Water Leaking

Just when life seems to be tough I guess more gets thrown at you. We now have a leak somewhere in our pipes that is causing a major hassle and leak. We are trying to find a place that we can move into while this problem is getting fixed. Our house totally stinks since they opened a wall yesterday. If anyone knows of anything that in the area please let me know. We have to stay in Sac City Unified School District for Dylan so he can continue to get all of his current services. Thanks ahead of time. Also think good thoughts for us. This is a major inconvenience.

Internet is up and running:)

A few of you know that our Internet has been a pain for the past 10 months. AT&T finally figured out what the problem was and it seems to be fixed. We were having to use our cell phones to make the DSL connect again. I guess there was something wrong at the box where all the lines run to. The technician explained it to me with tons of technical terms. Phone lines fascinate me. Have you ever thought about how they work? It's kinda crazy when you think about it. I am so grateful for inventions. Too bad I can't think of something great that I can pass onto to benefit others.........

Therapy Session........

Dylan's stander aka torture device, just kidding, it's a piece of therapy equipment that helps Dylan "weight bear" and stand up, broke. Since it is broken I have to do all his weight bearing activities by holding him upright. He is a wiggly worm so it is always interesting when we do this. Dylan didn't complain too much. He actually tolerated the "session" really well. Just a few minor stressors happened.

Dylan standing up with support. I know you guys are probably asking yourself, " Does Dylan ever wear pants?". The answer is yes, it's just easier to put his leg braces on without pants. They get a tighter fit. Dylan is getting such a big boy. He is half my size in height. He is going to be a big kid.

A few laughs...........Dylan has come a long ways although he has had regression in the past year. Kalen and I truly believe it's due to the lack of therapy sessions. Some might say that Dylan is not going to progress much farther, but we believe that he will. He just has to be given the chance. I wonder how many other kids are categorized into the "we can't help them much more" pile.

It's a lot of work holding Dylan in an upright position. Dylan and I enjoy the time together working on his exercises.

An afternoon at the Park

Most days after work Kalen take Brianna to one of the parks around our house. We are lucky to have 2 by us. Dylan and I decided to join Kalen and Brianna. We have lots of fun. Here are some pics from our trip last Monday afternoon. Brianna loves to go on the swing and the slides. Dylan loved "4-wheeling" in the grass. We did put him in the swing but there wasn't a lot of support for him to sit in the seat. We do have a special needs park somewhat close to us so hopefully one of these days we can make it down there. I don't think people realize how much having a special needs child can affect everyday things like going to the park.


Brianna loves to swing high.


Dylan loved being outside. He is such a happy boy. I wish people would treat him like any other child, by interacting with him. He may be nonverbal but he still likes attention. It was a fun family trip to the park!

"More high", Brianna says.

Once of Kalen and Brianna's rituals when they go to the park is to run to the fence that is near by. We made it a race. I pushed Dylan and daddy carried Brianna. They won. Everyone had a good laugh.

Our big girl Brianna. Her shirt says, "Daddy's Little Angel". She was an angel until it was time to go home. She wasn't to pleased that it was time to pack up.


Me and Dylan! I love him so much.

Daddy and Brianna. She wouldn't stop wiggling or smile for the camera. She was having one of her two year old fits.

Although she threw a fit, we had a really fun family activity. We hope to have more trips to the park as a family.

Lake Tahoe Marathon

As many of you know, I spent this past summer training for the Lake Tahoe Marathon. I started training back in June. I felt so much more confident and knowledgeable this year than last year. I guess it was because I knew what to expect. Well have three months of training it was off to Tahoe. My parents and Brianna and I went up on Thursday afternoon so we could check in for the house we rented. It was such a cool house. I can't believe that we didn't take any pictures except of the one of me below marathon morning. The house was on a golf course. It was beautiful. Brianna loved watching the geese. Kalen, Dylan and Stephanie made it up on Friday. Both Kalen and Dylan were sick so they came up later than expected. I'm glad that they made it up though. I wasn't too nervous but as Friday went by I was getting more excited and nervous for the marathon. When I'm nervous I can't eat because my tummy has so many butterfiles that I think I'll get sick. It's hard when I know I was going to be running a marathon and should be loading up on calories. Anyhow....we ate at this great Italian resturant that was close to the house we were at. It was so good and yummy. Brianna even ate all of the food. She doesn't do too well out in public when it comes to eating. After dinner we headed back and waited for the rest of our group to arrive. I had to run, not literally, to the store. As I was leaving it started to hail. Not a good sign when I have to run in the morning. Little did I know I would have a surprise when I woke up Saturday morning.
After a pretty good nights sleep, I couldn't believe that I slept so well, I got up at 5:30am. I was in pretty good spirits.


