The Christianville Spirit: A Meeting of A Special Friend

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Uplifts Your Soul

October 1, 2014-TCS # 419

Hello, My Readers! Happy October! For those of You who enjoy Autumn, Now is the Time to get your Cameras out and Go see The Foliage. That is unless, You live in The Southern Half of The United States, then You would have to wait until November or Early December. Man! This Year has gone by Fast! Okay, Back on Track, Excitement comes in like 2 Months (The Holidays & Michael’s Graduation!). Anyway, so For This Week’s Newsletter, I’m going to tell you another Great Story that Does yet, It Doesn’t Relate to Me. I want you to Meet this Lovely Women, We’ll call her, “H.J Angel.” (I hear Heroic Music playing in My Head as I write this.) H.J Angel is to say the least, a Very Independent, Driven, and Adventurous Women. She actually at one time met Her Soulmate, The Man of Her Dreams. As a Certain PTLS Member tells me, “Your Soulmate is Someone that You will never expect.” For H.J Angel, That was Most Certainly True. This Person, We’ll call him “M.J Angel” was Very Adventurous. Okay, maybe Fearless is a Better Term. M.J Angel was Fearless, He didn’t let anyone, and I mean, Anyone hold him back. He was the kind of Guy that would call His Mom and say (We can all Hear Heavy Rock Music in the Background.) “HEY MOM, COME OUTSIDE! I WANT TO SHOW YOU SOMETHING!” and You Know The Mother is probably Yelling anything from “What the Heck are You doing?!” to Every Expletive there is (Sorry Kids!). It Pretty Much gives Mommy a Heart Attack and A Rush of Proudness at The Same Time. Little did We Know, H.J Angel and M.J Angel were going to meet in The Most Craziest Twist of Fate. It was Destiny! They fell in Love and Everything was so Awesome and Yes, They even had a Child Together. One Day would come M.J Angel would fall into a Tragic Accident and H.J Angel was left there, all alone. So, What does This Story have to do with Me? Well, I met H.J Angel myself and like I said before, She is an Amazing Person that I now call her a Great Friend. We met at a “Serendipitous Event.” H.J Angel has such a Positive Energy, It makes it Pleasant to be around. It is Energy that both says, “I am flowing with Happiness and Positivity!” in her Big Smile. But, I could feel that There was something under The Smile that said, “I need Help, A Hug, Understanding... Something!” and I of course, Helped and Hugged Her the Most I could. I felt that I needed to Make sure that She was Okay, and in a Way, Protect Her like a Big Brother would. Because that is what Good Friends are For. She sat on The Bench watching all the activities going on around Her. In My Heart, It felt a Pain because I know that She wished that M.J Angel was there with Her.

I am sure M.J Angel was there sitting in the Trees, watching all of the activities going on around her. Because I am sure that it hurts to be left without her Adventurous Soulmate. But, Aside from that, She handled Everything with a Great Spirit and Love. Sometimes, I feel like No One understands me like H.J Angel feels. But, It turns out that We have lot in common like She likes Numerology, She believes in Soulmates (because M.J Angel was Hers and Bridgett will be Mine), and We both like to Talk, Laugh, and Smile. She makes a Good Friend because She understands me. It helps that We are on the same Wavelength. She will a Good Guide to help me find My Soulmate. The Whole Time that I was at The Event, as much fun as everyone all had, when we left My Heart hurt for Her Sad Heart. I called her afterwords to Thank Her for Understanding Me and Make sure that Her Heart was Okay. All in all, When a Little Voice inside your head tells you to turn around one more time and Make sure that They are Okay, or to Call and Tell them how You feel, or Just give them another Hug. Listen to that voice.

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Don’t let anyone walk away without letting them know You feel and that They are Important to You!

The Christianville Spirit: Hard Lessons in Dating

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Uplifts Your Soul

September 24, 2014-TCS # 418

So, Happy Fall Everyone! Some People like to call it “Fall” and in Old English, They call it “Autumn.” I like both, The Name Autumn sounds more appealing this year. So, Happy Fall and Autumn! Anyway, Let’s get to This Week’s Newsletter!  So, I noticed that Last Week’s Newsletter caught a lot of People, not only a little off guard but, PTLS Members Interested. You See, A lot of PTLS Members have Questions about Their Child and What They may struggle with when They are Adults and Believe Me, There are a lot of Things that They will overcome. So, I am going to Tell You about a Hard Lesson that I had to Learn in My Adult Life. My Veteran Readers know all about This, but Maybe not the Whole Story. You See, I have a Best Friend that I have been Friends with since 10th Grade. There was a Girl who liked Me back then too. Let’s Just say I am cooking a Meal and The Parts of The Story are The Ingredients. Little did I know, that There were a Few Bad Mixtures into The Food I was Cooking. So, We’ll start with The Best Friend and The Girl who liked Me. Good so Far! We add the Fact that My Best Friend was in a We’ll call, a “Life Crisis.” Oops, Sorry, Wrong Ingredient! My Best Friend and The Girl who liked Me were Arch-Enemies. Oh Boy! And, Finally, The Girl who liked me was The Most Hated and Disliked Girl in School because She used to lie a lot and Get People into Trouble. Even My Brother, Michael disliked her! Yeah, Now You get the Picture. Well, The Best Friend was in The Middle of Her “Life Crisis” when Girl-Who-Liked-Me asked me out, Many Times until I finally said Okay. I hate to say it, but She was My First Real Girlfriend. Of Course, There was Ali way before that, but She was not an “Official” Girlfriend. Now, I tell Myself Today that The Reason I went Out with Her wasn’t JUST because She kept asking but, I wanted to Prove to Everyone (meaning My Brother and Everyone at School), it is “Us against The World”. I wanted to prove that She was Nice and Pleasant to Go Out with. Now, I will give her Positive Input here, now that it was since Senior High School, I have Grown... Over It! As My Grandma Honey says, “It was Five Minutes Ago”. Anyway, for The Most Part, She was pleasant to go out with and She taught me how to Kiss, Cuddle, Hold Her, and Hold Hands. Although, It took me a while to get used to Having a Girlfriend and doing all those Couplely Things. My Favorite Part was The One Time when She came running to Me yelling excitedly, “Christian!” and wanting to Hug and Hold Hands while we walked to Where Everyone else was. We did a lot together, including Work Together and I will tell you now, that was a Big Mistake. But, We went to a Special-Needs Friendly Dance, A Few Baseball Games, Hung Out at The Park, Bowling, We did go to the Homecoming Dance (as Friends) and had a Few Dates at Home. Of Course, There was also a Time when She kissed me in front of My Mom, It pretty much gave My Mom a heart attack at The Shock of it. That was one of Our Post-Date Kisses. I didn’t have the nerve to Kiss Her at Her Front Door, like I thought you were supposed to, or maybe I watch too many movies! I got that Idea from The Romantic Comedy, “Hitch” which was Big at the time. Anyway, Me and Her after Dating 3 Times, didn’t work out nor did it end pretty. It was an Ugly Mess and a Real Learning Experience for Me. Anyway, so Where does the Lesson come in. Well, There are Several. One is, for The Love of Goodness, Do Not Work with The Person You are Dating! and, Two, which was The Hardest One, I almost lost the friendship with My Best Friend because, like I said before, It was Her Arch-Enemy that I was dating. The Added Bonus was that My Best Friend liked me and was sending me “Hints” that She liked me, which being a Guy I did not see until I went out with Girl-Who-liked-Me. Also, Because My Best Friend was in a “Life Crisis”, I needed to be there for Her but, I was dating the other girl and I was not being a Good Friend to the one in Need. Now, am I Sorry that I was not there for her? Yes! I am. But, am I sorry because of The Experience I had with The Other Girl? No. Because I would have not Learned The Lesson. “You Live and Ya Learn”, Grandma Honey would probably say. And, I would have not come up with My Dream Girl, Carol Holiday or My Future Soulmate, Bridgett, if it was not for the Girl I dated. So, Yes, in a Way, I do thank her for teaching me that Lesson and after all, “You have to learn what You Do not want in a Girl, to Understand What it is that You do want in a Girl”, My Mom always told me that one. All in all, You have to Learn Lessons to grow in Your Life, otherwise You are sitting Still.

