However, it seems like we have so many friends in crisis right now, and I ALWAYS say the wrong thing. Then, no matter how bad i feel about it, those words are stuck, can’t take them away. I was thrilled to read about a new-to-me concept for communication today, and it is really, really smart.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-0407-silk-ring-theory-20130407,0,2074046.story

And now I will work on the photos.  Sam’s team won a trophy taller than George.  SOOOOO proud of those boys.   Meanwile, pray for four.  (and, as always, the easy and efficient function of my port….)

Love, esd

Gaylord Opryland hotel and convention center is quite a place.  This year, having been here for such a huge tournament 4 and 8 years ago, i got smart and registered early and used my “accessibility” card (this doesn’t really exist as such, i just explained to the registration guy that two of us have limited mobility, so could he find us rooms close to where the chess was going to be.  To understand how important this is, there are rooms that are three elevators, more than 1/2 mile walk, two escalators and a flight of stairs away.  um, we couldn’t do that.  But I didn’t know till we got there exactly how it would work out.

it worked out great.  Out of 2711 rooms, there are only 18 that are closer.  So it’s an easy walk for Danny and papa to his matches.

But before we get into chess, can we talk about tiny Martin Liberto?

The folks from Boston said that Martin was not a candidate for their prenatal surgery.  You can read the details here:  http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/martinliberto/journal

Keep in mind that “no prenatal surgery” does NOT mean that there is no hope at all that anybody is going to do anything to help Martin.  There are so many decisions to be made over the next little bit.  It is time for intensive prayer.  The Saint Ann’s folks are coming together for a rosary for their intentions between the morning Masses on Sunday (right during Sunday school time, of course…)

But anyway, back to chess.

My parents are here to help, and so instead of hanging out with the coaches and everybody in the team room like we usually do at tournaments, we have enjoyed lots of time just being together at the hotel, playing games and letting George entertain us.

As far as chess goes, there were two rounds yesterday.  The report as of before the first round today:  Sam’s team, 6 guys from his school, is not doing very well.  We’re not sure exactly how badly, the rankings have not been posted yet, but NONE of the guys won both games yesterday, which was quite the shock.

We are assuming that this is because in this top section they are doing something called “accelerated pairings” … where they have the highest rated kids play each other sooner rather than later… so maybe if the toughest part is now over, things will go better today.  I haven’t talked to the coaches yet to see what they think…  Morale is the issue, though, after a day like yesterday.  Let’s just say some of these guys aren’t used to losing

Danny resigned his first round game because of a clock issue, which we’ve worked through, and he won his second game.  And Brian has two points after two games, so his life is about to get harder as he moves up the boards…

So we’re off to round three.  The pencil sharpener is plugged in on the bathroom counter, and it’s gotten a good workout this morning.  We’re ready to go.  Update tonight, I promise.

Hitting close to home as you drive 400 miles away….  There’s nothing like preparing for a trip to remind me that Danny needs extra – extra time, extra attention to details (like serious OCD attention to details) and extra equipment.  LOTS of extra stuff.

We were on our way to Nashville, TN for the National Scholastic Chess Championships when we got the news that our dear friends from church, the Liberto family, had learned that their newest baby boy, 25 weeks gestation, had a heart defect generally considered incompatible with life.  His name is Martin.  There is a possibility that he may qualify for in utero surgery, more about that later.

We’ve been there.  Poor prenatal diagnosis, long NICU stay, losing a little boy in the delivery room, only getting to hold him for just a few minutes.  And we are still there.  Danny’s heat issues are metabolic, not anatomic, but all I could think about as I set up his oxygen in the hotel room was, “Please, God, let Martin live, his parents would LOVE to haul an ICU around in the back of their van if it means that they get to keep their baby.”  And no, I was not joking.

Here’s the deal.  They will find out tomorrow if they qualify for this surgery.  If they do, it must happen within one week.  If that happens, within one week they need to be in boston for the world’s scariest surgery, recovery, until delivery, and then NICU.  There are Martin’s still-very-small siblings to take care of, and David has a job… worying more, no doubt Boston is out of netwok for their insurance

But it will be all worth it, if they decide it’s the best option for their son.

