The Bachelor

Mitch thought this day would never come, but it finally did.

He is officially a bachelor.

Of science, that is.

There were some days in his junior high career when I wondered if he would make it through eighth grade. I never even dared to dream of college for that kid.

But one day, he grew up, and started remembering to turn in his homework.

And here we are, four or so years later, proud as parents can be.

We all got up at five in the a.m. this morning to make it to Weber State's graduation at the ungodly hour of eight a.m.

We were all on time, even Mitch.

Here he is on his way into graduation, being greeted by one of his professors.

 And here he is with the lovely Ria, who has put up with him the past couple of  years, while going to school herself.

That is the face of a guy who is slowly realizing he has no more papers to write or projects to complete or stupid gender studies classes to sit through.

 We were glad that Grandma and Grandpa got up early and came too. They helped him out so much through the years, when his car broke down, and with many encouraging words and steak dinners. Between the university ceremony and the department ceremony, they took us to breakfast at Sills. 

And Grandpa Dan made an appearance at the department commencement. That was a great surprise, and a long drive for him.

Because we are dorky parents, and because he loves us, he obliged us with the traditional tossing of the cap

After all the pomp and circumstance was over, Grandma Sally and Grandpa Dee were pooped and headed for home. Grandpa Dan took us diehards out for dinner at the  Prairie Schooner. We had our own covered wagon to eat in, and the best steak I ever had.

Sadly, we also had a bloody ketchup massacre at dinner when a ketchup bottle attacked Grandpa without warning. Somehow, flying ketchup got all over Grandpa, all over the canvas wagon cover, and even all over the buffalo hide that was hanging up outside our table, about five feet away.

There were no survivors.

TJOA Day 28 Are We Done Yet

In all honesty, coming up with something to say about autism every day for a month is hard.
Some days, the only thing that fits is a well placed "dammit!"

TJOA Day 27 Empathy

Normally on our morning drive to the mill, Duncan is very quiet.  Today however, after a few failed attempts on my part to get him engaged in a conversation, he said, " I'm sorry, I'm just a little depressed this morning."

Well, THAT was more intimate conversation than he had made all week. I asked him what the bad news was, nervous about what he would say.

" The new Zelda game for Wii U, that was supposed to come out in 2016 has been delayed until 2017."

Oh good. Nothing earth shattering. I mean, oh no. Totally devastating from Duncan's view.  So I empathized with him and asked a few pertinent questions. He was totally engaging and animated all the way to work, telling me how frustrated he was, and how angry the situation made him. Because HE was invested in the conversation.

Today  I learned that we both need to work on our social skillz.

TJOA Day 22

It occurred to me today that I haven't heard a good laugh out of Duncan in a long time. He has the most contagious laugh.  I miss that. These days he chuckles at things more than he really laughs.  I am feeling the need of a good old, rip roaring belly laugh out of that boy.

I'll have to see what I can do about that this weekend.

TJOA Day 21- Golden

Sometimes, it's frustrating having a kid as silent as Duncan. Sometimes I feel like all I do is drill him for answers to my questions. Sometimes trying to start a conversation with him is like trying to milk a duck.

Sometimes though, in a world that never stops yammering, silence is refreshing.

TJOA Day 19

A small miracle at our house tonight- Olivia voluntarily ate a banana. And liked it. She had to cut off the ends to make it more palatable, but she ate the whole thing.

I don't think Duncan has voluntarily eaten a fruit or vegetable in his life. He knows he has to routinely scarf down a minimal amount of produce to keep his mother happy, but he never enjoys it. He would honestly rather just be hungry than eat a tomato or a pepper. And fruit is no better.

If it was up to Duncan, I think every day for the rest of his life would consist of the following menu:

Breakfast- Reeses Puffs cereal with milk

Lunch -Peanut butter sandwich on white bread, no jam. Orange juice. Chips and a few Oreo cookies

Dinner- Hamburger, ketchup only,  hold the pickles and onions  Or cheese pizza. With rootbeer.

Dessert- Mint chocolate chip or cookies and cream ice cream.

Maybe I should let him do the meal planning around here for  a week or two.

So Many Sights to See

I know, I know, Time is running short and we need to put together a comprehensive review of our trip to Washington D.C. before we forget everything. But, come on.  There are. So many pictures. It is a daunting task. I shall try to be worthy of my post.

