Walk Now for Autism

I finally signed me and the two babies up for the walk in Ohio. I hope it doesn't rain this year. I don't think I will do a ton of fund raising this year but raising a little money would be awesome.

https://www.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=290324&supid=201715526

http://www.walknowforautism.org/cincinnati/mommypennylane?faf=1&e=2340113173








The two pictures are from last years walk.

Obama INSULTS Special Olympics

President Obama Jokes About Being a Bad Bowler: 'It's Like the Special Olympics'
March 19, 2009 8:56 PM

The first appearance by a sitting president on "The Tonight Show" may well end up being the last.

President Obama, in his taping with Jay Leno Thursday afternoon, attempted to yuk it up with the funnyman, and ended up insulting the disabled.

Towards the end of his approximately 40-minute appearance, the president talked about how he's gotten better at bowling and has been practicing in the White House bowling alley.

He bowled a 129, the president said.

"That's very good, Mr. President," Leno said sarcastically.

It's "like the Special Olympics or something," the president said.

When asked about the remark, the White House said the president did not intend to offend.

"The president made an off-hand remark making fun of his own bowling that was in no way intended to disparage the Special Olympics," White House deputy press secretary Bill Burton said. "He thinks the Special Olympics is a wonderful program that gives an opportunity for people with disabilities from around the world."

Facing tough questions about the performance of his Treasury Secretary, $165 million in bonuses for AIG officials and anticipating a fight over his $3.55 trillion budget, the president has not had a particularly good week, and it's unlikely this will help matters.

- jpt

Sing To Me

Tyler LOVES the song "I Told You So" currently by Carrie Underwood but originally by Randy Travis. He likes to look up the duet video on youtube and he sings the male part while I sing the female part and of course we sing the chorus together. He also has the lyrics looked up so that he can read his part. The night I showed him how to look up the lyrics he played the song repeatedly for over an hour, John says for 3 hours. He was singing so John couldn't or I guess wouldn't tell him to turn it off. We can't stand in the way of our children and their love for music. Plus my lil man is so dang precious belting out "I Told You So."

He does like a variety of songs. Soulja Boy or whatever the heck that dumb song is... a new Tim McGraw song (something about you would die for your wife, take a bullet for your kids, or vice versa)... a nickleback song... a song from The Nightmare Before Christmas... my handsome lil music fan.

weather

It's raining... YUCK! I can not wait till it warms up outside. I want to go hiking and biking and play in the yard and finally get some flowers and veggies planted. I am officially sick of yucky weather... I have been for a few weeks now.

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Kids got off to school just fine this morning.

John starts his new work schedule today. He worked yesterday morning but today he moves to night shift. I hate when he works night shift but he does get paid more.

I am still loving my new fence. One of the gates was messed up but they came and fixed it. So, now it is perfect!

SSDD

Typical stuff tonight. A simple disagreement that turned into an argument with LJ that then meant John was mad at me. I can do no right. Hopefully tomorrow we will have no arguments.

I hate cleaning but I've noticed it is so much better doing it to MY house instead of an apartment.

My kitchen is still only partially complete. I wish it was totally done. I'm ready to stand back and see the pretty country kitchen it is suppose to be. John is working this next week straight with no days off so there is no telling when he'll have time to finish it.

I hate screamo music. John is letting LJ use his computer and of course being a teen it is his job to find the crappiest music out there and play it over and over and OVER again. My ears will start bleeding any moment now...

Johna fell asleep watching her sing along Dora dvd. Tyler fell asleep playing his new DS. He did let Johna play it today so that he could play her Kirby game. Kirby is a big hit around here. Of course it doesn't get talked about nearly as much as Pokemon but obsessions take awhile to go away. :)

Tyler said tonight that he will still snuggle with me when he is 30. lol I doubt it but a mother can hope right?! I sure do love my angels!!!

