I've got a feelin'...
That tomorrow's gonna be a good, good da-a-ay......woohooo!
(Anyone else out there a Peas fan too?)
Remember a few weeks back when I mentioned a BIG change we had coming our way?
Originally, I had not planned to spill the beans until this coming weekend but due to an unexpected turn of events, I have the freedom to go ahead and reveal the big surprise. Do not get too worked up - it is really only a big change for my family and not something others will find much excitement in knowing.
Are you ready?
(Drumroll...)
We are changing providers for Reiss's in-home ABA (applied behavior analysis) therapy program!
See, I warned you. Not terribly exciting, right? However, considering the intensity and numerous hours of ABA therapy Reiss puts in on a weekly basis, it is a big change for our family and one we are certainly looking forward to making.
The decision to change providers was not an easy one to make. Actually, the decision to change providers began not at all as a quest to find another provider but rather, as a mission to simply research other options in our area for in-home ABA and ABA centers should we decide to make a change in the future. After a series of events occurred and subsequent tension began to build between ourselves and our current provider, we felt it was best to really dig in and do our homework regarding looking into the other options we found available to us. There was the unfortunate tension building, but at that point, our efforts were still only meant to provide us with options in the event of a "what if" situation were to happen.
A funny thing happened along the way though, and once we began looking into several other options, including one center and three in-home providers, we became quite impressed with one particular provider who services our area. The more we talked with her, the more confident we felt that she was was a great option to go with now and not just to use later as a "just in case" option. It felt right and it felt like a change now was in our best interest after all. She was very open and honest with everything we asked of her. She made no qualms about meeting with me on two occasions. She did not skip a beat when asked to provide references of other families with whom she works. I, personally, checked each of her references not once or twice, but four separate times, calling them back whenever we thought of something else we would like to ask.
Tomorrow morning I will meet with our new provider and the two therapists she has hired to work with Reiss. I stress the number because our current provider has four therapists working with Reiss. At one time, we had six therapists working with him for a total of only thirty-five hours per week. At our best, we had three therapists. The unusually high number of therapists has always presented me with a level of frustration, as I knew from speaking with other parents whose children receive ABA through other providers that they typically had two therapists, and a maximum of three therapists for a full forty-hour week of therapy. If your own child receives ABA or has in the past, I would love your input as to the number of therapists you have/had and whether or not you feel more is better or less is best.
Next Monday, Reiss will meet his new therapists and begin therapy and a whole new fresh start. I am so excited for him and I am excited for my family, as it feels like we are about to embark on a totally new journey. I feel free and like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders.
It is almost as though the dreary and cloudy bitterness of winter has dissipated and the sun is shining and Spring has arrived. Well, until I remember that it will probably be around 30 degrees when I wake up tomorrow morning. But I'm on this high, so who cares if there is frost on the windows and the furnace continues to run non-stop for the next few weeks?
And now it's official. My high has caused me to babble meaninglessly about frosty windows and other nonsense. So I will leave with that.
To be continued...
Showing posts with label thankful. Show all posts
Showing posts with label thankful. Show all posts
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
A Reminder of the Prevalence of Autism
Today was the best, if not the strangest, afternoon I can remember having in quite awhile. It was a great day but with the number of other autism moms I saw today (amongst only a few moms total), it also served as a reminder of the prevalence of autism.
First, we started off by going to the dentist. Both kids behaved fairly well. That is, if you don't count the timeout Reiss got for banging on the side of the aquarium in the dentist's waiting room. It was not very hard but certainly hard enough to scare the bejeezus out of any fish unfortunate enough to call the tank their home.
In the waiting room, it was nice to recognize and talk with another autism mom whose children used to go to the same physical therapy office where my children went. Her boys' appointments coincided with my kids' appointments and we used to chat each week. Our insurance allotment of appointments ran out mid-year last year and I kinda lost touch with the mom, other than the occasional passing of one another on Facebook.
Our visit to the dentist's office reminded me once again of my spectacular memory, or rather, the lack of it. The dentist found a somewhat large cavity in one of Milla's teeth but it was nothing new to me. He told me about it on the last visit but I forgot to make an appointment to have it fixed. It was only after the dentist examined Milla on this appointment that I remembered that she had a small cavity. That small cavity is no longer small.
When Milla was finished with her exam and had picked out her Princess and the Frog toothbrush, her ABA therapist took her to her social skills group. Cavity-free Reiss and I then left and headed to the Y.
At the Y, I hadn't even taken my coat off when I saw there was another autism mom I know. This one I knew from her son and Reiss being in the same developmental preschool. We started talking, or maybe venting is a better word for it. We both feel lost about where to send our children for kindergarten next year. Another mom heard us talking and came over and joined in our conversation.
Thank goodness for eavesdroppers, especially when they are other autsim moms!
I felt especially fortunate for this other mom listening to our conversation because when she joined us, I learned that she is not only in my school district but, with a son who is ten years old, is also experienced in dealing with my school district's ways - two traits that I have found particularly difficult to find simultaneously occurring with other autism parents I meet. We hit it off immediately and an added bonus is that she has a daughter Milla's age. We exchanged phone numbers and I am excited at the prospect of having a new playmate for Milla.
As if all that excitement was not enough for one afternoon, another mom I have seen at the Y on occasion came over and spoke to us. She has two nephews with autism. We talked for awhile and she offered that her nephews recently went gluten-free and have shown amazing improvements.
While all this was going on Reiss played and played and played for nearly two hours straight with minimal intervention on my part. He played so wonderfully that I doubt anyone realized Reiss is just a little different than other children. Had it not been for seeing so many other autism moms, I may have even felt like any other parent just having an afternoon out at the Y. I think, just maybe, I may have even relaxed a little bit....
First, we started off by going to the dentist. Both kids behaved fairly well. That is, if you don't count the timeout Reiss got for banging on the side of the aquarium in the dentist's waiting room. It was not very hard but certainly hard enough to scare the bejeezus out of any fish unfortunate enough to call the tank their home.
In the waiting room, it was nice to recognize and talk with another autism mom whose children used to go to the same physical therapy office where my children went. Her boys' appointments coincided with my kids' appointments and we used to chat each week. Our insurance allotment of appointments ran out mid-year last year and I kinda lost touch with the mom, other than the occasional passing of one another on Facebook.
Our visit to the dentist's office reminded me once again of my spectacular memory, or rather, the lack of it. The dentist found a somewhat large cavity in one of Milla's teeth but it was nothing new to me. He told me about it on the last visit but I forgot to make an appointment to have it fixed. It was only after the dentist examined Milla on this appointment that I remembered that she had a small cavity. That small cavity is no longer small.
When Milla was finished with her exam and had picked out her Princess and the Frog toothbrush, her ABA therapist took her to her social skills group. Cavity-free Reiss and I then left and headed to the Y.
At the Y, I hadn't even taken my coat off when I saw there was another autism mom I know. This one I knew from her son and Reiss being in the same developmental preschool. We started talking, or maybe venting is a better word for it. We both feel lost about where to send our children for kindergarten next year. Another mom heard us talking and came over and joined in our conversation.
Thank goodness for eavesdroppers, especially when they are other autsim moms!
I felt especially fortunate for this other mom listening to our conversation because when she joined us, I learned that she is not only in my school district but, with a son who is ten years old, is also experienced in dealing with my school district's ways - two traits that I have found particularly difficult to find simultaneously occurring with other autism parents I meet. We hit it off immediately and an added bonus is that she has a daughter Milla's age. We exchanged phone numbers and I am excited at the prospect of having a new playmate for Milla.
As if all that excitement was not enough for one afternoon, another mom I have seen at the Y on occasion came over and spoke to us. She has two nephews with autism. We talked for awhile and she offered that her nephews recently went gluten-free and have shown amazing improvements.
While all this was going on Reiss played and played and played for nearly two hours straight with minimal intervention on my part. He played so wonderfully that I doubt anyone realized Reiss is just a little different than other children. Had it not been for seeing so many other autism moms, I may have even felt like any other parent just having an afternoon out at the Y. I think, just maybe, I may have even relaxed a little bit....
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Who Has Time for Boredom?
Really, I cannot even begin to comprehend how anyone can ever be bored. Yet, almost daily, this friend or that one on Facebook will post a status update either straightforwardly declaring such boredom or implying such with the indecisiveness of which activity to take on at any particular moment. I guess that is only one difference between myself and some of my Facebook friends: Some people use Facebook as a form of escape from boredom. I use it as a form of escape from my endless to-do list.
Right now, I am using my blog to escape my to-do list. And since I have little to write about, I will bore others with the details of my to-do list.
On my to-do list for this week, I need to.....
Tie up any loose ends for people on my family's Christmas gift list. It used to be for a long time that I was really great about having all our gifts purchased before Thanksgiving. That was B.C. (Before Children) This year has been a year of change though, and I am vowing to have that shopping done before Thanksgiving again. Unless absolutely necessary, I detest setting foot in stores between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Get all our goodies together for Thanksgiving, Rounds 2 & 3. Round 1 came yesterday evening when we had James' mother over for dinner. It was supposed to be Thanksgiving but we had roast. I thought I was receiving a fresh organic turkey from our produce delivery service this past Friday. I was going to receive it on Friday, prep it that evening, and then roast it all day on Saturday. Much to my surprise, our turkey arrived Friday afternoon rock solid. It is now resting in the garage refrigerator and - by my estimations and according to Google - will be just about ready for roasting on......Wednesday. Round 2 of Thanksgiving will be Wednesday and Round 3 will be on, you guessed it, Thanksgiving.
Clean out my SUV. Who am I kidding? This has been on my to-do list for months. I did go get the oil changed on Wednesday. That's progress, right? Even if I did only do so for the few moments of peace and the Starbucks self-serve machine at the dealership...
Tackle the paper monster that grows and shrinks and grows and shrinks on my desk. On a positive note, it does indeed have a home on the desk now, rather than the kitchen counter where, until recently, it resided for several months.
Call the phone company to disconnect all the added features on our home phone. Now that I have finally ditched my dinophone and entered the new millenium with my iPhone, who needs all the extras on a home phone? I know we don't. Anyone who really needs to get in touch with us has my cell phone number.
Clean out some of these toys around here. Some will go to the second-hand store. Others will go straight to Goodwill. I would really love to just give them to someone whose children could use them instead of take them to Goodwill where they will invariably be marked with prices that are way too high. Alas, I know no one who wants to take a bunch of this-n-that toys off our hands and finding a family with a true need would only add to my to-do list. Does that make me horrible for admitting I plan on taking the easy way out by making a drop at Goodwill?
Look into a research program I read about that provides children with autism an opportunity for socialization. Reiss is part of a social group already but this program is one that would provide him with socialization amongst children he has never met.
Enough of my to-do list. Just thinking about it and writing it all down wears me out.
If you are still reading, surely you are bored. Go on, now - head on over to Facebook and let all your friends know how bored you are.
Right now, I am using my blog to escape my to-do list. And since I have little to write about, I will bore others with the details of my to-do list.
On my to-do list for this week, I need to.....
Tie up any loose ends for people on my family's Christmas gift list. It used to be for a long time that I was really great about having all our gifts purchased before Thanksgiving. That was B.C. (Before Children) This year has been a year of change though, and I am vowing to have that shopping done before Thanksgiving again. Unless absolutely necessary, I detest setting foot in stores between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Get all our goodies together for Thanksgiving, Rounds 2 & 3. Round 1 came yesterday evening when we had James' mother over for dinner. It was supposed to be Thanksgiving but we had roast. I thought I was receiving a fresh organic turkey from our produce delivery service this past Friday. I was going to receive it on Friday, prep it that evening, and then roast it all day on Saturday. Much to my surprise, our turkey arrived Friday afternoon rock solid. It is now resting in the garage refrigerator and - by my estimations and according to Google - will be just about ready for roasting on......Wednesday. Round 2 of Thanksgiving will be Wednesday and Round 3 will be on, you guessed it, Thanksgiving.
Clean out my SUV. Who am I kidding? This has been on my to-do list for months. I did go get the oil changed on Wednesday. That's progress, right? Even if I did only do so for the few moments of peace and the Starbucks self-serve machine at the dealership...
Tackle the paper monster that grows and shrinks and grows and shrinks on my desk. On a positive note, it does indeed have a home on the desk now, rather than the kitchen counter where, until recently, it resided for several months.
Call the phone company to disconnect all the added features on our home phone. Now that I have finally ditched my dinophone and entered the new millenium with my iPhone, who needs all the extras on a home phone? I know we don't. Anyone who really needs to get in touch with us has my cell phone number.
Clean out some of these toys around here. Some will go to the second-hand store. Others will go straight to Goodwill. I would really love to just give them to someone whose children could use them instead of take them to Goodwill where they will invariably be marked with prices that are way too high. Alas, I know no one who wants to take a bunch of this-n-that toys off our hands and finding a family with a true need would only add to my to-do list. Does that make me horrible for admitting I plan on taking the easy way out by making a drop at Goodwill?
Look into a research program I read about that provides children with autism an opportunity for socialization. Reiss is part of a social group already but this program is one that would provide him with socialization amongst children he has never met.
Enough of my to-do list. Just thinking about it and writing it all down wears me out.
If you are still reading, surely you are bored. Go on, now - head on over to Facebook and let all your friends know how bored you are.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
A Monster Of A Party!
Last week, our first-born monkey turned five years old!
I always have to laugh when other parents make the observation of their children growing up so quickly or empty-nesters whose grown children reached adulthood "in the wink of an eye." They all seem to say the same thing: "Where in the world does the time go?" Well, I will tell you where it goes or at least, where it went for me. For the first three-and-a-half years of being a parent, it ticked by so incredibly slowly all while I wondered if my "baby" - who was definitely no longer a baby - would ever stop waking every hour through the night, sometimes two or three times per hour, and if I would ever get any sleep again in this lifetime.
