The Christianville Spirit: Michael Matters Rerun

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Knows Love

June 19th, 2019-TCS # 644

Hej, Ciao, and Bonjour, My Readers. I am saying Hello to You in Three of My Favourite Languages; Swedish, Italian, and French. Funny, My Mom’s Side of The Family is both German and Italian. Personally, I like the Italian Side, The Food and Music side of them. But, Of Course, Who wouldn’t like Italian Food! If You didn’t, an Angry Grandmother would be after You. You-a No Like-a My Food?! Anyway, on to This Week’s Newsletter. So, I would be Lying if I did not say that There are Times when I really Miss My Brother! There are Times when I really miss having him around, I miss hanging out with Him, and I miss What My Uncle Craig would call “Goofing Off” with Him. Now, Luckily, My Brother is going to Town next week and I am Very Happy about that, but I still wish that He was around a lot more Often. In August, It will be The 4th Year that My Brother has been in Colorado. Now, I have always been the Kind of Person that Let’s You do what You need to do and leave you alone. If You need to Spread Your Wings and Be Away for a While, that is Fine as long as You eventually come back; If You need to Work, Whatever, that is Fine. But, I feel that I am a bit too Lenient about Letting People do what They need to do. Of Course, I’m not going to be a Dictator and Say “You need to do XYZ!”. Now, I am sure that You might say that I could just call him on The Phone or Skype Him. Well, My Brother has a rather unpredictable Working Schedule, for Me, anyway, that does not work. I would rather have a Time that is always near-Guaranteed to be there. And, Finally, and Most Importantly, sometimes, When You move to a Part of The Country or Even The World, You end up having What I will refer to as The “Local Version of Yourself”. Now, Sometimes, Said Local Version of Yourself, is not always a Good Version of Yourself. for Example, My Brother, Lord knows I Love Him but, He has a “Local Version” of Himself that honestly, does sound or look like The Brother that I know and love, which Makes Me Miss Him more. Him, meaning The Funny, Loving, and Goofy Michael. Now, Yes, He still is those things in His Heart, I know that It is still there but The “Colorado Michael” is in Effect right now. Now, I realize that We will all have Versions of Ourselves that Either Our Family or We, Ourselves, don’t like about Them or Ourselves. Heck, I could move to a different part of The Country or The World, or Meet Someone and Not like that Version of Myself. Anyway, Just a Thought. So, This Week, I want to Re-Share a Newsletter about One of Those Times where I talk about How Much My Brother means to Me!

This Newsletter was written on June 24th of 2015 (Refer to Newsletter 455)

