The Kids Are Funny

2011-08-29T15:20:00.000-05:00

This was an email I sent to a good friend of mine earlier today. I thought others might get a kick out of my delimma so I'm sharing with my blog friends.

Hi!

I just wanted to share my frustrating experience with you because I know you can relate. I had to hire an assistant for our next event. It's the fall festival - this year is our 50th, so it's really big... in fact, it's normally the biggest event the chamber puts on through out the year. Anyway, the board really felt I needed an assistant - someone to answer phones and do basic computer stuff so that I could be out and about asking for sponsorships for the festival, etc.

So... me being the procrastinator that I am, was reluctant to put out a help wanted sign. I got a call from a lady that said that she heard from one of our board members I was hiring and could she come in for an interview. We got along really well on the phone so, you know what the heck, why not? We had scheduled for Monday morning at 9:00 a.m. Here's where I should have known better - she called at 8:39 to say she couldn't remember when the interview was because she wrote down Tuesday but was it really Monday? Yes, I should have said good bye but I just needed someone to do mundane office stuff while I was away. It's 4 hours a day at $8 an hour - I'm not going to get superwoman anyway. I rescheduled for Tuesday morning (I was in the middle of some computer work anyway so I didn't really care). She came in at 9 the next morning and we clicked well - she's very personable (great for the phones). I had already talked to my board president and said that honestly if we clicked as well in person as we did on the phone then I was going to hire her, which I did. She actually was ready to start, should she get the position, immediately. So I hired her and she started Tuesday. I showed her some basic things on the computer - nothing major (as least I didn't think so).

I have sponsors for my event. I put the sponsors names up on the front window of my office. I had a file that had already been started - Publisher with 17 pages already done. I decided since she was going to be in the office she could do the window sponsors - and they were mostly done anyway. The only thing she needed to do was change the page setup to legal landscape, stretch the border and the text box to reach the now longer width, and add an address/phone number for the sponsor. How hard could it be? Hahahaha! She worked on it for part of the day Wednesday. I actually left her alone for a couple hours on Thursday and by 2 p.m. Thursday afternoon not one was ready to be printed! That's right - not one! After she left, I went into the file and cleaned up everything and got all the borders and text boxes arranged properly so it won't even take that much time to finish them.

But, what was great was... when we were getting to know each other we talked about our kids, etc. The next day she couldn't even remember how many kids I have. And she came dragging in a couple minutes after 10 (hours are 10-2) with a pillow. She had "fallen" down her steps and had just come from the ER having an x-ray done - nothing broken but it sure feels like it. Whatever... she used the pillow to sit on and then moved like molasses the rest of the day when getting up and down. And she was shoving in tylenol and ibuprofen like it was lifesavers. Then she tells me I have to run and get my mobi (whatever the heck that is!) and I'll be back in 10 minutes or so. Excuse me? The only person who should be leaving is me - that's why we hired you. But I didn't say that... actually what I thought was, did she really just leave? Turns out it was ok because I got a call the minute she left from a friend... "Girl, I hate to gossip but I wish you would have called me before you hired her!" Uh oh! It's all good - she's a very nice person (confirmed by my phone friend) who may have a prescription drug problem (speculated by phone friend and myself before I ever got the call!) who happens to have some drama issues (no kidding!), but is very personable and will do great on the phones!. Thanks, friend - I wish I would have called you first too! Lol

Anyway, the next day (Thursday), I'm in the office early for an appointment - actually three before 10 a.m. So the phones decided to go crazy during my meetings and we don't have voice mail, we have an answering machine. So, I get two calls (or maybe three) between 9:57 and 10:08 a.m. They all have to go to the answering machine - which I can hear because it's the old fashioned kind. But I am determined to concentrate on fireworks guys that are here discussing firework set up for the festival, when I am surprised that the second caller is my new hire. I ignored the call and as soon as the guys left (10:15 ish) I go check the answering machine. "I know I'm late - I can't find my keys anywhere! I've been looking and as soon as I find them I'll be right there!" Frustration builds up... but whatever... it's only a month (8 weeks at the longest) and it's $8 frickin dollars an hour so what can I really expect?? Well being on time would be nice but maybe I'm setting my expectations too high! So then she comes in - "I'm so sorry I'm late, I couldn't find my keys and I'm still moving slow from the fall... etc." I'm like fine here's where we are right now... I'm going to leave for a couple of hours so you can work on the window sponsors without me needing the computer. I go to make several stops and realize I forgot one of the forms I need so I swing by the office to pick it up and she's on a personal call. I don't mind personal calls -if it's not interrupting work, I can multi-task but not sure she can. She hurries up and gets off the phone and "oh blah, blah, my cousin, blah..." not really sure because I tuned her out. I left again and stayed away for awhile. I get back a little after 2 and she's not done with any of her stuff. "I'm not a time clock cow - I'll just be another minute but I don't just look at the time clock and try to milk the time or anything." Lady, you came in nearly 20 minutes late - you can stay until 2:20 and get the work done. I know you're no time clock cow because I have to approve your time sheet before you get paid!

Anyway, now we're on Friday... I decided to have her do something else. Something that I didn't realize was brain surgery but apparently it was. We have a website for our chamber (www.vckschamber.com by the way) that I and another chamber member take care of. Anyway, we needed to update the member directory. I told her to make a list of the companies that were on the website... compare that list to my notebook with current members... if they are in the book but NOT on the computer then they need to be added. I gave her last year's list to get the information from if it wasn't listed in the notebook (basically just a reference book). I went over the instructions with her - she wrote them down - I asked if she had any questions (I spent over 20 minutes walking through the instructions and having her do the steps), then I gave her my cell number (again) and left.

Now, I'm a horrible person because I got finished early but dreaded going back to the office so I stopped at Wendy's and went inside to have lunch and read my library book for awhile. My mistake... I was there only about 1/2 hour and got at least two calls from her with questions about the web stuff. I went back to the office to see what I needed to help her with. OMG! she was totally doing it wrong. She had abandoned both the list and the notebook and was using last year's reference guide to enter ALL the companies into the computer. NO! Some of those people are NOT members this year and do not go on the site! How hard is it! - I gave you specific instructions, which you wrote down!! Ok, so I didn't actually say that but I wanted to and, after a few deep breaths, I asked her where her instructions were that she wrote down. I am not joking this is what she said, "What instructions?? I didn't write any down before you left. You just said make the list - I'm not even sure what the list is for - and to enter the companies in the site." I kid you not - those were her words!! I said, "No, you wrote down the instructions. Where is your paper from this morning?" "I don't know - I didn't have a paper this morning." OMG Again!!! Ok, deep breath. We need the list because we need to compare it to the notebook, we need to enter the companies that are members but not on the list into the computer. "So, what's the list for?" "Where's your paper from this morning???!!" I found her paper - folded in half and stuck with some other stuff. "See, here's your instructions from this morning." "No, that's just the steps I need to take to get into the website." I, unfolding the paper, point to the bottom and say right there! you have them listed #1 Make a list from the computer. #2 Compare to the notebook. #3 If in the notebook but not on the list add them to the computer. "Yes, but why do I need to make a list from the website? I have a members list that you already gave me (an excel program with our members on them for her reference if she gets calls for the members)." Seriously???!!

So, after she left I went through the list on the computer and cleaned up the ones that needed more information and were put in wrong. Then I deleted the two companies that weren't supposed to be on the computer at all. And I am so frustrated!!

The point was.. I hate having an assistant!! Lol. Yes, I know you are probably laughing and that's fine - I'm kind of chuckling too - at least until Monday morning! You know, this is kind of humorous.. I may just copy this straight to my blog later and let everyone get a kick out of it.

Ok so I was going to email this to you yesterday but had to stop to run errands and then never got back onto the computer. But you'll never guess how today went... Wonderful! Because she called in sick!! Yes, less than one full week and she called in sick! Yes, I hate having an assistant!

Summer updates

2011-07-22T21:31:00.000-05:00

Ok, I know I've kept you hanging after such a shock on my last post. As far as that situation goes there is no update on the legal position. Update on Kodi... she's seeing a therapist once a week. We had a few rounds about her attending high school in a few weeks. She doesn't want to go to the high school. She wants to online school. I think that she is not wanting to go based on what she thinks will happen. She is under the unbelievable impression that everyone hates her and no one believes what she said - but they believe the boy. Some of her "friends" did turn on her but not as many as she thinks. She still has a lot of friends that stand behind her but she doesn't realize it yet. With the therapist's help, I've convinced her to give high school a try - a minimum of 6 weeks - before we switch to either an online school program or some other alternative. I just don't want her to miss out on high school... tennis, ball games, dances, etc. We put her on abilify several months ago because of her behavior. She's gotten better with the attitude but she's been really depressed so we had to put her on anti-depressants last week to help her cope. I try to find reasons for her to help me at work or stay close to her but she does have a few friends that she hangs with and spends the night with on occasion so that's good.

Deklan... He's driving me crazy! He's always looking for something to do - he's never happy with anything! He's bored; he's wants to go to the store; he wants something else to do/play with. Ugh! He goes to day camp for children with special needs two days a week but I don't know what to do with him the rest of the time. Oh, and he has this new thing... he can be screaming his head off for hours. Once I hit the breaking point and scream back and tell him how much trouble he's going to be in if he doesn't knock it off - he suddenly gets a memory lapse! That's right, suddenly it's (very calm voice) "what are you talking about? I did do what you wanted me to didn't I?" Are you freaking kidding me??!! No, you didn't do what I wanted you to do! This makes me want to laugh hysterically when he does this because he is so totally serious and innocent. Kodi on the other hand wants to throttle him. It's extremely annoying and kind of funny at the same time.

Hayleigh... who's that?? Just kidding - she's been gone nearly every night and day this summer. She has a couple of friends that she hangs with, goes to the pool with, spends the night with and we hardly ever see her. She comes home long enough to do a load of laundry every now and then and then disappears again. At least she's enjoying the summer.

Me... I just had my second big event for the chamber. We had a golf tournament today. It was freaking HOT - 104 degrees plus humidity. Thank God there was a breeze for most of the morning. It was a great tournament! I think everyone had a great time. We've already got next year's dates (June 29, 2012) set for our next tournament. Lol - it takes a year to plan a really great tournament (or at least get a really good course scheduled!). Dakota volunteered with me at the tourney. She did a really great job and I'm very proud of her. She and I both drove a golf cart for the first time ever. She drove the beverage cart - adults took turns on the cart with her - but she drove for most of the day and loved it. Everyone thought she was adorable. She also helped with set up and clean up without complaining.

That's our summer update so far.

Serious business

2011-05-17T22:04:00.000-05:00

First, I have good news (if you call autism good - lol). Deklan's diagnosis stayed the same - he definitely has autism. I know that's a weird thing to be happy about but I really am. The psychologist that tested him said that since autism has been in the news more that she's had a lot of parents actually want their kids to be diagnosed with autism. So, she was being careful with our diagnosis. However, after the testing, talking with me, and getting the paperwork from the teachers - she said there is no doubt that Lil D is autistic. She also said that in the past two months she's tested about 10 kids and Lil D is the first one that truly has the diagnosis. On that note, he is regressing terribly! The school doesn't have any clue to what to do with him either. They have a struggle with him every day - especially when it comes to writing. He has melt downs that include throwing chairs, screaming, crying, hitting, head banging, and completely shutting down. He's not even completely potty trained either! At my whit's end and not sure what to do with him. I listened to him scream and cry for over an hour yesterday because he wanted Wendy's instead of McDonald's - which he decided after we were already in the drive thru line... and he didn't get his way either.

Second, Dakota graduated 8th grade last night!! Whoohoo! There were days I thought she might not make it but she did! Lol. She looked beautiful! I procrastinated taking her to get a dress so we were in a rush yesterday before the recognition. We made it to seven stores and back home in 2 1/2 hours! She had to have a zebra print dress... and shoes... and a bra...... Lol. It was worth it!

Third, Kodi had her "wax museum" at school. Each 8th grader was assigned a historical person that they had to learn a speech and then dress up as that person. They all had to do a speech and create some kind of back board about the person. Then you walk up and "press" her button so that she starts talking. It was pretty good. K was Rosalind Elsie Franklin, the woman who helped discover DNA.

Fourth, I had my first big event at work. It was awesome! We had a sanctioned BBQ, Chili, Dutch Oven contest and Car Show. I had just under 90 days to pull it all together and I did! Ok... I had a lot of help. The board members are wonderful and were extremely helpful - jumping in to help wherever I needed them. Then we got reviewed by the BBQ representatives - and did awesome! They were really impressed. Then I got my event review from the board members - and it was awesome! I know - awesome is a big and annoying word - but I don't know how else to describe it!! Now, we work on the golf tournament. :)

Fifth, not so good news. In fact, it's kind of disturbing and sad. My oldest daughter was date raped a couple of weeks ago. We're on a gag order by the detective so I cannot give details. However, it was a boy she knew and was friends with. He was over at the house - they were in the back yard, there was some consensual hugging and some kissing... when things started progressing, she said stop and he didn't. When we went to the police, she had to be video taped during interview and then they sent us to a forensics nurse at the hospital. There were lots of pictures and testing - she was a real trooper. We were there for nearly five hours between the police department and the hospital. Since we filed charges (and it did go to the DA), the boy has not been back to school. Kodi is dealing really well with this - it was hard the first few days with people calling her a liar and a bunch of drama, but all that's getting much easier to deal with. We've talked about it, she's done well, and she's strong so this will just be a bump that we all get over. Never forget but get over. The day after it happened she called me from school - she was so overwhelmed and needed to tell me. I'm just happy that we have a relationship in which she's comfortable and trusts me enough to share with me what happened and how she's feeling. I know some girls would never be able to tell their parents.

What the ??!!!

2011-03-31T17:31:00.000-05:00

They want to change Deklan's diagnosis to PDD-NOS. They said that he's too high functioning to be autistic, but doesn't score high enough to be asperger's either. Ugh!! He had one set of tests today and goes back Tuesday for another two hours.

2010-11-07T22:45:00.010-06:00

Deklan's surgery went great! He was such a good boy... he didn't even cry. He teared up briefly when he realized that he couldn't open his eye because they had it taped shut. Once I explained that it was only for the day and the doctor would let him open it the next morning then the tears went away and all was well again. He took a short nap when we got home and then he was ready to play. He doesn't understand that he still has to take it easy because he has stitches in his eye that could still pop and cause damage. He has to wear the eye shield for a week... we go back to the doctor on Friday. When they took the bandage off and did the tests he could see right away. It was so great - yes, I cried.
Before the surgery.
After the surgery.
Before the doctor's post-op appointment.

2010-11-03T22:50:00.007-05:00

Our vacation was awesome! We had such a great time. Since then the kids have started school again - 3rd grade, 6th grade, and 8th grade. I'm still president of the Parent Brigade (PTO) at the Middle School, which means I still help with the concessions, meals for the teachers, etc. and run the monthly meetings. I also am still co-leader of K's GS troop. The leader moved to Texas because she had to follow her job or lose it so she skypes to the meetings and her husband (R) and I do all the leg work here. We're hosting a booth at the annual church bazaar this year so R and I are doing the majority of the work for that - the leader will not be able to come back for that. Fun! Fun! Fun! I also am yearbook editor and member of the PTA at Deklan's school. Basically, I get to go up to his school every so often and take pictures - then I get to choose which ones go into the yearbook. That is fun - I really enjoy doing that. Wish I could get a job just doing that... but that's not going to happen! HaHa! I have also had knee surgery. Not doing as well as I had hoped or expected. It's been eight weeks and I'm still having trouble. I'm still on the board (treasurer) for the American Youth Soccer Organization in our region. I also am a member of the Friends of the Library for our local library. We're trying to raise enough money to build a new library which we desperately need. I spent nearly a whole week working a book sale for them... I figured the hours and it was nearly 40 hours! How funny is that - volunteering is almost a full time job. This will be my last year for Parent Brigade and AYSO though. I'm hoping to get a job soon. I'm torn though... I really enjoy being the "go to" mom that doesn't have to work and I enjoy taking all the vacation times the kids do. I know that once I get a job that stuff will not come so easily - even with a part time job.

Deklan is having eye surgery tomorrow. He's having a lens implant - right eye tomorrow... left eye in several weeks. Normally we would not be considering lens implants at this point. Hayleigh was ten before we even discussed hers - D's only eight. However, he has other eye issues that we're hoping will be corrected with the implants. Besides having poor vision (hence the implants), he also has eye crossing and difficulty focusing. This will be his fourth eye surgery but I'm still nervous. He seems to be dealing with it very well. He's been letting me put his eye drops in without any fussing. He knows that this surgery will help his eyes "be like Hayleigh's" as he puts it.

Halloween was fun this year. We didn't do a lot of regular trick or treating - we mostly went to the activities that the local churches had going on. The kids and I really enjoyed ourselves.

The girls have been playing soccer with AYSO. They were able to be on the same team this year. Thank goodness. Actually, R and I share the girls - ha! that sounds funny but he and I have a lot to do with each other and his girls are the same age/grade as my girls. We were able to put all four girls on the same team this time and that way we could see all their games. Otherwise we were going to have to switch up every other week - I take the older girls, he takes the younger and then switch for the next week. They haven't won a game yet but they are much better than last year. Anyway, R and I are always together for one thing or another and he treats my kids like his and I treat his like mine. In fact, K calls him her dad and his girls always call me mommy too. And since his wife is in Texas and my husband works nights we get along great.
Kodi and MaKenna
Hayleigh with the ball.
Kodi and Bayli

K also played tennis at school. She earned third place in doubles. I'm so proud of her. H wanted to do track but sixth graders aren't allowed to participate in school sports. She can't wait for next year though.

I can't wait for Thanksgiving... the kids and I are going to Mom's.

July

2010-07-28T11:21:00.005-05:00

Ok so it's been awhile. I know... funny how life keeps getting in the way of my blogging. Anyway, here's what's been up this summer....