Alas, after starting our special diet and being convinced of its effectiveness on the very first night (the first night Reiss ever slept through the night in his whole entire short life!), we were finally getting some sleep and everyone thankfully survived. And now we are at five years old! FIVE! Who knew I would make it this long and live to tell about it? But I am definitely here and, unlike back then, time does not tick by nearly as slowly now that I am asleep for at least part of it in any given twenty-four hour period.
Enough of my woes....Can you tell I am so thankful for sleep?
Last Saturday we had a party for Reiss and rented a bounce house in the shape of a monster truck. Yes, I know how much bounce houses cost and I am also aware that our rental cost almost as much as buying one. And furthermore, I have chosen to say "enough is enough" regarding toys and clothes and stuff and things that require space for storage and I made the wise decision to go with the option of having someone else worry about where to store such a large item as a bounce house.
Yes, renting a bounce house is not an investment with endless returns but not having to store it makes up for all those "lost" returns.
Reiss wanted to keep the bounce house, as trucks are one of his favorite things but, as we explained to him, by having people who come to get the bounce house (instead of keeping it), we get to choose a different one every time we rent one. Milla has already called "dibs" on the princess castle bounce house for her birthday in October. Little do they know that renting a bounce house is not something that will happen with a whole lot of frequency.
We took some really adorable photos, however, due to privacy issues with other parents' children, only photos of Reiss and Milla are posted.
All of the above photos were taken before Reiss's party began and while Reiss and Milla were the only children playing in the bounce house. Just prior to the start of the party, I changed Milla into a perfectly-party-appropriate dress with a cupcake on it.
Reiss painting a car bank. It was one of the prizes leftover in the prize bin after the party.
From left: Crystal (Reiss's BCBA for his ABA therapy), Reiss, Milla, Heather (one of Reiss's ABA therapists)
Reiss getting ready to open his first gift. In this photo, we also have Anne, who is not one of Reiss's therapists but works for Crystal and was here with one of the children present at the party.
Reiss had $23 from his birthday to spend at Toys R Us. So what'd he get? A princess dress for Milla! We tried to persuade him otherwise but that is what he wanted to buy. He also bought himself one of those hippity-hop balls. I have no idea what the real name is for them. They are those things a child sits on, holds onto the handle, and jumps around on.
My little five-year-old prince and princess....
I always have to laugh when other parents make the observation of their children growing up so quickly or empty-nesters whose grown children reached adulthood "in the wink of an eye." They all seem to say the same thing: "Where in the world does the time go?" Well, I will tell you where it goes or at least, where it went for me. For the first three-and-a-half years of being a parent, it ticked by so incredibly slowly all while I wondered if my "baby" - who was definitely no longer a baby - would ever stop waking every hour through the night, sometimes two or three times per hour, and if I would ever get any sleep again in this lifetime.
Alas, after starting our special diet and being convinced of its effectiveness on the very first night (the first night Reiss ever slept through the night in his whole entire short life!), we were finally getting some sleep and everyone thankfully survived. And now we are at five years old! FIVE! Who knew I would make it this long and live to tell about it? But I am definitely here and, unlike back then, time does not tick by nearly as slowly now that I am asleep for at least part of it in any given twenty-four hour period.
Enough of my woes....Can you tell I am so thankful for sleep?
Last Saturday we had a party for Reiss and rented a bounce house in the shape of a monster truck. Yes, I know how much bounce houses cost and I am also aware that our rental cost almost as much as buying one. And furthermore, I have chosen to say "enough is enough" regarding toys and clothes and stuff and things that require space for storage and I made the wise decision to go with the option of having someone else worry about where to store such a large item as a bounce house.
Yes, renting a bounce house is not an investment with endless returns but not having to store it makes up for all those "lost" returns.
Reiss wanted to keep the bounce house, as trucks are one of his favorite things but, as we explained to him, by having people who come to get the bounce house (instead of keeping it), we get to choose a different one every time we rent one. Milla has already called "dibs" on the princess castle bounce house for her birthday in October. Little do they know that renting a bounce house is not something that will happen with a whole lot of frequency.
We took some really adorable photos, however, due to privacy issues with other parents' children, only photos of Reiss and Milla are posted.
All of the above photos were taken before Reiss's party began and while Reiss and Milla were the only children playing in the bounce house. Just prior to the start of the party, I changed Milla into a perfectly-party-appropriate dress with a cupcake on it.
Reiss painting a car bank. It was one of the prizes leftover in the prize bin after the party.
From left: Crystal (Reiss's BCBA for his ABA therapy), Reiss, Milla, Heather (one of Reiss's ABA therapists)
Reiss getting ready to open his first gift. In this photo, we also have Anne, who is not one of Reiss's therapists but works for Crystal and was here with one of the children present at the party.
Reiss had $23 from his birthday to spend at Toys R Us. So what'd he get? A princess dress for Milla! We tried to persuade him otherwise but that is what he wanted to buy. He also bought himself one of those hippity-hop balls. I have no idea what the real name is for them. They are those things a child sits on, holds onto the handle, and jumps around on.
My little five-year-old prince and princess....Tuesday, June 22, 2010
He Gets It! He REALLY Gets It!
Reiss turned five years old today. His first words when he saw me this morning were, "Today is my birthday!"
and right after that,
"I'm five!"
I nearly poured out buckets of tears. Tears of joy, that is!
My first thought was that he gets it. He finally "gets" the whole excitement surrounding birthdays. It was like that line Sally Field became so famous for in her Oscar acceptance speech in the 1980's: "You like me! You really like me!" Except for the fact that she didn't actually say that. That was simply the gist of what she did say and what has gone down in history in the minds of the masses.
Reiss, however, does "get" it. He really gets it now that birthdays are something special. I must say with each of his previous birthdays I have wondered if he would ever understand the concept of birthdays and the anticipation of one's own birthday, let alone when he would ever understand. Even around this time last year, Reiss demonstrated no understanding of the concept of birthdays or of them being cause for celebration. He exhibited no interest in opening gifts or any of the traditional birthday celebratory activities.
And this is where I interrupt our regular programming for a public service message.
When I try to describe all the things that make up our particular world of autism, it is extremely difficult to describe to someone who has only experienced having or being around neurotypical children. While Reiss is one of those children who definitely falls onto the spectrum of autism, his particular challenges are not easily pinpointed without going into great detail.
Birthdays are one of those areas where parents of "normal" children take for serious granted. Neurotypical children have birthdays, they get excited about them at a fairly young age, and their parents usually do their best to make their child's big day special. I would venture to say that many of those parents cannot fathom their child not being excited about his or her birthday. On the other hand, many parents of children with autism often wonder if there will ever be a year when their child will get excited over his or her birthday. My husband and I are no different from most parents in that we have tried to make Reiss's birthdays special but the whole concept has always eluded him...until now. His excitement left me with such hope for the future that I am certain is way bigger than any gift anyone could give to him.
My point?
When your "normal" child is sitting there whining and being a little patoot about his birthday gifts not being exactly what he wanted or when your little princess's heart is broken because you rented pony rides instead of a royal bounce house, just thank your lucky stars that your little turkey is even aware of that one special day each year.
End of public service message. Getting down off my soapbox now.
We are having a big bounce house bash for Reiss on Saturday but here are the photos from this evening....
The cake is gluten-free and casein-free, of course, and can be viewed HERE. We purchased three of them from our local health food store. If you are interested in purchasing this kind of cake, you might check with your own natural foods market or health food store. From what I understand, the Shabtai website is frequently out of stock on this item because so many distributors buy up their stock whenever they get them made. Plus, I paid less buying ours from the health food store than what the website charges.
Their photo, nor mine, does this cake justice. Theirs does not look exactly like the cake we have, as the flower in the center of the cake we have is made of chocolate icing, while the one on their website has colored flowers. I am pretty certain they have gone to the chocolate flower and just have not changed the website photo. The chocolate flower makes the cake seem so much more elegant, in my opinion.
and right after that,
"I'm five!"
I nearly poured out buckets of tears. Tears of joy, that is!
My first thought was that he gets it. He finally "gets" the whole excitement surrounding birthdays. It was like that line Sally Field became so famous for in her Oscar acceptance speech in the 1980's: "You like me! You really like me!" Except for the fact that she didn't actually say that. That was simply the gist of what she did say and what has gone down in history in the minds of the masses.
Reiss, however, does "get" it. He really gets it now that birthdays are something special. I must say with each of his previous birthdays I have wondered if he would ever understand the concept of birthdays and the anticipation of one's own birthday, let alone when he would ever understand. Even around this time last year, Reiss demonstrated no understanding of the concept of birthdays or of them being cause for celebration. He exhibited no interest in opening gifts or any of the traditional birthday celebratory activities.
And this is where I interrupt our regular programming for a public service message.
When I try to describe all the things that make up our particular world of autism, it is extremely difficult to describe to someone who has only experienced having or being around neurotypical children. While Reiss is one of those children who definitely falls onto the spectrum of autism, his particular challenges are not easily pinpointed without going into great detail.
Birthdays are one of those areas where parents of "normal" children take for serious granted. Neurotypical children have birthdays, they get excited about them at a fairly young age, and their parents usually do their best to make their child's big day special. I would venture to say that many of those parents cannot fathom their child not being excited about his or her birthday. On the other hand, many parents of children with autism often wonder if there will ever be a year when their child will get excited over his or her birthday. My husband and I are no different from most parents in that we have tried to make Reiss's birthdays special but the whole concept has always eluded him...until now. His excitement left me with such hope for the future that I am certain is way bigger than any gift anyone could give to him.
My point?
When your "normal" child is sitting there whining and being a little patoot about his birthday gifts not being exactly what he wanted or when your little princess's heart is broken because you rented pony rides instead of a royal bounce house, just thank your lucky stars that your little turkey is even aware of that one special day each year.
End of public service message. Getting down off my soapbox now.
We are having a big bounce house bash for Reiss on Saturday but here are the photos from this evening....
The cake is gluten-free and casein-free, of course, and can be viewed HERE. We purchased three of them from our local health food store. If you are interested in purchasing this kind of cake, you might check with your own natural foods market or health food store. From what I understand, the Shabtai website is frequently out of stock on this item because so many distributors buy up their stock whenever they get them made. Plus, I paid less buying ours from the health food store than what the website charges.
Their photo, nor mine, does this cake justice. Theirs does not look exactly like the cake we have, as the flower in the center of the cake we have is made of chocolate icing, while the one on their website has colored flowers. I am pretty certain they have gone to the chocolate flower and just have not changed the website photo. The chocolate flower makes the cake seem so much more elegant, in my opinion.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Kicking Myself
While we are enjoying the results and benefits of the last three weeks of Reiss receiving ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) therapy, at the same time, I am kicking myself every day for having not fought more intensely for him to receive such therapy since learning about it more than a year ago.
When I first discovered ABA therapy, I did what I now look back on and think of as a very casual, half-hearted effort to seek ABA therapy as part of our treatment plan for Reiss' autism. After coming up with basically no resources for ABA in our area, I gave up. A few months later, once again, something apparently sparked my interest in seeking out ABA services for Reiss but the only results I came up with at that time were Lovaas and ABA centers that are a one-hour one-way trip from our home.
I didn't want the hassle of being responsible for submitting our own insurance claims that came with Lovaas services and driving a one-hour drive to a center and sitting for four to eight hours while Reiss received therapy was simply out of the question. Laziness has nothing to do with my reluctance to file our own insurance claims. No, my hesitancy stems more from past experiences with insurance companies and how they frequently try to pass the financial responsibility on to the consumer rather than own up to their entire purpose for providing insurance - paying the claims.
Making a one-hour drive to a center was not even something I would have considered doing. It's not that I would not do just about anything to improve Reiss's autism symptoms, but rather, many factors combined to make considering such a trek on a daily basis totally unfeasible. First, I also have Milla to think about. Making such a trek daily when she was barely a year old would have been like packing up our lives every single day so that we could go and sit all day in the parents' area of the center waiting for Reiss to come out. How would that even be fair to a one-year-old? And that's not even considering the factor of inconvenience. Second, Indiana is not the greatest place to be during the winter months. It's not unusual for what is usually a five- or ten-minute drive during warmer months to transform into an hour-long expedition out into the tundra during the winter months. So imagine what an hour-long drive under normal driving conditions translates to in blizzard-like conditions. Not fun. Not to mention, stressful, and somewhat dangerous.
During all this, there was also the question of "How in the world are we going to pay for this?" When your child receives an autism diagnosis, no one hands you a nice little manual on how to proceed after you leave the doctor's office. Most of this stuff you learn by trial and error, talking to other parents of autistic children that you meet along this journey, and by spending countless hours doing your own homework - and God knows that's necessary since no doctor out there is losing sleep over my child or spending his time advocating for him.
Anyway, so it's no surprise that I learned about ABA and then went for months wondering how all the families in these success stories I was reading about could afford ABA for their child(ren). No one ever bothered to mention anything to me about autism mandates or the fact that - regardless of my loathing Indiana winters - my family lives in quite possibly one of the best states in the United States when it comes to having a child with autism and the mandate that entitles my child to insurance coverage for autism treatments.
Depending on the source one consults, a full-time ABA program for a child can cost upwards to $100,000 per year. Yes, that's per year - approximately two times the total median individual (as opposed to a family) income for a resident of the United States and approximately three times the annual cap of $36,000 that many states provide for in their own autism mandates. Luckily, as I later found out, Indiana is not only lucky enough to have an autism mandate, but we also currently do not have any dollar amount caps on the benefits a child can receive annually. At $100K per year (and that's quite a lot more than the average I am finding), or even $36,000 per year for autism treatments alone, it begs the question of why the insurance companies themselves are not calling on politicians to demand funding for further research into autism and its causes....but that's a whole 'nother rant.
It wasn't until early this year when I declared myself to be on a renewed mission of seeking out the best possible routes of treatment for Reiss that I really began paying attention to what the autism mandate meant for us. When I researched it further and learned that basically the mandate states our insurance plan cannot deny ABA services to Reiss, it was like we had won a small victory that I had never really fought very hard to achieve. It was a victory, nonetheless, and when the former director of one of the centers I had previously contacted gave me a call to tell me she and her husband were opening a center on our side of town, I was ecstatic. Little did she know that in the following days the introductions she made possible between myself and another former employee of the same center where she was employed would result in our family getting started with ABA by means of an in-home program, much sooner than her own center was opened.
