Here's to another five years...

Eric said "I do" to another 5 years with the Air Force. My friend's hubby came to our home a few weeks ago to reenlist Eric. We've always been fortunate to have dear friends in our church that can reenlist Eric, it feels more personal and special that way!
After these 5 years are up, Eric will only have 5 more until he can retire. It's crazy to think how fast these last 5 years have gone. It has already been 5 years since we moved back to the US from Okinawa, (which I still miss dearly by the way) It's been almost 5 years since Chase received his autism diagnosis. It's almost been 5 years since Allie started going to school. I hate that she's growing up so fast!
 *"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around every once in a while, you could miss it." --Ferris Bueller

On another note, we bought a motorcycle!
In February.
And since then, Eric has changed so much on it, because it's his toy. The lights are different, the windshield is bigger, the brake lite is different...I think...The man is like a kid on Christmas every day that he's working on, or riding the motorcycle.  What is it about a guy and a motorcycle?? Don't get me wrong, it's totally fun to ride, and it saves us SO much gas driving back and forth to the air force base, which is great since Vegas is cruel to us inhabitants of gas buyers.  Eric is going to miss his motorcycle when he deploys as much as he'll miss us...hopefully :)

This was taken on a chilly morning in late Feb...Chase and Allie both LOVE when dad can take them to school on the moty. When Allie shows up or gets picked up by her dad, she is the envy of all the little boys in her class and she is told "Aw man Allie, you are sooooo cool!" And when he takes Chase to school, all the ladies that are there where we drop Chase off can hardly stand it, because how cute is Chase with those sunglasses and purple butterfly helmet?! very cute.

Special Olympics

A couple of weeks ago, Chase participated in the Special Olympics. He was in 3 events. 

1. Long jump

2. Softball throw

3. 50 meter dash.

I was bummed when we got there because we had already missed seeing Chase in the first 2 events. By the time Eric could leave work and we dashed over there, (we had let Chase ride the bus over with all the other kids) we never dreamed they would be so quick in his events. We thought there'd be alot more waiting around, but we did get there for the 50 meter dash. 

Chase had his ears plugged the WHOLE TIME because for whatever reason they saw fit, they had a gun that they would shoot off to start each event. Okay people, really? A gun? It was pretty loud, it even startled me a few times when I wasn't expecting it, and with a football field FULL of autistic kids, shooting a gun off every 3 minutes really isn't the best idea. We had to take Chase and leave because he just couldn't relax with the gun going off. But the thing is, the whole idea of doing this for these kids was cool, we just could have done without the gun. The whole thing was organized nicely, a company provided a yummy lunch for the kids, there were t-shirts and plenty of water, and the weather was great.  

Each special needs child was paired up with a "typical" child. In the autism world, a typical child is one who does not have special needs, so the typical child participates in each event with the special needs child to help them out. The little boy who was Chase's helper was a total sweetheart and was trying to help Chase relax each time after the gun went off.

This was taken right after Chase finished the 50 meter dash and he was still visibly upset at the loud sounds but trying to be happy still. He's a good sport! :) Love this little man, oh yeah, and the big man holding the little man, especially since the big man carries my purse around for me because it's heavy, but I insist on having my purse with me wherever I go :)

Dolphin Habitat-Mirage Casino=awesome

Whenever I heard about this place, I always thought "I want to go to there". I LOVE Tina Fey, or I should say Liz Lemon, for giving me that awesome statement that can be so applicable :) ...On Saturday, the weather was superb, I mean, really superb. When you live in Viva Las Vegas, you gotta take advantage of days like that because they are going to be quickly strangled and killed by something called SUMMER. While most of the world looks forward to summertime, in places like Vegas, you dread it. So, if you get a spring day that doesn't have wind, you MUST take advantage. So we decided to head to the Mirage and see the dolphin and lion/tiger habitat. Eric and I had never been there before and we knew the kids would love it. I'm bummed I didn't get any pics of the kids while we were there, just the animals and mammals...just not my mammals :)
The habitat was bea-tee-ful! The only downside is it's right next to the casino's awesome looking swimming pool, and it was killing Allie that she couldn't swim in it! And you have to walk thru the casino to get to the habitat and follow everyone in their bathing suits, and that can be a sight that ya don't wanna see. There might be an easier/closer way to get to it, but we were none the wiser...Anyhoo...the dolphins were amazing, and so sweet and cute and I want one.

 This girl sat here forever staring at Chase, it was cool! Chase, well, he paid no never mind to it...punk!

 The mama's with their bambinos.

 The mischievous male teenagers...

