Stay Cool!

The A/C is finally in!!!
Kevin hadn't been able to find anyone to help him build a platform for it, so he installed the mounting bracket in the window sill. Hopefully by next year, we'll be able to build the platform to better support the unit. But now, we're enjoying a cooler house. It's been in the 90's for the past few days and it's supposed to stay that way for another week. Yaaaay!!!

Today, I visited with my friend Carrie and her husband. They were house-sitting for his parents, who live near me, while they were camping with all of their grandchildren and nieces & nephews who are around the same age.

Tonight, Heather and I taught in the 2s & 3s class at church. We had only two little boys, and they seemed to play well together so it was a fairly calm time. Toward the end of the class, Kylin was brought by his teacher to my class because he was spinning in circles and singing his songs about 911 calls loud enough that the teacher couldn't finish the lesson. Generally disruptive. So she brought him to me. Once we arrived home, I told Kevin what had happened and he spoke with Kylin about how he is expected to behave in church and in public.

So that's pretty much about all for today.

Lp

Another hot day

Sooooo, today, it's really hot, in the 90's, and we don't have the A/C. It's the kind of hot in which you can just sit on the couch doing nothing, and you sweat anyway.

Kevin was home today, not feeling well. Yesterday, he had a CT scan to see what is causing all of this pain in his left side and abdomen. A doctor who he hadn't seen, called back with the preliminary results which indicate that nothing is wrong. Various friends are saying that it sounds like gallstones, and tell him to insist on getting an ultra sound. He can't get into see a doctor until Monday. I'm prepared to take him to the ER if he feels the need to go before then.

I did venture out today and bought paint for the kitchen. I'm hoping to do that project next week while Heather is at camp. I did buy some Otterpops for the kids while I was at the store too. For as much as I'm trying to avoid sugar, I'm having a bit of a "sugarfest". Frozen popcicles certainly help a person keep cool.

I did get some sewing done as well. I have a project that I'm working on and maybe after next weekend, I'll post a picture of what it is.

Lp

A Babbling Blog

I'm trying to blog more often. However, when I do, I always feel like I should blog about some event or something major that happened. But I've seen people blog about everything under the sun (I've read some blogs that have me thinking, "Whoa, I don't think I could share something THAT personal!" But some folks do).

Today, Kevin took the car to work. We only have one car to share and usually on Mondays & Fridays, he takes it to work, and the other days, he'll take the bus and leave the car home. When we first married, we had two cars, however, mine (a '77 Ford Grenada) was no longer running. He had a little Nissan pick up ('84 I think) and it was not an automatic, and for some reason, the seat wouldn't move forward very well, so I couldn't really drive it. So Kevin did the majority of the driving until we had a baby on the way and needed a working car with a back seat. The only time we had two cars was for a 9 month period when Kevin had another truck and I had a minivan (the nicest car I've ever had and by then we had two kids and needed more room). Anyway, we're back to one car. Maybe one day, I'll blog about my car history.

So this morning, the kids and I went for a walk. I try to get a 30 minute walk in every day. I started taking my son with me because he's just so full of energy, I thought that perhaps a walk would help burn some of that. I started taking my daughter with us because, well it's exercise and can go toward PE credit. Kylin, likes to announce every car that comes by, and what make and model it is. He likes to also announce everything he sees in every yard, on the street, every berry vine, etc. Heather, is anxious to get back home and for the walk to be over. The one thing that does catch her eye when she's out is a cat. She loves cats!

Also during the morning (and sometimes it's in the afternoon too), we do have school during the summer. It's not a tight schedule, due to errands, and Regal Cinema's showing of free movies two mornings per week (free air conditioning on those hot days when you don't have an A/C installed in your house). Yesterday, was our day to see the free movie. It was also the day that we went to the library. And the day to go to the store and get some last minute things for Heather to pack for camp (She's packed & repacked a few times already, and I still need to check and make sure that she packed everything that she needs). And we had to return the last of the soda bottles & cans collected to raise money for her to go to camp.