Hola, My Readers! I thought I would try a different greeting for You. Hola is Hello in Spanish, by the way. A Happy Birthday to My Dog, Zoey too! So, This Week I am going to talk about something that is a Bit Hard on Me and Something that I (as well as My Mom) have Many Viewpoints about. It involves a Big Change in Our Family that is likely to help us Grow as a Family. You See, I am sure My Veterans (My Term for those have been reading for a While or Since The Beginning) know that My Brother once moved into His Own Apartment and I thought THAT was a Big Deal, Mind You, the Apartment was like a few miles West of Our House. Okay, then Michael moved back home and then, later after High School, He moved to Denton. That One was surprisingly easy because I had been to Denton a few times before and it was a Pretty Nice City. Well, This Time, Michael is moving again. This Time though, Michael, My Brother is moving to Colorado. Yes, that is right, Guys. Colorado. And, This is getting to be pretty soon, like August 1st soon! So, Let’s start some Questions. Why is He moving to Colorado? Well, for Many Reasons, among them, He is Outgrowing The Dallas Area, There is nothing here for His, Let’s just say “Funky Art”. Secondly, He is moving because of The Adventure, namely the Mountains and Nature Abound, perfect for things like Rock Climbing, Camping, General Fun Stuff. In Other Words, I see that He is moving there to Have Fun. Now, This is The Point where I have Three Voices in My Head, One of Himself, one of PTLS Brother, Tyler and One of My Friend, Deb. Kind of reminds of that new movie, Inside Out, even though I have not seen it. My Brother’s Voice would say, “It’s Time to Grow Up, Don’t Be Scared and Just Do It!”; My PTLS “Brother”, Tyler would say “Have You been to Colorado? Then, Quit Bashing It!” (Why Yes, Voice of Tyler, I have been there and I Love It! Crested Butte, by the way) and Of Course, The Rational Level-Headed Voice of Deb says, “It is HIS Destiny” So, How do We feel about It? Well, That is where it gets a bit a Crazy. Now, Don’t Me Wrong, Colorado is Beautiful State, Stunning Even, Maybe an American Version of Switzerland! But, In My Head, looking at My Little Trusty Map of Family (both PTLS Family and Smith Family), There really isn’t much Family out there, or at least any that We are close to. I personally would rather Michael go East toward Family like North Carolina, Dahlonega maybe?, I would take The West’s Oregon if I had to because it has The Grant Family which are What I will refer to as The “West Coast Smiths” (Even though, They aren’t really Smiths). My Reasoning for that is because I want to be closer to Family. My Mom, of course, This whole deal is going to tear her up and All of us know It. My Mom also wants to be near Family, but at The Same Time, wants to be near Michael as well, You Know as Any Mother would. That and She would not want to Travel an Ungodly Amount of Miles or Hours, to see The Grandchildren that she wants to have and Honestly, I couldn’t imagine that! Also, The Fact of that He will be My Guardian in The Future, but I think that is another story for Another Time. My Biases aside, I feel that it is splitting us up and It is not Anyones Fault really. My Mom and I don’t see him as much, maybe Once or Twice a Week. I am led to believe that He is “breaking up” with Us so that He can grow and Spread his Wings a little. He needs it, after all. He has had Many Opportunities, too many to name and He has usually stayed here, Not Because of My Mom and I, but because of, to put it lightly a “Girl Force”. Now, He did have an Opportunity to go to College in Boston, but I believe that Might have been because of Us (He would have missed Us and Mommy’s Care-Packages!). But, To Be Fair, If He has to spread his wings and Leave Dallas, then Now would be a Good Time and a Bonus here! His Friends are backing him up with this One. So, like I said, He has to get out to Dallas, (Not that there anything wrong with Dallas!) and See that is more to America than The Suburbs of Dallas. A Secondary Note here as well, My Dad has moved to Arizona and He is pretty happy out there in the 100 Plus Degree Heat, Oh Boy! By The way, with all of this stuff about Michael moving to Colorado, He prefers Warm Places, He does not like The Snow. Hmm... That should be Interesting! But, Who knows, He may go there and stay a Short Time and then Move On. Maybe, it is a “much ado about Nothing”, or maybe My Mom and I are on Our Own Track for a While and Michael will come back to Family when He has had His Fill, You never know. I guess that Rational Voice of Deb might be right, “It is a Matter of Destiny!” All in all, We all have SOME Kind of Destiny to follow and Sometimes, It may or many not align with Someone Else’s Destiny. So, Somehow and Eventually, Destiny brings us all together. So, with that said, If Your Destiny is different (or The Same) than Mine, Michael, You will always be My Brother and I will always Love You!

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. If You have a Good Destiny, Follow It!