Deklan started day camp at Rainbows (a special needs camp) in June. He really liked it at first. Then he started throwing tantrums and saying he didn't want to go. However I'm such a mean mom, and we were getting a grant for him to attend, that I made him go anyway. And everyday when I picked him up he'd had a great day, lots of fun, field trips, etc. There were only a couple of days that he really screamed when I left but was completely fine when I picked him up. But it has been a struggle most days just to get him there. I really don't understand because he has such fun when he's there. He says it's because he doesn't get to spend any time with me.

Dakota spent a week at the end of June/first of July with my sister in law in Colorado. SIL's father retired so she went to his retirement party. Of course Hayleigh declined going on the trip because she already had plans with friends. My SIL made sure that she regretted that choice by buying Dakota dozens of new clothes and accessories. She got Hayleigh ONE shirt and Deklan ONE toy semi truck. Deep breath... we all know K is the favorite. Anyway, when Kodi got back from her "being the only child" trip she had a HUGE attitude problem.

July 4th was spent at my brother's of course. Just like every year; only this time we waited until later in the day to go over. Mainly because it rained all day. I was kind of hoping they would just cancel it, but it's such a big to-do in their neighborhood. All the neighbors and their friends/families come over and have a get together - food, beer, fireworks. It was ok - always is but I don't like my brother's attitude sometimes. He can be very mean and say hurtful things... of course he thinks he's joking so if I get mad then I'm the one blowing it out proportion so I don't normally say anything and just try to shrug it off. He wanted to take the "kids" to a movie the next day - K had free movie tickets from her birthday but only three. Brother dear was like so what? I have to pay for myself? He was taking them to the new Twilight movie (Eclipse?) and I knew that wasn't a movie for Deklan anyway. So basically what he meant is he wanted to take the girls to a movie. Little D was left ouit again. And after not seeing K for over a week, she and H both spent the night at Uncle's house. I was a little irritated. I told them that was fine I would take D to a movie after he got out of day camp. We went and saw Dspicable Me in 3D. It was kind of cute - first 3D movie for me ever. Deklan enjoyed our time together.

On July 7 all the kids started summer school. D chose to take an art class. Both of the girls had to take a math class because they did not do well on their grades. So now my schedule went from taking D to camp at 8:30 and picking up at 4:30 with errands, etc in between to... taking D to school at 9:00, picking up at 10:00, taking to camp at 10:30, picking up at 4:30, with all the errands in between. It sounds busy but really it's mostly driving. We finally got my car into the shop so the a/c works now (Thank God!) so it's not so bad... just the price of gas is ridiculous.

Only July 15 we took our Girl Scout troop on a trip to Texas. We went to Six Flags and Hurricane Harbor. It was fun. There were three adults, seven 13-year olds, two 11-year olds, and Deklan (7). Let me tell you if you are not used to 13-year old girls there is a LOT of DRAMA!! Everything causes someone to get their feelings hurt. But the important thing is that we survived.

We've also... been the dentist with the kids - H had to have a filling and about threw the biggest tantrum of any eleven year old you've ever seen. I thought I was going to knock her out. Chuck and I have both been to the doctor's (first in June then again in July)... He had very high cholesterol, triglycerides, and blood pressure so he's on several new meds. He had his check up and blood work showed a huge improvement already. I couldn't get my blood work rechecked yet because I haven't been on the thyroid med long enough yet. I have another month to go for that. I had my annual eye appointment and then had to go see a specialist because my pressure was too high. Glaucoma runs in the family (mom is completely blind in one eye and can barely see out the other) so I take the pressure thing very seriously. Good news was pressure was great when we rechecked it and the full eye exam showed that I have healthy eyes. We took the dogs to the vet for shots. Riley had ring worm and was put on meds for that. She's doing much better. She's a tough patient for the vet though. It took three nurses to hold her down for the ring worm test (they had to remove some hair for a fungal test which happened to be right at her eye). She was not a happy camper. Gage has chiggar bites and is sensitive to the grass so his tummy is pink from irritation. Otherwise all is well with them. All the kids have had a virus which included throwing up and other things. Of course not at the same time so that was fun waiting to see who would be next in line. All are much better now and it only lasted about 24 hours each. We went with H's GS troop to see the new Ramona and Beezus movie. It was much better than I thought it would be. I applied for another job which I did not get. My friend got the job instead so I guess I'm happy for her. And next on the list....

Friday is Mall Madness with the Girl Scouts. Mall Madness is Girl Scouts spend the night in the mall. Stores stay open late, some have sales, Radio Disney comes out and has entertainment for the girls. It's fun and tiring all at once. The girls always enjoy it though. D cannot go to this one so he's staying at the neighbors over night. I asked my brother to watch D but he said that his wife would be out of town and he just didn't think he could handle it by himself, especially if D had an accident in his pants. He would only be there for the night... literally, 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. Whatever. But I am excited for Mall Madness this year. I think it's because we're leaving for an actual vacation the next day. We've taken family trips see relatives but this will be our first real family vacation since D was almost one. We're going to Nickelodeon Universe - one of the largest indoor amusement parks - located inside Mall of America in Minnesota. I'm really excited for this trip. I really love being with my family... the kids are such great entertainment and I really do love that they still like to be with me - even at age 13. :)

I'm Awesome... Not

2010-06-21T19:38:00.003-05:00

Deklan was looking for his little Mighty Beans and couldn't find them. I found them without even really looking.
I said, "I'm Awesome!"
Deklan: "No you're not!"
Me: "Yes I am."
Deklan: "No you're not!"
Me: "Ok, I'm not awesome."
Deklan: "But you are loved!"

Woo Hoo!!!

2010-06-18T18:25:00.003-05:00

We FINALLY got our tax refund in! It's been 5 months since we sent them in, but at least we got our full amount plus an extra $78. Yay!! Of course, most of it is already gone - paid bills (2 house payments, electricity, satellite, credit cards, and utilities) and we bought some much needed new cell phones. Ok, so only hubby actually NEEDED a new phone, but I really, really, really WANTED one. And we bought the kids (H & D) a new laptop - K already has one so she didn't get a new one, but she did get a new phone. I got the MyTouch Slide. It's very different from the Blackberry Curve so I'm trying to get used to it. I've only had it a few hours so I haven't really had time to play with it and get the apps loaded or anything. Maybe I'll even be able to blog from the phone. HeHe.

We'll get to take our big vacation the first of August - another yay! Unfortunately, we won't be able to make it back to Colorado or to my Mom's again this summer. I had wanted to do both, but all the kids start summer school on July 6 so that's out for any July traveling.

On the plus side, Deklan is totally enjoying summer day camp. He even takes naps during the day!! He never takes naps so that was a huge surprise. Today the leaders witnessed him in meltdown mode for the first time since he's been going there. They were a little surprised because he's always such a good helper and normally pretty good in general. I told them the best thing to do is NOT to touch him, but let him just scream it out if possible. At home I can just walk away and ignore him, but I know it's harder when there's a classroom full of kids that need to be tended to also. Fortunately this is a day camp for special needs children so this was not something they hadn't dealt with before. Miss M said that his fit was actually mild compared to some kids they'd had.

On the bummer side of things... don't you know there's always good news-bad news? I had my doctor's appointment on Monday morning. They did a full blood work up since it had been quite awhile since I'd been in. (Am loving my new doctor and his staff!) My sugar was good. My cholesterol wasn't - 200... not horrible, but definitely not good. My thyroid... too high. The results from all that? I'm already taking a cholesterol medicine, now I have to take a med for Hypothyroidism too. Ugh! The plus side is... my thyroid could be the reason I'm not losing weight (not gaining either thank goodness) and the reason I'm always hot and sweaty and tired. Maybe the meds will even things out.

Vacation #1 and other things

2010-06-11T21:37:00.009-05:00

Our first vacation of the summer was actually a trip to my mom's. Our income tax refund still hasn't come in so we had to go cheap. I love my mom and enjoy seeing her, but I was really looking forward to an actual vacation. Oh well. Chuck helped mom put gutters up so that was good. On our way to Heavener, Oklahoma we took a detour through Oklahoma City (instead of Tulsa) and went to Pauls Valley, Oklahoma where we went to The Toy and Action Figure Museum. You heard right - an action figure musuem. It was kind of cool actually. (See pictures, but there's way more than that. You can see them on my FB page.)

Posing with the Green Lantern.
Those are all figurines - there were way more than that though!

Deklan started day camp on Tuesday. He's attending the Rainbows Camp Woodchuck for children with special needs. It's every week day, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. He loves it! So far they've colored masks that have now been laminated, went on a field trip to the park, painted with colored ice, joined the Camp Woodchuck choir, read some books, and played games/had play time.
Deklan's first day of camp.

The Freak Out

2010-04-30T21:19:00.003-05:00

So Deklan has a really high pain threshold and he doesn't cry when he gets hurt - unless there's blood. Blood completely freaks him out. Tonight he had a bloody nose... don't worry, he didn't get hit or anything, it just started bleeding. It bled a lot! He was freakin' out! I was driving when all of a sudden there is blood running down his face and drops all over his clothes. I had to pull over and find napkins and kleenex. Poor baby - I almost freaked out too, I do not like blood either. We put a dime between his upper lip and teeth and it quit. Don't know what was up, but hopefully it'll be ok now.

On a different note... I'm freakin' out because I found out today that it may be another four weeks before we get our tax refund. It's already been 3 months - 88 days to be exact. UGH!!

I've got a job - sort of.

2010-04-29T16:05:00.004-05:00

So I went and filled out the paper work for the substitute secretary position. I just have to get a physical and TB test. Once I turn that paper work in then I'll be placed on the list that goes to all the district secretaries. The chances of working the last three weeks of school is slim to none. However, since I'll now be on the list, then the first of the new school year brings high hope of being called to sub. It also means that I'll have my foot in the door for the permanent position that I want - which I already mentioned to the HR person. Yay me! I'm kind of employed! :)

Job Interview

2010-04-28T19:41:00.003-05:00

So after being an unemployed stay at home mom for nearly four years, I submitted my application and resume for a job. It's a job within our school district as a substitue secretary/building aide. Which means it's not a permanent every day job, but it could turn into something more permanent. And since it's a school job, I'd have the same days off as my children. Anyway, I submitted the application via internet on Sunday evening. I heard from the HR person on Monday and I have to go in tomorrow to "complete the necessary employee paperwork" that must be completed before I can begin substituting. Does that mean I already have the job? Keep your fingers crossed. I'm kind of nervous. I have not had a job interview in four years! I'll keep you posted.

Happenings lately

2010-04-18T21:37:00.007-05:00

Ok so I feel obliged to write something since it's been over a month since I've blogged. I don't think anyone really reads this (except you Laura!). HaHa

Anyway... over spring break we went to Mom's in Oklahoma. It was a wonderful week. Deklan was a pure angel - mom could tell a huge difference with his meds. Wonderful... until the day before we were supposed to leave. Then it snowed - massively - more than it had in 25 years. Great. Although we didn't leave the house at all the first day of snow, it was still snowing the morning we were supposed to leave. I knew it would be fine to drive - I'm somewhat experienced in driving in the snow. Besides, I knew once we got out onto the interstate we'd be just fine. So we pull out and we're fine... for the first 2 and 1/2 miles! Then my car goes wacky... the check engine light comes on then the check gauges light comes on then my car completely shuts down. Shuts Down! It just wouldn't start. It was snowing, we're 10 miles outside of town on a mountain (yes they have mountains in Oklahoma) road. There were no cars coming - it was Sunday and 2 hours before church would be over. The girls walked back to find a house to get help. Before they made it back (after quite a while) D and I started walking, got only about 1/4 of a mile when a truck stopped to help us. We got the car jump started, but before we could shut the hood and put into drive, it died again. This time it wouldn't start at all. Luckily my cousin had driven by a few minutes before so he went to get my girls for me. Turns out they had walked to the nearest house - 1.1 miles from where the car died. Anyway, we pushed the car off the road and the guy that stopped took D and me back to Mom's. Of course all our stuff was packed into the van so we had to take Mom's truck and go get our stuff. I can drive on snow... but cannot 4-wheel in snow. My mother's truck has 4WD so we used it. Unfortunately it does not work on slushy ice. We slid off the road and could not get back on. Hayleigh and Kodi pushed while I gassed the truck.... Hayleigh and I pushed while Kodi gassed the truck... Needless to say we were all covered in mud. It took us 45 minutes to get the truck unstuck from the snow. It was actually hilarious. At one point I tried to walk over to the van and fell flat on my face - literally! At first I was going to cry then I just started laughing. I mean if I had just watched my friend do this I would have been laughing, so why not laugh at myself? The girls were really concerned at first until they figured out I was laughing. Hilarious! Anyway, the next morning - snow storm over, we're stranded in Oklahoma, and no way to get the van started. My cousin - did I mention he's my FAVORITE cousin - went with me to fix my van. The alternator belt had come off. He spent hours working on it, but couldn't figure out how the belt went on - it was either too long or too short every time he wound it through all the pulleys. He finally had to go to town and get a diagram for the way it was supposed to go. Anyway, we started off with my mom in her truck and my cousin in his following us into town. Before we got the other 10 miles into town, I lost power steering and all my gauge lights came on again. We pulled into the gas station to find that I had completely lost the belt this time. My cousin drove the van (because I had a hard time driving it without power steering) over to a garage in town. He had to replace the belt and the tensioner pulley. So we finally got going - 2 days after the end of spring break! Yeah.. wonderful spring break ending.

Then we started soccer. Every Saturday from early 8 or 9 a.m. until after 3 or 4 in the afternoon. I get really tired and it makes the weekend feel really short, but it's for the kids so it's ok.

We've already finished our "fun nights" at the schools for the year. Deklan's was last weekend. I hate fun night because it's so NOT fun for most of the parents who get suckered into volunteering. That doesn't mean all parents don't think it's fun, but when you get that call... "Could you please work the such-and-such booth because we don't have any volunteers?"... then you know you're done. And in Deklan's school I'm the stay at home mom that will volunteer if asked, but I am not in the clique of the other volunteers. You know? Give me the other kids' schools and I'm fine, but not little D's.

We have about four weeks of school left. Yay!! We've got our vacations planned. Vacations? Yes, two - my husband gets two weeks of vacation but not at the same time. The downside is that we're kind of depending on our tax refund to fund our trips. We bought a house this year so we've qualified for the huge refund. Ha! What a joke. We sent our papers in - had to mail them because of the new tax forms we had to fill out - the first week of February. I got a notice April 1 that they needed more information. I faxed the paperwork over on April 2. As of Friday, they still didn't show record of where it was in processing and didn't know when we'd get our refund. Just great! Get your paperwork in early, they said... you'll get your refund back quicker, they said... Yeah right! The IRS lady said - and I quote - "Well,the president wanted to get the refunds out quickly and it turns out that about 75% of the first set of refunds filed were fraudulent so we're trying to get that money back too." I swear I am not making that up... 75% fraudulent! No telling when we'll get our money back... maybe by next April?!

Snow Day!

2010-02-08T16:25:00.003-06:00

This is our second snow day in two weeks! Each on a Monday of course. Our parent-teacher conferences are scheduled for this week so our kids were already going to be out Thursday and Friday for conferences and then Monday for President's Day, giving them a 5-day weekend. Now they're out Monday... then Thursday, Friday, Monday.

Deklan is doing well on his medications. He's actually very controllable and rarely has an outburst now. He doesn't even fight me taking his meds and going to bed - except twice he didn't want to go to bed when it was time, but was ready within just a few minutes. He's also a lot more loving - and he was always a hugger anyway. It's really sweet though. I'll tell him 5 more minutes and he'll come up and tell me he wants to spend his last five minutes with me. Awwww.

Dakota's grades suck, but she's not overly difficult to live with. We took her off her ADHD medication a few months ago because I was ready to knock her out! The medication makes her so mean and hateful. She takes the meds and gets better grades because she has more focus... but no one can stand her. Take her off the meds and her grades slide drastically... but we enjoy having her in the same room with us (most days... she is a teenager you know).

Hayleigh is doing fine - she struggles with math, but overall she's good with everything.

Girl Scout cookie sales began on January 16. Dakota sold 228 boxes; Hayleigh 233 boxes. They are still selling - we are getting ready for the booth sales. I love booth sales! We're going to be extremely busy - two separate troops to try to help with. Since I'm co-leader of Kodi's troop, I'll be with her troop the most. This is fun... I really do love it. Weird, I know. My delimma... Deklan cannot go to the booth sales and my husband works nights. Who to babysit? I do not have a regular sitter. 1. I'm a stay at home mom... that's kind of my job so why hire someone else? 2. I'm not always sure people will get Deklan - or that he will be comfortable with someone else. He's pretty laid back but his quirks tend to put people off sometimes. 3. Money is tight and I don't always know what to pay, nor can I always afford it. So I facebooked my delimma and was talking to a high schooler that I know. Guess what? My sister-in-law read the post and offered to take Deklan for all the times that I'm going to be in the booth. Wow! She and my brother NEVER offer to take Deklan. And, they've even offered to drive over here (about 25 minutes) to pick Deklan up from school. I'm really surprised, but happy because I don't have to pay anyone.

Medicated

2010-01-26T20:46:00.004-06:00

We finally had to do it. It just about killed me, but we finally took Deklan in for a medication evaluation. His behavior had just gotten way out of control. He'd have fits for no reason. It would take hours for him to fall asleep - even after the 11th time of getting out of bed for a drink. He was starting to hit me when he'd get angry. He was hiding from me in public - at the church he would hide and it took six of us to find him! Not once, but twice! Don't even get me started on trips to the grocery store. Anyway, it was only a two week wait to get him in. He actually sees an ARNP but her direct doctor supervisor is a professional that deals directly with Autism on a daily basis. So she always has someone to turn to if she doesn't have the answer or we need further assistance than what we've got now. We put him on Abilify for the behaviors and Melatonin (herbal supplement) for the sleep. He's been doing very well. He even swallows the pills - I don't have to hide them or trick him, he just puts them in his mouth and takes a drink. I was a little worried about that because Hayleigh has a hard time swallowing pills without gagging - and there's nothing wrong with her. Anyway, he still has the tendancy to be a little hyper but he's way less emotional and very few fits. The good thing right now is that even though he has little fits, they don't last long and he can be easily distracted. I think I'm the one who needs to be medicated now - I have the I don't want to do anything, go anywhere, leave me alone blah's. Anyway, keep Deklan in your thoughts - this is a change for him.

