We Survived.

Can't say that much for my dining room table. It is COVERED in food. I feel like we got more junk this year-I *think* because my children gave, and in turn received, no less than THIRTY packages of crap to and from their friends. It was a little scary.


My table.

Benjie and his brother David on Purim night

Jakie who decided at the last minute to be a Cubs player instead of a Bears player. I tell you, my kids are very original.

Shana the Kitty Cat, my niece Nava the rubber ducky, and my nephew Gavi the bathing beauty
Two more bathing beauties, Miri and Tari. The theme of their family's mishloach manos (food package)? A day at the spa. It was way cute. Nice job, Rochie.

Seriously? How cute are they?

Nice pose, Jakes

Shana is OBSESSED with her tail. It's really soft and silky so she keeps rubbing it on her cheek :)

And if wearing that darned costume for a day and a half wasn't enough, she informed me that her teacher told her they could dress up today as well. I sent her school uniform in her bag. The costume is a bit..ahem...dirty.

I realize there are no pics of Dovi! He's wearing his costume today as well, so I'll grab a few this afternoon and put them up. But, shockingly, he's a Cubs player too. I know, astounding. P family kids? sports obsessed? nah.

Benjie took the kids delivering in the morning from 10:30ish until 12:45. I stayed home and cleaned the house and rolled eighteen rolls of sushi for the seudah (dinner). Then they all came home for lunch, ate more junk, and I took them out for another 45 minutes to finish up. We had some nice quiet time until our seudah at 4:30, and we were home by 9pm.

Then, of course, Benjie and I ended up watching a movie from 9:15-11:50 (seriously the most bizarre times! What was Encore Movie Channel thinking?). So I didn't go to bed until after midnight. Must. go. to. sleep. early. tonight. Benjie is going to the Blackhawks game so I hope to be tucked in by 9:30. Will report in tomorrow.

If you must know, the movie was A Time To Kill, and I definately think Matthew Mcconaughey looks much hotter in that movie than now all overmuscled. OK it's time to stop typing now. Obviously I'm very tired.

Happy Purim Everyone!!!

What do you get when you combine an extremely cheap thrifty woman and Purim?

You get this!


This is what the paper reads:

It was Pre Purim Pandemonium at the P Family Pad, and the P Parents were Perplexed.

Perchance, Pwhat Pwould be a Perfect Purim Package?

Pondering the Problem, the P Parents Pdecided to Partake of Popcorn, Pudding, and a Package of Pink Punch in a Petite Pail.

A Partyingng Purim, Peeps!

Pfrom,

The P People

Not Me! Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.









I wasn't sure if I was going to do this but I figured, why the heck not??

So....

Remember the vomit shoes? I would NEVER still be wearing them.

I would not have decided by now that the vomit has simply worn off on its own.

On Saturday night, I did NOT drive to four different Jewels looking for a specific item(s).

I did not find out upon arriving home that I had received an email that said four stores did NOT have the item.

I am not a spaz.

I am not done with my Mishloach Manos for Purim. I am not sure that I have forgotten something major because I never have it together like this.

I am not majorly regretting agreeing to take my family to a Purim party at 8:30 on Monday night.

I am not sure that it will totally, 100% result in incredibly crabby kids on Purim day.

My husband did not just spill a bag of garbage on the floor.

I am not ignoring him and typing rather than helping him.

I did not go to the same lovely Purim carnival at my kids' school twice today.

I did not do this because the boys had a birthday party in the morning and Shana had one in the afternoon and they all wanted to go to the carnival.

I am not way too indulgent that I subjected myself to that carnival, not once, but twice.

Lacking cash, I did not have to write three checks to the school, for $6, $4, and $4 respectively, as the kids needed more and more tickets to waste more money play more carnival games.

I am not looking forward to Wednesday and all the Purim madness being OVER!

What about you? How was your week?

An Addendum

I was just told that my previous post was...ahem...a little...shocking? thought provoking? controversial?

I want to clarify.

Firstly, you can link back here to another post I wrote about this topic.

