eleven

side note - when i was 11, i was at an amusement park with my grandparents. i chose to race the purple airplane (lavendar was my fave color at the time. this was the only time in my life where my favorite color wasn't green; it didn't last for more than a year). well, that plane must have been broken because i kept winning. and every time you won, you got to exchange for a bigger stuffed animal. since i was there with my grandparents not my parents, they kept paying for me to play until i had the biggest purple gorilla in my possession. there was also quite a big line behind my airplane by the time i was finished. the number of the airplane was 11 and ever since then it has been my favorite number.

the purpose of this post though is to recap the past eleven days, so without further rambling (although some bullets do tend to ramble), i give you highlights from the past 11 days:

1. had a school team meeting for jake in which i had to bring fritz. i had the bright idea that if i dropped lily off at preschool at the top of main street, and then made fritzy walk down the, let's say, 11 blocks to jake's school that he would be tired/exhausted (i.e. sit still for meeting). well, after several pulling on legs, laying down on pavement moments, i ended up carrying him most of the way. not one of my more brilliant moves.
2. paid $314 vet bill for a regular check-up ($150 of that was buying ahead on basic medicines and another $50 or so for vaccines). also took jake to his physiatrist which he has seen on a monthly basis since he had his baclofen pump put in last december. we are finally at the right levels and don't have to seem the physiatrist again to february. yeah!
3. attended a big conference at perkins school for the blind about education of visually impaired and/or multi-handicapped kids. (once again, i now want to move to massachusettes so that jake can go to this school.) the key note speaker was a deaf/blind teacher from texas. she was amazing. maybe not the most organized speaker, but every other sentence was a pearl of wisdom. i could have listened to her all day.
4. had two speech sessions for fritz. he's just talking more and more. some of my faves are when he comes in and says: "what you doing, mommy?", "i found ______" (whenever he sees something he wants to point out to you), "blankie gone." (said very dramatically and is his way of saying "where are my blankies?"), singing the alphabet song and, of course, the ever present "thank you, mommy" which is very clear now and whose charm comes mainly from the frequency and mundaneness of some of the things i do that warrant his thanks.
5. found a new book club to join and attended my first meeting.
6. got the whole family all dressed up for a spectacular halloween party.
7. had to pull over about six times on a drive to my parents house because our van's fuel filter was clogged and it kept losing power. had to then leave my van in new york to be fixed and drove my dad's mazda 5 with satellite radio home. this was then my car for the next three days. became a huge fan of satellite radio. i especially loved the broadway channel and had fun remebering some songs i hadn't heard for years. (really, stacey, how could i have forgotten about "anthem" from chess. i think i'll start making itune download requests to pat.)
8. took my youngest two kids to dondero orchards for apple picking and warm cider donuts. i heart. fall.
9. started eating sugar (other than my lindt truffle reward) again. i do have a rule that i can't have one of my lindt truffle balls if i've eaten sugar that day. it's amazing how i really will hold off on sugar some days so i can have my truffle. and now at least when i eat my truffles, it's only one rather than three or so. i'm considering this progress. now if i could only convince my scale that it's progress too.
10. was a little surprised that pat offered to take the girls to high school musical 3 (they went this afternoon.) but when he got home and said the best parts of the movie were seeing clips of wasatch mountains, i understood better.
11. celebrated the birthday of a one year old and 30 year old (both of whom are very dear to me). at the 30 year old's celebration, we tried to re-enact that charlie's angels pose. the results were pretty good, but i'm feeling the need to perfect this shot. i might be making my friends continue to pose for me. kudos to tice natalie d. for having such a straight face.