You can get all the details on their caringbridge site

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/martinliberto/journal

Without permission, since I am hoping they are all asleep, here’s a photo of Martin:

So.  Please pray.  Please beg your own bloggie friends to storm the heavens on his behalf.  Viral prayer, that would be good.  Post and copy liberally.  I have been on the receiving end of miracles that no doubt happened because of the power of so many mamas praying together… and nobody said that “two or more gathered in my name” had to be on the same sofa…

AND… if they end up in Boston, no doubt they will need help.  Let’s start thinking about that.

Finally, I wonder what we can do for fundraising for them…. carefully, respectfully?  Any suggestions, I”m all ears.

Tomorrow, updates on baby Martin, and chess news.  Sam is here with his amazing team from the NC school of math and science, they sent 6 brilliant young men who have been playing chess together since they were four and five.  This is their last nationals together… and Brian, rated near the top of his section, my most likely to bring home a trophy taller than George.  Then Danny, only 2 are here from his school, but he’s ready to have his best tournament ever.  Even with all the equipment.  Even after the NICU stay and the heart failure and the oxygen…  It’s not easy, but it’s good.  I will pray that Martin’s story turns out like Danny’s….although their beginning certainly is more exciting…

So send me your ideas.  Thanks.  And pray, and leave a message on their caringbidge site.  post on facebook.  We really, really need a miracle here.

Here is my very, very favorites list. No photos, just website addresses. All these shops are owned and run by friends, who take the most excellent care of their customers.

Beautiful Cormo fleeces, white and naturally colored, but this is her last year:
www.cormo.us  I think she will list the last of this year’s fleeces in May, so if you’re interested, email her and get on the list

Fine Cormo, Merino Targhee fleeces. Often with really good deals on ebay.
http://mmfwool.com/index.htm  They are very honest about the color, quality, length of their fleeces.  They sell some very short staple lamb fleeces, which I would avoid for beginners… but they are clearly identified.  If you’re not a beginner, you’ve neve felt anything as soft as one of their little lamb fleeces… challenging to spin but worth it.

If you want to buy top, roving, cashmere, silk, pre-dyed wool (i.e. you just want to open the box and start spinning… also has dyes)   www.coppermoose.com .  If you’re looking for yak, baby alpaca, 150′s merino, camel down…. Coopermoose is your store.  When he makes hand spindles, they are the very best.

I bought my most loved wheel from Toni at The Fold.  She really truly can help you figure out which wheel is best for your needs, skills, budget… and she is the best to fix spinning emergencies.  www.thefoldatmc.net  She also has fiber, fleece, supplies, etc…  I will detour a LONG way on a family trip to stop at her shop.

The Woolery is a great source for all spinning and weaving supplies.  New band for your wheel?  Extra bobbins?  Spindles?  They have ALL the cotton spinning supplies.  Best source for books, videos on anything fiber-related, also natural dye info and supplies…  And their catalog is fun, to look at all the looms and wheels…  www.thewoolery.com

There are lots more shops and vendors out there, but these are my very favorites.  They will work with you to make sure you get exactly what you need, and they are fair, honest and good.

The real title of this post is: What’s the story behind Kelle’s baby sweater?  But since most of the new visitors to my blog seem to arrive looking for SPINNING information, I thought it might be nice to oblige and make it easy to find.  The photo above is of a baby cormo lamb, from the finest flock of white and colored cormos in the US.  My spinning time is limited, so I decided long ago that I was only going to spend that limited time on the very nicest, vey finest fleece available.  Also, as much as I like dyeing, I love natural wool colors, and Sue’s flock has the best.

My fleece processing methods aren’t for everybody.  Some people want to be able to dump a 6 pound bag of dirty sheep’s wool into a washing machine and have something spinnable at the end.  Because the ultra fine wools I love are so prone to felting, and because I want to spin and ply smooth, nep-free yarn, I take my time, add a few extra steps to make it failure-proof, and end up with truly heavenly results.  Besides, I really like the process, so it’s not like rushing through it would ADD to the joys… I’m not in a hurry, if I rushed it would get all used up too fast!  But anyway, the photo above is dirty raw fleece, some cormo and some shetland.