The in-laws

2009-12-22T14:52:00.004-06:00

Saturday we got a call that Chuck's mother, sister, and brother-in-law were a few hours from us. Sister and BIL live in Michigan... Mother lives in Colorado. Sister comes to Colorado during the winter and stays with mom. This year they decided to do some traveling (they own an older RV) before settling in for the winter. They got mom from Colorado, went to Michigan, down to Florida (including Disney World and the Keys), over to Texas and all around. They stopped here over night on their way home to Colorado. It was nice to see them. I know that Chuck was really happy since he hasn't seen them since his other sister passed away in April '08. But they only stayed over night - they slept in their RV, but visited with us at the house - and left by 2 p.m. on Sunday. The excuse was that they were out of their medications and had to get home to fill them.

We decided to adopt...

2009-12-22T14:41:00.003-06:00

Meet Gage, our new addition. He's 4 months old.

Hayleigh turns 11!

2009-12-22T14:24:00.005-06:00

Hayleigh's birthday was the 17th.

But her sleepover was on Saturday.

Tinkerbell cake, friends, and presents... sounds like a party!

What was I thinking???!!!

2009-12-12T22:24:00.008-06:00

I allowed the girls to each have a sleepover for their birthdays this year. Hayleigh's is next week - her birthday is the 17th. Kodi's birthday was the 9th - so her party was last night. What the ---- was I thinking???!!! Seriously, I think I must have been drunk, on drugs, asleep, or totally out of my mind when I agreed to this. Not just a sleepover - 12 and 13 year olds! Teenagers?! Of course there was a lot of screaming and giggling, but there was a lot of rudeness and crudeness. Mainly from 3 of the 10 - yes 10 - girls that were there. I do not ever remember acting like that at someone else's house. They didn't even clean up after themselves - that's just rude. On the plus side... Kodi had fun. Happy birthday Kodi... we will NEVER do this again! but I love you dearly.

Spongebob cake

Dakota got a nearly 6 foot Peter from the Family Guy. Actually Family Guy is banned in my house. I personally don't care for it... but the reason it is banned is because I feel it is inappropriate for my children. Unfortunately, Dakota doesn't agree and it's one of her favorites. Fortunately, she abides by the rule (most of the time) and doesn't watch it at MY house. (BTW... Simpsons are banned too. I know, horrible mom.)

Dakota and Deklan "pose" with Peter

Dakota got a Spongebob gift card. She was more excited over Spongebob than the monetary amount.

She also got a Spongebob pinata - no candy, just the pinata.

And my favorite gift for her was a 4-pack of Monster drinks! She's not allowed to drink those unless her daddy is home - she has ADHD and those put her over the top for me. She got a new cell phone from us. Both the girls did. A few weeks ago both of their phones broke within a few days of each other - Hayleigh fell off her bike and cracked her screen (it was in her back pocket) and Kodi's kept turning itself off until it just wouldn't come back on. So they each got a Gravity at a very reasonable price... and the payments are split out on my bill so I didn't have to pay anything but the taxes up front. However, it was with the understanding that they would not get a gift on their birthdays because the phones were the only presents. They both agreed and are loving their phones. Anyway...

Deklan got to enjoy some of the party too.

These pictures are just because I can! Kodi was being a spaz and I have the pictures to prove it! HaHaHa!

Chances

2009-12-12T08:53:00.002-06:00

Deklan to me...

"Mom, if I had the chance to trade you to another family, well that's a chance I just wouldn't take."

13 years ago today....

2009-12-09T10:17:00.003-06:00

Dakota Lyne was born! Today is Kodi's birthday and she's officially a teenager. I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

These are her first official pictures as a teenager, taken this morning before school.

Christmas Play

2009-12-09T10:12:00.001-06:00

Hayleigh was in the choir for the Christmas play on Sunday.

Bits and Pieces

2009-12-05T22:35:00.006-06:00

First, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving with my mom in Oklahoma. The kids had a great time too and they were actually pretty good. Very little arguing and fighting. Deklan was an absolute angel although he lived in pull-ups the whole week - couldn't get him to use the bathroom to save his life. But it was ok - he was still really well behaved. We had our Christmas with her and my brother and sister-in-law. The girls both got gift cards to get new bikes - which we picked out the day after we got home. They got lots of things and were extremely happy.

Deklan told me last night that I have too many jobs and neglect him and his sisters. Excuse me??? Remember that I'm a stay at home mom - I do not work outside the home. My "jobs" are PTO president at one school, PTO member at another, Girl Scout leader, and volunteer when needed. My life practically revolves around him and his sisters. I go to the meetings once a month just so I can talk to adults. He said that I needed to quit one of the PTO's because I didn't have enough time for him. He said I didn't watch family movies with him anymore; that I don't cook enough for him; that I sleep too much on the weekends and leave "other people" (a.k.a. daddy and/or sisters) in charge of him who won't let him do what he wants to do - which I do occassionally catch a nap, but usually he is completely occupied with other things and he's never unattended. It was kind of funny, but he was completely serious. So, we were in the car running errands at this point, and I was planning on taking him and Hayleigh (Dakota was at a school dance) to McD's playplace while we were out. I told him, "Wow, I guess we shouldn't stop at McD's then... I should take you home and cook for you... I don't want to neglect you... so, yeah, we'll just go on home and I'll cook something." He said, "No, No, you wouldn't be neglecting us... it would be ok if you took us to McD's... that's not neglecting us, really." Too funny!

What else? Oh yeah - cut my hair... what do you think?

Had a busy day today. Hayleigh had play practice for the church play first thing this morning. From there it was directly to a Girl Scout event. Our Girl Scout troops, along with Boy Scouts, got to participate in the "Royal Flush" at the new Intrust Arena in town. Basically, we were all assigned to a bathroom. On count down everyone flushed a toilet or turned on a faucet. The idea was to see if there was any over flowing or if everything went well. As far as I know... everything went well. Then I had enough time to drop the girls off at home, change clothes, and get to a GS luncheon for the leaders. It was fun - we had a Christmas sock exchange this year. That was different, but still fun. Then it was back home to get the fam and head out to the store. Dakota's bike had to be returned... rode it down the block and the chain messed up. Took it back but couldn't find a replacement at the first store... 3 stores later we found what we were looking for. Actually had dinner out tonight - that was a nice change. Tomorrow will be just as busy. It starts out with Hayleigh needing to be at the church at 8:20 a.m. for acolyte, play at 9:40, lunch, etc., play again at 6:00 p.m.

Both of my girls have birthdays in the next two weeks. Yep, my oldest becomes a teenager! So hard to believe that 13 years ago I was extremely pregnant with my oldest. 13 - waaaaaah! My middle baby will be 11! That's almost as bad.

That's the catch up for now. If I'm not back on soon... Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Holidays, Season's Greetings, or however you celebrate during the holidays.

Please do not buy this book

2009-11-14T23:07:00.004-06:00

About 7 months ago a friend's niece died while in the care of Jeanette Lawrence. The child was only 2. She was left unattended for a period of more than a few minutes and the results were fatal. I believe the DA is still trying to make his case in court so I do not know the details except that the child died and it could have been prevented. The little girl was only one of several that was in her care that day. After the incident, it was determined that the woman should not have had as many children in her care as was that day. Now it turns out that Jeanette Lawrence has published a book... Your Child's Daycare: Everything You Need to Know From Start to Finish. It is even being sold by amazon.com. Please do NOT buy this book... encourage others to NOT buy this book. Amazon.com will not remove the book from their list because it would be considered censorship.

Halloween 2009

2009-11-02T08:43:00.010-06:00

The kids did some neighborhood trick or treating and then we went to the church for "Trunk or Treat"... then more neighborhood trick or treating. Kodi had her first Halloween overnighter at a friend's house. Of course I did take her and a friend trick or treating with the little ones before the party... she can't grow up too fast! Anyway, here's costumes for this year. We didn't have the money to buy new costumes so we worked with what we already had in the house.

Deklan is a Ninja. I actually bought the Ninja costume for a dime after last Halloween. It should have been big enough (it's a 7), but he had a big growth spurt over the summer so it was a little short and snug... he didn't care, he wanted to be a Red Ninja. When he got cold I gave him my sweatshirt to wear, which he swam in... he said he was the "Ghost of the Red Ninja" and thought it was great. Funny.

Hayleigh was a cheerleader... with a little tweak of the makeup, hair, and gloves. Surpisingly, this was actually Kodi's cheer outfit from when she took cheer in kindergarten.

Kodi was Abby Sciuto from NCIS, complete with spider web tattoo. (Actually, I drew it on with a makeup pencil.) My favorite show is NCIS with the CSI branch closely following (except Miami... I can live without that one, but still watch it). Abby is our favorite character on the show. She looked great and everyone recognized her right away.

We also had a special guest for Halloween... He lives on my porch.

Since I'm terrified of spiders, he doesn't get messed with.

Great Weekend

2009-10-15T21:22:00.022-05:00

We had a wonderful weekend. We took our Girl Scout troop to Great Wolf Lodge in Kansas City. It was Bythia (the leader), her husband Roger, my husband Chuck, myself, and then there were eight girls from our troop plus both our younger girls and Deklan. The total was 15. We all rode in one large van, but it really wasn't too bad.

The lodge has a large indoor water park. There is a "magi quest" for the kids. Basically you get a wand and a map and wander around the four floors of the lodge looking for different interactive items. When you point the wand at the item it talks to you... "you've found 50 gold pieces" from a trunk, "don't point that thing at me" from a fairy in a bird cage, etc. They even had trick or treating for the kids.

It was fun for the girls. Of course there was also an arcade, a couple of stores, and a candy shop (great fudge!). On the way home we stopped at Palmer's candy store. The girls really enjoyed themselves and it was a mini vacation for my family since my husband got to go.

Chuck poses for the camera.Kodi's turn. Next is Hayleigh. Don't forget little D!
Deklan poses in front of the big clock.
Here's the inside of the water park. It was really big - 3 water slides, a lazy river, a swimming pool; a kid's area with a shallow pool, two baby water slides; a large play area that had lots of water sprayers and two more small water slides.

There is a bucket at the top of this that dumps 1,000 gallons of water every 5 minutes.
I think Roger was about ready to go at this point.
This is my hubby - sweet swim trunks huh? LOL
Deklan... the life jackets were free and easily accessible to anyone who wanted to use them.
Kodi is about to do something - look at that evil face.

Of course Kodi couldn't keep from texting for very long. Here we're done with swimming for the moment, but she can't even change clothes before checking her text messages.

There was a tree house in the middle of the lodge restaurant. Don't touch the bears.

They were having a creative pumpkin contest. Here are my three favorites.

The elk were on the wall above the doors. The wolves were above the fireplace.
The clock and little house-looking thing was the back side of the elevators.
The bear sits outside of the candy shop / Starbuck's in the lodge.
Of course there has to be the McDonald's stop for lunch before leaving KC to come home. Palmer's candy shop was our last stop. We got to hype them up on sugar all the way home (approx 3 hours) and then give them to their parents! :)

I'm smarter than you...

2009-09-29T22:42:00.002-05:00

Tonight Deklan was eating a candy bar. He had eaten the top half and asked if I could get the rest out of the Hershey's packet. I opened the bar down the seam while he watched.

He said, "Genius!"
I said, "Imagine that."
Then he said, "Yeah imagine that... you were smarter than me for once."

I guess even the dumbest get lucky once in a while right?

Concerts and Soccer

2009-09-17T20:42:00.002-05:00

That's what today is... concerts for the girls and soccer for my son. Both of the girls went to a "Boys Like Girls" concert. Both were invited at different times and with different friends, so they both ended up going. This is Hayleigh's first concert. My first concert was when I was 16 and it was Garth Brooks. Funny how different it is than when I was their age.

My son had soccer practice. Not so good. When he got on the field he just stood there. His regular coach wasn't there so the assistant coach was doing the practice. So when he was just standing there a couple of the boys kept getting in his face - literally. Finally after the third time of getting in his face he acted like he was going to bite them. So SNAP! His coach didn't like that. She came off the field to get me because, God Forbid!, he snapped at one of the boys who got in his face. She even said it - the boy got in Deklan's face. Anyway, I took him off the field and we went to Sonic. He and I got to sit outside and have some ice cream and just chill. So I'm irritated with the coach - she never did get on to the other boys either. Whatever! I'll get over it.

Then to top it off I'm having phone problems. Actually, I didn't get my bill paid so they suspended my service. My mom paid the bill for me because she has a credit card - I don't. And she worries when I don't have phone service (no land lines in my house). Only phone service says they never received the payment and Capital One says the card was charged with 4 payments!! So, I still don't have phone service and my mother is being charged four times the amount we owe. And.. it's going to take at least 24 hours for phone service to figure out where our payment is with them. Hopefully we have phone service tomorrow. I use the text messaging to keep in contact with my girls after school since they ride their bikes. I also normally call my mom like three or four times in a day. I'm having phone withdrawals!! That's why I'm cranky. :)

Finally Back!

2009-09-11T16:07:00.004-05:00

Wow - it's been awhile since I was on here. A LOT has happened in the past month. Hubby started 2nd shift, we got a house, the kids started school, we got a house, the kids started soccer, we got a house, Kodi started tennis, and did I mention we got a house?! It's not a house that everyone will love - the floor plan is a little different. I posted pictures on August 8 - that's the house. Some will think it's too small, but it's JUST RIGHT for us. We love it. You know the best thing? All the kids can walk/ride bikes to school. 2 minutes walking to Deklan's school. 15 minutes to Hayleigh's school and 15-20 minutes to Kodi's school - walking. Riding bikes... not as long. Of course in bad weather I'll still drive them. 5 minutes there and back isn't so bad either. I'm loving it! (I sound like the McDonald's commercial.)

I have three kids in three different schools. Not bad since two of the three can walk to school. All three of my kids are playing soccer - some during the same times and different locations. Tomorrow is when games start. Kodi's team will not play because of volleyball tournament that was already scheduled and half her team is on the volleyball team too. Hayleigh's team will play in one region across town and Deklan's team in another on the other side of town - neither in our region. This should be fun. :) Good thing Daddy doesn't work weekends anymore - too bad he doesn't get home until 2:30 a.m. and will have to get up and go early.

Kodi is playing tennis now (and doing very well). She's had three sets of matches so far - won the first two 6-0, lost the last matches 6-2/6-0. But she loves it and that's great.

You know what else is great? The kids have friends in the neighborhood that they can actually hang out with. Last week the girls walked to the football game at the school. They walk to school with their friends. There is a family across the street with two older girls and one boy - just like us. The boys are outside playing right now. Hayleigh has a friend over right now. Kodi... is at tennis practice and then straight to soccer practice. Well, they can't all have friends over at the same time! :)

Me? I'm beginning to think I have my plate full. I'm involved with two of the PTO's - president of one. I'm helping with concessions at the middle school (part of my PTO responsibilities) - not as much as I was last year though. I'm still involved with Girl Scouts - we're starting our candy and nut sale later this month. And now I'm also on the AYSO (American Youth Soccer Organization) board in our region and helping them with concessions during the games. There are benefits though. I get to spend time with my kids, watching them have fun. Earlier this week I helped at Hayleigh's school with pictures. I even got free pictures out of it - nice benefit for a few hours of my time.

I love having my own house and my own computer back!! I'm in heaven - except for cleaning and organizing, that's my personal bad place. :)

2 teeth

2009-08-12T18:16:00.002-05:00

That's what I had to have pulled today. Couldn't afford the root canal and was in a LOT of pain so that was my option. don't feel good now but will in a couple days so it's all good.

Do you hear that?

2009-08-10T13:35:00.002-05:00

It's the sound of peace and quiet in my home. No, I didn't gag the munchkins and put them in the bathroom with the door closed. Uncle took ALL three kids bowling. Now, I'm sitting here enjoying the quiet time - just Riley (the dog) and me.

School starts back tomorrow for my two elementary kids and Wednesday for my middle schooler. Seems early to me, but what do I know? Anyway, we went school shopping last week. It sucked. After paying bills, and keeping out just enough for gas, we had $40 left over - to get us through 2 weeks! I spent $30 on school supplies and didn't even get everything on the lists. I couldn't get D a new backpack or shoes. K didn't get the calculator she needs for math. H didn't get the flexi-file she needs. And no one got loose leaf paper, among other things. I just couldn't afford it. And we're closing on the house on the 20th, if all goes well. Hopefully money issues will not be as bad once we have a place of our own. Expenses right now are mostly gas because we've had to make quite a few cross town trips - I'll be driving them cross town for school too, so that keeps adding up. Plus we have only a dorm size frig and no stove so the cost of food is hurting too because we have to buy for the moment. D was very good about not getting the shoes - he already had a pair of Ben 10 shoes picked out. Not even a melt down, thank God. I have a friend that is going to give D a Superman backpack that her son doesn't use anymore and a pair of tennis shoes that he doesn't need. I think the shoes are size 3 and D wears 2, but that's ok - we'll make it work. Mom is sending him some birthday money to buy shoes with next week.

D's birthday is on the 19th. He wants to have a party at the park. I told him that once school started I would send out invitations and have the party the Saturday after his birthday. He was cool with that. Cake and ice cream - no snacks - should be plenty if I have the party around 1:30. Lunch will be over so kids should be full - I hope. :)

I guess it's safe...