To eat or not to eat, That is the question... NOT in MY kitchen

When I cook dinner I serve two veggies. If you eat dinner then you HAVE to try both veggies. If you like them then eat all you want and if you do not like them then just having one or two bites will do. My son is an extremely picky eater but he still needs healthy food. I do not use the CLEAN YOUR PLATE method at our dinner table. With a family of obese people I feel that would be a horrible habit to create in my children. Instead I use "eat until you are full but TRY a bite of everything." So when dinner time comes around and there is a vegetable he does not like he will ask me how much he has to eat. It depends on the veggie... cut up carrots will probably turn into, "eat 4 carrots" while spinach would be "eat one big bite." Let me say that my 7 year old does not enjoy eating them, and sometimes he gags for a second while trying to swallow but he eats them WITHOUT arguing about it. He listens to me and he knows that one bite won't take but a second to eat. I am not traumatizing my child and he is kind of getting nutrition in him. Now, this can not be said about our 15 year old. He refused to eat spinach, not even 1 single bite. It turned into an actual argument between him and John. He finally said that he did take his one bite but I don't think he did. He mixed it up with his other food so you could not tell whether some was missing or not. He called his mother and she called John and said not to force him to eat anything he doesn't like. I am sorry but she talked to the wrong person. While John runs this house I run my kitchen. I decide what to cook at night and I fix the plates. You TRY what is served or you DO NOT eat anything. Same rule applies to everyone in this house. If the youngest kids don't want something they must try it or go hungry. Even I try them and I am a picky eater. I actually ate some hominy the other day and lemme tell you I hate that stuff. I fix things I don't like though because my family deserves variety. Now, I do fix corn most nights but that is because it is something everyone in the house will eat. But MY kitchen MY rules!!! TRY EVERYTHING OR EAT NOTHING!!!!!

I'm not the EVIL STEPMOTHER

I could be wrong but I am pretty sure if someone is suppose to do something for 1 hour then breaking that hour up with phone calls and being in the wrong place kind of doesn't count. Right?? LJ is suppose to study everyday for an hour after school because of his poor grades. He is suppose to study at the kitchen table where it would be easier to concentrate. Today he might have spent 10 minutes at the table. The first part of his hour he was in his room doing who knows what. Also, part of that hour he was on the phone with his dad discussing whether he could go to the movies tonight or not. In my opinion only the 10 minutes actually at the table counts. I have decided to try to say as little as possible about his studies and his behavior because it only causes arguments between me and John. I feel that everyone is too easy on him and John feels that I am too hard on him. I just want LJ to do well and it is scary because I feel so strongly that he won't be able to unless something makes him change. I have tried being hard on him and also showing I care. I take him to get his video games (I even drove around Lexington for over an hour to locate a store that had a game he wanted)... I take him to school dances... I took him to a concert last night. I do things for him. I am not always hard on him, just when he needs it. When he is not following the rules then he should be punished. Maybe I am wrong. But look at the world right now... maybe parents are too easy on kids these days... maybe if a little more people weren't scared to ground their kids from something... just maybe....

Monday fix it day and Bikes

Monday we put together our new deck table.

They started on the fence on that day too.

We exchanged the two kitchen lights with two new ones... they look much better. We spray painted a part of the third kitchen light so that it would match.

We put together the buggy thing we bought for the younguns to sit in behind John's bike when we go riding. We have new bikes but the babies can't ride as quickly so we bought them something to ride in. We took the bikes for a ride and half way out mine broke. UGH! So, I rode John's pulling the babies behind me back to the house while John waited on LJ to bring him his tools to fix it. LJ went the long way back to him and stopped and waited for something... not sure what he was thinking but it took him a long time to get the tools to John. John got it fixed enough to ride home and we returned the bike the next day. Now, we have a new bike for me and would you guess that before I've even rode it we have to return it. Not sure exactly what but it is also broken.

I cooked ribs and we ate dinner on our new deck furniture.

It was a fabulous day even with the silly bike incident.

When I have something to say I have no time to say it...so here's EVERYTHING

I have been busy.

