Responsibility

Responsibility is a big word, with a simple meaning: being accountable for YOU, YOUR STUFF, anything you OWN, and ANYONE (or anything) that you caused into being.

This means: you don't want to pay for the upkeep of a house? DON'T BUY ONE.

You don't want to make sure your child has a safe home, food, appropriate clothing? DON'T HAVE ONE.

I am so sick and so tired of reading all these stories about these mothers who don't feed their children, let them live in infested, dirty, absolutely disgusting places, and then have the nerve to whine and plead to the court and judge not to sentence them to a lot less than they deserve.

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On a different, happier note, we are spending the second night in our new house. The movers come tomorrow with the rest of our furniture and then I can finally start getting things into their places. We have internet (yesssss) and TV. We have a dishwasher, dryer and washer. Though, when I went to do laundry this morning I actually looked at the dryer. This thing looks almost identical to the one my parents had when I was little. And I mean *little.* I used to "help" my mom with laundry by pushing the clothes into the dryer after she laid them on top of the lid. 

I got to sit on the porch swing again tonight. It was GREAT. I can't wait until we get to decorate for Halloween; I'm going to put our big pumpkin on the swing!

Oops!

So I know I said I would blog everyday for 31 for 21 but I had a good reason to not blog yesterday: no internet!! That's right everyone, we moved into our new house yesterday and (through no fault of my own) Verizon could not come out until today to install the services.  So, today, I will be blogging twice to make up for it.

This house is pretty awesome (especially compared to the one we just left). I think the first floor is bigger than our WHOLE old house. And guess what? We have a PORCH SWING. Harley and I sat on the porch last night waiting for Trey to come home from school. It was nice, except for the mosquitoes which we will be spraying for this weekend.

And that's really all the news, for right now.  Oh, except that we couldn't get our box springs up the stairs. Let's hope the movers can maneuver it up there. *fingers crossed*

31 for 21 Blog Challenge

As I mentioned yesterday, October is Down syndrome awareness month. The 31 for 21 challenge is blogging in support of Down syndrome awareness. Everyday in the month of October (31) anyone can blog in support of Ds (21). You don't have to write about Ds every day and you don't have to be a family member of someone with Ds. The idea is to just dedicate your October blogging to Ds awareness.

Today, I'm ashamed to admit, I didn't really think about much at all. All I really thought about was how bad my muscles were burning and how exhausted I was in response to moving crap belongings to the new house. By myself.

I'm at the (old) house and looking at the pictures that we've put on the wall and am realizing (again) that my brother is incredibly photogenic. There is no pose or face that he has made that does not look cute, handsome, and perfect. I, on the other hand, can make some awkward and unusual faces in photos. Especially candid ones. It's unfortunate since I do enjoy taking pictures.

Oh well. At least I have a good subject who is willing to have pictures made of himself :)

A Sister's Point of View

Today is October 1st, which means Down syndrome Awareness month is upon us. For many people, that's not even on the top ten of what October means to them (Halloween, breast cancer, fall, etc). For many people, Down syndrome Awareness month is something to shrug at.

Not for me.



My very first memory is when my parents went to the hospital to have my brother. I can't tell you the specifics of that day, when my parents left, if they were nervous or excited or if they even had a feeling that their lives were going to be incredibly different when they left that hospital.

I don't remember if they ever had "the talk" with me, about how it would take John longer to do things, that he might need more help with walking, talking, feeding himself. I really don't know.

All I know is that on March 23, 1990 a wonderful person came into my life. This person, just by being himself, by being my little brother, changed my life in such a wonderful way, made me a stronger person, showed me how to love, unconditionally. I don't know what or who I might've been without him, but I know, I KNOW that my life is so much more than it ever would have been. Just by being his big sister.

I'm sure that there are parents, right now, who have just been told that their baby has Down syndrome. They may have other children and may worry that their baby with Ds may take away time from their "normal" children. They may worry that their "normal" children may lose friends, may have a harder life than if their baby didn't have Ds.  I would like to tell those parents, those siblings that it IS a different life. Not unfullfilling, or horrible, or inadequate. Just different.

Moving On

I hate throwing things away.

Trash, I get it. The box is empty, it goes in the trash. The mushrooms have mold on them-DEFINITELY in the trash. Preferably the outside trash can.

But clothes? Books? It hurts.