Do I feel guilty for facilitating Reiss's in-home ABA program with a different individual than the person who was trying to get us onboard as clients in their own facility? No, not really because we may still end up sending Reiss to the center once it opens so that he can continue having social interactions on a regular basis.
Long story long, that is how we arrived where we are today. Reiss is doing an in-home ABA program for around 22 hours per week and we are in Week 4. After school is out for the summer, Reiss will bump up to forty hours per week. If you are not familiar with ABA, this probably sounds like a grueling schedule to keep, especially for a child who isn't even five years old. However, ABA therapy is very play-oriented in its teaching techniques. Reiss generally runs three to five "programs" and then gets a free period in which he can choose the activity he wishes to do for the duration of his break until the next set of programs.
The results we have seen so far are amazing.
We are experiencing many less tantrums.
Now, unlike before ABA, Reiss sometimes gets water or something on his shirt and there is no meltdown. Sometimes, in these instances, my husband and I find ourselves looking at one another while both of us are thinking, "Okay, where is the tantrum? Is it coming and is just delayed?" But it never comes and we are shocked and amazed.
Car rides are actually enjoyable - something I have never - post children -been able to say prior to now. Reiss and Milla sit. And they are often quiet. No screaming. No stressing me out to a point where a three minute car ride is like enduring a non-medicated root canal. And at the risk of jinxing myself, I will even go so far to say they often watch DVD's while in the car, as in, they actually pay attention to them.
And discipline....oh, where do I begin? Prior to ABA, nothing and I really mean nothing has ever proven effective with Reiss for any given amount of time. Timeouts were the worst. Sending him to his room was like a reward. Reward systems meant nothing to him. Positive reinforcement was like a permission slip to follow his good deeds with an undesirable behavior. If parents of typical children thinks it's difficult trying to discipline a child, they have no clue what it's like for many parents of autistic children. These children simply think and process things differently - and that's not my opinion, it's a fact.
Reiss is writing and drawing and - I don't even know how to word this to give it the magnitude it deserves - recognizing written words. I would venture to say he is reading. Reading by rote memory recognition of words used repeatedly in visuals with his ABA programs, but reading, all the same.
The most amazing thing though, is that Reiss is actually initiating conversations - no, wait, I mean meaningful conversations with people. He is asking people their names, their middle names, last names, birth dates. Before ABA, Reiss barely noticed the existence of other people around him, much less engage in conversational speech with them.
With ABA, I feel like we have our sanity back. Literally.
Finally arriving where we have has been quite a lesson in researching our options and digging for that information that no one is going to spoon-feed us. The whole process has left me wondering why we didn't get ABA for Reiss much sooner - at any cost or inconvenience or whatever. But I know the answer to that - I just didn't put up enough of a fight.
And while the ABA is costing us an arm and a leg, even with insurance coverage, that sanity isn't something one can put a pricetag on.
I can just see the commercial for ABA....
Autism: Your child's ability to develop "normally" out the window.
Effects autism has on a family: Feelings of isolation and lack of others who understand and can relate.
Treatments for autism: More money than any average person makes in a year.
ABA: Too darn much.
Getting one's sanity back after ABA: Priceless.
When I first discovered ABA therapy, I did what I now look back on and think of as a very casual, half-hearted effort to seek ABA therapy as part of our treatment plan for Reiss' autism. After coming up with basically no resources for ABA in our area, I gave up. A few months later, once again, something apparently sparked my interest in seeking out ABA services for Reiss but the only results I came up with at that time were Lovaas and ABA centers that are a one-hour one-way trip from our home.
I didn't want the hassle of being responsible for submitting our own insurance claims that came with Lovaas services and driving a one-hour drive to a center and sitting for four to eight hours while Reiss received therapy was simply out of the question. Laziness has nothing to do with my reluctance to file our own insurance claims. No, my hesitancy stems more from past experiences with insurance companies and how they frequently try to pass the financial responsibility on to the consumer rather than own up to their entire purpose for providing insurance - paying the claims.
Making a one-hour drive to a center was not even something I would have considered doing. It's not that I would not do just about anything to improve Reiss's autism symptoms, but rather, many factors combined to make considering such a trek on a daily basis totally unfeasible. First, I also have Milla to think about. Making such a trek daily when she was barely a year old would have been like packing up our lives every single day so that we could go and sit all day in the parents' area of the center waiting for Reiss to come out. How would that even be fair to a one-year-old? And that's not even considering the factor of inconvenience. Second, Indiana is not the greatest place to be during the winter months. It's not unusual for what is usually a five- or ten-minute drive during warmer months to transform into an hour-long expedition out into the tundra during the winter months. So imagine what an hour-long drive under normal driving conditions translates to in blizzard-like conditions. Not fun. Not to mention, stressful, and somewhat dangerous.
During all this, there was also the question of "How in the world are we going to pay for this?" When your child receives an autism diagnosis, no one hands you a nice little manual on how to proceed after you leave the doctor's office. Most of this stuff you learn by trial and error, talking to other parents of autistic children that you meet along this journey, and by spending countless hours doing your own homework - and God knows that's necessary since no doctor out there is losing sleep over my child or spending his time advocating for him.
Anyway, so it's no surprise that I learned about ABA and then went for months wondering how all the families in these success stories I was reading about could afford ABA for their child(ren). No one ever bothered to mention anything to me about autism mandates or the fact that - regardless of my loathing Indiana winters - my family lives in quite possibly one of the best states in the United States when it comes to having a child with autism and the mandate that entitles my child to insurance coverage for autism treatments.
Depending on the source one consults, a full-time ABA program for a child can cost upwards to $100,000 per year. Yes, that's per year - approximately two times the total median individual (as opposed to a family) income for a resident of the United States and approximately three times the annual cap of $36,000 that many states provide for in their own autism mandates. Luckily, as I later found out, Indiana is not only lucky enough to have an autism mandate, but we also currently do not have any dollar amount caps on the benefits a child can receive annually. At $100K per year (and that's quite a lot more than the average I am finding), or even $36,000 per year for autism treatments alone, it begs the question of why the insurance companies themselves are not calling on politicians to demand funding for further research into autism and its causes....but that's a whole 'nother rant.
It wasn't until early this year when I declared myself to be on a renewed mission of seeking out the best possible routes of treatment for Reiss that I really began paying attention to what the autism mandate meant for us. When I researched it further and learned that basically the mandate states our insurance plan cannot deny ABA services to Reiss, it was like we had won a small victory that I had never really fought very hard to achieve. It was a victory, nonetheless, and when the former director of one of the centers I had previously contacted gave me a call to tell me she and her husband were opening a center on our side of town, I was ecstatic. Little did she know that in the following days the introductions she made possible between myself and another former employee of the same center where she was employed would result in our family getting started with ABA by means of an in-home program, much sooner than her own center was opened.
Do I feel guilty for facilitating Reiss's in-home ABA program with a different individual than the person who was trying to get us onboard as clients in their own facility? No, not really because we may still end up sending Reiss to the center once it opens so that he can continue having social interactions on a regular basis.
Long story long, that is how we arrived where we are today. Reiss is doing an in-home ABA program for around 22 hours per week and we are in Week 4. After school is out for the summer, Reiss will bump up to forty hours per week. If you are not familiar with ABA, this probably sounds like a grueling schedule to keep, especially for a child who isn't even five years old. However, ABA therapy is very play-oriented in its teaching techniques. Reiss generally runs three to five "programs" and then gets a free period in which he can choose the activity he wishes to do for the duration of his break until the next set of programs.
The results we have seen so far are amazing.
We are experiencing many less tantrums.
Now, unlike before ABA, Reiss sometimes gets water or something on his shirt and there is no meltdown. Sometimes, in these instances, my husband and I find ourselves looking at one another while both of us are thinking, "Okay, where is the tantrum? Is it coming and is just delayed?" But it never comes and we are shocked and amazed.
Car rides are actually enjoyable - something I have never - post children -been able to say prior to now. Reiss and Milla sit. And they are often quiet. No screaming. No stressing me out to a point where a three minute car ride is like enduring a non-medicated root canal. And at the risk of jinxing myself, I will even go so far to say they often watch DVD's while in the car, as in, they actually pay attention to them.
And discipline....oh, where do I begin? Prior to ABA, nothing and I really mean nothing has ever proven effective with Reiss for any given amount of time. Timeouts were the worst. Sending him to his room was like a reward. Reward systems meant nothing to him. Positive reinforcement was like a permission slip to follow his good deeds with an undesirable behavior. If parents of typical children thinks it's difficult trying to discipline a child, they have no clue what it's like for many parents of autistic children. These children simply think and process things differently - and that's not my opinion, it's a fact.
Reiss is writing and drawing and - I don't even know how to word this to give it the magnitude it deserves - recognizing written words. I would venture to say he is reading. Reading by rote memory recognition of words used repeatedly in visuals with his ABA programs, but reading, all the same.
The most amazing thing though, is that Reiss is actually initiating conversations - no, wait, I mean meaningful conversations with people. He is asking people their names, their middle names, last names, birth dates. Before ABA, Reiss barely noticed the existence of other people around him, much less engage in conversational speech with them.
With ABA, I feel like we have our sanity back. Literally.
Finally arriving where we have has been quite a lesson in researching our options and digging for that information that no one is going to spoon-feed us. The whole process has left me wondering why we didn't get ABA for Reiss much sooner - at any cost or inconvenience or whatever. But I know the answer to that - I just didn't put up enough of a fight.
And while the ABA is costing us an arm and a leg, even with insurance coverage, that sanity isn't something one can put a pricetag on.
I can just see the commercial for ABA....
Autism: Your child's ability to develop "normally" out the window.
Effects autism has on a family: Feelings of isolation and lack of others who understand and can relate.
Treatments for autism: More money than any average person makes in a year.
ABA: Too darn much.
Getting one's sanity back after ABA: Priceless.
Monday, December 28, 2009
So Much to Blog, So Little Time...
So I better get started while there is peace and sleeping children.
Where do I begin?
Today has been a day of super highs and downright lows. It all started with me patting myself on the back for thinking ahead last night and sitting out some roast cuts on the stove for around two hours and then placing them in the garage refrigerator overnite to thaw. Actually, I'm pretty good about that planning ahead thing when it comes to dinner but roasts take a long while to thaw and even with that amount of time out of the freezer, they were still practically solid this morning. No matter, I seasoned them up and pre-browned them prior to tossing them in the crockpot with some new potatoes and baby carrots. We also have some leftover green beans and corn mixed together that need to get gone. This type of mixture is what my mom always called succotash but I have since then come to learn that true succotash is lima beans and corn....not grean beans. Dinner, done! Score! One point for Mommy!
Next up was showering. I try not to complain about it too awful much but I rarely get a shower during the day when Reiss is home and Daddy is not. Most mothers can just throw their tots in front of the tv and trot off to the bathroom for a few minutes of blissful hot water raining down on them. Not me. If you read this blog at all, you know Reiss does not watch tv. And left unsupervised.....well, that doesn't happen. Enough said. Having said all that, I decided I would go ahead and try to take a shower this morning anyway. It must have been some kind of Christmas miracle because I was able to get in the shower, lather up, rinse and get out with the house still standing. Granted, it was only three minutes but it was probably the best three minutes I've had all day. Score! Another point for Mommy!
Apparently, I must have been getting a little cocky with all my triumphs of the morning because soon thereafter, the mayhem began. We had gone out for a quick few errands and had returned home.
A little about our trip out first.....
While we were out, I saw a man turn into a cigarette and lottery ticket store and do an almost complete donut on the icy parking lot. I don't think he meant to do it, but it unnerved me just a bit because he turned into the place going way too fast. Had he spun just a few feet farther over from where he did, he would taken out at least three cars. Good job, buddy! Now go in there and buy some cigarettes so you can kill just a few more brain cells.
At one point while out, we were driving in another parking lot and I saw a girl in what had to be no less than five-inch heeled boots with an ice pick thin spike serving as the heel. All that.....walking across an icy, snowy parking lot. I wasn't sure whether to laugh or be impressed. All I know is that I was this close (visualize my thumb and forefinger coming together as close to one another as possible without actually touching) to rolling my window down and clapping. But I didn't.
One of our errands included going through a drive-thru and getting some lunch to take to James. Just as we entered the parking lot to the fast-food joint, some lady pulling away from the pickup window was either oblivious to me driving in the parking lot or simply felt she owned the place because she just started pulling out right in front of me. Luckily this parking lot wasn't icy or I'm sure I would have slid into her after having to slam on my brakes to avoid hitting her. I had to lay on the horn. Okay, maybe I didn't have to but I wanted to get her attention. And then, of course, as he always does when I beep at someone, Reiss had to ask me, "Mommy, why'd ya' beep at them?" And, of course, I wanted to say, "Because that lady had her head in her rear, sweetie." But I didn't.
Back home again, chaos ensued quite rapidly.
On the way home, Milla fell asleep in the truck so once we arrived home, I took her out and brought her into the living room and laid her down in a chair. Reiss was playing in the garage. Milla was snoozing with sweet little toddler snores barely audible over the heating ducts spewing out warm air since I had cranked the heat up immediately upon entering the house . I had turned the heat all the way down to 66 when we left and it must not have taken long for it to get that cold in here with the arctic temps outside because it was all the way down to that temperature and we were not gone long at all. So all was well in my world and then some psychotic battery-operated vtech bug toy decided to go off all on its own and make a musical wakeup call to Milla. Score! Psychotic toy, one point!
