Moms Retreat!

First a quick update on Joey. He just finished a three week session of Tomatis (listening therapy). He now babbles a ton more and moves so much. He moves so much that he has fallen out of bed a few times. I now have 2 rails up, so far so good. He has been going to an AAC clinic at CSUN. This is so we can find a communication device for him. Nothing yet, still working on it. We leave in a couple weeks to Arizona for ABM therapy for Joey. Then when we return he begins 1st grade.

I have picked Jessica and Jack up from sleep away camp this last weekend. My house is a mess again and the amount of noise has increased 10 fold. Jack started football and is rocking it. Jessica will start softball in a few weeks. School starts for all kids at the end of August. We are also in the process of remodeling our downstairs bathroom and bedroom. We are making the bathroom larger and handicap accessible. When it is all done, we will move Joey downstairs. This should help prolong my back from falling on me.

In October I am going to meet up with an incredible group of women. I am going to Seattle WA on a moms retreat. However this is not just a regular retreat. All these incredible moms live the same life I do. We all have a child that had a Near-drowning. Ok so a little back story about our retreat. All of us moms constantly talk over facebook about out lives and kids. When we are deep in our conversations it feels very normal to us. These mommies understand our lives like no other person could understand. They live our life, our happiness, our sadness, our daily emotional and physical struggles. So finally after a lot of talking and a lot of planning, a couple women decided it was time for a gathering of the mommies. Last year we had our first retreat. One mother did most of the work. She made sure we had everything we needed. We did not have to pay for anything. With help from her friends, they provided the transportation to and from the airport (about 1.5 hr drive) and all our food. We had such a great time, we laughed a lot and cried a lot. We stayed up way to late and woke up way to early. It was such a great trip no one want to leave. The 12 woman that went formed a bond that will last an eternity.

This year we are having our 2nd retreat. We have 18 mommies going this year. Some of these mommies have NEVER left their ND child (hard to trust someone to take care of them). They are coming from all over the country. We want to make sure that these new mommies have the same wonderful experience that we all had. So I am asking for your help. Some of the things we need for our retreat is food money and gas money. We could use gift cards to any gas station and money donations. We are looking to raise about $1500. This will cover all our food, a night out on the town, game prizes and gift baskets. If you can help make our retreat something we will never forget we will be forever grateful. Our retreat this year is Oct. 21st-24th. You can mail donations to me or donate through the donate tab on Joey's website.

Thank You all for being there for Joey and I. Have a great Summer!