Mother’s Day 2012 . . .

I got up this morning about 5:30 – my normal time, but in a panic. It was one of those times when you wake up thinking it is a school day and crap I got to hurry before I make everyone late! After the initial I’M UP! moment, I realized it was Sunday. A gloomy and rainy Sunday. I love it – the type of weather that can get me to clean a house and get other stuff done. Something about weather like this makes a house cozier. And makes me want to get up and get moving, not veg out on the couch watching tv all day {not that my kids would allow that, unless of course, it was a show of their choosing.}

The next thing I did was run downstairs to see if there was any pancake mix because we always have pancake mix! And what the heck …. there is no pancake mix. If you have followed me lately, I’m not eating things like pancakes – but it is Mother’s Day and I’ve had 4 kids come out of my body! I’m eating me some pancakes! THIS is the day to celebrate. I haven’t celebrated a birthday in years – other than when my friends or husband force me to do something. But Mother’s Day is huge. And something I love so much. This is the one day a year it isn’t just any other day. {My kids’ birthdays aren’t either.} BUT this is the day that I have looked forward to pretty much my entire life. As should most women. In hindsight, this day is bigger than any day I can possibly think of {except the birth of your children who put you in this spot in the first place!} I just thought my wedding day was the biggest. But in the words of my four year old daughter, “What fun was that, there were no Wheeler kids there?!” after she saw pictures of our wedding. And you know, that is my sentiments exactly.

But back to my pancakes … I’ll be waking my husband up shortly and sending him on his way to the grocery store – poor man.

So far, I have taken a shower and made up the bed. I put on paint clothes, because I will be heading into that studio shortly {and after I eat my pancakes.} I’m so behind. From painting to emails and my studio is trashed again!

The past two weeks have been rough. Hudson started testing positive for protein in his urine after he got strep throat about 5 weeks ago. I was hoping it was a typical positive – the kind that anybody would have after being sick. So I held out before giving him steroids. It wasn’t a typical situation. He woke up on a Tuesday {almost 2 weeks ago} with his eyes swollen shut. I fa-Reaked out! It was scary. He literally could NOT open his eyes. I immediately started giving steroids at the appropriate dose when he must start on them. It took about 36 hours before the swelling completely went down from his eyes, but his legs – oh my word, looked like sausages. He had cankles. And looked incredibly uncomfortable.

Where he has been steroid dependent for so many years, it normally takes a month sometimes a little longer for the swelling to go down and to get a negative reading in his urine. But where he has been off of them since the middle of December, we had a “trace” reading {which is as good as a negative when you have weak kidneys} in one week. Seriously, my mouth hit the floor! Now, normally it takes about 5-6 months to taper off to zero steroids – but that was part of the problem. The weening off took so long, that his body got dependent on them. This taper is going to be different – and shorter.

And it is going to have to be. I can barely afford to feed him right now. He is eating non-stop. I need to use this to my advantage and make him try new foods! He actually ate Domino’s Friday at a end of year celebration for one of our schools and said he liked it. That is huge. He only eats Little Caesar’s pizza – ONLY. But he was that hungry. Lonnie and I just kept snickering because he kept asking for more! Fortunately, his metabolism is working great.

Speaking of metabolism, mine is too! I’ve now started eating some foods that I restricted at first. Like I had said, I want to eat clean and without all the refined sugar, but eventually eat something if I crave it. Such as mac and cheese! But I wanted to drop 10 lbs so I didn’t eat anything bad – absolutely no cheating! But now, on Tuesday because it is double punch card day, I eat Sweet CeCe’s with my babies. I have convinced myself it is somewhat healthy because it is frozen yogurt. I’m sure there is some health benefit in the heath bar  I top my birthday cake flavored frozen yogurt with as well. Now check this out, since I have been eating so good, I’ve noticed when I eat junk, I actually drop more weight! What’s up metabolism – it has been a long time. So glad you came back to see me!!!! And because of the small spurts of junk, I have now lost past the 10 lb goal and weigh where I was about the time I got married 10 years ago. I really don’t know how much I want to weigh. I just figured if I keep eating good, then my body will eventually level out to where it should be for my height and frame. I promise to post a few recipes. And no, I’ve not added exercise – the time has not been there.

Time … the end of the school year takes it all up! Between 4 kids and 3 schools – wow. Last week, there was not a day that I didn’t go to bed before 1 am and woke back up at 5ish. The only donations I do is for Carson and Emme’s school. I donate a gift card and call it day. But I wanted to offer up the Christmas painting I did recently so I had to paint a sample. I’ve not taken a picture yet – actually it is still at the school. As well as a painting for a neighbor that is about to pop with her first child! Unfortunately, end of year gifts for teachers will not be a small words custom piece. I am currently working on these crazy and whimsical birds and bird cages – I’m dying to show you all. They are part awesome, part hysterical. And there is 4 of them! I want to finish them up today! Just maybe, oh just maybe!

