I had to get pretzels.

Well I think that all of you out there know that our second child, Seth, has Autism. It is something I have blogged quite a bit about. Last night, our darling little guy, decided that he would "get his mom some pretzels", and disappeared for 30 minutes.

I'm not sure if any of you have ever had a lost child, but the day and age in which we live is a very scary time for someone to have a lost child. Every day we are swamped with stories of missing and abused children and a lot was on my mind last night for those 30 minutes I can tell you. You are conditioned to believe that your child will be snapped up by a pedophile and abused and then murdered. And that happens to families every day. Terrible.

As I frantically searched parks and nearby rec centres for my son, these thoughts were on my mind. I know that they were on Rob's mind as well.

He was gone for about 30 minutes and was brought home by two very nice RCMP [Royal Canadian Mounted Police] officers. When I asked Seth where he had gotten the bag of pretzels that was in his hand, the officer told me that Seth had reported to the officer he had gone to the store to get them for me. Many people who have commented on my Facebook post on this have said that they thought it was very sweet that he was getting me pretzels. I guess it was really. However, he had gone to the store with no money with which to buy the pretzels. The officers thought it was humorous that he had shoplifted the pretzels and told me that they had recieved no calls about a child stealing pretzels from a store, so, Seth could keep them.

However, someone here did not think it was funny. Our son Jonah. He very quickly told me that the officers would not have laughed if HE had stolen the pretzels [true] and we would have taken him back to the store to return them and apologize [also true], and why weren't we doing anything to discipline Seth for these actions.

It is interesting when you are the parents of a special needs child. You make allowances for them that you would never make for your other children. Others do as well. Obviously.

We listened to our distressed 11 year old and Jonah and Rob went off to the store to return the pretzels and to apologize to the store manager for Seth having stolen them. The manager told Rob that no one had seen him enter the store alone, take the pretzels or leave the store alone either. That is scary to me. An unattended child entered the store, took something off a shelf and exited the store without paying for the item and no one noticed.

After this conversation with the manager, Jonah turned to his father and said, "Dad I had no idea it was SO easy to shoplift!" Wrong lesson learned I think. :0)

Happy Mother's Day

Well, Happy Mother's Day to all of you out there. I realize that for some people Mother's Day is a very hard day. They have either lost their mother or they have lost a child or children and so this is a day that is very bittersweet or out right painful. Mother's Day around here is usually full with all of the usual Sunday activities and then some activity that we do as a family. It's still early, but I have been given my gifts from my kids and I have had breakfast made for me by my wonderful 7 year old daughter. I can't wait to see what the rest of the day has instore. I thought I would share with you the gifts that the kids made this year. I love hand made gifts. They are hands down my favourites and this year everyone made me something, including Seth, which is very special indeed!!

Spencer made a hand painted jar that is currently being used a vase [her babysitter put some tulips from her garden into each one after the kids painted them]. But, I'm thinking that I will ultimately take it to work to use as a pen holder.

Lauren brought home several items, including this hand painted jar with Marigold seeds in it. She also created coupons I can redeem to get her to do different jobs around the house along with a hand made card.

Seth's class is in the middle of a unit on frogs. So, for Mother's Day, he made a very interesting frog along with a hand made card and gift bag.

Jonah even surrendered and wrote me a letter. He gave it to me very reluctantly, but he gave it to me. Having an eleven year old requires having a thick skin from time to time.

Well, all in all, a terrific Mother's Day for me. I wish all of you a safe and happy Mother's Day today. Whether your family is near or far, we can all sit and spend some time remembering what our mothers mean to us and all that they have given to us.

Working From Home

I feel so blessed. I am so enjoying my job at RDC [Red Deer College] teaching in the nursing department. It is really a challenge to impart what I've learned over my almost 15 years [yikes] of being a nurse. [Am I really that old?]

I also love having new research more readily accessible and being able to learn why we do what we do in our practice. After you graduate from your university years, you follow the policies set out by your institution, but who has time to scan the literature yourself? With 4 kids and our busy schedule, I sure didn't. But now that's part of my job and I LOVE it!! I feel like I am really using all that I learned all those years ago at Ryerson U and that I am actually finally working at my full potential. I still have SO much to learn in order to ensure that I'm as effective a teacher as I need to be, but I really feel that the College supports that and has an environment that fosters that learning to take place. For the first time in my career, I feel that I'm not just a cog in the wheel, but really a part of something dynamic.

I have a very nice shared office at the College that is spacious and I'll post some pics of it here soon. But one of the best things about working at the College is the ability to work at home from time to time. So, that's what I'm doing today. Taking some time away from the hustle and bustle at the College itself and working at home in the peace and quiet since the kids are at school today. It is so liberating to sit in your jogging pants and a t-shirt and work to your hearts' content without interruptions.

Well, back to work for me.....

The Useful Woman

Today was a LONG day. I had several meetings to attend at the College as well as having my interview to teach next year. I was stressed and went from meeting to interview to meeting with no break in between. When I got home Seth was already home from school, and was having fun with his dad.
Seth always changes his clothes when he gets home from school. He takes off whatever he wore to school and puts on a t-shirt and shorts. Usually he chooses the same t-shirt and shorts. When I arrived home Seth was searching for his shirt and shorts. He was having a difficult time finding them. So, I joined the search. Luckily for me...I found them. Hooray for the mom!!

