Getty Owl Foundation

Rummage Going on NOW!!!!!!

From Kate:

Stop by San Juan High School today for the 3rd Annual Getty Owl Rummage Sale.

Info:

San Juan HS-7551 Greenback Lane, Citrus Heights, 95621

7am-2pm

Benefiting Getty Owl Foundation

Furniture, toys, clothes, appliances, electronics, food & drink

And………the weather is beautiful!

Come on over now!

Thank you to Getty’s Girls!

Thanks kids!

Yum Yum!

Super Cute!!!!!

Rummage Sale (4/14)TOMORROW!!!!!!

From Kate:

My ever loving and hard working colleagues, (angels really) from New San Juan High School will be putting on the 3rd annual Rummage Sale benefiting Getty Owl Foundation.

If you have never been before, it is amazing to say the least. They convert the cafeteria into a rummage wonderland. Furniture, clothes, appliances, clothes, crafts, books, DVDS, sporting equipment, toys, etc. Coffee, doughnuts, muffins, and other baked goodies are offered  to soothe your belly at you load up your cart with all kinds of household goodies.

I hope you can join us. Here are the details:

Location: New San Juan High School 7551 Greenback Lane, Citrus Heights, CA 95621

Where on campus: Cafeteria, very easy to find, there will be signs.

Time: 7-2pm

When: TOMORROW, April 14th

Who does it benefit?: Getty Owl Foundation

Food/Drinks for sale

Weather? Who the heck cares, it is indoors. 🙂

I hope you can come tomorrow. The prices are great and there is such a huge variety for really anyone’s taste and needs.

Thank you to Eileen, Shannon, Trina, Mitzi, Patti, and all the amazing students that have been helping everyone organize the chaos. 🙂 Thank you to the custodial staff for helping every rummage sale and working hard to make every event such a success.

Mark your calendars today, see you TOMORROW!!!!!!

Being Brave

From Kate:

Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV): is a very common virus that leads to mild, cold-like symptoms in adults and older healthy children. It can be more serious in young babies, especially to those in certain high-risk groups. Getty and all kiddos with SMA are a part of that high-risk group. We have known some sweet kids that have fought and battled this virus and prevailed. Even several times in their so far short life. It is scary and it is something we try so hard to make sure Getty does not get. RSV season is pretty much from October to April. This season has been a bit weird with our drier winter. Pretty much the suggestion was to avoid enclosed public places until Memorial Day weekend. Even with all of the precautions that we and other families take RSV or something like pneumonia can still appear and then a battle will ensue to get it out as soon as they can.

Some families are brave and continue to live life and go out even during RSV Season. I am not that person. I am not brave.

I am petrified by that idea of Getty catching something and has the potential to compromise her health any more than SMA already does. We only allow certain people in the house. They must scrub whatever is on them to the point of sparkling. Grammy and Papa come over, our very wonderful Miss Angie comes three days a week to help around the house and to love on Getty. But very few house guests at that. Since this is the second RSV season, I am starting to “get it”. The cabin fever is not what it was last year. Holy cow that was a jolt to this extroverted system. But you would be surprised how exciting the inside of four walls can be. 🙂 It is all about perspective I guess.

There are many families that we have met that have seemed to find that balance between safety and exploration. I hope to become brave like them, but honestly I am not there yet.

We planted a Victory Garden for Getty in the backyard. It is right in front of the sliding glass door. So regardless of the weather we can look out into the backyard and watch her beautiful flowers grow. Further right is the vegetable garden all planted and the process of growing. But it will be some time.

We go outside and read books and Getty helps water the plants. In the front of the house has a slight overhang and we go out there was well and hang out. We are starting to get to know our new mail carrier. We wave to him and the garbage trucks that go by.

It is now overcast and rainy at our house, so for sure we aren’t going anywhere today. But on Monday we did. We went to the park! It was awesome. I was being brave.

The original plan was to explore the duck pond. It is about three blocks or so from our house. We packed Getty’s stroller with her bare necessities.

Couch Assist, Suction machine, battery and inverter, bi-pap machine, pulse oximeter, and food pump. Yes it all fit and what did we actually use on our trip? The pulse oximeter the food pump and the suction machine. But I must be prepared for any situation. What goes over and over in my head is Getty needing to be coughed and I can’t get whatever is in there out and I lose her because I was unwilling to pack a machine. Many families can do it and feel safe, I cannot, I am not brave.

