Changes

It feels like life is changing a lot for us.

Adam is still in marine boot camp in South Carolina.
Jeff has returned to Texas from Afghanistan.We needed a few days warning plus 21 hours driving time to welcome him home, but we were only told a little over a day before he arrived! So we were not there. He has not responded to my welcome home e-mail or the book and letter I sent a few weeks ago because I didn't know when he'd be home.
Tyler is at Job Corp in Kentucky.
Jasmine's schedule has changed once again.
Jessica is considering leading a mission team to Ireland this summer and then going active duty military.


Lots of changes.
The kind that come from children growing up and going out into the world.
They are ready.
I'm not sure I am.

Our last Sunday together.

Tyler, Kayla and I went to Monster University. Third time for me (at the full price theater still!), second time for Tyler and first time for Kayla.

Jessica and I took Tyler to the airport Tuesday morning.

Tyler called late last night (Tuesday) to say he'd arrived. He sounded unhappy and disappointed. He only talked for about two minutes because the phone is where everyone can hear what he says. I am hoping that once he's been there a few days he'll adjust to how they do things. He said there were six guys in his room, and he normally goes to his room to process things and have some down time. He won't be able to do that there. It also sounded very loud in the room he called from, and, like most asperger kids, he has a lot of trouble when there is too much going on and too many noises/voices. My mommy heart hurts for him right now. But he is somewhat resilient so hopefully he'll adjust and be fine. And hopefully I'll adjust to him not being here.

This room is too clean! It's a constant reminder that Tyler isn't here! I have not seen the floor in a very long time. I am not exaggerating. The child has serious messy issues. But I love him.

Tyler is my one who is always up for an outing to find a new place or see something new. He's inquisitive and ready to explore. I think this comes from when he was little, and we would move to new places. I'd be trying to find somewhere, but since I wasn't always sure I'd succeed, or if I wasn't sure it would be open, I'd tell the kids we were exploring. That way I wasn't setting them up for disappointment. We found some interesting things that way. And when we travel, we always try to find something new along the way. That's how we found the cool science museum in Birmingham in June. Now it's a new favorite. Sometime I hear about something I know would be perfect for him and off we go. It's going to be hard not to do that.

Update: Tyler called about 4:45 this afternoon on his cell phone. He said when he got there it seemed more like a prison than a school. He said the boy that arrived with him has already gone home! Ty said it's tough but he's going to stay and try to survive the program. I assured him he can come home if he gives it a good try and it just doesn't work out. So many of the boys are runaways, homeless or court ordered there that it probably is run kind of like prison!! Anyone reading this live near Mammoth Cave KY?

I bought a pizza today and twice I told people to be sure to save a piece for Tyler! Sigh.

There have not been any photos posted of Adam, but hopefully there will be closer to his graduation date. He does write every week and a half to two weeks. I write to him each weekend and insert photos of what we're doing. Not so many pictures now that school's started though.

We had Jasmine's IEP meeting today. Probably not a good time for it with Ty leaving yesterday. And talking about how special my Jazzy is. We (Jasmine was in the meeting with me for the first time) both lost control and someone handed us paper towel to dry it up. I wanted to explain about Ty, but every time I started to, my eyes welled up and I was a mess! BUT, Jasmine is back in resource math and intensive math. I really like the regular math teacher, but like they said, "Let's not set her up for failure." Um, yeah. I think I mentioned that a time or two. She will retain the same civics and language arts teachers but at different times. AND, she still has advanced band. It is a little bit of a concern because the resource math class is already overfull. But still, she's back where she needs to be.

Jessica is still working out her future plans, and I'll keep you updated on that. She got the blue screen of death on the laptop computer I got her for her 21st birthday, but I'd put a two year warranty on it so they will fix it. But she'll be without it for 16 days! She also lost the notes for a book series she and I have been talking about. So we'll start over on that. 

Speaking of books--they are here!!

These boxes arrived around 4:00 this afternoon.

Travis is so excited about my new book that he had to lick Jasmine's face!

Tyndale liked another project I proposed to them, and I'll let you know more about that later. I'm just glad to have a project again.

It's crazy here and things are changing so fast, but we will do fine. In fact, I'm really excited about Jasmine's year because now she has the classes she needs, and she is in jazz and hip hop after sitting out dance for a year. She loves the new instructors (both African American males), and they both have tons of energy and love to dance. She's only been to jazz once and hip hop twice but she really enjoyed them. They were pretty fast paced and intense. Maybe they'll help her work off some stress! She also has advanced band which thankfully only meets one day after school and they only play at 3 or 4 football games. So I think she has just the right amount of activities to keep her stimulated, but not overwhelmed.

How are all you doing now that everyone is back in school and activities have started?