Sunday June 8th

So, where are we?

Today is the boy's T-Ball tournament. Something like 6 games in two hours. And it's supposed to be really hot. We went from winter to summer with basically zero spring. It was 60 as a high on Friday, 92 yesterday. What in the world?

So, our A/C units are all installed for the summer. Bruno's on his way to MN again tomorrow morning, and while I'm sure we'd survive without them, I'm much happier with them. We have another full week of school for all the kids ahead, and I can see the kids, James particularly, getting on the excitable/anxious side for summer.

Thankfully, I have him getting out of school and going into a dance camp for a week. In fact, thanks to snow days, our school was extended two days. I didn't have that information when I signed up the boys for this dance camp (Cory will go too) and I talked to the teachers about pulling the boys out on the Friday school was supposed to end. Cory's teacher looked at me and said "are you nuts? Take him out!" and James' teacher said "there won't be much more than parties and playing on those two extra days, dance camp would be a far better choice". So, I'm good with it.

My tattoo is finally relaxing it's itch factor. Oh, yes, dear blog, I finally got my tattoo. It's been many years coming, and it's symbolism is lost without understanding how I got to where I am in my grief journey and life, and I do keep it hidden most of the time, but it's mine and I couldn't get over the total "wow" of getting a tattoo. I'm 43 years old and the minute I walked out of the tattoo place I had this feeling of empowerment come over me I never expected. I didn't feel all "billy bad ass" or "nasty nellie", I just felt like I had control over my body, how it looks, how I feel about it. I'm sure losing 57 pounds first had an awful lot to do with it too, but there's just something I can't really describe on top of all of it.

I made a choice to change myself and I did. Not just losing weight and getting fit & healthy, but to get a tattoo that had the deepest meanings in my life.

So, posting a picture of it. It's taken the day after, so there's a lot of swelling & redness still, but you can see it, and where it is on my body.

Oh, and here's an update on Darby's Voice Output Device (hereafter called VOD).

Friday, I'm outside weeding our front walk. I get a phone call and don't recognize the number (I'm a caller-id junkie) and so was a bit surprised by who it was. It was the salesman for Dynavox that we just had a training session with on Wednesday. I had no idea why he was calling, our next training is set up for 3 weeks from now, he'd emailed me an answer on the one question he couldn't answer on the spot at the training, etc.

So, I ask him what I can do for him and he says something like "well, it's more what I can do for Darby".

"I don't understand?"

"Well, this is something new to me, it's never happened ever here as far as I know, but I recieved a directive from someone very high up, actually the sales director for all of North America, to make sure I was taking very good care of Darby"

"Oh?" At this point I know what's going on, and here's the backstory. A friend of mine, one that I've actually never laid eyes on, is friends with the brand new director of sales for North America at Dynavox. I have a lot of internet friends and am always amazed at how small the world is, and how big hearts can be. She must have relayed to her friend our VOD journey, or part of it, because I'm not sure anyone really knows the whole journey. 2 years ago Darby was evaluated by the state team for a VOD, and they determined she needed one and was an excellent candidate for one. School did not pay the entire fee (short $100) and so the evaluating team's influence ended there. School did not forward me the report, saying they never got it. (all of this is pieced together with what I could find from all kinds of weird sources). Once Darby became a Kindergartner, all the clocks and money barrels (fed funding) opened wider. So a new evaluation took place, one where they paid $500 instead of $400 and I got a copy of it. With a lot of work, a lot of trials of devices, and some seriously excellent report writing by our school SLP, we finally got Darby's Dynavox.

(video of her using an obsolete model while waiting for hers in a training session is linked from the fundraising page to the right of the blog)

Anyway, some snafu's at Dynavox itself (their insurance expiditor is NOT my friend, she added at least 1+ weeks to the approval process by not listening to very specific instructions to utilize ONLY Darby's single-point-of-contact at our insurance company...love it when people know your shit better than you do, right? NOT!)

So, anyway, in the midst of everything, this was excellent news. The salesman is researching things that are appropriate with Darby's skill levels and will get back to us. Darby's use and proficiency with this thing are just exploding. She's a kid that should NEVER be underestimated.

Plus she's gorgeous.

Okay, next topic tomorrow? William Shatner. Damn, he's one funny guy. Oh, and Jeff Dunham. The show we saw in April in CT was the funniest show I'd ever been to.

All in all, I have an idea that June 8th is just an excellent day all around, you know?