Lack of…

Lately I’ve noticed that I’ve had a lack of a lot of things…energy for one.  I’ve been exhausted beyond belief.  At first I just thought that it was because of menstrating, but I really doubt that…I’m fatigued.  I haven’t been sleeping well at all lately.  I wake up several times throughout the night…no reason…I just wake up.

When I do get a chance to sleep in, I’ve been waking up with back pain…and so I wind up getting up anyway.  I don’t understand what’s causing that either…but it’s there.   Plus, I have this stupid internal alarm system…my body just doesn’t allow me to sleep for more than a certain number of hours a night  ’tis not fair I tell you.

I’ve also had a lack of tolerance lately…for many things.  I deal with a number of people at work that aren’t exactly the brightest bulbs…so my patience and tolerance for stupidity is about depleated.  I think that it’s caused me to be short with people at home as well, and that I don’t like.  Kids are kids…I expect them to do stupid things, that’s how they learn.  However, I have no patience for it at all right now.

Hmm…maybe it is just the mentrating thing…ya think?

Well, it’s Friday.  This last week…no, make it the last 2 weeks have been the weeks from hell.

I’ve been beyond swamped at work and things have been a bit chaotic at home.  Jason has been ill and yesterday was his birthday (I hope you all went and wished him a happy birthday)…but he had to work last night so I didn’t even get to see him until after 10pm and by that time…I was exhausted and could barely keep my eyes open.  I felt really bad about that too.

I am going to take him out to dinner tonight and to a movie after he gets off work (he only works ’til 7 tonight).   The kiddos are all going to their Dad’s this weekend for Easter…considering I had them last Easter..we trade on and off on holidays.   I’m hoping that I will be able to kidnap my husband and take him out of town for a day…just to get away for a little bit.  Things have just been too darn stressful lately.

I’ve been up to my elbows in claims at work due to 3 accidents that ocurred last week.  In fact, I’ve been so busy with all of that and writing up incident reports etc., that I haven’t had time to get all of MY work done lately…so now I’m behind. See…risk management is my bosses job…but he’s not here (as usual) so I’m stuck doing it all for him.  But like I’ve said before, what else is new eh?

Anyway, I’m looking forward to spending some much needed time with my hubby and without the little ones around for a couple of days.  I think I’m overdue.

Have a good weekend and a wonderful Easter everyone!

Today is Jason’s Birthday!!!!

I love you honey!!

Did you know…

This puzzle piece is SO true!

Caleb is SO intelligent…and yet, some of the most simple concepts he just doesn’t grasp.  He can spell words that you’d never expect a 5 year old to be able to (i.e. dinosaur, college, etc).  He can write his name…he can count to 30 (frontward and backwards)…he knows all of his colors and shapes…and he can sing like you wouldn’t believe!  He’s an amazing little boy.

However, he still struggles with some general motor skills like using utensils correctly…even though he sometimes does it without thinking, most of the time it’s a struggle….

He still needs assistance with some things…but he’s come a LONG way from where he was last year at this time.  He’s enjoying being in a normal class environment and I think that it will help his social skills tremendously!

We’re getting him prepared for kindergarten and are excited to see how he’ll respond.  I think that it will be surprisingly pleasant! 

So…how was your weekend????  Come on…give details!

April IS Autism Awareness Month

Since my son Caleb is autistic, I want to make people aware that this disability is on the rise and has been for a few years now…and yet, our government refuses to see it for what it really is.  There are many terrible things that plague this country and our children…but Autism is the most overlooked.

Most pediatricians do not even recognize Autism as being a real disability. It’s the most misdiagnosed disability in the world.  This is a major problem…the reason being that Autism, if treatment not started at an early age can get to the point of being irreversible at all.  I’m not saying that Autism ever goes away completely, of course it doesn’t, but if diagnosed soon enough and treatments started at an early age…the child has a much better chance of it lessoning to the point of living a semi-normal life as opposed to never being able to communicate at all.

Even my pediatrician, who happens to be one of the best in his field and has even assisted in writing several books on ADD, misdiagnosed my son and still refuses to state that he’s autistic.  If my ex and I hadn’t been so persist ant and not have researched as much as we did, Caleb wouldn’t have gotten the help that he so desperately has needed over the years.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that so many people just aren’t informed about Autism and that IS a problem. 