So after a busy day like yesterday, I'm happy to be home today. Just happy to not have to be anywhere. I can get some much needed things done, like blanching and freezing the produce from the garden, and try to get some areas organized. The only place that I needed to go to was church tonight. Heather had her youth group and Kylin had a boys class (which I sat in on with him because lately, he doesn't want to go and acts up in class sometimes, but he can't stay home with Kevin because he's a handful and Kevin hasn't been feeling well at all). I also had to turn in Heather's money & paperwork for camp. She's all set to go now. On Monday, she'll be off to have fun.

So now, we're home from church, the kids are asleep in bed (I know that Heather is, and I think that Kylin is because I haven't heard from him for at least an hour). I did have to drive up to the local little market (Dari-Mart) for more milk (chocolate milk for Kevin, which Heather heard about and said, "I hope he shares!"). I bought myself a little ice cream too. Now it's time to sleep. I have no plans to go anywhere tomorrow. However, we'll have the car, and when the car is here, there's always a reason to go somewhere.

Lp

Busy, Busy, Busy July

So Summer arrived without much fanfare, at least not here. We're still having some school during the summer so the kids won't have a harder time getting into a routine in the fall. Heather leaves for a week of camp in just over one week. It'll be a quiet week here. I'll miss her and Kylin will too. For as much as Kylin gets easily annoyed with his older sister, he does miss her when she's gone. On the other hand, Heather is very excited. She has a whole week of fun and no interference by her brother.

We recently had Kylin tested to see where his strengths and weaknesses (in behavior, academic and intellect). It's called an SOI (Structure of Intellect). He scored extremely high in art and drawing (we knew he would). There are some exercises (Sensory Integration) that we were given to work with him on so as to stimulate his brain to make some connections that it hadn't been. The first one that I tried on him was pretty much like massaging his hands. He was in a sour mood to start with, and he wanted me to "be done", but at the same time, his eyelids were drooping. He was calm for at least an hour. Maybe I should massage his hands just before he goes to bed. Maybe he'll get to sleep quicker!

Something that I thought I'd do, since we have a trip to Crater Lake coming up and alot to do before that trip, is to put my "to do" list on my blog (everytime I write one down on paper, it gets lost or else someone throws it away).

So, here it goes:

~July~
-Make reservations, and send invites & order a cake for Heather's birthday party
-Get a gift ready for Nephew #1 (he's turning 2 near the end of this month)
-Finish shopping for Heather's birthday and for her week at camp
-Purge broken or neglected toys out of the kids rooms
-Sort through older magazines & donate to friends or the library
-Buy or make valences for the dining room & kitchen

~August~
-Paint dining room & kitchen
-harvest and preserve the produce from the garden
-Clean out garage
-A trip or two to the Goodwill to donate
-Make a new school schedule for the new school year
-Make lesson plans for the Fall semester
-Get cooler cleaned and ready to hold snacks & beverages for the trip
-Shop for snacks for trip
-Gather some DVD's for the mini player (which the kids will be more interested in while traveling)
-Pack, pack, pack

This list is more or less a list of goals for me before the summer is over. Some things (like the painting) may not happen until after we get home. My husband has been not feeling well for the past 3 weeks, so I've been a bit busier taking care of my own chores as well as some of the ones he'd normally be doing. He's been to the doctor (actually 2 so far) who gave him some meds. I hope that they work. It's a bummer to spend your summer feeling sick.

So that's really the end of my report. I'm off to cut out some fabric to make more pj's for the kids!

Lp

My Son's 911 Incident

Here's something funny that happened today. Kylin didn't want to go to church tonight. In the past, if he doesn't want to do something, he'll threaten to call the police or call 911 (and we have told him every time that cops aren't going to come and let him skip school, or make his sister do what he wants etc). So today, he dialed 911 on his cell phones, that have no service. He didn't know that even cell phones with no service can still call 911 (and I didn't realize that he was doing so). So a little after 5:00 this evening, a Lane County Sheriff's deputy showed up at our door investigating 8 incomplete 911 calls coming from our house. I called Kylin to the door and asked if he had called 911. He said that he did so the car would be towed and then we wouldn't be able to go to church. Having a cop show up at the door sort of scared him I think. The officer told him that calling 911 when it wasn't an emergency was a crime. Kylin was a bit shaken up after that (a real cop showed up at the house and seriously spoke to him!) and he was very mellow and cooperative the rest of the night!. And we did go to church. He is embarrassed about it now and doesn't want us talking about it. I told Kevin about it when he came home this evening and he thought it was really funny. I had to fight off the giggles in the car driving to church!

