>>A POEM THAT TOUCHES MY HEART

This is a beautiful poem written by a mother with a child with special needs....

Welcome to Holland

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to imagine how it would feel.
It is like this...

When you're going to have a baby, it is like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guidebooks and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The Gondolas of Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It is all very exciting.

After months of anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bag and off you go. Several hours later the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, 'Welcome to Holland'. 'Holland? ' you say. 'What do you mean Holland? I signed up for Italy! ! ! I am supposed to be in Italy. All my life I have dreamed of going to Italy! '.

But there has been a change in flight plan, they have landed in Holland and there you must stay. The important thing is that they have not taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It is just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guidebooks. And you must learn a new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met before. It is just a different place. It's slower paced than Italy. It's less flashy than Italy. But after you have been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills, Holland has tulips, and Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy and they are all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life you will say, 'Yes, that is where I was supposed to go, That's where I had planned'.

And the pain of that will never, ever go away, because the loss of that dream is a very significant loss, but if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't go to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things about Holland. 

Written by Emily Perl Kingsley (in 1987)

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I used to work closely with families who had young children with hearing loss.  We would give the families a copy of this poem to help them cope with the news of their child's diagnosis. 

I never thought I would be reading this poem for myself.

But I have to say, I LOVE Holland.  I have already learned more about true love, compassion and hard work in Holland than I ever could have in Italy. Holland is truly a place where miracles happen every day

This girl has completely captured my heart.  I am so in love with her.  If being in Holland means I get to be with Clover, then I would chose Holland over Italy any day.

 

>>KID'S FIRST TRIP TO UTAH

We got really brave and decided it was time to take the kids to Utah.  They did as good as they possibly could have during the long drive.  We made it as far as Ogden Canyon before Henry officially decided he was DONE being in his carseat.....so...the last 45 minuets of the drive was a real doozy. 

It was great to be able to see our family.  It has been too long. 

While we were there, we were able to bless the kiddos.  Curtis said a fabulous blessing for both babies and it was a very special and touching day.  It was also Mother's Day, so that was extra neat. 

Here is our attempt at getting a family photo of us after the blessing...

This was their first time on grass....they weren't very impressed.

It was great to visit with the grandmas and grandpas.  I sure love my family!

This trip also marks the first time Clover or Henry wore summer clothes.  Oh happy day!  They are SO cute in their shorts!

>>I AM HAPPIEST WHEN I'M HOME

I finally made it home from my week long training in Albuquerque.

I never want to do that again.

I think this was my hardest time being away from home.  I hated leaving Curtis and Millie behind for that long.  And the 2 days of driving to get there and the 2 days of driving to get home totally sent me over the edge.

New Mexico itself was fun (despite being homesick) and I did enjoy hanging out with some fun work folks, but boy does it feel good to be home!

When I arrived home, Curtis had flowers waiting for me and Millie had a new trick to show me.  She can now sit and shake on command.  It was a wonderful welcome home from both of them!

We're still working on getting down the stairs with Millie....but we'll get there eventually.  While she is still little, I will continue to enjoy scooping her up in my arms and carrying her down the stairs.


It is so wonderful being home with my sweetums...and with Millie (even though she doubled in size while I was gone)....and sleeping in my own bed last night was pretty darn peachy too.

Awww, home....thanks for being awesome!

Wyoming Winter Roads

or aka, my hell on earth.

Don't forget about the blowing snow.  Sometimes the snow blows high in the air right at your windshield making it impossible to see.



My personal hell would be nothing but snowy, icy roads that I would be forced to drive on all day. 

I'm pretty sure I've decreased my life expectancy by all the stress I have caused my body from driving on these roads.  I'm considering celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas in July so during the winter months, I won't have to leave the house.  It actually might work out quite well....a parade in the morning, presents in the afternoon, turkey, potatoes and stuffing for dinner followed by a grand fireworks display.  It just might work. 

a scary slippery snowy April day (from hell)

I'm away from home tonight.

I'm in Casper for work and my lover is at home.

I hate being away...I hate it so much.

My heart is still trying to recover from my drive this morning to Casper.

Remember the post where I talked about my fear of driving?