We bought almost all of the items we will need for lawn care a few weeks ago. We still need a hedge trimmer and a tiller for a garden I hope to plant. Hopefully planting a garden will not be as hard as it sounds. Well, hard is the wrong word because I don't mind the work but it sounds confusing. The cool season plants and exactly when to plant them and the warm season plants and oddly I looked up my area and there is only a few weeks difference in when I can plant the two different season veggies. So, I've made the wish list and will try sticking to it. Online it said the early spring plants were peas, potatoes, cabbage, spinach, and mustard greens. There are others of course but that list of 5 are the ones I am hoping to plant. I have to plant them around the middle of April when the weather is usually between 55 and 75 degrees. The warm season plants are cucumbers, watermelon, beans, squash, and tomatoes and their ideal weather is between 65 and 95 degrees. I also plan on having a herb garden. So... I will be busy busy learning how to plant a garden. I just hope some of the veggies end up being yummy. Probably not this year but eventually I want to learn how to can so that none of the veggies go to waste.

We finally have our fence put up. It is a beautiful 4 foot high chain link fence. It has two walk through gates and one drive through gate. The drive through gate has to be fixed though. The gap is too large and it opens even at the slightest nudge. Yesterday when I went to pick up the kids I left the two dogs outside. When I returned home the gate was open and the dogs were missing. Luckily I found them and we called the fencing company about the gate. They were suppose to come fix it today but the weather is bad so they might reschedule.

Speaking of weather... I am SICK of snow. This week started out so lovely and now the ground is covered in snow.

I went to my hometown over this past weekend to see my niece get dedicated to God. She looked totally precious in the dress that Nana made. I was surprised my mom had time to get it done but she did and it was beautiful. I was lucky enough to babysit for a few hours. I had my lil helper with me and she makes everything funny. Soph started crying so my daughter sang to her a few times. After a minute she had had enough though so she went and hid beside the bed. Noises bother her sometimes so I was not surprised but I did think it was adorable. My angel is absolutely precious and seeing how tiny Soph is makes me miss my two being that little. It was an enjoyable trip to Hendo with no stress and that is rare.

My CA sis recently changed her number. I am unsure of the purpose though because she never answers her phone so why bother even having one. Some people think I am bad about answering my phone and honestly I can be but OMG you have to call Nisey like a dozen times straight in a row to get her to answer. Usually by the time she answers, IF she does answer I am so frustrated that I don't even remember what I called for or I just don't care enough at that point to talk about whatever it was. I do miss her though... very much.

Enough for now... time for laundry.

Teeth

Well T lost another tooth Thursday night. It is his 6th tooth to fall out. The last tooth, tooth 5, stressed him out. He played with it nonstop and talked about it a lot. Even though he wanted it out he would not let us pull it. Finally in a fit of screams and crying I managed to touch the tooth. I didn't even have to yank on it, just a little nudge was enough for it to fall out. Usually I wouldn't care but it had been hanging there for like two weeks and he wouldn't let me brush it so for the sake of hygiene it had to come out. The crying was because he was scared not because it hurt. This tooth, the sixth one, came out by surprise. He knew it was loose but had not bothered it much and I believe it just fell out. The tooth fairy brought him $5 which he has been calling 500 cents for some reason. Kids do such adorable odd things. I have a small dark brown tooth fairy box in my purse that holds his teeth safe and sound. I shouldn't carry it with me because I would hate to lose it but oddly enough it makes me happy to have it with me. I have a light brown one for J's teeth but she has not lost any teeth yet. T looks adorable though, he is missing his top front two teeth and also the tooth on each side of his bottom front two teeth. 4 teeth gone at once! SO PRECIOUS!!!!

Spending

Well we bought a riding lawn mower today. WOO HOO I love purchasing things that I would not have needed if not for our new home. I love not renting! We also called about getting estimates on having a fence put up. We will be having a 4 foot chain link fence put around our back yard. One day I would like a small wooden fence of some kind around the front yard but I can wait on that. We will be buying a screen door and some lattice for the back porch so that the dogs can be let out the back door without getting out of the yard. We will be buying a trampoline and some kind of swing set for the kids. We also have to have our heating system fixed. I want to price a bigger water heater because we run out of hot water too fast. Oh the glories of tax time! Hopefully we'll have enough to put a few hundred into finishing my kitchen. Oh plus the hubby thinks we need a push mower, weed eater, and furniture for our deck. It will be fun spending the money and I think we have it spent well in our heads. Hopefully it will work out as planned and hopefully it won't be too sad once it is gone, since we will have things to show for it. I am excited about the fence more than anything. Well enough yapping about spending our taxes... gotta start dinner.