Thanks for Reading the Christianville Spirit. Growth and Change are Painful, but Sitting Still is Even more Painful. 

The Christianville Spirit: PTLS Adult Struggles

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Uplifts Your Soul

September 17, 2014-TCS # 417

So, As PTLS Family Members (I have Acronym’d them as PFMs) always wonder about The Life of A Young Adult with PTLS and What do They struggle with. Parents of Young Kids with PTLS often forget that The PTLS Adults also need Support for Different Things like Living Situation, Jobs, Romantic Life, and My Personal Favorite (Not Really!), Independence! At Least, that is What I struggle with.  So, I guess I will start with The Struggle with Independence because That often Frustrates me The Most. The Truth is, although I love My Mom and Love Living with My Mom, I will eventually want Independence. So, Let’s Start with What I can do. I can dress Myself, Feed Myself, Cook Meals (within Reason), Microwave Meals are the Best I work with if I am by Myself. I don’t work with The Stove if I am by Myself, If I do, I have to have Someone There. I could go to The Grocery Store to get things If I need to, only Problem is that, I don’t announce that I need something from The Grocery Store until It is almost Gone, so I need to Work on that, and I can Shave My Face (But, only Top half of My Face), because Shaving the bottom bothers me sensitivity wise, and The Motor Skills don’t help much either. So, Yes, I need Help with that, usually My Mom helps me with that. The Things that I can not do, I don’t Drive (that is okay with Me). Now, that is not to Say that I Can’t Drive because I have Driven a Car with My Brother in The Neighborhood and I have driven numerous Golf and Go Karts. But, Again, The Problem is that living in a Suburban City like Plano, I would be more of a Danger to The Other Drivers, as They would to Me. Add to that, that I am busy looking at all the Surroundings and My Reaction Time is Very Slow, so Someone could cut me off or Slam on Their Brakes and I wouldn’t be paying attention or I wouldn’t react as fast. I’ve always told Myself that, “If We lived in a Small Town where Everyone knows Me, then I would do better Driving.” In My Head (which is a Saying, I use ALOT!), People would know me well enough, that They would be like, “Oh, There’s Christian on The Road, be Careful!” and Next Thing that I believe holds me back the most is The Shaving. Now, before You tell me that I should use a Good Razor, I have tried Every Razor that I could. I use an Electric Razor because in My Head, It seems easier to use than a Straight Razor. Believe Me, I tried a Straight Razor once (a Single one) when I was Younger and it got caught and it ripped My Skin off on My Chin. The Next Thing that is a Struggle with is Finding a Job that suits me. Meaning a Job that is not too Overwhelming, Has a Calm Environment, and has Good Structure. Let’s not forget to Mention, Something that Interests me. Now, I have seen Jobs that I have liked like Navteq, The Weather Channel, and Google. I would want to do the “Street View” side of Google. As Far as Jobs that I have done, The First Paid Job was The Frisco Roughriders (a Double-A League Baseball Team) as a “PlayBall Attendant”, meaning Someone who passes out Programs to The Community. I have to say, although, I had to stand in The Heat most of The Summer, It was actually an Enjoyable Job. I also did “Kid Sitting” one fall, All I had to do was Make sure that He did his Homework. I did well at that job because I am a Rule Follower. Unpaid Jobs, I did what I now refer to as “Parking Lot Duty”, back when I was in 10.5 Grade (a Repeat of 10th Grade) which I had to walk the Staff Parking Lot and jot down the License Plate if They were parked in The Wrong Place. That Job, I am Very Proud of because I got 100% Compliance from The Teachers at the High School I went to. While I was doing that, I also Delivered things to different Classrooms as well as Office Work in The School Office. So, The Next Thing that I want to move forward with is My Living Situation, Now at the Risk of Sounding Negative about this, It is not really a Struggle but, a Concern. Currently I live with My Mom here in Plano, but The Concern comes in when I want to be Independent. I have told Myself that I have always wanted to live near The Smith Family and My Mom wants us (meaning Myself, Michael, and My Mom) to be near Each Other. I, of course, want to make sure that My Mom lives nearby so that She can help me. By Nearby, I mean, Down The Street, Next Door Preferably, or at least in The Same City. By The Way, as Far as Living Independently, I would probably live with a Roommate if I am Single at The Time (Which I don’t believe I will be!) or I will live with My Significant Other (aka, My Future Soulmate). I have a Feeling that She is Reading This, Secretly Admiring Me, even though I have never met her. Speaking of Romantic Life, that would be something that I am watching for. Although, I think that I would have Control of it for The Most Part, I would meet her, Date Her, and then Eventually, Marry Her. I would Love My Future Soulmate with All My Heart! And, I am sure that She would too. Considering The Fact that I get Anxious about New Things and New Events, I would hope My Wedding goes off Anxiety-Free. Which is Normal for Everyone to get Anxious about it. My Honeymoon will be Excellent, I have that all planned out to Possible Places to go! One Area that I am Really Concerned about is Having Sex with My Wife (This might be Personal, but It is Reality), due to having Texture Issues, I am not sure how I will respond when that time comes. Seeing and Touching Body Parts, and The Act of Sex may or may not go over so well. That Thought Alone makes me Very Anxious.

As Far as Married Life goes, Her and I would live together and Travel The World together! We would not have Children because They would be hard to take care and It is a 50/50 Chance of them also having PTLS. In The Event that We wanted Children, We would Adopt. So, All in All, It is not always Easy living with PTLS, but I would never give it up for Anything, Not even a Cure!

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. PTLS makes me who I am, Wonderful and Unique.

