I Know...

I know...I haven't quite gotten back into the blogging routine yet. We are barely getting into the school routine, so hopefully the blog routine will follow soon after. The school schedule is basically kicking my butt - there is no other way to put it. Between my haphazard work schedule which has me working all kinds of assorted hours and having to get up at 6 am every day to get Katie ready for the bus, I am basically spent.
The girls are both doing well. Katie is loving school. She is so happy...it is a great thing to see. Bill and I went with her class to the fair last week and it was amazing to see her class as a whole and how the teacher and aides are so awesome with the kids. I can see why Katie loves it. We are so happy to have her there - and she really seems to be fitting in as well as she could anywhere. At this point I believe she is in the best, most ideal place for her - and that is such a great place for her to be.
Mary is loving 4th grade - although she did make me aware that 4th grade was a bit "too stressful" for her. (I think she is over that now). Homework is not something many 4th graders are fond of, but Miss Mary would much rather be riding her bike than learning how to spell marvelous or hazardous...so let's just say --- we're still working on the routine. Maybe we'll have it down by Halloween. :)
As I mentioned - I am back to work for the most part - but my hours are kind of all over the place. I am thankful for a good job, so no complaints - but I do find myself needing a nap here and there to get caught up....
I continue to be reading some amazing books. My most recent book club book was a mystery - which I don't usually read or like - but I really enjoyed it. "Whispers on the Bayou" by Mindy Starns Clark.
Hope this finds you all well - and I will try my hardest to get back into the blogging routine!

Schools In ....for the Summer

Well apparently Katie is taking to this new school thing much better than we had anticipated. Today is day 3. She loves the bus, so that has been extremely helpful. She has over an hour ride in the morning...which we aren't thrilled about, but unfortunately that is really our only option. We could drive her, but it's 30 minutes each way - not the ideal situation either - so for now, she is on the bus.

I talked with Katie's teacher from last year yesterday. She has been going to school with Katie to help the new school and their staff get adjusted to Katie and vice versa. She is pleased with how things are going - and so far, we are too.

Mary is still at camp, so this has been a pretty quiet week around here. I have actually been able to dig into a few projects - like organizing Mary's bedroom. Wowza - I think she likes to collect things - like rocks, paper, etc. She'll be surprised when she comes home tomorrow :)

Have a fabulous Thursday.

When it rains....

...it pours. How true, how true. It seems as this past week has been a whirlwind. I know the last week of school is always crazy, and sometimes a bit overwhelming, but this week....well, it's been a doozy...and I still have a few days left.

Bill is in Chicago today (well, Joliet actually) at the NHRA race - and I am home with Katie. Mary went to church with my parents and I am home - trying to recover, re-coup, figure out how to proceed through the next couple of days. I must say that I am so thankful for my parents and how they help Bill & I out in so many ways. They have Mary this morning (they actually kept her overnight last night). They watched both the girls last evening as Bill & I needed to attend visitation for his grandfather who passed in the night on Thursday. His funeral is tomorrow - so that will be most of our day tomorrow. The girls have school (Katie's last day) so that complicates things a bit, but this week hasn't been anything if not complicated.

This picture is of Bill & Mary right before they headed out on her 13 mile 3rd grade bike trip. They biked home after the trip so it turned out to be about a 15 mile ride - and they had a great time. I'm not sure about Mary's "angry" face - but it makes for a funny photo :)

Katie's school transitioning seems to be going well. She had a visit last week and we have another on Tuesday - as well as her new IEP - so more things to make a full week. I'll be ready for summer vacation by Wednesday. I guess we need to get our pool open. I'll just make that number 99 on the list. :)
Have a great week.

Just keep swimming.....

Yes, to quote Dorie in "Finding Nemo", "Just keep Swimming, swimming, swimming." That is truly how I feel these days. Big "to-do" lists and I just have to keep "swimming" away at them. Life is good, just busy. Katie visited her soon to be "new school" this morning, and even though there was a considerable amount of crying, it was a good visit. It's going to be a HUGE transition for her, and for us as a family too. This will be the first time Katie has changed buildings in over 4 years - so this is a big one considering she's only 6 :). She has another visit next week, so that will be good. I'm just taking things one day at a time as we figure out what Katie's future will hold.

All else is good. Bill is crazy busy at work. I am juggling work, the kids, the house and trying to wrap up all of the end of year activities including parents club, Katie's school change, girl scouts, soccer, etc. Yep, we're busy.

4 1/2 days of school left for Mary. Only 3 days left for Katie. Can't believe that the school year is over already!!!!

Happy to be Thursday...

Well, I'm honestly glad that it's Thursday. It's been a week, as usual. Mary has been out sick from school for 3 days - she is going back tomorrow. She showed vast improvement today. We do have a re-check with the pediatrician tomorrow, so hopefully we won't be headed to the ENT for tubes.