The Christianville Spirit: A Rant about Parents-A Christianville Classic

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Knows Love

June 12th, 2019-TCS # 643

Hoi, My Readers! I present to You, a New Greeting! This Greeting is from the Netherlands, Holland, or Both. Hoi, which I am told is pronounced like It looks, Hoy. Hoi, by the way, is Dutch for “Hi” commonly said among People that You know. Alternatively, Hallo (like the German and Swiss German Hallo) is used to say “Hello”. So, Being in The Honored Self-Appointed PTLS Ambassador, Meeting PTLS Family Members as well as Proudly Talking about PTLS as an adult with this is just what I do. This Job, not really a Paying Job but, Something I do that I like to say is a Job, comes with Talking to and Meeting PTLS Family Members, therapists and Teachers from All over The World. I get them in all Kinds! The Veterans, Those who have been here since the Beginning, as in before PTLS was named and going into The Naming of PTLS; There are The Post-Naming of PTLS, Family Members Those who are told that Their Child has Potocki-Lupski Syndrome. Now, Some Members are Blessed to have a Doctor that will learn some of It and Tell them a little bit about it. Then, Of Course, The Doctors that don’t know anything about it. In Other Words, they might as well as be Saying that Your Child has some foreign syndrome, Don’t know what it is, Okay, Move On! Next Patient, Please! Okay, so the Doctors are kind as they can be, but I am sure that That is What The Members feel like happened. Perhaps, The Doctor did say something about it but, All the Parent heard was “Your Child has Something called Potocki-Lupski Syndrome..” It is Sort of like Autism... (“Wah-Wah-Wah” Sound like Charlie Brown). So, These PTLS Family Members range from Pre-Veteran across Mid-Time and Into The Newer Side of The Family. The “Welcome to The Family” New PTLS Family Members, The Ones scared to Death, Literally. Okay, If You are New..I say with The Most Gentile Love and Hug and Saying, “Welcome to The Family! Everything will be Okay!”. The New People are usually the Ones that I want to Make Sure that They get the Most Accurate Information, from The PTLS Foundation as well as a Lot of Love, and to be, Given The Information at a Slow Pace, or Whatever Speed that They feel comfortable. Veterans, Imagine driving onto a High-Speed Highway where Everyone in The Far Left is Blazing By, Knowing and being Comfortable on The PTLS Highway, everyone is The Middle is going Fast to Medium Speed, and then, The Right Lane is going Slow, they are just learning! But, The Fast Ones think that You are in The Way, What Lanes do You choose as a New PTLS Family Member? Now, Yes, All of Us PTLS Family Members at Whatever Stage from Veterans to Brand New, at Some Point go through That Same Feeling. The Grieving Process. The Feeling of Your Child won’t quote-end-quote “Normal”. I would say “Who Cares about Being Normal?! Normal is Soo Overrated!” Now, No, I’m not saying “Get over It” But, I am saying that It is Your Process that as a Member of The Family and Yes, even Our Veterans go through it Every Once and While. But, It is Okay! Oh Yeah, Do Remember what I said about The “Normal” Thing, Repeat it over and over. Eventually, You. Yes, You, My Reader, will Believe It! Anyway, I wrote a Older Newsletter that I want to share that Might help with The Process! Okay, Good Talk Everyone! Big Group Hug in 3...2..1! Big Hug! Everything will Fine! and, Of Course, as I said before, Welcome to The Family!

The Newsletter that I am about to make a Christianville Classic is a Newsletter called “A Rant about Parents”. I believe that it explains perfectly about How Literal us PTLS’ers are.

As a Reminder, You can always Check The Christianville Classics List for Some of My Best Newsletters. Also, While I am at it. Anytime, You can send me Newsletter Suggestions on Topics on PTLS and Otherwise, that You, My Reader, would like to read about.  So, Without Further a Due, This is The Christianville Classic Newsletter, “A Rant about Parents”!

This Newsletter was written on June 4th of 2014 (Refer to Newsletter 404)

Welcome, My Readers! To a Fresh and Redone Site that is The Christianville Spirit! I decided that My Site needed a bit of Revamping, which was one of My New Year’s Goal. So, I hope You Guys enjoy it and Let Me Know what You think. So, Anyway, At the Recent Revelation, I know that it is always a shock to find out that Your Child has PTLS and You don’t know what it is or What to expect. To try and Help You Understand from My Prospective of having PTLS, How about I do this? I am going to do a Hilarious Rant, courtesy of Us PTLSers! This is to Prove to Everyone that We PTLSers are like Everyone Else. So, without further a due, Here it goes. 

Oh My Lord! I can’t tell you just how Worried My Parents are about Me! They are Concerned about Whether I am going to Eat, Walk, Talk, and Soo Many Other Things! First, The Eating. I am going to start Eating on MY Time, NOT Yours! It will be when I want to But, Please Feed Me something that I like! Even if It seems like The Most Ridiculous thing to always have the same thing every day, Day after Day, I like it that way. I may not like the texture, so it is going to take me time. On to Talking, as Chris Rock in Rush Hour says, “Can You Understand The Words That Are Coming Out of My Mouth!?” Because, let me tell you,  The words are Clear as Day in My Head! I know it must sound like I am speaking a Foreign Language to Them because It doesn’t seem like They Understand My Mumbles and Hums in Their Ears! I think I am speaking pretty clear, but they keep saying, “I cannot understand him. What is He saying?” So, I will work on making those words clear!

