A Clock, a Coffee Pot and a Field of Lilies

Here are the places you can buy your books:

In Gainesville:
The Little Lady Bug
Northeast Georgia Medical Center (The Window Shop)

In Cornelia:
The Book Store (in the shopping center across from Dance A Lott)

In Cleveland:
Yonah Mountain Treasures (next to Yonah Burger)

Far Away:
E mail your request for an order form to: asklulabelle@windstream.net
I was sending books with the order form so people would get theirs more quickly, but I regret I can no longer do that. I will send your book when I receive payment.

Books are $15.00 (plus $3.00 if it is shipped to you)

Proceeds go to the J. Michael Hosford Foundation. The foundation supports people in need in the North Georgia area through United Way Organizations that my father was involved in. It is a way to honor him and continue his life's work of helping others.

"In order to keep it, you must give it away."

Birthday Girls and Football practice

Sydney turned 13 on the 13th. She had a very small pool party with her best friend/ boyfriend, Dustin and the Huyke's, Kerry and Allen. We made our own pizzas and had a good time watching Sydney make her famous pickle pizza. Everyone agrees that it is not as bad as it sounds. On the way to Su Su's house (where the pool is) we stopped at Dairy Queen and got a Cookie Dough Blizzard ice cream cake. Yummy. As the party was wrapping up, Adrian surprised Sydney with a diamond and ruby ring and told her he wanted to be the first man to give her a ring. She cried. So sweet! He did that for Jolie when she turned 13 too.

Jolie turned 15 on the 24th. She has been grounded until school starts. (just a little something about a camping trip and not calling home to tell us where she was and spending the night out with her friends, no parents...no big deal!) She has been very humbled by her consequence, but was sad she would be grounded on her birthday. I took the kids to the Mall of Georgia and Fischer, Jolie and Sydney got to finally see Harry Potter while Nicholas and Mollie played in the spray fountain. We did a little shopping and came home. Everyone thought we were going out to dinner so we waited in the van while Jolie had to run inside and put her shopping bags in her room. (I told her to do that.) She opened the door and some of her friends were there! Surprise! She nearly had a heart attack! The video at the bottom was taken after the surprise. We had some good eats, thanks to Adrian who put it all together while we were gone. Then the teenagers went to the back yard for a bonfire. Adrian pulled extension cords for Christmas lights and music. He even cut out heart luminaries to light the path. It was so pretty. It was fun and Jolie was so glad to see her friends! (sorry some pictures are fuzzy.)

Fischer has been playing football. Isn't the view of Mount Yonah so pretty from the field where they practice? It is hard work and we are very proud of Fischer for never giving up or complaining. The helmets are heavy and he gets super sweaty. It is a very different world for him. He's used to reading, fishing, drawing, and playing chess. He loves it.

Autism Part 4

Nicholas is 41 months old, almost 3 1/2 years old. He was recently diagnosed with PDD-NOS which means Pervasive Developmental Delay Not Otherwise Specified. PDD is autism. One person told me Nicholas is not autistic but we asked our developmental pediatrician and he said, Nicholas IS autistic. Some people say, "Oh, he's fine, he looks at me in the eyes." And others ask, "What interventions are you doing? You better sign him up for these hundreds of therapies or he will not make progress." People on the outside assume that if you have a diagnosis of autism that magically, state agencies like a public school, will take you under their wing and lead you by the hand and show you what to do. On the outside, people assume that autistic children will automatically receive special services. What they don't realize is that even though there are federally funded and state funded services for Nicholas, each one comes with a brick wall. Can you hear this mother bear growling yet?

Our family began taking sign language classes with a private tutor named Jordan. (Here's a picture of Nicholas signing his name with Jordan.) Sounds fancy, but actually, the teacher is a student himself and used to be one of my students at Good Shepherd Lutheran. We are all picking up on it quite easily and quickly because Jordan has a special teaching gift. He's wonderful. The language pathologist at the autism clinic where Nicholas goes every few months told me that sign language would be good for Nicholas. It is multi sensory, meaning it stimulates Nicholas' communication skills visually and tactically. Nicholas' speech is delayed by over a year. He can say several words but does not engage in dialogue or speak in sentences yet but is beginning to put two words together.

Nicholas is a cool little fellow. He is obsessive about certain things, but I can appreciate his fascination with them. One of his new passions is car washes. On a typical morning, the first thing out of Nicholas' mouth is, "Car wash? Car Wash? Car Wash? Car Wash? Car Wash, peeeease." For a special treat, we drove the van through the automatic car wash last night and you would have thought we'd taken Nicholas to Disney World. He was so excited!

