Well it's been a week without a blog from me, so I'm long overdue. Things have been crazy. It seems as though with both girls in school the weeks are clicking off like days and every time I turn around I can't belive how quickly time flies. I think that it just shows how old I am getting (not feeling) -- but the reality is that the older we get, the faster time does seem to go. It will be the holiday's soon...work is an everpresent reminder of that. We already have a small area devoted to Christmas trees and holiday seasonal items. Yikes!

Mary and Katie have an open house at school tonight. I'm actually looking forward to it, mostly because we haven't had much of an opportunity to meet Mary's teacher and see what is going on in the classroom. Also, Mary hardly says anything about Kindergarten. Last year - when she was at the private school in K4 - she couldn't stop talking about all of the things they were doing, but now it's like pulling teeth. Hopefully tonight I will see what she has actually been doing :)

I spent most of my day at the Allegan County Fair with my daughter Katie and her early childhood class on their field trip. It was "handicap" or "special ed" day at the fair. Admission was free and they could ride the rides for about 1 1/2 hours for free. It was great fun for them. Katie was so tired by the time we were done, but it was a great time. I think it is so important for kids like Katie to have exposure to public events like the fair. Even though she did have several meltdowns, she was such a trooper! This is a self-portrait that I took of the two of us when we were hanging out waiting for her class. Katie would not go in any of the animal barns. She caught one whiff of the smell and she was done for the day, so she and I walked around and for awhile we just sat on a picnic table and watched people an animals go by. She loved that!!! She is such a joy to my heart!!! I'm glad I was able to spend the day with her. I think she may be "mommy'd out"!!

Good Morning!

I am enjoying one of my new-found mornings of freedom when I don't have to work and both girls are in school. WOW!!! It is so nice to have some Jill time. I love the girls...but I also need to learn to take care of myself. They are both on the bus by 7:30 so it gives me time to have a cup of coffee and clean the house :). Today I went and got my hair cut without having to chase two kids around while I'm trying to get a decent haircut!!!

The weather here has been crazy...rainy and cold. It feels more like November than September....which is a bummer because both of my girls love to be outside!! It is supposed to be much nicer this weekend.

What a week....

I have not been meaning to be neglectful of my blog...but as I have looked through my blogging pals blogs, they too seem to be running a bit behind in updating. It is just a busy time of year with the kids getting back to school. I feel like we are running at 100 miles an hour all the time. Also, our church has built a new addition and our first day in the new church is tomorrow ..so that is just more "excitement" to our already crazy schedule.

Things are going pretty well with back to school. Katie is not adjusting as well as Mary. Mary loves kindergarten and loves riding the bus. She is doing fine with public school. She has asked a couple of times if she is going back to her old school...but I think she is almost past it. Katie is another story. She either doesn't want to get on the bus, or doesn't want to get off the bus. On Friday, she had her shoes off in the van (at the bus stop on the corner) and I had to carry her to the bus and put her shoes in her backpack. When the bus driver dropped her off at lunch time, he said that by the time he got to school she had her shirt off, too! You have to love autistic kids and how they hate shoes and clothes in general!! It's funny to me now, but I do wish that she could at least wear shoes!!!

Well...it's getting late and I'm actually watching Dale Jr. try and secure a spot in the Nextel chase for the cup. I challenge all of my blogging pals to update their sites very soon as I am dying for an update!!!

MICHIGAN'S ADVENTURE -- This week has been so busy that I didn't get around to writing about our trip to Michigan's Adventure onThursday. My mom watched Katie so that we could have a good day with Mary and give her some quality one on one time. Plus, Katie would have been miserable. I didn't take a lot of pictures, mostly video, but here's one that shows how much fun we were having.

CHELATION THERAPY - It is a controversial thing in the world of autism. But, after doing our research and finding a doctor with whom we are extremely comfortable, we are doing it. The goal of chelation is to give the patient a chelator which binds to the bad things (in this case, the heavy metals) in their body and helps them to pass these things out of their body. It can be administered in several ways, but the safest, especially with little kids, is having them take tablets 3 a day, for 3 days and then you do a test to see what levels of metals they are passing. A lot of people, including Bill & I, believe that if autistic kids can be de-toxed from all of the toxicity in their systems (mostly heavy metals including mercury) that they can show drastic improvement in many areas. Our doctor says the results of improvement are about 50/50, so we'll just have to wait and see! Today is day 2 of 3 with the first round of medicine - we are praying for good results!!!