New Cell Phone

I got a new phone. My old one finally died, yay!! I know it's funny to be happy when something dies, but when it's a 2.5 year old bulky cell phone with bad reception, it's a happy time because you get to replace it with the newest technology, which doesn't cost hardly anything because our previous 2 year contract has been fulfilled.

Above is a stock photo, so not mine, but this looks exactly like mine. I've finally been able to combine my Palm organizer with my phone. Now I'll really kick butt in the keeping track of things department!

So, feel free to call, text, email, or IM me anytime. I can get it all on my phone. :-) It also has a Facebook program, so I can check that on my phone. Technology!! :-)

Spring Gardening and Flowers

We've also been doing a lot of spring gardening. I planted some great flowers in our front yard, as seen in the pictures above. The purple and pink colors are so great!!

Some beautiful pink, hot pink, and yellow flowers. Amazing shape and colors!
Purple petunias in the front yard. There are three groupings of them, here is one of those groupings.

These are the kids' flowers and herbs. They chose them (so it's an eclectic collection).

LDS Site on Disabilities / Getting Out There

Brian found this site about disabilties from our church. This page that I linked lists Ways to Help. .
I like what they said here:
"People with mobility and movement impairments may find it difficult to participate when facing social and physical barriers. Quite often they are individuals of courage and independence who have a desire to contribute to the fullest level of their ability."
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This is my favorite:
"It is okay to ask if someone would like help, but do not assist a person without his or her permission. Consider safety and liability issues. "
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Just yesterday, I had one person grab my groceries from behind me so that she could "help", and then when I got to my car, another lady grabbed my car door to open it for me. Neither of whom spoke to me first. I didn't even see them until after they had touched my stuff. This happens about every other day! I know people are trying to be nice, but at some point, it's just plain inappropriate to touch someone else's purchased groceries and car without their permission. If I had a nickel for every time....

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No wait, I think this one is my favorite too!:

"Show compassion, sensitivity, and sincerity by respecting the individual’s wishes. Maintain a balance between helping and allowing the individual to grow by providing for him or herself."

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That’s been my argument all along, that I need to learn to do things for myself. People are always trying to help, and I know they’re trying to be nice, I really do, but I also really need to learn this.
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March 1st was my one year anniversary of when my physical abilities began declining incredibly quickly. With that anniversary, I realized that I’ve completed my basic lessons on how to do things. I can do pretty much anything I want. I use a grabber for high things, can cook, clean, homeschool, do laundry, and grocery shop. I can also drive a car, go up and down ramps, go over grass and rocks, pop a wheelie, and my newest trick, going in and out of a stepped up doorway.
I can go up the doorway by pulling on the door frame, which I why I can’t use that trick on any step, I have to pull on something. But, I can go down any one step now. From a single outdoor step, to a doorway threshold plus step combined. Anything up to 5 inches high, I have learned to drop from. I can’t just go straight down because my footrest will get caught on the ground.

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What you do is balance on the back two wheels, which I’m great at now, the go forward to the edge of the step, then in one move – with no hesitation – push forward over the threshold, while at the same time bringing your front wheels down (just like landing a plane) to meet the ground at the same time or immediately after your back wheels hit down on the lower step. It has to be in this order. If the front goes down first, you’ll hit footrest instead of wheels. If the back wheels go down alone, you have to be really talented to keep from falling backwards to the ground. So, it’s like falling, and timing the fall to let the wheels land at the proper times in relation to each other. At first it was very scary, falling and being in mid-air for a moment, with no control. But I’ve been practicing for a month now, and now that I’ve got it down, it’s fun to do!

Anyway, the point of all this is that I think I'm ready to allow more help when people want so much to give it. I just needed to know that I could do it first, and now I know. So, I'll work on this. Of course, I've said no to help 7 out of the 8 times it's been offered in the past week since I made this decision, so clearly I have more work to do on it.

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I've also hit a phase in my life where I'm starting to understand why there's a prevalence of people on wheels who do a lot of sports and activities. I need those things too. I need to seriously get out there and have fun. Fear be damned. Murderball (wheelchair rugby) is looking pretty good right now. I think that would be a lot of fun. I've been searching the ends of the earth and finally found some groups, mostly in Dallas however, who have activities I can go to. They have handbikes I can borrow, they have boating trips, and rugby. On our own, our family also wants to try kayaking and archery.