So first, look at these two locks.  Both from the same sheep, unscoured, looking pretty clean and nice.  But watch what happens when you wash one… leaving the other one untouched for comparison:

Isn’t that amazing!  Poof!  And it’s so unbelievably soft!  So how do you get from a nice clean intact lock to a perfect ready to spin puff of perfection?

I sit out on my front steps, with a basket of locks chosen from a good fleece, and flick card the ends.  This opens up any tangles and lets lots of dirt just fall out before we even get to the washing part.  When the ends are opened up, it’s easier for the detergent and water to get to every ultra-fine fiber, and get it perfectly clean without any squishing or squashing that might cause felting.

It’s amazing to me how much dirt falls out when the fleece looked so clean at first!  Plus, these sheep wear coats to protect their wool, so compared to many fleeces, they are immaculate.  But still, it’s an outside job, not to be done while eating, and you need to wash your hands well afterwards.  It’s the perfect task for while children small enough to need supervision are playing in the yard….

Another reason to flick card every single lock – even the best shearer can get a few “second cuts” which are these little short bits that happen when the shearer needs to go over the same area twice.  When you are spinning superfine wool, those odd pieces just mean trouble.  They get all balled up into neps and are so annoying.  Flicking each and every lock gets rid of all of the second cuts before they have a chance to mess up your perfect yarn.

This is where I really go the extra mile for perfection.  Once you get started, it really doesn’t add much time, but it eliminates all the risk of messing up your precious locks.  I put each flicked lock into a separate section of a mesh bag to protect it while scouring.  You’ll be able to see it better in the next photo.

I make my bags out of big rolls of 6 to 8 inch wide bridal tulle bought with my 40 % off coupon on my phone at the craft store.  I sew one long end together, maybe 6 feet long, and then sew seams perpendicular every few inches.  These make pockets for the flicked locks.  If I am careful cutting the scoured fleece out after washing, I can use the strips of bags many, many times.

Then when all the pockets are filled, I sew the open edge closed, right at the edge, not to waste a millimeter of tulle, so I can re-use it.

Then the strips go into a washtub with VERY hot water (hot tap water with a kettle of boiling water poured in) with a huge bunch of Dawn dish liquid mixed in.  I just dump the tulle-encased wool locks into the washtub and let the hot water melt the lanolin and the detergent emulsify everything and the dirt falls out.  But look at that water!  This was from fundamentally clean fleece, hand selected perfect locks, that I thoroughly flick carded.  Ick!  Lanolin melts at about 100 degrees, but you want your water to start out far hotter than that, because it still needs to be well over 100 degrees after it’s been sitting and soaking, or the lanolin will get all stuck back on, this time with dirt AND soap and you will have a mess.  So make the water as hot as you can.  And how much soap/detergent?  LOTS.  Just pour a bunch in.

When the water from the first tub is pretty gross, fill another tub with hot water, and use tongs to pick up your strips of pockets of fleece, let most of the icky water drain off of them (try to avoid squeezing or wringing unless you want felt rather than fluff) and set them into the clean water.  Look how much nicer they look already!   I repeat this rinse process a few times, until it seems like there’s not even a hint of bubbles.  I keep the water hot out of habit, but there’s not a lot of lanolin left to redeposit, and changing to merely warm water probably wouldn’t shock and felt the fleece, but I just keep it hot out of habit….

After I’ve hung the strips of pockets out on my front steps to dry, I cut open just the edge of the bags, saving as much length as possible to reuse them.    And now, for this wool, we turned to the drum carder.  Wool processed in locks so carefully is perfect for combing, but the baby sweater in my plans needed to be woolen, not worsted, carded, not combed…..

After feeding a few pulled-apart locks very slowly into the carder, I was getting so excited to see how this fleece was going to spin up… Here’s a time NOT to rush, though.  If you feed big chunks into the carder, or try to go too fast, you are going to pull and tear and tangle and nep your fleece.  The bits going in should be as translucent as dandelion fuzz, no thicker.  And you should turn so slowly that you don’t feel any pulling at all.  Because the end result is worth it, and besides, it’s a process thing.  If you wanted a product thing, you could have bought commercially prepared fiber and be spinning already.

