Last night, we attended an event hosted by the Autism Society of Middle Tennessee – their Summer Opportunities Fair.  My youngest stepson, Q, is autistic and we are trying to make sure we stay aware of what resources are available for him.  Though he does not live with us, we want to be prepared for summertime visits. Let me tell you, this fair was AMAZING! I’ve already known that we have access to a plethora of services for him, but to be able to personally interact with representatives from all the agencies, non-profits, services, etc. that attended last night was so incredibly valuable.

Being that it was at the Children’s Hospital, Kaleya couldn’t pass up the opportunity to play on their outside statues.

Kaleya and a family friend

The grand staircase in the hospital is lovely.

kids on the staircase

Kaleya also loves the Butterfly Garden

Kaleya at the Butterfly Garden

And, then we say a cool Gingerbread Town – a holiday initiative done at the hospital.

GingerTown

Kaleya kept saying she wanted to eat it.

The Fair itself was held in the Theatre Room in the Children’s Hospital and the event was hosted by the Autism Society of Middle Tennessee and the Junior League Family Resource Center of the Children’s Hospital. There were many, many places represented and I couldn’t even begin to list them all.  Kalonji and I spoke to all but one of them I think! Among the attendees were representatives from camps, art programs, music therapy agencies, applied behavioral analysis therapies, various recreation activities, and research options. Kalonji collected every business card he could find – he is planning to volunteer with a few, and it is always good for him to have contact information for his work in our community.

not the best pic, but some of the material we picked up

Thank you to the hosts for a great & educational evening!

Updated the website today to use a new theme.  The old one used the theme New Balance of Blue and my header image had pictures of the kids from about 4 years ago.

The new on uses a theme called Picolight and I updated our family images. I added Social Media stream icons for Kalonji and I, along with a graphic for our Family Genealogy and for Kalonji’s store.

I’m quite pleased with the change.

Instead, I decided to go to Barnes & Noble, browse their cross-stitch magazines, and see if anything appealed to me.  Leave it up to my favorite stitching magazine, Cross Stitch Gold, to delight.  It was the first magazine I picked up and lo and behold, what was on the cover?  A geisha!

In case you didn’t know, I love geishas.  This design is called Dance of the Butterflies and is created by Lesley Teare.  The stitch count is 140w x 166h and the finished design size will be 10 x 12 inches.  I was originally going for something smaller, but I could not pass this up.  Too much geisha love in my heart.

So.. after working it over the weekend, here is my 1st progress picture.

Instead of black fabric, I elected to do mine on Tea colored fabric. I am not a fan of stitching on black and I wanted something other than white.  The Monaco is one of my 2nd-favorite fabric to stitch on (Lugana is first choice) , but it was all Hobby Lobby had in stock.

I’ll try to remember to post another update in a month. The plan is to work on this only for awhile, at least until I feel I am back in the swing of it. Of course, I’ll have to fit it in between my genealogy time, but this is such a great pasttime when watching television. Show of choice this weekend was the BBC Poirot series. I am a fan of the Hercule Poirot stories and have never seen them.  Season 1 is free on-demand for Amazon Prime members and I took full advantage of that!

On Saturday we went to a friend’s house for her annual holiday party for the families of kids she has kept over the  years.  She was Kaleya’s care provider for three years until Kaleya started school.

I have to say,  she had the most awesome GingerBread House ever – they decorated up their TV cabinet

the most awesome Ginger Bread House

Kaleya & friend inside the Ginger Bread House

Orange candles we made before the party - that was fun!

with all her kiddos!

Then, today,  we took a visit to the Frist Center for Visual Arts to see their Egyptian Treasures exhibit.  The exhibit was well done too – lots of interesting artifacts from Egypt.  There were some features I particularly liked – being able to download the audio tour, short movies throughout the gallery, and more — they helped give it a nice touch.  The exhibit will be there until January 8th, so if you’re local to the area you still have time to visit.

outside the Frist

beautiful coffin on display

kiddos out back

Kaleya

Now, unfortunately, it’s time to wind down and prepare for the week. At least it is a short one.

The Kindle Fire launched to much hype and for us it has very much lived up to it’s reputation.  As with all things technological, whether or not you like it really depends on personal preference.  But, we like it, use it daily, and I predict at least one more in our near future.