We flew into Baltimore on a red eye then took a six a.m. train from the airport there to Union Station,  in Washington D.C. I got off the train and looked behind me into the greatest moving mass of human life I have ever seen. The platform of the train was about 15 feet wide, and the entire platform was shoulder to shoulder people, all moving in the same direction. We were all woozy from lack of sleep, and I was sure that if I lost sight of my own people, I would never see them again. I would be swept up into that crowd of humanity and carried off into the great unknown. Fortunately, I did not lose my people. We went with the flow, since there was nothing else we could do, and somehow made our way in to the station and found breakfast and a metro ticket. Us country  hicks had no idea how to buy a metro card or how to get on the metro or even which direction we needed to go. People are kind every where you go though, and through the kindness of strangers, we actually managed to make it to downtown Arlington VA, where we were staying. They had donuts and bananas in the lobby, and a comfy couch, which we promptly passed out on while we waited for our hotel room to be ready.

After we got settled into our room and took a power snooze, we hit the metro again for Arlington National Cemetery.  Took a tour bus ( much recommended- that place is HUGE) and saw all the sights. JFK, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier with the changing of the guards and a wreath laying ceremony, a view of the Pentagon, amazing views of DC, Robert E. Lee's home, a civil war memorial, and probably a lot of other stuff that I am already forgetting about. Then we walked from the entrance to Arlington Cemetery, across the bridge to the Lincoln Memorial, then down along the Vietnam Memorial, past the WWII Memorial all the way to the Washington Monument. Then we kept on going to the Smithsonian metro stop. If you have been to Washington DC, you will understand how insanely far that is. What can I say? We were sleep deprived, and none of it looked that far away. We learned very quickly that just because a famous monument looks like it is just right there, it really isn't. In reality, it is miles and miles and MILES away.

When our feet were on the verge of falling off, we took on the metro again, and miraculously made it back to Pentagon City where we ate barbecue at the mall before dragging our tired bodies to bed.

Friday April 1. We took on the Supreme Court building, found Union Station again where we ate lunch, then had a tour of the Capitol Building.  So much to see, you could spend a week there and not see it all.  So much art and achitecture and history.  I have to go back someday. We may have toured the air and space museum this day as well, which was also chock full of things to see and not enough time to see them all.

that right there is the Supreme court

Saturday April 2, Got up early to make it to Ford's Theate in hopes of getting into a tour. After a short wait in the rain, we made it in. There is a fantastic museum there with all kinds of cool artifacts. I could have spent the day there, but then you get to go up to the theatre and see a two man play about the night of Lincoln's assasination. They have his box seats set up the way they were that night. Being there was a check off the old bucket list for sure. There was a long line to get in to see the house across the street where he actually died, but we passed on waiting in the rain for that. Then we walked down to the south side of the White House only to find out it was all roped off. So then we headed to the National Archives and got in to see the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. They are huge. They are also very faded, which is sad. Someday you won't be able to read them at all any more. Could have spent all day in there as well (are you sensing a theme?) but we had to beat it down the road to meet up with Alisa and the gang. How weird is it that we would just happen to be in DC on the VERY SAME DAY? We had lunch, then we went to the American History museum, then back to the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument. More walking walking walking, but being with Alisa and her peeps  made it fun. They are such a great group.

After we parted ways with them, we went back to the front of the White House, met a charming squirrel in Lafayette Park, and got up close and personal with about a million other people who were there taking pictures. I was very bummed that we did not get a tour of the White House. Another reason to go back again someday.

Sunday April 3- stayed in our hotel room and watched conference- NOT. Faked y'all out, right? Sunday we went to the National Gallery of Art, which may have been my favorite. Then we went to the Jefferson Memorial, took in what was left of the cherry blossoms, (which, by the way, are ONLY around the Jefferson Memorial) walked down the way and saw Martin Luther King and FDR Memorials.

Monday April 4- Mount Vernon. Took the metro to the end of the line then hopped on a bus that took us out to Mt. Vernon. Those DC folks have transportation down pat, I tell ya. It was all so easy.
Mt. Vernon is simply stunning. The views, the history, the gardens, the museums and displays- THE VIEWS. I could have spent the day just sitting on the back porch, taking in the view of the river.

George's view from his back porch

George and Martha

planted by George Washington himself

Tuesday April 5- on our way out of town, we killed a few hours at the Postal Museum, which was actually really cool. This museum is right next to Union Station AND they have free lockers for all you stuff, so it is a fun spot to wait for your train out of town. We saw the anthrax letter from 2001. I never thought much about how important the postal service was back in the day when it was the only way to get info around.

my crush, Ben Franklin