Here comes the fluff!  Oh how I wish you could feel this, perfect, clean, the ultimate softness, and so light… truly like a cloud.  It feels like nothing.

And here are all the natural colors for Kelle’s baby sweater…..  I sent her a box with unspun fleece in it early in her pregnancy, just to show her the amazing softness…. with a note reminding her that her son was going to be even softer

The rest of the story you know.  Spin (Lendrum DT) with longer color runs for collar and body, shorter color runs for sleeves….

Then run into troubles with the knitting, dropping stitches at the edge of the work…  and get rescued by Kelly Mustian on facebook, who found a knitting you tube video exactly explaining how to fix it

Then wait and wait and wait for three of our sock sisters to arrive, so they can each do a row or two…

And now it’s finally a sweater.  Officially 6 months size, but I think it will fit fine right now.  When Dash is 6 months old in Florida, he will NOT need a long sleeved shawl collared wool cardigan.  So now you know the story of this particular sweater AND how I scour fine wools.

Meanwhile, to update from Danny and violin, Mr. Adrian Anantawan called us on the phone just the day after I posted.  He was wonderfully kind and knowledgable, and we have a good plan with several of his friends to help Danny.  I am so grateful.

A long time ago, Danny wanted to play the violin, just like Emily, Sam and Brian.  They began Suzuki violin at 3.5 or 4 years old, progessed through their twinkles into their minuets, listened to their CD’s and went to lessons and group and institute.  So when Danny turned four, his expectation was that he would do the same.   The first problem was that Suzuki stidents play standing up.  Well, when Danny was four, standing up was a problem, and standing up and holding a violin and a bow all at the same time was just not possible.  But we worked around this obstacle and that problem and all, and Danny learned to play.

With tremendous support from teachers and therapists (and Danny’s own amazing determination) he made progess. Last year, right before he turned nine, he even started standing while he played (sometimes)… I have always been so proud of him, he just worked so hard. Getting his hand right for his bow hold, keeping his violin up in the right position, independently moving each of the fingers on his left hand takes HUGE amounts of effort and concentration for him. Meaanwhile, he’s working on the music.

Finally we realized something a few weeks ago. We were missing the point. A correct bow hold is essential to play well, but no musician says “What a wonderful concert! My bow hold was great the whole time!” What we wanted for Danny was to be able to say, ” I played the Bach Double with my brothers, and it was amazing”

We had gotten stuck conceptually, and meanwhile Danny was stuck musically. You can’t shift or have a good vibrato if you’re supporting the weight of your violin with your left hand. For five years, we had figured if he just kept trying harder, he’d be able to hold his violin up like everybody else. Guess what? Holding up your violin isn’t the point. Making music is the point.

It was amazing how freeing this change in concept was. Just like we use oxygen, and a G-tube, and braces for his legs, why not support his music with WHATEVER we needed to do mechanically, so that Danny could focus on art, not his CP? So we talked to his physical therapist, his occupational therapist, the guy who makes his braces, and came up with a plan. Actually, several plans, in order, to make prototypes and try.

So right now we have a two piece polymer thing on his bow that allows him to use his more functional larger muscles to grip the bow, while maintaining the right position. And we have a work-in-progress contraption under his shoulder rest, made out of Christmas ribbon, duct tape and binder clips to take some of the weight of his violin off his left hand to allow him to shift.

At his lessons, and praticing, it’s obviously a huge improvement.  But we know it’s a work in progess.  So when Elizabeth Foss offered to stay a day longer than Ginny and Ann to help me with whatever projects I needed a little help with, I instantly realized that she’d be the perfect fresh pair of eyes to look at this situation.  So today Danny had the chance to participate in a Suzuki Solo Celebration – a group class with a master teacher and a solo evaluation before an experienced adjudicator.