Now, let me explain a little more. I kind of pounded out the previous post and just hit publish without thinking of how it could be misconstrued.

I love my Dovalah more than live itself. He is my gift from G-d. He is magnificent. But he suffers every day, and mothers want nothing more than to take away the hurt from their children.

Selfishly, I wish I could be a "normal" mom, and not the person who people talk about. "Did you hear that Sara's son Dovi is in the hospital again?" "Did you hear that Sara's son Dovi's blood pressure is 8 million over 3 million?"

Now granted, I put myself out there with this lovely blog. But this blog is not called Sara's Life, it's called Dovi's Life. It was originally started because all my siblings live out of town and I got darn sick of telling the same Dovi medical information over and over. So the blog was born and has kinda grown from there.

But wanting Dovi to be healthy, and being at peace with the fact that G-d for some reason unbeknown to me wanted Dovi to have FD are two drastically different things.

I wish that he didn't have FD. I would give up ANYTHING, and I mean ANYTHING in my entire lifetime for him not to have FD. But that is not reality. He does have FD. And my wanting him not to have FD will not change that he does. I will never understand the why. But I can hate the what.

And that is fine with me.

Make sense?

Liars.

So yesterday I read an article online by a mother of a child with special needs.

She was talking about the blessings of her child. How she had met people she would have never met, had experiences she would never have had, etc., by having her child with disabilities.

She went on by saying that she would not have it any other way.

I have one thing to say to her.


You are a liar.


You cannot, in any way, shape, or form, convince me, as a special needs mom, that I would not make Dovi "normal", given the chance.

Given the chance, why on earth would I NOT want my son to suffer? To struggle?

Given the chance, why on earth would I NOT want my life, the life of my husband, and my other children, turned upside down and inside out?

Yes, I've met people I would never have. But darn it, my wonderful friend Peta who I met at the therapy clinic ten years ago! when her daughter Elaina and my Dovi had PT and OT at alternating times...I would be very happy to not know you, and I'm sure you feel the same way, if Dovi and Elaina were healthy.

So, mom who would not want it any other way...

Really?

You enjoy having a child who needs ten medications to survive?
You think a g-tube is a preferred way to eat?
You think your child enjoys struggling to communicate?
You enjoy financial struggles due to extreme expenses for your child?
You enjoy IEPs where you need to fight for every.little.thing.?
and on. and on. and on.

Really?

C'mon.

I don't believe you.

Purim Pandemonium....

Aack!
Purim is in less than a week!

For those of you who don't know what Purim is, follow this link. The English date this year is Monday night/Tuesday.

Purim is FUN for kids and FRANTIC for the parents.

We have to:

• deliver 8 million food packages to our nearest and dearest. And they must be fancy.
• dress our kids up in costume
• hear the megillah (Scroll of Esther) read two times
• eat a festive meal
• take the kids to see their teachers/friends and deliver their food packages.
  

All in one hectic 24 hour period.

Well this year I PROTEST!

My packages, while cute and clever, are certainly NOT fancy. Remember my crazy food stockpile? No, no, I'm not giving my friends diced tomatoes, but they are getting something from the scary slasher basement. You'll get to see the poem I wrote. I think I'll post it on Monday.

My kids' costumes? Luckily, by the time they hit about 6, all boys want to be are sports players. Dovi and Elisha are Cubs players. They both own Cubs jerseys and baseball pants. Elisha is currently trying to convince me that he needs to get a new $75 jersey so he can be a specific Cubs player and not just wear his jersey with no name on the back. Umm...no. Sorry. Jakie? Bears player. Dovi owns a bears jersey and in all reality, what's the difference between baseball pants and football pants? So he'll wear his little league pants. Shana is being a cat. I suspect that might have something to do with the fact that her older cousin was a cat last year. She'll wear black leggings, a black t shirt, black skirt, and ears/tail/mask from a costume store that cost a whopping $9. So life is good.

My kids are giving their friends popcorn and hershey's chocolate. Hopefully many of them will come to us and we can give to them rather than go to them.

