All good things must come to an end

well our little sail boat is in the process of being put away for the season.


We spent most of last winter trying to come up with a name for our little lady, nothing seemed to fit, what I liked Jack didn't and what Jack liked I didn't. That is until one day when I was in a scrap booking store and I pulled out a page that said "Just add water", so I bought the page and showed it to Jack and he liked it too.... So our little lady's name is "Just Add Water"


Kyla had a hard time when we had gusty wind and the boat would heel quickly, but is getting better. We realized toward the end of the season that kyla didn't like it when ever I went up on the bow to hoist the sail. we won't have that problem next year... we are getting a roller furling system & a main sail hoisting system where I will be able to hoist all the sails from the cock pit. I think that will make Kyla feel a lot more at ease.

Next year for our vacation we are planning on trailering our boat up to the north channel and sail for a week with the trailer association.

we would travel north to saute saint Marie Ontario Then east to a little town called Spanish where we will meet up with the group of fellow sailors that we will be cruising with for the next week or so. we will put up our mast, boom and rigging in order to be ready to launch our boat.

Here are just a few pic's of the beauty we will be seeing while we are there.

Looking forward to a new adventure!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

An evening at the symphony

Last night was the first night of the symphony season.



Last nights concert was entitled " The magical music of Disney"
It was a perfect symphony to take Kyla to see! She enjoyed all the music.

She herd songs from:

• The Little Mermaid
• Mary Poppins
• Beauty and the Beast
• Aladdin
• The Lion King

To name just a few!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


As you can see we had great seats.
When we got there Kyla saw the concession stand which consisted of cookies, candy & stuff to drink, she promptly said the she wanted a hot dog.
so when we got out it was 10:00 , We made several wrong turns trying to get out of all the new changes in the down town area. Well to make a long story short , we ended up on the east belt line, so Jack took us to the corner bar in Rockford, they are famous for there hot dogs.
Kyla was a happy camper!!!!!

Praying Bugs and stuffed animals

Well we started the day out by finding a Praying Mantis.


A rare find.


Another rare find,
We went out for pizza at our favorite pizza place in Kent City,when we were done eating Kyla tried to win a stuffed animal, Well this time she hit the jack pot!!!


Kyla puts a quarter in the arcade claw game, and she got the puppy, then she put in another quarter and would you believe that she won again!!! Today was her lucky day!!!!!

What a difference a day makes

What a difference a day can make. Last week Friday Kyla had to have some dental work done, but because she has so many phobias and fears we have to do it in a medical setting.
So I dragged myself and then her out of bed at 5:00 a.m. in order to get her to St. Mary's Hospital by 6:00 a.m. But on the way I had to stop at Big B coffee to get my much needed A.M. coffee jump start!!!


After checking in we had to Wait in the waiting room for about 10 minutes.

Then they brought us back to Kyla's room, where she changed into her lovely surgical gown

Then she met Theresa one of the nurses who would be taking care of her before and after surgery.

Getting ready to take her vitals and putting on the heart monitors.

Dr. Burdo is one of only 2 dentist I understand in the state of Michigan that dose dental work for special needs patients under general anesthesia. We were very lucky to find him, he is a very kind and gentle man who has true empathy for his patients, because he has an autistic son, and truly understands what we have to deal with in these situations.




Kyla did not like his guy, or should I say she did not like what he was going to do to her.
He was very good with her and almost had her convinced to let him do the I.V. , But in the end her fears won that battle.
so they ended putting her I.V. in her arm after they put her to sleep in the operating room.



Kyla putting on a brave face!!!!!

And were off......Throwing the stuffed animal they gave her at me in protest as they wheeled her out of her room.

POST OP... Still asleep. She had kind of a hard time after she woke up. having too much to drink via the I.V. bag she woke up needing to go potty badly, and wanting her I.V. out. so they took her I.V. out and we got her to the bathroom, and that was when she started tossing her cookies. NOT ANY FUN.....

Still tossing those cookies, but wanting out of there. She was NOT HAPPY that mom was taking pictures of her.

Still not a happy camper, we got in the van to go home and she tossed her cookies 2 more times on the was home. She slept for the rest of the day for the most part, and then the whole night.

We are all glad that day is over!!

We have a new addition to the family

Do you remember the cartoon Pixie & Dixie and Mr. Jinks from the late 50's early 60's ? Well it was one of my favorite shows as a young kid.***************

FAST FOWARD MANY YEARS*****************

Jack Jr.brought home this little kitten yesterday he named Jinks. She is on probation for now, she has to win over Daddy Jack first. so if she is a good little girl she may get to stay.
We will keep you posted.

