ELEPHANT in the room and THIS and THAT

I saw this on a beautiful blog today (catchingbutterfliestwo) and had to copy it here:

"To the world, you may be one person;
but to one person, you are the world!"

- Author unknown.

That really spoke to me for many reasons...more on that below.

Okay, so the ELEPHANT in the room. Eliza has been diagnosed w/ Autism. I'm putting it out here because it's something that I'm going to be writing a lot about and frankly, I want to, no need to talk about it. She will be starting school in an AU class (Autism only) next Wednesday, 5 days a week, traditional school hours. She was accepted into a great program offered thru our school system to those that qualified. It's intensive and she will be getting many different therapies in a social setting. The class size right now is only 4 children (including Eliza) w/ an Autism Special Ed teacher and two assistants. It's going to be a big change for her (and for me). My heart is still aching for my loss and for her loss, but I have to remain in the present and focused on helping her. Please pray for her.

Remember my desire to train Hogan to be a therapy dog once Eliza started school? Well, I've read about therapy dogs helping children w/ autism. Then I found out that our school system has a R.E.A.D. dog (a dog that visits schools and becomes an audience to children in speech therapy helping them read out loud and gain confidence from a "non-judgemental, compassionate and non-peer" spectator. I thought that was pretty cool and as Eliza goes thru the Autism program, who knows, maybe Hogan can travel to the AU classes and offer therapy assistance! Hmmm.... I'll need to get to work on that.

Some THIS and THAT: Before I forget, I updated my previous post (trip to Kansas) w/ some additional photos and edited what I had originally written. Check it out.

Also, Miss Eliza broke her glasses on our 2nd day in Kansas. She had been refusing to wear them for the week leading up to our trip. So in front of her old Yang girlfriends, she bent and twisted the arm all the way back and around. While they are the flexible kind, they're not that flexible. It was as if she was saying to me, "Ta da, mommy...now you can't make me wear them anymore in front of my friends." Hrumph...they are in the shop getting fixed. I'm also going to buy a back-up pair this time.

What else? Well, since being back home from our Kansas trip (which I still miss so much), I've been fostering 2 golden retriever puppies (now 10 weeks old) for the breeder that we got Hogan from. They are little brothers to Hogan and are so cute. One is a "keeper" (no, I'm not keeping him). He's as easy as Hogan and smart, already knows to sit in order to get a pet from me. The other one is a tubby. He jumps on me, has managed to catch my hen already, chases cats up trees, wants to run the pasture after the geese, swims in the baby pool. He's a hoot, but a handful. Hogan has been mothering (or brothering) them and is having a really good time being chased around by them. It's actually been fun. Fun in a sort of Grandma-way; I enjoy the "grandkids", but know they're going back home! Anyway, the reason I'm fostering is that the breeder and her husband finally went to Vietnam to bring home their twin baby girls. They are GORGEOUS!!!

Enjoy today's photos!

Reading to her two favorite dolls...

Not happy that I interrupted her.

Hogan and the two pups