. There may never be. Right now he is in the best physical and medical state he ever will be. Every day brings him one day closer to the day he will be in a wheelchair. Everyday is one more day off of his expected lifespan of 25. ....But right now, every day is one day closer to his Wish Trip. One day closer to Shaumu the killer whale and dolphin feeding. One day closer to staying at the most wonderful place on earth, Give Kids the World. One more day closer to a week when none of us will be thinking about those "one more days". And he's ready. He's already got his ears on....
No comments:
Post a Comment