2009-08-08T13:04:00.009-05:00

to say that we have a house to move into. We don't close until the end of the month, but we've made it through inspection. The appraisal will be ordered - now keep your fingers crossed. Here are some pictures of the house though.
This is the house.
One car garage.
Backyard.
Deklan's room.
Girls' room (until we build on so K can have her own room).
Kitchen.
Another view of the kitchen.
Bath.
Master bath - 3/4 shower, yea!
Master bedroom.
Living room - real wood-burning stove.
Another view of living room.

Staring Game

2009-07-30T20:36:00.002-05:00

We were at Wendy's yesterday. Daddy and Deklan started playing the staring game. Deklan kept blinking. Finally he said, "Hold on while I get a drink. I have to wet my eyes."

Finally!!!!

2009-07-30T20:12:00.001-05:00

WE ARE UNDER CONTRACT!! Please pray all goes well with inspection.

35 and Homeless...

2009-07-20T21:11:00.001-05:00

I turned 35 yesterday. Still have no permanent home. Need I say more?

Bummer

2009-07-14T12:27:00.002-05:00

We're not getting the house. The counter offer just wasn't acceptable to us. And there was mention of termites. Do NOT want to go there.

Did I mention that Deklan is taking an art class this summer at summer school? He LOVES it!! He is so excited and happy to go every day. Of course, this is only the second week. :)

Hope everyone is having a great day!

Another update

2009-07-11T15:01:00.008-05:00

I know it's been awhile, but it's been a busy summer. Ok - maybe not busy, but definitely CRAZY!! Our situation. Technically still homeless. We're still staying in a "by the week" motel. It's really not that bad. Deklan gets a little stir crazy sometimes and it's been way too hot to keep going all the time, especially since we have to take the dog with us. Poor baby, she just gets so hot.

Hayleigh went to camp - twice already. Her first camp was pedals and paddles. She got a lot of mountain biking and water sports during that camp. Her second camp was "CSI" and they learned some forensics stuff. She got to put her foot in the mud and then use plaster of paris to make a mold of it. She learned about a centrifuge - they experimented with toothpaste. It sounded pretty cool. I probably would have loved that camp. Kodi came home from Nana's. She really missed me, although with her attitude who can tell? :)

We went to my brother's for the 4th of July - Always a neighborhood thing and a lot of fun. We're actually only a few blocks from him so the girls spent a couple of nights with him. We also finally got to do the Christmas thing for the kids. Deklan got a Transformer, a radio controlled helicopter, and some really cool spy gear. Hayleigh got 6 Nintendo DS games - she's in electronic heaven.
And Kodi? Well, she only had one thing on her list. Guess what I'm using to blog on? That's right - a personal laptop. I should have asked for one too! :) Actually Chuck and I got money (always a plus), and I got a card reader for my computer. I'm really happy - happier if I can get my own computer hooked up. Which may be soon - bringing me to my next paragraph...

We put a contract in on a house today. It's really cute. Want to see?

The contract has to be accepted still so we'll see. But the really good news is that - even though the closing won't be until the middle of August - we may get to move in and rent the place until closing. Yay!! I'll keep you posted.

Update

2009-06-22T10:47:00.003-05:00

Still homeless. But it's ok. We're trusting God to lead us to the place (home) we need to be. My faith is growing stronger each day and I know that he will continue to keep my family safe.

I rearranged some appointments a couple of weeks ago and just took off for my mom's. Always a safe place when the world is overwhelming. :) Chuck had to stay because of his work. Thank God he still has a job. We went up on Monday afternoon and then 3 of us came back the following Thursday. Kodi stayed with Nana. Her schedule was clear for the next couple of weeks and it made sense for the moment. She kept the dog with her too. That way I don't have to take Riley with us in the 100 degree weather. Hayleigh had to get her glasses lens put in - no more eye shield until her next surgery. She started camp this morning. Deklan doesn't have anything scheduled until next week and then he has a couple of doctor appointments. But, I know that Nana cannot handle him so he had to come with mommy. We'll go back on July 1st and bring her home on the 3rd. We have plans with my brother on the fourth. I'm actually at his house right now borrowing his internet. :) I'm going to be talking to someone tomorrow about some housing - please pray that goes well. We found a cheap (cheap being the operative word here) that we can stay in and pay for by the week.

Pause here for a message from Deklan. I swear I did NOT coach him! He did all the typing and spelling himself.

mom is the best!

And now back to our regular blog...

So we're definitely surviving. Like I said, trusting God to take care of us.

I'm concerned about Deklan though. This no schedule/no permanent home thing is really starting to affect him. He's getting more aggressive - even hitting me. I'll be discussing this with the doctor next week. We may need to medicate him. I hate to do that, but I'm not really sure what else to do. Just keep us in your prayers.

2009-06-14T12:11:00.001-05:00

I'm enjoying my time with mom. The kids are well and being pretty good. Still praying for a home in district.

2009-06-08T19:40:00.011-05:00

Well we're still looking for a place to live. In the meantime, I've decided to reschedule appointments so I can take the kids to my mom's for a couple of weeks. Kodi will stay another couple of weeks while I take the two younger ones back for appointments and camp. Right now chuck is staying with a buddy from work so us being at mom's keeps us from being underfoot and doesn't cost money to find a place to stay. Have a great couple weeks, I know we will. Although I will miss my hubby.

2009-06-08T19:40:00.007-05:00

Although I will miss my hubby

2009-06-03T15:14:00.001-05:00

Hayleigh's 2nd checkup was Monday. It could have went better. She wasn't seeing as well as she was on Friday. Her eye had a little inflamation so we upped her eye drops to 6 times a day. She has to wear her eye patch for another week. Mostly she's bummed because she can't get her head wet for at least a week which means NO SWIMMING.

Deklan's checkup wasn't so good either. His right eye didn't check out anywhere near where it normally does. This concerned the doc. He said Deklan could have just been having an off day though. They'll both go back in 4 weeks. Sooner than normal for Deklan but he's going to get his eye dilated so they can be sure everything really is ok.
Well I'm off to pick Kodi up from camp.

No good news

2009-05-30T17:36:00.004-05:00

Ok... so I was excited because I thought that we were going to buy a very nice mobile home. It was 3 bedrooms, 2 full baths, with a small yard. It was really nice inside too. I went to the bank where the guy has his loan... the loan officer was very rude... told me they did not want to do loans for a mobile home and, therefore, my interest rate would be 14.4%... then he pulled my credit history and said no way! I was only asking for a loan up to $13,000 and I know from a previous check that I should have been approved for a LOT more than that! Anyway, blah, blah, the guy was reluctant to carry the loan - even though he said it wouldn't be a problem and he was going to just let me make payments (rent to own). Ok... so I told him I wanted to sign the papers and be in by the end of the month. No problem! he said. School let out last Thursday (21st) and I told him I'd be out of town for a few days - went to see Mom. We came back Wednesday evening, Hayleigh had her eye surgery Thursday, and I called him on Friday.

He said: "Oh, I've been trying to call you."
I said: "Really? I didn't get any voice mails from you."
He said: "No, I just got the voice mail, but didn't leave a message."
I said: "Oh, well I told you I would be out of town for a few days."
He said: "Oh yeah, well, I sold the trailer. A guy came and bought it and he's moving it off the lot."
I said: "HUH?!"

I've already paid my deposit for the lot because I was told that I had to do that before he could rent it to me. Now, I doubt I'll get my deposit back because she's going to be pissed off that he's moving the trailer off the lot. I'm just in shock, I guess. Anyway, now it's the end of the month and I don't have anywhere to go. I've put a call into a realtor and lender to see how much I can get approved for and we're just going to buy a house.

Ok... so we only had until the end of the month with our friends. Now I'm trying to find a place to go. So... we're going to camp out! Yep, camp out. Actually, we'll camp for a couple of days and cabin the other days. Monday night: tent; Tuesday-Thursday: cabin; Friday-Saturday: Oklahoma Girl Scout family camp; Sunday: tent; Monday-Thursday: cabin. Hopefully by then we'll have someplace to at least rent for a few months until we can buy. I'll have to find a kennel for Riley for the weekend we're in Oklahoma, but the rest of the time she can camp with us.

A lot of people would be down by now. Ok... I've been really down... but you know what? It really could be worse. At least Chuck still has a job with a paycheck and both our vehicles are still running. I even sucked up my pride and called my brother... I know that my family (minus the pup) can always crash there if we need to. Is it bad that I would rather camp out than stay at my brother's? He and I get along ok. It's just that he thinks that we're losers and this just adds wood to that fire. I can't take the pup because she's a puppy, and hyper, and likes to bark, and likes to nip when she plays, and his dog is nearly 12 years old and blind. The two just would not mix well.

On the bright side... I got to see my mom last week. It was short but great. Chuck even got the week off so he could go too and so he could be there for Hayleigh's surgery. It's actually been kind of nice to have him around during the day. Wow! can't believe I just said that. LOL. He's also taking next weekend off to go to the family camp in Oklahoma with us.

Kodi has her first camp starting Monday and coming home on Wednesday. It's called camp cook. Maybe she'll learn how to cook for us while we're doing all the camping out. :) Her next camp will be Tennis camp July 20-23. She really wants to play tennis next year in 7th grade so this will be a little training practice for her. Hayleigh goes to her first camp on the 22nd. It's a week long - day camp on Monday-Wednesday and overnight on Thursday to end on Friday. It's a pedals and paddle camp - biking and canoeing. It should be fun for her. The next camp she goes to is an overnight camp July 8 through the 10. It's a CSI camp. I wish I was going to that one - they'll learn some forensics stuff. It should be cool. Deklan is supposed to take an art course this summer July 7-30 for one hour a day - if he doesn't freak out into meltdown mode and not go. Our summer of camping will end on July 31/August 1 with an overnight at the mall (Mall Madness).

See? It's not all bad. :)

Hayleigh

2009-05-28T19:58:00.003-05:00

Hayleigh had her first eye surgery. Well, first since she was 8 weeks old anyway. She had her right lens implant put in today. We'll go in the morning to have the eye patch removed and see how it's doing. Keep praying for her. It was a little rough for a couple of hours this morning after we got her home but she's really doing ok right now.

Good News...Maybe

2009-05-15T08:35:00.002-05:00

Ok, so I don't want to get my hopes up because everytime I do something falls through. However, I think I may have a place to move into next week. I'm not going to say more until I know for sure... Just please keep us in your prayers.

Off to field day at Deklan's school in a couple hours. Yippee!

Have a great day!

Good News, Bad News

2009-05-10T20:59:00.010-05:00

Bad news first.

Bad News: Still staying with friends. The rental we were looking into... the guy NEVER called me back. How rude! Sounds like I didn't want to be his tenant anyway if he doesn't have the decency to at least call and tell me no. I've got a friend who just built a house. I heard through another friend that she may be renting out her house instead of selling it. I've put an email out to her to let me know. If the rent is right, it would be perfect - and in the right school district. As of right now... I'm ready to move, stay with my mom - oh yeah Oklahoma, live in my van? I don't know. Anyway, of course they believe that their son is smarter than Deklan and therefore, he MUST know what he's doing and Deklan does not. It's getting frustrating. Although I don't think they do it intentionally. Deklan is limited to what he can do because it's not my house. He's limited in the computer and video games because I won't allow him to play unless the other kid is playing or invites him to join him - not my stuff and I'm not comfortable just letting him use it. He could probably kick the other kid's little bottom when it comes to computers but he's not given the chance. It's really not fair. Here's where I and my friends differ: I wouldn't let my kid on the computer without either sharing the time - 15 minutes each - or allowing the other kid to automatically be invited in to play too. On the other hand, we're the ones staying with them and just need to be thankful that we have friends willing to let a family of 5 plus a dog move in with them. I truly am thankful and we'll still be friends when this is over.

Now for a little good news.

Good news: Our Girl Scout troop won the People's Choice Award for their "Groovin'" float in the Wichita River Festival. It was a '60's theme. Yay, Girls - good job. It was a plaque and a large monetary prize ($1,000). That will help our troop funds with trying to take a cool fall break somewhere with all the girls. We're looking into Great Wolf Lodge in Kansas City. That would be so much fun. It was so cool that the girls won. I'll post pictures when I can - still using someone else's computer. What else? Oh yes, we had a service unit event. It was a father/daughter dance. It was awesome! It was wonderful to see so many of the dads/grandpas/uncles come with their girls and participate. We had a DJ so the music was great; he had karaoke for the girls. We also had dance and craft competitions for each level, as well as door prize drawings. My Hayleigh and her daddy won the Junior dance competition. They were so funny... and cute. I hope I can get some of those pictures to post too.

Today is Mother's Day. Happy late Mother's Day to all you wonderful mothers. I'm grumpy and in a bad mood though. Have been all day. Don't know why, but who cares? I'm grumpy.

Last week was kind of busy. Monday: Hayleigh's GS meeting. Tuesday: Hayleigh had a program at school - I went to the morning performance because I also had a Service Unit meeting scheduled for the evening. The evening meeting was a recognition dinner and I really wanted to have the break and go. I had a lot of fun too. Wednesday: Hayleigh had an eye doctor's appointment. Scheduled for 8:45, but ran over and didn't get out until nearly 11:00. Took her to school and then because it was Teacher Appreciation day at school, I spent all day at the Middle School. Helping with the luncheon and setting up concessions for the dance on Friday. Kodi had a GS meeting to work on the float for the parade. Thursday: Hayleigh had a therapy appointment and then the rest of the day off! wow! Friday: Non-stop. Loading pop in the cooler in the outside concessions. Getting Deklan registered for summer school. Running odds and ends errands to get ready for the parade that night. Putting together costumes for the parade too. Picking up snacks for the girls. Running to storage. Going to the parade - had to be there an hour early at 5:30. Saturday: Getting through a melt down with Deklan. Going downtown for photo op with the girls collecting the prize from the parade. Taking the kids on some of the rides (thank goodness they were free with the festival button!). Chasing after Deklan. Getting the girls home to change for the father/daughter dance. Off to the church to help finish setting up for the dance. Working and keeping track of Deklan during the dance. Sending the kids home with daddy and staying to clean up after the dance. I'm tired and my husband doesn't understand why I'm so grumpy. But, alas, that is the call of the mother, right? LOL

This week? Monday: Field day at Hayleigh's school. ..... Friday: Field day at Deklan's school. With everything in between. :)

Just a couple of more rambles. I don't know when I'll get a chance to log on again.

First...Does anyone have any ideas for a harness (or use one)? We found one today that is actually a small back pack with a "leash" that goes out behind for me to hold onto. It's not really meant for a special needs 6 year old though. And I'm afraid that when he gets tired of wearing it he'll just pull it off. I'm just having so much trouble keeping up with him. He likes to hide a lot in public. Although he is very high functioning and can talk well... he chooses not to answer me when I'm frantically looking through racks of clothes or down every aisle for him. It's a little frustrating and embarrassing. Anyway, any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Second... Hayleigh's first eye surgery is scheduled for May 28. A week after school gets out. For those that don't know, Hayleigh was born with cataracts. She had both lenses removed before she was two months old (3 eye surgeries to do so). Anyway, she is now at a point where "coke-bottle" glasses are a burden in her busy little life. She has chosen to get the lens implant surgery. She will still have to have bifocals for reading - always will. But those will be glasses she can take off while she's out playing. Her next eye surgery will be 4-6 weeks after the first. The doctor needs to make sure there are no infections or complications from the first. She's excited and nervous. So am I!

Third... Deklan has decided that he definitely wants to do the summer school program. Art class. One hour a day in the mornings from July 7 through July 31. That should be interesting. I'm sure he'll absolutely love it though. He really likes to create things.

Have a great week!

Quick update

2009-05-05T11:11:00.004-05:00

Being homeless ain't what it's cracked up to be. We're actually staying with some friends. 9 people in one house - it's fun. These are the friends that Deklan sometimes has playdates with. Their son has sensory issues too, plus he's officially dx with ADHD and OCD. Put him with my son and the room is just not big enough for both of their egos because neither is ever wrong. Don't get me wrong - I am extremely thankful that they've opened their home to my clan. I've had a couple of leads on properties but nothing has happened. We have an application in for a property - please pray that we get that house.

First, I was not a good leaving tenant. I left the place kind of a mess. I feel really bad. On the other hand, we were still moving junk out at 10 at night on the 30th. I was tired and done! The manager had already implied that I wasn't getting my deposit back anyway so I guess that helps with the guilt. Unfortunately, it doesn't look good on a rental application when they call for references. Of course it can't be much worse than "reason for leaving: lease was up and received a notice of non-renewal."

Second, the friends letting us stay with them do not care for dogs. When we leave, if we don't take Riley with us, we have to leave her in a kennel in the garage. When we are home, we have to use a baby gate to keep her downstairs with us. The other kids are afraid of her. Nevermind that they are fine with teasing her, running from her so she'll chase them, "petting" her by poking at her, flapping her ears. She's been a really good girl though. She barked at first because she wasn't used to everything yet. Now, other than the occasional slip, she doesn't even bark. She hasn't nipped at them or growled at them. My kids she has but that's how they play - she knows the difference. She's a good girl.

Last week on the first, they kept their son home because he was up late and would have had a hard time getting up for school. I sent mine. I had to keep Riley leashed and at my side the whole time. I stayed in my room most of the time. Today, they kept their son home because he has a doctor's appointment. I would still take mine to school - even if it caused a melt down. Anyway, I didn't want to be home all day with the little ones (the younger son is 4) running around. I try to stay away as long as possible when they're home - I don't want to intrude on their privacy. It's very difficult and I'm ready to move on. In fact, I'm at a different friend's house using her computer and making myself at home.

Anyway, just keep us in your prayers. And that's the update... for now.

