My Thoughtful Spot

thats when she's thinking. When she REALLY concentrates....

Kids, of course, had fun. Here's two of them.

UPDATE: Hannah has broken ribs and a lacerated liver, but at last update was holding her own. thanks for the prayers.. please keep them coming!

The daughter of a friend of mine was just brought in to emergency. Hannah is 6 and was squeezed between two vehicle bumpers when someone backing up didn't see her. She's currently having a CT scan of her belly.

Please pray for her family, the driver, and for Hannah. Her parents are Kevin and Patti.

CULBERSON, EMILY JOYCE The passing of Emily Joyce Culberson, of Fredericton, NB, occurred on June 22, 2006 on Highway 10, due to a Motor Vehicle accident. Born on December 14, 1989 in Charlottetown, PEI, she was a daughter of Rev. Kevin and Ruth (Webber) Culberson. Emily was a Grade 11 student at Leo Hayes High School where she was an honor student and an active participant in the Peer Mentoring program. She loved to shop, enjoyed playing guitar and writing music. Emily's favorite place in the world was Davidson Lake where she loved to wakeboard. Her favorite pastime was enjoying the company of her many friends. In addition to her parents, she is survived by one brother, Andrew Culberson (Katy); two sisters, Sarah Hoyt (Nathan) and Rebekah Culberson all of Fredericton; paternal grandparents, Howard and Betty Culberson of Upper Woodstock; maternal grandparents, Rev. James and Enid Webber of Lakeville Corner; several aunts, uncles, cousins; and many, many friends. She was predeceased by her infant sister, Elizabeth; and paternal grandmother, Joyce Culberson. Visitation will take place at York Funeral Home, 302 Brookside Drive on Saturday from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 pm. A Funeral Service will be held on Sunday, June 25, 2006 at 2 pm from Nashwaaksis Baptist Church with Pastor Al Fewkes officiating. Pallbearers will be Andrew Robichaud, Lucas McKinley, John Mann, Joe Ross, Greg Keezer and Jon Morrison. Interment will take place at Upper Jacksonville Cemetery, Jacksonville, NB. In lieu of flowers, remembrances made to the Emily Culberson Memorial Scholarship Award, to the Nashwaaksis Baptist Church Building Fund or to the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada would be appreciated by the family. Personal condolences may be offered through www.yorkfh.com.

Emily grandparents (and many other relatives) come to our church. We're grieving for them, as well as with them. Prayers for the family and for our church family would be most welcome.

I'm trying to get caught up on housework today but I'm really having trouble staying on task.   I'm tired, which doesn't help, and somehow I just find it harder to get things done when hubbie is home.  I'm glad he's home mind you, don't get me wrong, but ... it is just harder to be productive.  He's needing time to hang out and relax so I want to, too!  He's helped me get some basics done, and I've tidied up our room some and started some laundry.  I want to make it all nice looking and clean smelling.  What is it with me and smell?  If itdoesn't smell clean and fresh, it's not clean enough for me. 

Anyways.  My head hurts, my legs ache, I am a bundle of "whine".  But I'm heading back to the kitchen as of now!

and today was in need of a LOT of it. It was a crazy busy day. But, picking hubbie up at work at 9:30, I took a few minutes with my camera.  The results are pretty neat.

Love those indian paintbrushes. I'm not totally happy with this picture, but my guys were getting impatient waiting for me.

I had a long nap this afternoon.  I didn't mean to, but it was hot, I was laying around trying not to get overheated (heat makes my ms horribly impossible) and, inevitably, I fell asleep.  I came to every now and again but never for long and not awake enough to decide to get up.  And then.. it happened. I woke up and could hear Mark beside me playing his PS2.  I tried to speak to him - and couldn't speak.  I attempted to reach out and touch him - but I couldn't move my arm.  I don't know how I didn't freak out completely. I just remember trying to move my legs, my arms, to roll my head, anything. Nothing would move.  I couldn't so much as move my finger or so much as grunt to grab my husbands attention.  I knew I had to let him know what was going on so I lay there focusing all of my attention on moving my head.  Every bit of will power I have (and I am well endowed) went to willing my head to roll to the side in hopes of making eye contact with Mark.  And then, suddenly, the paralysis lifted and I was fine again.

Tonight I find myself afraid to go to sleep.  Mark says that I woke during a period of sleep when our bodies are paralyzed.  That makes sense, as I know there is indeed a state of sleep such as that, but. .. the idea still scares me.  It was just so scary.  If I could have just spoken, could have just let it be known what was going on... but I was completely helpless and completely alone in that knowledge.  Too creepy.

I hope I have no such incidents tonight.

11 years ago.....

We've seen SO many miracles since those days! We're celebrating the 11th birthday of this miracle baby in style!

• My camera is not working right again
• I've put 12 hrs into the biography I'm working on in the last little bit
• It's supposed to be 39 degrees here tomorrow, today was hot at 32
• Tomorrow my miracle baby #2 turns 11
• My allergies are kicking butt
• My MS pain is back, hopefully not for long
• I have way too much to do tomorrow
• I must get to bed so I can do it!

Y'all surely know by now how much I love my camera... here's more proof.

That actually wasn't the picture I took, it was in the corner and I only noticed it as I went to edit the flower I was aiming at. I like the ant and the spider web though.

peonies (sp?) are so pretty. We have a nice big bush just outside where I'm sitting right now.

this is one tiny bumblebee... a baby perhaps? No idea, but he was there and I managed to get myself a semi-decent picture of him.

I've been thinking a lot lately. I'm an unschooler from the inside out. It's what fits me. It's what fits my family. It's US to a *T*. Lately however, I'm realizing that Brianna has reached a point where she's at another "learing spurt" - and she needs more teaching than your average child. While most children learn under and over, in and out, hot and cold from life experience - Brianna needs lots of time and effort to learn them. She's a very smart little girl, but those trails into her brain are different from the average child and it makes reaching her challenging. It has amazed me through the years what she's picked up from her siblings. From the education movies (that take over our house!), from being read to and just from listening, something she does so well. But it's time for more. It's a struggle for me to faithfully take time to "do school". Not because I don't want to, but just because.... well, because! You unschoolers will hopefully understand.

So, tonight I sat here looking up reading programs. I'm familiar with Hooked on Phonics. I might be able to borrow that and *some* of it would work for her. I have Reading Reflex that was supposed to be the miracle book when it came to teaching special needs children to read. It may be for some but it wasn't for us. She didn't even enjoy it. It's now occured to me that she loves playing the file folder games I have made for her and James. If the book of them I own has no reading ones - we'll have to create some. I have to start something. Today she did a 1-10 dot to dot by herself. The lines were far from straight but the numbers were in order. She was erasing it because it wasn't perfect. I encouraged her to leave it, telling her how awesome it was that she'd done it by herself and that all the numbers were in the right order. She's such a bright child. She's ready for more books and I am going to find the ones that work for her. If I can get her in the habit, she will nag me to death to ensure we stay in it! Ideas are beginning to flow. As I looked at reading programs online, each had reasons they just wouldn't work for her. Too much writing (her fine motor skills are very delayed), too much verbal involvement (she has speech apraxia and is largely non-verbal), just too dumb, just not her, you name it. But now.... the ideas begin to flow. I have blank flashcards I once bought a long time ago knowing I'd need them sometime. We'll create a game. I have file folders galore- we'll create file folder games. maybe I'll invest in a great big bunch of magnetic letters... or some sort of letters....

my mind may never slow down to sleep tonight.

Brianna with Keagan - the son of a good friend of mine. She loves that little boy so much!