I had a trip. Isabella had a trip.

Awhile ago, I learned about a place called "A Mother's Rest" - it's a non-profit organization that offers respite to care-givers.  (The woman who started the non-profit has a special needs child). 

There are different weekend getaways for different types of care-givers.  Mostly, mothers.  Moms of special needs children... moms of adoptive kids.  Dads get in on the gig too as they have specific weekends they can go.  They even have spousal care weekends and "mommy & me" for kids who don't have special needs / who typically don't get as much attention from their parents.  It's an interesting concept.

I signed up for the adoptive mother's weekend.  In the inn (a historic house in northeast Georgia in a tiny town called Mt. Airy), there are 5 guest rooms.  There is also a "cottage" behind it with 2 additional guest rooms.  Almost everyone there was an adoptive mom.  (One person was not and also was a bit out-of-sorts with the rest of the group / didn't really mesh well / didn't have much in common.)  I think that the concept is that you have people who are experiencing the same things you are... and you can bond / share with them... IF you want to.  (The reservation says you can mingle with the other guests OR you can stay in your room the whole time.... there are no expectations of you while you're there.) 

My room was this dark blue room - Ty Cobb "Cobb's Corner" room.  (Apparently this was his childhood house for some time).  My room had a view of the pool which was on the side of the property.

The 1st person I met there was from Charlotte NC; she h as been to this inn 4 times.  She has 7 children - 4 are adopted.  She said the 1st time she visited the inn, she did NOT leave her room.  She slept almost the entire time!

(I liked the bird theme that was throughout - am dotting some photos throughout here.)

5 of us went to dinner the 1st night.  Then, I ended up hanging out with the 2 ladies I rode to dinner with -- the ladies that were in the cottage -- after dinner talking and getting to know each other 'til the wee hours of the night.  The next day all of the the ladies went to Helen GA -- a tacky touristy area.  I declined / took care of some appointments and then went antique shopping (but didn't buy anything).  I also wandered around 3 different tiny towns.  I was fine on my own -- exploring like that is something I never get to do here at home.  

The next day, 3 of us went to a nearby winery for several hours.  It rained.  That's OK.  it was really peaceful and we were under cover, so we were dry.  

There were 2 different guitarists that they have playing at the winery on Saturdays, so we had some ambient music in the background.  

The tasting room was in the red barn.  We sat under one of the pergolas - shown here on the right.

We sat for hours talking and listening to the rain.  Then, 4 of us went to dinner that evening.  

The day after that - Sunday - I drove across north Georgia to meet Isabella, Todd and Mercer in Young Harris College - where Isabella's camp was. 

We ate lunch at a strange restaurant (there were not a lot of choices of places to eat) and then dropped her off.  Here's the official photo in her dorm room, but there is more about her camp below.

I drove back across the top end of Georgia towards my respite.... but stopped along the way to go to a store that I absolutely LOVE called Mark of the Potter.  We used to go when we went on CDH chalet trips.  It's really an institution in northeast Georgia!  

I stayed for maybe an hour or so -- sitting at a picnic table by the water sketching the building.... something I would never take the time to do!!  

(The mug I got Todd looked really really close to one that he already had... same "mark" on the base of the handle.... by the same artist - Matt Henderson)  Oh well!  

I met back at the Inn just in time for a 3rd of July dinner with 6 of the ladies. 

The next day, a bunch of us hung out in the kitchen and talked.  Of course I can't just sit there, so I tried my hand at water coloring while we were talking -- adding pigment to the sketch of the Mark of the Potter building I did the previous day.  Honestly - I liked it better before I added the color!   

We went to the pool the rest of the day 'til 4 of us made a spur of the moment decision to grab dinner back in Helen and watch fireworks.  

(selfie)

We lucked out in terms of parking -- pulling in somewhere just as they were starting & pulling off the top of the Jeep that we were riding in and sitting on top for a clear view of the lights.  (the lady on the left is the Jeep owner and she wanted to drive everywhere.  OK!)  

She and the lady below are the ones I hung out with most in the cottage.  They were hilarious!

The next day was pack-up-and-leave day. I was the last to leave.... getting in some yoga before I left.  I went and checked out a nearby park / nature preserve and then reluctantly headed home to dive back into "reality."

I brought a bunch of work to do there, but didn't do any of it (I only got in the relaxing stuff... which was sort of the point~)

I was gone Thursday afternoon through Tuesday evening. 
Isabella was at her camp Sunday afternoon through Friday mid-day.

Todd and Mercer were alone -- just the 2 of them -- Sunday afternoon through Tuesday evening. On Monday, July 4th, they cooked out and watched the shortened Marietta fireworks from a nearby parking deck (shortened because it poured rain that evening).  

Isabella's camp posted pictures of kids eating red white & blue popsicles on the 4th and running around with sparklers.  

There was not a photo of Isabella doing this, but there were a lot of other photos of her.... which helped document her 1st "away" camp experience.

She was nervous about going, of course, but it looked like she had a great time! 

