RAISING JOEY

I am loving all these summer contests!

Adventures in Babywearing is hosting ANOTHER great contest! This one is for a $75 gift certificate to Chittypulga, the hot online magazine & children’s boutique! And if you sign up for their mailing list online, you recieve 10% off your first purchase! Head on over and check this one out!

An Island Life is having a Back-to-school with Koo Koo Bear Kids contest for a $50 gift certificate to their online store. Just stop by An Island Life and let her know which item from KooKoo Bears you would order if you could and leave her a comment!

And speaking of An Island Life, from her online store, Island Baby Boutique, did I mention that I won a prize from her on Love For Parker?! I won a personalized tooth fairy pillow and matching Hawaiian print burp cloth & bib set?! How cool is that?!

Last but not least, don’t forget to sign up for my contest for an autographed copy of “Aunt Mommy” by Tomacina Hochgurtel!

Time Travel Tuesday- Dates Gone Wrong!

This week over at My Life As Annie, we travel back to Dates Gone Wrong!

“Well, for this week’s time travel tuesday we are going back to a date gone wrong… with husband or before marriage it’s your choice.”

Hmmmm, for me, I never had a date go bad with my husband. So I’ll travel back to high school to my senior prom…

I was dating a guy I will call C. Well, C & I’s relationship was very rocky at times. I was a couple years older than him so I was more mature than him but I still cared for him. But I had planned the perfect prom for us. I had bought the most beautiful dress, and had an appointment to get my nails and hair done and reservations at a nice restaurant. Heck, he didn’t have enough money to rent a tux so I even paid for his darn tux!

4 days before prom, he decides to break up with me. Yes, ladies, you heard me right, break up with me 4 days before my senior prom! So there I was, heartbroken, and broke since I had paid for everything for prom and dateless.

We ended up still going to prom together although we didn’t even dance or really even hang out during the dance.

AND to top it off, did I mention that the year before, right before my junior prom, the guy I was dating at the time, broke up with me a couple days before and left me dateless except it was C that saved the day and became my date. It was soon after that, that we started dating. Great guy, huh?

I attracted all the winners in high school, lol!

Thankfully that’s all water under the bridge or however that saying goes and I’m so grateful that I found my husband who treats me like a princess and is the best guy ever!!

*To read more Dates Gone Wrong, go to My Life As Annie!

My first giveaway!

The author of “Aunt Mommy“, Tomacina Hochgurtel, has been nice enough to give me an autographed copy of her book “Aunt Mommy” to give away here on Raising Joey!

You can also visit Tomacina’s “Aunt Mommy” myspace page and read her first book review here!

“Not a typical child, Jordan Lee is an amazing little boy with Down syndrome. Tossed in the throes of a drug-infused environment, Jordan Lee is rescued from an unstable beginning, Jordan Lee soon finds himself thriving in the loving care of his Aunt Mommy.”

For a chance to win this book, please leave me a comment and if you have a blog, please link back to this entry. Non-bloggers are also welcome, just be sure to leave me your email address.

The contest will be going on from July 30-August 5.

Picnic Fun!

Yesterday was the CDSC’s Summer Picnic and we had a blast! Saw lots of our friends and even made a few new ones! And guess who we got to see?!

Tricia, her hubby Alex and their beautiful daughter Georgia!!

And someone was wipped out and ready to go home after a long afternoon of playing with his friends…

First eagle scout in 25 years…

And did I mention that he has Down syndrome? Great article!  

“Terre Haute Boy Scout with Down syndrome on verge of reaching Eagle Scout“

By Crystal Garcia
The Tribune-Star

TERRE HAUTE — If Daniel Snider could pick a representative for the Boy Scouts of America, he would pick 17-year-old Eric Burns of Terre Haute.“He is everything a Scout should be,” said Snider, the institutional representative for Troop 22 sponsored by Ryves Youth Center at Etling Hall and assistant director of the center. “… I really wish I had a whole troop of kids with his attitude.”

For the rest of the article, click here.

Awsome Contests!!