The Christianville Spirit: Meeting Nev

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Uplifts Your Soul

September 10, 2014-TCS # 416

So, I have something Very Exciting and Very Unexpected to Tell You! I got to meet another Celebrity! So Far, I have met Dr. Jen Arnold (From TLC’s The Little Couple), The Travel’s Channel’s Samantha Brown (From Great Hotels, Great Weekends, and Passport to Europe), and 3 Meteorologists from The Weather Channel(1 being Jim Cantore) So, The 7th Person is Someone named Nev Schulman (Pronounced “Neeev”). Now, I know You are wondering, “Who in The World is Nev Schulman?”. Well, back in 2008, Nev and his Film-Making Friend, Max, made a Documentary called Catfish. After the Documentary, It turned into a TV Show on MTV called Catfish: The TV Show. Those of You that have been reading This Newsletter a while has heard me mention about Catfish once or twice. For Those who don’t know, Catfish is a Documentary about a Guy named Nev, who dates a Girl online and then, later meeting her. I won’t say anymore about What The Movie is About because I would be Spoiling It for You. Just take My Advice and Watch it for Yourself. Now, One more Note before We move on to The Meeting. I Know that The Preview of it, looks like a Horror Movie (and, To Be Honest, that is What I thought and I prepared Myself before watching it!) but, It is actually a Documentary and Don’t Worry, No One is going to jump out at You! Anyway, by Pure Serendipity (I love that word!) My Mom was Home and ready to leave when She heard that Nev was going to be doing a Book Signing down in Dallas. She comes to tell me, “So, Christian, Guess What We going to do Tonight?!” My Sleepy Response was “Go to Dinner?” and She told me that Nev was doing a Book Signing in Dallas at Lincoln Park Barnes & Nobles. I thought, Lincoln Park? My Mind went to both the Band and a Small town between Mckinney and Denton. and, I also thought, “Don’t You mean North Park?”. Anyway, so She left and I went back to Sleep. We left Plano to get there 1 Hour and 30 Minutes early, and Good thing that We did because A lot of People (about 200 People, mainly Girls) wanted to see Nev. So, We were given His Book and a Wrist Band with a Number on it. We were moved up the escalator and lined in Numerical Order. My Mom said, “This feels like Six Flags!” Anyway, so We grabbed our seat (We had to stand) and Up came Nev, along with Shrieking Girls. It was Awesome to see Nev in Real Life! So, He joined us all together “Hanging Out” and He started talking about His new Book, In Real Life. He read a part of His Book about The Right Way to say that You are Sorry. He says that, ‘Whatever The Situation is, Even in a Relationship, or in a Fight, You say, “I’m Sorry, I was Wrong” Even if You know that You are Right’. After a Reading, He did a Question & Answer period. Some of The Questions, Including My Own, were Very Interesting. Some People asked What was The Favorite or Most Difficult of The Episodes on The TV Show. I was curious about What the Most Nerve-Racking Episode did He experience? After All, If You have seen the Show, He knocks on a lot of Stranger’s Doors not knowing What was going to Happen. So, When It was Time for The Book Signing, All The Girls shuffled fast, over to The Line to meet him. Me?, I wanted as much Talk Time as Possible. So, I thought, “Why don’t We wait until The Last Person and Then, Go Up?” and That is What We did. It was Funny to watch what Some of The Girls had him do, Some did a Video Or Selfie, One Girl brought a Shirt for Him to Wear, and Yes, One Girl had a Picture of Him kissing her on The Cheek. After The Last Girl past us, We got up and got in Line. We met This Nice Lady named Jasmine while We were waiting and She wanted to Possibly Work with The Filming Crew so She Brought her Resume and Everything. After talking to The Book-handers who worked at Barnes & Nobles about PTLS, It was Time to meet Nev. He grabbed My Book from The Book-handers and Said, “So, Who is Christian?” I responded with “That would be Me”. Of Course, Meeting Nev didn’t come without us telling him about PTLS and Telling Him about The PTLS Foundation. So, After we met him, We talked to Him for Short Time and then, Let anyone else talk to Him before Leaving. I looked behind and There was a Group of Girls who were to say The Least, Starstruck. I told them, I said, ‘You Know, You watch someone on Television and You Think, “Nah, Their not Real!” then, You come to Something like This, You See them, and You think, “Their Real?!”. Yes, even I have that Mentality a little bit. It comes with Being a Fan. I am sure, that People who meet me for the First Time, think that. Because They see me in Videos or Pictures and They don’t think that I am Real. People should remember though, that Famous People are Real People, just like You and Me. Anyway, before we left, Nev was kind enough to Video a PSA about Support and Raising Awareness about PTLS. He did a Really Good Job and We thanked him.

So, Us, Nev, and His Publicist went down The Escalator and On Our Way out, Nev put his arm around Me. As we departed, My Mom made a Funny Reference to One of The Episodes of The TV Show and Nev responded with a Funny Comment back. Both My Mom and I gave Nev a Hug before we left. It was an Awesome Evening! I am very happy that I got to meet Nev and If it weren’t for My Mom hearing about Him on TV, We would have not known that He was in Town. It was all Serendipity planned out for us. All in all, I had a Great Evening and Nev really is a Very Nice Guy!

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. You never know Who You are going to Meet.

The Christianville Spirit: Being Overwhelmed, Good and Bad

Photo by: Amy Derrick, PTLS Mom

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Uplifts Your Soul

September 3, 2014-TCS # 415

Happy September, Everyone! This is The First Month of The Fall Foliage Season, so Get Yourself and Cameras Ready! So, This Week’s Newsletter is a Personal and Yet, Very Confusing One to Explain so I will do My Best to Explain It. You See, as You know, We PTLSers get Overwhelmed easily and when We do, we act differently than We normally would. I recently discovered however, that There are different types of Being Overwhelmed. Now, Normally, If You know that Your Child is Overwhelmed, then You should take them out of The Situation for a Little  Down Time with some Peace and Quiet. But, That is only the case, with One of Them. See, There is a More Positive or Excited Overwhelmed and Then, There is the Negative  Overwhelmed where Your Child is more Fretting about it. Now, It sounds plain and simple, Right? Well, Pull The Brakes, because it is more Complicated than that! First of All, to Explain The Difference. A Positive Overwhelmed means that They are excited and are busy Observing Everything around Them that They don’t want to do Anything Else. That in a Way is a Good Thing because as My Mom would say, “They are Soaking it all in, in Amazement”. Like Someone asking, out of Curious Excitement, “Ohh, What is That?!, What does that do?! What is That Thing?!”. Then, Of Course, There is The Negative Overwhelmed. Where there is too much Activity, too much Noise, too much Stimulation, that They don’t know what to do, except Scream, Cry, or Run Off to a More Quiet and Less-Stimulating Location.  All those Situations happen to Me. However, Too much of The Positive Overwhelmed can turn into a Negative Overwhelmed and what seems like a Negative is actually a Positive. An example of a Positive Overwhelming, was when I went to Savannah recently. I was Out of My Routine and Didn’t know Where I was and What There was Around. I mean, Okay, I knew that I was in Savannah, Georgia and I knew SOME of The Roads, but not all of them. But, I was Positively Overwhelmed because I wanted to see Everything and We only had a Day to see it. I had Lists in My Head, like “Okay, Let’s See. What do I want to see in Savannah? (My Mind begins Excitedly Racing) Ohh, I want to see the Hanging Spanish Moss on The Live Oaks; Wait, The Forest Gump Bench; And If we have Time, I want to see Tybee Island!” I was so Excited! When I got on The “Old Town Trolley”, for the First few minutes, I started talking loudly to The Driver telling her about Things and Then, I just sat there quietly Excitedly Listening so Closely to what The Guide was saying as well as Being Amazed by all The Squares, The Moss on The Trees, The Old Houses. I was Observing Everything! By The Time, that We got off The Trolley, we were all tired. Now, had I researched Savannah beforehand I would have gone to The Bonadventure Cemetery and Read some of The Tombstones (as Travel Channel says to do), or Went to that Historic Site that We drove by too late. But, Hey! It was the First Time There, You live and Learn! The Next is When We PTLSers are Negatively Overwhelmed. To Help, Imagine for Me, You sitting on an Airplane; The Pilot is telling you that Your Flight is Delayed, Add to that People Upset and Babies Cries Their Heads Off (It is Not Their Fault), Now, Add Someone is a bit overly friendly who wants to Tell You about Why They are Going Somewhere. Okay, That is sort of an Example of When We are Negatively Overwhelmed. It would make you want to Scream and Cry (or Get Upset) like Everyone Else, except The Overly Friendly Guy next to You. At This Point, Reading all of This would give you Nightmares! And, If You were in This Situation, You would want to go somewhere Quiet too. I remember a Time when I went to Great Wolf Lodge with My Dad, My Mom was standing there trying to say, “See Ya Later” and Make Sure that I was Okay, but I had a Hard Time hearing her because of The Water Noises, Children Screaming, People Talking, and My Dad and Us were ready to go on The Rides. Talk about Overwhelming! What I usually would do is Go Somewhere much quieter and Hang Out, but There was No Where besides The Lobby, Outside, or The Hotel Room to go for Some Quiet. That, and I wanted to do Fun Things and Do What everyone else is doing so, I just followed along. Now, Don’t Get Me Wrong, I did have fun when I went there but, The “Too Much Activity” does Wear on Us a Bit. It made me Very Upset and It took me a Week to Recover. This is an Example of What a Parent might think is a Positive Overwhelmed, but actually is a Negative Overwhelmed. An Example of a Positive seeming like a Negative, was when I rode a School Bus when I was little. My Mom decided to put me on the School Bus when I was 3, Others thought that I was too Young and It would be a Negative Thing. However, It turned out to be the Best Thing because I loved it. My Mom had it to where I was The First and The Last Stop on The Bus. I made sure that I sat on the Passenger Side of The Bus, so that I could read The Road Signs and See where Everyone lives.  