Reiss came in from playing in the garage and told me he had to poop so we went to the master bathroom and we both sat in there doing our business. Reiss on the toddler potty and me on the regular toilet. I was done before Reiss and got up and flushed. The toilet seemed to be taking longer than usual to refill the tank but I didn't think anything of it and next thing I knew water was spilling over the edges all over the place. Good thing Reiss had finished up because I needed to get him up to clean up the flood. Amidst that disaster, the shirt Reiss had taken off and placed at his feet had gotten soaked. As I tried to contain the flood, Reiss treated me to an extended length tantrum, extolling the extreme grief I caused him by not allowing him to wear the "pee shirt." Bad Mommy! I am just so mean.
Score! Psychotic toilet, one point!
Next up we went to the basement to see if there were any visible traces of the great flood of December '09. I didn't see anything and was glad of that because maybe it means that our contractor actually got something else right and the floor really is water-proofed.
While we were in the basement Reiss and Milla played with some toys that we just recently banished to the downstairs play area to make room for the Christmas toy explosion. Reiss was pushing around some robot toy and somehow landed flat on his face. The first time he did it, he laughed and got right back up. A few minutes later, I heard him pushing around the robot again, a cracking noise, a falling noise, and then Reiss crying. I went into the hallway and quickly picked him up to find blood pouring out of his nose. I'm not entirely certain what happened, as I couldn't get Reiss to answer my questions very well but I think he was pushing the toy around with his head down and ran into the door jam. Score! House, one point!
Finally, it was naptime and that leads us up to now.
I swear, the adventures of my daily life often read like a manuscript for a movie entitled "Manic Mommy" or some other hysterical comedy at which I am usually the only one not laughing but it doesn't get much better than this. There is peace and sleeping children, a fully cooked meal in the crockpot, and a husband who made it home safely and is crashing Bigfoot trucks all over the place on our new Wii.
Where do I begin?
Today has been a day of super highs and downright lows. It all started with me patting myself on the back for thinking ahead last night and sitting out some roast cuts on the stove for around two hours and then placing them in the garage refrigerator overnite to thaw. Actually, I'm pretty good about that planning ahead thing when it comes to dinner but roasts take a long while to thaw and even with that amount of time out of the freezer, they were still practically solid this morning. No matter, I seasoned them up and pre-browned them prior to tossing them in the crockpot with some new potatoes and baby carrots. We also have some leftover green beans and corn mixed together that need to get gone. This type of mixture is what my mom always called succotash but I have since then come to learn that true succotash is lima beans and corn....not grean beans. Dinner, done! Score! One point for Mommy!
Next up was showering. I try not to complain about it too awful much but I rarely get a shower during the day when Reiss is home and Daddy is not. Most mothers can just throw their tots in front of the tv and trot off to the bathroom for a few minutes of blissful hot water raining down on them. Not me. If you read this blog at all, you know Reiss does not watch tv. And left unsupervised.....well, that doesn't happen. Enough said. Having said all that, I decided I would go ahead and try to take a shower this morning anyway. It must have been some kind of Christmas miracle because I was able to get in the shower, lather up, rinse and get out with the house still standing. Granted, it was only three minutes but it was probably the best three minutes I've had all day. Score! Another point for Mommy!
Apparently, I must have been getting a little cocky with all my triumphs of the morning because soon thereafter, the mayhem began. We had gone out for a quick few errands and had returned home.
A little about our trip out first.....
While we were out, I saw a man turn into a cigarette and lottery ticket store and do an almost complete donut on the icy parking lot. I don't think he meant to do it, but it unnerved me just a bit because he turned into the place going way too fast. Had he spun just a few feet farther over from where he did, he would taken out at least three cars. Good job, buddy! Now go in there and buy some cigarettes so you can kill just a few more brain cells.
At one point while out, we were driving in another parking lot and I saw a girl in what had to be no less than five-inch heeled boots with an ice pick thin spike serving as the heel. All that.....walking across an icy, snowy parking lot. I wasn't sure whether to laugh or be impressed. All I know is that I was this close (visualize my thumb and forefinger coming together as close to one another as possible without actually touching) to rolling my window down and clapping. But I didn't.
One of our errands included going through a drive-thru and getting some lunch to take to James. Just as we entered the parking lot to the fast-food joint, some lady pulling away from the pickup window was either oblivious to me driving in the parking lot or simply felt she owned the place because she just started pulling out right in front of me. Luckily this parking lot wasn't icy or I'm sure I would have slid into her after having to slam on my brakes to avoid hitting her. I had to lay on the horn. Okay, maybe I didn't have to but I wanted to get her attention. And then, of course, as he always does when I beep at someone, Reiss had to ask me, "Mommy, why'd ya' beep at them?" And, of course, I wanted to say, "Because that lady had her head in her rear, sweetie." But I didn't.
Back home again, chaos ensued quite rapidly.
On the way home, Milla fell asleep in the truck so once we arrived home, I took her out and brought her into the living room and laid her down in a chair. Reiss was playing in the garage. Milla was snoozing with sweet little toddler snores barely audible over the heating ducts spewing out warm air since I had cranked the heat up immediately upon entering the house . I had turned the heat all the way down to 66 when we left and it must not have taken long for it to get that cold in here with the arctic temps outside because it was all the way down to that temperature and we were not gone long at all. So all was well in my world and then some psychotic battery-operated vtech bug toy decided to go off all on its own and make a musical wakeup call to Milla. Score! Psychotic toy, one point!
Reiss came in from playing in the garage and told me he had to poop so we went to the master bathroom and we both sat in there doing our business. Reiss on the toddler potty and me on the regular toilet. I was done before Reiss and got up and flushed. The toilet seemed to be taking longer than usual to refill the tank but I didn't think anything of it and next thing I knew water was spilling over the edges all over the place. Good thing Reiss had finished up because I needed to get him up to clean up the flood. Amidst that disaster, the shirt Reiss had taken off and placed at his feet had gotten soaked. As I tried to contain the flood, Reiss treated me to an extended length tantrum, extolling the extreme grief I caused him by not allowing him to wear the "pee shirt." Bad Mommy! I am just so mean.
Score! Psychotic toilet, one point!
Next up we went to the basement to see if there were any visible traces of the great flood of December '09. I didn't see anything and was glad of that because maybe it means that our contractor actually got something else right and the floor really is water-proofed.
While we were in the basement Reiss and Milla played with some toys that we just recently banished to the downstairs play area to make room for the Christmas toy explosion. Reiss was pushing around some robot toy and somehow landed flat on his face. The first time he did it, he laughed and got right back up. A few minutes later, I heard him pushing around the robot again, a cracking noise, a falling noise, and then Reiss crying. I went into the hallway and quickly picked him up to find blood pouring out of his nose. I'm not entirely certain what happened, as I couldn't get Reiss to answer my questions very well but I think he was pushing the toy around with his head down and ran into the door jam. Score! House, one point!
Finally, it was naptime and that leads us up to now.
I swear, the adventures of my daily life often read like a manuscript for a movie entitled "Manic Mommy" or some other hysterical comedy at which I am usually the only one not laughing but it doesn't get much better than this. There is peace and sleeping children, a fully cooked meal in the crockpot, and a husband who made it home safely and is crashing Bigfoot trucks all over the place on our new Wii.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Betty Crocker Gluten Free Giveaway!!!!
Okay, folks, this is my first giveaway and I am quite behind in doing it. A deal was made between BlogSpark and myself and while they held up their end of the bargain, I am embarassed to admit that - due to an inkling of ignorance on my part about which I won't go into detail - I have not kept up my end of the deal.....until tonight. Thank you to BlogSpark and Betty Crocker for providing me with this opportunity. At the same time, I offer my apologies to BlogSpark and to Betty Crocker....but enough of the formalities, let's get on with it.
BlogSpark provided me with a wonderful Betty Crocker gluten-free "Sweet Treats" prize pack and in exchange for it, I agreed to give reviews of the products and - the best part - hold a contest where the winner will receive one of the same prize packs I received. It's a win-win! My contest winner will get to read reviews of the products and then have the chance to try them for free. The rest of you, well, you just get to read the reviews - you will have to go buy the products if you want to try them. More details on the contest later though, so keep reading!
The prize pack I received and the contest winner will receive consists of the following:
Betty Crocker Gluten Free Yellow Cake Mix
Betty Crocker Gluten Free Devil’s Food Cake Mix
Betty Crocker Gluten Free Brownie Mix
Betty Crocker Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix
Betty Crocker grocery tote
magnetic grocery list and pen to make shopping easier!
(For more details on the mixes, check them out Betty Crocker)
To date, we have tried all but the Devil's Food Cake Mix. With any luck, I will be making that one this weekend.
When we made the yellow cake mix, it mixed up, baked up, and looked just like a regular yellow cake mix from a box. Knowing what I know of some gluten-free products on the market though, I was skeptical as to how this cake would taste. Looks can be very deceiving....and sometimes in a very bad way.
Luckily, the Betty Crocker Yellow Cake Mix was awesome. If I didn't know it was gluten-free, I would not have guessed. It had a little different taste and texture than a regular mix but not different in a bad way - just that, different. It was probably one of the moistest (is that really a word?) cakes I've had from a box mix. Of the three mixes we have tested so far, this was our favorite one.
About a week or so after making the yellow cake mix, we tried the Betty Crocker Gluten Free Brownie Mix. The mix yielded a small pan of brownies - I wanna say 9x9 is what we made ours in. The brownies themselves took longer to bake than the box directions indicated. However, to Betty's credit, my oven has been acting a bit nutty so I'm not certain whether the problem was with the time indicated on the box or if it was just my oven rebelling against me.
We baked (and baked and baked) the brownies and the results were a gooey-chewy center and crunchy-chewy edges. If you have people in your family, like we do, who have different texture preferences, this is a very good thing. Overall, I give this product a thumbs up. But having said that, at the price the grocery stores are charging for these gluten free mixes, I would really like to see the mix make a larger pan of brownies. Without a coupon or sale, you can expect to pay about twice the price of a regular mix and only get about 2/3 the amount of baked product.
Finally, I will forewarn anyone reading that I am not typically one who sugar-coats things and although I greatly appreciate BlogSpark and Betty Crocker providing these products to me at absolutely no charge, I do feel it would be a disservice to my readers and Betty Crocker if I talk up the Betty Crocker Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix with a glowing review. Simply put, it would not be how we truly felt about this product.
The chocolate chip cookie mix was, for us, a flop. The mix yielded very thin, flat, flimsy cookies that practically fell apart with a touch of the hand. Now if that's something you prefer in a cookie and you are eating a gluten free diet, I wholeheartedly recommend this mix. Was it so bad that we threw the cookies out to the birds? Of course not! That would be wasteful and we were able to resolve the problem by stacking and squishing two cookies together and eating them in such a way that did not allow them to fall apart.....very much. The cookies themselves tasted pretty good but baking isn't just about taste. It's about eye appeal, texture, anticipation and so on.
Will I buy any of these mixes again?
I can certainly visualize buying the yellow cake mix (actually, I have already done so probably four times!) and the brownie mix again but I'll stick to my favorite "from scratch" recipe when it comes to gluten-free chocolate chip cookies.
Now, for the giveaway.....
Simply comment on this post and tell everyone why you would like to try these products....and preferably not just because they are free. No need to give your full medical history or any private details you prefer not to share but you get the point. If you'd like to share a favorite gluten-free recipe, even better.
Sunday, October 11th at 12PM (that's noon - NOT night-time!) Eastern Time will be the cutoff for comments to be considered as "entries" for this giveaway. All comments after that time will be just that, comments (but appreciated just as much!). At some point after that time on Sunday, I will draw and announce a winner. The winner will be required to provide his or her email address to me (if you don't already have it on your profile) so that I may provide it to BlogSpark. The winner will then be contacted by a representative at BlogSpark requesting a mailing address.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask by commenting to this post or by emailing me at the address listed on the bottom left of your screen when you float your mouse over "Email" on my profile page.
The contest begins now...............Good luck to all!!!!
BlogSpark provided me with a wonderful Betty Crocker gluten-free "Sweet Treats" prize pack and in exchange for it, I agreed to give reviews of the products and - the best part - hold a contest where the winner will receive one of the same prize packs I received. It's a win-win! My contest winner will get to read reviews of the products and then have the chance to try them for free. The rest of you, well, you just get to read the reviews - you will have to go buy the products if you want to try them. More details on the contest later though, so keep reading!
The prize pack I received and the contest winner will receive consists of the following:
Betty Crocker Gluten Free Yellow Cake Mix
Betty Crocker Gluten Free Devil’s Food Cake Mix
Betty Crocker Gluten Free Brownie Mix
Betty Crocker Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix
Betty Crocker grocery tote
magnetic grocery list and pen to make shopping easier!
(For more details on the mixes, check them out Betty Crocker)
To date, we have tried all but the Devil's Food Cake Mix. With any luck, I will be making that one this weekend.
When we made the yellow cake mix, it mixed up, baked up, and looked just like a regular yellow cake mix from a box. Knowing what I know of some gluten-free products on the market though, I was skeptical as to how this cake would taste. Looks can be very deceiving....and sometimes in a very bad way.
Luckily, the Betty Crocker Yellow Cake Mix was awesome. If I didn't know it was gluten-free, I would not have guessed. It had a little different taste and texture than a regular mix but not different in a bad way - just that, different. It was probably one of the moistest (is that really a word?) cakes I've had from a box mix. Of the three mixes we have tested so far, this was our favorite one.
About a week or so after making the yellow cake mix, we tried the Betty Crocker Gluten Free Brownie Mix. The mix yielded a small pan of brownies - I wanna say 9x9 is what we made ours in. The brownies themselves took longer to bake than the box directions indicated. However, to Betty's credit, my oven has been acting a bit nutty so I'm not certain whether the problem was with the time indicated on the box or if it was just my oven rebelling against me.
We baked (and baked and baked) the brownies and the results were a gooey-chewy center and crunchy-chewy edges. If you have people in your family, like we do, who have different texture preferences, this is a very good thing. Overall, I give this product a thumbs up. But having said that, at the price the grocery stores are charging for these gluten free mixes, I would really like to see the mix make a larger pan of brownies. Without a coupon or sale, you can expect to pay about twice the price of a regular mix and only get about 2/3 the amount of baked product.