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So, we're using the chair as a motivator to get ourselves to finally get out there and do the activities we've been dreaming about for years but were too unmotivated to schedule. My stronger desire to actually do something physical, combined with the fact that I live with 3 boys who thrive on physical activity has left us no choice -- we've got to go have some fun!! :-)

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By the way, I love this guy and this chair he made (see above picture): http://www.axessoutdoors.com/

Facebook / John

Hey there friends. I've been behind in blogging because I discovered Facebook. Here's my profile. My mom got me on a while ago. She started a group for our family to keep in touch. That is working well.

Then, a week and a half ago, I found out that you can find old friends from High School on there, as well as people I know now! My whole world has expanded. It's so great getting in touch with all of my friends. I can combine the worlds of my past and my present. I love it!

One friend I tried to get a hold of but then found out why I couldn't find him. I found out last week that my good friend John Holt died last October. He was only 53! It was quite a shock to me, my old friends, and even some people at "I went to Mt. View a long time ago" group. It's a good thing I didn't hear about it then, I couldn't have handled it with all the other stuff I had going on in my life. But now, in March, I was ready. I don't know how his wife is doing, but I know she's a strong lady, and I wish her all the best.

John was originally our English teacher. Brian and I were in his class together in 10th grade, 1989-90. After high school though, he became our good friend. We and some other friends shared our poetry and writings with each other often. He and his great wife Suzellen were some of the few, if not the only non-family members who were at our wedding. He was a great friend and a great motivator. He always saw a lot more potential in me than I did. And now, I'm starting to wonder if he was right. He was one of those guys who is very smart, is always nice, and is always genuinely trying to help others. You don't meet many like that. He and his wife also loved horses. They owned many and his wife teaches centered riding. He had moved on to become a middle school principal in his last years, and from what I hear, he was excellent at it.

So that's a hard thing, to know that someone you care about isn't here anymore. Very complicated, lots of emotions with that. I wish him well on the other side, and look forward to meeting him again in person someday.

Dance Party -- my house -- be there!

We've been holding our dance party more often. We're trying to do it every week.

Dance Party is a thing we do on Friday nights. We clear out the furniture from the middle of the living room, turn out the lights, get out some blinking colored lights and flashlights, and listen to the dance music that's on the radio. Usually we just rotate through the channels and can get a pretty good mix from 70's & 80's through to current alternative rock. If we ever run out of good music there, we can hook up Brian's computer to the speakers and listen to MP3s. It's a lot of fun!

The kids dance, and also make forts that they play in, and do tricks with the flashlights on the ceiling. Brian and I like the occasional slow dance too. :-) We all just dance and jam like there's no tomorrow.

It's so fun that everytime we do it, I wish I would've invited some friends to come over and dance with us. So, if you want to come over and dance with us, great! Let me know and I'll tell you when our next one is!! I figure we could fit at least 2 more families with kids in our living room/kitchen dance floor. :-)

It's great. Like dancing as a teenager again, but with your husband and kids, which is even better!!

Krysten's blog

My nephew Jacob

My newphew Jordan

Krysten, my sister, started a blog! Yay! It's at http://livedeliberately.net/. You're so cool Krys. I love the title, I wanna be like you! I really look foward to following along and seeing how she's doing. Love ya Sis!

Marley went home!

Kim, my sister, holding baby Marley (she's small -- get your magnifying glass out!), her husband Michael, and their son Sebastian.

My niece is home! I forgot to mention that earlier. She was allowed to go home from the NICU on February 27th, when she was 10 days old, at 3 pounds, 10 ounces!!! They had lots of car seat problems, since kids are almost never allowed to leave the NICU that small. She’s doing so great at home. She’s already up to 5 pounds now! That’s my niece! She and my sister are doing great, I’m so proud of them!! Love ya Kim!

Barenaked Ladies Breaks Up

Steven Page explains why he left Barenaked Ladies

Ok, well, I've never had a favorite band before, so I've never had a favorite band of mine change this much. Steven Page is leaving BNL. He's the one with the glasses, on the far left in the picture above. He's the great singer.

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The rest of the band is staying together. I'm going to stick with the band, instead of Steve. I mean, yes, the man can sing! But Ed and Kevin and Jim write all the good songs. So when it comes down to it, that's what matters.

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The real hard part is that having two lead singers/songwriters is part of what made the band great. Like the Beatles. However, that much talent and ego probably can't stay together too long.