So, What do You do if This Happens? If They are Positively Overwhelmed, Then Let Them Observe and It does help that if They don’t know what is Happening or What will Happen next, Tell Them What is Happening while They observe and If They don’t know what happens next, Then Explain to Them, “Okay, They’re doing this Now and They are going to do XYZ next”. If However, They are Negatively Overwhelmed, They will either take themselves out of The Situation (Like I do often) or You can, when You know that it is too Overwhelming for Them. All in All, It depends on The Situation that They are in and How They will react to It.

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Having PTLS is not a Curse, It is The Greatest Blessing!

The Christianville Spirit: My Mandatory Road Trip

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Uplifts Your Soul

August 27, 2014-TCS # 414

Hello Again, My Readers! It has been a while since I have written My Newsletter, huh? Well, Welcome Back! It is Time for My Normal Newsletter Schedule to be back and New Newsletters each week. So, to Answer Your Question as to where I was...Well, I was on My Made-Up Company “WTSOC Communications & The Christianville Spirit” Mandated Vacation. Yes, even a Newsletter Writer like me, has to have a Vacation or at least a week break or two. But, Don’t Worry It doesn’t happen often, I stay faithful in My Weekly Newsletters. So, The Next Question, What did I do on This Vacation? Well, This Vacation was a Lot of Driving, Awesome-but-too-fast-at-times, Whirlwind of a Trip. It started 2 Tuesdays ago, My Mom and I did our Traditional Drive of getting from Texas to Atlanta because That is where The Smith Family lives. My First Newsletter Day off, I spent Driving the Other Half to Atlanta (We usually drive 12 Hours but, We decided to Half-Way It this Time and It was worth It!) It is pretty cool to drive into Atlanta during The Daytime when it usually is Nighttime when we arrive. The Rest of The Day We spent time with My Grandma Honey and met up with My Awesome Friend, Audrey. We got to hang out with them for a while. Luckily, They don’t live that far from Atlanta. On Thursday was sort of a Lazy Day before We headed off to North Carolina. We spent a Lovely Weekend with Some of Our Wonderful Friends and We even had Someone who is Very Special show up. My Mom and I have a Friend, who is close to Our Family and also used to Babysit Me when I was Little (back when We were living in San Antonio) and We have not seen him in 21 Years. His Name is Scott and Yes, If that name sounds familiar, He is The Uncle of Monica (“The Monica Miracle”) Anyway, My Mom was friends with Him before I was born, My Mom says that She met him “B.C” (Before Christian). We also got to meet his Sweet Wife. Anyway, It was really nice to catch up with Him and For Him to see what I have become in 21 Years (a lot of Changes happen over 21 Years, at all) He is Mesmerized with Seeing How Well I am doing. Before I move on, Here’s a Shoutout, “HI UNCLE SCOTT!!”. So, After a Weekend with Friends for a Dinner Party, We hop on The Road again to Savannah, Georgia. Grandma Honey wanted to take advantage of The Opportunity to do an Extension of Our Trip, “Y’all haven’t seen Savannah and I want You Guys to see it”, She told us. So, This Time, We got to see a little more than 100 Miles of South Carolina and That was Awesome. So, Sunday Evening, We got to Savannah and We stayed at a Lovely Riverside Hotel along The Savannah River. This “Extension” was sort of a Birthday Surprise from Grandma Honey, We got a Room on The 8th Floor (The Tallest Floor) and It happened to be a Riverfront Room AND on The Concierge Level. On The Elevator, We found out The Hard Way that You were supposed to Swipe Your Hotel Card to Access the 8th Floor. It sort of gave Grandma Honey and I both a little Anxiety Attack, but We figured it out! After we got ourselves settled and comfortable in Our Room, We met up with Grandma Honey’s Very Sweet Friend, Karen Bartlett. We went to Dinner at The Crab Shack on Tybee Island, for an Authentic Southern Meal and I am talking, Really Authentic! My Mom, Grandma Honey, and Karen had a “Low Country Broil”, I had Deviled Crab and It was Very Good. I did have a Taste of Sausage and Karen even cracked a few Crab Legs for Me to Try. By The Way, Deviled Crab is Crab Meat inside a shell. After Dinner, We took a little “Locals’ Savannah Tour”, First, Karen drove us down to Old Ft. Jackson and The Tybee Island Lighthouse; then we visited The Beach of Tybee Island (I got to Dip My feet in the Atlantic Ocean); then, we went down Victory Drive, which had The Best Live Oak Tree overhang that I have seen (which in My Opinion is What Savannah is Known for) AND With Palm Trees lining on The Middle of The Road. Karen told us that Each Palm Tree represents Every Confederate Solider who died in The Civil War. After that, We took another Live Oak Hanging Tree-Lined Street Southward. It was really awesome to see the Spanish Moss hanging from The Tree too. It turns out that the Spanish Moss hangs there because of The Dirt in The Air that lands on The Branches. Now, A warning to People that want to Visit Savannah, Do NOT Touch the Spanish Moss because There are Itchy Bugs called Chiggers that will dig into your skin and Make You itch really bad, just Warning You Now! Along This Tour, Karen showed us a Surprise that Only Locals know, We found a 500 Year Old Live Oak Tree (Live Oaks are known to live Very Long lives). It was Huge! The Biggest Tree, I have ever seen! It is really awesome to see a Tree that Old and seriously that big! Anyway, While we were Driving around, I didn’t realize How Many Islands there are in Savannah, including Wilmington Island, Skidaway Island, Hutchison Island, and The One with My Favorite Name, Isle of Hope. Isle of Hope, I will say has the Most Beautiful Houses in Savannah and Most Dense Forest that I have ever seen along The East Coast. We passed by the Most Famous Plantation that I didn’t realize has a Mile Long Canopy of Trees. It is Famous in The Movie Forest Gump. By The Time, That we got there, It was all ready Dark and The Gate had closed. After The Tour, We went back to Our Hotel and Enjoyed some Evening Snacks in The Concierge Floor Lounge. The Next Day, Monday, was a Day in Savannah. So, We got up and Ate Breakfast in The Concierge Lounge, It was nice and quiet, then We were off on The Day’s Adventure. We hopped on The “Old Town Trolley Tour” and It is Awesome. We got to see The Riverfront Area and All it’s Cobblestone Streets. By The Way, The Cobblestone on The Streets was brought in from England when Savannah was just a Colony. We got to see The Many Quaint Squares of Savannah, There are 24 in All; We stopped at The Savannah Visitors Center and I was on a Mission, to see The Famous Forrest Gump Bench. I was told that It was not at The Park where it was set, but it was at The Visitor’s Center. It was actually in The Savannah History Museum, So My Mom paid for Me to go in there and gave me her Phone to take pictures of What I wanted to. I eventually found the Forest Gump Bench and It was Amazing! It is always something to Me to watch something on TV or in The Movies and see it in Real Life, because seeing it in Real Life, makes it Real to Me. Along with The Bench, I also saw What an Oscar Award looked like. After seeing all that, We moved on and got back on The Trolley. We passed by a Catholic Church called St. John The Baptist Church, In The Pictures, it looked amazing but It was closed for an Event, We were all kind of disappointed. After The Tour, We had Lunch and then, I saw Several Hug Container Ships go by along The Savannah River. I even saw one that was going to Norway. On The Way back to The Hotel, We hopped on The “Savannah Belles Ferry” which took us up to The River toward The Hilton Hotel, We got to see a View of The Savannah Riverfront. I had read that It was supposed to look like Dublin, Ireland and although, I have never been to Dublin, I could see a little resemblance. After stopping at The Hilton, It stopped at The Westin Hotel on Hutchison Island and Then, back to Our Hotel. We ended Our Day, With Our Feet Up, Eating Dinner, and then Watching The Ships go by. So, Then This Past Tuesday, It was Time to drive back to Atlanta. Along the Way, We stopped for Lunch with Some Good Friends, I happened to be wearing My “The Christianville Spirit” Shirt and I heard a Voice from behind me saying, “Nice Shirt”. I turned around to a Very Curious Elderly Couple who were sitting together eating Lunch. They were wondering about My Shirt and I told them about it. They seemed Very Interested in Every Thing that I was saying. Had I been there much longer, I probably would have struck a really good conversation with Them. But, They were Very Sweet to talk to and I am happy to know that They were curious about My Newsletter and Now PTLS. After we reached Atlanta, We got some rest before Driving Back Home on Newsletter Day of Last Week. I was Very Happy to say the least to be Home and Back into My Normal Routine. All in all, It was quite a Memorable Trip and Yes, It was lot of Driving, but I’ll tell you, It was so Worth It!

