The silly days of soccer are upon us. These kids of mine crack me up! As you can see, Mary is on the Orange Diamonds -- gotta love that orange jersey, and Katie just hangs out and makes me laugh. 3 more weeks of fall soccer - it'll be snowing before the season is over!!

Not too much else going on. Bill and the girls have been sick, so we've all been going to bed early. Work is crazy for both Bill and I. With the threat of snow on Thursday, Bill is crazy busy as people are freaking out that their boats are going to freeze in the lake.

Well...the Tigers are playing!! Go Detroit!! Gotta run....

Wow! I am tired. Seems like it has been quite the week -- nothing out of the norm really, but it seems the further into the fall we get, the busier my life becomes. The girls are doing well. Both are fighting off their first cold of the season. I think they have passed it on to Bill now --

Katie is doing so well. We are really pleased at how she is progressing. She has her IEP (Individualized Education Plan) in a few weeks. I am interested to hear everyone's comments as we don't always see eye to eye. The big thing is that she really needs to continue to have her own aide in the classroom. We are praying that that piece will remain in tact. Katie turns 4 next week -- that is hard for me to believe.

My father-in-law found an ELMO TMK for the girls for Christmas. I work at a retail chain and I can't even get one, but somehow he found one. I'm impressed! I need to come up with some good present ideas this year. Mary's b-day is one week before Christmas, so it means twice the presents and sometimes it is hard to be creative.

Well, I need to get ready for work. I get to scrapbook again tomorrow - I'm excited about that....

Sorry it's been awhile. Things have been so busy. We are running around like freaks lately. Soccer, school, work, family...my mom was out of town for a week fishing in the UP -- which made my life crazy ...she helps me so much with Katie (and Mary, too). I really miss her when she's not around. I also have been trying to scrapbook at least twice a month. It is so much fun to be back into scrapping again. I had really missed it.

Work has been very busy for Bill and I both. I feel like the holidays are almost here. Hard to believe it is October already. Mary is loving school...all she ever says is "school is great". She has a cold, Katie, too... 3 weeks into school before our first sickeness isn't too bad :)

Katie had a Dr's appointment on Friday. We are going to run chelation therapy on her for the next 4 months. I really am excited about this because even after just one session of treatment (they do 3 days on the meds and 11 days off) we have seen some great improvements in her. I will be sure to keep updating her progress with the chelation... it really it is an exciting therapy option for autistic families.

Well, I had better go.. I haven't heard Katie in awhile so I need to see what she is up to. Last night while I was at work she stood in the bathroom sink and turned our master bathroom into a swimming pool. Bill said the water was flowing down the walls and into the kitchen below. I am really glad I missed it!!!

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!!!

My husband e-mailed this to me and I couldn't resist passing it on to all of my blogging friends ENJOY!!! SAD NEWS Please join me in remembering a great icon of the entertainment community. The Pillsbury Doughboy died yesterday of a yeast infection and trauma complications from repeated pokes in thebelly. He was 71. Doughboy was buried in a lightly greased coffin. Dozens of celebreties turned out to pay their respects, including Mrs. Butterworth, Hungry Jack, the California Raisins, Betty Crocker, the Hostess Twinkies, and Captain Crunch. The grave site was piled high with flours. Aunt Jemima delivered the eulogy and lovingly described Doughboy as a man who never knew how much he was kneaded. Doughboy rose quickly in show business, but his later life was filled with turnovers. He was not considered a very smart cookie, wasting much of his dough on half-baked schemes. Despite being a little flaky at times he still was a crusty old man and was considered a positive roll model for millions. Doughboy is survived by his wife Play Dough, two children, John Doughand Jane Dough, plus they had one in the oven. He is also survivedby his elderly father Pop Tart. The funeral was held at 3:50 for about 20 minutes. If this made you smile for even a brief second, please rise to the occasion and take time to pass it on and share that smile with someone else who may be having a crumby day and kneads it.

Can you say CHUCK E. CHEESE? We went yesterday for my neighbor's 39th birthday. 4 moms and all of our kids -- it was crazy. This was Katie's favorite spot -- lying on the skee-ball game. Too crazy-- especially when a boy (probably 8 or 9) decided that he was going to throw skee-balls at her. When I told him that he should not throw balls at a child he said "Lady, she shouldn't be up there and I'll throw them at her if I want." I said, "No, you won't. She's a child, and sometimes child go places they shouldn't. It will not be a good thing if you hit her with a ball". He gave me a dirty look and kept righ on throwing the balls. He was there with a daycare group -- okay, seriously, why would you take a daycare group to Chuck E. Cheese? It was fun. The food was bad as usual, but the kids had a great time. The best part is that I don't have to worry about losing Katie because they put hand stamps on you and the stamps have to match in order to take the child out with you....I often joke that people wouldn't get too far trying to kidnap Katie anyway. She throws a fit when her own mother tries to make her leave -- I can't imagine what kind of meltdown she would have if a stranger tried to pick her up!!!!

6 days of work in a row and I am a tired girl....I have 2 days off now, so that will be good. I miss seeing the girls when I work so much...and Katie is at a stage where she bawls every time I leave for work -- she lies at the garage door and kicks and screams - it's horrible, and it makes me feel so guilty for going to work. Bill and I have talked about how part of it is her age and part of it is her autism. It's so hard on me. I am exhausted, so I'll write more tomorrow ---

We went to the beach this afternoon. This is what I love about Michigan....Bill and I have both been under a lot of stress and he had the afternoon off, so we decided to head to the beach...it was great. Katie really didn't want to leave --- (autistic kids often love sand and water) so she had a major melt-down...but other than that it was amazing!!! Thanks Bill for thinking of such a great way to spend a Friday night. It was so much fun that I didn't even miss my scrapbooking.