My Parents! They often take me to this Strange, Distressing, and Horrible Place, known as The Doctor’s Office! They poke and prod me like I am some of kind of Pin Cushion! I am just like You, Mommy and Daddy! I don’t Like It! I am sure I have to have these things done, but, I am a kid who does not Like it. So, Don’t Get too upset if I start Crying or not wanting to hold still, but do what you have to do to make sure I am healthy. Sometimes, I hear you getting upset either at Me or for Some odd Reason, because I am not doing what You want me to do. Really, I will progress and learn to do things, I just like to take my time. Just wait, it will happen when you Least expect it! My Parents! They take me to these Huge Places like Disney World as They tell me, “Ohh, This is going to be Soo Much Fun!” and There is SO MUCH NOISE! I can’t take it! Too Much Noise and Activity! I am Completely Overwhelmed! Tantrum coming in 3, 2, 1.  MOMMY, I WANT THIS THING! I DON’T WANT THAT! I wanna go Home! Once I am Home, Ahhhhh! Back to my  Nice, Quiet Routine. By The Way, I should mention that Routine is like Muy Important to me! You see, it helps me. I Have to Wake Up at The Same Time (“Rise and Shine” as My Mom says), Eat at The Same Time, and of Course, Go to Bed at the Same Time, even if It means 2 O’ Clock in The Morning, for The Older PTLSers. I know parents have a hard time with this, but, jeez! I really need it! Oh, and when I get to meet other “People like Me” at first, I’m nervous about it thinking, “Oh Boy” this is going to tough.  Then, I am Excited once I get to Know them. When I see or read about my fellow baby PTLSers, I say, “Hey! They are doing what I did when I was that age! Let’s Imitate each other!” Please understand, I gotta be near Kids who are what My Parents call “Normal Kids” Hum... What is That? I do not know the difference! As We get older, We will find out what that “normal” is, but, It is Okay with us. It really does not bother us, unless you keep reminding us that we are not “normal”. In my mind (as I like to say all the time), I thought I was. Oh! I forgot to mention My Parents take me to This thing that They call “Therapy”. Day after day after day I go to see someone who helps me with moving my mouth trying to get me to talk. Then It is someone who is trying to get me to move in a certain way. Oh, sometimes it is just too much for me. Again, here comes a melt down! I don’t know what it is, sometimes it seems fun, but Gosh, Let Me Do Things at My Own Pace! I promise you I will get there! I am not good with figurative language, since I am so literal, but I think I was taught in my “figurative language class”, I Will cross that Bridge When I get to it! Just wait for Me to get to the other end of The Bridge. But, I have to say that my parents are so worried and they lose patience. What am I to do with Them? I wish I could tell My Parents that I am and Will Be Fine, even though to Them, I might not seem like it. So, from me and my fellow PTLSers (Especially the Babies Who are just beginning this Life), It is really Tough trying to teach you Parents about Us. So, We will be patient and Keep smiling, because that is what we do Naturally, and Stay Happy, because that is how we see life, and Wait for you to learn. Life is Really good in our eyes. You are doing a Great Job! So, All in all, Gosh My Parents worry about Me! But, I Worry about Them too and I Love Them!

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Embrace PTLS, We are Humans just like You.