2009-04-29T14:41:00.005-05:00

I was trying to upload photos but my computer is having memory problems, so I couldn't. On April 17 we went to the circus. The kids had a really good time. We saw Tigers jumping through fire rings - it looked cool in the dark arena, lots of clowns, women hanging on ropes, a little girl on a pony, a woman with hula hoops. For a circus - I don't like clowns - it was not too bad. We only had one slight meltdown. Deklan wanted a spider man balloon but he'd already chosen a light saber. Then to my complete surprise, my good little boy chose a compromise. I carry his wallet in my purse - birthday money, Easter, etc. He wanted to use his own money to buy the balloon. It was his idea and it was perfect.

We've been taking care of the baby rabbits. It's almost time to let them go on their own. Yesterday we took them outside for a few minutes. It was suggested that we put them in the grass for a few minutes a day until we let them go to let them get used to being outside. Two of them zoomed off in different directions. We caught them but it was kind of funny. My oldest was freaking out. Oh, and we found a place to let them go permanently. Deklan's school nurse has a farm property and she said we could let them go on the back of that. We'll probably do that tomorrow.

We've been busy with Scouts. Saturday was our city-wide garage sale and we had a Girl Scout booth. The parents donated things to be sold and all the proceeds went to benefit our troop.

Did I mention that we're also moving? Where? Don't have a clue. Our lease is up tomorrow and we haven't been able to find a place to lease. We've been looking since February. Can I stay another month? Uh, no. In January we got a notice of non-renewal for our lease. We weren't given a reason. However, everyone got a notice that rents are going up starting April/May (depending on the lease). We're assuming that, because we're in a limited low-income range, we have to move because they're raising the rents. We're not the only ones - several from our side of the building have already moved. So, I've been trusting that God will provide. And I'm still sure He will, but it's really hard to keep the faith when we are one day from being homeless. Some good friends of mine are going to let us plug our deep freeze into their garage until we find a place. In the meantime, everything is going into storage. And, let me tell you, we have a lot of crap!! LOL. I thought we'd gotten rid of a lot of our junk the last time we moved. Apparently we just accumulated more and kept it hidden in the kids' rooms. We're still moving stuff. I actually kept the girls home today to help me move boxes. (Which caused a HUGE meltdown this morning for Deklan.) I guess we'll stay in a motel for a week or so - expensive, I know, but down to no choices.

As for Deklan's meltdown... I got him onto the bus but then he just stood in the door well and kept kicking the doors. The bus driver tried to get him to settle down, but it was taking a long time so I went back to get him. I was parked a little ways away so he couldn't see me, but I could see him. So then I drove him to school, pulled him out of the van, carried him to the door, the two special ed teachers took him inside. He was screaming for me and reaching for me. I was in tears, he was in tears. It was not a pretty picture. But the school called me around 10 or so to let me know that he was doing fine.

Bunny Update

2009-04-18T23:20:00.006-05:00

We've had the bunnies a week now. Happy to say all are doing very well.

Grumpy

2009-04-15T08:16:00.003-05:00

Deklan came home from school yesterday completely grumpy. I guess there were a series of events that brought this on. I couldn't tell if anything actually happened at school, but something happened on the bus. Sissy said that... They had a sub on the bus. ... A little boy said Deklan stole money (.45 cents) from him. I believe that Deklan could have found money and the little boy told him it was his. At that point I can imagine Deklan arguing and saying it wasn't the other kid's because Deklan had found it. ... The sub wouldn't let Deklan sit in his regular seat so he had to sit with sissy. Sis had to hold him in his seat because Deklan kept trying to switch seats.

Then we couldn't get him into the house. He stood outside. He found a big stick and was swinging it at anyone who came near him. Then he went down to the playground. I finally got him to come inside but then he didn't want to do anything else. He wouldn't do his homework - still hasn't. He wasn't going to go to Boy Scouts - then changed his mind and went. He wouldn't go to bed last night. He laid in bed and just kept talking so I had to bring him to sit in my lap until he fell asleep. He didn't want to get up this morning and was slow to do EVERYTHING.

He's just having a grumpy moment - or maybe I am! :)

Easter Happenings

2009-04-12T23:46:00.012-05:00

Our Easter weekend started on Good Friday. The kids were out of school for inservice day. I boiled eggs on Thursday evening so the kids got to dye eggs on Friday afternoon.
The Finished Products.

Friday evening I hosted Bunco while daddy took the kids to the Hannah Montana movie with Hayleigh's Girl Scout troop. We got home about the same time. Saturday morning started with an Easter egg hunt presented by ARC for special needs children and their families.The "official mascot" of the egg hunt.
Deklan found a golden egg and won a prize.At least they're not too old to pose with the Easter bunny.

Saturday afternoon my kids discovered some baby bunnies.
Apparently abandoned by their mom. They were burrowed into the wood chips on our playground. Chances were the mom wasn't coming back since kids had already been playing with them. We saw the first two - only two right? Wrong! There were three more under the one bunny. We left them until after dark - I didn't want to take them in and the mom come back, she would have been sad. I checked on them at 10:30 p.m. and only saw four. Thinking the mom was in the process of moving them, I left them alone and checked again at 11:30 p.m. It was then that I saw the fifth little one nearly frozen to death under the slide. (A sixth one had already died earlier in the day.) So I took them inside, warmed some milk, put them in a box with a towel, and put them under a lamp for the night. I woke the girls up to help me. Right now we have 5 little bunnies already jumping around and escaping the cage - the cracks in the cage are a little large for five day old bunnies. We assume they're only 4-5 days old because they just opened their eyes this afternoon. Our dog is going nuts. She just sits at the door to the bedroom and cries to check out the bunnies. We're afraid to leave her alone with them. I would like to believe that her motherly instincts are kicking in but I wouldn't want to chance that. Saturday evening I took Hayleigh to the Arena Football game - the 4th and 5th graders from her school performed the National Anthem. On Sunday morning... All the kids were visited by the Easter Bunny. New outfits for all three.

A Spiderman fishing pole for Deklan, a Betty Boop watch for Kodi, and a Tinkerbell watch for Hayleigh. Today we went to lunch as a family. Then made a trip to the pet store to get supplies to care for the babies. This afternoon we watched Open Season 2. That was our weekend. Hope you all had good ones too!

We went for a walk...

2009-04-10T11:57:00.020-05:00

last Saturday.
We started out a little grumpy.

Such a good sister! She's decided to give a tired Deklan a piggy back.
I don't know if you can tell but the birdhouse is a replica of the nature center.

The Tooth Fairy

2009-04-07T15:00:00.003-05:00

Deklan has lost 2 teeth in the past week or so. I'm not really one to go with the whole tooth fairy, Easter bunny, Santa Claus myths. I've always told my kids the truth and it's not a big deal in my family. That's how I was raised. So when Deklan lost his first tooth a week - almost two weeks, now - I was excited. We took pictures. But we didn't put it under the pillow or anything. Actually, he lost the tooth at school so it was sent home in a big plastic tooth (the nurse keeps some for just these occasions). So, again, no big deal. He called Nana to tell her about the tooth.

Guess what? Three days later he got a letter in the mail from the Tooth Fairy. Yep! A $1 with a note that read, "I love teeth! Love, the Tooth Fairy". Addressed to Deklan, return address the Tooth Fairy. The first thing he wanted was his plastic tooth so he could see if the tooth fairy had actually gotten his tooth. Good thing I check the mail before he gets home - Mom actually told me it was coming though. I had found the big tooth, untaped it carefully, removed the tooth, replaced the tape - it was never opened. :) That was awesome! He loved it; thinks it's great!

Yesterday, he came home with his second tooth out! Oh boy, tooth fairy mail again? Nope! The tooth fairy only had to mail it because he forgot to put the tooth under his pillow last time. This time he made sure he put the tooth under his pillow. Shootfire! That means I have to be the tooth fairy. I'm not good at that kind of stuff - I forget. Actually... I couldn't find the silly thing under his pillow. Ok first you should know I have three children right? They all sleep in the same bed. Yes, they really do. Deklan against the wall, oldest in the middle, middle on the outside. So, in order to get the tooth, I have to crawl over the girls - did I mention this is a full size mattress with a twin bunk on top? I only hit my head once. I gave up, figured I'd give him an excuse if he checked it before I got in there this morning. He's a creature of habit so he headed directly to my room for a shower. While he was in the shower, I found the tooth (finally), removed the tooth, replaced the tape, and put a dollar under the plastic tooth. He was so excited again. He called Nana and told her about the tooth fairy. The tooth fairy had found the tooth because it was under the pillow so she didn't have to mail it this time.

As long as he's happy, I guess.

BWHAA!HA!HA!HE!HE!

2009-04-06T16:45:00.004-05:00

Laughing my *behind* off! Last Thursday, I was called into Deklan's school. Wait - I'm not allowed at Deklan's school, remember? Why should I come down there? Deklan was expressing inappropriate behavior and was unable to be calmed down. Really?! I'm so sorry to hear that. HE!HE!HE!

AND he had an accident in his pants! Could this day be better?

Ok, so I wasn't really happy to have to change him. Apparently he was running around the IR room and wouldn't stop, so they couldn't change him. Of course they wanted to lay him down and change him in the room. HUH?! He prefers privacy. He let me take him to the bathroom and change him. While we were in the bathroom I asked him what had happened. He told me that they were playing a game, Mrs. L (music teacher) told him he was pulling on the kids next to him so he had to sit down. He left the circle and it went downhill from there. We went back to the IR room and he continued to run around.

First of all, we weren't even in his IR teacher's room (Mrs. C), but I didn't ask why - I prefer the second IR teacher anyway. I asked him if he could tell Mrs. R (IR teacher) what he'd told me in the bathroom. Instead of telling her, he drew her pictures - explaining everything that happened. The teachers were very impressed with his expressive behavior. Here's the rundown: He was standing in circle - holding hands with the kids, supposedly he was pulling the two directly holding his hands, Mrs. L told him to step out of the circle. Deklan disagrees with the pulling part, but obliges by stepping out of the circle. The building para (not his regular para) tells him to sit. When he doesn't comply, she physically restrains him. Big mistake! He gets more "uncooperative" - his word. Then they're off to PE. His regular para walks him to PE. Before they get into the gym, Deklan stops walking - apparently in the middle of the doorway. Now he's at PE, won't go in the class, and just found out he has a sub. The OT had to come and remove him. They went to her room first. Then he was moved to Mrs. C's classroom before being moved to Mrs. R's room. When I got to the school he was running around. There was Mrs. R, a couple of paras, and the social worker. Once we got him to calm down and explain what was going on, the OT (who had to leave for an appointment) came back into the room. Deklan never did make it back to his regular classroom.

But... the funny part? Ms. Social Worker said that the reason Deklan was in Mrs. R's room was... ready for this?... because when she went to check in with Mrs. C, she was nearly in tears. She asked for help because she couldn't handle Deklan anymore. HE!HE!HE! Sorry, I can't help it! These are the same people that said, "We never have any problems with Deklan. He's great at school." Almost in tears. HA!HA!HA!

He didn't have an accident on Friday, but... they did have another "uncooperative" moment. Thankfully, it wasn't quite as long and didn't escalate. He was able to return to his class again.

I'm very upset that Deklan would act this way, but I'm also very happy that Deklan would act this way. Is that wrong of me? Still laughing my *behind* off thinking about it. Almost in tears! :) HA!HA!HE!HE! Tears!! Oh my, I may have tears of my own - from laughing!

Principals know best?

2009-04-06T15:56:00.006-05:00

A week ago Sunday we had Hayleigh in to the psychologist to determine if she's ADHD. Sunday? you ask. Yes, actually we were supposed to meet on Saturday but that was the weekend that we had the blizzard warning. The doctor was in the 18 inches of snow area so we rescheduled for Sunday morning. Anyway, her older sister has ADHD and ODD. Deklan, of course, has Autistic Disorder and leans towards ODD. So, with the way Hayleigh has been acting, I thought we should get her checked. Her teacher even made a comment about Hayleigh getting up WHILE SHE'S TEACHING and wandering around. Hayleigh will blow her nose or sharpen her pencil in the middle of lessons. Ok, so her regular teacher went on maternity leave one week before spring break. Therefore, she has a sub for the rest of the term. I asked the principal to PLEASE do not let the sub fill in the questionnaire from the doctor. PLEASE let one of her paras fill in the paper so we can get an accurate view of Hayleigh's behavior. "Oh, we don't let teacher's aides fill out checklists. Mrs. P is a certified teacher. I'm sure she knows how to fill out the paper work." I'm sure she has wonderful credentials... but she does NOT know my daughter's behaviors. After explaining the situation - 3 times! - she finally conceded with "Well we'll see if the teacher's aide feels confident enough to fill out the questions." Excuse me? Confident? I think she meant that she doesn't feel they are competent enough. If they are that stupid I don't want them helping my student in class! (I know both of them, and they are perfectly competent, BTW.) So I picked the form up from school and, guess what? The paras didn't fill it out - Mrs. P did!!! UGH! What is wrong with people?! Do you think her papers described Hayleigh - no. In fact, a lot of her answers were "did not observe" - no kidding, that's what happens when you've been in the classroom with her for almost 3 weeks and one of those was spring break! After discussing the situation with the doctor we've decided that we can wait until the fall to re-do the paper work. She only has about 7 weeks of school left anyway and then she'll be having lots of fun over the summer break. So, not only is Deklan's school principal a pompous jerk who thinks everyone else is incompetent, but so is Hayleigh's! Why don't they run off together and live happily ever after? I'm sure no one would really miss them.

April is Autism Awareness Month

2009-04-01T07:03:00.000-05:00

ABOUT AUTISM

Autism is a complex brain disorder that inhibits a person's ability to communicate and develop social relationships, and is often accompanied by extreme behavioral challenges. Autism spectrum disorders are diagnosed in one in 150 children in the United States, affecting four times as many boys as girls. The diagnosis of autism has increased tenfold in the last decade. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have called autism a national public health crisis whose cause and cure remain unknown.

Deklan's Day Planner

2009-03-31T07:40:00.007-05:00

Deklan has a new day planner. The school provided it as part of his Behavioral Intervention Plan. It was actually his vision teacher that ordered it. I figured it would be big, but I wasn't expecting a 3-ring binder. He seems to likes it. We'll see if it helps.The print is much bigger because of his vision. And he writes really big so he needs the room.There are pages with holidays and dates already printed.
This is supposed to help communication between the teachers and me too. We can each put down any schedule changes that we have so that the other person can see - and Deklan won't be surprised by appointments or anything like that.

After the snow

2009-03-29T23:07:00.005-05:00

Ok - they called it a blizzard. I'm from Colorado so blizzard may be pushing it just a bit. However, in other parts of Kansas -not far from here - they did get around 18 inches and there were blizzard-like conditions in some places. Just not here. Our snow stopped yesterday evening and we got between 4 and 6 inches. We went out this morning for a doctor's appointment (yes on a Sunday - later on that though), and the roads were completely clear. It was a beautiful day at nearly 60 degrees. They say it's going to be in the 50's tomorrow and rain. The kids are really disappointed. They were sent home early on Friday and expected to have a blizzard filled weekend and be off tomorrow. I knew better but why bust their bubble too early. :) Anyway, here are my daughter's attempts at snow people. Hayleigh made two little "pail" people. She made them out of a pail - maybe she was pretending to be at the beach.Dakota went with a more traditional, albeit small, snowman. They didn't have much to work with but they had fun anyway.

Snow today

2009-03-28T10:33:00.007-05:00

Here are pictures of our snow that we're having right now. It started yesterday with sleet all day, turning to snow last evening. We have about and inch or more of ice under the snow. That's our apartment and the house behind us.
And, yes, that's our dorky daughter in the snow with no coat. She's jumping up and down.Now she's turning circles.

Riley

2009-03-26T14:32:00.003-05:00

Here are pictures of our pup.

Pie in My Face

2009-03-25T07:54:00.007-05:00

No, literally. Because our girls made their cookie sales goal, they got to throw pie in our faces. They got to choose between me and the leader. Guess which one my daughter picked. I'll give you a hint: she's glad I couldn't throw back! It wasn't that bad. But it was cold! We were freezing when we went inside. It was so sticky - I had to wash my hair and face twice. I think I can still smell the whipped cream in my nose. :)
I think Kodi is enjoying that a little too much.
This is B - wonder if she still smells the whipped cream too.

Pictures

2009-03-23T13:52:00.008-05:00

Here are some pictures that we took over spring break with my mom. The girls are shooting BB guns into the trees. And that's Nana in the pictures with us. Bushy red hair - that's me. Gotta love the big hair days.

Happy Spring

2009-03-21T16:53:00.002-05:00

We're just back from spring break. We spent Saturday through Wednesday at mom's in Oklahoma. We had a great time - always do with my mom. She spoiled the kids rotten - and me too! She bought us all new shoes - which we needed. I got the coolest Coke bag (I LOVE Coke!). Of course there was candy and snacks and anything else the kids wanted. Last year we saw my mom at least 4 times throughout the year. 3 days was the least amount of time we spent with her too. So, normally during spring break, we leave on Friday after school and come back a week later on Sunday. But, this year, due to other obligations - Girl Scouts mostly - we went on Saturday morning and came back on Wednesday morning. My mom kept saying things like, "Since I only see you once a year..." "Since you only spend a few hours a year with me..." "Since I only see the kids about a millisecond a year..." Today she called me and said she forgot that I was even there last week since it was only half a millisecond that we were there. She's funny.

We didn't go until Saturday because I was still doing cookie audits for my Girl Scout service unit. I was just the assistant cookie manager. The actual cookie manager had to go to the audit at the council on Monday (during spring break). My mom would have freaked if I hadn't been able to go until Monday afternoon. We came back early because my oldest was invited to go on a missions trip with a local youth group. She was pretty excited. It was only two days - Thursday and Friday. They went to Oklahoma City and packed boxes of food and supplies to be shipped to Africa. She had a really great time. It worked out because middle child was invited to a birthday party sleep over on Thursday, so because we came back early she was able to go. She was very happy. I was invited to a "women's toy party" on Thursday evening. But that's another story. ;)

Happy, Happy...