OBGYN

I had an appt with my obgyn last week. I had to have a test done and they ended up also doing a biopsy. I will know the results in 2 weeks. Hopefully it will be nothing and if it happens to be something hopefully it is something small. They told me it would be a little uncomfortable but I have to say it HURT LIKE HELL! I just kept talking about my kids to try to ease the pain. I told the doctor about their favorite songs and what they look like. My kids are better than any pain pill at easing my hurts. :p

Sense of humor

I think I have lost my sense of humor. Not all of it of course. It seems though that I become annoyed when people joke about me. Example being that I posted something on myspace and it mentioned me cleaning so I got a response from someone in my family asking if I was sick since I was cleaning. I clean every single day but I will admit I am no neat freak. I have 3 kids, 2 dogs and a husband so even if I clean nonstop from sun up to sun down my house won't be immaculate. So, why would someone think it was funny to ask if I was sick?! As a matter of fact I have been coughing for a few days but it has nothing to do with me washing all of the carpets in the house. I just don't want a filthy stinky house.

My daughter has a fabulous sense of humor. She tells what she thinks are jokes all the time. They are usually something like, what did the cow say when he climbed onto the ceiling? She then will either not answer and burst out laughing at that or her answer might be something as simple as, moo. Her jokes are never FUNNY but they are always HILARIOUS.

My son laughs a lot but he doesn't actually tell jokes very often. He is too busy with his Pokemon obsession for jokes.

My oldest son usually doesn't tell very funny jokes either. He is amusing though because he can start laughing from a joke he heard an hour, a day or even a week prior. I think he has a delayed or prolonged sense of humor. It is funny to witness.

Now, my husband has a superb sense of humor. It is fast and witty and more of picking on people and fast come backs than it is actual jokes. He always makes me laugh.

Well, I better get back to cleaning before I get ready for my obgyn appt. fun fun....

The Bipolar Child by Demitri & Janice Papolos

I was suppose to have read The Bipolar Child by tomorrow when I take my two youngest kids to see our child psychiatrist. I only managed to get 82 pages read. The book is so interesting but it is also research with lots of info I don't need and checklists. I am so disappointed in myself. I will say though that these past two weeks since I bought the book have flown by. I will also say it is 419 pages long. I don't think my 7 yr old is bipolar though...maybe, but I don't have that devastating certainity I had right before he was diagnosed with Tourette's. We will see we will see. Honestly who cares about a label anyway. I just want to know something so I can get him the help he needs to succeed in school and live as typical a life as possible. Maybe I can read a few pages of the book today.

Ability to be disabled

Just a short note for anyone who finds this but does not actually know me.

I am 26 and live in KY. I am married to a funny man 10 years my senior. He is handsome, impatient, easily angered and somehow also easy to love. We have 3 kids between us... his, mine and ours.
His son is 15 and diagnosed with ADHD and bipolar BUT I am going to say whoever his mother got the bipolar diagnosis from was WRONG. More on that later probably. He is currently unmedicated.
My son is 7 and diagnosed with Tourette's Syndrome. We are currently working on other possible diagnosis, process of elimination and finding the right doctors. He is currently taking two medications but we are weaning him off of Clonidine.
Our daughter is 5 and diagnosed with Autism. She is currently unmedicated.
My husband has ADD and an addiction or two. Nothing illegal so no freaking out.
I am sure I could be placed on some list of issues or diagnosis but I am currently without label.
When you think of a typical family I think mine could be placed on the list. We still do the small family outings and we still do typical everyday things. We also squeeze in therapies, extra doctor's appts, trips to the ER, IEP meetings, trips to the pharmacy, hours researching online, and hours of extra worry, stress, and grateful prayers. I have it hard but I am lucky. My kids might need extra patience and extra everything but they are not losing their lives to these disorders.
Hopefully I can post no less than once a week. And trust me when I say some posts might bore you to tears, some might make you laugh until you cry and some might just make you cry. I have that kind of life... boring, hysterical, sad and perfectly filled with love and happiness.