A couple very cool contests to share with everyone…

First up, over at Love Shak, Baby- is having a “Back To School Giveaway With Gymboree“, how does a $250 Gymboree gift card sound?! That’s right folks, there’s a giveaway from July 27- August 17 for not one but two $250 gift cards!! I don’t know about you, but I could really use that to buy Joey & Leah some new outfits!! Head on over and enter this one!

 Second up, the fine ladies over at 5 Minutes For Mom are having a HUGE giveaway. I mean, this is one that my hubby will go CRAZY over if we win. Doesn’t an Insignia 37 inch flat-panal LCD TV sound just awesome?!?! We can thank Best Buy too for this huge giveaway valued at $799! This contest is going on from now until August 17 so head over over and enter this one too!!!

Also, check back here soon for a little contest of my own starting tomorrow!!!!

MomsBlogging.com

If you haven’t had a chance yet, go over to MomsBlogging.com and check it out. It’s a new site for moms, all about moms and with a little bit of everything including contests, featured bloggers, and a podcast! Enjoy!

Contest Time!

Nell, over at Casual Friday Everyday is giving away a copy of “I love my life! A moms guide to working from home.” It comes with video tutorials, 2 hour recorded interview, transcripts, website templates and loads of advice on how to become a virtual assistant. It’s valued at $29.95. Head on over if you want your chance to win!

One person’s dream

Down’s woman realises DJ dream
By Jane Bruccoleri

A Croydon woman with Down’s syndrome has realised her ambition of becoming a club DJ.

Hannah Marvelly has shrugged off those who used her learning difficulties as an excuse not to employ her and is now living her dream.

She was helped on her way to the decks by Heart ‘n’ Soul - an artistic company she got involved with seven years ago. It is a group made up of nearly 100 artists with learning disabilities who create shows, events, recordings and films.

And now the 27-year-old from South Croydon is a DJ, a video DJ and a dancer.

For the rest of the article, click here.

Pray for the children

Also, if you haven’t done so yet, please spare a couple extra bucks to help out Parker and his family for the online love offering that will help with his medical expenses.

Wordless Wednesday

For more Wordless Wednesdays or to participate go here.

Love For Parker update

Also, Tammy gave an update on Parker yesterday and he needs our prayers more than ever. Here’s the update.

Time Travel Tuesday- The Day We Met Our Spouse

This week’s topic for Time Travel Tuesday, “Was it love at first site? or did it take a little longer… Let’s travel back to the day we met our spouse.”

Well, I know I’ve posted on this before but I’ll try to go into a little bit more detail…

Patrick and I both worked at the same nursing home. He was the grounds keeper, I was a nursing assistant. The first time I saw was during his job orientation which was held in the activity room in my section of the nursing home. I really thought nothing of it.

I saw him a couple other times while I would be sitting outside taking my breaks. If I would take my break inside, I would end up going back to work early and not get a full break so I would go outside for a breather.

I was very close friends with a female maintenance worker who kind of adopted me as a big sister. She worked out of the same office as Patrick and well I guess you can say, she helped to set us up together. I had never even talked to him before! One day she said to me, you know that Patrick thinks your cute and wants to show up at your other job (I worked part time at night as a barmaid).

I can’t remember if I talked to him first or if he talked to me first but we eventually said hi. I found out that he also had an evening job at a GrindStone Charlies Steakhouse, and that he was working that night. I had found out from my friend that he was going to show up at my job at the bar after he got off from the restaurant so I beat him to it. Before I went in to the bar to work, me and a couple friends showed up at his restaurant for dinner! He was so surprised to see me, actually I think shocked is a better word. After serving us our meal, he kept looking over at me smiling and went to another table to pick up their dishes. He ended up dropping the whole tray of dishes in front of us!

After he got off work and I headed into my job, he did show up and thankfully the bar wasn’t that busy so I didn’t have to work, I got to hang out with Patrick and got to know him better! From that night on, we were attached at the hip and have been ever since! I knew that next day that he was the one I wanted to marry and I was right!!!