Getting ready to get in the car. It was so cold up in Tahoe. Little did we know that it snowed Friday night. As Kalen and I open the front door we see snow. I thought this race is going to be crazy. I had never run in snow before or weather that cold. It was in the 30's when we left the house for Kalen to drop me off at the shuttle bus pickup. I thought I was going to freeze to death while I waited to get on the heated shuttle bus to take me to the start line in Tahoe City. We were in South Lake Tahoe. After a nice bus ride........nothing to hold on to and there was back ice on the road, plus snow, we made it to the starting area. The course at the beginning had to change a little because of the snow. I couldn't wait for the race to begin. I knew that my fmaily would be soon following me along the marathon route. At 8:30am the race began........it was so hard to run. There was ice and snow all over the road. We run south along HWY 89 and it was an aboslute nightmare. I really had to pay attention to my footing so I wouldn't slip. I was pretty close to my targeted pace. I was pretty happy since it was so cold and slippery.


The family found me. It was so nice to cheering a squad. Running a marathon is a lot more mental than physical. There were times that I was getting teary eyed but when I saw my family it gave me the strength to go on. I'm not sure what mile these pics were taken at, but they are along the race between mile 7 and mile 16. I'm feeling pretty good in the pic above or at least able to smile:)

My dad and my sister-in-law's brother, Michael Fry. He was up supporting some of his friends who were also running in the race.

There are some awful hills during the course of the Lake Tahoe Marathon. Runners have to climb 520' in about 1.5 miles. The altitude is really hard to deal with on that hill for me. I felt like I was going to pass out if I stopped so I just kept going. Kalen took this pic of one of the signs that are along the monsterous hill. At the top of the hill it is considered heaven, because you don't have to climb anymore insane hills for awhile.

Brianna loved to say,"Go Mommy. Mommy fast." She's still saying it and it's been two weeks since the marathon. She's so funny. I love have my own cheerleader:) We loved having Stephanie come up with us. She was a great help with the kids.

Yes that is snow on the ground. I told you I wasn't lying. There was still snow on the ground when I finished. It was a pretty chilly day.

After 5 hours and 44 minutes of running. I finished the marathon. I was so happy. My knee went out around mile 20 so I had to walk a lot of the last 6 miles. I did knock off a 1/2 hour off my time from last year. Yeah! but for me just finishing the race is what I wanted to do and I did it. Here's the link for my results of the race http://www.milliseconds.com/ResultsIndividual.php?varParticipantRecID=183&varRaceID=999

Kalen wanted me to smile and all I wanted to do was eat orange slices, take off my shoes, enjoy my accomplishment, eat, eat, and eat and of course take a nap.

Dylan goes boom

Okay so we know this isn't the best position that Dylan is sitting in but he was sitting how he knows how to for a few minutes. Dylan is making lots of progress. Besides sitting in this pic, he ate a chicken nugget finely chopped for the first time in years. He had minimal gagging at first but then enjoyed eating the nugget. Kalen and I are so excited because it is opening a whole new world for Dylan. Dylan typically eats "soft-mechanical" foods. For those of you who don't know what that term means, it is in regards to food that are soft in texture that are fairly easy to eat without a lot of chewing required. Such foods are applesauce, mac & cheese, oatmeal, etc. I'm pretty sure you guys got the idea.

Yeah Dylan is sitting! If we can now get him to use his arms to "weight bear". But we are really pleased at the progress he is making.

Dylan looking at mommy. Some of you might not know that Dylan's visual impairment causes him to hold his back head sometimes. His vision is the strongest at the sides or up. So if you happen to talk to him or want to show him something those are the best places to present something to him.

And Dylan went boom. After he was done eating, Dylan fell to the side. He always thinks it's funny. By the way....I don't know what happened to his pants.

Go SEAHAWKS

Grandma Vicki Bjurstrom bought our family Seattle Seahawks football attire. Dylan and Daddy were wearing their jerseys. Brianna and I haven't "sported" ours yet. Kalen is a true Seahawks fan. For those of you that don't know, Kalen was born in Washington. He's been pleased that the Seahawks have played pretty well the past couple of seasons. So if the Seahawks are playing you can guess what we are doing at our house.

SEAHAWKS are #1!

Dylan and Daddy

My two favorite guys. They sure put a smile on my face. Dylan is such a sweet little boy. I wish more people would take the time and effort to get to know him. He is so special! Kalen's a pretty good guy too. He's up there on my list of favorite people:)

Dylan loves his flowers. I'm glad that we found a toy that he turly enjoys.

Dylan was trying to figure out what was going on with the flash from the camera. We sure do enjoy the time that we get to spend with Dylan.

I know I know.....

At the request of many people I will start posting again. Life has just been super busy. Hopefully within the next couple of days I'll have more posts on our blog.