Finally, I will forewarn anyone reading that I am not typically one who sugar-coats things and although I greatly appreciate BlogSpark and Betty Crocker providing these products to me at absolutely no charge, I do feel it would be a disservice to my readers and Betty Crocker if I talk up the Betty Crocker Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix with a glowing review. Simply put, it would not be how we truly felt about this product.
The chocolate chip cookie mix was, for us, a flop. The mix yielded very thin, flat, flimsy cookies that practically fell apart with a touch of the hand. Now if that's something you prefer in a cookie and you are eating a gluten free diet, I wholeheartedly recommend this mix. Was it so bad that we threw the cookies out to the birds? Of course not! That would be wasteful and we were able to resolve the problem by stacking and squishing two cookies together and eating them in such a way that did not allow them to fall apart.....very much. The cookies themselves tasted pretty good but baking isn't just about taste. It's about eye appeal, texture, anticipation and so on.
Will I buy any of these mixes again?
I can certainly visualize buying the yellow cake mix (actually, I have already done so probably four times!) and the brownie mix again but I'll stick to my favorite "from scratch" recipe when it comes to gluten-free chocolate chip cookies.
Now, for the giveaway.....
Simply comment on this post and tell everyone why you would like to try these products....and preferably not just because they are free. No need to give your full medical history or any private details you prefer not to share but you get the point. If you'd like to share a favorite gluten-free recipe, even better.
Sunday, October 11th at 12PM (that's noon - NOT night-time!) Eastern Time will be the cutoff for comments to be considered as "entries" for this giveaway. All comments after that time will be just that, comments (but appreciated just as much!). At some point after that time on Sunday, I will draw and announce a winner. The winner will be required to provide his or her email address to me (if you don't already have it on your profile) so that I may provide it to BlogSpark. The winner will then be contacted by a representative at BlogSpark requesting a mailing address.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask by commenting to this post or by emailing me at the address listed on the bottom left of your screen when you float your mouse over "Email" on my profile page.
The contest begins now...............Good luck to all!!!!
Friday, September 25, 2009
Mmmmm.....What IS That Smell?
Yesterday began the official first day of our bathroom remodel. It was supposed to happen a few weeks ago (and would probably be done by now!) but lo and behold, our contractor's mother passed away and he was put behind schedule. Although I can be a very compassionate person, words fail me when I try to convey such a trait. So if I sound callous, I'm not. I just don't know how to word things to say what I mean. Our contractor's mother died. He got behind schedule. Those are the facts and I feel for his pain.....I just don't know how to word it to give that perception.
So anyway, yesterday, he and his workers began demolition of our bathroom. They came back today and did more of the "dirty" demolition work, as in, ripping out the shower and the toilet. The reason we are doing the bathroom remodel in the first place is because the shower was leaking into the finished part of our basement. Typically, that's not a reason to replace an entire bathroom but you haven't seen my bathroom.
We have known for awhile that we want to remodel the bathroom but we are not exactly instant gratification kind of people. More often, we do things as we have extra funds to do them and make the best of things while waiting. Our bathroom was one of those things that we had on the radar for maybe next year or the year after. Our bathroom had other plans. So rather than have workers come in and only fix the existing problem, we would prefer to have them do everything all at one time - you know, so we have our bathroom out of commission only one time instead of two times (once now and once again on down the road when we were really ready to do all of it).
Our guys arrived just as I was leaving to go get Reiss from preschool. I spoke briefly with them and then headed out with Milla to go get Reiss. We picked him up in pouring rain. That's the trade-off I get for not allowing Reiss to ride the bus: sometimes I have to get soaked in the rain or snowed on or whatever. Inclement weather is not my friend but for now, I'll take it over Reiss riding the bus. Call me over-protective but he is my first and he's only four years old and I've seen the way some of the bus drivers drive around here. After getting Reiss, we then took James lunch and hung out for awhile. James is his own boss so his boss doesn't mind too much when the office becomes a zoo/daycare on Friday afternoons.
When we arrived home again, the men were carrying bucket after bucket full of demolished bathroom walls, shower tiles, and flooring. The smell of raw sewage smacked me in the face like a dump truck. Now occasionally I have been in that bathroom and smelled a horrible smell and when I told our contractor about this on a previous occasion (when he was here doing another project), he explained the "trap" system in bathroom drains and all that and how gases (is that spelled correctly?) get built up and blah, blah, blah. Don't expect me to explain because I just went with what he was saying. Anyway, I knew there had to be more to it than that and when we began seeing the water stains on the ceiling downstairs, that was proof there really was a problem and that the smell wasn't just gas build up in the pipes.
I walked back to the bathroom and while doing so, the smell got stronger and stronger until I was on the verge of vomiting. And for good reason. One look at the demolished bathroom was all it took for me to find that it was not just raw sewage gas I was smelling all along. There was mold buildup from here to Utah in that darn shower! We knew it had been leaking but nothing could prepare me for this mess......there was mold all over the place. Horrible! Horrible! Horrible!
Even now, as I sit here with most of the demolition mess cleaned up, the crew gone, and that back bedroom closed up, our house still smells like the refreshing smell ofpoop raw sewage. The ceiling fans are on. Candles are lit. Thank goodness, it's getting to be Fall and cool outside, right? Oh, it's just disgusting but with the candles lit, pretty soon it will smell like blueberry muffins and raw sewage. So I guess I'm okay.
Now, the real decision....do I dare have all the moms and their kids over next Thursday for the coffee chat and playgroup I've been planning for weeks now? Or cancel? I had planned on coffee and donuts. Maybe I could still have it and just avoid buying any chocolate eclairs......
So anyway, yesterday, he and his workers began demolition of our bathroom. They came back today and did more of the "dirty" demolition work, as in, ripping out the shower and the toilet. The reason we are doing the bathroom remodel in the first place is because the shower was leaking into the finished part of our basement. Typically, that's not a reason to replace an entire bathroom but you haven't seen my bathroom.
We have known for awhile that we want to remodel the bathroom but we are not exactly instant gratification kind of people. More often, we do things as we have extra funds to do them and make the best of things while waiting. Our bathroom was one of those things that we had on the radar for maybe next year or the year after. Our bathroom had other plans. So rather than have workers come in and only fix the existing problem, we would prefer to have them do everything all at one time - you know, so we have our bathroom out of commission only one time instead of two times (once now and once again on down the road when we were really ready to do all of it).
Our guys arrived just as I was leaving to go get Reiss from preschool. I spoke briefly with them and then headed out with Milla to go get Reiss. We picked him up in pouring rain. That's the trade-off I get for not allowing Reiss to ride the bus: sometimes I have to get soaked in the rain or snowed on or whatever. Inclement weather is not my friend but for now, I'll take it over Reiss riding the bus. Call me over-protective but he is my first and he's only four years old and I've seen the way some of the bus drivers drive around here. After getting Reiss, we then took James lunch and hung out for awhile. James is his own boss so his boss doesn't mind too much when the office becomes a zoo/daycare on Friday afternoons.
When we arrived home again, the men were carrying bucket after bucket full of demolished bathroom walls, shower tiles, and flooring. The smell of raw sewage smacked me in the face like a dump truck. Now occasionally I have been in that bathroom and smelled a horrible smell and when I told our contractor about this on a previous occasion (when he was here doing another project), he explained the "trap" system in bathroom drains and all that and how gases (is that spelled correctly?) get built up and blah, blah, blah. Don't expect me to explain because I just went with what he was saying. Anyway, I knew there had to be more to it than that and when we began seeing the water stains on the ceiling downstairs, that was proof there really was a problem and that the smell wasn't just gas build up in the pipes.
I walked back to the bathroom and while doing so, the smell got stronger and stronger until I was on the verge of vomiting. And for good reason. One look at the demolished bathroom was all it took for me to find that it was not just raw sewage gas I was smelling all along. There was mold buildup from here to Utah in that darn shower! We knew it had been leaking but nothing could prepare me for this mess......there was mold all over the place. Horrible! Horrible! Horrible!
Even now, as I sit here with most of the demolition mess cleaned up, the crew gone, and that back bedroom closed up, our house still smells like the refreshing smell of
Now, the real decision....do I dare have all the moms and their kids over next Thursday for the coffee chat and playgroup I've been planning for weeks now? Or cancel? I had planned on coffee and donuts. Maybe I could still have it and just avoid buying any chocolate eclairs......
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
What Would A Duggar Do?
The photo above has absolutely nothing to do with my random bunch of rambling that will constitute as my post for the day. I just had to post it because it was one of those photos that was caught by sheer accident and turned out spectacular. It ranks right up there in the category of Best Reiss Photos Ever. And tomorrow is Picture Day at school. What a coincidence, huh???As anyone who read my last post knows, I just finished the Duggars' book, The Duggars: 20 and Counting! It was one of those thought-provoking kind of books that has left me thinking about it day after day. There is absolutely nothing complicated about the Duggars or their book, so when I say it's thought-provoking, I mean it has me inspired in many ways.
One thing that struck me and just plain amazed me was the incredible dedication this family has to God. I knew this before reading the book but there is a part where Jim Bob writes about how he was bound, gagged, and robbed at gunpoint several years ago in his own home, which also housed the office to a used car lot he owned, while Michelle and a few of the children slept in another room. The criminal couple doing the robbing made off with a car from the lot but were caught a little later. Jim Bob took a Bible to the jail where the man was being held. He was going to give it to the robber himself but was not allowed in to see him.
I can only imagine any ordinary person would wish for such a criminal to sit and rot in a cell but not Jim Bob. His philosophy was and still is to do something nice for those who do wrong to us.
So, with that in mind, I have been trying to use that philosophy in my own life the last few days. Now, granted, it's not every day that I feel someone has wronged me - thank goodness, right??? But I've been thinking about this and here is an example of something I've done along the lines of Jim Bob's do-good philosophy....
My mother and I have a pretty rocky relationship. No, that's not quite right. That would imply that we argue often, however, we just don't talk much at all anymore. She lives several states away and moved there right after Reiss was born. Apparently, when her possessions got moved, so did her caring a hoot about me or my family.
While I did try to do the right thing and call and send birthday cards and gifts at Christmas and so on, my actions were never reciprocated. Now don't get me wrong - don't think I'm one of those people who only does that sort of thing to get a big ta-da out of the recipient, because I'm not.
Well, after a few years of my mother barely acknowledging me, let alone my children, I gave up. I told myself I don't have time for people who don't have time for me. I realize this may be very difficult for people who have very close relationships with their own parent or parents to understand. At the same time, please know that because of the way I was raised, it's just as difficult for me to even imagine a close relationship with a parent.
Anyway, so a few days ago it was my mother's birthday. I did not send her a card. I did not call her. But all day I thought about it being her birthday and even though she doesn't have much to do with me, I do still think about her in the days before her birthday and for much of the day on her birthday. I wasn't really feeling guilty about not doing anything for her this year but I wasn't feeling like I was doing the right thing either. And then I thought about Jim Bob and thought, "Hmmm...what would a Duggar do in this situation?"
At around 9:30 that evening, I got on my facebook account and posted "Happy Birthday!" to my mother's facebook "wall." No, I'm fairly certain that's not exactly what a Duggar would have done but I felt pretty good doing it and I even got a "Thank You!" out of it. Again, I didn't need the "thank you" but I felt good in knowing that what I had done was the right thing to do and that it was recognized and maybe just that little bit of do-good attitude will result in my mother doing something good for someone else. It's kinda like those commercials for some insurance company where the people watch others doing good deeds and then they do something nice for someone else and then that person does something nice and so on and so on....
I believe in God and I believe in doing right simply because it's the right thing to do. It's sad that I sometimes have to remind myself of this. Shouldn't I be doing right anyway?? Just because???? It's kinda pathetic that I need to read a book that's not even religious in nature to remind me of this and if I'm this way, I know I can't be alone. Hey, I know I can be an oddball...but....BUT.......
Anyway, here's a challenge for anyone reading this (Is anyone reading this??): The next time you feel someone has wronged you or hurt your feelings, ask yourself "What would a Duggar do?"
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Easy Readin'
You know how you get those flyers in the mail asking you to join this book club or that?
No? Well, I do, and they seem to come almost weekly. Back in the day - that is, before I became so frugal that I rarely purchase books - I used to take these companies up on their offers.
Not anymore. No, I got smart and now whenever I receive one of those flyers I mark the pages with all the books I'd like to read. I then set it aside and place it on my to-do list for me to log on to my library account and put holds on the books that sound interesting to me.
On Thursday, my number came up for two of the books I had placed holds:
The Duggars: 20 and Counting! by Michelle & Jim Bob Duggar
Hungry Girl by Lisa Lillien
After taking lunch to Daddy's work on Friday, the kids and I headed to the library to pick up the books. Anything Duggar-related always gets me a little excited so I was eager to get my hands on this book.
Did I mention we have a Duggar dance in our house? Yes....It's a bit hard to visualize but it basically consists of waving both arms above our heads in a strange fashion while half-yelling "Duggar! Duggar! Duggar......" over and over. We do this on Tuesday evenings just before 18 Kids and Counting airs on TLC. Call us weird. I know and I don't mind.
I finished reading the Duggars' book yesterday. This is unheard of for me A.C. (after children). During my B.C. years, depending on the book, I could breeze through most books in less than 24 hours. A.C. I am lucky if I finish most books in 24 weeks. Sad. I miss reading but what can ya' do?
The Duggar book is a very easy read and flows nicely in an almost-conversational tone. Here are some of the things I liked, disliked, and couldn't get enough of...
While I have been a Duggar fan for quite some time and knew a lot of the information surrounding how the Duggars became self-sufficient and debt-free, it did not make me enjoy it any less reading the minute details of each investment and sale the couple went through to get to where they are now. I really wish more of the public would pay attention to this amazing story not only because so many people seem to think this family must be destitute with that many children, but also because I think a good percentage of Americans could learn a lot from people who truly live debt-free lives such as the Duggars do.