The Christianville Spirit: 20th Elementary Memory

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Knows Love

June 5th, 2019-TCS # 642

Happy June, My Readers! We can now say that It is now The Beginning of Summer! So, These Past Two Months have been a Busy Time for Me. Between The Leak that damaged The Laminate Floors in April, Preparing for and, then Going to Germany, and Preparation of The Main PTLS Conference, It has been a Busy Month. Not a lot of Time to Relax. But, I realized in all that, that an Important Anniversary hit. You See, I was reminded because I saw a Post from a Childhood Friend on Facebook and It made me think that “Gee, I grew up with This Person and Yet, don’t know Them as well as I would like to!” Now, Bearing in Mind, in My Special Needs Logic Mind, Anyway, that You should always keep in Contact with Your Friends, probably More Importantly, Your Childhood Friends. I feel that Childhood Friends know you a lot more than High School or even Young Adult Friends. Now, I did not forget, per se, about This Anniversary, The Anniversary being, 20 Years since Elementary School; I had it on My Calendar. I guess that I thought it would have been a Bigger Deal than It was. Then Again, I was Very Busy, It flew right past me. The 10th Year Anniversary of Elementary School was a Big Deal only probably because of The Fact that We were Graduating from High School and It seemed a Good Time to have a Reunion at Our Old Elementary School. Now, Yes, My Final Year of Elementary School was not The Most Pleasant to Remember, considering that I was Bullied by Kids throwing Spit Balls at Me, and locking me in a bathroom on a bus. The Kids (or in case, Kid) has since Said that they were Sorry and Well, They were Young and Stupid at  the Time, Pardon The Expression. That Stuff Happens. Anyway, so For This Week’s Newsletter I am going to Rerun an Old Newsletter about The Great Times I had in My Childhood, 20 Years since Elementary School! 

Now, Before I begin, to summarize for those who don’t know, I had grown up together with the kids (Known as “The Barsi’s”). We lived on a cul-de-sac, the backyard had a creek, we also had a Trampoline, and we could run through 4 Yards without ever running into a fence. We lived next door to a family of Girls who we know as “The Herrick Girls.” Anyway, Enjoy The Fun and Innocence of My Childhood! 

This Newsletter was written on October 15th of 2008 (Refer to Newsletter 121)

So, My Mom and I decided to take our dog, Mandy for a walk as we do every Sunday because we had to put Sophie to sleep and Mandy has been depressed because of that so, we walk her each week. But, I decided to walk down one of the trails in Plano. And, we walked to the park down the street from Mr. Jeff’s House; just because I wanted to see if it had changed or not and to relive a little bit of history. You see, at that park and in that neighborhood held a lot of history, mainly history of my childhood. The way I grew up isn’t like the normal stay-behind-the-fence or play in the street kind of childhood to the average planoan. Mr. Jeff’s yard was a big yard without fences between our neighbors and it was along a creek. Not only that but, it had a trampoline that we’d jump on practically all day. And, all the neighborhood kids would jump with me and wanting me to bounce them or do what we called “Butt Busters”. All the kids loved that about me. Even my brother wanted me to do a “Butt Buster”. Also, in our neighborhood, we were free to run through the yards we were connected to and down to street to our friend Hunter and Ashley Hooper’s House. On some days, we would go down to the Hooper’s House because they had a pool and a fort that we play on or go swimming in the pool. Also, next door to our long-time friend’s family, The Herrick’s; The Herrick’s move in a little while after we moved from our townhouse we moved to when we first moved to Dallas. Anyway, The Herrick’s were made 3 Girls, The Mom, and The Dad. The 3 girls were Meredith, Whitney, and Brooke (later the 4th child Katherine was born) The Mom, I referred to as Mrs. Judy and the dad was Mr. Dave. Back then, we used to hang out a lot with them. Michael would hang out with Meredith a lot and I would hangout with Brooke a lot. There were many fun things we did. One thing, Brooke and I made up a name for our cul-de-sac; we named it “Idyllwild Village”. For the holiday events we had 2 major traditions for 2 holidays. On Halloween, we would have a Halloween Block Party where we have a party on the cul-de-sac and one or adults would take us trick or treating. On New Years, we would gather together at Mr. Jeff’s House and would celebrate the New Years. Finally, the thing that follows me today that I haven’t forgotten about was a rule at Mr. Jeff’s House that we had to take our shoes off when entering the house and I still do it today. There are many stories in my childhood I could tell but, all in all I had a great childhood and I have Mr. Jeff to thank for that.

As You can see, I had a Great Childhood. I actually have since Thanked Mr. Jeff in Person for The Awesome Childhood that I had. There are Times that Yes, I miss those Day of Innocence, not a Worry in The World and For The Most Part, We played Outside except It was Storming or Really Hot then We would play Nintendo 64. That’s what We referred to as Entertainment. All in all, I am Grateful for The Great Childhood that I was Blessed to Experience as well as Share with My Childhood Friends.

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Cherish Your Childhood Memories and Friends!