Dickerson Park Zoo

Last weekend we went to the zoo on dollar day. Brandy and Derek came up and spent the night on Friday and went to the zoo with us on Saturday. We all had a good time.

Feeding the giraffes is by far my favorite part of the zoo. They are so cute. The kids loved it, too.

About 20 minutes after we got there Spencer laid down on the ground on his back. It sprinkled all day so to say he got a little dirty would be an understatement.

How sweet is that?

We Actually Moved!!!

So, after months of praying, research and an entire school year for Spencer, we decided to move to Nixa, Mo. Spencer had a very rough year at school and we quickly realized that he was not somewhere that was able to provide the best for him. I wish we would have known a year ago what we know now. We would have moved a year ago and saved ourselves and our little boy from months of frustration and sadness and standing still. We sold our house and moved into a duplex in Nixa. We were fortunate enough to be able to enroll Spencer into a private school (Rivendale Institute for Learning) for autism in Springfield for this first school year. He has done wonderful. The first few weeks he had a few episodes with behavior but the staff new exactly how to handle it and knew how to redirect and prevent future struggles. Everyday when I pick him up now I am giving his daily sheet with everything they did that day, etc. I am told he had a great day almost everyday now. You can not put a price tag on peace of mind of knowing that your child is being treated like a person and progressing and being taught in a manner that works for him. And he loves it. I could not be more thankful for the way things have worked out. I can certainly see the Lord's hand in everything we do.

The boys loved the U-haul.

Our old living room the day we moved.

My mom with her Mom and Dad last summer!

So, as you seen from my last post, my grandmother passed away June 6th. Well, you hear those stories of old married couples who love each other so much that the one left just can't live long without the other. This must have been the case for grandma and grandpa because my grandfather followed suit on July 28th. I loved both of my grandparents very much. They loved like I you rarely seen in life.

When we were in town for my grandpa's funeral we took Spencer to the Dr. to find out he has juvenille diabetes, where we were told to take him to the ER at Arkansas Children's Hospital immediately. When we got there his blood sugar was well over 600. Scared me to death! This means he is type 1 and will always require insulin injections. At first I was scared to death that it was because of what he has been eating but it brought a little comfort to find out the type 1 diabetes had nothing to do with that. It is partly genetics but mostly luck of the draw. Bless his heart. I was devastated the first day. I couldn't even begin to entertain the thought of being strong for him. Tears just rolled down my face on their own and non stop. I was just so sad for him. As if he doesn't have enough to struggle with. I was just worried that he wouldn't be able to eat anything he liked and I wouldn't know how to take care of him. We had lots of training while we were there and had such a wonderful experience with ACH. After it sunk in and we knew we would do and learn whatever we needed to make his life easier, we moved on. You spend a few days in ACH with your child and you walk out of there all but on your knees thanking Heavenly Father that your child has juvenille diabetes and not something else. I could not imagine getting the news that my child had a terminal illness. I will take autism and diabetes any day. We had so many family members and friends who either visited or called or prayed or added him to a prayer list or gave us money or brought us food or watched Lynden or took Spencer to play while we did our education or....well, I could go on and on and on. We thank everyone for all your thoughts and prayers and contributions of some sort during this time. Spencer is now doing great and has barely slowed down at all. I am so thankful for that!

Camping at Cricket

Around mid July we went camping with all my family at Cricket. It was the most beautiful weekend to camp. The temp stayed in the mid 80s. We had this planned for several weeks but could not have picked a better weekend or a better spot. We were right across from the shower/bathrooms....big plus! We try to do this every year and we always have such a great time.

Michael brought his bike and Spencer's bike. They rode all over the park and loved it.

Lynden kept putting rocks in the fishing net and telling everyone "I got one!" He was so proud.

Spencer thought he was the biggest stuff in Papa's boat!