When we signed her up for camp, we chose "skills" for her to participate in.  They gave her 3 of the 5 that we selected: 

Extreme Sports (she said this was water kick-ball),

Splish-Splash (not shown), 

and Gymnastics.

She came back excited because she can now do a back-bend without having to lay down on the ground first!

Although she's not sure if she wants to go back next year (she said she wanted to hang out with us next summer... I think it was too soon to talk to her about another week at camp!).... but.... she said next year, she wanted to try rock-climbing, roller-blading and sweet shop (baking)....maybe gymnastics again?  

They did all 3 skills each day.

It sounds like their schedule was breakfast / covid check-in... then re-group at the main building.  Then - campers had a daily schedule (Monday thru Thurs) and left as small groups from the main building (The Clubhouse - pictured here - to go to their 1st skill... then re-group... lunch.... 2nd and 3rd skills... and then something else / special activity.

They had one off-site excursion with the younger elementary school kids - going to a pool.  No pics of that were on the camp website.  The next age group (4th-5th grade) goes horse-back riding as their off-site excursion.  She seems excited about that... if she goes again.

(There was a 1st-time camper 50% discount, so next year would be quite a bit more expensive.)

The camp had something called "night lifes" - themes for the evening - and usually had a dress-up theme.   (Yep - there was a separate zippy bag of clothes labelled for each nigh-life theme!)

One night the girls were encouraged to wear a tacky mis-matched outfit.  This is her sweet-mate crew.  (roomates and counselor)

Another night, was called "you glow girl" - and they had a silent disco!!   The young lady who was the lead counselor for the Bumbline group (that Isabella was in) had a code-name of "Waffles."  - Isabella liked that name as it's the name of the horse she usually rides!

This 2nd glow picture shows Isabella and her Sweet-Mates + room counselor in the back of the pack, code-name "Lookout." 

One night was called "slumbo jumbo" - they were encouraged to wear PJs / eye masks / etc... and they had a giant bubble machine.  (Here Isabella is wearing a hair cover that someone gave her??)

They had a night by the campfire / with s'mores.  (There was no dress-up component).  

Here she is with her sweet-mates and counselor again.  I believe they travelled in a "pack" everywhere except for the skills activities that the girls had signed up for.

For the final activity, the junior and senior (middle school) girls all came together and played recreational games representing their "teams" -- she was on Bumbline (yellow).  There was a group called Royalum (plum) and a 3rd group called Skocean (sky/ocean - blue).   

Apparently they all competed in games and Royalum won this week.  

The camp runs all summer, so they probably have a different winner each week?? 

She seemed to really enjoy herself and we were scrolling for photos every day (the day she wore the blue - she was in a LOT of photos!)  

She said she missed us.... but... it looked like she made friends.  She learned that it's not always easy to "live" with other people... it sounds like one of her roommates she had a bit of a hard time with, but the other(s) were OK. 

On her last day, I got so many hugs when I arrived at her "sweet" (suite).  I arrived just in time for the Sweet Huddle where her counselor, Lookout, presented each girl with paper-plate awards. Isabella got the Bumble-Brain award. 

Not sure if that's good or bad?  Ha!   ... but - Bumble-Brain was a phrase in the cheer that the Bumbline group did for us during the final presentation, so...  ?

She didn't want to leave my side, but.... they had ONE final program that we went to - parents and kids gathered in the auditorium for a final event.  

  

This is my FAVORITE photo of her from the camp photo website!

Here are a few photos from around campus.  It is a nice (hilly) campus in the north Georgia mountains!   Looking UP - panoramic picture from the main green / commons area...

....and looking DOWN from the main area - panoramic picture from the main green / commons area with mountains in the background.

There was a sitting area of interest in the green - dedicated to a student leader who had passed away.

 There were poems mounted to each of the chairs under the cover.  As we waited for the final program to begin, I read the poems.

This poem was nice.

(I could imagine hanging out in this seating area in the green... or one of the other covered areas they had, but Isabella said they didn't get a chance to do so.)  

I'm sure their goal was to keep the kids busy!

We rode the 2 hours +/- home and - after she dozed off for awhile - she insisted we stop by Todd's office 1st before coming home and reuniting with the dog.

No lie... he was on her giving her kisses / licking her for at least 5 minutes!  (so cute!)

We got a postcard in the mail from Isabella.

7/14 UPDATE:  we just got a postcard in the mail from her counselor today.  (a nice follow-up)

Some things ending, some things beginning

Mercer wrapped up the season for ANOTHER baseball team - 15u Spikes.  (Technically, he's ONLY on one team right now... yay!

This was a team cobbled together (technically through the rec league) but it was really of people across the area who needed a low-cost travel team.  There was a lot more cursing and bad manners on this team.  I thought maybe because the boys are older, but it was the families too.  Unfortunately, Todd says that we can probably expect this when Mercer joins an official travel team.  (ugh).  We've been with the "family friendly" rec league for 10 years!   I guess we were spoiled by our "good mannered" groups at EMNLL through the years.  Sure an outburst here or there happened, but not like it did with this 15u team.   Here's a picture of Mercer's youth minister, Michael, who went out to watch him play at his last 15u tournament.