P.S.(RUSTY WAS NOT A HAPPY CAMPER WHEN HE SAW JINKS)

SUMMER BREAK****FINELY!!!!!!!!!!

Well It is August 14th and summer break has finely started for Kyla. This is what I woke up to today. Kyla and rusty watching "the wonder pets.
We went to Michigan Adventure on Tuesday with work, and of course Kyla wanted to go on all the coasters. We went first thing over to the Thunder Hawk, it is a hanging coaster and I think she likes them the best. The very first coaster she ever went on was the Montu at Bush Gardens in Tampa. It was her first coaster and my first hanging coaster. when we got done she was screaming" let's do it again " " Faster". The speed demon was born!!!

For the love of sailing

Well we finally got Happy Jack out on the boat!! Well actually it was his new girl friend Shaina that got him out here! Isn't it amazing the influence that a girl can have on a young man!! I'm beginning to really like this girl!! Good job Shaina!!!

This is a pic of Jack & Shaina out on the bow of our boat, we were about 3 miles out on the big lake (lake Michigan) the winds were steady at about 8 to 10 knots.

Sailing can be just as quiet and peaceful as this picture, well that's the ideal day of sailing we all hope for. As most of you know we have only been sailing for 2 seasons on our own, so some time I will tell you some of our horror stories.

Please don't hold our stories against us if we invite you on the boat! we do manage to make it back safe and sound every time!!!! It's just that some days are more eventful than others.

This is what we saw when we first left the Muskegon channel, It is a laser class sailing regatta.
Kyla even enjoyed the day out on the big lake. Usually she is ready to come in as soon as we hoist the sails, and the boat starts to heel a bit. In this pic we are just coming into the channel, you can see the light house and a few more sail boats in the back ground.

I'm taking a pic of Shaina,taking a pic of Jack who is on the bow of the boat being silly...........................NEXT PIC PLEASE.............................

ENOUGH SAID !!!!

It's 6:30 A.M. Do you know where your children are?

We know where Kyla is. She is walking down to the end of our street to catch her school bus and go to school and then on to work.
Kyla gets up at 5:30 a.m. 3 days a week during the summer. she rides the bus into Grand Rapids to her school and then from there she will walk about a block down to a local city bus stop with one of her teachers, and on to her work study job.
Some of the places that Kyla works at are Good Will, Y.M.C.A., and her favorite is God's Kitchen.




Kyla is very use to this routine, You see she has been doing this since she was 3 years old.












Kyla will have at least 3 more years of school and job trainning

before she will be placed in a job.
I will post job trainning pics once the fall school year gets under way.



















This will be her last week of school for the summer. she gets the month of August off !!!!




ONE MORE WEEK UNTIL SUMMER BREAK !!

CORRECTION*** TRIVIA QUESTION

This is a correction from my recent post about our trip to Disneyland.


Who's castle sit in the center of Disneyland?

1. Snow White


2. Cinderella


3. Sleeping Beauty

In My post of our trip to Disneyland I said that Cinderella's castle was in the center of Disneyland.
I recently found out that I was wrong. Can you guess the right answer?

Here are a few hints.

And the answer is: Sleeping Beauty's Castle.

The answer confirmed by: http://www.funtrivia.com/

Check it out sometime they have trivia on all most any subject.

Farmer Mc Greggor A.K.A. Grandpa Norman V.S. Peter Rabbit

You all know the storybook tail of Farmer Mc Greggor and Peter rabbit, Well we have been having our own little version of that same tail.

Farmer Mc Greggor A.K.A. Grandpa Norman has been having this on going battle with Peter rabbit, Bambi too.
First Bambi ate all the tops off his green beans, and then Peter rabbit descided that he would have a salad from the garden.
These pics are of Grandpa trying to chase peter out of the garden.
It's suppose to be our family cat Rusty's job to keep all the criters out of the garden & house.

I think Rusty has it a bit too good here, He's been caught sleeping on the job!!!


This is what Rusty was doing while Grandpa was chasing Peter rabbit around the garden.

Annual rite of passage

This is an annual rite of passage at the Draper house, every summer we have to rake the lake in order to be able to swim. We usually do this over memorial day weekend but now that we have a sail boat, the lake has kind of been put on the back burner.

After church and a quick lunch we headed for the lake. This will need to be repeated at least 3 or 4 more times in the next few weeks. You see we live on a man made lake which was a swamp about 12 years ago, so we have to keep up on it.

You can see how big the rakes are that we use to clear out the weeds. they are special rakes made just for lake weeds. the handles are about 10 feet long and the teeth are about 4 or 5 inches long.

Kyla working hard.

working even harder!!!