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. When Taking Long Road Trip, You never know Who You are going to Meet.

The Christianville Spirit: (TCS Series) What It's Like Having PTLS-Part 2 (Rerun)

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Uplifts Your Soul

August 6, 2014-TCS # 413

G’Day, My Readers! So, This is The Greeting in Australia (Pronounced Aust-Tray-Lya). I like to think of it as More of a Short Hand Version of Good Day; sort of like in Texas, We say “Y’all” which is short for You All. I did that for My Aussie PTLS Members (Shout Out!) like Kathy “Bogan-ville” N., PTLS “Aunt” Sam O., Leonie, Jennifer & Nathan, and of course My PTLS “Cousin” Lainey, (in Sing-Songy Voice) From Australia! Okay, I have learned to Mimic what The Subtitles say in Writing. Anyway, Let’s get started with The Newsletter. So, without further adue, This is The Christianville Spirit Series, “Oldie Goldies”. So, for the 5th and Final Installment of This Series, We hop in The Time Machine and Go Back to December 5, 2012. At This Time in My Life, I was excited that It was My Favorite Month of The Year, December. A Bit of Warning, It does say, “Happy December” as well as a Teaser about Explaining Why I Love December. If You have not read it yet, Check Out My Newsletter Site and Read It, It is a Really Good One, I promise you. Thank You for Reading This Wonderful Flash-Back Series and Re-living some of My Goldie Newsletters from The Past. This is Part 2 of What It’s like Having PTLS. Roll It Guys...

Well, Happy December, Everyone! This is My Most Favorite Month of The Year, more on that in a couple weeks. This Week, however, is sort of an extension of the question, “What is it like to have PTLS?”. I forgot to mention about 2 other major things about PTLS, that would be Imitating and Obsessing (we’ll call it OCDing) because we PTLSers have an Obsessive Compulsive Disorder behaviors sometimes. Now, I had a whole thing about Imitating, I figured that I had mentioned it enough in My Newsletters, but to my surprise and yes, some humor, You wanted more about Imitating. Last Week though, for those who are new, I had written a little blip about Imitating and what it is like to have PTLS. So, anyway, let’s get to it! Imitating can be a good or bad behavior, depending on the source. Now, before you start asking, “What is the Source, you say?”. Well, The Source is what we’ll call, where the Imitation is coming from and there are many. The Main Sources that I look at when it comes to explaining is The Parents of The Children, Friends (Both Childs & Yours), Other Kids(Other Kids have a greater influence though), and Things on Television. So, considering that we listen to everything, wether we’re talking or not, we will eventually Imitate the things that we hear you saying or doing. The Best Rule to follow is if you want Good Behavior, put them around things of good behavior, in all the main sources. And, the same thing goes  for the opposite side. So, If you want your child to talk and I know many PTLS parents do, than you put them around normal kids who have good behavior. Here are some examples, When I was little (like 3 or 4 Years Old), The School that I went to, there was a kid who pinched people, so I started pinching people, so the teachers had to move me and the kid away from each other. For Eating, I didn’t eat very well but, I sat at a table with kids eating fruit and I started eating off their plates. I got in trouble but, My Mom was happy that I was eating. I learned to jump on The Trampoline, only when there were kids jumping on it, That was the best thing for Me. When the Speech Therapist would say, “Look at me” and turn my head towards her, I would do that to people who weren’t paying attention to me. I would turn their head and say, “Look at Me.” It’s not a big thing but, it was a big part of how I learned.  As for Me, I have Imitated since I was younger and I still do but not as much as I did when I was younger. When I was learning to talk, I would repeat the other kids, and they would tell me to stop repeating them. I did not know why they would get so angry with me. Usually, it takes a little while before I start to pick up whatever behavior I’m watching. Even the 2 Girlfriends I had, I Imitated their behavior; I talked like them, I thought like them, and I behaved like them. Anyway, now we move on to what can be (to outsiders and PTLS Parents themselves) an annoying habit, The OCDing. We PTLSers Obsess about different things; People, Objects, Interests, and Thoughts. So, usually we find something that interests us and we start to Obsess about it by thinking about it, talking about it, and researching things about it. The annoying part of it is that we don’t stop talking about it or researching until something new sparks our interests. For Example, After I spent a long time Obsessing about Ali, she was My 1st unofficial Girlfriend, I found everything with the name Ali in it and drove my Mom and Brother crazy always talking about it. After I broke up with her, I started Obsessing about New England, which was a nice change for everyone around me, but then it was a problem. Which to most people would think is healthy to think about other things besides the girl that you were with. Honestly, I believe that it helped me with getting over her because she was a nice girl. Anyway, I believe when I was around 7th Grade or so, I would pick a City or State to obsess about and they were odd places sometimes. Besides Atlanta, where The Smith Family lives, I would obsess (well, not really obsessing because I love Geography, but anyway..) I would Obsess about the places in between like Alabama, Mississippi, or Houston. In my head, I pretend that we lived in where ever I was obsessing about. When I was Younger, like back what we now call “The Mr. Jeff Era”(from 2nd to 5th Grade), we had a creek in the backyard and considering that I had gone to Laredo and Nuevo Laredo, Mexico with My Dad, I would pretend that Mr. Jeff’s House was the Welcome Center into Laredo, Texas, The creek was the Rio Grande River and, My School, Harrington, was in Mexico. I’m sure, My Childhood Friends hadn’t heard about this until now, or at least I don’t think. The tall-tale sign of what your child or myself are obsessing about is mentioned a lot whenever we talk about things over and over again, and never get tired of it. I have to be told to stop and move on to some other topic. Further toward My Present Age, If you have ever had a conversation with me, you would notice I’ve obsessed about Places like New England (like Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine); Norway & Sweden (My Neighbor, Woody, and I have discussions about that a lot); The Caribbean (like Jamaica, The USVI, and St. Martin & St. Bartts;  How News, The World, History, and Politics all tie together; and of course a share of Girls including Girlfriends I’ve had, Girls I like, and of course, My Future Soulmate. I should also mention, if you haven’t noticed, that we like to repeat ourselves, it’s another thing that we PTLSers do called Repetition. So imitation is often when we are young, but not so much when we get older. OCD behaviors help me to stay focused, so I guess it is a Good thing. Repeating myself and talking about my Obsessions, Well, that might drive others crazy, but I like it and so I keep doing it.

All in All, 

if your kids are imitating, hopefully its all good things. If they have OCD behavior, be patient with them because it helps them to feel in control and stay focused.

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. We all have our quirks and good reasons for them. Love us anyways.       