(This was taken at the nursing home during an employee picnic)

For more Time Travel Tuesdays or to participate, go to My Life As Annie.

Search engine

I’ve seen some other bloggers post various search engine keywords to where their blogs come up, here’s some of what I’ve gotten in the past couple days…

• cost of raising a down syndrome
• pre-, post-natally diagnosed conditions act reintroduced
• inspiration for wonder by natalie merchant
• natalie merchant, down syndrome
• skyline chile
• designer genes
• when do babies get over stranger syndrome
• joe tennis mo
• down syndrome blessing
• Be not afraid
• Craniotechnologies
• tiptoe joey
• raising downs syndrome

Interesting….

I love getting free stuff!

Last week I wrote a quick email to the people at Apple & Eve Juice to let them know how much Joey LOVES their juice. Their juice boxes are the only way I can get the little guy to drink out of a straw! Anyways, to my suprise today in the mail, 2 free product coupons (up to $4.59) and 2 $1.00 off coupons. How cool is that!?

Show Parker Some Love!!!

Don’t forget folks! This week Slurping Life is having an online love offering for Parker. Show your love and make an online donation to help pay for some of the medical costs for Parker. For any donation over $2 will make you eligible for many awesome prizes too!

An Afternoon At The Park

Saturday afternoon was the perfect to just get in the car and head over to the park which is what we did. Thankfully I remembered my camera and decided to take a bunch of Joey pictures. Enjoy the many faces of Joey!!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Twins

The Twins Who Are One In A Million by Morag Turner. The story of 17 year old twins, one who has a little something extra and the other who doesn’t. I didn’t realize how rare it is for one twin to have Down syndrome and for the other not to. Very interesting article!

Favorite Ingredient Friday

Strawberry Limeaide

1. 1/2 cup lime juice
2. 2 cups cold water
3. 1/4 cup white sugar
4. 1 1/2 cups frozen sliced strawberries
5. 5 cubes ice

Directions

Place lime juice, cold water, sugar, and trawberries in blender and blend on high until smooth. While blender is running, add ice cubes one at a time.

*For more Favorite Ingredient Fridays or to participate, go visit Overwhelmed With Joy!

Walgreens!

I’ll tell you what, I am loving Walgreens more and more each day! Many of you know about Walgreen’s Outreach Program where they hire people with disabilities and now to help those of us who pinch pennies and hate paying out the nose to get printer ink, well, I just saw a commercial where you can take your printer ink cartridges and get them refilled really cheap! I’m talking $10 for black ink and $15 for color!! And I just looked up with their store locater and one right down the street does the ink refills! Too cool!! I hope this is as good as it seems!

DownSyn Forum

Quick question for you parents who have children with Down syndrome who go onto the DownSyn forum… is anyone else having problems getting onto it? Ever since I bought my new computer, I’ve been unable to go on there! I don’t know if it’s from Windows Vista or the new Internet Explorer. But there’s a lot of little red x’s all over the place and it’s been killing me that I can’t even get on there! Any suggestions?

Awareness Acts Reintroduced

Brownback, Kennedy Reintroduce Pre-natally and Post-natally Diagnosed Conditions Awareness Act

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

A Kansas Republican and Massachusetts Democrat are teaming up to make sure families told their unborn children may have a birth defect are given information and support.

Senators Sam Brownback, R-Kansas, and Edward Kennedy, D-Massachusetts, today reintroduced the Pre-natally and Post-natally Diagnosed Conditions Awareness Act. It would require that families who receive a diagnosis of Down syndrome or any other condition, pre-natally or up until a year after birth, be given up-to-date information about the nature of the condition and connection with support services and networks that could offer assistance.

“We as a society must offer as much protection as we can to ‘the least of these,’” Brownback said in a statement. “When a mother receives the news that her unborn child may be born with a disability, she should be supplied with current and reliable information about the many options available for caring for children with disabilities.”

