I am adding a new link to my visited sites listing. Dr. James Dobson has a really good series on autism right now. You can listen to it online or download it as a podcast. www.focusonthefamily.com
Dr. Dobson is very well known for his Biblical based child rearing advice and has invited some physicians to talk about new therapies and options for children with autism.

CEDAR POINT....was awesome. I will (as usual) need to upload my pics...but we had a great time. It was a long day and we didn't get home until 2 in the am,...we are very tired. I am seriously impressed by how fearless Mary is. She wanted to ride everything! (Even things I didn't want to ride...and for me that says a lot!) A little later today I will post the pics.

Katie did extremely well. We were so pleased. She is really coming along so nicely. It is great to be able to take her places that we always thougt would be too much for her... She rode all the kiddie rides and actually even rode a few adult rides. It was so funny to see her excitement -- as she would bury her head in your shoulder when we rode rides (like the Woodstock express - kiddie coaster) that she wasn't sure of...but overall she had a great time. Now if Mommy, Daddy, Grandpa and Pat can recover, we'll be all set.

I've changed the main blog pictures. The one of our family (top right) is at the same location as last year - The Robert Wadlow statue in Alton, IL. He was the tallest living man in the world and was from Alton. We try to take pictures there each year to see how the girls have grown.

Here are a few new pics from vacation....

We're back from the first part of our vacation -- I can't wait to upload my pictures - but that will have to wait until sometime tomorrow. It's 1:30 in the am and we've only been home a few minutes. So much awesome stuff happened. Katie learned how to swim!! It was so exciting. She's only 4 and she can tread water like a fish. It is awesome. Mary had a much harder time and wasn't comfortable until she was a few months shy of 6..so with Katie's autism we are thrilled and relieved that she is at least beginning to understand how to swim.

The family reunion was good - not a very good turn out this year - but the faithful few were there. My cousin Jason and his wife Mindy and son Logan were there. They are our pals. We did a lot of fun things including ice skating (not me -- but the first time for Mary. She did surprisingly well once we got the right size skates on her. She needed a 5 -- keep in mind she is only 6 -- YIKES!). Katie made a brief appearance on the ice - in CROCS! Also a YIKES as I had to head out onto the ice to "rescue" her. But overall it was excellent. We went to Six Flags St. Louis today - that was loads of fun. I hadn't been there since I was a child - so that was great. Mary loved it -- and actually Katie had a great time. She rode a lot of rides and actually did a great job waiting in line and eating in a restaurant. Bill & I were both pleasantly surprised at how well things went with her. We have decided that we will probably need to rent a stroller when we go to Cedar Point -- it will be a longer day at a bigger park with tons of walking - and she was pretty pooped out after only 6 hours at a smaller park.

Well I'll do my best to upload my pics when I get up later this a.m. -- I'll post the good ones here on my blog :)

The weekend flew by a little more quickly than expected. We are now hustling around with lots to do....haircuts, Mary's cast is coming off, shopping, oil changes, work ...the list is ongoing. I'm happy to be part-time and have a little more time to accomplish things :)

Potty training is coming along nicely. I probably should take some pictures of big-girl Katie sitting on the potty. We are so thrilled that she is wearing big girl panties and using the toilet. Many people told us she would be 6 or 7 before we could potty train her. She will not be 5 until October -- so that is awesome.

2 more days until the cast comes off -- don't worry, I'll take pictures.

I'm tired today...Katie always wakes up as soon as the sun rises...regardless of what time Mommy got home from work :)

Have a good day.

For those of you with whom I talk to on a regular basis, you already know that I started my new job as a "part-timer" this week. I'm still at Kohl's, but only on a part-time basis...no longer a manager. To be honest it has been nice to have a little more time with the girls, and an ounce of time for myself.

Only 5 days until Mary's cast comes off. I can't wait (and neither can she :) Hopefully it is healing up well and we won't have any further issues.

Well ..as a part-timer :) I have been home all day, but need to go in for a few hours this evening...so I had better start getting ready. I'm looking forward to a nice relaxing weekend....

Today is our 10th wedding anniversary. That is hard for me to believe. The years have literally flown by. When I look back at all that has happened over the past 10 years I find it so amazing to see where we have been and where God has brought us.

I took the day off work and Bill is coming home early. We have a sitter and we are planning to do dinner and an IMAX movie ---a real treat for us since with Katie we don't tend to get out very much!!

The other bonus is that the weather has cooled off so much here that it is beautiful out. High of 75 today -- no more of that 97 business (but the girls do love the pool :)

So, I couldn't figure out why Katie was a little crab this afternoon. She loves to swim -- and I mean LOVES -- usually she is standing at the slider door waiting desperately to get into the pool, but today that wasn't the case. I even had my swimsuit on (miracle) and Mary and I were in the pool, but Katie just stood at the slider crying and trying to open the door to get back into the house. I guess she was tired. I should have known. She had both Occupational and Speech Therapy this morning -- and for some reason she was up in the middle of the night crying her eyes out. I went in and changed her and she calmed back down, but needless to say, the "bug" is pooped out. She been asleep almost 4 hours now. She probably won't sleep tonight! Yikes!

Well the 4th of July flew by faster than expected. I had to work in the morning and then we went to Bill's dad's on the lake so the girls could swim and then do fireworks. It was a good day. I'm off today -- much needed to get the house in order and catch up on some much needed mommy time with the girls.

I'm glad to be blogging again. It's nice to look back and see what has been going on. I am thrilled with Katie's recent progress. The pool seems to be good therapy for her as well. She would spend all day out there if we would let her. It's hard in the summer because she only has her two therapy sessions a week at the hospital. The school doesn't have anything structured for the AI kids (Autistic) in the summer... which personally I think is a shame. These kids need structure so badly. We try to give her as much structure at home as we can -- but the routine and schedule that school gives her is really the best option.

I recently joined facebook...that has been kind of fun. I am finding a lot of old friends from college which has been a nice treat....

We finally broke down and bought a pool. The girls love it - but it is still ice cold, and I think they are crazy for wanting to swim in it. Thank-goodness Mary has a swimmable cast or we couldn't have gotten the pool yet. Two more weeks to go in the hard cast and then hopefully she can wear a removable one .

This is my last week of being full-time at work. I am so excited to go part-time. I am looking forward to having more time with the girls - especially now with the pool because they just love to hang out all day outside.