There are no words to describe the fear I felt today while driving on these roads...
I left early to beat the storm but the storm beat me...to the ground! He was vicious. He caused my heart to race, my blood pressure to sky rocket, my knuckles to turn a permanent shade of white, and my eyes to turn red and puffy.

I couldn't see the road, it was snowing, I was alone and I was scarred. I hated every second of it (all three hours worth).

About 40 miles from my destination, I noticed a car off the road down in a ditch. I didn't stop because I could hardly see the road, let alone a safe place to pull off.

I decided I better call for help just in case someone was in that car.

I called 911 and they transferred me to the highway patrol. I explained what I saw and they said they would send someone out.

About 5 or 10 minutes later, I saw the highway patrol car drive past me. Then about 10 or so minutes after that, an ambulance drove past followed by another ambulance 10 or so minutes after that.

I don't know if the ambulance was going to that car or not . . . but maybe.


I eventually made it to Casper safe and in one piece...shaken up...but safe.

I hope I never have to do that again.

Ever.

Billings

Curtis and I drove up to Billings, Montana yesterday in preparation for my bone-graft surgery that I will have tomorrow. You may remember me talking about the surgery here. I'm not looking forward to it, but what's a girl to do?

The drive up here sucked...as Curtis put it. The first half of the drive wasn't too bad, but the last 100 miles we had to drive on snow/ice covered roads at about 40 mph. It took us quite a while to get here, but we made it safely and without any incidents....thank goodness. I did really well on the drive too...I think I only freaked out a couple of times. :)


When we finally got into Billings, there was at least 12 inches of snow. It was crazy. It's been a long time since I've seen such a snow storm...even living in Laramie.

We have had an enjoyable time since we've been here. We came up a couple of days early to give us a chance to "get-a-way" from work and such and to just relax and have a nice weekend together. It has been soooo nice! I don't want to go have my surgery tomorrow and I definitely don't want to go back to the "real world" afterwards.

Tomorrow morning at 8:30 sharp, I'll be getting ready to go to la-la land. Then a short hour and a half later, I'll be waking up and probably looking like a chipmunk.

Wish me luck!

>>BEAUTIFUL YELLOWSTONE

We recently returned home from a family reunion in Yellowstone. Aren't family reunions great?!? There is always fun to be had . . . especially with the Cheney bunch.

Yellowstone was beautiful! It was my first time visiting the park and it was everything I had hoped for.

Here are many, many pictures of our adventures at Yellowstone . . .

w i l d - l i f e :

smiling for the camera.

now he's just showing off.

taking a dip.

I had no idea buffalo liked to swim ... or that they even could swim.

Caution: GRIZZLY crossing.

g e o t h e r m a l - w o n d e r s :

hot pots.

mud pots.
These were pretty cool. You can't tell very well by the picture, but they are puddles of mud that are boiling and popping up. They make all sorts of loud plop, plop noises.

Old Faithful in all her glory.

waterfalls.

c u t e - c u t e - c o u s i n s :

Aren't they adorable? I just love them so much.

and isn't she the most cutest thing you've ever seen? I just wanted to put her in my pocket and bring her home. I couldn't get enough of kissing those cheeks.

Yellowstone was beautiful and the company was delightful.

Thanks Cheney family for a fun, fun family reunion. You guys are the best!

Spring Break and Pay It Forward Gifts

Today is the last day of Spring break...boo hoo. This break was definitely not long enough. We went to Utah to see the fam and to visit some friends. I had some free time to play, but a lot of my time was spent working. We even had to come home early so I could work some more. I can't tell you enough how excited I am for school to be done. I'm not even sure if I can last until May. I am doing some extra part-time work in addition to my full-time job. This equals about 50 hours/week doing work related stuff in addition to my 13 credits of school. Blah! I think I might sleep all summer long.

[The only picture from our trip to Utah...me working. And if you can't tell, this was St. Patrick's Day (hint, the green). My lappy even participated in the St. Patty's day fun.]

...and now for some exciting stuff:

Pay it Forward Participants - Your gifts await you . . .

These are necklace tiles made from Scrabble tiles. Kate, Kristin and Tawna...let me know which tile you would like. First come, first served. Let me know your choice in the comments section and then email me your mailing address at jennycheney[at]gmail[dot]com. I will mail you a necklace tile with a chain, but you can put the tile on any chain if you have one you like more than the cheap one I will be sending you. Also, I am an amateur at this, so these are not perfect...sorry. But I hope you like them nonetheless.