 According to the gal that worked there, these guys are bored and like to be mischievous but they're keeping their eye on it...Funny! Just like human mammals.. Get bored and create mischief!

While we were watching this, we thought Chase was really interested in what was going on, but then we realized there was a huge water drain next to the dolphins and Chase was fascinated with the water being sucked into the drain. Figures! I would just LOVE to know what goes on inside that autistic brain of his when something so ordinary to us, seems so interesting to Chase. What is he thinking? Is he trying to figure out the physics of it all? Who knows!!

After the dolphins, we walked over to the Siegfried and Roy Secret Garden lion/tiger habitat. It's very shaded in that part so that was nice....might even be do-able in the dead of summer!

 Um, apparently it was naptime....

 They took turns yawning

This kitty couldn't take his eyes off of Chase. Allie got a kick out of the look the tiger was giving Chase. She said "He wants to eat Chase for lunch!" But Eric pointed out that Chase is a pretty skinny kid, so maybe just an afternoon snack. Chase's secret to staying thin? Stemming, his preferred method is hand flapping and jumping :)

If you ever get a chance to go see this place, do it! I can never say Do It with out Ben Stiller voice popping into my head from the movie Starsky and Hutch....remember that part?? Classic! This place is definitely worth your while. Plus, you can be a dolphin trainer for a day...how coolio is that? It's very.

Hip hip, how do you spell horray?

I haven't blogged in a while because, well, I couldn't type. That's what will happen when you have your hand sliced open and your carpal tunnel snipped. Then my fingers swelled so big i couldn't move them and I was SURE they were going to explode. Lucky for me, they didn't.
Did the carpal tunnel surgery work?
Not sure yet, still in recovery. My scar is pretty gnarly. Eric calls me Frankenber, get it? Half Frankenstein, half Ber, because Ber is the last half of my name...okay, I probably didn't need to explain that, but I'm so happy to be able to type again, I'll type anything! I'm also glad to be able to get some exercise in too. For what felt like forever, i couldn't put my arm down lower than my heart, or the whole hand got mad at me at threatened to explode. There are way better, less invasive ways to perform carpal tunnel surgery these days, but I had my surgery done on the Air Force Base and the military, well, they be kickin it old school when it comes to doing carpal tunnel surgeries. It was rough and painful, but I survived! BUT, if I have to have the other hand done, I am soooo going somewhere else to have it done! No thanks to going thru this twice!
I have so much to say!
Like::::

Eric got promoted to a Tech Sergeant in January, so proud of my Airman!
At the ceremony, they do this thing where whichever squadron shows the 'most spirit' or as I like to say, is the loudest and most obnoxious, (but that's coming from a mother who has a child with autism), then they win the spirit stick. Needless to say there was a squadron at the ceremony that had a bull horn, a fog horn and every other horn put together to make the loudest, horrible-ist sound a person can hear. Eric knew that squadron was going to have that contraption there and asked the lady in charge of the ceremony before it started if they could not use it because we knew it would be hard on Chase, and the lady couldn't have cared less. She didn't 'have' to care about things like that anymore because the base has a new Base Commander and the old Base Commander had a son with autism so everyone would make accommodations, and basically since that guy was gone now, it didn't matter anymore. So we prepared Chase with plenty of our hands to cover his ears and hankies and kleenex's to muffle the sound as much as he could and Chase did great. There was a women in front of us that was so loud, she was almost worse than the horn.
Allie and I got to go up when it was Eric's turn and punch him in the arm with his new stripe on his sleeve. It was fun! I love that Allie's old enough to do that with me now.

Eric with his cute Grandma :)

For Valentine's Day, we had a romantic dinner....at Panda Express, and it was glorious!

(Allie's home made valentines)

These were Chaser's, I burned my fingers a million times hot gluing on the super hero mask.

And last month, Eric turned 30-something. I can't ever remember which 30 something it is! Is that bad?!?!

Really wish I had shut the laundry room door before taking this pic...

On St. Patrick's Day, we had a celebration breakfast. Even though St Patrick was not Irish, and in fact, from Britain, I still claim St Patricks day as my holiday. My mom's father immigrated to America from Ireland in the 1930's, and this is where I get my cotton ball white sensitive skin and glorious freckles from. Joy.
We made a St Patty's Day breakfast and invited Eric's mom and my sister and her son, and as a bonus, Chase's ABA therapist Cambria was scheduled to come so she too got to partake in the goodness!

 

Eric forgot to make the eggs green! Grrrr...that's my Irish Temper talking!

