summertime

its been a long time since I have posted anything, I would really like to get in the habit of posting at least once a week. Things have been busy here, school is about to start back up, AB's 6th birthday is tomorrow, I feel like time is just flying by with the boys, AM and CM will both be in middle school this year. So we are planning a Thomas the Tank engine party, we always have a big party for AB, it just falls at a good time of year, but I feel bad for the other boys, espcially AB, his birthday is the week before Christmas, he always gets jipped.
AB will be starting 1st grade, regular ed with para support, I really pushed for this for him, I hope that I have made the right decision, I feel that he is capable of a lot, and I am not always sure he is pushed enough, for fear that he will shut down. My hubby is not a whole lot of support in this area, he says I know what is best for him, but sometimes I just need a little reassurance that "yeah, I think that a good idea, or no, I don't think he can handle that", but if thats the worst of the problems, I'll take that. I'm ready to go back to school, see the fresh little faces, eager to learn, my own kids have just about drove me crazy. They are all under the impression that summertime is time to entertain them, we should go do something everyday, have someone over, go out to eat, hell I just want to stay home!

busy

So much going on lately so I'll catch you up, I found out last week that I have to have surgery on my right foot again. This is a little sad considering I just had surgery on my two feet over the summer. So I will getting that scheduled ASAP, I do not want another summer with my feet up the whole time, AM asked that I not ruin their summer again, made me feel bad about last summer. As I sit here I can hear AB reading to his daddy, it is so sweet to hear, last year at this time we were not sure of what his abilities academically would be so hearing him read is very emotional for both of us. AB also spent the night off with a friend for the first time last night, everything went fine, no middle of the night calls, whew! He has spent the night off with family before, but this was new with the friend. I am planning a "fear factor" party for CM's 11th birthday, I think it's going to be alot of fun, we have about four challanges set up, 1st - eating gross things, baby snot, baby puke, pig intestines, goat guts, etc. 2nd - stick their heads into pool of ice water to retrieve "rats" and "spiders" with their mouth, 3rd - get a key from "pig scraps" in a bucket, use this key to open a lock that is located in an aquarium filled with live crickets and earthworms. 4th - scavenger hunt in the woods (at night). We are planning it with another child whos birthday is a few days before CM's, so it will be pretty big. I'll post pictures after the party. I am also working on Eater buckets for my class and for AB's class, so yes that is about 40! hand painted bucket for sweet little babies. So April 1st is the beginning of Autism Awareness month, so I am gearing up to do a few fundraising things, I've got to get busy, I really want to raise some money for the Walk this year.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Life

Alot has been going on lately, busy, busy. My middle son CM got caught doing a little cheating, that was fun, esspecially since it was at my workplace. I was so embarrased and after his father and I chewed him out really good he has been towing the line. I think he may be a little scared, he has been so helpful around the house, and even doing his homework (without being asked). So maybe he has learned a little lesoon here, lets hope. I had a few girls over for a "big girl slumber party", about 12 co workers came over, we had some good food and some great laughs, it was really fun, nobody actually spent the night but it was an evening of relaxation for us all.

And lastly, we had to have our two dogs put to sleep. Both dogs were mutts, black lab mixes, Buzz was still a baby, we had him for almost a year and Rex we had for 6 years. Seems that they had gotten into a small argument with Mr. Raccoon and beat him up pretty bad, my father heard the comotion and went and shot the raccoon. Then he took the raccoon to the animal shelter, here they tested for rabies and 6 hours later we found out that it was positive. Well even when dogs are exposed to an animal with rabies, they have to be quarantined to see if any symtoms develop. We did not know what kind of life this would be for them, so the decision to put them down was made. Like I said before we have had Buzz for a year, but Rex was really part of the family, we got him when I was pregnant with AB, so he has really grown up with him. He was such a wonderful dog, never jumped on anyone and had the biggest bark, but he was really a scardy cat. Whenever it would thunder, he would just shake, so we took to letting him in when that was going on, he always just came in and relaxed at my feet. He never had a accident on the floors and never took food from our plates, he was just so chill all the time. Rex will really be missed by all of us, we have really tried to not speak about him for a few days now. All three of the boys cried, it really broke my heart, AM had such a hard time, I guess since he is the oldest.

