I feel compelled to write a little about vaccinations and how I personally feel about vaccinating children. The reason being that several of you have contacted me regarding my recent posts - stating that you have chosen not to vaccinate your children. In my personal opinion - and please remember, this is my opinion, I am not a doctor :) -- you need to continue to vaccinate your children, you just need to be smart about it. This means not allowing your 3 month old baby to have 4 or 5 shots at one time. This means spreading out your child's shots. Talk to your pediatrician. Even though they will never agree that vaccines can cause autism or can be harmful neurologically to your child, most will be willing to work with you to spread the vaccines out and make them "safer " for your child. I am definitely still a "pro-vaccine" parent - I just believe that as parents we need to be educated in the decisions we make about vaccinations. There is a great book called "Evidence of Harm" that is all about vaccines and what is in them and why as parents of children with autism, many of us believe that vaccinations have played a role in the autism. It talks a lot about "one size fits all vaccines" that do not take the childs weight and size into consideration -- and if you are considering skipping vaccinations with your children, I would strongly suggest that you read this book.

We still vaccinate our children - and I still remind my friends that there is a greater risk by not vaccinating your child than be vaccinating them or by vaccinating them on a 'smarter' schedule. If I can help you find the information you need - please let me know - I would be happy to. I am the parent of a child with autism, and I would not wish autism on any child, or on any family -- but I still think children need to be vaccinated - we just need to see some changes in the vaccine schedule.

http://www.sarnet.org/img/gradusatoday.jpg


This link is an add in today's USA Today which coincides with the release of Jenny McCarthy's new book Louder Than Words. Check it out.

Why does it seem that weeks go by at a time before I get back to this blog? It is the 4th week of school already. That alone is hard to believe. There is a lot to keep me busy - even with the girls in school all day. I never realized how much I wasn't getting done until I had the time to do it :)

Katie is recovering from an ear infection (common to have lots of them in autistic children). Thankfully she is responding well to the antibiotics and she is in school. Mary received a note home today that she has already benchmarked all of the first quarter reading requirements for 1st grade. I would hope so considering that she is reading everything she can get her hands on. Bill and I are thrilled that she has taken so easily to reading. Bill & I are both avid readers, so it is nice to know that we have passed that on to her at an early age.

I just finished Jenny McCarthy's new book "Louder than Words" - after seeing her on Oprah I just had to get my hands on it. Once you get past her use of some fine 4 letter words, it really is a great book. It's funny - I remember watching her on MTV years ago - and now she is this mom who is fighting for her child's life -- it just shows you that autism can touch anyone - and that being a mother of a child with autism is really all about deciding that you are going to fight for this child. I was really moved by her dedication to Evan - and her desire to help mothers find the best options for their children.

Well, I'm tired - I have caught a cold from Bill & the girls. It seems I am always the last to get sick - so when they all are feeling better, I am crawling into bed.....

Goodnight.

A week has passed and things have calmed down a bit Now I'm not stressed - just tired. The weekends seem to fly by so quickly - we had an activity every night last week - after awhile it's like "Okay, I just need to stay home one night" :) Anyway, I think this week is going to be a little less hectic. We have the open house for Mary and Katie's school on Thursday... they, especially Mary, seem to be excited.

Here are some new pics too - some from soccer - I'll try to get some better ones. Yes, she's orange again this year -- yikes - I was hoping for something a little calmer! Katie's pic is in her Clifford hat that they made at school. It makes me laugh because she usually won't wear anything on her head, but she loves the Clifford hat! See..school is doing wonders for her :)

Can you say "STRESSED OUT" - For those of you who know me, have lived with me, gone to school with me, etc, you know that I am a creature of stress - and in my adult life I have continued to be a pretty stressed-out person. I attribute a lot of that to my personality, but especially in the last 5 years I think it has stemmed from my difficult pregnancy with Katie and her resulting autism diagnosis.
If you have never lived with an autistic child I will just tell you that there is no good way to describe it. It is a 24/7/365 job - it is constant, unrelenting and at times, physically and emotionally draining. Bill & I live in a constant state of tiredness, although I do for the most part get a lot more sleep than I did in college. We are 24 hour policemen, security guards, fire-fighters, cooks, maids, butlers, chauffeurs - like a lot of parents - just to a different level. I live in a "Katie-proofed" home - but it is far from stress-free. The fear of having her escape the house to run away and never again be heard from is a real life daily fear and struggle.
We are thrilled to have this new class at school for Katie. I think the all-day class will be good for her - and good for me. With the way my work schedule is set up I will usually have 2 weekdays at home without kids to get things done. My house (theoretically) will be clean and thus my stress levels should drop.
Well stress equals tired and sleepy - so I should probably go...lots of pictures to post tomorrow. Good Night.

