travel
-
Road trippin’
For the last two weeks, our little Beck family has travelled through South Dakota, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, and Montana. A lot of states and a lot of hours in the car together. It’s really been two types of trips–a “one-big-grandparents-and-cousins-on-both-sides-of-the-family” kind of trip and a “little nuclear family” trip. A decent part of the trip been a J, W, Steve, and Sarah. The total hour of time spent in the car tallied up to around 32 hours. That’s a decent chunk of confined family time. Everyone asked us how the “road trip” time together went. My kids have always been great road trippers. W always finds something to occupy…
-
A North American citizen
It’s been really interesting being around J lately. We’ve spent an entire, intensive month relearning how to “read.” In a lot of ways, it’s like watching a baby or toddler discover things for the first time–there’s this genuine thrill of discovering something new. And it’s as if everything is new–like alien from a different planet discovering earth type of new. It’s thrilling and demoralizing at the same time (because I feel like we’re THAT far behind again when I realize how much he hasn’t picked up the “first time around”). Reading is really the impetus for this discovery experience. The way we’ve been reteaching J how to read requires him…
-
Grown up lessons
I thought that I was over the whole “I don’t care what people think about me and my family” business, but apparently I’m not. When J was a toddler and I was in the throws of being introduced to the autism experience, I had a sort of crisis of confidence. Not only was my child not “performing” like his peers at peer play groups (and I was enduring daily every mom’s verbal gushing about how wonderfully smart and talented and, well, genius each of there kids were), but I was also struggling with the very public meltdowns. The crying and tantrums at Walmart if we entered the store at a…
-
Childhood and hometowns
Every time I go back to Lethbridge, Alberta, I have this strange nostalgic feeling of “coming home” which is strange, because the last time I lived in Alberta was almost twenty years ago and my real home was 6 hours north in Edmonton. My parents have moved a few times from the place we first “landed” in the US and so every time I “come home” to visit them, I visit them in a place I’ve never lived before, in unfamiliar neighbourhoods that have now become familiar through grocery store landmarks (like the Dillons) or my heavy reliance on street names. I think that’s part of the reason why Lethbridge…
-
We’re all in this together
This post is picture heavy and prose light. Steve and I got back from Europe Sunday night and I’m refreshed and exhausted and ready and not ready to get back to life as we know it here in Fargo. I’ve got emails, work, laundry, and more to catch up on. I’ve got to reorient myself with the kids’ schedules, get the kids back into the chore routine. Find that balance again. After all, school starts again in a month. (Yikes!) I think the best part of this trip was the realization that there are hundreds, thousands, millions of people on this planet who live in many ways the life you’re living…
-
The injury
We’ve been home a week now and we’re still dealing with the aftermath of our vacation, trying to get back into routine, unpack suitcases, keep ahead of the laundry race, and getting the kids back into summer running and routine again. Our first day back I wasn’t sure how that was going to go with J. Because Friday, the morning of our last day in Florida, and six hours or so before our flight to Wichita (to finish up the trip with a quick two day visit with my sister whom I miss dearly since she now lives in Saudi Arabia) J stumbles out of the bathroom and says. “I…
-
iPhone notes
I have 267 notes currently on my iPhone, including an extensive amount of memos, lists, and observations. There’s random lines of poetry I’m tinkering around with, story ideas, and J notes. Lots of J notes. Notes to track J’s phobias, notes of ideas as to how to approach J’s phobias, new approaches to try with J, my observations of J. This week’s iPhone notes included this little tidbit of new J behavior. We’ve been on vacation for the last week and a half, and we’ve seen the full gamut of behaviors. This one happened at my parent’s house while the kids were trapped inside for most of the time…
-
Autism in Banff National Park
We had Bush’s Hickory Smoked Baked Beans last night, and said to Steve, “I feel like we’re eating a campfire.” Because everything in our house now smells like campfire–our tent, sleeping bags, and clothes are all holding the smells of our camping trip hostage. I love it. Steve and I went to Banff two years ago, just the two of us. It was Steve’s first “real” trip to Alberta–the province I grew up in. He fell in love instantly. The Canadian Rockies will do that to you. A few months ago, Steve announced he wanted to do the trip again–this time with the kids. It’s a fourteen hour trip up to…
-
When Family Can Help You Settle Your Glitter
I feel like the summer is flying by and we’ll be starting school again in no time. I was talking to a co-worker last week and we both decided that the fourth of July is the halfway mark of summer. After that it’s just a fast downhill descent to the beginning of fall semester. That means J will be soon starting grade seven and I’m not ready for that. We’ve got so many things to learn and work on before that happens. We’ve been working on handwriting, but I want that to be at a better place before school starts. We’ve been working on reading comprehension but not as much as I’d like.…
-
Room 404 and the Women’s World Cup
We’ll start with room 404, because everyone loves a good hotel story. There’s something about being transient, staying overnight in a strange room where other people have slept just hours before you. Newsmagazines like 20/20 like to go in and investigate with black lights all of the horrors that lie in the bed sheets, walls, and bathrooms. For some reason we like to be thrilled and terrified by hotel rooms. Growing up, my family had a lot of road trips, and the highlight of every road trip for me and my sister was staying in motels. We loved the creepiness of them. We loved to freak each other out with the “did you…