2009-03-08T22:20:00.002-05:00

Joy, Joy! Cookie Sales are finally over! Yea!!!! I'm so happy and so proud of our girls. Together they sold nearly 3,000 boxes of Girl Scout cookies. They've earned cookie credits that can be used towards Girl Scout camps this summer or they can spend the credits in the Girl Scout shop.

Our lives can get back to normal. Well... normal for us anyway. :)

Great Day

2009-03-01T16:34:00.002-06:00

The girls and I had to do cookie booths all day - 10-2 & 4-6. So... I had to find a babysitter for Deklan since hubby works on Saturday. I have a good friend who just adores Deklan. Her son and mine were in kindergarten together and still have playdates. And she has a younger son that really likes Deklan too. Anyway, she agreed to take Deklan for the whole day. God Bless Her! I didn't tell Deklan until Friday afternoon that he was going. He said, "Wow, this is great. This is wonderful! Why didn't you tell me sooner? They're like my BFF's!" (Can you tell he has sisters?) There is a kid's museum/interactive place in town - Exploration Place. She took the kids there. They had a blast! Before bed I told Deklan that I was happy he had a good day. He said, "It wasn't a good day, Mom. It was a GREAT day!"

IEP

2009-02-24T09:30:00.003-06:00

Deklan's IEP was yesterday. I was happy with the outcome. There was a lot of information presented that I still need to think over and make sure I have no questions. My Rainbows case worker and our clinical psychologist (Shani) came to the meeting too. They were my support. We now have a Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP) set in place. The BIP includes getting Deklan to a safe room - IR room (Special Ed room) or OT room, giving him a crunchy snack, a drink for rehydrating, and basically redirecting his attention. They are working on finding him a sensory alternative to hopefully help him self-regulate before his melt downs actually happen. Whatever they come up with, we'll also try to use in the home so that he'll have the same options at school and home and will know how to calm down when upset or frustrated. They are also going to get Deklan a day planner to carry with him at home and school. The teacher will have the next day's or even the week's schedule written in the book. We can show it to him and he can SEE what's supposed to happen for the day. We can also make changes in the planner and show it to him. Even if it is a spur of the moment thing we can write it down and show him what's going to happen and help him cope with the schedule change. It'll be something new for both of us. But it really sounds like something that could be very helpful. They are also going back to the picture schedules. We also talked about giving Deklan cards with pictures or words so he can still express his emotions when he hits his no talking/extremely frustrated mode. I've read about some kind of book for Autistic children that has pictures like this, but I don't remember what it is. If you know, please let me know. I'm going to try to find the information on the net. If anyone has tried this before, what's been your experience? They think maybe Deklan is having testing anxiety so they are going to try bringing him into one of the IR rooms for some of his testing to see if he's calmer. They are also going to take him into the IR room at the end of the day and go over his homework for the evening and his schedule for the rest of the day so he knows what to expect when he goes home. I'm thinking some positive thoughts and hoping this will help.

My new trick

2009-02-23T07:24:00.002-06:00

Deklan hates baths. Well, he hates the idea of a bath and will fight to the bitter end not to get in the tub. Once in, we may not get him out. Deklan also hates to brush his teeth. I can't get within a foot of him with a toothbrush in my hand. A week or so ago I put Deklan in the shower with me as soon as he got out of bed. I washed his hair real quick and then got out. He really liked just standing there in the water. It was also easier to get him dressed when he got out. Guess he woke up in the shower. Same thing the next day... and the next... you get the idea. Then I had a flash of an idea. He likes the shower (even cried the one morning I told him he didn't have time for a shower - we made time). Why not let him brush his teeth in the shower? Brilliant. I get to spit in the tub? Cool! Ok, so he still won't let me help him his teeth, but at least the toothbrush is in his mouth!

Deklan's pics

2009-02-14T22:35:00.007-06:00

Deklan loves to take pictures. Here's some of his handy work from earlier this morning.

Happy Valentine's Day

2009-02-14T22:01:00.018-06:00

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

The kids and I spent the morning at a Girl Scout event - Ready, Set, Jet. Basically different troops represented different countries and then the troops educated other troops about their country. Our country was Kenya, Africa. The girls all braided their hair to look more authentic. We had an African ambassador who tutored the girls on the facts. Then he taught them a traditional African dance. It was kind of fun.

Most of our troop was able to make it. That's our fearless leader on the end - I'm not in the pic.
Dakota Hayleigh "Circle of Friends"
The girls "dancing." Story telling by the Ambassador - Allarakha (that's his name).

Yellow M&M

2009-02-11T20:55:00.001-06:00

Apparently, according Deklan, I'm like a yellow m&m. Yeah - because "You know, you're big and so is he". :)

142

2009-02-09T00:13:00.004-06:00

That's my son's IQ. We had him tested because I was curious. He's always been intelligent for his age, but I wanted to know what I was working with here. He tested out on his age level. It doesn't get much higher for his age, I guess. Great! I'm excited! My son is gifted! Now what? I have a gifted autistic son with behavioral, sensory, and social difficulties.

It's my fault?!

2009-02-08T23:31:00.007-06:00

Friday morning we had a melt down at school. Actually, it started before school. Deklan did not want to get on the bus. It started when he looked at the lunch menu. He realized that we have school Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday this coming week. We're out Thursday and Friday for Parent/Teacher conferences and then again Monday for President's Day/Teacher inservice day. He was upset because he understood that he was not having school at all this week. Then he told me that he had a hard time keeping up with the spelling tests. The teacher says the word then uses the word in a sentence. He has a hard time once she repeats the sentence. That was his excuse anyway. So - remember the "great" special ed teacher that said I should call her when bringing Deklan into school? (Refer to Rant, I mean post, on January 14.) Well I made it perfectly clear to Deklan that he was going to school. Before we left I put Deklan in the van and called the school. Told them I needed the special ed teacher or another teacher to meet me at the door - I was bringing Deklan to school but I was not bringing Deklan IN school. The special ed teacher wasn't found - apparently not available before school? Anyway, his regular teacher and the principal met us at the door. I literally had to pull Deklan out of the van and pass him over to the principal, who carried him into the office. I know some of you are thinking how cruel I am. Actually I don't think of it as cruel. Deklan has to realize that there are rules. One being school is not an option - you go unless you're on your deathbed. Ok, slight exaggeration on that but you get the point. Anyway, I also had signed up to help at the book fair Friday morning - Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday also. However, I'm smarter than I look - I did not tell Deklan I would be at his school. The melt down happened anyway. This is the school that says they NEVER have a problem with Deklan. Oh yeah? Well, apparently it's my fault that he had such a huge melt down on Friday that I was asked to come help at the book fair after school. To which I said NO. Anyway, I'll let you read the correspondence from the school and my replies. See below:

Marshella,
Just wanted to touch base with you about Deklan. He is calmed down and doing his work, but it took a little bit of effort to get him calm enough to work. In light of this, we were wondering if you would maybe be able to switch times that you're helping with the Book Fair. I have talked to Mrs. Mitchell and she said that it would be fine if you wanted to come work after school. We thought this would probably prevent Deklan having any more meltdowns. Let me know if this is alright with you!
Thanks!
Cherise
K-2 IR Teacher
____

Cherise,
I understand your concern. However, as far as I know, Deklan is not aware that I was in the building this morning. Nor is he aware that I intend on helping next week in the library. Unless someone from staff mentioned it to him, he believes that I left him when Mr. Bastian carried him into the school. The meltdown this morning is NOT my fault. I brought him to school because he refused to get on the bus. He said that someone told him he did not have school next week - misunderstanding that he does not have school only Thursday and Friday, I'm sure. He also stated that he didn't want to go to school because he couldn't keep up with his spelling words. I've already mentioned both to Mrs. McFarland this morning. As for the library next week... I have two other children besides Deklan and I feel that working after school is not an option. The reason I volunteered to work the mornings is so that I would not have one or more of my children wandering around and asking for a million things that I can't get them. I am not volunteering to get a book either. I have lots of time that I put into the Middle School, being president of the Parent Brigade there. I have time that I'm putting into (Hayleigh's school) for the Fun Night on the 21st. This was my first opportunity to help outside the classroom at (Deklan's school). If you would like me not to be in the building then please let Mrs. Mitchell know that, as much as I would love to help, she can take me off the volunteer list. If you would still like for me to help, I'd be happy to and I'll be there Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday a few minutes after 8.
Marshella
_______
Marshella,
Thank you for the response. We welcome you in the building but if you have to bring him on either Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday because he will not get on the bus then we will have to look at another option for Deklan that day. If he gets on the bus with no problem and is unaware that you are in the building then all should be fine.
Mr.Bastian
Principal
________
Mr. Bastian,
I think I must be confused. His meltdown had nothing to do with me being in the building. He thought I left - that's why I asked for Mrs. McFarland to meet me at the door. Please explain to me your thoughts regarding another option for Deklan if he doesn't get on the bus next week. I don't understand.
Marshella
_________
Marshella,
I guess my issue is that it took three people and a total of 45 minutes to calm him down. I understand that he was upset and hopefully this is an isolated incident but if we are unable to get him calmed down next week and you are in the building, it will be my suggestion that he goes home for the day so that it does not disturb the learning of others and takes time out of peoples schedules that have classes to cover, etc. Hopefully this is clear as I must look out for the interest of all 440 students here as well as Deklan.
Mr. Bastian
Principal
_______

I couldn't even reply to the last post because I was so upset. Take him home??? Is that really an option? Let's see, I had a melt down at school yesterday and mom took me home. Maybe if I do it again mom will take me home again. Hey this is pretty cool! Right - not going to happen. They're supposed to be prepared. Apparently the principal forwarded the emails the OT who called me on Friday afternoon. I told her I did not like being blamed for the melt down - it was not my fault. She said that the school needed to have a plan in place and know how to deal with situations like this. You think?! Anyway, she was very nice to me on the phone - we worked some issues out. We agreed that I would still help at the book fair in the mornings as planned, but I will come in about 1/2 an hour later than originally planned. That should give Deklan plenty of time to transition from the bus to the classroom. Assuming of course that he's on the bus. I am still extremely ticked off at the principal. I just hope I don't have to talk to him directly tomorrow because I don't think I'll be very nice.

Mommy Moments

2009-02-08T21:23:00.003-06:00

Deklan climbs into my lap, kisses me, then just cuddles. He calls this "needing a mommy moment." I love Mommy Moments!

Toe Walking

2009-02-07T20:16:00.003-06:00

OMG! I haven't seen Deklan toe walk in ages - or at least I haven't noticed it. Today while walking in Wal-Mart, he was totally toe walking. How did I miss this?

Anniversary

2009-02-05T13:45:00.003-06:00

Yesterday was my 14th wedding anniversary. Yep, 14. And we're both still alive to tell about it. LOL!

How did we celebrate? Well, hubby had to work so us doing anything during the day was out. A normal couple would probably cuddle up, have a nice dinner, do something romantic even. We're not a normal couple. I didn't even see my husband for more than a few minutes before 7:30 p.m. and we were in bed (to sleep) by 9:30. Nothing romantic here. My younger daughter's Girl Scout troop prepared the Wednesday night meal for the church last night. The people enjoying the meal give a donation - the troop got to keep the donations, which is a great fundraiser and community service project. I took her immediately from school to an eye doctor's appointment and then straight to the church. We helped prepare and serve the meal. She helped clean up - I was going to but there were a lot of parents helping the girls so I sat and chatted. My husband did bring the other two kids up and eat dinner so I got to sit for about 5 minutes with him - he started before I did. Then he took Deklan and went home. I stayed so Hayleigh could help with clean up, Dakota went to class, then we went home. So romantic! HE-HE!

Sensory Overload

2009-02-03T21:59:00.002-06:00

We had a rough weekend. Deklan was in sensory overload all weekend. It started with a HUGE meltdown on Friday afternoon/evening. I took him in to the psychologist for some tests. He knew we were going to the psychologist, but he wanted to play - not test. The first part of the test was just describing the word. Example: policeman. He answered the first few just fine then he just clamped his mouth shut and refused to talk or respond at all. He then followed that with a complete shutdown, laying in the floor turning circles, crying, and screaming at the top of his lungs. It was too much for me. Before it was over I was in tears too. This went on for about an hour or more. Finally the psychologist helped me get Deklan to the car - actually she carried him once we got outside. Then she got into the car with him while I shut and locked the door - she crawled out through my door. But she was gentle with him - not rough or angry. We started to pull out of the parking lot and he completely calmed down. He said he wanted to finish the questions and play with the blocks. I told him he'd have to wait until Monday afternoon because she was probably gone (it was nearly 6:30 in the evening by then - we got there at 4:30). He asked if we could check so I took him back to the door. It was locked. We checked a different door - it was locked too. But on our way back around the front Shani was coming out the door. I told her Deklan had something to say to her. He said he was sorry. I told her he wanted to take the test on Monday. He said, "Unless you have time now." She said she did and we went back inside - he answered every question she asked, played with the blocks and made plans for a "picnic" the next time we see her. It was like the previous 2 hours of melt down never happened. When we got in the car I asked him if he wanted his banana that I'd brought for snack. He said, "Yes Mama I would love that." Amazing. But it just went down hill from there. By the time we got home he was touching everything, hand flapping, couldn't get his sentences out without starting over 5 times. The next morning was his Boy Scout derby car races. He made it almost 2 hours before he went into overload and we had to leave. They let his car keep racing though. He came in 33 out of 51. Since this was his first year and we didn't really do a whole lot of work on the car, I think that was pretty good. Anyway, the whole weekend was just overload - although not too many meltdowns, which was good.

It's all fun and games...

2009-01-31T23:41:00.003-06:00

The kids were messing around at dinner the other night. I said, "It's all fun and games"

As in the phrase "It's all fun and games until someone gets their eye poked out." I just didn't finish the phrase.

Deklan immediately piped up with, "Yeah - it's all fun and games when you tell someone they lost an eye!"

Special Boy

2009-01-26T14:53:00.008-06:00

Deklan decided to be in the talent show - telling jokes. He's telling the banana joke: "Knock, Knock. Who's there? Banana. Banana who? Knock, Knock. Who's there? Banana. Banana who? Knock, Knock. Who's there? Banana. Banana who? Knock, Knock. Who's there? Orange. Orange who? Orange you glad I didn't say banana?" and a skeleton joke: "Why don't skeletons watch horror movies? They don't have the guts!"
We had "dress" rehearsal on Friday afternoon. When it was Deklan's turn, the teacher in charge seemed a little irritated. I assumed it was because she was trying to get all these students up and practice within a short time. However, when we left, Hayleigh said, "I don't think she liked Deklan very much." I thought I was the only one reading into that - but like I said she was busy. So I just asked Deklan if he liked her. He said yes he likes her just fine. Then I asked if she likes him.
He said, "Yes. I'm special to the school though."
O..K.. "Why do you say that?"
"Because everyone knows who I am - even kids that aren't in my grade. I think the teachers must tell everyone my name or something. But I know I'm special to the school."
"Why do you say that?"
"Because they treat me different than the other students."
"How?"
"They just do."
"So how do they treat you different than they treat Dillon?"
"Not just Dillon - ALL THE OTHER STUDENTS."
"OK - how do they treat you different?"
"Nevermind - you don't understand. I just know I'm special to the school."
Ok - I know I want him to have the special advantages that he needs to function normally in his gen ed class but have I made such a big deal that now they treat him differently. Nope - I think he just has such a great personality that everyone knows who he is. The teachers don't talk about him except to say what a great kid he is. That's what I'm going to believe - it works for Deklan, why not me?!
Back to the talent show... He did a great job. Everyone laughed and did the "Who's There?" part of the knock, knock joke back to him. It was great.
Here's a picture - taken from my phone so it isn't the best but you get the idea of how cute he looked on stage.

A joke

2009-01-25T10:57:00.000-06:00

Why did Tigger look in the toilet?
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He was looking for Pooh!

Don't want to go to school

2009-01-21T14:46:00.003-06:00

So, Deklan is in his "I don't want to go to school" mode again. I think I'm one of the few that actually may dread the 3-day weekend. It's always tough to get him back into his school routine. Yesterday was bad. He almost wouldn't let me get him dressed - it was a struggle. He wouldn't let me put his shoes on him. He wouldn't put on his coat. He wouldn't get his back pack. And he wouldn't go out to the bus. I finally gave in and told him that if he would just get on the bus I would pick him up after school. I know - bribery is NOT a good thing. Sometimes it's the only way for me. In the meantime, while trying to pull him out the door while he's kicking and screaming, the dog gets out. She's a rat terrior and LOVES to run! We live in an apartment so we have no back fence. I thought I was going to be scraping dog off the road way. If I hadn't been so mad that Deklan was throwing a fit and even angrier that the dog got out, I probably would have been extremely scared. She nearly got hit 3 times - with the kids watching too. After the bus left, I got the dog into the house - again with bribery! - with a hot dog. I left the door open, broke up a hot dog, threw a piece to her, put the rest on the floor where she could see them and then I sat and waited. She sat at the open doorway and whined. Finally the pull of the food brought her in and I closed the door. Then I gave her a whipping and sent her to bed. She pretty much slumped around all morning because she knew I was mad. But back to not wanting to go to school. Deklan was literally in tears. I asked him what was going on that he didn't want to go. He said that his friends disappear when they're playing. I said you mean they don't want to play with you and leave? No, they play with me. But when we're playing we run and when they turn they disappear. So they run away from you? NO! They run but when I get to where they turned at then they've disappeared. Mommy's translation: 1. Deklan can't run as fast as his friends. Already aware of that. 2. His "friends" decide they don't want to play with Deklan and run away. Since he can't keep up, they go play with someone else. Mommy couldn't really say a whole lot - I just held him while he cried. But my heart was breaking for sure.