According to Brownback’s office, the Pre-natally and Post-natally Diagnosed Conditions Awareness Act would expand and further develop a national clearinghouse on information for parents of children with disabilities. The improvements would make the clearinghouse better equipped to assist parents whose children are diagnosed with birth defects. The legislation would also develop support programs and create a national registry of families willing to adopt children with birth defects.

Brownback, a stanch pro-life supporter, says, currently, 90 percent of children pre-natally diagnosed with Down syndrome are aborted. He says that percentage is similar for children pre-natally diagnosed with other conditions such as spina bifida, cystic fibrosis, and dwarfism.

Senator Brownback’s homepage and contact info, Kansas 303 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510. (202) 224-6521

Long over due update

Hello everyone! I just realized how long it’s been since I’ve given an actual update on how we’re all doing and what’s been going on! Sorry about that! Anyways, Joey is surprising me everyday by doing something new! He pulls to stand on almost everything now and is cruising up a storm! I was doing my weekly “tooth check” yesterday and not only does he have both of his upper first year molars coming in, but now he has his top and bottom right canines FINALLY popping through! He’s had huge lumps for his canines for the longest time!

I’m already starting to count down the days until Leah is due. My ribs have been absolutely KILLING me, I had rib pain with Joey but nothing compared to this! It’s weird how each pregnancy is so different than the others.

Last week I had a little trip to the hospital. I had gotten myself stressed out and worked up and needless to say I started cramping and was having a few contractions so my doctor sent me to the hospital. The blood work I had done earlier in the week came back that same day that I’m very anemic. So on top of not sleeping well, getting stressed out, and being anemic wasn’t good. I’m taking iron pills daily now and I seem to be feeling better. I go see the doctor tomorrow so we’ll see what he has to say. They checked out Leah, everything looked fine so thankfully they sent me home.

Back to Joey… We’ve been trying new foods with him. It’s such a struggle to get him to eat something new. He usually freaks out and clamps his lips shut tight! Thankfully, he’s now accepted jello and is starting to chew up banana chunks rather than swallowing them whole! Yesterday we tried kraft cheese slices for the first time. He didn’t get upset, but he would spit them out. So that’s our newest food we’re working with, cheese. Today I may try bread & jelly cut up into small pieces, just depends on his mood:). But unfortunately, still no self feeding at all. He is starting to pick up cheerios but won’t put them up to his mouth. We’ve tried putting everything onto his tray for him to pick up. He usually feels it and flips out & wants nothing to do with whatever is on his tray. You know it’s bad when the occupational therapist says, “Joey is definitely one of my more difficult kids with feeding.”

We’ve also been working on sign language with him. Mostly “more”, “food”, “drink”, “Mommy”,  “Daddy”, “play” and a couple others. I also ordered him the Baby Signing Time DVDs, so I’m hoping he’ll like those. He has the Baby Einstein Signing DVD but I’m not too thrilled with it. At times, I feel so bad as a parent. Sign language was my major in college and I’ve not been signing to my own child! Not anymore through, I’ve been signing to him almost all the time now! There’s times I forget, but I’ve just got to get myself back in the habit. And on top of teaching Joey how to sign, I’ve been helping my husband and my in-laws! 

Well, I think that’s it for now! Until next time!

Love For Parker

Between July 23-27, Slurping Life is having an online love offering for Parker. Unfortunately Parker’s medical bills keep piling up and his family needs a little help, so Slurping Life is having an online contest you can sign up for as long as you donate at least $2 (more would be greatly appreciated!). Once you donate you will have the opportunity to win a digital camera, printer and accessories package courtesy of Hewlett Packard! And even more prizes will be added closer to the contest dates!

Also, Julie from Rarely A Home Mom is sponsoring an on-line Usborne Book party to benefit Parker from July 22-28! 25% of all sales will go to the fund that has been established to help with Parker’s medical bills. Everyone who makes a purchase of any size will receive a raffle ticket for the digital camera and goodies offered by Slurping Life! Click here to go to her Usborne Book Store!

Please pass on these great contests to everyone you can think of! The more people that help, the more help Parker and his family will get!!

Wordless Wednesday

For more Wordless Wednesdays or to participate, go here.