Autism Society of America


Autism Facts

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  1 in 250 births

  
  
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  1 to 1.5 million Americans

  
  
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  Fastest-growing developmental disability

  
  
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  10 – 17 % annual growth

  
  
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  Growth comparison during the 1990s:

  
  
  
  
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    U.S. population increase: 13%

    
    
  • 
    

    Disabilities increase: 16%

    
    
  • 
    

    Autism increase: 172%

  
  
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  $90 billion annual cost

  
  
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  90% of costs are in adult services

  
  
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  Cost of lifelong care can be reduced by 2/3 with early diagnosis and intervention

  
  
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  In 10 years, the annual cost will be $200-400 billion

2003 Copyright Autism Society of America. All rights reserved.

Autism graphics by Cher

This is Eric…

This is pretty much how I remember him looking when I last saw him almost 12 years ago…long hair and all!!

This is how he looks now!!

He had to cut off his lovely locks for his position with Disney in Orlando.

Eric and I went to high school together in Garland, TX.  I moved there when I was 15 after my Mom was transferred there for her work.  I stayed with my Dad for a while in Michigan, but then couldn’t take his drinking anymore and decided to go live with my Mom in Texas. 

Eric was one of the first people that I met at the high school that I was attending.  He claims that when he saw me that I was “a breath of fresh air” for that place.  I don’t know about all of that…but I do know that I felt really out of place there until I met him.

I grew up in a small town in Michigan and here I was in this enormous city with these astronomically huge schools…they looked more like college campuses than high schools.  The people there were all into country music and such and here I was with my torn jeans (which I was quickly informed that you weren’t allowed to wear there) and rock t-shirts (which were also not allowed).  I stuck out like a sore thumb!

I thought that I wasn’t going to meet anyone who I would have something in common with.  That was…until I saw Eric.   He had beautiful long black hair and wasn’t much taller than I (I’m only 5’3″ btw) .  He introduced himself to me and I thought “thank you God! there’s atleast ONE person I have something in common with here”.

Well, I wound up dating a friend of his and Eric and I became close friends.  I also wound up singing lead in the band he was in.  Yeah, those were the good ‘ole days.

For my 16th birthday, Eric bought me my first (and only) bass guitar.  It was beautiful! A bit expensive as well considering it cost him over $200…mind you…we were teenagers…that’s a lot of money for broke teenagers.

I used to sneak over to his house in the middle of the night when I needed to talk…he never minded, we’d sit in his room talking for hours.  Of course, my boyfriend at the time didn’t like it much and neither did his girlfriend, but that didn’t stop us. Nope…we were best friends and we had a bond that was much stronger than we’d ever known before.

Well, I wound up pregnant after a while…and the father of the baby wasn’t much of a father at all.  He left me for an underage girl (like 15 or so).  I wound up having to take my daughter and leave the state because her dad was threatening to kidnap her and he had gotten himself involved in some pretty bad stuff.  So, in order to keep my daughter’s whereabouts from him…I left without telling anyone where I was going…especially Eric.

See, because my baby’s dad knew how close Eric and I were…I knew that he’d go to Eric first to find out where I was…I didn’t want Eric to be put in that position, so I didn’t tell him where I was going.  We didn’t talk again for over 10 years.

We have a mutual friend, only through her did we ever communicate at all.  That was until 2 years ago when I got an email from him.    I couldn’t believe that it was really him!  I was SO excited!!

After reading his loooonnnnggg email, I replied and we talked on the phone shortly after that. It was like we picked up right where we’d left off!  Anyone listening to us wouldn’t have guessed that we hadn’t talked in over 10 years.

Anyway, to make a long story short (I know…too late for that) I’m going to see him next month…and Jason will get to meet him for the first time.  I’m so excited…and neither one of us can wait!!  We’ve been emailing each other almost every day planning out things for our visit. I even get little messages here and there just to tell me that he misses me and can’t wait to see me again.  (awe)

See, I’ve lost a lot of people close to me over the years…my dad, several of my closest friends (9 all together).  I know how important true friends are…and while Eric and I were unable to talk to each other…I still thought about him all of the time.  We’ve had some heart to heart conversations regarding that time…and I’ve learned that he thought about me just as much.  We’ve both grown a great deal over the years…but one thing remains, I will always love him and he me.  His is now, has been…and always will be the closest person to me other than my husband.

I’m lucky…I have him back in my life and even more than that…in the meantime I found the love of my life. Two very special and important people to me…people that I won’t ever let go of…

So yeah…here’s Eric…doing what he knows how to do best…making me smile.