The psychologist met with Deklan's teacher on Friday last. I'm meeting with the psychologist this Friday to get a run down of what was discussed and any ideas she may have for us. One thing we've been working on is the potty training issue. We've worked really hard and he's doing better - not perfect, but better. Anyway, the teacher emailed me yesterday and said that the potty training was discussed with her. She and the nurse are going to work together to implement an incentive program with Deklan. For every day that there are no accidents Deklan will get a sticker on his chart. For a week's worth of stickers he'll get extra/special time at the end of the week. I think it sounds pretty good. Hopefully Deklan will continue to do well with the training.

It's Cookie Time Again!

2009-01-18T23:04:00.004-06:00

The Girl Scouts are selling cookies. Saturday was our first day of selling cookies here in our region. That means Friday night was our Cookie Kick-off. That's where we pack as many Girl Scouts, ages kindergarten through seniors, into a room and see who survives. Ok, not really. But we do get all the troops, as many as we can, from our region and have a cookie party, in essence. There are craft booths, choose your favorite cookie booth, sample our new cookie booth (Daisy Go Rounds this year), and practice your cookie pitch with pretend house doors booth. We also have a "Celebrity Chef" event. The local celebrities team with a local girl - usually a top seller from some of the troops - and they build a cookie cake with ingredients provided. Each celebrity has a different cookie that they build with. The girls' screams determine the winner. The kids get a lot of fun out of this event every year. I'm sure some adults do too. I don't think I'm one of them. Probably because I have Deklan with me. We spent nearly an hour just at the coloring page table so he could use every marker in the bucket on his picture. Ok, it wasn't really EVERY marker, but it sure felt like it. I also had to change him once and take him to the bathroom twice. By the time I got back to the chair, I was ready to sit. Hubby was there with me but he wasn't really much help until I told him it was his turn. Somehow his turn never lasts as long as mine. Oh well. On the plus side, I had the girls out before noon selling cookies. They already have over a 100 sold. Both girls are selling - separate sides of the road, so we're going to split the cookies this year so they each get a good chance of meeting their goals. They'll earn more credits when they do the booth sales. The credits can go either towards camp or the council shop - that's how they got their uniforms for this year was from their credits from last year.

Oldest daughter

Youngest daughter

Deklan and Daddy

Oldest and our troop - hers and mine as co-leader

Crowd pictures

2009-01-14T15:38:00.003-06:00

So... did I mention Deklan had the flu? Well, now that it's over Deklan is having major potty training issues. It's not like he wasn't having some issues anyway. Now - it's near impossible to get him to go to the toilet. I took him to the psychologist again - have I mentioned that I love her? Her first suggestion was NO PULL-UPS except at bedtime. Uh-Oh. Deklan would prefer pull-ups every day if it were up to him. Especially if he has one accident then he likes to change into pull-ups. I'm just as guilty. I prefer the pull-ups too, anticipating an accident. He has had an accident every day since Christmas break. Her next suggestion - which will be more difficult - is to have a Potty Party. You heard me, a Potty Party. Spending a whole weekend putting him on the toilet every hour on the hour and having him sit there for at least 5 minutes. Let him eat and drink whatever he wants - that way he'll need to go to the bathroom anyway. Then let him know that if he goes potty in the toilet that he can have more of his favorite snack/drink. And when he goes potty we celebrate - a Potty Party - in essence. We were going to do it this weekend but I just found out that Deklan has a Boy Scout meeting Saturday and the girls start Cookie sales too. There's no way that we'll be home long enough to celebrate. I may be able to start it Sunday afternoon and continue into Monday - no school Monday so it may work.

The psychologist is interested in doing in-class observation and also meeting with the teacher - which she'll do on Friday. I'm anxious to see what happens there. I know the teacher doesn't really think that Deklan has a disability. She believes in tough love - her words exactly. I'll back up to Friday. We had a meeting with the psychologist, Shani. I was very concerned with the potty training issue especially since Deklan had at least one accident at school and came home wet - no one even noticed apparently. Also because he was having accidents - sometimes 2 or 3 - every day at home. I don't always take Deklan back to school after appointments, depending on what time we get finished. In this case we were finished before 10 so I felt guilty keeping him home. I took him to school - we made it in the door ok, down the hall alright, to the classroom no problem. THEN it was meltdown mode. "Don't leave me" - "I want to go home" - "stay". I convinced him to let me talk to the teacher for a minute in the hall but then he came out too and leached onto me. He grabbed my shirt and wouldn't let go. I got him to his desk but he still wouldn't let me go. I was thinking about just taking him home and not leaving him, although I had plans for later that morning and an afternoon appointment. Her comment was to the effect of you're not going to take him are you. When I said I wasn't sure but maybe. She said she believed in tough love and didn't go for the manipulation from the kids. That rather irritated me. I finally left - Deklan was crying and it killed me. But I know that once I leave he's usually fine within a few minutes. USUALLY. About 45 minutes later I get a call from the school. It's the OT. She's had to get Deklan because he was standing in the hall screaming and refused to quiet and do his work. She had taken him to her room, given him the spelling test he was supposed to be doing, and then agreed to let him call me if he would quit screaming. He asked me to come back. I couldn't - plans and appointments, but told him if my appointment finished in time I would. That sufficed - he calmed down and I didn't get anymore calls. I made it back to the school as the busses were leaving so I didn't get to pick him up. I did meet him at the bus when he got home though. I let Shani know what had happened so she's even more interested in meeting the teacher and observing Deklan in the classroom. So I get an email from the Special Ed teacher saying that next time we come in late that she should come down and get him from the office. Maybe they'll go to her room for a few minutes before going to class. OK with me - wait, I think I tried that once and she didn't do anything but come to the office, walk me to the classroom and then just stand there while Regular Ed teacher unhooked him from me. Yeah - we'll see how that goes.

Subject change - let's talk about me. :) I was VP of the Parent Brigade (PTO) at my daughter's middle school. Was is the operative word here. Before Christmas the President became overwhelmed with life in general and resigned. I didn't know that until after the fact. She and I are friends so she had called me, said, "I think I'm going to resign but I'm going to talk to the principal, I don't know what I'll do." That was the beginning of December. The middle of December I get a call from the Treasurer saying the President "has resigned are you going to be able to do the job?" Uh, WHAT?! Calming down, calming down... "Yeah, it's my job, I'll take over - what needs to be done?" Needless to say, it's been a busy month. I guess things just weren't getting done the way they were supposed to. No committees had been formed for the different activities and upcoming events, concessions for the games was a mess, no one knows what our inventory is supposed to be. We had a meeting - me, the principal, treasurer, and two other Parent Brigade members plus the old president who moved on to the high school this year. She's been a big help actually. It's been interesting, fun actually. The first thing we did was decide what we needed to do. Then I went home and sent out a mass email to all the parents that I have contact information for. Then I became the person in charge of concessions inventory so, after every game I go to the school and take inventory count - about 45 minutes to an hour if I do an accurate count. That's ok because I have the time. Last night was our monthly parent meeting. It lasted over an hour. This was the first one since I took over as president and we had a lot of new business to discuss. Anyway, that's one big thing that has been taking up my time. The second being that I am now also assistant cookie manager for the Girl Scout service unit. Yep, it's that time of year again - Cookies! So, I've had a couple of training sessions and lots of communication with the troop leaders. It really takes up more time than one would think. But it's worth it for the girls.

Last week was when the kids started back to school. My friend took her vacation from Christmas until January 11. We got together every day. We had so much fun. Monday we didn't because that was her birthday and she had plans. Tuesday we scrapbooked. Wednesday we worked on Girl Scout troop plans. Thursday we scrapbooked. Friday we just hung out and she went to my appointment with me in the afternoon. And, mostly, we just laughed and had a really good time. She's nearly 17 years older than me but we get along extremely well - there is no age difference to us. It's really nice to just be able to hang out with someone and have so much fun. We actually see each other a lot. And our daughters are best friends so that makes it really good too. Well, I think that's about a full update. Hope everyone has a great day - or week, if I don't blog again until next week.

Holiday Catch Up

2009-01-13T12:02:00.017-06:00

Let's start with Christmas break. It was good - didn't go ANYWHERE! Although the break didn't start out so well. 2 days before break Deklan got the flu. It took him over a week to get over it. Things got better though... The girls actually convinced us to open the "big" presents a week before Christmas. The kids went Christmas shopping and couldn't wait to hand them out. We figured since it was OUR Christmas we could celebrate it any day we wanted. So, we had two Christmases - opened presents that day and then gave the smaller presents on Christmas day. It was fun. The girls each got a cell phone for Christmas. No, the younger one really doesn't need it, nor does she really use it - except to tattle on big sis. We got them because they're affordable on my existing plan and I was tired of them using my phone to text their friends. That's mainly what they do, TEXT. I also have a family allowance option for minutes and can block any calls from evening until morning. That means they can't sneak the phone and still talk to their friends all night. Smart, huh?

Deklan got a "Kid's Tough Digital Camera" which he loved. Check out some of his excellent photography.

What did mommy get? I got socks from middle daughter, a beautiful Mom locket from oldest, and... ready? kisses and a Sonic Vanilla Coke from Deklan. I loved it all. From Hubby, you ask. A portable GPS Tom-Tom. I love it, love it, love it! I am the worst person in the world when it comes to directions. I cannot get the north/south thing down for the life of me. We live right between two interstates - 135 & 235. I get mixed up on which interstate to take just going to appointments. This Tom-Tom is excellent - it even gives directions in left/right talk, not north/south. Anyway, love it! Hubby got a memory card for his XBox 360 - it was expensive so all went in together for it. I got him a digital measuring device - which he'll probably never use because that requires work outside of work. Just kidding :) We still haven't had Christmas with my brother yet so there's still more to come. Yea!

Next came birthday parties. December 27th was the evening we celebrated both girls' birthdays. Unfortunately, it snowed like crazy that day so there weren't as many girls as we'd expected. BUT the girls had lots of fun. Oldest got her skull cake and Middle got her Tinkerbell cake.

The New Year was nothing special either... at least for me. Oldest might have a different point of view. She had her first kiss! WAAA! She's way too young for any kissing. I guess it was pretty innocent but she was still kind of excited. She went to a New Year's party at one of her best friend's. The friend's step brother decided he liked Oldest. At midnight he leaned over and kissed her for a Happy New Year. Innocent enough, I guess.

That's the quick holiday update. Hope everyone is having a great beginning to a new year.

huh?!

2008-12-30T21:29:00.002-06:00

Kids are so strange!

Hayleigh was walking down the hall - alone. My husband and I are sitting in the living room. All of sudden, we hear Hayliegh say, "My dog ate my homework!" Huh?! First of all, No, she didn't. Second of all, it's Christmas break - you have no homework! We just laughed.

When we left the library yesterday, Deklan took a bookmark. He read it to me: Make the rule (it looked like a ruler), don't do drugs. He says, "You should make that your rule." I said, "Yeah, I only do the prescription drugs the doctor tells me to take. It's ok to take the drugs that the doctor tells you to take." He said, "yes, but we won't do other drugs." "I said that's right, we won't do drugs like marijuana, heroine, or cocaine." He said, "Yes, we won't do the cola drugs." Oops - too late! I'm already addicted to Coke!

Christmas Poem

2008-12-24T12:23:00.001-06:00

Autism Night Before Christmas
by Cindy Waeltermann

Twas the Night Before Christmas
And all through the house
The creatures were stirring
Yes, even the mouse

We tried melatonin
And gave a hot bath
But the holiday jitters
They always distract

The children were finally
All nestled in bed
When nightmares of terror
Ran through my OWN head

Did I get the right gift
The right color
And style
Would there be a tantrum
Or even, maybe, a smile?

Our relatives come
But they don't understand
The pleasure he gets
Just from flapping his hands.

"He needs discipline," they say
"Just a well-needed smack,
You must learn to parent..."
And on goes the attack

We smile and nod
Because we know deep inside
The argument is moot
Let them all take a side

We know what it's like
To live with the spectrum
The struggles and triumphs
Achievements, regressions...

But what they don't know
And what they don't see
Is the joy that we feel
Over simplicity

He said "hello"
He ate something green!
He told his first lie!
He did not cause a scene!

He peed on the potty
Who cares if he's ten,
He stopped saying the same thing
Again and again!

Others don't realize
Just how we can cope
How we bravely hang on
At the end of our rope

But what they don't see
Is the joy we can't hide
When our children with autism
Make the tiniest stride

We may look at others
Without the problems we face
With jealousy, hatred
Or even distaste,

But what they don't know
Nor sometimes do we
Is that children with autism
Bring simplicity.

We don't get excited
Over expensive things
We jump for joy
With the progress work brings

Children with autism
Try hard every day
That they make us proud
More than words can say.

They work even harder
Than you or I
To achieve something small
To reach a star in the sky

So to those who don't get it
Or can't get a clue
Take a walk in my shoes
And I'll assure you

That even 10 minutes
Into the walk
You'll look at me
With respect, even shock.

You will realize
What it is I go through
And the next time you judge
I can assure you

That you won't say a thing
You'll be quiet and learn,
Like the years that I did
When the tables were turned.......

More birthday blues!

2008-12-17T10:13:00.002-06:00

Again - not my birthday but I can still be blue. It's my middle child's birthday. She's 10 today! Oh my, I'm beginning to feel old. Does anyone else cry every time one of their children have a birthday? I do every time!!

The NEW Christmas Carol

2008-12-16T21:11:00.002-06:00

This is to the tune of 'O Christmas Tree' - not a carol for everyone, but I liked it.

'Oh Tom the Toad, Oh Tom the Toad
Why are you lying in the road?
Oh Tom the Toad, Oh Tom the Toad
Why are you lying in the road?
You did not see that car ahead
And you were flattened by the tread.
Oh Tom the Toad, Oh Tom the Toad
Why are you lying in the road?

Oh Kitty Cat, Oh Kitty Cat
Why does your tongue hang out like that?
Oh Kitty Cat, Oh Kitty Cat
Why does your tongue hang out like that?
You running from the mutts,
Then that truck spread out your guts.
Oh Kitty Cat, Oh Kitty Cat
Why does your tongue hang out like that?

Oh Fred the Fish, Oh Fred the Fish,
Why are you lying on the dish?
Oh Fred the Fish, Oh Fred the Fish,
Why are you lying on the dish?
You did not see the hook ahead,
And now your head is stuffed with bread.
Oh Fred the Fish, Oh Fred the Fish,
Why are you lying on the dish?

Oh Sue the Skunk, Oh Sue the Skunk,
Why do you make my tires go thunk?
Oh Sue the Skunk, Oh Sue the Skunk,
Why do you make my tires go thunk?
You did not look from East to West
Now on the road there's such a mess.
Oh Sue the Skunk, Oh Sue the Skunk,
Why do you make my tires go thunk?

Really good meeting

2008-12-15T08:28:00.002-06:00

Friday was great! We had a meeting with a psychologist from the WSU psychology clinic. Her name is Shani and she is great. She just observed Deklan while she and I talked. She completely understood. She knows what we need and how to get it. She knows that the case worker has resources that she's not sharing with me. Shani knows because she works with the organization that my case worker is referred from. Shani is one of those that does the evaluations of the children to see if they are eligible for services through the organization. She did not do Deklan's evaluation because we went through KU Medical Center in Kansas City. Anyway, she's going to get some things together, contact some people and see what she can get going for us. She says we need in-home resources. For example, I have a hard time getting Deklan to follow through with the hygiene stuff. He refuses to brush his teeth, comb his hair, and taking a bath is like pulling teeth. After awhile I get overwhelmed and exhausted just trying to get him to do these. So that's one thing that she wants to work on. Another thing is getting Deklan completely potty trained. She apparantly knows how we can work on this. There are several other things that she saw a need for and she knows how to get the resources for them! I think I'm babbling but I'm really happy.

Onto a different matter. While we were at the meeting Deklan brought up the subject of his playground. Apparantly there are a lot of trees/woods behind his playground. There is a fence to keep the students in the yard. Deklan is convinced that they are haunted. He's "seen" things. He went into complete detail with Shani - things I'd never heard him talk about. I knew he thought they were haunted; he's "seen" a stick move and no one around; he believes no animals live in the tree area. However, while talking on Friday he went into way more detail than that. Including a Demon Hunt club that he and a couple of others have formed. He's seen a black and white shadow floating through the trees. He's seen writing on the board in the classroom when the teacher hasn't been there. There were other things but I don't remember everything - I was just so blown away. Later, he looked up and said, "When I look at people I see demon faces." Shani asked if he saw a demon face when he looked at her. He said, "Well I don't always see them." I'm not sure what to do with him. I do have a plan of taking him back to the school and into the trees so he can see what's really back there. I just have wait for it to get warmer. We were too busy on Saturday and it was way too cold yesterday. Today it's only supposed to get to 20 degrees and it was 4 degrees when the kids went to school.

Can you hear me now?

2008-12-13T14:59:00.003-06:00

I said, "Deklan come here."
He said, "I'm sorry, you're breaking up."
I said, "Deklan come here."
He said, "I'm sorry, you're breaking up again."

Getting Help

2008-12-11T08:33:00.002-06:00

I have a friend who is graduating this weekend with a master's in psychology. She's already been working and teaching in the field at WSU. After Monday's experience I thought I seriously needed help with Deklan. I emailed M yesterday morning telling her about the incident on Monday and asked her if she knew of anyone that would be willing to take Deklan on as a patient, preferring someone with autism experience. She called me yesterday afternoon and had me talk with one of her colleagues. I've actually met this person (we'll call her S) before and I really like her. She does have experience with autism. M thinks Deklan is just the cutest thing so S already knew about him and was very interested in meeting Deklan. Our meeting is tomorrow morning. I'm very excited about this - I think it's what we both need. Thanks for your concern (I was concerned too) and I'll keep you posted.

Birthday blues...

2008-12-09T11:56:00.005-06:00

Not mine - my oldest daughter turned 12 today! I just can't believe it. It doesn't seem possible. Actually, I'm not really blue, I'm happy that she's happy. I even baked cupcakes and took them to school for lunch. She's in 6th grade now so she doesn't have a class that I can crash with goodies. And can you believe she was actually excited that I was there - in front of all her friends? I figure I've only got about 6 more months of that and she'll be trying to get rid of me when her friends are around. For the most part though, I really like her friends. Especially the girls in her GS troop. Since I'm the co-leader that's probably a good thing.