We noticed lots of things.  See the photo above?  Every other child, when not playing, puts their violin in “rest position” but Danny’s is stuck.  Not optimal.

Meanwhile, his violin kept popping off his shoulder rest, which was stuck to his chest.  See the blue painters tape?  A quick trip to the hardware store fixed the popping off problem, but compounded the stuck problem.

It’s all quite stressful for Danny, I think… all these “try this” and “adjust that” … when he wants to focus on his music.  He wasn’t happy with how he played for the judge.  Thank goodness for chess friends who are also violin friends to take his mind off all this tape for a while….

So why am I boring you with all this after not posting for 5 months?  Because I really, really want you to click on a link and read the article AND watch the video. (at the end of this paragraph)  Right in the middle of all of this, after we had decided that mechanical help would be a blessing, not cheating, Esther sent this to me, and Danny and his teacher and I were amazed.  We have talked to so many people over the years, Suzuki professionals who teach all over, music professors, therapists… and they have all helped Danny.  But after watching this video, I think there really might be the perfect SOMETHING out there for him.  Elizabeth Foss and I brainstormed some ideas to try meanwhile, but after you watch the video, if you know Danny, tell me what you think.  Can’t you just see this guy, in this video, knowing just the right solution for our son?  And isn’t it a miracle that Esther found this video to inspire and encourage Danny right in the middle of this transition?  I am seriously thinking of finding his email and sending him a picture of Danny and our Christmas ribbon/binder clips/painters tape device, and asking him to guide us.

!!!!  here is the link, finally!!!!

http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/15/tech/innovation/adrian-anantawan-violinist/index.html?c=tech&page=1

Please click, and watch this amazing video.  Maybe we don’t have to reinvent the wheel.  I just might track down his email and see what he would suggest for our Danny.

ADDED 6:45 PM – A friend sent me a link to Mr. Anantawan’s website, and submitted an email with a link to this post.  I promise to let you know if he responds.  http://www.adriananantawan.com/

It’s not that often that more than two of us can get together at a time.  But this weekend, FOUR sock sisters were in the same place at the same time, for a couple of days of knitting, talking, crying, more knitting, giving lots of advice, not sleeping enough, and knitting some more.

We had a wonderful time knitting for another sock sister who couldn’t be with us in person…  We were all able to knit rows of baby Dash Hampton’s sweater, so that four sock mamas could be wrapping him in pure woolly goodness, not just one.  

And we laughed and laughed.  Ann, Elizabeth and Ginny have such huge hearts and are so full of love that it just overflows into laughter (and tears) all the time.

They convinced me to start blogging again.  They said I have too much to say and need to share it.  I’m worried it would take away from my knitting time, but since the sock sisters sortie socks are done and distributed, and Kelle’s baby sweater is finished, I can make it work.   Besides, I need to tell you the STORY of Kelle’s baby sweater, complete with photos of the sheep that the wool came from.  And I need to tell you about Brian’s birthday last week, and all his arduino adventures, and since Sam’s not on facebook, I need to keep you up to date on his adventures.  Emily does amazing things on her blog, she has the best photos, but I need to give you the inside scoop on the stories.  Then George, of course.So this picture has nothing to do with the sock sisters weekend, other than no matter what a wonderful blessing it is to have so much time to just play with your friends, I still missed my baby.

But here you go.  The ” currently in Charlotte”  subsegment of the sock sisters, together all too briefly, Ginny and Ann have already left for South Carolina, and Elizabeth Foss is going to help me with a Suzuki violin day tomorrow, then she flies back to VA…. SOB.  But we’re never truly apart when we wear our socks.

You know you’re bored when you start taking photographs of your socks with your phone because you really don’t have anything else to do.  They are quite lovely socks, Wollmeise, of course, from Dafna, and i couldn’t imagine a day in the infusion center without real socks.  But still.

Because of the drugs, i just can’t concentrate there to read or to knit or to write thank you notes or anything.  My hands are free, the IV goes right into the port in my chest, but the medicines mess up my brain.

