The best ideas to turn your digital photos of your new baby into great digital gifts.
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Archive for March, 2009
Digital Photo Gift Ideas for Your Newborn Baby
Monday, March 30th, 2009Illinois Special Olympics State Basketball Championship
Friday, March 27th, 2009This a news story on the Illinois State Special Olympics basketball tournament held March 13th- 15th 2009.
See more at http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1601658/illinois_special_olympics_state_basketball.html
Canton wins Illinois state Special Olympics championship.
Friday, March 27th, 2009Lauren our little angle won the mvp in game one of the Illinois State special Olympics tournament for her division. Canton Special Olympics junior team made the championships and won both games earning Gold metals for the state in their division. It was so amazing to watch them play and it is such a wonderful event. Lauren just had her first track practice and is going to try the long jump, 100meter and relay this year. Last year she made it to state and won Gold metals as well. Go Canton little Giants
Discrimination still persists
Friday, March 27th, 2009The dept of human rights who was supposedly investigating the discrimination complaint against our former landlords Fulton County Housing Authority decided their was not enough evidence. What a joke. The report eluded to things that never happened, interviews that did ot take place. It also included a denial that the former landlord had any knowledge of Brad being disabled. Fact: the housing authority on 4 different occasions received for income verification purposes our award letters from Social security disability. Exactly how could a Housing authority not know the person is disabled? Further they said that Bradley never requested a reasonable accommodation. They also stated receiving a request for an accommodation but said it was not on the proper from, Ridiculous. The matter is now up for review by the Illinois Human Rights Commission. They received a 24 page reason why the case should not have been dismissed and hopefully they will do the right thing and not drop the ball on this one. Since moving from the Fulton County Housing Authority owned property we moved into this house from hell. The one good thing about the HUD funded projects is they keep property up to codes. We are now facing eviction again for what amounts to complaining to the city about the deplorable conditions of the property. The judge we got is the same as last time and because of this we requested a jury trial. It is sad that people can get away with renting property to others knowing it is in such bad shape that the life and health and safety of the renters is at risk. We have to keep fighting this discrimination until somebody does the job that needs to be done. Other news here in Canton relating to discrimination is the school board just fired a teacher because the principal did not like her. The community is outraged and is forming a group to protest, petition, and fight the discrimination of the school district. The mayor candidate race is heating up as the former mayor Bohler settled a discrimination suit against a secretary during his last term of office and the current mayor Meade is running to keep his office. It is sad that a person who may or may not be a good mayor has to screw up and do something stupid. This as it is stated by Bohler" minor non issue" not only cost the city money but was a very serious charge and should preclude him from being mayor period. Look what happened to Clinton.
Family Update
Wednesday, March 18th, 2009The weekend went well Lauren’s team won the state championship. The family bonded and enjoyed a camp fire on both Sunday and Monday nights. It was fun Brad, Lauren and I all went and gathered wood around the local country roads. Nature provides plenty of wood that has fallen to the ground no need to buy it. Monday night we had a possum enter our yard but we startled it and it left. Arek still making progress in communicating. He has major sensory issues which we are working on. We still all waiting for an attorney for the eviction we are facing on march 23rd. We hired an attorney to represent us in the personal injuries suffered by our family. Hope it works out cause the attorney gets 33&1/3. today I found out a local teacher who from the comments posted about her suggest was a great teacher was dismissed y the school board for what amounts to personal differences between herself and the principal. Discrimination charges were filed before this incident which makes you wonder what the motivation behind the firing really was. Autism rating today was mildly stressful Arek was pretty good all day. he still strips down to diaper as soon as he gets home from school. He is in school for only 4 hours a day but it is long enough he needs to stim when he gets home. Autism education reform is still desperately needed as far as training and equipment here in canton. the schools do what they can with what they got. We still have not received our income tax or SSA stimulus payment. Financially we are under water and the bubbles are slowly leaving our lungs. certainly we could use some more income and better budgeting. The past 6 months have been very trying on us as a family and hopefully the end of our struggle is soon. I am still taking medication which helps some but does not perform miracles. I am i the process of finding a psychiatrist. My therapist is great his name is Dr. Phil. been trying to spend more time with the family and less time endlessly fighting the travesties I have been subjected to. It is a strain on our family and almost to the point of just giving up which for me is nearly impossible. That is all for now write more later as info comes along.
Update on Arek
Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009Arek is coming along so great. He is talking now at least somewhat. He listens sometimes and has stopped taking his diaper off for the most part. He gives hugs and kisses and calls his family members by our names well very close. He still has sensory integration issues we call him superman cause no matter how hard we try to prevent him from damaging something he still manages to do it. He actually lifted the computer desk up with the computer and monitor on it. Luckily only the computer case and one hard drive was destroyed. The computer is no longer accessible to him it is currently in the basement. until i can secure the computer desk and devise a way to secure the computer and monitor. Got to get some sleep will update more soon.
Lauren is still playing Special Olympics basketball and is going to the Illinois state championship march 14th to play for state championship in her teams division. My baby is going for second Gold metal in a row they won last year. She is looking forward to track. Go Lauren you are so awesome and inspiring to watch, my little angel.
until next time,
Brad Smith
Still fighting the discrimination
Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009Well today I went before code, HUDthe county zoning board and presented the need for a building inspector in Canton, IL It has been awhile since I have written but in a nutshell we were evicted in Dec. 2008 and are still fighting the Fulton County Housing Authority in a 3 count complaint with the Illinois Dept. of Human Rights. They handle claims on behalf of HUD in Illinois. well in Dec we found a place to go 3 days before being homeless. We were so grateful and happy a 4 bedroom house, jacuzzi tub, full basement huge fenced in backyard. Our excitement quickly went to terror when our landlord turned out to be slumlord ghetto style. She not only refused to fix serious safety concerns with electrical, plumbing, and structural defects. Lisa actually fell through a basement stair and got a nice big ugly bruise. we had to fix the stair the landlord refused to. We charged the landlord $100 for replacing the 2 stairs and the landing which were so rotted i do not know how they did not fall sooner. We by this time had notice many safety concerns and fire hazards which the landlord refused to fix. and threatened to evict us for making the repairs. Luckily I had contacted the fire dept. and they did a walk through, the police dept. also had seen the unsafe conditions. Being the way i am I refused to just sit and wait any longer. Out of fear of something bad happening to y family I made many desperately needed repairs to the property The landlord will be getting a bill for the repairs as In Illinois thier is a right to repair act which covers this situation.
Anyhow today I went to the county board because in the course of this situation I discovered the lack of a residential building code. No building inspector to call. The city of Canton has a police officer who handles code enforcement. The poor guy would quickly be overwhelmed had all the code violations occurring actually been reported. Despite retaliatory eviction laws landlords usually successfully evict tenants who complain about unsafe conditions. This evening I went in sat in on the city council meeting and it was very informational. I challenge everyone who reads this to go to your next city council meeting it is not as boring as people would have you believe. I typed a letter to the city council and provided pictures of some of the violations of the gash and bruise to my leg when i feel through a rotten spot in the floor of the kitchen. Thank God the council was presently hearing a motion on establishing a building code and inspections. I have been granted access to speak next Tuesday at the next board meeting. So wish me luck. I am pleased that the city is working on fixing this flaw and look forward to working with them in developing a policy. I love this city. All of you out there living in unsafe conditions stand up and talk to your local government they do wish to help you as it is the reason they are elected. To all you landlords out there Keep your property up to code and safe at the very least. It is inhumane to put people in a position of danger and charge them for it.
Until next time
Brad Smith