In the book, Michelle not only provides organizational tips for how she keeps it all in order but the names of the resources from which she borrowed the ideas and customized to fit her family's needs. There is an awesome resource list in the back of the book that I actually plan on having James make a copy of at work (he owns the business - we're not stealing office supplies from someone else).
The book answers many of the most frequently asked questions the Duggars receive via email. And although many of the questions were very good ones, I was still left wondering some things.
For instance, Michelle discusses "correction" which is Duggar-ese for disciplining bad behavior. She also described "blanket time" (which I may even begin training Milla on) for infants and toddlers in order to keep them occupied. But many times when Reiss is misbehaving I ask myself how Michelle Duggar would handle such a situation when timeouts and taking toys from Reiss is not effective. Michelle doesn't have any autistic children (that I'm aware of!) and has probably not been in a situation where she's had to handle a child who is wired so differently than typical children but I can't help but think whatever she would do would be done in a very peaceful manner.....which can prove very difficult for me when Reiss continues to say, scream at the top of his lungs in the car even after having a timeout, after having whatever toy he has with him taken away, and still even after we have given up and decided to go home from wherever we were going.
Sometimes nothing seems to work. It's hard to stay ahead of the game when even the professionals working in the field of autism and teachers of special needs children tell me they have to switch things up often because many times disciplinary methods become ineffective after a period of time with autistic children. Just the other day, Reiss' teacher was telling me how they sometimes have to switch their disciplinary method two, three, or four times throughout the school year. Right now they use a stick system (where the child starts the day with three popsicle sticks in their wall pocket) but she said she is usually surprised if they make it to Christmas without the children making every day a challenge against the system.
Getting off-track here, as usual. Seriously....sometimes I don't see how you guys can even stick with me through to the end the way I so often get off-topic.
Long story short, regarding discipline, I was left wondering if there are never any serious disciplinary issues in the Duggar household or if they were simply not discussed.
I wish Jim Bob and Michelle would have gone further in-depth on things like how they handle going places with all the kids. Do they try to stick to naptimes? Or do they just go and if the kids take a nap, great, if not, whatever? How often do they leave the house? With that many children, even with older ones to help out, it seems like leaving very often would sometimes be more pain than it's worth. What about family planning? Do they really try or not? I was aware prior to reading the book that they do not use birth control because of the miscarriage years ago that their doctor felt happened because they conceived while Michelle was on the pill. Michelle briefly discussed their views on birth control and some things mentioned in the Bible but she never came out and said one way or another if they actively try to conceive or if babies just seem to happen easily for them.
Moving on to the topic of the Duggar mansion....I don't know that I would call this house a mansion like many people do. There is a floor plan of it in the book and yes, it's a large house but when I hear the word "mansion" I tend to think of a grand estate with lavish furnishings - something the Duggar house is anything but. Their house is very child-friendly, as anyone would imagine it to be.
Would I love to have their house? Honestly, I don't know. It has many features I would love such as the industrial size and equipped kitchen, the huge laundry room and amenities, and the indoor playground that is comparable to some businesses where outlandish admission fees are charged for children to spend an afternoon, but beyond that, it is missing some other things I would love to have if I had a house that large. I mean, if I'm going to have a 7000 square-foot house, it had better at least have a larger master bedroom than the Duggars made theirs. And I would want a library. And a media room. Yes, I know the Duggars don't watch a lot of television (and neither do we, for that matter) but now we're talking about MY 7000 square-foot house now, not theirs. Or, at least, the one it would be if I had one.
And oh yeah, I forgot, I'd want it to be somewhere other than Arkansas. Hey, I'm just sayin'......
No? Well, I do, and they seem to come almost weekly. Back in the day - that is, before I became so frugal that I rarely purchase books - I used to take these companies up on their offers.
Not anymore. No, I got smart and now whenever I receive one of those flyers I mark the pages with all the books I'd like to read. I then set it aside and place it on my to-do list for me to log on to my library account and put holds on the books that sound interesting to me.
On Thursday, my number came up for two of the books I had placed holds:
The Duggars: 20 and Counting! by Michelle & Jim Bob Duggar
Hungry Girl by Lisa Lillien
After taking lunch to Daddy's work on Friday, the kids and I headed to the library to pick up the books. Anything Duggar-related always gets me a little excited so I was eager to get my hands on this book.
Did I mention we have a Duggar dance in our house? Yes....It's a bit hard to visualize but it basically consists of waving both arms above our heads in a strange fashion while half-yelling "Duggar! Duggar! Duggar......" over and over. We do this on Tuesday evenings just before 18 Kids and Counting airs on TLC. Call us weird. I know and I don't mind.
I finished reading the Duggars' book yesterday. This is unheard of for me A.C. (after children). During my B.C. years, depending on the book, I could breeze through most books in less than 24 hours. A.C. I am lucky if I finish most books in 24 weeks. Sad. I miss reading but what can ya' do?
The Duggar book is a very easy read and flows nicely in an almost-conversational tone. Here are some of the things I liked, disliked, and couldn't get enough of...
While I have been a Duggar fan for quite some time and knew a lot of the information surrounding how the Duggars became self-sufficient and debt-free, it did not make me enjoy it any less reading the minute details of each investment and sale the couple went through to get to where they are now. I really wish more of the public would pay attention to this amazing story not only because so many people seem to think this family must be destitute with that many children, but also because I think a good percentage of Americans could learn a lot from people who truly live debt-free lives such as the Duggars do.
In the book, Michelle not only provides organizational tips for how she keeps it all in order but the names of the resources from which she borrowed the ideas and customized to fit her family's needs. There is an awesome resource list in the back of the book that I actually plan on having James make a copy of at work (he owns the business - we're not stealing office supplies from someone else).
The book answers many of the most frequently asked questions the Duggars receive via email. And although many of the questions were very good ones, I was still left wondering some things.
For instance, Michelle discusses "correction" which is Duggar-ese for disciplining bad behavior. She also described "blanket time" (which I may even begin training Milla on) for infants and toddlers in order to keep them occupied. But many times when Reiss is misbehaving I ask myself how Michelle Duggar would handle such a situation when timeouts and taking toys from Reiss is not effective. Michelle doesn't have any autistic children (that I'm aware of!) and has probably not been in a situation where she's had to handle a child who is wired so differently than typical children but I can't help but think whatever she would do would be done in a very peaceful manner.....which can prove very difficult for me when Reiss continues to say, scream at the top of his lungs in the car even after having a timeout, after having whatever toy he has with him taken away, and still even after we have given up and decided to go home from wherever we were going.
Sometimes nothing seems to work. It's hard to stay ahead of the game when even the professionals working in the field of autism and teachers of special needs children tell me they have to switch things up often because many times disciplinary methods become ineffective after a period of time with autistic children. Just the other day, Reiss' teacher was telling me how they sometimes have to switch their disciplinary method two, three, or four times throughout the school year. Right now they use a stick system (where the child starts the day with three popsicle sticks in their wall pocket) but she said she is usually surprised if they make it to Christmas without the children making every day a challenge against the system.
Getting off-track here, as usual. Seriously....sometimes I don't see how you guys can even stick with me through to the end the way I so often get off-topic.
Long story short, regarding discipline, I was left wondering if there are never any serious disciplinary issues in the Duggar household or if they were simply not discussed.
I wish Jim Bob and Michelle would have gone further in-depth on things like how they handle going places with all the kids. Do they try to stick to naptimes? Or do they just go and if the kids take a nap, great, if not, whatever? How often do they leave the house? With that many children, even with older ones to help out, it seems like leaving very often would sometimes be more pain than it's worth. What about family planning? Do they really try or not? I was aware prior to reading the book that they do not use birth control because of the miscarriage years ago that their doctor felt happened because they conceived while Michelle was on the pill. Michelle briefly discussed their views on birth control and some things mentioned in the Bible but she never came out and said one way or another if they actively try to conceive or if babies just seem to happen easily for them.
Moving on to the topic of the Duggar mansion....I don't know that I would call this house a mansion like many people do. There is a floor plan of it in the book and yes, it's a large house but when I hear the word "mansion" I tend to think of a grand estate with lavish furnishings - something the Duggar house is anything but. Their house is very child-friendly, as anyone would imagine it to be.
Would I love to have their house? Honestly, I don't know. It has many features I would love such as the industrial size and equipped kitchen, the huge laundry room and amenities, and the indoor playground that is comparable to some businesses where outlandish admission fees are charged for children to spend an afternoon, but beyond that, it is missing some other things I would love to have if I had a house that large. I mean, if I'm going to have a 7000 square-foot house, it had better at least have a larger master bedroom than the Duggars made theirs. And I would want a library. And a media room. Yes, I know the Duggars don't watch a lot of television (and neither do we, for that matter) but now we're talking about MY 7000 square-foot house now, not theirs. Or, at least, the one it would be if I had one.
And oh yeah, I forgot, I'd want it to be somewhere other than Arkansas. Hey, I'm just sayin'......
Monday, August 31, 2009
Baby Steps
It is way too late, yet here I sit. On the computer. Slouching and wide awake. Guess that's what I get for eating three fun-size York Peppermint Patties less than an hour before bedtime. What can I say...we don't keep candy around here much anymore but when we do, I go cuckoo for cocoa puffs.
I will pay tomorrow morning for this late night rendezvous with my laptop but who cares - the patties were darn good and I'm getting in quality computer time in utter silence. Forget York, quiet is the real treat in this house. No dishwasher running. No dryer tumbling. No air conditioner humming. But most importantly, no children hanging on me nursing, whining, crying, pulling my toes apart (Reiss), or otherwise making it impossible for me to savor my surf time.
Today we did the Walgreens and CVS runs. Both were fairly uneventful except for the entertainment we provided for the elderly couple in the candy aisle at CVS. Reiss kept alternating between "I gotta poop!" and "I wanna go get french fries!"
The older gentlemen found this quite amusing and Reiss asked, "Why was that guy laughing?" Hmmm....I don't know, Reiss. Do you think it may have been the fact that you were announcing to the world that you have to poop at a volume of about twenty-seven when you should be at about a two?
But of course I didn't say that.
We did go get french fries afterwards despite the fact that it was a reward promised only on the condition of good behavior. Really, neither of the monkeys behaved especially badly, just not ideal. But then, I've gotten used to things not being ideal when we go out.
Unfortunately, I wonder if I will ever know if I'm being too picky and this is the way most (almost) two- and four-year-olds act or if this is just the way things are because of the autism. And no, I'm not referring to the poop announcements. I'm talking about how things never seem to be just fun and carefree for us, like they seem for so many of my friends with children. They talk about all their adventures out and about with their kids and when I try to visualize my family doing the same kinds of things, I practically have an anxiety attack just imagining the outcome because of so many past experiences we've had. That's not to say we don't take Reiss places and keep right on trying.
However, here's a "for instance"...........
A friend of mine recently took her own two sons to an amusement park. Now, both of her sons fall in different areas of the autism spectrum but they are very different from Reiss - as all children with ASD are. Anyhow, she told me all the rides the boys went on and how they just loved the excitement of it all and had a ball.
Now, my visualization.....And remember, I am trying to remain positive but I also know Reiss and I know our past experiences and I also know things he tends to like and dislike and what will usually cause a tantrum.....
Let's imagine an amusement park setting and the most non-scary ride possible. A ride made just the perfect size and with just the right amount of fun for a four-year-old.....I'm thinking something like bumper boats. With that in mind, the first thing that comes to mind is Reiss having a fit because a drop of water will get on him. Should we actually get past the water on him and make it into the boat, there will probably be some water lingering in the bottom of the boat that will get his shoes wet. And if we make it past that even and get moving in the boat without any water tantrums, it will probably then be a matter of there only being one steering wheel in the boat (I'm imagining a boat that holds two people).
Again, I really do try to stay positive and even my fears like the above do not keep us from taking Reiss places just in case that one time is the time when he is compliant and ready to have a good time. However, so far, that has not been the case at amusement parks.....To be honest, we haven't even gone to an amusement park with Reiss yet. We haven't gotten past going to the little church fairs and carnivals yet because I figure why waste a boatload (no pun intended here, given my above example) of money on admission at a large theme park when we can't even get Reiss in the silly rides and amusements of a dinky little church fair? Yes, believe me, we have tried.
And here's the positive....Baby steps.....that's all I can say. Not terribly long ago, Reiss wouldn't even let go of James or me out in public. Now he fights to have his hand held in a parking lot. He would cry hysterically when we would take him to the indoor bounce house place. You know, the kind of place typical three-year-olds beg to to be taken? Nope, not Reiss. We were just lucky that the employees were so willing on many of those visits to let us go in without paying admission to see if Reiss would "warm up" to the place....only to leave with him crying - and not because he was leaving, but because he didn't want to be there to begin with. Now he even sees the place when we are out driving and he wants to go there.
Baby steps......While others are out living it up with their children, I'm being thankful that Reiss is as fortunate as he is. As depressed as I sometimes get, I really do realize how fortunate he and we are. Reiss does talk, albeit too much, but thank goodness, he is not non-verbal like so many autistic children we know. Reiss doesn't have nearly the physical problems many autistic children have. Yes, we have our bouts of constipation and he's on more supplements than most professional athletes but Reiss is generally healthy. Reiss lacks back and forth conversational skills but at least he answers different types of questions (think "who," "what," - "why," "when," and "how" are still areas of confusion for him) many times now when asked. As short as a few months back, there were times when I wanted to rip my hair out because he wouldn't even answer "yes" or "no" questions. Baby steps........
Blah, blah, blah......is anyone still reading?
By the way, am I the only one who doesn't have a clue what to put in the "Title" box when I start writing a post, but then figure it out once I've started or just as I'm finishing? Yes? No? Anyhoo......guess you see where the title of this post came from. And I bet it has nothing to do with what you imagined it would be when you began reading.
Nuh-night!
I will pay tomorrow morning for this late night rendezvous with my laptop but who cares - the patties were darn good and I'm getting in quality computer time in utter silence. Forget York, quiet is the real treat in this house. No dishwasher running. No dryer tumbling. No air conditioner humming. But most importantly, no children hanging on me nursing, whining, crying, pulling my toes apart (Reiss), or otherwise making it impossible for me to savor my surf time.