So I sat around and overheard strange conversations and tried to figure out SOMETHING creative I could do with Danny and Sam that evening.  I was absolutely desperate to make something and knew i would have no mental or physical energy…. and i wanted it to be a project that danny could fully and actively participate in, and I knew i would have even less patience than energy.  Plus it had to involve good color.  Make that colors.  Definitely more than one.

Time to get out the Alter Ego dyes.  These are NOT NON TOXIC.  They are French silk dyes from Dupont, and MUST be done in a totally separate pot and with separate utensils from all other food storage and prepration.  if you don’t have a totally dedicated dye pot, find one on freecycle or at goodwill BEFORE you think further about this project.   If you need a non-toxic kid friendly dye project, try here first

But anyway, see that brown soup?  Looks sort of like beef stock, thin, well strained.  It really is several different kinds of dye and a fixative and an acid, all dumped into one pot to boil, boil, boil

There is good homeschool chemistry involved here.  one sort of dye affixes to fibers made of protein, like silk, but only in the presence of acid, and one sort of dye just sticks to fibers made of cellulose, like rayon.

And any nine year old who understands not to taste the dye and is allowed at the stove can do this independently.   Here’s a secret hint:  the longer they take to choose their colors and measure their dyes, the longer mama gets to sit down quietly all by herself.  So don’t rush the process, you’d only be depriving yourself of more peaceful moments.  And you don’t need to give advice about complementary or analagous colors… they all end up looking like brown soup in the pot and they all end up gorgeous in the end.  so no stress.

But speaking of brown, we need to take a little break, Sam found this most amazing leaf, see the quarter for size up on the right???  I have never seen anything like it ever.

But anyway, you dump water, table salt, cellulose dye, acid dye, fixative and vinegar into ONE pot.  All together.  Stir it up. Into brown soup.  Dump in your fabric (we used these rayon silk scarves from Dharma Trading)  Then boil it for a while.   You can just sort of see in the photo above how different sections of the scarf take up different components of the brown soup.

But look what you get it the end!  It almost feels like Mary Poppins, when she pulls things out of her bag…. how in the world did those colors come from brown soup???

So there you go.  A project for when you are desperate to make something totally cool, but have not a single neuron left to do it with.    Art is good for the soul, I think.

It started OK.  Most things that involve George being able to be outside and throw leaves or wood chips are OK.  However…

As soon as the pumpkin carving got started, he got unhappy.  We were violating the integrity of the pumpkin, and this was a problem.

He tried to enjoy the process, really he did.  For about a minute.

But he needed to put the seeds back in the pumpkin where they belonged.

He did NOT like the idea of Danny with a knife.

He did NOT like the Halloween decorations on the grass.  Must get them out of the way immediately.

Danny’s  Mario’s mustache?  Gotta go.

Luigi’s hat?  Are you kidding?

All in all, very traumatic.  Wore himself out.  I hope he likes Christmas better.

So where do you start when you’ve not blogged in three four months?  With what I’m knitting, of course.  I’ve not been knitting much, chemo-brain and neuropathy just make it very hard and unsatisfying.  I even took a class from Andrea Wong on Portuguese knitting to see if that would help but learning new things just doesn’t work right now.  But certain things just must be knit… like when a friend is having a baby boy after two miscarriages in a row.  That’s pure goodness knitting.

And what was I doing while I was knitting?  Listening to Danny’s excellent violin lesson.  Speaking of Danny, he is having surgery tomorrow morning on his esophagus and stomach… this is the first time ever we are trying to do the outpatient surgery thing with him, so we’ll see how it goes.  Danny’s going to be fine, the person who needs the prayers is Sara next door who has to take George at 530 AM.

And how is George?  George is doing AMAZING things.  He is on a medicine called Aricept, usually used for Alzheimers, but also apparently effective to improve cognitive function in children with Down Syndrome.  I have promised several T21 club mama friends a whole post dedicated to the controversies about this drug and our decision to use it for George, but if I waited to blog until I had time to write all that up, it would be next June, probably.  But anyway, George is a whole new person… very, very busy, very independent, learning new things every minute.   He has even figured out Skype.  You see, Emily moved to Canada

She is a freshman at McGill University in Quebec.  So she has only been home for four days since June, between Idaho and Montreal.  We skype almost every day, and George really thinks that Emily now lives in the computer.  When the little green “online” button is next to her photo, he signs “Emily HOME!!!” and gets all settled next to me in bed to chat.  When the little button is white, meaning offline, he’s very sad and signs “no… Emily home no” and just droops.