The Christianville Spirit: (TCS Series); What it's like Having PTLS-Rerun

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Lifts Your Soul

July 30, 2014-TCS # 412

Hei, My Readers! This Time I am trying out a Norwegian Greeting. Norway is One of My Favorite Countries, We have alot of PTLS Members in Norway that I love, and We’ll call this, an Honor to My Friend, Monica Shevell (Shout-out!) because She is Experiencing Norway’s Beauty. If You are wondering how You say, Hei, You pronounce it, Hi-EE. So, Let’s get started with This Week’s Newsletter! This Week we are Continuing Our “Oldie Goldie” Series. Don’t Worry, New Newsletters will be Coming Back in a Few Weeks! So, without further a due, This is The Christianville Spirit Series, “Oldie Goldies.” For The 4th Installment of This Series, We hop in The Time Machine and Go back to November 28, 2012; Just before My Favorite Month of The Year, December. The Idea for This Newsletter came from a PTLS Member who wanted to know what it is like to Actually Have PTLS. So, This is My View of What It is like Having PTLS, Roll It Guys....

So, This Week’s Newsletter is a PTLS Parent-submitted idea that I’m going to take a shot at. You See, The question does come up every now and then about “What is it like to have PTLS” or “Why do you love having PTLS.” Now, for Me, I’ve lived through it my whole life but, I found out when I was 8 Years Old. The Doctors and My Mom told me I was unique and that I had something called a “Duplication of Chromosome 17” but, again in my 8 Year Old mind, I just understood that I was unique in some way. I was very proud to say what I had (and, I still am proud) but, I had a hard time explaining it to people, yes even Today. Of Course, My “PTLS Sister” will tell you what she has and tells you what she knows about it and says to “look it up”. Quite Frankly, though, I think that’s the best idea to do. However, when I was a High School age, we didn’t have a website or let alone ANY Information about it. Now, to answer the question of “What is it Like to have PTLS?” to me, It’s not a big deal that I have Special Needs (I am aware of it though) because I believe it makes me, Me. The best part about it that makes it a big deal is having PTLS Family Members all over The World. Of Course, with everything, it has Pros and Cons about it, just like Chicago O’Hare vs. Chicago Midway Airport, Irrelevant I know, but I wanted to stick that in there. Generally though, There are some wonderful perks to it, like that You don’t judge People by their looks or their story because we see the good in People, We have No Filter, which can be a good thing or bad thing depending on who you are listening to, and we love anyone and everyone, unless they really hurt us, then we don’t understand why people would be so Mean. If it were up to us, we would hug every person that looks Sad or who just feels sad. Then, there are the not-so-perky parts of it; the #1 less-perky thing about PTLS is the Anxiety. Anxiety can come from different sources like Trying New Things, the Doctor’s Office, or Irrational Fears. By The Way, We do have Irrational Fears that we go through, where it comes out of nowhere, strikes, and then goes away after a while. The next thing is Imitating, which can be Good or Bad depending on who or what your imitating. And the final one, It’s a pain when people look down on you, as if you are dumber or less-able than them, It’s where and why people call us, the dreaded R-Word. At Least, for me I get offended whether someone calls me the R-Word directly or indirectly. Even if they use it in a funny way like “That’s R-Worded” to mean that something is funny (I’ll save you from hearing or reading the word itself, but you get the point). Bottom line, I Hate that word. And Yes, I had a friend who did that a lot and I’m sure still does. So, He’s not My Friend anymore. As far as, Why do I Love it? Because it makes me unique and I love my “Uniqueness” plus, there are lots of Understanding PTLS Members all over The World and it gives me an excuse to visit those places. Understanding though, is the Most Important (I mean it with emphasis) part of having PTLS or Having someone with PTLS, whether it’s your son, daughter, cousin, or friend. Unfortunately, in some families, including my own, it’s hard for people to Understand. If you have Friends or Family that do understand, Never let them go and cherish them, because they will be your ringleader and on Team “Insert Child’s Name Here.” You need Cheerleaders in the times when we are Bullied or made fun of. I know I had Friends that protected me when I was younger but, didn’t know why. I didn’t know what a bully was until I got older. Now, I’m aware when people aren’t being nice. But, it doesn’t happen very often, thank goodness. So, all in all, just because people see me as being “Special” doesn’t mean, I’m not able.

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Embrace your Uniqueness because We are all special in our own way.         

The Christianville Spirit: TCS Series; A Conversation about Anxiety (Rerun)

Me and My Mom riding in a Hot Air Balloon!

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Lifts Your Soul

July 23, 2014-TCS # 411

Bonjour, My Readers! That means “Hello” in French, I thought that I would Begin with a Bit of a Twist, different from Normal. So, Let’s Get Started with The Next Installment of Our Series, Shall We?! Before I begin, as a Reminder to those who want to read More “Oldie Goldie”, Read further down or Select a Year between Now and 2006, and Find some Good Ones to Read. An Invite to explore Christianville is always open All Year Long, so Come Read and Check It Out! So, on with The Series, without further a due, This is The Christianville Spirit Series, “Oldie Goldies!” For The 3rd Installment of The “Oldie Goldie” Series, We go back to October 24, 2012, Just before My Brother’s 24th Birthday. On This Day in My Life, I had gotten home from The Dentist’s Office and I was wanting to share My Experience about My Anxiety. Anxiety, By the way, is Very Typical of PTLS Children (One trait, that if Given the Chance, I would take away; All others I would Leave) and Hopefully, This will help you handle it when It occurs. As They say in TV and Radio, Roll it Guys...

So, Last Thursday, My Mom and I had one of the best talks we’ve had in a while. However, as My Uncle Bruce would call it, “The context of it” wasn’t that fun and happening at the time it was happening. Now, don’t worry it’s not bad, I promise! You See, about 2 weeks ago, My Mom told me that I had a Dentist Appointment on Thursday, The 18th. She let me know so I would be prepared and not spring up on me like “Oh, by the way...We’re going to The Dentist today.” Now, the reason she told me is because having predictability is essential to us PTLSers because we don’t focus without it. Not only that but, the Anxiety increases as well. On the other hand, when I know about it, I obsess about it and I get anxious about it. So, usually when I’m told in advance, I get nervous and fret about it until the day of. Bottom line, I’m nervous the most the night before, the morning of, and when the event starts. So, that brings me to This Afternoon (it was Thursday when I wrote this). So, I was nervous as usual and we discovered that the appointment was an hour later than she thought, so we had time talk, but it also gave me more time to be worried. Here is how the talk began. You see, Everyone, don’t get me wrong, I LOVE having PTLS and I wouldn’t give it up for anything, Nothing! However, there are parts of the behaviors that I would love to get rid, that one being Anxiety and, that was one of the first thing I told My Mom. So, she was wondering if I sit during this extra hour of waiting, and do nothing, does it help with my Anxiety? Unfortunately, No. In fact it only makes it worse because I obsess about it even more, because I know, wether I sit still and Watch TV or check Facebook, whatever the event is, it is still going to happen. So, she suggested that we hop in the car, start driving toward the Dentist’s Office and keep moving. So, we started discussing, how I feel about my anxiety and methods on how I can get through it and how she could help me get through it. This ha always been something she wondered about if she handled me the right way when I was a Child. As far as the sitting still or delaying it, that only makes me frustrated because it just means the event in question is still in your face and it’s not going to move unless you go through it. So, then comes the question of “should I tell you about a week before or be like, Surprise! We’re doing This”(in this case, “You and I are going to The Dentist, right now.”) I told her that it would be a Defiance of Trust to me if she didn’t give me enough warning. Remember though that My Mom and I have a good relationship, I tell her what’s going on with me and she tells me some of the stuff going on with her. So, how would I tell the difference when someone says, “Let’s get in the Car”; does it mean that your going out to Dinner, to The Movies maybe, on a Drive (which I love to do), or going to The Doctor to get your blood drawn. So I told her, that I have to know about it because I need predictability and predictable outcomes. Now, It may make me nervous, physically sick to my stomach and fret to no end, but it’s better for me to know than be surprised with something like that. The only thing is that it is frustrating is to know I am going to get sick (which is very ugly, loud and embarrassing) to know that you can’t get around it. So, then the problem comes, when the event happens, what do you (the parents & Kids) do? Well, that’s the part that gets me emotionally confused (and it had me very emotional talking about). Whether you ease into it slowly or be outfront about it, just make me do it. When it comes to Doctors, Dentists, and Needles, the best thing is just do it, be direct, but with a gentle firmness that gets it over with quickly. Once I get through it, I am fine. Now, I know PTLS Parents are wondering, “But, I don’t want to force it on them!”. Well, the thing is, you don’t have to force but, you have to push a little bit. I mean, as I told My Mom, “If you didn’t push while I was worried and getting sick to my stomach, then I wouldn’t have given a Love Note to Ali and she wouldn’t have known that I liked her” Other examples, I would never have learned to swim, go down a slide, snow ski, or performed in the Second Grade play at School (all which I really liked and didn’t want to stop after I did it), go into the 4th grade Economic Fair (because they had “Gak” and the sight of this makes me throw up), I would have never went out on a date, Went to Homecoming, had a Girlfriend, had a job or I would have never even have met My PTLS “Sister” (yes, it’s been awhile since I mentioned her). Now, I know your also wondering about the whole dentist appointment thing went, well I have an easy Gag Reflex and I was afraid that I was going to gag when I had to open your mouth. I do not like peoples hands and dental things in my mouth, so when they do I gag and get sick. However, a positive note, I didn’t gag this time, because Julie (the Dental Hygienist) was very nice and talked me through it, they had a T.V. for me to watch CNN, as well as the fact that she was very pretty. So the appointment went fine. I should mention though that these anxieties lasts until the event starts happening and then I start to calm down and have a good time. Anyway, the bottom line here is that your child can do a long list of things, but sometimes though, we need a little loving push to get through the anxiety we have and we’ll get it done.