Today we did the Walgreens and CVS runs. Both were fairly uneventful except for the entertainment we provided for the elderly couple in the candy aisle at CVS. Reiss kept alternating between "I gotta poop!" and "I wanna go get french fries!"
The older gentlemen found this quite amusing and Reiss asked, "Why was that guy laughing?" Hmmm....I don't know, Reiss. Do you think it may have been the fact that you were announcing to the world that you have to poop at a volume of about twenty-seven when you should be at about a two?
But of course I didn't say that.
We did go get french fries afterwards despite the fact that it was a reward promised only on the condition of good behavior. Really, neither of the monkeys behaved especially badly, just not ideal. But then, I've gotten used to things not being ideal when we go out.
Unfortunately, I wonder if I will ever know if I'm being too picky and this is the way most (almost) two- and four-year-olds act or if this is just the way things are because of the autism. And no, I'm not referring to the poop announcements. I'm talking about how things never seem to be just fun and carefree for us, like they seem for so many of my friends with children. They talk about all their adventures out and about with their kids and when I try to visualize my family doing the same kinds of things, I practically have an anxiety attack just imagining the outcome because of so many past experiences we've had. That's not to say we don't take Reiss places and keep right on trying.
However, here's a "for instance"...........
A friend of mine recently took her own two sons to an amusement park. Now, both of her sons fall in different areas of the autism spectrum but they are very different from Reiss - as all children with ASD are. Anyhow, she told me all the rides the boys went on and how they just loved the excitement of it all and had a ball.
Now, my visualization.....And remember, I am trying to remain positive but I also know Reiss and I know our past experiences and I also know things he tends to like and dislike and what will usually cause a tantrum.....
Let's imagine an amusement park setting and the most non-scary ride possible. A ride made just the perfect size and with just the right amount of fun for a four-year-old.....I'm thinking something like bumper boats. With that in mind, the first thing that comes to mind is Reiss having a fit because a drop of water will get on him. Should we actually get past the water on him and make it into the boat, there will probably be some water lingering in the bottom of the boat that will get his shoes wet. And if we make it past that even and get moving in the boat without any water tantrums, it will probably then be a matter of there only being one steering wheel in the boat (I'm imagining a boat that holds two people).
Again, I really do try to stay positive and even my fears like the above do not keep us from taking Reiss places just in case that one time is the time when he is compliant and ready to have a good time. However, so far, that has not been the case at amusement parks.....To be honest, we haven't even gone to an amusement park with Reiss yet. We haven't gotten past going to the little church fairs and carnivals yet because I figure why waste a boatload (no pun intended here, given my above example) of money on admission at a large theme park when we can't even get Reiss in the silly rides and amusements of a dinky little church fair? Yes, believe me, we have tried.
And here's the positive....Baby steps.....that's all I can say. Not terribly long ago, Reiss wouldn't even let go of James or me out in public. Now he fights to have his hand held in a parking lot. He would cry hysterically when we would take him to the indoor bounce house place. You know, the kind of place typical three-year-olds beg to to be taken? Nope, not Reiss. We were just lucky that the employees were so willing on many of those visits to let us go in without paying admission to see if Reiss would "warm up" to the place....only to leave with him crying - and not because he was leaving, but because he didn't want to be there to begin with. Now he even sees the place when we are out driving and he wants to go there.
Baby steps......While others are out living it up with their children, I'm being thankful that Reiss is as fortunate as he is. As depressed as I sometimes get, I really do realize how fortunate he and we are. Reiss does talk, albeit too much, but thank goodness, he is not non-verbal like so many autistic children we know. Reiss doesn't have nearly the physical problems many autistic children have. Yes, we have our bouts of constipation and he's on more supplements than most professional athletes but Reiss is generally healthy. Reiss lacks back and forth conversational skills but at least he answers different types of questions (think "who," "what," - "why," "when," and "how" are still areas of confusion for him) many times now when asked. As short as a few months back, there were times when I wanted to rip my hair out because he wouldn't even answer "yes" or "no" questions. Baby steps........
Blah, blah, blah......is anyone still reading?
By the way, am I the only one who doesn't have a clue what to put in the "Title" box when I start writing a post, but then figure it out once I've started or just as I'm finishing? Yes? No? Anyhoo......guess you see where the title of this post came from. And I bet it has nothing to do with what you imagined it would be when you began reading.
Nuh-night!
Monday, August 17, 2009
And The Award Goes To......
ME!!!!
Which award, you say? Why, only the most suburban housewife coveted award, of course! No, not the Soccer Mom-of-the-Year trophy. This award is much more well-deserved, yet achievements leading up to it are never thought out or planned for in advance. I'm talking about the Public Mommy Tantrum Medal of Honor.
Yes, my motherly patience was put to the test today while waiting on a cash register error to be corrected at Walgreens (only one of my most favorite stores in the world) today. This week's ad clearly states the new product by Soft Soap called Nutri Serums Body Wash is free after $3.99 in Register Rewards.
Before paying today, I specifically requested to pay in Cosmetics because there was a girl working over there and I had seven coupons and just about every time I go to Walgreens, I have a problem. And really, who wants to be that person at the main register at the front of the store holding up the line because the $.50 coupon for tampons (or whatever) didn't ring up correctly? Not me! I love my coupons and I can be maniacal about them (just ask my husband) but I'm also not going to stand there while twenty people are rolling their eyes at me for wanting to get my fifty cents deducted (hey, I worked hard for that!). Cut me some slack - I'm not a masochist.
Yes, Walgreens is one of my favorite stores in the whole world but it doesn't change the fact that there always seems to be a problem every single time I pay them a visit. Really....every time. My husband knows better when I say, "I will be right back" as he drops me at the door and waits in the car with the kids. I never come right back and unfortunately, it's almost never by any fault of my own.
Oh no - No, when I'm at Walgreens, if it's not an item ringing up incorrectly, it's something else. Sometimes they scan all my coupons (oh yes, I do watch them!) but then I get my receipt and something is missing from the coupon deductions. Today's issue was my Register Reward did not print for the body wash.
By the way, body wash is one of those things on my list of toiletries where my motto is as follows: "If you're paying for it, you're paying too much money." Between all the freebies I've gotten over the years from CVS Extra Care Bucks and Walgreens Register Rewards (formerly from their rebate catalog), I haven't paid out of pocket for razors, toothbrushes, shampoo, conditioner, or body wash (and the list goes on and on) in years. And I have enough stocked to keep us in business, or clean at least, for a few years to come.
Anyhoo....getting off-track here as usual. And gee, I wonder why my kids can't sit still for five minutes just to watch some cartoons and give me a break.
So my Register Reward did not print and Lucy Loo Hoo, the cashier, had to call the 12-year-old manager over to get the problem fixed and of course, that meant waiting for what seemed like an eternity.
Somewhere in all this, my monkey children saw the opportunity for attack. Or more specifically, Reiss saw his window of opportunity to grab about twenty gossip rags from the rack fastened to the checkout counter and have his own little drugstore party. I've never seen so many photos of Jon Gosselin all in one place! He was on the floor, in the cart, on the counter. It was like a Jon-apalooza!
After cleaning up the Gosselin mess (I bet Kate wishes it were this easy for her too!), I had to enforce the one-hand-on-the-cart rule, which is almost always a sure sign of a coming tantrum. Luckily, this time it wasn't. Instead of a tantrum, Reiss started grabbing bottle after (breakable) bottle of brightly colored nail polish from a display and placing - or perhaps, dropping is a better word for what he was doing - them on the floor at his feet. Thank goodness, none of them broke.
All the while, I was doing my best Michelle Duggar-esque picture of saintly motherhood while waiting on the manager to gether butt over to Cosmetics. Seriously, I think they must have had to call over and get her from the neighboring Steak~N~Shake or something, as long as it took here to get there.
Eventually, the manager arrived.......E. Vent. Ually.
Frankly, I thought I was doing a pretty good job of being patient and staying calm while my little angels (I have to use the plural form so as not to sound as though Reiss was the only guilty party - but for the record, he was) attempted to bring Walgreens - or at the very least, the entire Cosmetics department - crashing to the ground.
However, maybe my version of the story is skewed and/or biased because I witnessed no less than three gawking individuals quickly turn their heads as I rose from picking up the fingernail polish bottles. They were all older folks too, so I'm sure they were doing the "Parents these days, good grief...." line in their heads. I have to say I'm pretty proud of myself for using restraint and not using the "He's autistic, you ___hole!" line I learned from one of Jenny McCarthy's books.
Several strewn magazines, unbroken fingernail polish bottles, and maybe all of ten minutes later we were on our way out the door with our $3.99....in cash, because 12-year-old manager girl didn't know how to make a Register Reward print after the fact.
Oh yeah...I forgot to mention the best part of our Walgreens trip. As I was picking out candy bars for Daddy for free ($.49 each plus a $1 off 2 coupon = FREE!), Reiss said "Why are we getting dog food?" Oh, I've taught him well! And this is why my kids never - really, NEVER - beg for candy in the checkout lines.
BWA-HA-HA-HA!!!!!!
Which award, you say? Why, only the most suburban housewife coveted award, of course! No, not the Soccer Mom-of-the-Year trophy. This award is much more well-deserved, yet achievements leading up to it are never thought out or planned for in advance. I'm talking about the Public Mommy Tantrum Medal of Honor.
Yes, my motherly patience was put to the test today while waiting on a cash register error to be corrected at Walgreens (only one of my most favorite stores in the world) today. This week's ad clearly states the new product by Soft Soap called Nutri Serums Body Wash is free after $3.99 in Register Rewards.
Before paying today, I specifically requested to pay in Cosmetics because there was a girl working over there and I had seven coupons and just about every time I go to Walgreens, I have a problem. And really, who wants to be that person at the main register at the front of the store holding up the line because the $.50 coupon for tampons (or whatever) didn't ring up correctly? Not me! I love my coupons and I can be maniacal about them (just ask my husband) but I'm also not going to stand there while twenty people are rolling their eyes at me for wanting to get my fifty cents deducted (hey, I worked hard for that!). Cut me some slack - I'm not a masochist.
Yes, Walgreens is one of my favorite stores in the whole world but it doesn't change the fact that there always seems to be a problem every single time I pay them a visit. Really....every time. My husband knows better when I say, "I will be right back" as he drops me at the door and waits in the car with the kids. I never come right back and unfortunately, it's almost never by any fault of my own.
Oh no - No, when I'm at Walgreens, if it's not an item ringing up incorrectly, it's something else. Sometimes they scan all my coupons (oh yes, I do watch them!) but then I get my receipt and something is missing from the coupon deductions. Today's issue was my Register Reward did not print for the body wash.
By the way, body wash is one of those things on my list of toiletries where my motto is as follows: "If you're paying for it, you're paying too much money." Between all the freebies I've gotten over the years from CVS Extra Care Bucks and Walgreens Register Rewards (formerly from their rebate catalog), I haven't paid out of pocket for razors, toothbrushes, shampoo, conditioner, or body wash (and the list goes on and on) in years. And I have enough stocked to keep us in business, or clean at least, for a few years to come.
Anyhoo....getting off-track here as usual. And gee, I wonder why my kids can't sit still for five minutes just to watch some cartoons and give me a break.
So my Register Reward did not print and Lucy Loo Hoo, the cashier, had to call the 12-year-old manager over to get the problem fixed and of course, that meant waiting for what seemed like an eternity.
Somewhere in all this, my monkey children saw the opportunity for attack. Or more specifically, Reiss saw his window of opportunity to grab about twenty gossip rags from the rack fastened to the checkout counter and have his own little drugstore party. I've never seen so many photos of Jon Gosselin all in one place! He was on the floor, in the cart, on the counter. It was like a Jon-apalooza!
After cleaning up the Gosselin mess (I bet Kate wishes it were this easy for her too!), I had to enforce the one-hand-on-the-cart rule, which is almost always a sure sign of a coming tantrum. Luckily, this time it wasn't. Instead of a tantrum, Reiss started grabbing bottle after (breakable) bottle of brightly colored nail polish from a display and placing - or perhaps, dropping is a better word for what he was doing - them on the floor at his feet. Thank goodness, none of them broke.
All the while, I was doing my best Michelle Duggar-esque picture of saintly motherhood while waiting on the manager to get
Eventually, the manager arrived.......E. Vent. Ually.
Frankly, I thought I was doing a pretty good job of being patient and staying calm while my little angels (I have to use the plural form so as not to sound as though Reiss was the only guilty party - but for the record, he was) attempted to bring Walgreens - or at the very least, the entire Cosmetics department - crashing to the ground.
However, maybe my version of the story is skewed and/or biased because I witnessed no less than three gawking individuals quickly turn their heads as I rose from picking up the fingernail polish bottles. They were all older folks too, so I'm sure they were doing the "Parents these days, good grief...." line in their heads. I have to say I'm pretty proud of myself for using restraint and not using the "He's autistic, you ___hole!" line I learned from one of Jenny McCarthy's books.
Several strewn magazines, unbroken fingernail polish bottles, and maybe all of ten minutes later we were on our way out the door with our $3.99....in cash, because 12-year-old manager girl didn't know how to make a Register Reward print after the fact.
Oh yeah...I forgot to mention the best part of our Walgreens trip. As I was picking out candy bars for Daddy for free ($.49 each plus a $1 off 2 coupon = FREE!), Reiss said "Why are we getting dog food?" Oh, I've taught him well! And this is why my kids never - really, NEVER - beg for candy in the checkout lines.
BWA-HA-HA-HA!!!!!!
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Boots, Beds, and Black Forest Muffins
Reiss in his new rain bootsI went shopping at Gymboree this afternoon armed with my 20% off coupon, my Gymbo Visa that gives me 5% off all Gymboree purchases, the knowledge that they were having a semi-okay sale and, last but not least, were also a few days into Gymbucks earning period. Generally, I only shop the clearance racks there but these boots were too cool to pass up. They were more than I would typically pay but after all was said and done between the sales and discounts, I still got them for less than half-price. They are a camouflage print with a strip of rubber jagged edging meant to look like dinosaur teeth going up the back of them.
