Eat at Joe's

Tonight Joe's Crab Shack had a special event where a percentage of your bill would go towards Autism Speaks.  We usually go to Sonic on Wednesday nights because they have Wacky Pack Wednesday where all the kids meals are only $1.99.  Whoo Hooo!  So today when my wonderful husband asked if I wanted to go to Joe's I thought he was asking me out on a date.  Nope, turns out he wanted to support Autism.  I was happy to do that too.

So we load up the kids and head to Joe's.  To be honest this was a bit out of our comfort zone as we usually try to stick with fast food or buffets since Z has a hard time understanding why, when he tells the waiter he wants macaroni and cheese, it takes so long to actually get the stuff, but we were open to giving it a try.  So armed with ipads (Z), nintendo 3ds'(J), and nerves of steele (Me), we entered Joe's.

At first it wasn't so bad.  There were relatively few people there and it was pretty quiet.  They seated us at a table which made me wonder for a second if we should ask to be moved to a booth for better Z containment  but our waiter had already left so we decided to stick it out.  Z loved the decorations and wanted to run around a touch the 5ft fish, spin around on the swivel chairs in the bar (did you know you are not allowed to sit in on a swivel bar stool if you are under 21?  I think that is silly considering that if you are drinking your chances of falling off a swivel stool are much higher than if you are sober and most kids want to sit in the swivel chairs and they are under 21.  I really think they should rethink that idea, but I digress).  For the most part we did ok, Z ordered macaroni and cheese, J got calamari and french fries and Brandon and I got various types of shrimp.

Z tired quickly of the restaurant when he discovered his needing to wait until age 21 to partake of the swivel chairs so he began to ask loudly for the macaroni and cheese.  We kept explaining to him they were cooking it and to be patient.  He actually did really good with the exception of the time where he wanted to check out the bucket of food of the older, single, male, diner at the table next to us.  I saw Z head towards the bucket and my first thought was "oh please grab him before he beheads a lobster", my second on was "please don't let Z start playing with the lobster".  Luckily he just wanted to see what was in the bucket and Brandon managed to pull him back to our table.  Whew, crisis averted.

A little while later our food arrived.  Poor Z took one look at the soupy macaroni and cheese and pushed it away.  Oh shoot, crisis mode.  I quickly turned to the waiter and asked him to immediately put in chicken strips for Z.  He was such a sweetie and was so good about doing that.  I was fine paying for two kids meals I just wanted poor Z to get something to eat, bless his baby heart.  The ipad was keeping his occupied at this time and not too long later they brought out his chicken fingers which he quickly ate with abandon.

After finishing his chicken Z was done and so was I so I took him to the car while Brandon and J waited for the bill and got some of our leftovers to go.  Brandon came to the car where I waited to hear what our final bill was.  Brandon looked at me with moist eyes and told me there was no bill.  The older, single, gentleman who had almost had his food inspected/eaten/played with my Z bought our dinner for us.  I was floored.  The waterworks started and I was totally amazed.  We had just been to camp last week and talked about how many times we get so much unwanted, negative attention and here we were at a place where the man could have been annoyed, irritated, and angry at Z's interference with his dinner and instead paid for our family to eat out.

It was an amazing experience.

Good-Bye Deming House

I'm having a bitter-sweet day today.  Some of you know that last summer J and I spent much of our summer (about 5-6 weeks) at Children's Hospital in their outpatient day program trying to work through J's medications.  During that time I lived at the Ronald McDonald House on Deming Place in Lincoln Park a few blocks from the Hospital.  We had stayed there during a prior stay at in the program a few years before but not for as long.  It was an amazing experience and made a very difficult experience much easier.  We were so grateful for the love and support of the staff of the house and made many friends that are still friends to this day.

The reason today is bitter-sweet is that the Deming house is closing.  Children's Hospital has built a new hospital closer to Northwestern and the Ronald McDonald House organization has build a new building to accommodate all the families they are anticipating will need treatment in the new hospital.  It's an amazing new building that will house many families with a much easier way to check in and stay in the facility.  All of these things are great and will make it so much easier for families who need to be near their children who are in need of help.  Thank you, Ronald McDonald House!!

Here's the sad part.  They are tearing down Deming House.  Yep.  It's going to be torn down.  It's a beautiful old house that was only the second Ronald McDonald House in the country and it's been sold and will be torn down.  It was such a friendly place.  As you walked through the rooms you could imagine the previous occupants living there.  The kitchens were amazing, the sitting rooms were beautiful, the parlor was a study in beautiful molding.  The staff made it personal and homey.

The new location is going to be ran more like a hotel.  They will have 24 hour front desk staff and each floor will be self sufficient.  I'm hoping we will not need to stay there because staying there means the boys need medical attention but also because it will remind me of the loss of our beautiful home away from home that brought us such comfort during such a difficult time of our life.

Thank you, Deming House.  You are loved and will be missed.

Mom wins the mice war

While we were away the mice played and Grandpa went to battle.  The mice are gone!!  Grandpa killed the cheeky little ....... well you understand.  We were blessed by Grandpa coming in while we were away to deal with our mice problem to spare Josh the terror of seeing his furry friends killed in brutal and horrible ways and mom the frustration of various mice catching methods failing miserably.  The main issue was walking into the house with the boys and finding a dead mouse laying in the middle of my floor.  Blech.

Thank you, Brandon, for getting rid of the cheeky ........ and restoring peace to my home.  After I steam cleaned the floors and all surfaces that is.  I feel much better now.

Camp Happens

I've been away from my computer for a couple weeks so I've not posted. The end of school, beginning of Family Camp and several events in our family have all contrived to curtail my blogging but I've managed to steal a few moments thanks to a rain storm so I'm going to take advantage of the opportunity.

Most of my posts have been about Autism but I'm going a different direction this time around.  I want to talk about Joni and Friends Family Camp.  Joni Erickson Tada is a woman who when she was a teenager dove into a shallow lake and broke her neck.  She managed to take the initial bitterness and turn her life into an amazing testimony of disability rights, and opportunities in the Christian community.  One of the fantastic ministries born of her dedication is Family Camp.

Family Camp is for families of children/adults with either/or physical, mental, or developmental disabilities.  They have STM (short term missionaries) who pay to come to camp for a week and are teamed up with both the children and their siblings to give the whole family a way to spend the week together.  The kids are aided by the STMs from breakfast to bedtime giving mom and dad time to spend together or with the family doing everything from horseback riding to going on a Zip Line.  It's basically a week of being taken care of and loved on.  The astounding thing is that even the STMs pay to come to camp!  Yes, you read that right, people actually pay to come and take care of you.  Who does that?  Well for us it was 4 amazing people who made my boys happy and comfortable and allowed me to decompress.

We are happy to be home but miss our new friends.  It seems like camp passes so quickly!!  What an amazing time was had by all and we can't wait for next summer.  If you are interested in more information please let me know and I will provide any and all information I can.

Good is good.