Blessed Beyond Belief

The worst house guest ever.

How dare my mother in law show up at my home past midnight all happy, smiling and hugging everyone. The next morning she's bold enough to tell me how wonderfully she slept. Then she procedes to keep the kids entertained all day and night with board games. The nerve! She even had the audacity to do dishes!!! All weekend she's happy, never complaining, and up for anything we want to do. I wouldn't wish a mother in law like that on anyone!

(actually I'm just trying to selfishly keep her to myself - step back - you can't have her!!!!)

Love you mama in law Jayne!!!

A Day Late

This morning around 5am we saw the first snow fall. We were really hoping for it to happen while family was still here. Bummer.

for aunt kim...

It's pre-haircut. Does that still count??

Missing Pieces

www.frinkfest.com

Haircuts

This is what the boys looked like on Sunday night. What's that cartoon character guy that has the long hair that covers his eyes and all you see is a nose poking out? Either I wasn't seeing my sons eyes, or they were doing one of those rock and roll head shakes to get the hair out of the way.

So we made a trip to the hair place. They look sooo much better! Autumn got a bangs trim, William did really well with a full head trim and Russell got quite a bit cut too. So here's Will's new do. Bonus - you get a good shot of his Kelly nostrils! I don't know when I'll be able to catch Russell for a pic, so you'll just have to take my word for it.

Baby - It's cold outside!

Well, not really, but the kids thought so when they left for school this morning. Autumn bundled up in her cute coat and new Girl Scout scarf. Will went looking for his gloves. He wasn't going to find them because the dog chewed them up last week. So I pulled out the only thing I had left that resembled gloves for him - a pair of gardening gloves that I got for him last spring. Too cute! I think Tim said it was 29 degrees this morning when he took the kids to school. It warmed up throughout the day and it really wasn't that cold.

This afternoon we took William to see the neurologist. The EEG he took a couple of weeks ago showed no signs of seizures. So that's good news. He still seems to have difficulty breathing sometimes. We've had to give him a few treatments, seems in the morning. He's not sick right now, so I'm not really sure why he's having troubles.

We have some orders that need filling, so we will be in the kitchen for the next few weekends baking up some crusts. Never a dull moment! :)

Good for a laugh, but not weak stomachs.....

Here is an excerpt from an email that Tim wrote his dad today. I couldn't have said it better myself! Dang my husbands funny!

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Will went to school cause he did not throw up since Friday. Autumn was feeling better but threw up last nite about 6. Tara ran in to help her and grabbed the first thing to use as a bucket she could - that big plastic bin of crayons, pens, colored pencils etc. that we have had hanging around for a few years now. So I run up to help and Autumn is hanging over this box of writing and drawing implements full of her barf (she is sitting on her floor) and I start rubbing her back and telling her its ok and after about 30 seconds of that i ask "are you ok now?" and she says matter-of-factly (with her face still in the box) "yeah, but I'm not gonna be if I have to keep looking at this!" So I get her up and on the way to her bathroom and I pick up the box of stuff and holding it up I look at Tara and frown as if "what to do with this?" She just hands me the lid without a word as if to say "put the lid on and throw it away!" So I snapped that lid on and put the whole thing in the garage trash and "Bobs you're uncle!" Easiest puke clean up of the year. So that is the end of that box of coloring stuff. Do you know the bin I am referring to? Anyway, that is just one of the many barf/diarrhea/poop adventures of the last week!
"Good times, noodle salad"
Love you,
Tim

My son is not Autistic.

He has Autism.

I need to vent. Since the beginning of time (AKA - day of diagnosis) I have always cringed at the term - Autistic. I have never said, 'my son is autistic'. Many well intentioned people have said this. I know it has never been meant as a derogatory term. It's well accepted. As the mother of a child with autism, I am here to tell you that my son is inflicted with a disorder called autism. I refuse to 'label' him as autistic. It may not make any sense and I'm sure there's more than one that will argue my point. Am I refusing to call an apple an apple? No, I don't think so. William is a boy and I am not going to define him by his disablity. I really try not to label any of my children. I want them to be them and not live up (or down) to what someone else may call them. Check out #1 on this list:

Yuck

That should actually read, 'enter at your own risk'. Something very nasty has invaded our home. It started on halloween with william. That was tuesday. It's now saturday and man, it has NOT been fun. Poor Autumn had to run to the bathroom seven times in about 6 hours yesterday. I thought she was better today, but now she's been sleeping for a couple of hours and I don't know how she will feel when she wakes up. I have been pretty much useless today. Here's praying we all feel better tomorrow.

Halloween

William's 1st grade class had the typical costume parade and classroom party. We got there just in time to see the kids lining up to go back to class. Once in side they had some time to kill so they played 'heads up 7 up'. He did pretty well with it. I'm not sure he totally 'got' the game, but he participated. Then the classes (K, 1st, 2nd) started filing through the rooms. It's kind of strange - we aren't used to the 'indoor' schools. We are used to classroom doors that face the outside. Here, all the classrooms are off a hall. It was really cute to see all the kids in their costumes.

At one point I heard him say, 'I need some breathing medicine'. Which had me concerned, but he didn't seem like he was having troubles. His teacher said he had said that earlier too. Poor guy - his tummy was probably hurting the whole time. :( After the parade the class sat down to do a spider craft.

Then they passed out punch and a cookie. Will wanted water instead and he wanted nothing to do with the cookie. His teacher said that he didn't eat hardly any of his lunch either. Just as we were getting ready to leave, Will threw up all over the floor. I quickly took him to the sink and he continued to throw up. I'm so glad Tim was there with me. He started wiping up the floor while I helped Will at the sink. The class and teacher were really kind about it. The teacher just told the class, 'no big deal, everyone does that sometimes.' And we didn't hear one 'eww' from the class. Tim did say he heard a few of the kids chime in with their puking stories! Anyway, we cleaned up the best we could and left. At the car Will said, 'my costumes all dirty' :(

We took him home and he seemed fine. So we carved our pumpkins and he was really liking that.

Autumn did hers all by herself!

He didn't want any dinner, so now he hasn't eaten since the morning. I just kept trying to get him to drink water. Yesterday he was so excited to go trick or treating - so we were surprised when he said he didn't want to go as Tim was putting his costume back on. We convinced him to just go to a few houses after we took a few pics of Tinker Bell and the Pirate. Russell stayed home to pass out candy since he didn't dress up.

We went next door. Will and Tim stepped inside for a minute - all the kids were gathering there - all of the sudden Tim was pulling him out saying that he was gagging. We quickly drug him to the grass and he threw up again. It was all me and Tim could do to keep from crying. We felt so bad for him. Well, he perked up after that and we ended up going all the way down our street and back. Autumn went around our street with a group of kids that was lead by one of the high school girls. It was darn cold out and I don't think Tinker Bell is a cold weather fairy! We came home and I put him in a warm bath, then gave him a breathing treatment for good measure. He slept all night. Kind of strange. This Halloween was so different from our previous ones. Will so sick, Russell being the candy passer outer - not the candy collector, Autumn going with a group of kids without us, and trick or treating in our own neighborhood. We missed not seeing all the cousins back home. I kept William home from school today to make sure he isn't going to get sick anymore.