So he thought he had it all worked out, Emily now living in mama’s laptop, until one day Brian showed up on Skype.  You have NEVER seen such profound anxiety in a four year old, ever.  (Brian is in England visiting my sister for 3 weeks, more details in a minute) … Obviously, according to George, whatever took away his sister and got her forever stuck in mama’s computer, well, that same thing happened to Brian, and since there’s no evidence of Emily ever coming back out of that screen, Brian must be gone forever, too.  So then, with the biggest saddest tears ever, he crawled off the end of my bed and looked all over the house for his brother.  No luck.  Even with the cognitive changes with the Aricept, he still doesn’t really understand about time…. and he absolutely doesn’t believe me that Brian will be home soon.  We probably told him the same thing about Emily, so it serves us right for lying…

So back to Brian.  He is spending three weeks with my sister, her husband and boys in Manchester, UK.  Truly the trip of a lifetime, and I am so grateful to them for giving him this opportunity.  With Emily and Sam having moved out, and my chemo and all, and two high-needs little brothers, and Dixon’s crazy work schedule, Brian has had a tremendous amount of responsibility these last few months.  It’s never been all work, of course, he’s loving our school curriculum choices this year, and is playing on a soccer team that goes all over creation every weekend… but still, he deserves a totally amazing holiday and we’re so happy for him.  His big dream was to go to a Manchester United game (see above) but AJ did even better, arranging for him to spend a day at the team training center, and to get to go into the locker rooms and have lunch there and everything.  Coolest thing ever.  He has tons of photos on his FB page, but this one was my favorite.

He flew to London as an unaccompanied minor, and oh my gosh, they sure protect those kids.  I felt like I was signing my life away.  But the plane got in over an hour early, and they had to keep their hands on him until my sister got there to get him, so they put him to work.  I know he’s never going to be a USAirways ticket agent, but can you imagine how nice it would be if you were a stressed out stranded passenger somewhere to run into Brian behind the computer, calm and friendly and ever-so-competent, able to just fix everything in a minute and make it all better???

Let’s see.  Then there’s Sam.  I miss Sam an awful lot.  He moved to Durham on August 10 to go to the North Carolina School of Science and Math…. a residential high school that’s actually a campus in the University of North Carolina system.  Although he takes math and orchestra at Duke.  I never claim to really understand what he’s doing, I gave up on that long ago.  But he’s REALLY challenged, working with amazing professors, and it’s such an incredible opportunity.  Sam hates Skype, so we’ve not run into the same troubles with George.  He comes home for a long weekend once a month, and it takes George a day to warm up, but then they’re best buddies again.  That relationship always brings me joy.

And me… hmmmm…. long story.  and I’ve already typed 1020 words, and I have to be at the hospital with Danny at 6 AM.  But I found a photo for you, with my best knitting friend, Lark.  She came to visit this summer.

So, blog posts I have all in my head, just need to type out:

1. Aricept and Down Syndrome
2. What’s new with me and chemo and my big spine surgery scheduled for December 4
3. We need to talk about lymphedema again, and the sorry state of mastectomy prosthesis options.
4. The book that I have outlined, about developmental support and homeschool preschool curriculum for children with DS and/or other language delays.  (I promise a blog post about my book plan, will I ever actually write the book?  I guess every day of chemo increases the chances a little… or decreases the chances, since my own cognitive frustrations are… well…. frustrating.)
5. and knitting and spinning and the big dye party we had this summer
6. updates on the Archer boys, the orphans from Bulgaria.  You helped save their lives and I can’t wait to show you how their doing.

And now it’s time for bed.  Sorry it’s been so long.  Now that I’ve gotten over the “how in the heck am I going to fill in four months worth of blog” concept, maybe the next post will be easier.  I’ve missed you.