Remember Ricki Lake?

 When I was a kid there were shows like "Ricky Lake" and "Dr. Phil".  These shows interviewed regular people who had something terrible happen to them.  This interview was choreographed to be super emotional and often involved the person who hurt them showing up mid-interview for more shame and emotional manipulation.  

One of our kids got into instagram without permission and keeps fighting us to get back on.  They had multiple instances of posting inappropriate things.  They act like it is a privilege that was taken away.  They never had permission.

With instagram you can put yourself on the "Ricky Lake Show".  Tell people inappropriate, embarrassing things.  Make allegations.  Get a lot of sympathy and negative mental health hits.  Ohh.  Yay.

Werewolf

 We took care of my niece B last week.  Spending time with her, without the people who usually spend time with her, was eye-opening.  She hasn't spent her whole life getting me to buy treats, so when I say "no" for the 5th time, she stops.  I'm not having conversations with her family so she's not interrupting my conversations with those family members.  I got used to her sense of humor and could appreciate or ignore things like her pretending to want to do something dangerous, or touching wine bottles at the store.  In many ways she seems cognitively like a 5 year old.  Once I made that mental shift it didn't bother me when she asked questions like a 5 year old, or needed help like a 5 year old, or got into things like a 5 year old.  It helped my children to be warned to ignore her vocalizations during scripture and prayer.  They could understand she was just trying to get a reaction.

She missed her family a lot and called them every day.  She started spending more and more time in the beanbag bed before her dad came.  Then she perked right back up.

I've often wondered what is God's plan for people with disabilities?  How is this just?  It's not.  It's not supposed to be.  We are all different, and born into different circumstances that largely dictate what choices we have in this life.  But what choices remain, we are accountable for.  

The kids like to play a game called Werewolf which is a lot like mafia.  I don't like the game because the Werewolf is supposed to lie and say they are not the werewolf.  But that is the game.  That is life.  

We all have different roles that we play during the very brief mortal life.  We close our eyes, and open them not knowing what roles others have, not even knowing what role we have sometimes.  But we are to do the best we can during this life and not be jerks.

In the next life there will be no disability.  We will all be more glorious than we were here.  But we will have to rely on the Savior to atone for the mistakes we made here.

Road trip with M

 M and I did her highway driving road trip.  She chose Chicago and we didn't know until 1 day before we left if she would have her permit back and could go at all.  She had forgotten her wallet on the bus home from FSY and it took a while to get it back.  She drove up to Indianapolis where we car camped outside the city at a hipcamp location.  

We visitited a sculpture garden in Indianapolis and went to walmart to stock up on food before going into Chicago.  M drove us to south Chicago and I switched drivers at the most sketchy gas station I've ever visited.  We went to the zoo and walked out to enjoy the waterfront.  We drove to our city camp location then rode the train back into the city to enjoy the evening. We saw the bean and other city sights along with lots of other tourists.

Tuesday we rode the train and bus down to the University of Chicago and M signed up to do a campus tour.  We were trying to visit a free art space and got onto a train based on Google Map instructions.  It turns out the train wasn't part of our $5 all day pass.  Live and learn.  The train was just $3.50 and took us all the way up to the Millenial Park area.  We got back on the CTA and took a bus to the art place.  After the art place (with very cool fabric arts) we planned to ride a bus to campus for the tour.  The buses for that area were not running because of a nascar race the previous weekend so we had to walk a few miles.  We did get back in time for the tour but it was a haul.

We left Chicago as it was lightly raining.  As we navigated to our hipcamp for the night it was almost like we were driving through a hurricane.  In fact it was Tropical Storm Beryl.  The gps took us on small roads with construction so we didn't arrive until almost midnight.  The camp gps pin is off so it took us to the neighbors driveway.  Unable to find the camp, and so late at night, I decided to go and park at a repair shop I'd seen on the way in.  As we leaned our chairs back, ready for a long night, a car pulled up.  The camp host had been prompted to go see if his cab windows were open and he'd seen us in the neighbors driveway and come to bring us in.  He literally took pity on us and let us use the cabin lodging for no extra fee.  It was raining torrentially at this point.  The cabin was so nice and had a bathroom inside.  So nice.

We went to DC through more Tropical Storm weather and arrived at 9:30.  Cousin B was there and we all went to bed.  Thursday morning Cousin B went to her program and M and I went to visit my dad.  He offered to drive us in to DC and pick us up to save us time and money.  We got to see museums and monuments for 8 hours!  You can see a lot when it's just 2 adultish people able to walk a lot.

Friday we went thrift storing and had lunch at the Green Olive with my dad and his wife Janette.  Afterward we played Scrabble.  M wanted to go to the botanical garden so we headed to at 4 hoping to get a street parking spot.  Our plan worked!  The botanical garden was awesome.  Like a zoo but plants.  We went to pick up cousin B and then went back to the thrift store and shopping for milk.

Saturday we went to the zoo and then started our trip home with cousin B. 

Last kickball game

 Last night we were at a ward party and after enjoying a hike and dinner I joined the kickball game.  15 boys with a median age of 16 against 7 girls with a median age of 12.  When the boys were up they all got to kick and I called switch when it came around to the first boy again.  The girls were up and got 3 outs in 3 kickers.  I told the missionaries to pick teams.  I'm not anybody's favorite adult.  Yay.  G and I caught a lot of fly balls, and I twisted my knee kicking the ball.  

July 4th

 We joined some other families for a ton of fun today.  Swimming at one families house.  Dinner and games at another.  Fireworks at the third.  At the house with fireworks there was another 3-4 families and tons of fireworks.  My kids have never had a box of pop-its and only 1 or 2 sparklers.  They were amazed to have access to a table full of these small fireworks.  

We have had a lot of varied and awesome 4th of July activities.  P has played in the community band and we watched fireworks at the park.  We have gone to DC to watch a parade, visit museums and watch fireworks at the national mall.  We have stood on the lions bridge and watched the fireworks launched in the intercoastal waterway.  We have had a BBQ and swimming at a friends house and walked over to see the fireworks.  We have driven up I-15 and seen firework shows going off left and right up the valley.

I'm grateful for my family and the blessing it is to share these times together.