>>IT'S GOOD TO BE BACK

Curtis and I spent a week in Utah with our families. We had all sorts of fun with family reunions, family b-day parties, parades, etc, etc.

I always forget how HOT Utah is in the summer. We have been enjoying a comfortable high of 80 degrees here in Laramie, then we head to Utah and melt in a high of 102 degrees. HOT, HOT, HOT! Despite the heat, we had a great time!

The first thing on our agenda was the Bountiful Parade. We sat on the wrong side of the street, so the sun was in our eyes the whole time, and we couldn't really see much because there was so many people in front of us. But we still had fun...how could you not have fun at the annual 24th of July parade?

We spent the next day with Curtis' family at their annual Stauffer Family Reunion. We started the day with a flag ceremony. (Below: Clark and Brock raising the flag)

(Gotta love the bandannas)

(Below: Curtis showing off his juggling skills during the never-ending talent show. Quite impressive if you ask me. He also juggled a tennis racket, plastic baseball bat, and a baseball.)

Next, the kids, (even grandma) had fun on the slip n' slide as pictured below. Isn't grandma such a great sport?

We ended the day with some yummy homemade ice-cream. Below is Curtis turning the ice-cream. In the background is our grandma Stuaffer....the sweetest lady around.

The next day was my Aunt Lisa's 50th birthday party. We celebrated by having a mock funeral as we mourned the loss of her youth. It turned out pretty cute and it was fun to spend time with my family. HAPPY 50TH BIRTHDAY LISA!!

Days following we also celebrated Curtis' dad's 65th birthday, my niece Kate's 11th birthday and my other niece Elisa's 2nd birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD, KATE, AND ELISA!! Oh what fun!!!

We always have so much fun going back to Utah and seeing our family and friends. We don't get to do it as often as we would like though. There is always SO MUCH we want to do when we go, but we NEVER have time to do it all. Hopefully our next trip down there we will be able to do and see more of everyone and everything.

Thanks everyone for making our trip so much fun!!

>>FAMILY REUNION...NEWPORT, OREGON

Curtis and I just got back from a Cheney family reunion in Newport, Oregon. Oregon is SO beautiful and we had such a fun time hanging out at the beach, visiting an aquarium, looking at sea-life in tide pools, and hanging out with the fam.

{This was the view from our condo. We were right on the beach...It was so beautiful}

Pics from the Beach...

{The water was freezing cold, but it didn't stop us from at least getting our feet wet. Some of the gang went completely in the water...not me...I was too chicken. We were hoping to find some buried treasure as we did some metal detecting along the beach, but only found some old rusty nails. We were also able to see and tour a beautiful light house.}

Pics from the Aquarium and Tide Pool...
{We went to this amazing aquarium where we were able to walk around and see some pretty cool sea creatures. We also went to some tide pools where we were able to see some starfish, crabs, and sea anemones.}

I had such a good time in Oregon with the Cheney family. It is always so much fun spending time with Curtis' parents and siblings. It is also so fun to see all of our nieces and nephews. They are all SO cute....I just love 'em. Oregon is such a beautiful place and I hope to be able to visit again soon.

Now, the not-so-fun part of our trip....our plane ride home. First of all, we had to drive from Newport to Portland to catch our plane. We left Newport at 7 am to catch our plane that left at 12 noon. We boarded the plane on time and took off as scheduled. We were expecting to arrive in Denver at 3 pm and as we were in the air, our pilot assured us that we were on time and scheduled to arrive in Denver as planned. Around 3:30 pm, our pilot told us that we had been circling around Denver waiting for a thunder storm to pass, but it wasn't clearing up and we didn't have enough fuel to hang around any longer, so we headed to SLC. It was about an hour flight to SLC, then we had to sit on the runway for probably another hour while we refueled. Then, we took off again to Denver. We eventually made it to Denver and was finally able to land safely. Our 2 hour flight turned into a 7 hour flight...no fun. All together, we spent about 16 hours traveling. We left at 7 am and finally made it home around 11 pm. What a LONG day!! Oh well though...it was worth it to be able to have a fun vacation with the fam!!