Break

Last time I blogged, I was unsure of my job, I think I may be safe. Looks like they are planning on doing away with positions that are not directly in a classroom. So with that crisis out of the way, we are on winter break, I really like this school calendar, it gives us all a little break, but not too long where students forget everything. We are working on getting the house cleaned and organized, even after living here for a year and half, some things are still packed up, sometimes it is interesting what you find that you forgot you had. I have been trying for the last two days to find a doctor to take AB to so we can discuss the option of medication to help in the class room with his attention. So it seems the pediatrician does not handle ADHD anymore, so she referred me to two others, neither of which accept our insurance, so I have been calling what seems like everyone on the insurance website, well after 11 call, still no appointment. So I have decided that tomorrow morning I'm going to call the Marcus Institute, I have always heard it is horrible to get an appt there, but what the heck, gotta start somewhere. The idea is, if we start him now while he is in a comfortable setting we will be able to see better which meds are working and not, his teacher will be alot of help during this time since they all know him so well. I have always been wary of using meds and my husband is no real happy that I want to try them now, but I just want AB to function well in class and not be a distraction to himself or others. My greatest fear is for him to be labeled a "misbehaved" kid for something he has no control over. AM and Cm are just trucking along, they have really been enjoying the break so far, I love that they enjoy being outside so much. They went for a walk this afternoon in the woods, and even took AB, which was really nice, I had the house to myself, even got a shower without any interruption, woohoo! They all came back sweaty and stinky, but I think it is so cool that they are playing in the same creek and woods that I enjoyed so much as a child.
AB has been so funny lately, he got two Tom and Jerry dvd's for valentine's day, and has watched them non stop since then. I was cleaning out a cabinet today and discovered mouse droppings AAAAAHHHHHHH! so I was pulling everything out, and cleaning and bitching! Ab came in asked what I was doing, I told him about the mouse, he said he had a plan, next time I know he is going on about some trap, (you could tell it was something that happened on tom and Jerry) he had it all planned out, then he set up surveillance behind his door, he had his pillow and a few trains. He was going to watch for the mouse and than sneek up and catch it. It was so sweet. He has also started asking questions, which is a big step for him, since he develops his speech and thinking skills a differently than other kids his age. He is asking questions that a 3 or 4 yr old might ask.
So he wanted to know why a dvd has a hole, and then why does the dvd player have a hole holder, and then why does the dvd spin around? I don't know, go ask your daddy, and boy is daddy good at answering those questions. He also wanted to know why we don't have fur, well I just left that up to daddy too, he is really coming up with some interesting questions.
I am going to try to post a link to my blog onto facebook, we'll see how that goes, goodnight for now.

First

So this is my first time on the blog, not really sure where to start. I've been wanting to so this for a while to get off my chest just some of the things going on in my life. I'm sitting here, I just read an article in the local paper about layoffs in the schools, well thats where I work, so of course I am concerned, just hope I have a job next year. I will only have one child in elementary school next year, he'll be in first, we'll just call him AB. My other two boys (CM and AM) will both be in middle school. I'm not real sure what I would want to do if I didn't work for the school. I have really began to enjoy it, this is my 4th year, and 3rd in Kindergarten. Guess I better put the thinking cap on, hmmmmm. I really just want to be at the school for my youngest, I feel that I owe it to him to be on the ball with his education.
AB is on the autism spectrum, hence the name of the blog here, so much of our lives seem to be touched by that fact. When he was diagnose last year, it was almost a releif, all of this going on with him had a name. I can deal with a name! yeah! So I emersed myself in learning all that I could on Autism, PDD NOS, and sensory processing disorder, and boy is there alot out there. I wanted to embrace this diagnosis, this will be a positive thing for my family. Some of us have embraced a little quicker than others, but overall, we have received alot of support. AB mainly deals with Sensory problems, "playing the five fingers" (flapping his fingers in front of his eyes while blinking really fast, it really is kinda cool, go ahead try it, nobody's watching!), making "shooting" noises (this is more of an oral problem, than him just making noise to drive me up the wall). He is very sensitive to touch, others walking by him can feel like a push or if someone brushes something off his shirt, it can feel like a pinch, the feel of another person's hair on him can feel like someone is tickling him. I know weird right? Loud noises are always fun, he can't stand the vacuum cleaner on, so lucky for me I don't have to vacuum much, the dishwasher running sometimes drives him crazy. The air blowing out of the vent can be so aggravating for him. So life with AB can be very crazy!!! But also, so rewarding....
I guess I'm done for now, heading back to work for parent-teacher conferences.