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I never got to see all of them in concert personally, and I've been waiting two years for that chance. But I guess I'll still see most of them in concert when they come by next year.

Pictures of Marley and the Boys

Marley lost a few ounces after birth, which is perfectly normal. Now it looks like she's gaining some weight again! She's up to 3 pounds, 11 ounces!

Close up of Marley. She looks more like her dad than her brother does. With mom's lips.

Here's a great picture of Marley with her mom, my sister, Kim. You can tell that Marley is tiny. They are both so beautiful!

Last Friday we went to the Nature and Science center for a Cub Scout achievement. The achievement was listed as "go to a museum with your family", so we thought, why not have some fun as well?

We spent a lot of time inside looking at and playing with the exhibits, then spent even more time outside playing in the "Dino Pit".

My little archeologists! (You can see the fake dinosaur skeleton backbone in the sand behind Alexander.)

Alexander has a new hairstyle / haircut. Now the front is spiked straight up! He looks so mature. I like it.

My niece is born!

Baby Marley is here! My only niece. She is perfectly healthy!!

February 17, 2009. 6 weeks early.

3 pounds, 14 ounces. 16 3/4" long 9/10 apgar

no wires or tubes at all. no oxygen.
breathing completely on her own. very healthy, especially for such a small baby.

they say if she eats well, they can release her from the NICU in 24 hours. this is amazing, we thought she'd be in there a month.

Kim did a great job! She had a pretty serious c-section, and is in a lot of pain and stress right now. Hopefully she will sleep well tonight.

Marley has dark brown hair, blue eyes, round face, and very big lips. She is beautiful!

The Last Hike

I guess the dry spell is over. I've finally written something again. A poem, no less. I haven't written a poem in over 10 years. I was once quite prolific as a teenager, but nothing lately. Then, last night, I was a little restless, and before I knew it half of these lines were in my head. So, Brian, sweet man that he is, got up out of bed to get pen and paper for me so I could write it down. :-)

The Last Hike

To half of my body,
You know who you are
Where have you gone,
And have you gone far?

We used to go hiking
To many distant places
Now you’ve left me alone
With all the staring faces

Perhaps you’ve gone off
To the old rocky switchbacks
But you forgot me this time
And now you’re not coming back

How will I do this,
Living without you?
This is not what I had planned
I don’t want to see this through

But no one asked what I wanted,
Did they?
No one warned of what was to come
Or told me it would be okay

The hikes are over now
And the days, they will not end
If only I could find the strength
To push these wheels past that bend

I must push on, I must push up
That is the way it will be
Because now, only when I use the wheels
Can I truly be free.


Brooke Alayna Hack, 2/15/09

Box Turtle on Wheels

What do you get when you combine my mode of transportation with my favorite animal?.....


Article From Boing Boing:

"Little Bit, a young Eastern Box Turtle was hit by a car in September of 2000. Her shell was crushed and she was left partially paralyzed. There was no way she would ever be released to the wild as happens with most successful rehabs. I repaired her shell using velcro strips epoxied to anchor points on her carapace. After some weeks Little Bit seemed to have made a full recovery except for the use of her hind legs. So some wheels seemed to be the way to go. Some lightweight model airplane wheels on a wire frame did the trick. The removable wheels were secured by a velcro strip epoxied to her plastron. The velcro strips on the carapace were removed after four months. She was eating, drinking, and exploring all the rooms of my house. Eventually she was able to move around outside as well. "

Brian on the Piano

Brian is very creative. He doesn't even have any formal training in music or piano, but that doesn't stop him from using the piano to get his creative juices flowing. I really admire how he just tries, and creates new music.

Here's a little clip I took of him fiddling around the other day. He's so cute! :-)

I had forgotten...

It's been such a long past year, that I had forgotten what I was doing a year ago. Two days and one year ago, I was giving the presentation on the book that I wrote January 2008. It seems like a whole different lifetime now. I feel like I haven't achieved anything since then. I did really well writing that book, I'm glad I did it. I miss that sense of achievement.

I've been looking over my old articles. Here's one that I've linked to on my site that I liked: Kids' Moods. It's a good one to reread. It's about helping kids be in a good mood by taking good care of their bodies. It works so well with my son Sam!

Glenn Beck on Socialism and Communism

Great Video that Drudge Report listed on Glenn Beck. He hit the hammer directly on the nail this time!

