Pool Fun

We spent many afternoons this summer swimming over @ the Larioni's house. Lisa & Paige, thank for great times, good people, and amazing food. We <3 you guys!!!

10 Year Reunion

While Jaylin was at Enchanted Forest, I went to my 10 year high school reunion. Only about 60 people from our class showed up but it was nice to visit with old friends.

Jess and I

Lucretia, my friend who came along for the clams that they didn't have lol (behind me) and to my left is Jackie, fiancee to one of my classmates

and made new friends

Enchanted Forest

On August 15th, my Mom and step dad took Jaylin up to Enchanted Forest for the day. My stepsister, her husband, their 3 daughters, and my stepbrother were up there as well. Jaylin had a great time. When they came back they went to dinner at Tully's. He was so excited to spend time with Grandma, he misses her a lot.

Summer Olympics

Jaylin's Summer School program did a Summer Olympics on August 11th.

Jaylin and his class marching in the parade Jaylin getting ready for his event

Back to School

As of August 10th, I'm an official college student again. I'm taking classes at Columbia College and majoring in Human Services. I have my associates degree in Liberal Arts. So now I just need my bachelors degree. Columbia is a little different than other colleges. They have 5 eight week sessions verses the semesters. You are only allowed to take 2 classes per semester. The whole Human Service program is online. Right now I'm taking Working with Individuals and Case Management. I'm trying to get use to adding school work into my already busy schedule. It's getting a little better going into week 3.

Thunder Island

On August 9th, Jaylin and I spent the afternoon at Thunder Island. He was away for the weekend at Glenwood and I picked him up at noon then we headed to Thunder Island. The FEAT of CNY group was holding an event there so we attended. We had fun going down the slides in our tubes. We are hoping to go back before summer is over.

Familycapped Picnic

Well, we are in the right month now. On Thursday, August 6th, we attended the Familycapped Picnic. We always have a great time at Familycapped events. I had to take a moment to snap a shot of Jaylin and Molly.

Chief's Game

On Saturday, July 25th the Syracuse Chiefs had a Disability Awareness Night. Jaylin and I met our friends, the Cosentino's at the baseball game. Jaylin loves hanging out with Darius, Lucas, and Sam. Tina and I have become good friends so its always a good time with the Cosentino's. The game was pretty boring until the end when the Chiefs stepped it up and won. After the game there were some fireworks.

Congrats Heather & Karen

What a year we have had with graduation parties this year. Of course Jaylin has loved all the parties. We ended with Heather's party (July 18th) and Karen's party (July 25th). Heather and Karen are both staff of Y Kids Inc (Jaylin's after school program). Jaylin loves them both. We are happy that they will both be staying in the area and still be working with Jaylin.

Baby Maxwell

On July 24th, my friend Alex welcomed her son, Maxwell Joseph, into the world. He was born at 253 am weighing 7 pounds 2 ounces. I went up to visit them when he was less than 12 hours old and was the first person that was immediate family to hold him.

Valley Field Days

So for the last month or I've been slacking on blogging. I'm trying to catch up. On July 19th, we met up with my friend Lucretia and her family at the Valley Field Days. Jaylin had a blast riding the rides. He loves all those crazy rides. Here are some pictures:

16 and Pregnant

So I've been watching this show since it started. It has had me thinking of my pregnancy. I was 13 years old when I found out I was pregnant. Darnell, Jaylin's father, was the first guy I had ever been with. It was pure shock finding out, it was one of those never thought it could happen to me situations. I didn't end up finding out until I was 4 1/2 months along. I remember sitting in the room and the dr trying to explain "our options" and my mom saying "we are keeping this baby". My mom was 15 when she had me. She was upset that I didnt tell her I was "sexually active". I couldn't have done things without my mom's help. I went back to school when Jaylin was 5 months old and my mom worked a 3-11 job so that she could be home with Jaylin during the day. This went on until he was almost 2 years old. I'm so thankful that she did that for us.

Tonight I sat there watching that couple and were truly amazed by them. I couldn't imagine being in that position. I don't think I could have done the same thing and love my mom for being so supportive of Jaylin.

We've had some hard times over the years but I never regret or have ever thought about not keeping Jaylin. He has been the best thing that has ever happened to me. Again, I was lucky to have a supportive mom and stability for Jaylin. That couple knew that they weren't going to have the same thing and made a mature, unselfish, extremely hard decision to give up their child. They wanted a better life for her, one that they felt they couldn't provide.

Ice Cream

Last night after baseball I decided I was in the mood for an ice cream. Jaylin doesn't eat ice cream so I always try to find a place that sells hot dogs as well so he can get a hot dog while I enjoy my ice cream (this is normally Big Dip). So I thought we are in Liverpool so let's just go to Heid's. So Jaylin gets his hot dog and I go over to Sweet Treats to get my vanilla ice cream with cherry dip. Jaylin finishes his hot dog and starts pointing at my cone. This is a common thing with him. He eats his food then wants mine lol. I let him "try" it. At first he is just eating the cherry stuff but then starts licking the actual ice cream which is huge for him. So we went back to Sweet Treats and bought him a baby twist cone. He didnt eat all of his cone but that was more for me =). I'm just excited that he is willing to try it now. One of my favorite parts of summer time is going to grab ice cream and enjoying it in the warm weather.

Molly

Molly has been working with Jaylin for one month as of Wednesday so that night we went out to dinner at "The Spaghetti Warehouse". That was Jaylin's restaurant of choice for the week. He was earning his stickers to go to dinner there. So we asked Molly to join us and treated her to dinner. I finally took a picture of the two of them together last night at baseball. He loves his Molly.