All in All, remember that it depends on what the event is will tell if the PTLSer will be anxious about it and be able to get through it, no matter how hard you push them, but try anyway. This is what My Mom did and it worked.  

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Why do people eat Desserts when they are Stressed? Because Desserts is Stressed spelled backwards.      

The Christianville Spirit: TCS Series: This Ones for The Parents (Rerun)

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Uplifts Your Soul

July 16, 2014-TCS # 410

So, My Readers, As I mentioned before, I really like reading Some of My Old Newsletters and I would Love to share them with You. So, I am going to Share some of My “Gold Newsletters” from The Past. So, We are going to Continue Our Trip down “Oldie Goldie Memory Lane”.  This is The 2nd Installment of The Christianville Spirit Series, “TCS’s Oldie Goldies”. So, Further a due, This is The Christianville Spirit Series, “TCS’s Oldie Goldies”! So, This Week, We take a trip back to July 25, 2012. At This Time in My Life, I was getting Excited for My Birthday in Atlanta, which turned out to be The 2nd Atlanta PTLS Gathering. By The Way, I do want to make it clear to My PTLS Family Members as well as Curious People, that a “PTLS Gathering” is sort of like a Family Reunion of The PTLS Family where as a Conference is Where we have The Doctors come in. Just thought I should note that in case of any Confusion. Anyway, This “Oldie Goldie” was written as a Tribute of The Parents of PTLS Kids because I love them so much. I Love You, PTLS Family Members! As They say in TV and Radio, Roll It...   

So, You Know, that old 90’s song, “This ones for The Girls?” Well, for this week’s Newsletter, I’m going to put a twist on that song via a tribute to the Parents of The PTLS Family. I’m calling it, “This ones for The Parents.” For a little reference, “This ones for The Girls” is more of song to empower women. Anyway, I owe all parents of PTLS Kids a huge thank you, for not only being  the wonderful you and raising kids at the same time. But, most of all, I want to Thank You for being willing to talk to me, learning about me, and getting answers to those questions that have been bugging you to ask about what It’s like to have PTLS. Now, on that subject, the funny thing about the questions that are running through your mind are probably you are thinking, anyway, that they must be the most absurd questions that would ever come out of your mouth. But, once you hear it come out, it’s huge relief and there is actually an answer to the question. The thing that the Parents of Every PTLS Child has is that They think that they’re the only ones that have to deal with whatever they’re child does, whether it’s hitting, gagging, not eating, mumbling and not talking..the list goes on. But, Believe it or not, after talking with My PTLS Sister for so long, I always thought I was the only one who did certain behaviors or felt a certain way. Now, having talking to someone that has PTLS, we find that when we compare notes, we are very similar. Now, of course, we all know that there are different Parents, different Parenting Styles, and come from different backgrounds. But, the major thing PTLS Parents have in common is their going through, roughly the same thing and shouldn’t feel alone. Bottom Line though, is that we all have our own lives and our own junk that we deal with everyday that, its awesome that on top of that, many appreciate the fact that I might be able to help answer questions and it’s awesome that they want to talk to me and get my opinion on different things. And, yes, some people like to test my knowledge on all the stuff I know and things I’ve done, and I like to share my knowledge, so ask away! Honestly, I’m honored that people take the time to talk with me about anything and I feel so loved by Everyone, it’s a great feeling. By The Way, on the day that you meet me, Please tell me who you are and where your from, before you jump into the “I know Everything about You and I feel like I know You” thing that most people do when they meet me in person. Then again, the first thing I said to Dr. Jen Arnold from The Little Couple was “I’m your biggest Fan!” so, believe me, I understand. All in all, though Thank You once again for meeting me and talking to me like I was your own, and most importantly, taking the time to get to know me. But, even more so your children are very blessed to have you as their parent who cares so much about them, try to learn everything about them, and are such strong, wonderful parents; I’m happy to know you all.

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Be Empowered to be a PTLS Parent.     

The Christianville Spirit: TCS Series; My Legacy (Rerun)

Me and My #1 Fan, Lynne!

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Uplifts Your Soul

July 9, 2014-TCS # 409

So, My Readers, I have Noticed Something and It has Occurred to Me that I have More Readers that I did when I started. The Sad Part is that, unless You go looking for Some of My “Gold Newsletters” from The Past, You would have to go far back to see all of them. You See, I have written many “Gold Newsletters” over The Years (all the way back to 2006) and A lot of New Readers that weren’t around at the Beginning, Missed Them. For My Veterans (those who around when I started), This will be a Good Refresher. It does feel good, at least for Me, to look back to a Certain Year and Wonder Where I was, What was Going on in My Life, and The Many Adventures that I had. So, I’m going to do a Series bringing up The Gold Newsletters from The Past, I’m calling The Series, “TCS’s Oldie Goldies”. So, without further, This is The Christianville Spirit Series, “TCS’s Oldie Goldies”. This “Oldie Goldie”, as I take on a Casey Kasem Voice, was written back on July 13, 2011. It is about an Epiphany I had about My Legacy. As They say in TV and Radio, Roll it... 