Trey and I are getting ready to move, because, y'know, it's been almost two years since we've done that. And as part of the preparation we are going through our books, clothes, household goods and setting things aside that we no longer want or need.

Trey says I have a lot of stuff. I tell him it's OUR stuff, now that we're married. But we do, indeed, have a lot of things.

Ask my mother and she'll agree that I hate throwing things away. I get it from my dad. He can find sentimental a piece of paper with a scribble or some random phone number on it. Ergo, clothes that I haven't worn in years (literally) have made their way from North Carolina to Virginia with me. Books, too.

It was pretty easy with the books, though. Any textbook got pulled off a shelf. Even I do go back to school it'll be for something for which my archaeology book is irrelevant (I kept one, though).  Any novel/memoir/etc that I didn't feel the need to reread got pulled off a shelf.

Clothes were different. For some reason I hold on to clothes. Especially clothes that are a size or two smaller than the me now. My excuse is "I'll be able to wear that someday!" I've been saying that for a while now. So, I sucked it up, pulled them out of the drawer and put them in a bag.

My mom cleaned out my childhood room a few months back and brought me eighteen years worth of stuff. I really think I cleaned that stuff out TOO well. Every now and then I'll think "Omigosh did I throw _____ away? Do I still have it??!!" and I don't want to crawl through the crawlspace to find out that I did throw it away.

I still have my Beanie Babies, Barbies and American Girl stuff. I will NOT give that away. At some point in the future I might have a child or two you could potentially be interested in playing with it. Or laughing at how his/her mother could have possibly played with something so definitely not AI.

Good luck to me.

Rent A Kid

There was a movie, sometime in the mid-1990s called "Rent-A-Kid." The premise of the movie is to rent kids from the local orphanage out to families, I guess to "test run" them before adopting them. I vaguely remember watching this movie, but I remember at the time I thought that was stupid. Why on Earth would you want to rent a kid? I mean, you either wanted kids or you didn't.

HOLY COW it is SUCH a good idea!!!

Trey and I are now at an age where family and friends are having children and those children are having birthday parties. We are even invited to them! In the last two years, I have been invited to so many kid birthday parties. It is amazing to me how many.

So, today, we were at the birthday party of the little girl I babysit, who just turned two. No joke, we were the ONLY ones there without kids. Yes, some parents are baby babies, but they all had kids. All of them.

Then, I thought back to the other parties we have gone to. For probably 98% of them we have, again, been the only people without children.

And let me tell you, it's a little awkward. I don't have any "my kid did/said/pooped the funniest thing the other day" stories. I don't commiserate about toilet training, changing clothes every couple of ours, or talking about why my child has started biting the dog.

Don't get me wrong; I absolutely love that I get to be a part of this. It's fun, I get cake and the kids are just so adorable.

But...I wish there was something like "Rent a Kid" that allowed people (background checks, of course) to rent a child for a couple of hours for events, like birthday parties where they are going to be only childless person there. Trey and I joked about this on the way home from the party, and of course a company like this would never, ever happen. But still...the idea is appealing.

We also "joked" about borrowing our oldest niece for things....

Thursday Outings with the Newells-Pocahontas State Park

So, at the beginning of the summer Trey and I had said that each Thursday we would go out and explore Richmond and the surrounding area we live in. Since then, I think we've done one of those Thursdays and that was antique-ing.

Earlier this week Trey was planning a fishing trip for today and he asked if I wanted to come. I told him that I wouldn't fish, but I would go and sit with him and read.

Today we drove out to Pocahontas State Park in southern Chesterfield County.

It was a gorgeous drive and the park was beautiful. We had never been and so had no idea where in the  park we should go or what was there.

We ended up following the signs for the boat ramp, our rationale being that both boats and fish are in the water so wherever boats were going, that was where water would be.

As it happens, the boat ramp was next to the water park and we found a nice, shady spot to camp out for a few hours.

Trey didn't end up catching anything, but I finished a book I had started!

There were other really neat things at the park, other than the water park.

There's a campground and also cabins that you can rent and camp in.

There were a lot of hiking and biking trails and lots of picnic shelters for parties and get togethers. There's even a gift shop!

On site they had a museum, CCC Museum (Civilian Conservation Corps) as well as the Algonquian Ecology Camp.

It seemed like a really interesting place and I hope we get to go back soon.

For more information go here.