Thanksgiving Day Walk

Now that Matthew is wanting to walk the trails and do some geocaching with me, I've been able to get out even more and do some more trails.  Here's some photos from today.

July 2012 - just noticed that this never got posted.  Guess I'll post it now.  :)

This just shoes how clean I was before our walk.

Matthew tends to crick his neck off to the side at times for photos.

Catching a breath as it's hard to walk in all that mud with big heavy boots.

Matthew on the log watching me.

Me and Matt before heading off again.

Matthew standing in front of someone's teepee they made.

Me and Matt

Matt got his boot stuck in the mud.  I told him to step where I step but he decided to take a short cut.  Yup, got stuck in the mud.  

The only way out of that mud was to step out of his boot.  I got my boot stuck in that same mud trying to retrieve his boot.  Was pretty funny.

Oil Springs with Matthew

On our way home tonight we stopped by Oil Springs to visit the characters along the road and have a quick walk through the bush to have a closer look at all the machinery and stuff that is working.  My nose is very plugged up today but the smell of oil definitely reached me. 

There are some geocaches and a letterbox in the area as well which is what originally brought me to the area.  I was probably there as a kid but just forgot about the whole area.  Here's some photos; you can click on them to enlarge the photos. 

Matthew's First Solo Hit at Baseball

We were so proud of our son last night.  We always clap and cheer for whatever it is that he does but last night he hit the ball by himself.  Last year we were just working on catching skills and he would only stay at baseball for about 10 or 15 minutes and he wanted to leave, so we would leave it at that so it would end on a positive note.  This year, he's been staying through most of the game now which runs from 6 to around 8 pm or so.  They start with tossing the ball back and forth to get warmed up and then they all hit the field.

All of the baseball players have some type of special needs and a couple of them are in wheelchairs.  This year since Matthew is staying for the game, he is working on his catching and throwing skills, and now his batting.  Previous weeks he has had assistance with batting the ball as he is busy watching others and checking to see what is going on, rather than watching the ball that is being pitched to him.  One of the previous pitchers noted that Matthew looked like he wanted to swing the bat on his own and told the coach so the coach let him try it.  Matthew just about hit the coach with the bat as he was swinging it back and forth!  He missed the ball a few times so the coach helped him to bat the ball, and run to first base.

What Matthew was doing last night was swinging the bat back and forth in a straight line in regular intervals so the pitcher tried hard to time his pitch so it connected with Matthew's bat.  What a cheer went up when the bat connected with the ball!  So Matthew got on base with that one and those players near him high-fived and congratulated him, and everyone cheered loudly for him.  Matthew was very excited.

Next time when he got up to bat again, he started the swinging back and forth at regular intervals.  Then the coach told Matthew to stop and to swing again when he told him Go.  It took about 3 tries of Matthew swinging like that with the Coach telling him Go to swing, but he hit it again!  Once again, everyone got excited for Matthew.  I hope that he remembers the feeling for next week's baseball. 

This team is very supportive.  They don't play games but everyone takes the field and everyone has a chance to get up and bat, and run the bases.  And, it's very neat to see the teammates batting for those in wheelchairs while another teammate pushes them around the bases.   I see improvements every week in the players and they really thrive on everyone clapping and cheering for them; especially encouragement from the other teammates. 

Here are a few photos of baseball that I took in July.

The Fun Theory

This video shows what happens if you inject a little bit of fun into stuff. Can you imagine people wanting to walk up a set of stairs, rather than taking an escalator that is located right next to it? This short video shows you what happens.    Click here to watch the video

Workouts should be fun.  I know it gets boring doing the same workout, day in, day out, so switch up those workouts.  I know I have some old Sweating to the Oldies tapes that I used to love doing, but I got bored doing them over and over so they got set aside.  Ocasionally I will pull one out and love it because they really are fun.  Like dancing and have a Wii? Try the Just Dance series.  

If you don't have access to a DVD, SparkPeople has free exercise videos on their page.  All free!  Their address is  Spark People

My First Blog!

My first blog! Not exactly sure what I'll be writing about.  No doubt stuff that is going on with our family as it seems to be chaotic around here.  Our family is not the typical family but we are a family that is affected by autism so life can be unpredictable at times, while other times we keep things on a routine.

Matthew and I went for a walk on the weekend in Exeter and we  had a great time.  I'm going to try and insert the link here to see if it works.  It shows the area that we walked and the photos that I took while there.  Also has settings where you can see how far the walk was, along with the speed and elevation.  Kind of a neat website.  Click here to see photos from the trail.

Matthew had thrown his favourite car over the fence into the tall weeds and afterwards regretted his decision.  Mike should get a special award for going top of the fence into those huge weeds and finding his son's toy.  Matthew was especially grateful and gave his dad a very nice hug afterwards with prompting.  Here are a few photos that show you what he searched for to find it. 

We have a busy week coming up.  Appointment at the YMCA to register Matthew, picking up shirts for the Golf Tournament, 50/50 tickets, and other stuff.  Also a dental appointment, baseball, and last minute shopping for the tournament.  A ton of stuff to do.  Money goes to assist families affected by autism. 

Mike picked some green peppers from our garden so I'm going to make some stuffed green peppers for supper.  I'm hungry for them already and haven't even started the prep yet.  lol