This is so weird - it's 10am - my house is clean (I've even shampooed -- sp?- my carpets - surfed facebook, done the laundry, dishes, etc) - and it's staying clean. Yes, the girls are both at school and I don't work until tonight. This is a weird feeling that I will have to get used to. I need to go to the grocery store this afternoon - and get caught up on all of the things I had fallen behind with while I was working full-time and while the girls were home all day. This is a weird feeling - but one I can probably get used to. :) The only problem is I tend to miss them by lunch time --- LOL!

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!! YEE-HAH!!

From the pictures you can tell that Mary was a little more excited about it than Katie. Poor Kate - she didn't even want to get on the bus -- but once she saw her busdriver and aide and realized that this was an "ok" thing - she got on. Mary on the other hand was super excited and was ready to go see all of her friends and meet her new teacher. Now I have the whole day off to clean my house, run errands - and of course, stop into school and see how Katie is doing in her new classroom. I am hopeful that this is going to be a great year for both of the girls.

PERSPECTIVE...

I must say that today I have gained a new perspective on a lot of things, and I just felt like I needed to share.

I guess it hasn't all happened today, but it seems as though I have realized once again how precious life is and how much I love Bill and the girls. A wonderful woman whom I went to Moody with was just recently diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer. She has two young daughters and a husband (whom I also knew at Moody). I have been so touched by how many MBI'ers have come together (with much thanks to modern technology and the internet) and are praying for them and rallying around them. It's really amazing to me that even when you have not been in touch for a long time that there is something about the bond of being a child of God and knowing His love and knowing right now that they need a huge outpouring of HIS love and healing - and knowing that He will give it to them. It is the love and comfort that we all know is there everyday, but seems to meet us right at our point of need when the situation arises.

On a much lighter note, when I came home from work tonight I was so blessed to see that my wonderful husband of 10 years now had cleaned the basement playroom which had pretty much turned into a disaster and I was seriously dreading having to make it my first project to tackle once the girls were back in school. Thanks, Bill. I love you!

School starts in 36 hours. Yee-haaaah!!!! All day, both girls, wow! I'm feeling old.

The power came back on early Sunday morning. Hallelujah! I was beginning to lose it! Enough said about that - but we are back in the land of the light!

My new focus of my "free" time (ha ha) other than trying to get my book about autism started - which hasn't happened yet- is trying to reconnect with old friends from the past - especially college. I have a friend from Moody that got me hooked into "facebook" and that has actually helped me a lot... When I was in college I was always the one that kept everyone connected to each other - I kept track of everyone's whereabouts and was kind of the "yellow pages" of our friendship circle. It's funny when I think about it now, because that is just who I was. I did that for YEARS after we were out of school. (Part of this was due to the fact that I was friends with a lot of guys - moreso than with girls - and because I was the GIRL - it was almost logical that I be the one to keep everyone connected. ) Now I have started doing it again. It's almost weird. I've been out of college for 15 years and all of the sudden I feel this urge to find out where my old friends are - are they married, do they have kids, where do they live, etc? This can be a difficult task, especially when they move all over the country, change e-mail addresses without telling anyone, etc. I have one "friend" in particular right now whom several people are trying to get ahold of and all I can say is - "that number is not listed at this time" - I know, I'm crazy. But it is entertaining - and with my unlimited long distance - it can be really fun to chat on the phone with someone I haven't talked to in 5 years. I'll keep you posted on my findings :) And, if you are a long lost college friend of mine, please let me know (LOL).

RAIN RAIN GO AWAY....