Festive meal? Going to friend. But I am making stuff. If only she tells me what to make!

Take kids to teachers? Oh well need to do it. Such is life.

Oh yeah! I need to actually GET stuff for the teachers. Oops. Must get on that.

Now I'm feeling more stressed instead of less stressed. Oy.

Apologies, Apologies

No, no, nothing's wrong. I've just been a little busy (I know, how dare I!)

My mom came in on Friday morning and left Monday morning afternoon. It took her almost twelve hours to travel by plane from Chicago to Philadelphia, thanks to the lovely snow that hit the eastern seaboard. She could have driven in the same length of time!

Either way, while she was in town there was no time to post-much fun to be had, shopping to do, and restaurants in which to dine. It cracks me up-my kids associate Savta (Grandma in Hebrew) coming with dining out! We very rarely dine out otherwise-I'm too much of a cheapy :)

So that brings us to Tuesday,and shockingly, no posts since last Thursday.

Really, nothing too exciting has gone on, with the exception of one thing. Thank G-d, Dovi's back to his normal self and strep has not hit us again. yet. We had a small scare with Benjie on Sunday morning, but he just has a big honking canker sore on one of his tonsils.

Back to our one exciting thing.

Sunday night was the Keshet Dinner. If you're new here, Keshet is Dovi's school that he's gone to for the past five years. Keshet means rainbow in Hebrew. The slogan (is that the right word?) of the school is "A Rainbow of Hope for Children with Special Needs". So every year there is a big, and I mean huge (1300+ people!) gala fundraising dinner, attending by many many dignitaries and movers and shakers :)

Before many Jewish dinners, the ceremonial blessing over the bread is made. Every year, a Keshet child is invited, with a "buddy", to make the blessing. This year, it was none other than the studly Dovi P with his friend Jake. Enjoy the pictures.


Here they are, all ready to go. I didn't realize how much taller Jake is than D!


You're missing out on the cute bead of drool coming out of the left corner of D's mouth.

There is also entertainment at the dinner. The Keshet integrated choir always performs, and for the past two years, there has been an additional headliner performing with the kids. Leas tyear it was Dennis DeYoung, the dude from Stix. Let me tell you, there is nothing more trippy than hearing a bunch of special needs kids warbling "Come Sail Away".

This year, we had someone that will make all women ages 29-39 scream with glee.

Recognize this guy?


C'mon, think hard.

Endless Summer Nights?
Satisfied?
Right Here Waiting?

Ahh, now you've got it.

It seems that Richard Marx attending high school with the executive director of Keshet.

So she snagged him. I must say that he has aged nicely. No more bouffant.

He sang Endless Summer Nights, albeit at a different tempo than usual, and Right Here Waiting. Benjie mocked me as I sang along to both. It took me back to Sunday mornings, listening to the Casey Casum America's Top 40 on 94 WKTI on my Walkman...

After he sang on his own, he sang a new song with the Keshet choir. Ready to Fly or some such thing.

Then the Keshet kids sang a few songs, including We Are Family and some others. Frankly, I don't even remember what they sang, because I was concentrating too hard on kneeling down in the front with the other Keshet parents while wearing three inch heels and screaming Dovi's name while waving frantically and trying to snap pictures. Remember my new camera? Well I still have not gotten a bigger memory card than the one it comes with that holds...ahem...13 pictures, so I had to take a picture, check if it was good, and delete if it wasn't.

I'm not sure why they are so dark-I used my flash but whatevs. I'm sure Amy or Gretchen can tell me exactly what I did wrong. Either way. Enjoy.

Dovi is flanked by two of his best friends, Seth and Josh, two absolutely lovely Schechter kids who are so wonderful to Dovi. His other friend David is somewhere in the back. They are so wonderful to him that I want to cry every time I see them and their parents, and hug the mothers. They are Dovi's real friends. My dreams have come true. Cry too if you'd like. It's worth it.




Waving some type of banner, not even sure why. But it was cute.