Of course, you'll need to scroll down a little and pause the music first.

My Birthday, Plants, and Flowers

I tried bulbs this year, for the first time. These are paperwhites. I think they turned out pretty well.

It's hard to tell here, but the boys each bought and planted their own grape vines here. Sam on the left, Alex on the right. Right now, they're just dormant sticks, but we hope for more in the springtime! :-)

Here are some of the indoor plants that we've started.

Also, tomorrow is my 35th birthday! So, that's fun. I bought myself a bottle of Fiji water, a little container of bath salts, and a rose that was yellow with pink tips. :-)

Playing in the Backyard

These are just some pictures from a day in December when we were playing in the backyard. I think it was on Sam's birthday, actually. The falling leaves were very pretty. They're all gone now, but the pictures remain. There's a video at the bottom here of a game the kids made up involving a swingset and a hula hoop!

Beautiful Things

Here are some screen caps of views from me flying on Flight Simulator. I decided I could start sharing those with you from time to time, for fun. :-)


Somewhere over a beautiful ocean at sunset.

Philipines

South Padre Island

The Leaning Tower of Pisa, Italy

Take off, somewhere.

Ok, so some of these are old, and I don't remember where they were taken. It's a fun program, though, has the whole world programmed in there!

Next time on Beautiful Things... my new hobby, container gardening (gardening with pots). :-)

Music by Joss Whedon

Recently I discovered that even things I saw a long time ago have been placed on You Tube. We had a wonderful time in December reliving the episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the musical. Here's the first song from that episode.

And here's arguably the best song of the episode... Enjoy!

Anyway, the point of this is that I really like Joss Whedon's songwriting, so I looked to see if he has written any more. Turns out he wrote an internet-only show/musical called Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. It's great. It's about an hour long, and it's really funny. My boys and I enjoyed it. Here's the promo, which is really funny...

Here's part one. There are six segments: 3 Acts, 2 Parts each. (Just thought I'd tell you so you don't waste time like I did looking for Act 1, Part 3.) :-)

So, enjoy the show, and see whether or not he gets into the Evil League of Evil. :-)

House Modifications & 14th Anniversary

I know, I'm really behind in my blogging. Sorry about that. I hope to do better now that it's the new year. It's a nice relief now that the holidays are over, so much more free time. :-) Also, I'd like to take a moment to say:

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO BRIAN AND ME!! 14 YEARS!!! YAY!!!!

Ok, that was fun. I'm hoping this will be a great year, with a great anniversary. I'm happy that we are starting the next year of our marriage. :-)

Below, I have some pictures to show you of modifications we made on the house over the Thanksgiving break....

This is the new ramp for the back door, to the back patio. It's also a portable, foldable, ramp, so it can be taken to other places when needed to help me get into some one-step houses and such. It's really heavy though, so Brian has to carry it for me. I love that we have this ramp now, because I can go in the backyard. I didn't go in the backyard, other than rare instances where I walked one step to a chair on the patio, at all since last May, so I really missed it! I feel so free being able to go back there!

This is the doorway to the master bathroom. It was 24" wide, but we hired a carpenter who took it out, cut the wall, installed more framing and bracing, and installed a new 32" door! It's great. For the past 6 months, I was transferring at this doorway to a rolling office chair that was in the bathroom. Those extra transfers were really wearing me out. Now I'm free to go in and out of my bathroom with ease! You can see the other doorway in the distance, that's the doorway to our closet. It's 24" wide, the same size that this door used to be. It's a huge difference.

The new door, closed. It's not painted yet (it came primed), so we'll do that someday.


Downstairs, we added a landing and a ramp. This step is 7" tall, so we got a 7' ramp, which is what is needed for that height. The landing is a wood box that was custom made by Brian and the carpenter for that spot. Pedestrians can walk straight off the edge of the box, while wheelers can turn and go down the ramp. I must've been upstairs when this pic was taken, since you can see my downstairs wheelchair, Zoe, on the left there.

The box. We want to get some matching carpet to staple to it, but it's too small for a carpet remnant, no one will sell us a piece this small. They told us to go through their trash bin, which I can't do and Brian hasn't gotten around to yet. So, last week I painted it the same color as the surrounding walls. Temporary (possibly), but at least it doesn't look like we're in construction anymore. :-)

Here's my view, about to go down the living room ramp.