I am getting really tired of this weather. We have no power. Horrific storms came through here yesterday - almost seemed "hurricanish" as they were coming through. Power lines are snapped all over the place and there are trees (big ones) down all over, too. We lost power at supper time yesterday (Thursday) and are being told that we may not receive power back until Sunday night at Midnight. Yikes. It is not a real problem to not have power - more of an inconvenience --but autism and no electricity don't go very well together. Katie doesn't understand why she can't watch her videos. Telling her that the TV is broken doesn't mean anything to her. That is where it gets difficult. You can't explain anything to her, or reason with her. It is very black and white - either she can watch her videos or she can't -- no in between....and there is no way to explain to her why she can't watch them.
We are actually at my parents house tonight. Bill is in a wedding tomorrow. We had a sitter and were supposed to be going to the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner together - but with no power we couldn't leave a sitter at the house with the girls...so here we are, using the computer and doing the laundry - and Katie is soaking up all the videos she can :) It's almost kind of funny - like we don't realize how much we use electricity until it isn't available. Oh well, Bill says we can pretend to be roughing it in the U.P. It's kind of joke because he knows how much I hate "roughing it" and that camping is not one of my chosen activities ....

Katie's new teacher came for a home visit yesterday. That was really nice. Katie took to her right away. My only concern is once again that the school system isn't setting her up for success. We've had all these meetings to get this new AI classroom set up and as of yesterday it still seemed as though the new teacher hasn't been given all of the resources she needs to get things done. She doesn't even have all the names of the children who will be in the class. It's only frustrating because (and for those of you who have read my blog for awhile know) it seems like we always have little snafu's that keep things from happening as they should. The good news this time is that the teacher is awesome - I am just concerned that they aren't giving her everything she needs....



I'm tired today - stressed a little I guess. Two weeks 'til school and I can't wait. They both need it so badly. .. and so do I. I'm looking forward to drinkng my latte' and cleaning my house. Isn't that pathetic? :)

I know that I haven't written very much about the new classroom that Katie is going to be in this year - but I am really excited about it. Her new teacher called yesterday and is going to come do a home visit next week to get to know Katie. I think that will be great. She sounds wonderful and is really into these AI Kids - and it was reassuring to know how focused she is on their safety - especially after the issues with Katie running away last year. She said that she is used to kids with elopement issues (running away) and that she is totally focused on keeping the kids safe. That was a huge relief for me. As much as I want Katie to learn, she also needs to be safe in her classroom - otherwise I am not able to focus on work or other things that I need to do while she is in school. Last spring I went through about 2 weeks of being so stressed out on trying to keep Katie safe at school that it about drove me through the roof. I couldn't sleep and I just wanted to scream -- I don't want that to happen again - so this is reassuring for me.

It's starting to cool down here. The girls are still enjoying the pool, but for the first time in awhile, it is almost too cold to swim in the morning. I love it.

Well, I need to run - lots to do before work this afternoon...

Well my best intentions of starting that book have yet to materialize. It's always one thing or another it seems. I am hoping that once school starts and I have a day or two a week to myself that it will be a different story and I can actually get going on it.

Three weeks til school starts - that for me is hard to believe. We aren't ready. Not even close. I need to buy both of the girls shoes and clothes and all that good stuff. We've done bookbags and lunch sacks, but that's about it. With both girls being in school all day this year, it will be a real change for us as a family. It's awesome though. Katie will be in her new classroom for the AI kids aged 3-6 and then Mary will be in the big 1st grade. Yee-hah!!

I think that I have decided to start writing a book about my experiences with autism. I'm not really sure how I have arrived at this conclusion, but I have always enjoyed writing - and since autism is such a huge part of my life and the life of my family, I thought that maybe this would be a good way to take a lot of what has happened in our lives. I am thankful that I started blogging almost two years ago...as it will provide a lot of information to help me with the book. I'll keep the blog updated with the progress of my writings. I thought maybe I'd try and get started today.....

THERAPY...didn't go very well today. I don't think Katie was feeling very well and she was so crabby. She cried and cried and was fussy. It wasn't good. It has been a really hard couple of days. She hasn't been herself for a few days. But that is the way autism is. It's really difficult sometimes to know what to do...

We have therapy again tomorrow -- so we'll see how that goes. I'm praying for the best. I really can't wait for school to start. Katie needs it so desperately. She needs the routine on a daily basis. That's an autism thing. She's doing a little better tonight..

more later...

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 :)