Next week - 8 days to be exact - is my youngest daughter's birthday. She turns 10. We haven't had a party for the girls in several years. This year I decided to have a party for them. We don't have a lot of money, and that's usually what keeps me from having one for them. But I found out that we could rent the community building for $20 plus a $50 refundable deposit. So, that's what I did. Their party is going to be after Christmas on the 27th. At first I wasn't too keen on that idea but then I thought... you know what it's right in the middle of Christmas break and the kids would love to see their friends during that time. Besides some of the parents might be ready to get rid of their children for a few hours after having them out of school for a week already. Anyway, that's what we're doing. Oldest is into skulls - I don't know why. So, this is the picture that I'm going to try to have put on her cake...

I also used this picture on her invitations. I bought some black and white designed 4x6 paper, fed those into the printer for the party information, printed out a sheet of skulls, cut and pasted them to the front of the invitations. The paper had different designs on them but here's her favorite.

A question...

2008-12-09T11:53:00.003-06:00

Here's a new question for the group. Is Deklan playing me? He's an intelligent child and he basically knows right from wrong. So when he decides he wants something and he knows that I will say no - is his meltdown on purpose? Does he act out and kick and scream just to get what he wants or does he really not understand? He's very complicated.

I take my daughters to a therapist who has helped a great deal with the girls' tempers and understanding why they get so angry at times. Mostly they get mad at me for taking Deklan's side. Which I do not always do, but they don't understand that. Anyway, when we were in her office yesterday, Deklan wouldn't listen - he wanted to play with her toys and she wanted him to sit and listen to what she was telling the girls. He was so defiant. She used a restraint procedure on him. Basically she wrestled him to the floor, held his hands behind his back, and restrained his legs. It didn't hurt him at all - even though it was extremely tough to watch. In order to get up, he just had to comply with her rules. He didn't. We ended up, literally, carrying him to the car while he was kicking and screaming. She went back to session with the girls while I kept him in the car. I've never gone to the extreme she did with the restraint, but I do have to hold his hands and brace his feet to keep him from hitting and kicking me. I did this yesterday in the car too. The fit lasted the whole session - she walked the girls out to car when it was over and Deklan was still kicking and screaming. She felt the fit had nothing to do with autism. If that's the case then he's just being a brat and I have to figure out how to take care of it. If it's not the case and this is part of the autism then what do I do? The therapist (I think she's actually a psychologist) says he'll end up in trouble with the law if he keeps that up. So, again, here's my question... Is he playing me?

2008-12-09T11:34:00.002-06:00

This is the post I started on the Monday after we got back. I decided it sounded a little mean and bitter so I stopped. I changed my mind and thought I'd post it anyway.

Well, we're back from our Thanksgiving trip. We went to Mom's for the holiday - she lives in Oklahoma. We also have Christmas with Mom on Thanksgiving because we can't get back there for it. We went on Tuesday; my brother and his wife came on Wednesday evening. Then my brother and his wife left on Saturday; we left on Sunday. Here's the thing... my brother is a bully. I know that sounds harsh, but it's true. He thinks he's a house-repair, car-fixing, macho guy. In other words, he's a male chauvinist pig. I really wish I were exaggerating - unfortunately I'm not. Don't get me wrong... I do love my brother and, when I need him, I can normally count on him. He and his wife have bought the kids school clothes for at least the last 4 years. They always give the kids good presents at Christmas and birthdays (probably too many presents). They paid for Oldest to go to camp last summer. So, at least when it comes to affording things, he’s not a bad guy. On the other hand... he always has to be right, he doesn't like the way my girls dress (refers to them as hookers if they wear tight or short clothes), he complains about everything, and these are probably his good qualities. Here are some examples from the past week. 1. My mother makes wonderful homemade sour dough rolls. The dough rose overnight on Wednesday and cooked on Thursday morning for dinner. On Friday Mom heated the leftover rolls for lunch. She put them in the oven to re-heat which made them a little harder than putting them in the microwave. No big deal to everyone except Brother. He made sure to point out that the rolls were a little hard, calling them a rock and hoping he didn't break his tooth. Everyone else was trying to be polite and they were still good, so why bother making a comment. 2. Brother gave my mom a BB gun for Christmas. Yes, that's what she wanted. She lives way out in the country and needed it to keep strays out of the trash. It's not really as bad as it sounds and it doesn't hurt that much. I should know... my brother shot me with it! I was talking to Mom in the living room and ping - he shot my arm. It left a little round bruise but it was ok. I just told him to please not do that again. He was like "Waah! It didn't even hurt you." Whatever, Brother. 3. My mother had an old Pepsi machine. It was the kind that you have to open the door and pull the handle to get the pop out of. She gave that to my brother and he was trying to load it into his truck. His wife said something to him and he just went off on her. "Just go away! I'll do this myself. I wasn't even talking to you... it wasn't even your business. I'm serious, just get out of here!" I felt really bad for Sis-in-law. 4. Here's my biggest complaint against my brother. Deklan was acting out. "He just needs a good spanking. If he were my kid he wouldn't act like that. You always give him what he wants... you don't treat the girls like that. When we were kids you know Dad wouldn't have put up with any of that. Autism or not, you just baby him too much."

When Deklan said he felt different and not happy, I actually believe that he got that emotion right. My brother doesn't give him any attention - except negative. He does give the girls attention. Especially Oldest, who is his favorite and everyone knows it.

Overall, our Thanksgiving went well and we came home on Sunday after. It was so cold. Oldest had rolled the window down part way on the way to Oklahoma. It stuck! Then when I was trying to fix it, I rolled it down more and then couldn’t get it fixed! We put plastic and duct tape over the window. The plastic was too thin and ripped before we got to town (did I mention Mom lives out in the country – 12 miles outside of town?). We stopped 3 times before I finally got to a small town with a dollar store. I bought one of those clear plastic paint drop cloths and more duct tape. We had the whole door wrapped and taped! Needless to say, it was kind of a loud (from the wind on plastic) and cold trip home to Kansas.

Deklan's thoughts

2008-11-28T15:37:00.002-06:00

I had been laying on the bed watching TV with Deklan. I left the room for just a minute and came back. When I sat down Deklan said, "I thought that pillow was you. See, that's why it's a problem that you're fat." (He added No offense when his sister told him how mean that sounded.)

His second thought of the evening wasn't so easy to laugh off. He said, "Sometimes I feel different. Like I'm left out." I asked why he felt that way. He said, "I don't feel happy."

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We're at my mom's for Thanksgiving break. That may be part of the reason for Deklan not feeling like everyone else, but I'll blog more about that next week.

Do you want my chair?

2008-11-24T23:15:00.002-06:00

Deklan was trying to play a game on the computer earlier today. I needed the computer for just a minute and took over briefly. I sat down in the chair to do my quick work. Deklan patiently waited for about 2 minutes.
Then he said, "How did you get in this chair?"
I said, "I just sat down."
He said, "So, you walked this way and sat down?"
When I said yes, he said, "Ok so go the same way to get out."
I think his patience wore off.

Trapped!

2008-11-22T10:41:00.003-06:00

Ok - is probably not the greatest subject to blog about but, here goes anyway. The past week has Deklan been terrible with accidents. Not, oops I fell accidents, but oops I pooped accidents. It hasn't been fun. Yesterday when Deklan came home I checked him and he was fine. About 1/2 hour later I asked him again because he didn't smell so clean. He hadn't, but I had the feeling he was close. I told him that if he had an accident now I was going to get upset because he knew we were getting ready to go somewhere. He made a bee-line for the bathroom. After a few minutes I heard him call me and went and checked on him. Sure enough he had BARELY made it to the bathroom. I asked him if he'd gotten any in his pants. His response...
"No, I trapped it in my bottom until I sat down."

It's been awhile

2008-11-18T07:19:00.007-06:00

Sorry, I know it's been awhile since I've been here. Life gets busy sometimes. You all know what I'm talking about.

Deklan's ear is fine now. You can't imagine how tiny that piece of paper was. Here is a recreation, but not an exaggeration.

In perspective, This was taken on a small square pan. The second was taken on a folder.

Yes, it's the little white dot. The doctor used this little vaccuum to suck out the paper. It had a tip like he'd use to look in the ear or nose. It was kind of cool actually. Deklan didn't think so though. But he's fine now.

Since I was here last...
1. We had a Girl Scout camp out and haunted stroll. My troop girls, including Oldest daughter, had a blast. I came back with extremely sore feet and poison ivy. Still getting over the poison ivy.

2. My oldest daughter developed scabies. It's some sort of mite that gets under the skin. Not sure how she got it - she's the only one that has had it in our family. She did get a spider bite, but I'm not sure if that's how she got it or not.

3. Our Girl Scouts finished their fall candy and nut sales. YEA!!! I was the service unit manager for all 19 troops. We had audits last week and everything went well, for the most part. Today is my audit with the council and am hoping that goes well.

4. Deklan started his Boy Scout popcorn sales. By the way, you can log onto www.orderpopcorn.com, choose Shop without a key: Select council, choose KS: Wichita - Quivira, Go and shop! I'm shameless, I know! It's been hard getting him to sell this stuff. The good thing, besides selling to family, is that I volunteered to work one of the show and sell tables outside Wal-Mart so he did earn some credit.

5. Youngest daughter went with her Girl Scout troop to see High School Musical 3 and had a sleepover. She was so excited - she's still at the age where she doesn't get invited to many sleepovers. She's been to a few in the last few months so that's good. She's the middle child and I always feel like I'm neglecting her when I talk about the kids.

These are just some highlights from the past few weeks. I'll post some more later - I have to be somewhere in a few. I'll also post some photos - I finally got my camera to upload to the computer. YEA!!

He's got what in his ear?!

2008-10-22T07:13:00.002-05:00

So I got a call from the school nurse Monday afternoon about an hour before school was out. She said that Deklan was complaining about his ear. When she checked it out he had a piece of paper stuck in his ear. She said he was ok but that we should irrigate it when he got home. (He was so close to coming home that I didn't go pick him up.) When he got home I asked him what was in his ear. Of course he wasn't exactly sure - he didn't do it - he wasn't sure how paper got in his ear - someone else must have stuck it in there. I tried to irrigate it (take a syringe with warm water and shoot it into the ear canal), but it didn't work. In fact I lost sight of the paper completely. He was complaining that his ear hurt now so I stopped. My middle daughter had a Girl Scout ceremony that she needed to be at so I took her to that. I was hoping 1. that it might work itself out and 2. that his ear would quit hurting so we could check it out again when I got home. It did not do 1 but did do 2 above. When I got home it still hadn't come lose from his ear so Emergency Room here we come. I was afraid that it would become infected or do damage to the ear if it wasn't taken care of right away. Guess what? ER couldn't get the paper out either. They tried the irrigation thing too - a lot - and it just wouldn't budge. The doc said it was a tiny piece of paper stuck right up against the ear drum. Now we have an appointment on Friday with the ENT specialist. They said that for no longer than it'll be in there he should be fine with no ear infection and to just do normal things. Guess they figure if I make a big deal out of it so will he. He's done really well so far - only pulled at his ear a couple of times and did ask what the doctor said about getting it out.

Does anyone have any idea what the ENT will actually do? The receptionist used the term that my "check in time" was at 1:15. That makes it sound more like a procedure than an exam which makes me a little nervous.

Rough week

2008-10-20T07:53:00.004-05:00

1st - last weekend was so much fun. It was great having real adult conversation. We did crafts that we could do with our Girl Scout girls. We had an open campfire and toasted marshmallows. It was just really fun.

Now, the rest of the week was really not good. Monday started out ok but Deklan was a little cranky in the afternoon. Tuesday got worse. Deklan has homework that he does every afternoon - it's a math work sheet. He loves math, add to the fact that it takes him 5 minutes or less to actually do the sheet, and it's usually no problem getting him to do his homework. Tuesday he took his work sheet scribbled on it, crumpled it up, and said he was finished. I immediately called his teacher to find out if there was a problem at school. She couldn't think of anything that might have triggered him. Tuesday is always busy so I had to get my girls ready for Scouts, Deklan ready for Boy Scouts, and then I had a PTA meeting after Scouts. Deklan's bus driver is on the PTA with me - she's the President, I'm the VP. I asked her how he was when he got off the bus, thinking maybe he sat with someone that upset him. She said he sat by himself and he seemed fine when he got off the bus, even saying "Bye Mrs. Amy." (She loves that he always calls her Mrs. Amy and not Ms. Amy or Miss Amy - she thinks it sounds cute.) Anyway, I didn't know what to think. Had a hard time getting him to bed. Wednesday morning just got worse. He let me get him dressed but that was the end of his cooperation. He wouldn't eat; he wouldn't get his jacket on; he wouldn't take his back pack; he wouldn't walk to the bus stop. I walked him out to the bus stop - I don't usually do that because I'm not always presentable in the mornings. (He usually walks with his sister so it's not like I send him out to the wolves alone.) The bus gets there and he won't get on. I put him on, Mrs. Amy tries to help carry him on, but he isn't budging. There's a line of cars so I have to take Deklan off the steps of the bus and drive him to school. Actually, I had to go get officially dressed - going braless without my hair combed to school just didn't feel right. I guess either/or but not both - just kidding. Anyway, the only way I could get him in the school was to walk him in and then agree to stay in the class room for awhile. Luckily his teacher was just heading out of the office when I was signing in. She tried to get Deklan to go to his room with her but he wasn't letting me go for anything. By now I'm thinking that something must have happened but since he's not talking then who knows! On the way to his class room we stopped by the IR room - I have no idea what IR stands for but it's the equivalent of a special education room. I talked to the teacher and let her know that Deklan was having a bad day. I honestly haven't completely made up my mind about her but I'm leaning towards useless. Anyway, I told him I would sit at the back of the room but he had to sit in his desk just like normal. After about an hour or so I went in the hall to sit. I wanted to see if he would be alright or if he really would have a problem if I wasn't there. I didn't hear anything from him and checked on him before leaving - he was following along, sullenly, with his class, but no melt down. I felt extremely guilty when I left but he needs to be able to do this on his own and the school knows how to get a hold of me so I wasn't completely abandoning him. I called and checked on him at noon. He was doing fine. When he got home he went immediately into melt down mode - partially to guilt me I think.

"I didn't know where you went. I wanted you to stay with me all day."

"Well, you didn't tell the teacher you were upset. I stayed in the hall and waited to see if you even noticed - you didn't, by the way. And I called and checked on you and you were doing just fine or I would have come back."

Cue the alligator tears. He got crankier after that. Thursday morning he wouldn't get ready, he didn't eat, he didn't want to go. I told him that he had to go to school. They didn't have school on Friday because of in-service so Thursday was the last day of the school week. I also promised that I would go to his Halloween party at school. I will stay as long as the party lasts and, when it's over, I'll let him be a car rider. He agreed and did fine all day. Friday, not so good again. He was cranky - the sisters were cranky - I was cranky. I was going to take the kids to the pumpkin patch/corn maze but I had to have reservations to be added to a group already going through. We were going to go around 3 in the afternoon. At 1 1/2 - 2 hours I knew we were looking at a tiresome evening but figured the kids would enjoy it. Then I got a call from a good friend. She said her family was going to the movies to see Beverly Hills Chihuahua and would we like to go along. A couple of other friend's families were going too. We haven't been invited out with friends in a long time and thought it would be really nice to go. I asked the kids what they would rather do - I was not going to do both the pumpkin patch and the movie - I may be crazy but I'm not stupid. It was voted 2 to 1 for the movie. That's when my middle child decided that she wasn't important, we never listen to her, I don't love her, I don't care about her - you get the idea. The whole day was one frustration after another. Anyway, we went to the movie and had a great time - even middle child. Saturday was ok. Sunday I woke up with a terrible headache and stomach ache. We did our weekly cleaning - each child getting his own list of chores to complete. Deklan thought it was terrible that we made him help too.

"Can't you give me an easy job?"

"I did. Help your sister pickup YOUR toys in Sister's room and pick up the bags that fell under the table from the groceries. That's all you have to do - what could be easier?"

"That's so hard!"

"You take longer whining about it than actually doing it."

Bedtime was worse.

"I can't sleep alone."

"You sleep alone all the time."

"No, I need you to sleep with me."

"Uh... sleep with your sister."

"No, I need you to sleep with me."

"Fine. You go to sleep now and I'll be in later. I'll lay down with you for awhile but then I am going to my own bed or I won't sleep."

"Ok."

Cue the 5 a.m. scream in the dark.

"What is going on?!"

"You didn't sleep with me!"

"Yes, I did for a little while but you were already asleep."

"I want you to sleep with me."

"Deklan, I'll lay down for a few minutes but I'm tired, my head still hurts too and your bed is not comfy for mommy."

"I won't stop crying unless you sleep with me."

Do I hear blackmail in his voice?

"I will lay down for a few minutes but then I have to go to my own bed. I need to be in my room when the alarm goes off so I know when to get you and sissy up. My head hurts and I need to go to the bathroom so a few minutes is all you get."

"I won't stop crying unless you stay with me."

After a few minutes of him still arguing and not even trying to sleep, I got up and went to the bathroom. He screamed. Daddy got mad. I told daddy to put Deklan in my bed and I'd be there in a minute. Once I laid down with him, he was reasonably ok but still wouldn't settle down and go to sleep. Then it was time to get the kids up and guess who decided he was too tired to get up. That did NOT go over well with me or his daddy. Once he got up he did ok. He even helped get himself dressed while I swept the bathrooms and kitchen and mopped. He went to school in a great mood. I hope it keeps up. Anyway, that was my week. Sorry this was so long. When I get frustrated I don't blog like I should and the result is a 20 page blog. :)

Have a happy week!