We underestimate others.
We have all heard the old adage, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” The warning is to not make quick judgements about people. If we don’t dig beneath the surface, we can underestimate them, which also means we can...
Great service makes international travel possible.
On Sunday afternoon we visited Strokestown House and the Irish National Famine Museum in Co. Sligo, Ireland. It was a unique and memorable experience. The weather was fantastic, but the warmest part was the wonderful treatment we received from...
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
We love traveling to Ireland. Our first family trip to Ireland was in 1986. We had our 4 children between ages 8 and 3 for two weeks in the local area where my grandparents had emigrated from. 4400 miles from home. It was magical. Having the...
Working.
Nick loves to work. He is always asking if he can help get pans out when we are cooking, or get the dishes out of the dishwasher or putting wood in our fireplace. He also has a formal job, with a job coach. He shreds papers in an office for a...
Nick sings in public.
Nick wanted to sing in our church talent night this weekend, and he said that Arden and I needed to sing with him. He said that he wanted to sing his favorite song, which is Phil Coulter’s song, “The Town I love so well.” We told him that it...
Nick’s best friend.
Nick’s best friend is his dad Arden. They love each other and love being together. They do have their particular routines and ways of doing things. Whether it is singing songs back to back every morning while Arden is getting Nick cleaned up...
Continually Learning.
Nick, like the rest of us, learns best from watching others. When all of our kids were little, we noticed that often as his younger siblings were growing up and working on a specific developmental skill, Nick would make great progress in that...
Holidays and Traditions.
Nick loves holidays. He looks forward to each one and remembers in great detail our family traditions surrounding that holiday. These traditions need to remain the same year after year or he is upset with us. Tomorrow is Valentines Day, and...
Nicky’s Rocking Horse.
Even though it had been nice, Nicky’s second Christmas didn’t meet my expectations. Perhaps it was just an indication of where I was emotionally. We didn’t have any extra money and our families knew it. Our siblings all asked what the boys...
Please Nick, Please!
I believe that some of the best stories begin with, well, you see, there was this girl…. In 1992, when we moved out to Carnation, Nick was 13 and he fell in love. That is pretty normal for a teenage boy. To Nick, Emilee Jo Soptich was the most...