So we (Getty, Angie, and myself) ventured outside. The weather could not have been more perfect. It was almost like mother nature was saying “Hello Getty and welcome, we have missed you.” We took a nice stroll through the neighborhood and made our way to the duck pond. Once we got there we saw signs letting us know that the sidewalk was closed. WHAT? Man that was bad luck indeed. There was a beautiful goose that met us at the sidewalk almost as if to say, “Hey I am here, I’ll take your bread”. 🙂

Kind of letdown not to be able to feed the ducks, but instead we decided to go to the nearby park instead.

We strolled over to the park and reality kind of hit me, like it often does. I stood there looking at all of the playground options and tried to figure out how we could access it safely. The rock wall was pretty much out, jungle gym was out, maybe the slide, but then my eyes I instantly turned to the swing.

Okay so how do we do this? A good suction and then I picked her up. Put the portable pulse ox in the back of my pants and away we went. Angie was in back of us to suction if Getty needed it.

Swing, Swing, Swing

It was beautiful to watch her look all around as if to say, “What on earth are we doing, but whatever it is, it is cool!” It felt amazing to be brave. Coos and smiles were plenty. Getty had such a great time swinging back and forth. This mama’s heart was warm and full.

Someone had a great time. Hell, we all had a great time.

Being brave feels empowering. Getty only benefits from it. I hope I can continue to be brave. It is overcast and rainy today, so inside we will be. But if the skies part soon and bring us the beautiful sunshine, we will be at that duck pond to feed that goose who is still waiting for us to come back. 🙂

Happy Wednesday!

Captured Memories of #2!

From Kate:

I wanted to share some great birthday photos that our dear and such talented friend Miss Morgan took of Getty’s BIG 2nd birthday bash.

Enjoy!

Kevin!

Up! Cake

The Taste Test

Getty swishing the frosting around in her mouth. She loved it.

Loves Dr. Seuss

Sweet Pea

A good day indeed

Getty’s birthday was beautiful. We wanted to thank Grammy and Papa for coming over. Eileen, Stacey, Angie, Mitzi for stopping by. Getty got more than enough gifts and it was so sweet to receive them all from friends and family. Even though some of you were not here, you were definitely here in spirit. Now on to #3.

Strange Lights in the Sacramento Night Sky

From Mark:

The strangest thing happened last night

I took Cooper outside to potty in the back yard. I looked up in the northern Sacramento night sky and saw what appeared to be a bright yellow flame hovering high. I watched it and couldn’t figure out what the heck it was. I wondered if it was a rocket or missile.

The light drifted overhead and went dim. It then appeared as a dimly glowing blob drifting across the sky. I thought maybe it was a rocket going into space and it had started to escape my view.

The dim glow moved steadily southward across the sky.  It eventually passed the roof-line of the house. I couldn’t see it anymore.

I went out to the front yard, and it was gone.

I looked northward again and saw another bright yellow light in the sky. Then two. Three. Four. Five! I tried to take pictures and video, but it was just too dark out.

One of the lights hovered and went dim, just like the one before. It looked again like a dimly glowing blob drifting across the sky. I could barely track it with my eyes.

Then it started to descend. It looked close to me. It drifted downward and almost looked as if it would land in the thick grassy field across the street from the house. It did! I went to investigate.

As I stared into the field and walked toward the landing spot, something big suddenly came into my peripheral vision and looked like it was about to hit me in the head!

It hit the middle of the street, and I was freaked out. It was dark and I had no idea what it could be. I started frantically snapping pictures with my phone.

Here it is lying in the street…

I should mention, Getty absolutely loves the Disney Movie, Tangled. If you haven’t seen it, Tangled is the story of Rapunzel. An important part of the movie deals with the launching of sky lanterns: mini airborne paper hot air balloons, launched by hand, with a slow flame underneath.

It’s got the same sun on it.

I picked it up and put in in the back yard. It’s about 2.5 feet tall.

Someone calculate the odds of this: (1) take the dog out just in time to spot a sky lantern hundreds of feet in the air; (2) it blows around and ends up almost hitting me in the head; (3) it turns out to have a design on it from a family favorite movie.

What does it mean?