Katie was home sick today too.... she was a "vomit comet" sometime in the middle of the night... we think it was just from her sinus' and her stomach couldn't handle all the drainage. It's hard because even at age 6 she isn't able to blow her nose independently -- so sometimes she becomes victim of more "toddler-ish" issues. She should be going back tomorrow too -- as she had a great day and according to my mom didn't appear to be sick at all... :)

I have the next 3 days off of work. After a week of 6 am's and taking care of "sicko's", I'm looking forward to it. The girls only have a half day tomorrow - so I'm going to get my butt in gear in the am with a nice latte' and get my errands done before we head off to the pediatrician in the afternoon....

And can I just tell you..it's going to be a great season of American Idol!

Another week gone by...

I really need to try and blog more than once a week - so I will work on improving that. But honestly, between work and trying to spend time with the kids & Bill ( whose birthday is today:) ) I often don't feel awake enough by the end of the day to sit down and write... So here I am, before 10 am, trying to get myself up and going with a blog entry.

Lots has happened this week. After pulling Katie out of kindergarten last week, we have been very pleased with her progress. She is spending about an hour a day in an early childhood classroom with non-autistic children - and it has been great. She spent 2 years in that classroom with that teacher before she was moved to the AI classroom - so she is very familiar with it. We think this was definitely the right move - at least until the end of this school year - and then we will have to wait and see what next year brings.

We went skiing on Tuesday - and Katie is really starting to get the hang of it. She can do almost the entire bunny hill now, but stopping is a fine art she has yet to learn. We were going to go again on Thursday, but the girls (especially Mary) have been fighting ear infections and colds..so we opted out on that this week!

Mary's adjustment to third grade continues to go well. She is keeping good pace academically - so as soon as work through a few social adjustments we think she will be just fine. She is working on multiplication tables and just finished a unit in Earth science (which she absolutely loved). She has always had a thing for rocks -- it's kind of funny. Who knows, maybe she will grow up to be a geologist !

Well - I think that is it. We are just going to spend a leisurely day at home enjoying Bill's birthday. There is about 3 feet of snow on the ground now - with more to come...so staying nice and warm inside is a great option! Hope you have a great weekend!

What a week...

Well, it has been a week alright. 5 days of work for me (which is a little much when I'm trying to balance everything else.) Trying to make adjustments to Katie's school schedule and deal with Mary's transition to 3rd grade - basically, I'm spent. Seriously...a mini-hibernation sounds ideal right now - but that's not in the plans anytime soon.

Bill is gone today - slot-car racing. He loves it....and once you have purchased the cars for each class that you race, it's really not that expensive...so he's gone and I'm here --- doing my favorite hobby (just kidding) laundry. It seems like with work and all I end up spending either one of my days off or Saturday just trying to get caught up on laundry. I also did our taxes today - and e-filed them, so I guess I should be proud of myself for accomplishing that. And no, we don't usually have our taxes finished and filed before the end of January - but I guess I was just feeling motivated - and so while Bill was away, I did them. There is so much good software out there now that basically if you can fill in the blanks you can do your own taxes and e-file them too -- so that is one more thing I can mark off of my 'to-do' list!

If you are wondering about Katie's continued progress, well, all I know right now is that she is officially not going to Kindergarten (probably for the rest of the year) and that her teacher (whom I adore) is trying to find some other options for her. I have been invited to the AI (Autism Impaired) monthly staff meeting for February where they are going to discuss the plan for Katie for next year - so hopefully after that meeting I will have a better idea of where things are headed. To be honest, I'm just glad that she is happy and enjoying school - and that she has a teacher who is all about helping these kids be the best they can be. I couldn't ask for much more than that :)

Well, I should get back to that laundry and probably think about something yummy to make for dinner.....but at least I did get some big things accomplished today ! Yee-hah~

Life in a Snowglobe.

Yes, I feel as though we live in a snowglobe. It has basically been snowing non-stop here since Thanksgiving. Honestly, I'm tired of it. We got 6 inches today and are expecting 7-8 more overnight. And yes, I have to be at work at 5 am tomorrow - so driving in ought to be nothing less than a treat.

Mary's first week of third grade is behind us, and overall I think I went fairly well. It is going to be an adjustment for awhile...but I still think we made the right decision. Hopefully things will only continue to improve.

Katie is loving school. She actually did very well at therapy yesterday and we didn't have any self-harming incidents, so that made it a great day. Her therapist was really pleased with her progress since our last visit (which had to be all the way back in November). I'm going to try and be more committed to her speech therapy -- and hopeful that it will continue to yield excellent results for Katie - especially when it is combined with her excellent classroom situation this year!

I am glad to be entering back into some level of normalcy. Happy to have the girls back into school and adjusting - relieved to be getting some decent sleep - and thrilled to actually be crossing many things off of my 'to-do' list which seems to be at an all-time length as of late. Always so much to do -- so many post holiday errands and organizational things that kept getting postponed. It feels good to have cleaned closets, thrown away papers, and to be making progress to a more clutter-free life (which is really the only thing I have that is even close to a New Year's Resolution this year).

Well I should go to bed soon...3:30 am will feel like the middle of the night (because it is!).