What I really like:

• the size – it’s smaller than an iPad; bigger than my smartphone. I think this is a perfect in-between size.  It can be held with one hand or two, and though a little on the heavy side, I got used to the weight quickly.
• access to Amazon digital content – nuff said!  We are Amazon Prime members and thus are able to take advantage of the movies and shows provided as part of that membership.
• Kindle — of course you can read the Kindle books. Having another device to read them on is handy.  I have been reading Kindle books for a couple of years now so now I have a perfect-sized screen to do it on
• no fear in letting the kids play with it – it’s right up their alley too. Can you say Angry Birds?

• not having a native app for gmail. But, you know what? I have that on my phone anyway, so I can deal.

We traveled with it over the Thanksgiving holiday and it is great for on-the-go. The Kindle Fire is just too handy to pass up! I’m so glad we have one.

Sweetness!! There are all kinds of goodies about this phone:

• it is the thinnest smartphone on the market. I kid you not, this thing is thin!
• a camera on the front of the phone (1.3 megapixel) and on the back (8 megapixel & 1080 HD video)
• 4G – so I am finally on the 4G network
• multitasking! i can be on the phone and on the internet at the same time
• 4.3 inch screen – nice and big
• a dual-core 1.2. GHz processor -stuff runs fast on it
• currently runs the Gingerbread OS, but will get upgraded to Ice Cream Sandwich in 2012.
• has an HDMI jack so when we do get a new TV next year, I’ll be able to port my phone to it

My 1st smartphone was the original Droid, which I got in November 2009 on the day it came out.  In Sept 2010, I got the hubby and I matching Samsung Fascinates.   I am so pleased to have another Droid though — there is just something cool about hearing that “Droid” sound play with new notifications; besides, the kids get a kick out of it too

Kaleya has been into Monster High recently, so we had a Monster High themed bday party.  Monster High is a collection of dolls with characters depicted as the children of famous monsters (e.g. Dracula, Frankenstein, etc.).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monster_High

We let the kids play outside for about an hour before having food and cake. They blew bubbles, played jump rope, chased each other — all the things that kids do.

After playing, the kids came inside for some snacks and then cake & ice cream.

The cake itself was a Monster High cake and Kaleya specifically wanted the piece that had Frankie’s face. (Frankie is the daughter of Frankenstein and Kaleya is going to dress like her for Halloween this year).

We also had a piñata to open.  Jihad was nice enough to stand on a chair and hold it while the kids took turn pulling one of the strings to see if they would get the one string that would open it.  Kaleya went first, but she didn’t get the right string.  Several kids later – it was found and boy did they scramble to get their treats.

Awesome does not even describe how much fun it was to watch them.  Shortly after, the kids begin to leave.  Thank you all so much for coming to spend the time with us and Kaleya.  What a great birthday!

Of course I have even more pictures than what I’ve shared in this post. You can find them here.

Then, last night, my colleagues and I had a FABULOUS dinner at Boll Weevil Cafe and Sweetery.

Despite the name, the food was delicious! But you know what was even better than the food? THE CAKE!  omg. we split up three different types of cakes between us and they all tasted good. We were told even Paula Dean has given her stamp of approval so you know it must be good (and must be really bad for you – have you seen how much butter she adds to her food???!)  LOL

After dinner, one of my colleagues and I decided to walk around historic Downtown Augusta. The first Friday of each month they do an Art Walk and so we knew there would be stuff to see.  Augusta’s Art Walk was quite different than Nashville’s.   As one of my coworkers pointed it, it has an almost Nawlins feel to it – just how there are so many people hanging out in the streets.  I was not expecting however to encounter zombies.

We had a nice time walking around and just people watching. We passed members of the local roller girls team, the Soul City Sirens.  They have an upcoming bout so even though I won’t be here I’ll root for them since they’re not playing against Nashville.

We wandered in and out of stores and saw a neat honeycomb structure made of rolled up book pages at the Book Tavern.

On the streets we went by a local music group that was being showcased by the Augusta Public Library. Props to the library for interesting programming.

The best part of the evening was at Club Tropicabana though.   As we were walking by earlier in the evening they told us about free Salsa lessons at 9.  Apparently, they do this every Friday.  So, we went, and it was so much fun!  Towards the end the steps/moves started to get a little tricky, but maybe next time I’ll pick it up better. Now, I must find some place in Nashville to do it.

Do you think I’d be good enough one day to do Salsa like this?

Just a couple of pictures from our outing. We had a nice visit.

Kaleya next to the water

I like the glow on her face on this one.

And, a short video clip of her feeding them.

Then, we were off to the playground.

Next to the slide.

on the playground apparatus

pretty among the flowers