HAIR CUTS and AUTISM don't go together very well. My mom and I took Katie to get her hair cut short because we all liked Mary's so well. It was insane. Our poor hair-dresser was literally following Katie around the room trying to cut wherever and whenever she could. She got a good start to the cut but my mom basically finished it while Katie was in the bathtub at our house. That is about the only place we have success with hair-cuts with her. The before and after pictures are not as good as Mary's so I'm not posting them (mostly because I need to take an after picture from "now" as opposed to when we left the salon.

I'm starting to feel better....about the situation with Mary and the hot tub. I haven't let Mary play with the little girl since Friday when I heard about it through the grapevine. Mary keeps asking me why and I just tell her that until Mommy can talk to the other Mommy she isn't allowed to play over there. She's funny b/c she keeps saying, I already promised ___ (the other mommy) that I won't play in the pool anymore. I just have to tell her that I know, and that I appreciate how honest she was in coming forward about it, but that mommy needs to clear some things up before she can play with her friend again. What a pain in the butt. But on to bigger and better things.... We have pulled Mary from private school and have enrolled her in public school. This has been a very emotional decision for both Bill and I. We have been praying for a peace about it, and actually I was amazed at how easy it was to enroll her in public school. She will be in the same building as Katie -- we have two elementary schools in town - and she will go in the morning just like Katie. She is very excited .. and I am just relieved. I told her Private School teacher yesterday and she was just devastated. The school has been having a lot of problems - it is really sad. We are just at a point where we are doing what we have to do...I hate life changing decisions - they are hard work.

I'm glad for the weekend... Wow it's been a week. I went scrapbooking tonight, which I love, but amidst the conversation (there were several of my neighbors there) I found out some things about what Mary has been up to in the neighborhood that are a little disturbing to me. I know that she is mischeivious, but after some of the things that were said I find myself a little unsettled. I knew that earlier this week she and her "little" friend got into thier hot tub and were sitting on the edge of it with their hands and feet in it. Mary told me that the friend had asked her to open it because Mary is much bigger than the other girl and she was unable to open it herself. Mary admitted to me that she opened it. Apparently the parents felt it was Mary acting independently and they did not allow her to play with their daughter for a day because the father was very upset. The parents didn't see Mary do anything, they just went off of what their daughter said. The parents told my other neighbor that Mary was standing on top of the hot tub jumping up and down (okay, what would the point of that be) and then she opened it up (which she did) and they felt she is a bad example for their daughter. I think the reality here is that both girls are at fault and it bothers me that the parents haven't said anything to me directly. I know that they think I am a bad mother becuase I don't always hang out outside in the front yard with all of them. I HAVE AN AUTISTIC DAUGHTER WHO WILL RUN AWAY IF WE ARE IN THE FRONT YARD!!!! I am so tired of having to defend all of my actions all the time. I'm sorry that I can't be in an area that isn't fenced in because Katie will be in danger. I give Mary a lot of freedom out of necessity. I always know where she is and she is very good at asking permission to go and do things. I guess that I shouldn't be that upset, and that I just need to let it go..but I'm just upset that the neighborhood knows more about what my daughter did than I do. I'm glad that Mary told me what had happened before I heard about it at the scrapbook store. That was my Friday night. I'm off this weekend -- I need it!

Today Was Crazy

Well it was my day off, but it wasn't a true day off. Katie had her yearly appointment with the pediatric neurologist this morning. That went pretty well. She said that Katie looked great and that it seemed like, all things considered, Katie was doing really well. We talked about the new doctor we are seeing and how we are trying to modify her diet and see what happens. Like my pediatrician she also told me not to put too much hope in "alternative" medicines. She was concerned that I might have become "Anti-vacine" (which I am not). I told her that I am not opposed to vaccinating children, I just think that parents need to be better educated about what is in the shots and in how they are being administered.
Once we got past that it was a good visit. Katie is all set for another year unless we start to have more sleep issues or if any new issues develop. Then we came home and Mary went with Papa B to Coney Island for lunch and then to the lake for a swim. She learned how to "dive" off the diving board today....she is growing up so fast. Katie had speech therapy this afternoon. That went really well. She is making such good progress. By the time we got home from that it was 3 o'clock and the day was pretty much spent. Seems like today was my day to run 5 million errands - so I am tired. But all of this is why I am a few days behind on the blog...hope to do better...but I close the next two nights at work, so we'll see what happens. :)

These are the pictures ..before and after! What a big change. Mary looks so cute....Maybe Katie's hair is next!!!

I want to say that I am so excited because I am actually going scrapbooking tonight. I haven't been in months!!! I printed off a bunch of the pics that Mindy sent to me and I can't wait!!! Bill is actually leaving work early so that I can can get an early start. :) Mary got her hair cut really short today. I have a before and after pic. As soon as I upload them I will add them to the blog!!!

This is Katie on our vacation. Gotta love that harness! It is a life-saver with her :) Mindy sent me a cd with150+ pictures on it -- it will take me awhile to get through them all, but this one of Katie is so cute...she's such a treat! ..and after all, she is really what this blog is all about! My mom spent hours at the healthfood store today trying to find some foods that she can eat. It is going to be a challenge to get her diet re-vamped so that she isn't eating all of the foods that bother her. We had a little scare today...while the sitter was here, Katie managed to go into Mary's room and somehow flip over the toy kitchen (which is quite large - and she flips it over all the time) but today she somehow got it wedged between the wall and the door and there was no way for the sitter to get into the room. It ended up that Bill had to come home from work and use a crowbar to move the kitchen enough so that the door would open. What a mess. She was in there for about 45 minutes -- the sitter said that she was just happy as a clam, jumping on the bed and laughing !! She's a little stinker!! But we love her!!!!!