You know those Thought Provoking epiphanies that occur in Your Life. You Know, the ones that make you see the meaning of Life or more along, Your Life. Well, I had one a couple days ago and it was about My Legacy. You See, I’ve heard about these “meaning of life” or “What in the world is My Life about” kind of epiphanies, Rumors says that like Every big thing that happens, seems to occur in Your 20’s. Just like your 20’s, you tell your parents about anything and everything that’s every happened as well as anything that has ever bothered you. Anyway, This Epiphany came about because I was thinking some of My Family’s Legacies and Believe Me, the Smith Family has led many great legacies including My Grandma Honey helping teenage unwed mothers in Maine to her great work-ethic. Of course, the Legacy of The Smith Family can’t forget Popi, My Grandpa who was, to say the least, A Great Man. But, then I thought, “What in the world is My Legacy?” and God in my head spoke, “Your Legacy is to help The Families and to Inspire them”. Of Course, I knew what he was addressing. He was addressing My great PTLS Family and that I need to help them. Now, by “Help” I believe he means not necessarily Support them because That’s up My Mom. But, to Inspire Them. You Know, back when I was in Senior High School, My Friends and I would occasionally sit in this Garden area which was a little walk from the Cafeteria. Anyway, there was this Plaque that read “Friends will come and go, but good friends will leave a foot print on Your Heart that will last forever”. At that time, I sort of understood what it meant and I thought it was sweet. But, I didn’t really understand what it meant. Today, now thinking about it, I do. You See, In a way I’m leaving my print on Many Hearts of members of My PTLS Family and the truth is their doing the same to me. All in all here, We all have legacies that we are here to lead, as little or as big as they may be.

Thanks for reading The Christianville Spirit. Here’s a rare-double dose Inspiration. Find what Your Legacy is and lead it. The Second, is from the Plaque with a little twist of mine “Friends and/or Family will come and go. But, Good Friends and/or Family will leave a print that lasts forever.”

The Christianville Spirit: My Brother's View on Me- Rerun

This is Michael with His Chickens that He has at His House

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Opens Your Eyes

July 2, 2014-TCS # 408

So, I decided to do a Little Blast from The Past Newsletter, For This Week’s Newsletter. This “Blast from The Past” Newsletter was written back on June 20, 2012. It is a Newsletter about a Question that PTLS Family Members always wonder about. How My Brother, Michael views Me and having PTLS. Now, Just to be clear, Michael is My Actual Brother (along with a Half-Brother and Half-Sister on My Dad’s Side). All other “Brothers” I mention about (Like Tyler) are because I take the term “PTLS Family” to a Literal Sense. So, without further a due, This is My Brother’s View on Me!

So, Now that I have written Last Week on My View of My Brother and you enjoyed it. Well, now your really going to enjoy this! It’s the long-awaited Newsletter on how My Brother views me. This idea has been in My Head for a while before I finally decided to do it. My Mom and PTLS Family Members had always wondered about My Brother how My Brother felt about me having Special Needs and Having PTLS(or dup.17p11.2, as it used to be called). The idea came when one of the PTLS Members suggested that I should do a Newsletter on My Brother and his view of it all. I mean, considering that I mention him a lot in My Newsletters, people start to wonder about him and how he deals with it. It took a while at first, getting the nerve to ask him to do this, and even the idea of what questions do I ask? Because first off, I didn’t know what to ask him or even more unnerving, what would he say? So, I sent out a post on Facebook to PTLS Members on what questions they want answered and/or curious about and I got quite a few responses about what they want to know. After reading a couple questions, I thought, “Man, these are deep questions” and “I’m not sure if I really want to know about it or not.” So, then came, “How do I do this? A talk? Dictation to My Mom? or an Interview?” Well, long story short, I asked My Brother about it and he said, “We’ll do an interview” and finally, after a while of asking him(because both he and I kept forgetting or it wasn’t the right time of day,) He sat down to answer the questions. He finished it yesterday and it’s ready to go. First, I want to thank him and let him know I appreciate his honesty and willingness to do this. So, Get Ready everyone cause here’s the interview. As a note: the Bolded Questions are from the PTLS Family and below it are Michael’s Responses. So, as they say in Television and Radio, Roll it...   

TCS: When you were about 10-13 years old, can you tell us as a sibling how you felt when your bother had an aggressive outburst? Did you truly understand what was going on with him?

 Michael: For as long as I have known him, which is practically my entire life, he has never had an aggressive outburst. For the most part if he ever got really upset he would get more emotional. He would work himself up and start crying. There would be the occasional times where he would raise his voice but nothing that could ever be put as an aggressive outburst. At that age I had already seen him do things like that before so I wasn’t to worried about it. I just figured that he was more sensitive to things then I was, I never really linked PTLS to his sensitivity. I also figured out by then he was extremely stubborn and if he didn’t want to do something, he would put up quite a fight. Which would also cause him to get upset.

  TCS: How did having a sibling with PTLS effect your life both good and things that were difficult?

 Michael: Well growing up, nobody knew what PTLS was including myself. I was told that my brother had special needs and I just took that as the literal sense. I never considered him special or different though. I treated him like my bother with no exceptions and restraints. Naturally I picked on him and gave him a hard time. The one thing that I did do growing up was take on the role of big brother. I looked out for him and tried to teach him things. Christian has also taught me a lot growing up with him. I learned from a young age that people in the world see things differently. There’s nothing wrong with looking at the world differently and having a sense of individuality. Everyone goes through highs and lows, it’s how you deal with the situation that makes the difference.

TCS: How do you deal with your peers asking questions about your brother?

 Michael: Honestly, when I was younger I can’t really remember to many people asking about him. I think the main reason was that he was always pretty friendly to everyone. No one really could tell just by meeting him that he had special needs. After a while of getting to know him or seeing him then they might ask questions. I’m always proud to tell them what’s up. I just tell them that he has this rare chromosome duplication and he was forth to be diagnosed with it. After that, some people keep questioning and are really interested others just move on to the next order of business, whatever that might be.

TCS: PTLS kids need a lot of attention/ extra help. Were you ever envious of this?

 Michael: Nope. If anything when I was younger I found it annoying and frustrating. Not that he was getting more attention then me or anything like that, it was just because I was ready to move on and progress while Christian was still trying to learn.

TCS: As a sibling was there a time say around preteen where you were embarrassed when you were out with the family?

 Michael: Not really.

TCS: What did your mom do to help you understand Christians PTLS?

 Michael: I think that the best thing for me was learning patients and acceptance. I was taught that not everyone learns the same way and each person is different. Some people require more training on particular topics. Really that advice goes for everyone and didn’t segregate my brother from other people. It didn’t hurt that my mom likes the medical field and could give me facts and explain information easier to me.

TCS: When did you realize Christian was different?

Michael: I don’t think there was really a point of epiphany where all of a sudden I knew he was different. Living with him and growing up together, you just kind of known as life. Its really the same as getting to know anyone else, you hang out with them enough you learn things about them. All it takes is some powers of observation.

TCS: Growing up, can you give some examples of things you showed him how to do/ taught him?

 Michael: Ha ha ha!!! When I was seventeen or so I let Christian drive my car down the neighborhood street. That was exciting to say the least!! I taught him how to play video games and things like that. To recall everything I taught him would take some time. I just try my best to show him and explain to him anything that he has questions about and would like to learn about. His memory is pretty freaky. He can recall all sorts of random stuff. If others put in the effort and energy to teach him, he can learn anything.

TCS: Do you feel any angst or nervousness about being Christian’s guardian later in life?

 Michael: I suppose so, it is kind of nerve racking. I’m not stressing out too much though. We get along great and for the most part he is pretty self-reliant. I am confident in my self and my abilities to overcome any obstacle that dares to stand in front of me. Ha ha ha! But for real, I have known about being his guardian for a long time now, so I’m mentally ready.   

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So, I hope all of this helped to answer your questions on Siblings and My Brother. It was quite surprising to hear some of these because I didn’t expect it. Well, you know, I guess it’s like they say, “You’ll Never Know Until You Ask”, simple as that. This whole interview turned out to be more fun than I thought it was going to be, but then again, I didn’t know. I mean, you know, how much someone loves you but, sometimes, every now and then, you might be curious as to how much that person loves you. As for me, I know that My Brother loves me and understands me, and I love him so much for that. All in all, I say it a lot, but I’ll say it again, My Brother, Michael, is Awesome!

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Let the ones you Love in your life, know that you love them; Everyday.