Report Card

Jaylin's last report card of the year came into the mail the other day. I'm so proud of the grades. Here they are:

Daily Living Skills 95. He had a yearly average of 93.25

English 8R 94. Yearly average of 89.75

Math 8R 96. Yearly average of 89.75

Science 8R 84. Yearly aveage of 84.

Social Studies 8R 80. Yearly average of 90.75

Spelling/Reading 100. Yearly average of 94.75

His GPA for 4th marking period is 91.50. Yearly GPA is 91.275. He made honor roll all four marking periods. I'm so proud of my boy.

New Job Adventures

Tara, I hope you don't mind that I used one of your pictures. Check out more of her fabulous pictures at http://www.tarapolcarophotography.blogspot.com/

Today was my first official day of my new job. In October I interviewed for the new program called MyChoices that Familycapped was trying to start. I was told they were interested in me being apart of this program. Well, then they went on a hire freeze. So I took the position I was offered at Enable. MyChoices is a program that gives the individual and family choices of what their child is going to do when they graduate from high school. Its goal is to give them independence and a chance to continue growing. Day Habs are not for everyone.

What you have to do is get a group of people "circle of support" is what they call it together to help make a plan of things that there interested in, ideas for volunteer opportunities, etc. I sat on Kathleen's (girl in picture) circle of support. I've known/worked with Kathleen for 5 years now, starting at the Y Kids Inc program. Chris (Kathleen's mom) approached me asking if I could sit on Kathleen's circle of support since I knew her well and also with interest in me working with her when everything fell into place. So that's where our adventure has started.

Kathleen's plan is the first approved for MyChoices. So she's the first participant and I'm the first employee. Its exciting to see how things are going to pane out because this is more than likely the approach that I will take with Jaylin when he is ready to graduate. So it's been and will continue to be a good learning experience for me.

Congrats Kat & Jay

Today was another day filled with graduation parties. We started out at Kathleen's (Kat) graduation party. Kathleen graduated from Liverpool yesterday morning. We had a great time visiting with friends, eating good food, listening to our friend Johnny play the bagpipes (he self taught himself and it amazes me every time I listen to him play), and just celebrating Kathleen's big day. Its exciting for me because I'm taking the next step in her life with her (more to come on that in my next blog).

Next we headed to Jay's graduation party. Some of our crew followed us from Kathleen's to Jay's. Jay graduated from CNS on Friday night. There were also a bunch of other from CNS that we knew. It was nice to see them all again even though we saw them yesterday at Donald's party. By this time I was pretty much full but ate a piece of cake but of course Jaylin ate some meatballs and some cake. Most of the people that we were hanging out with were started to leave for another graduation party so Jaylin and I decided we should head home too since Jay was going to be attending the other party as well.

We are now done with the 5 kids that I worked with at the Y's graduation parties. I've known them all for 5 years now and I'm so proud of them. I've seen them all grow so much and can't wait to hear about their futures.

Congrats Donald & Danae

I picked Jaylin up at noon from Glenwood and we headed to Donald's graduation party. Donald graduated from CNS last night. On Thursday we went and got Donald a Mickey Mouse from the Disney store and then went to Build a Bear to get the cap & gown. All year Donald has asked me to get him a Mickey for his graduation. When we were at Magic Kingdom we looked but didnt find any. So I decided to just make my own. He loved it. He must of hugged me and thanked me 15 times. We had a great time with friends, dancing, and yummy food.

Danae graduated from Liverpool today. We left Donald's party at 4 and headed over to Danae's party. We ate cake and some snacks there. Danae was very excited to see us because she was thinking we werent coming. We got to see Katlyn who use to work Jaylin. We havent seen her in awhile and were excited to hear that she got married. David, her husband, was with her as well. David hung out with Jaylin and Katlyn a couple times. Jaylin really liked him and was excited to see them both.

We were supose to go to a baby shower today as well but didnt end up going because Jaylin was having so much fun at Donald's party with all his friends. Now we are home and p-o-o poop as Donald would say so we are just relaxing. Tomorrow we have another day filled with parties.

Glenwood

Last night Jaylin did his first overnight at Glenwood which is a respite house through Liberty Resources. Last week he went camping overnight so that was a good leadway for this weekend but it was easier for me last week because Molly (his helper) was with him. Molly brought him to Glenwood at 2:30 to hang out with him there for a bit so he could get comfortable. I stopped over to give him money and to say goodbye to him. He was a little off so I drove home very nervous. Molly texted me when she was leaving at 430 and said that he jumped on the trampoline and played some board games and seemed in a better mood. I called there at 7 just to check on him and was told he was doing well. I was asked if I wanted to talk to him and I said "no just have him call me before he goes to bed". I never got a call though. I was sad about that but whatever. I went and picked him up at 12 today. They said he did well. They gave me his money back so they didnt end up doing anything. Jaylin told me he ate meatball sub for dinner, dvds, books, ready for bed, and bacon, eggs, and something else for breakfast. He said he had a good time. They really didnt do too much so I'm hoping next time they go out and do something.

Goodbye Enable

Yesterday was my last day at my job. I'm starting a new job next week. We had a pot luck lunch yesterday because it was a staff meeting day. This cake was bought for me. It was from Biscotti's and it was delicious. Wednesday was my last day with the kids. I'm really going to miss my boys. It was hard saying goodbye to them. I'm going to visit over the summer but then 2 of my boys are going to kindergarten in the fall so I won't see them after summer time. I made some great friends this year. Two of them I know I will remain in contact with. I'm going to miss the craziness but I'm excited to start my new job.