Somebody has joined me. And I can hear classic Smurfs on the tv in the boys’ room – I love the classic Smurfs. We have every episode on dvd – over 15 hours of pure clean entertainment! I have a story about the Smurfs, I’ll tell you about it sometime! But for now, I’m off to wake my husband and deliver the news that we need pancake mix.

Happy Mother’s Day!

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Autism x2 {Part 2} ….

It is so strange how autism works. Once you start reading about all the info, you have everyone you know – from family, to friends, to random strangers you “tried” to make eye contact with at the grocery store, to a wild child flapping in the library – diagnosed somewhere on the spectrum. Seriously, everyone fits on there somewhere! And if you get offended with that statement, go read the behaviors and I’m sure you will agree.

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So, there I was. Freakin’ out about my kid because I knew there was a huge chance that my kid just might have autism. Especially after I just saw it on Oprah. Seriously, after an episode of Oprah, you might as well have your Ph.D. in the area of whatever topic is on your TV for the day!

I can only imagine how many calls all the pediatricians got around the US after that episode aired. Because I called my pediatrician that day. And I left a message. {I should preface this with how much I love my pediatrician.} He called me back relatively quick and assured me that I had nothing to worry about. Hudson just hadn’t really lived enough to say if there was a real issue or if Hudson was just Hudson. That last sentence isn’t going to make sense to many people because it didn’t make any real sense to me then either.

Now – it makes total sense.

Needless to say, my attention was on full alert at this point. In the beginning, I tried to stay away from the internet when it came to information about autism. I’m fairly certain it was because I was afraid of what I would find. What people need to understand about parents of autistic children is that as much as we want answers, we don’t want to hear them. And that is with everything autistic. From the diagnosis to the how to the why. I just want you all to know that as much as I want to know how I could have prevented it, I don’t want to blame myself if I could have.

About this time, I realized that Hudson definitely suffered the same fate as myself and was battling with sensory integration disorder. Such a fancy word to say that one or more of the five senses goes crazy at times. From personal experience, I have issues with tactile {or touch.} I cannot touch chalk, sand, dirt, play-do, velvet, velour, rough wood, raw silk, minky fabric ….. the list can go on forever. Basically anything that is dusty or leaves a residue behind on your hand. If it dries out my hands, I’m cringing.  Which is the reason I use hand lotion all the time. A random, but first thing that pops in my head, example would be when I set up my artificial Christmas trees. The fake pines dry out my finger tips immediately and so bad that I find myself gritting my teeth and rubbing my tongue fast against the lingual part of my teeth. But I learned years ago, that if I put band-aids over my thumb, middle and ring fingertips on my right hand and band-aids over my left pointer fingertip, I’m good. Right as rain kind of good! And can work for hours on those Christmas trees until the band-aids fall off.

In most sensory integration disorder “moments,” your other senses are elevated. And sometimes beyond comprehension. So, when Hudson is in a crowded room and 27 different conversations are going on, he can’t handle it. He loses all control. He will scream, hit and just freak out. I love trying to explain why he is having a freak out session especially to those who think that my kid is just misbehaving. OR those who think all he needs is to acclimate. Hell, if all I needed to do was bust my kid’s butt and keep putting him in the same situation repeatedly – he would be cured!! Unfortunately, it isn’t that easy and that has yet to work.

During the first year, I noticed that Hudson had a real issue with crowds and loud noises. It was different from the typical child crowd freak-outs. Anyone with kids know that there is a time when your child has some normal issues with noise and crowds. But they out grow them and move on. Hudson will never outgrow it nor will he ever move on. He has to learn to deal with it. At this point, it is easier to choose what crowds we have to mingle with and avoid as many as we can because at the end of the day, it is hard on every single person in this family.

After the first year, I realized Hudson had major issues with tactile. And it was worst than my own {which means it was and is bad!} That was the reason he would not hold onto a sippy cup with condensation – thank you Play-tex for your insulator cups. He also quickly started having a problem with foods. I noticed quickly how his diet started dropping food. Again, I was told not to worry. And after four kids, I can tell you that all kids go through a picky stages once they figure out they can be picky and their taste buds develop. The problem is when your child is missing complete food groups for months. Even when I would force him to try anything, he would gag. The gagging was an indicator there was a real problem!

But even with all this, I still did not have a diagnosis of nothing. I just kept getting the for now we will call them quirks conversations every time I would bring it up. And for the time being, I was okay with that. Because I wanted to believe they were only quirks. And you know, for many kids that is exactly what they were and are. Only my gut told me it was so much more. But honestly during the time, I was happy to believe I had only a quirky child.

We were rolling right along and when Hudson was 17 months old, the twins were born. And a little over 24 hours after their birth, I could see that I was going to have another “quirky child.” That’s right, I saw something immediately that made me know.