Another passion is dominoes. Nicholas loves to build things and he is fascinated by making dominoes mazes and knocking them down. This is a new thing for him. He can focus for HOURS on this new thing. He climbs on the pool table and gets his Kapla blocks and goes to town. Nicholas is the size of a 18 month old, but you should see him climb onto the table. My sister calls him Lieutenant Dan (the guy with no legs in Forest Gump) for his amazing upper body strength. I think I should send Nicholas to train with a trapeze artist. Actually, some times I think we should all join the circus.

Life is good.

A Clock, a Coffee Pot, and a Field of Lilies

More books are coming! Everyone is sold out. 500 are due to arrive on Thursday! The Window Shop at the hospital will get some and The Little Lady Bug on Thompson Bridge Rd. will too. I will have some and you can e mail your request to: asklulabelle@windstream.net and I will mail a signed book to you.

Also, there will be another book reading with music on August 5 at 7:00 at Cleveland United Methodist Church. You can purchase your book then and I will be there to sign them.

Books are $15.00 and proceeds go to the J. Michael Hosford Foundation.

Happy Fourth of July

Check out Mollie's flips on the left hand side of the video! She is a water baby. We celebrated Independence Day at Adrian's sister, Melissa's house with her husband, Steve, 4 of their 5 wonderful children, 3 sons in law and 3 (plus one on the way soon) grandchildren! We love spending time with this remarkable family. They are so full of fun and love. We can only aspire to raise our 5 children as successfully and as phenomenally as they have!

The Book

A Clock, a Coffee Pot and a Field of Lilies is going into.......(drum roll)......it's second printing!! If you want a book, e mail me at asklulabelle@windstream.net and I will tell you where to get it!

If you don't know about the story and how it came to be...where have you been?

When my father passed away last year, my heart literally shattered into a million pieces. My grief turned me upside down and I didn't know how to even breathe. I have five children to take care of and I just couldn't allow myself to fall apart.

So, I took all that horrible, sad energy and decided to create something meaningful out of it. Telling my father's story was very healing for me. Daddy was a wonderful man who was loved by so many (which is why I was able to sell so many books! I ain't stupid) and I thought people might want to know what made him so special. He not only healed folks physically, he healed people spiritually.

Daddy won the National Science Fair, met JFK, went on the Today's Show, got a scholarship to an Ivy League School, became a doctor, had quite an interesting life. But he struggled with drug addiction and alcoholism. His struggles took him on a journey to find hope and that's what the story is about.

He eventually lived a clean and sober life for the last 24 years of his life until he passed away. Even battling cancer and the terrible treatments, he did not medicate his pain with drugs. He spent his life serving others. He was selfless. He gave all he had away. He was known to trade medical services for chickens, fire wood and art.

Proceeds from the sale of each book go to the J. Michael Hosford Foundation. That way we can continue Daddy's life's work of helping others.

If you need a good cry...then a good laugh... and then to be swept up spiritually and emotionally, this book is for you!

Comments

Hey, y'all. If you have left me a comment recently, I unfortunately have not been able to view it or post it. I think I have finally fixed the problem. Please send your comments again!!

Here's what's new this summer:
We have been so busy. We have had lots of visitors! Adrian's sister's, Susan and Sherry came from Idaho to visit Love but I am glad they spent time with us too. We had fun dinners together. And enjoyed early summer nights out by the swing set.

We have been swimming almost every day. Mollie finally got rid of her floaties and is now an expert swimmer. Fischer learned how to do a back flip and front flip into the pool just like his Dad! Adrian always shows off for me by doing these type of tricks. Jolie and Sydney have taught Nicholas to jump in from the side and he does it over and over again.

Adrian planted our garden and it is lookin' good. I can hardly wait to eat a tomato from the vine.

My sister and niece, Jennifer and Wiley and my sister and nephew, Rebecca and Hosford all came for a visit to mama's house and we pigged out eating El Sombrero a lot! Hosford and Wiley are getting so big. All the cousins were so glad to be together. My sisters and I stayed up late talking and talking. Those moments are the best.

We participated in Relay for Life on my dad's office's team. I cried when they launched the mini hot air balloon luminaries. It was the most beautiful thing. We cheered on Uncle Bill in the Miss Relay drag queen contest and he WON!! We partied all night, I signed about a hundred books and we raised a lot of money for the fight against cancer. It was fun to be there with my whole family.

My birth mother, Nancy came for a visit. She stayed a few days to go to the book reading which was a success. About 150 people were there and we sold about 200 books. Matthew Hoyle played the music for it and it was amazing. He is so talented. I have DVD's of the show. If anyone wants me to mail them one, let me know.

Adrian and I celebrated my birthday a day early on Saturday without the kids! We painted pottery, drove to the mountains and went hiking. It was so much fun and we really needed the break. Now, it's back to craziness. I'll post pictures tomorrow. xoxoxo