After I found them, I brought the clothes to my wonderful son and he said.....

"Congratulations Mom!! You are a very useful woman!"

He's absolutely right of course. I am very useful....mostly for finding things I guess. :0)

The doctor

Rob has been gone for the last 6 days - 3 to Pastor's Retreat just north of us here in Alberta and 3 to Fond du Lac Wisconsin for Faye and Steve Daniels' wedding. He just returned home today and Spencer was VERY excited to see her Daddy. She kept running into his arms yelling, "You're home Daddy....you're home!" When everything settled down, she and her father had the following conversation:

Spencer: "Daddy, I'm gonna be a doctor."

Rob: "Really? That's nice. Will you take care of Daddy when he's sick?"

Spencer: "Nope."

Rob: Oh, why not?"

Spencer: "Cuz, I'm leaving right now."

Rob: "You're leaving to be a doctor right now?"

Spencer: "Yep."

Spencer left the room. Within 5 seconds she was back with her hand outstretched to say...

Spencer: " Dad, I need money!"

I so enjoy conversations like this one with my children. Conversations like this happen all the time. I need to take the time to really remember and enjoy these. I guess I also need to start saving for medical school. :0)

What to write???

February was a fast month. It seemed to go by in a flash. I was busy wrapping up a clinical session at the College, I was getting the house and the kids ready for Rob and I to go away, I was away on the cruise and then got back and had to immediately dive into another new clinical session. I feel like I hardly had the chance to breathe. So, now it's March and I haven't posted anything in weeks. So, you might be wondering what's new. So....here's the scoop...

Jonah was given an award this week at school. It is called the Timothy Award. It is awarded to one student from each class in the school who has shown outstanding Christian character over the school year. So, our young man [I want to say little boy - but he's not any more] was the recipient of this award for his class this year. He has a wonderful certificate which he is very proud of. We're proud of him too. Way to go Jo!!!

Seth is thrilled that his Mom and Dad are home. He struggles the most when life doesn't go according to the established routine. It is so great that he can now actually articulate how he feels. He has settled back into life easily and is enjoying his days. His class just had a skating field trip to Bower Ponds, a lovely park here in Red Deer that has wonderful outdoor skating facilities in the winter. They spent a morning last week outside skating and having a snack by the ponds. He told his teacher, "This was the best field trip EVER!!"

Lauren is already planning her birthday party. Her birthday is July 1st, but she has big plans and is already discussing her options. Right now she's choosing between taking a few friends to a movie, going bowling or having a party at home. She really wants to have friends from school so we likely will have the party before school is done for the summer. She wants to grow up so fast and it is a challenge to get her to enjoy being 7.

Spencer is a happy well adjusted 2 year old. She knows her own mind though and fought with her Grandpa about being toilet trained while we were away. I realize that many people are strict about toilet training. It's just not me. I figure that they won't graduate from high school wearing diapers so, when they're ready it will happen.

Rob has some exciting things coming up at work like a missions trip to Greece with the young adults this summer. So, he is on cloud 9 loving ministry. He wakes up every day excited to get to work and be part of what God's doing at CrossRoads and here in Central Alberta.

I am learning so much and even though I've had some difficult situations to work through, I can see that I'm growing and I really enjoy teaching. Watching nursing students grow in understanding and confidence is VERY rewarding for me. I am spending some of my $2500 of professional development money on a conference in Boston in May. So I'll be going with a few other instructors to Boston for the weekend, to learn how to be better at what we do. I'm looking forward to it.

On a darker note, my father was recently diagnosed with Prostate Cancer. It is in the early stages and he has decided to have surgery. So, he'll be having his surgery in April. I wish I was closer so that I could help out more once he gets home, but I won't be able to do that. Both he and my mom are happy that they have had such great care by their family doctor and the specialist and we are all very hopeful for a successful outcome. If you are so inclined, please pray for them, it is a stressful time.

Well, that's everything that's new with the Tannahills. Wishing you all a wonderful spring full of new opportunities.

The English Boy

Over the past few weeks I have been taking the time to make brunch for our family on Saturday mornings. It has become a wonderful family time. We get to share food that takes some additional time to prepare and is more special than the average morning breakfast, and most of all we sit and have time together. So over the last few weeks we have had bacon and eggs, pancakes, Eggs Benedict....well you get the idea.
This week I thought that I would do something different and I made French Toast. That is breakfast food I really like and it had been a really long time since we had enjoyed that.
So, I started making the French Toast and of course the aroma of the cinnamon and nutmeg started bringing little Tannahills from all over the house. Seth arrived in the kitchen at that time and the conversation went like this:
"Mom whatcha makin?"
"French Toast. Would you like some Seth?"
"No, I don't eat French Toast."
"Why not?"
"I don't eat French Toast because I'm english. I'm english Mom. Will you make me pancakes?"
So, we had French Toast and pancakes. :0)

For a boy that had little to no real self awareness a few years ago, I thought this was great understanding of self . It also shows that we need to do a little work around trying new foods!