The only team he's playing for right now is the 14u Little League All-Star team.  Many of the boys were on the 13u Little League All-Star team last year.  When the boys went to state for 11u down in Savannah, they did fundraising.  I'm not sure why they didn't do it for 13u and this year's 14u state tournament.  But - we're taking a little "vacation" in an Air B-n-B for almost a week to north Georgia to see him play.  That will be in a future blog post.

(I'm still sad that his 12u All-Star shot... the "big" year when all of the kids (and parents) hope that their kid will make it all the way to Little League World Series that is televised... was shut down b/c of Covid.  There was no regional or state playoffs in 2020... and ultimately, no World Series.)  They won State last year at 13u, but - again - because of Covid, they did not have the World Series.  Supposedly everything is back on track.... we'll see how it goes later this month at State (and beyond?)

Another thing that ended:  swim.  

Thank goodness!  Here are photos from some of Isabella's meets.  

It was hard to get Isabella to go to practices.  She enjoyed the meets / had fun... but did not want to get up early to go to the pool first thing in the morning.  

She did improve a little bit... shaving a second off of her time for freestyle.  

She also worked on the breath stroke.

And backstroke. 

She would participate in solo races and in relays with 3 other teammates.  As soon as her teammate touches the wall - she launches into the pool and does her 25 yard portion.  

She would often swim the free-style in those relays. 

She made some friends too.  This seems to be the one she hung our with the most, Danny.  I got to know his parents quite well too... and we need to set something up soon for them to play.

The end-of-season swim party got rained out, so they had it at a local school theater.  It was LONG presenting all of the awards.  This was a BIG team this year!!   

Isabella's "award" was called the Florist Award.  One of the coaches told a story about how she picked flowers for each of the coaches and carried them over in her tiny little hand in the car / delivered to each coach one morning.  (they were gardenias from the front yard).

It's kind of random, but I guess it's better than the "bug-in-the-eye" award.  ha!   I wonder if they sit around and brainstorm / discuss each player and something that stood out about each one?  What a nice personal touch!

I do think it's impressive that they hand-draw and write a note to each swimmer on their fish awards!  The coaches are mostly high-schoolers, but the head coach is a student at Emory.

Mercer won't go swimming at the pool that we join each year, but I got him to go once by bringing a friend!  (KJ)

One thing that is just beginning & we are in the early stages of learning more about:  Mercer was officially diagnosed with epilepsy last week.  After his seizure in May, he had a neurologist appointment... and she recommended he have an EEG.  (His cat-scan and EKG at the emergency room were normal)

An electroencephalogram is a test used to evaluate the electrical activity in the brain. Brain cells communicate with each other through electrical impulses. An EEG can be used to help detect potential problems associated with this activity. An EEG tracks and records brain wave patterns.  (From John Hopkins) 

We had to keep him awake so he would go to the test tired. The EEG showed a lot of "extra" brain activity.  When we met with the neurologist again last week, she said that this is an indicator that he WOULD have another seizure - or multiple seizures... not a question of IF he would have another one... but WHEN.  She recommended he begin seizure medicine.  He had an epilepsy DNA test to help determine what type of epilepsy he has (I think).  She also recommended he have an MRI.  He has that scheduled next week.  I suppose this is to ascertain if there are any structural issues.  

Results from the EEG were all normal except for this area:

IMPRESSION: This is an abnormal routine EEG in the awake state due to the following: Frequent brief (<2 seconds) bursts of irregular 5-6hz diffuse spike/polyspike-wave discharges with bifrontal shifting predominance.  CLINICAL CORRELATION: There is evidence of an underlying genetic generalized epilepsy.

He is not to be left alone in water or on elevated surfaces.  Unfortunately, we think that this will have an impact on him when he starts driving too.  

Otherwise, he's acting and feeling normal.

Here are a couple of cute photos of Isabella and Hip Hop.

I have been working on painting our bedroom and cleaning it up from the previous construction.  And - I was working A LOT on prepping Isabella for her 1st away camp.... more on that in the next blog post!

But - one other unique thing happened:  we got to go to the new Elevator Testing Tower that is located next to the Braves Stadium.  

The Thyssen Krupp Elevator company built a unique building + corporate office in the area.  I tagged along with Todd and his colleagues to go to a lunch-and-learn there, then go on a tour.  Here are some photos from that unique educational session!

(Can you imagine having an event here in the top of this tower overlooking the stadium??!!)

Here's a photo looking to the south of the stadium -- across highway 285 (the Perimeter).  The 3rd building seen in the right window in this final photo is a project I worked on maybe18 years ago!  (Galleria 4000).  At that time, I remember looking over highway 285/75 junction and just be mesmerized watching the traffic.  

This definitely tops that!

Such a great opportunity.  Grateful to have been able to attend!