A Gold Medal Day

Underneath the kitchen sink. It is not a very nice place in most homes. Today's project was to clean under the kitchen sink. I don't know about you, but this is where I store my vases. (They are in the back behind the dish soap) Somehow they were pretty dirty, so they all got a good washing down. Some were easier than others. On several I needed to use my scotch pad and a butter knife to get it clean.

I found this vase from my first High School prom. It reads "Camelot" May 1977. The prom theme, I guess. I don't remember. I threw quite a few vases out as I had many the same size. This little "pot" held a plant, which of course I killed, that was a gift when I had my first baby over 25 years ago. I use it to keep my new scotch pads, magic erasers, a glass scrubber, and a toothbrush for cleaning. I keep all of these things, plus my garbage can under my kitchen sink. I wipe it out once a week, but this was a complete cleaning. Happens every 3 months.

I also tackled a HUGE project, which I will share tomorrow for Tackle It Tuesday. Bet you thought I got up at 3 am on Tuesday morning to get that tackle done, right? Wrong!! I do the big things the day before...Tackle It Monday... Anyway, while doing this huge project, I was bombarded by hundreds of photographs. All needing a photo album, but thrown in a drawer to wait for one...Now they are in a different "waiting room". Of course, I needed to look through them. Some were very recent and others were OLD. I found pics of the kids adoption at the courthouse and their party the following Sunday. Bud and Rachel's wedding pics. Pictures of TJ's birth, which I was right there to see. All these things were absolute highlights in my life. In that mix were pictures of another highlight. I would say in my top 5 of all times. My son Kyle was chosen to light the Special Olympic Torch a couple of years ago. He was chosen out of thousands of participants and I have never felt so proud of him as at that moment. Here are the highlights.
He ran that last leg carrying the baton to climb the tall stairway ladder to the huge Olympic Torch with this incredible music playing. The crowd of thousands were roaring. My heart swelled with pride and my eyes filled with tears as he lit the torch. I looked over at Sweet Hubby and saw a tear forming in his eye as well. Everyone cheered and Kyle gave the crowd the peace sign....the place went NUTS!!! I still "feel" it as I relive the memory.

Kyle is an excellent athlete, winning a total of 11 gold medals and 2 silver over the years. He won a 4th place ribbon once and said, "Sometimes you just can't win them all." Kyle wanted you all to see his collection of medals. Kyle graduated this last spring and is waiting, not very patiently, to start work at Center of Hope this fall. My baby, is 6' 3" tall and is about the sweetest young man you will ever want to met, though he can make me crazy on occasion! He overcame more than 100 seizures a day for the first 12 years of his life (a bad lot of pertussis vaccinations) and though he loves us very much, his main goal is to move to a group home. We have informed him that can be considered in another 3-5 years....maybe.Here is Kyle at age 10 with his quilt. That same quilt is in TJ's playpen now. Kyle needs a new quilt, but he really loves his John Cena blanket he got from his Grandma at graduation. He is a huge John Cena fan...a wrestling celebrity for those of you who do not know... He even wore John Cena wrist bands and headbands in the last Special Olympics!! John Cena would have been proud too!

So you see...cleaning is always good, but sometimes it can bring such joy that is beyond measure!! Today was that day for me!