And lastly, who says you can't have a snow day if you live in Las Vegas!! You just gotta go to Utah for it....here's our trip up to Cedar City for a snow day on President's Day weekend! My parents have an awesome tube run on their property, so when it snows, we like to take full advantage!

 Ready to go!

Our snowman

 You can tell my nephew here really likes to have his picture taken.

 The Fam

We linked up and went down together and I slammed my elbow on a boulder-like rock and took it like a man!

And my handsome hubby helping my parents quilt on their "Australia" quilt from their mission. Have I mentioned how happy we are that they are home!?!!!

Surgery day and the wonderful Mr. Mom

What have I been up to? Well, typing with only one hand for one thing. Tuesday afternoon I got a carpal tunnel release. It's only about 10 years overdue. Is it just me, or do mom's kinda put themselves on the back burner when they have children and those little darlings have needs of their own?!

But with both kids in school all day and Chase doing rather well right now with school and therapies, we decided it was time. The carpal tunnel pain has increased tremendously in the last year or so, and Eric took some leave at work, so we scheduled the surgery and said "git 'er done". Let me just say, it hurts but Percocet is loverly! My surgeon said there's no guarantee the surgery will work to fully take care of all the symptoms, but here's to hopin! At least the numbness in the fingers should cease!

This pic was taken right when we got home from the hospital and i was still pretty drugged up, but also about to take more pain meds. Eric has me all set up with the iPad to watch Tron until i fell asleep again. They really had a hard time putting my IV in, thanks to the fact that they make you fast all food and drink after midnight and then your veins are no good because your dehydrated! It took 3 people and 3 different poke spots to do it. i couldn't see anything while they were doing this because they made me take out my contact lens and took away my glasses! I'm legally blind without corrective eye-wear so it was weird not being able to see who was doing what to me! At least when they did finally get it in, they knocked me the heck out for the procedure!
I'm glad its over and can't wait for Tuesday when they take the splint off.
I must say how wonderful Eric is at being Mr. Mom. He's had to do everything from getting the kids up and ready for school, feeding them breakfast, making lunches, conversing with Chase's therapists, grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning up, tiding up the downstairs for the therapists that come do behavior therapy with Chase in the mornings before school, picking the kids up from school (2 different schools mind you), helping with homework, getting kids ready for bed, reading to Allie's class during Nevada Reading Week) paying the bills, taking care of me, which is no easy task I'm sure! Tomorrow he gets the pleasure of curling my hair for me since I'm one handed :) At dinner tonight, i asked him if he'd like to switch roles, he declined the offer. I guess I'm okay with that since I'd rather not be the one that has to go to Afghanistan for 6 months at a time!

The Loft

Around Christmas time, we decided it was time to do something with our loft. It's the part of the house that we play in the most....the Wii, the Playstation, the computer and netflix are all up here. We tend to end up here in the evenings after dinner, and always on Sunday's. You can always find Chase up here playing the Wii before school when he has a morning that there is no behavior therapist here working with him. I LOVE that he can turn on the Wii all on his own and get to his favorite game (bowling on Wii Sports Restort) He's also developed a liking to the ski diving game too. I think he likes that it takes a pic. Anyhoo, here's some before and after pics...

From the top of the stairs, our bedroom is to the left(Chase took this pic by the way :)

Starting to move stuff around, applying paint samples to the wall
It's always a good idea when looking at paint samples to see how they look at all different times of the day in different lights..

 The hallway to the bedrooms

The horrible excuse for a computer desk area!

Dha dah dah dahhhhh! The new and improved LOFT

I LOVE LOVE LOVE how our wood pallet wall turned out, and it cost us 0 dollars! We just went around, well, more like scrounged around town and got pallets from businesses that they were going to just bust up and throw away! Can you imagine the ludicrous-ness?!

My dad painted this chest of drawers for us and we ordered the butterflies online, i can't remember the website though but it was thru amazon. I made the sunburst mirror with bbq skewers.

The curtains came from Lowe's at 20 bucks a pop

The mirror was free, not a good pic of it, but it used to be brown and we spray painted it John Deer yellow.

The computer desk was free of charge. We sanded and painted it yellow.

My dad gave us this 1920's lamp that is lovely and hangs above the computer desk.

Love all the different colors in the wood. All we did was pull out the old nails, gave it a light sand and then nail gunned the wood to the wall.

Look at that fit! If the desk were any wider, it soooo would not have fit...

I said to Eric as he was working on the desk "I sure hope it fits after all the work getting it ready for the loft!" He says "Yeah, me too! Maybe we should measure it!"
Thankfully it fit!

 My favorite photographer.