Just a little over 11 years ago

About a month after our daughter's first birthday, my husband & I discovered that she was not going to be an only child. When we found this news out, we were still in our duplex, surrounded by packing boxes, because we had just bought our first house (which is the house we still live in today) and we were moving that week. Two new starts, a new house and a new baby. So during this pregnancy, we discovered that it was going to be a boy, and that he had a cyst in his brain. The cyst issue eventually resolved itself in a few weeks, but not before 3 more ultrasounds and a meeting with a genetic specialist.

Also during this pregnancy, my step-father kept telling us that this child would be so different than our first one. Hard to imagine because we only had the one, and she was a happy little kid. What would be "different"? We were hoping that this one would be quieter, because our happy firstborn was a rather chatty little gal. So our son was born, and he had a high pitched, screaming cry. Once he calmed down, (thanks to having a nice warm bath and being swaddled), he was just a quiet baby. So all through that first year, he didn't cry alot (unless he was hungry or teething).

Something that we did notice is that he was very observant. If we gave him anything thing to play with, he didn't really play, but he would just study every aspect of the item and when he had nothing left to study, he'd toss it on the floor. This continued into his toddler years when we would give him a piece of paper to color on and he would just study the paper and then drop it on the floor. Something also changed when he turned 1. He suddenly didn't want to eat anything, but peanut butter sandwiches. Overnight, literally, he went from being willing to eat anything, to refusing everything and only having PB sandwiches. For the next 3 years, anytime that we took him anywhere to eat, I had to have a PB sandwich in my purse for him to eat while we ate something else. In restaurants, we just felt like folks were watching us and wondering why we would let our older child eat something ordered from the menu and not do the same for our younger one.

He screamed about everything too, shrill piercing screams. He screamed if we were going to certain restaurants & stores. He screamed if we didn't carry him from the car to the house once we came home. One day, we came home and the boy screamed to be carried and my husband decided that the boy could walk to the house by himself. So Kevin pulled up a chair and sat in front of the garage until finally, the boy started walking toward him, at which point, Kevin moved his chair closer to the front door, which would then frustrate my son. He finally made it into the house by himself, but not with out screaming so much and so loudly that I was sure that the neighbors were going to call us in for abuse. We had a kid who would rather be waited on than have to do anything for himself (he's still kind of that way).

Other differences included, not speaking. He was 2 1/2 and still hadn't even tried to speak. I finally started singing simple words, sentences & phrases to him and he would mimick them back. Every 6 months, his vocabulary would expand a bit and he would finally start to put a simple sentence together. He also didn't interact with other children. I'd send him to Sunday school and he pretty much kept to himself and was the only one who didn't do a craft. Sometimes I'd keep him with me in the main church service, sometimes I would leave him at home with his dad.

So here we are 11 years later. He's an 11 year old boy, who still thinks more like a 6 or 7 year old, and he's nearly as tall as me (I'm not considered tall). He just recently received a diagnosis for being on the autism spectrum. Something that we pretty much knew but waited until now to get. He's certainly not the quiet child, he's full of chatter (mostly about things that interest him such as cars, trains, states, countries, flags, the weather, a favorite movie), and sound effects. We've been homeschooling him from the very beginning and I think that has actually helped him. He's not one to sit still for long periods of time and he has a few "tics" that would be distracting to a classroom full of kids. So he does all of this at home, for his parents and sister to hear. He's quite an artist as well and has impressed several folks with how well he draws (yes, he finally stopped analyzing the paper and started drawing on it).

I don't think that my step-father had this in mind when he said that the second child would be different from the first. We love our boy, and wouldn't have him any other way. And that boy is 11 years old today and he's "cool and very smart"

He'd Rather Draw

At 9:00, I told the kids that it was time to start school. My son, who had been drawing pictures (of cars) asked, "Does that mean I have to stop drawing pictures and do school work?". I asked him, "What do you think?" and he answered, "no?". Nice try kid!

Lp