{to be continued….}

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Because we all love some randomness . . .

So, when I started my post about our journey with autism, I realized it was a long story. Hudson will be 7 in a couple of weeks and as you read yesterday, I was thinking there was something going on somewhere during the first year. I decided to write about it every couple of posts. For that matter, I could probably write about for as long as I blog because it is our forever and the story doesn’t stop.

Fortunately for all you guys, Hudson has started a program that focuses on his cognitive skills. It is 4 days a week for about an hour and 15 minutes for about 16 weeks. Most of these days, me and the other 3 kids will be sitting in the van {such as this very moment.} Since I can’t do anything productive sitting in my car, I thought why not blog!! I will just have to remember to bring my MacBook. That could be a problem. A serious problem!

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Got a new picture with a new do for you guys – now if I can replicate it!

This was days ago and I’ve yet to be able to make it do the same thing. So aggravating.

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I’ve also had several people ask me about my eating and how that is going. I’m down right at 9 pounds. And I can’t believe it!! I still need to add exercise – that’s right, I’ve not done that yet. I’m such a slacker!! But I’m back into a size 4 and happy that it looks like a pack of farmers have moved out of the seat of these pants I’m currently wearing. I’ve not really cheated which is awesome. I need post some of my recipes on here sometime so you can try it. I am eating more than just raw veggies and fruit!

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Last week we had our driveway widened. I can’t tell you how stinkin’ excited we are! Two more days and we can drive on the newest part. I drive a van and my husband drives a Toyota Tundra – it’s big with 4 doors and could be a semi as far as I’m concerned. For us to fit side by side on the driveway, his tires were all off the driveway. We added about 3 feet to each side. We got approval from our HOA last spring. I sure hope we don’t get in trouble for doing it a year later. And yes, it wouldn’t surprise me if we do. Lucky for them, we can now finish up our janky landscaping!!

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About a year ago, one of my besties who is the  CraigsList whisperer, found me 2 night stands that were perfect!! I say perfect, after they got about 3 coats of paint the other day, they were really perfect. I’ll have a post about that soon. She had found me a bedroom suit {also CraigsList} and I needed a matching set of night stands that didn’t match the bedroom suite to complete the set. Here is a little sneaky peek for you to see …..

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I painted my interior back, French doors red. I can’t believe how pretty my outside looks looking through the red. I’ll post about it with pictures as soon as I clean the red off the windows. Might be a couple of years, but know I owe you the post!

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And since this post is so freakin’ random, I’ll just keep adding to the randomness. Today marks the 16 year anniversary that my house burnt down. It was the first thing I thought of when I woke up this morning. I was a senior in high school. I had just been asked out by this guy that I had eyeballed my entire senior year, yet our paths never really crossed. Then I went to Panama City during my spring break and we ran into each other. We saw each other that 1 day and that was it.

Once school started back, I made a point to say hi to him everyday and finally, on that Wednesday {April 17th,} that fool finally asked me on a date. I was on cloud nine during that drive home after school. Then I topped the hill right as you came to my driveway and I remember thinking why are we having a yard sale. On a Wednesday. In the middle of the day. ????? I didn’t even see the fire truck in the neighbor’s driveway. I didn’t notice the giant charred hole in the roof. Nor did I realize the crap in our front yard is what people had drug out of our house while it was burning and afterwards.

To skip to the end of the story, it took me an hour or so to realize that I had given Mr. Good-looking-that-finally-noticed-me-in-Florida my phone number. I had my own line at the time and well, it was officially a non-working number. I remembered the firemen and a few others talking about how the home phone rang while they were trying to put the fire out. Apparently, a fireman answered it. I waded through water to the center of the house. I found the wall phone in the kitchen and sure enough, I heard a dial tone. I pulled his number from my pocket and called him. And of course I started crying immediately, “You can’t call me because my phone doesn’t work.” He was like Huh? And then I told him {briefly} what happened. I’m sure he thought I had lost my mind when I told him I was standing in the middle of my burnt house talking on the phone.

We dated for 3 years.

It is hard to believe that all happened 16 years ago. Sixteen years is a lifetime ago, yet I can remember so many details including the phone number I dialed that day!!

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I might as well throw some art into this random mix! My CraigsList Whisperer friend’s youngest son {did you follow that?} had a birthday! Of course I finished it in the nick of time to get it to the party so I took zero pictures of the finished piece! This picture is from the sneaky peeky I sent his momma.

Look at this kid! This was six months ago so he is practically grown now, but he is still the cutest thing ever. I can listen to him talk for hours. He just has that cute little voice that will melt your heart. I don’t know how he ever gets into trouble. I tell his momma that she must have a black heart to get on to Cutie McCute Cute! {hahah! just kidding!}

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I’m going to stop all the randomness so you can get on with your life. Thank you for reading about all the madness.

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