No significance to this picture really....I just liked the cute little smile on Milla's face. It's more subtle than most times when she smiles so big, her eyes squint almost closed.
Isn't that just sweet? No, Milla is not just bent over towards Reiss. Yes, they really are smooching! I will confess though....I told Milla to kiss Reiss.Tomorrow morning's breakfast is going to be a breeze! I made muffins using THIS recipe. I substituted one cup of zucchini (which is something the original recipe owner suggests in a later post of hers) for the applesauce, added chocolate chips as she mentions and took things one step further by adding about a cup of pitted and quartered cherries. Of course I couldn't go to bed without trying one...gotta make certain they are edible for tomorrow, you know. With my addition of the cherries, I thought they tasted a lot like Black Forest Cake so I am calling this version of the recipe Black Forest Muffins. I love it when I am prepared ahead of time!!!
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
A Birthday Wish
Happy Birthday to me!
There was only one thing - well, depending on how you look at it, it could actually be counted as four things - I wished for on my birthday: No poopy underwear, no bloody noses, no vomit, and no children standing on chairs and peeing on carpet and dressers after de-pantsing themselves in their room. All those were things I experienced yesterday and, aside from the peeing on the carpet incident, are things I can generally count on experiencing on a near-daily basis. Yes, I know, I lead a glamorous life.
When I posted my birthday wish to my friends on Facebook, one friend commented, "...if you want a day without those things--well just learn to control yourself a little better, ok?" That gave me a pretty good laugh. (By the way, thanks, Gabe! You have always been quick with the humor.) Anyway, we are doing pretty well so far. That is, if you don't count the poopy underwear Reiss had earlier this afternoon.
The kids' pediatric dentist must have known it was my birthday because a few weeks ago his office staff sent us the postcard notifying us of our next scheduled appointment for these two offspring. And guess when they made our appointment? Yep, you guessed it - my birthday. So this morning we took Reiss and Milla for their appointments. Both had periodic oral examinations while Reiss received a prophylaxis and flouride treatment as well. All that is just a fancy way of saying the nice ladies in the office took Reiss back for fifteen minutes for a cleaning and flouride schmear and Milla for a three-minute (no, not an exaggeration!) exam all to the tune of $190 for both of them. You gotta love living in a country where dental insurance is considered a luxury! All I can say is it's a good thing our kids' dentist is so darn good-looking. There needs to be something to make it worth my while to go there on my birthday. Not to mention, something to make it worthy of me giving up any birthday money I may receive.....
We have not had any bloody noses, vomit to clean up, or chair-perching pee-ers, thank goodness! However, we have had an entire small size to-go cup from Wendy's full of Sprite get poured on the kitchen floor. The things that happen when you turn your back for three seconds! So adding to the celebratory occasion, I got the joy of mopping the kitchen floor.....on my birthday. Does the fun ever end?High fructose corn syrup Carbonated beverages are considered a treat in our house and the kids don't get them very often so if they pour it on the floor when they do, that's their loss - not mine. That is, if you don't count the money spent on the high fructose corn syrup beverage.
This afternoon, these two monkeys granted me with what I'm sure they thought was a wonderful birthday gift: refusing to take a nap. Guess they figured their awake presence was the best they could give since they are not of age to go out and independently by their dear Mom a gift. I axed that gift and put my foot down by putting them in their rooms to cry for awhile. Yes, I am the meanest mom. It was that or send them to our friends' house this evening to have them babysit two cranky, napless and hyper children while hubs and I go find some grub worthy of considering a birthday dinner. I chose relegating them to their rooms and now I sit here typing in blissful silence as they sleep.
Just another day in my glamorous life as a stay-at-home mom....another birthday....another day that seems as mundane as most days.
ETA: The UPS man paid us a visit today. Thinking he was bringing some birthday present my husband had ordered online, I left it on the porch for James to fetch when he got home. It was a doozy, alright! It was a box of B12 syringes for Reiss. I can now be counted amongst the moms who get to jab their kid with a needle every few days.....starting on my birthday. Oh goody!!!
There was only one thing - well, depending on how you look at it, it could actually be counted as four things - I wished for on my birthday: No poopy underwear, no bloody noses, no vomit, and no children standing on chairs and peeing on carpet and dressers after de-pantsing themselves in their room. All those were things I experienced yesterday and, aside from the peeing on the carpet incident, are things I can generally count on experiencing on a near-daily basis. Yes, I know, I lead a glamorous life.
When I posted my birthday wish to my friends on Facebook, one friend commented, "...if you want a day without those things--well just learn to control yourself a little better, ok?" That gave me a pretty good laugh. (By the way, thanks, Gabe! You have always been quick with the humor.) Anyway, we are doing pretty well so far. That is, if you don't count the poopy underwear Reiss had earlier this afternoon.
The kids' pediatric dentist must have known it was my birthday because a few weeks ago his office staff sent us the postcard notifying us of our next scheduled appointment for these two offspring. And guess when they made our appointment? Yep, you guessed it - my birthday. So this morning we took Reiss and Milla for their appointments. Both had periodic oral examinations while Reiss received a prophylaxis and flouride treatment as well. All that is just a fancy way of saying the nice ladies in the office took Reiss back for fifteen minutes for a cleaning and flouride schmear and Milla for a three-minute (no, not an exaggeration!) exam all to the tune of $190 for both of them. You gotta love living in a country where dental insurance is considered a luxury! All I can say is it's a good thing our kids' dentist is so darn good-looking. There needs to be something to make it worth my while to go there on my birthday. Not to mention, something to make it worthy of me giving up any birthday money I may receive.....
We have not had any bloody noses, vomit to clean up, or chair-perching pee-ers, thank goodness! However, we have had an entire small size to-go cup from Wendy's full of Sprite get poured on the kitchen floor. The things that happen when you turn your back for three seconds! So adding to the celebratory occasion, I got the joy of mopping the kitchen floor.....on my birthday. Does the fun ever end?
This afternoon, these two monkeys granted me with what I'm sure they thought was a wonderful birthday gift: refusing to take a nap. Guess they figured their awake presence was the best they could give since they are not of age to go out and independently by their dear Mom a gift. I axed that gift and put my foot down by putting them in their rooms to cry for awhile. Yes, I am the meanest mom. It was that or send them to our friends' house this evening to have them babysit two cranky, napless and hyper children while hubs and I go find some grub worthy of considering a birthday dinner. I chose relegating them to their rooms and now I sit here typing in blissful silence as they sleep.
Just another day in my glamorous life as a stay-at-home mom....another birthday....another day that seems as mundane as most days.
ETA: The UPS man paid us a visit today. Thinking he was bringing some birthday present my husband had ordered online, I left it on the porch for James to fetch when he got home. It was a doozy, alright! It was a box of B12 syringes for Reiss. I can now be counted amongst the moms who get to jab their kid with a needle every few days.....starting on my birthday. Oh goody!!!
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Not Bad, Considering How It Started
Well, the day ain't over yet so maybe I shouldn't speak too soon - lest I jinx the rest of the afternoon and evening - but today hasn't been too bad considering my morning began with me cleaning up three puddles of pee on the floor. I would like to say our new puppy took a morning tinkle before making it out the door but we do not own or house any pets due to my husband's severe allergies.
This morning I got up and as most people do, went straight to the bathroom followed by sweet little Milla who thinks she is a big girl and wants to use the potty too. So I pulled down her pants and took off her diaper (unless you count the pink Pull-Ups that are one size too big for Milla that I bought for Reiss for wear here at home - hey, they were on clearance and I had a coupon....cut me some slack!) and on the toddler potty seat she sat for approximately two seconds. She knows when she produces a little puddle in the potty seat's embedded cup that a round of applause will follow. Knowing this, she will often go in the bathroom when I need to go, whether or not she really needs to go herself. She waits until I am sitting on the potty and then wants her pants pulled down so that she can sit down. Soon - as in, two to three seconds later - she gets up quickly with a cheesy smile and waits for the applause. Only many times there is nothing to applaud.
Having given all that background, this morning presented me with such an incident but rather than immediately put Milla's diaper back on and pull up her pants, I left her pants at her ankles so that I could finish my own business. In the meantime, she peed on the floor. I moved her over to clean up that puddle when she peed again! Did I learn from the first puddle? No, her pants were still at her ankles when she stepped out into the hall and promptly proceeded to pee again just as I was cleaning up the second puddle. Finally, my neurons started firing and I pulled up her pants just in time for - you guessed it - Milla to pee a fourth time. This time it got absorbed into her pajama pants though...thank goodness! I was beginning to think my day was going to be spent following around Little Miss Leaky Pee-Pee Girl.
No other pee has made it on the floor today but I have also cleaned up a pad of note paper that Milla pulled apart while I was on a phone call. The phone call was important and one I had been expecting so given the fact that Milla wasn't ripping the paper, rather just pulling off sheets one at a time, and she wasn't crying (always a plus! You stay-at-home moms know what I'm talking about here and how difficult phone calls can be during the day), I let her do it. Bad mommy, I know but you gotta do what you gotta do. Under normal circumstances, I do not allow destruction but the teaching of toddler etiquette sometimes falls to the wayside when I receive an important phone call.
Moving on to other news here.....I had a surprisingly pleasant conversation with the pharmacy manager at Walgreens today. I say surprisingly because I seem to have some notoriety amongst my friends and family of having just about the worst luck when it comes to dealing with any kind of medical professional. I'm convinced that most of them don't have a clue and one has to be dying or appear to be dying for them to muster up any quickness in their step.
My dad recently endured a hospital stay in which he experienced quite a lot of the same treatment I am used to when dealing with such individuals. He spoke very highly though of one particular nurse who was Kenyan. I told him as sad as it is, it was probably due to her being foreign that she was able to keep her headout of her rear in daylight, seeing as though they don't seem to drive that point home quite enough in American medical and nursing schools. Okay, I've experienced good bedside manner, care, and attention in a few nurses but they are the minority, unfortunately.
Anyway, where was I going here? The pharmacy manager. Long story short, after Reiss had his seizure, the pharmacy gave us the right medicine, right dosage, wrong application form of the anti-seizure medication he is to receive should he start seizing again. See what I mean about my luck with medical professionals? We didn't even get what we were supposed to get and seeing how I am not the one who wrote out the prescription, it can't be anything I did wrong...there is clearly something wrong with the kind of luck I have with medical professionals.
Again, I'm getting off-track. Hmmm....wonder why Reiss seems to have a touch of ADHD along with his autism. ANYWAY....So I was talking to the pharmacy manager and telling him what happened and a little part of me was expecting him to tell me that since the medication we received was the correct medication and could be used for our needs that we would be stuck with it and out the $286 we paid for it. Yes, you read that right. $286 for ONE dose of anti-seizure medication. And here's the kicker: Thank goodness we have insurance because otherwise it would have been $446! You gotta love Big Pharma! But no, Mr. Rx Manager told me to just bring it back and pay the difference (yes, you read that right too - the correct form of the med is going to cost about $40 more than the one we already have) for the correct script and all would be well. So thank you, Walgreens, for not giving me one more thing to have to deal with on my already too full plate.
Well, folks, it's getting to be dinner prep time and I don't have anything to add to make any kind of grand exit so until next time....
This morning I got up and as most people do, went straight to the bathroom followed by sweet little Milla who thinks she is a big girl and wants to use the potty too. So I pulled down her pants and took off her diaper (unless you count the pink Pull-Ups that are one size too big for Milla that I bought for Reiss for wear here at home - hey, they were on clearance and I had a coupon....cut me some slack!) and on the toddler potty seat she sat for approximately two seconds. She knows when she produces a little puddle in the potty seat's embedded cup that a round of applause will follow. Knowing this, she will often go in the bathroom when I need to go, whether or not she really needs to go herself. She waits until I am sitting on the potty and then wants her pants pulled down so that she can sit down. Soon - as in, two to three seconds later - she gets up quickly with a cheesy smile and waits for the applause. Only many times there is nothing to applaud.
Having given all that background, this morning presented me with such an incident but rather than immediately put Milla's diaper back on and pull up her pants, I left her pants at her ankles so that I could finish my own business. In the meantime, she peed on the floor. I moved her over to clean up that puddle when she peed again! Did I learn from the first puddle? No, her pants were still at her ankles when she stepped out into the hall and promptly proceeded to pee again just as I was cleaning up the second puddle. Finally, my neurons started firing and I pulled up her pants just in time for - you guessed it - Milla to pee a fourth time. This time it got absorbed into her pajama pants though...thank goodness! I was beginning to think my day was going to be spent following around Little Miss Leaky Pee-Pee Girl.
No other pee has made it on the floor today but I have also cleaned up a pad of note paper that Milla pulled apart while I was on a phone call. The phone call was important and one I had been expecting so given the fact that Milla wasn't ripping the paper, rather just pulling off sheets one at a time, and she wasn't crying (always a plus! You stay-at-home moms know what I'm talking about here and how difficult phone calls can be during the day), I let her do it. Bad mommy, I know but you gotta do what you gotta do. Under normal circumstances, I do not allow destruction but the teaching of toddler etiquette sometimes falls to the wayside when I receive an important phone call.
Moving on to other news here.....I had a surprisingly pleasant conversation with the pharmacy manager at Walgreens today. I say surprisingly because I seem to have some notoriety amongst my friends and family of having just about the worst luck when it comes to dealing with any kind of medical professional. I'm convinced that most of them don't have a clue and one has to be dying or appear to be dying for them to muster up any quickness in their step.
My dad recently endured a hospital stay in which he experienced quite a lot of the same treatment I am used to when dealing with such individuals. He spoke very highly though of one particular nurse who was Kenyan. I told him as sad as it is, it was probably due to her being foreign that she was able to keep her head
Anyway, where was I going here? The pharmacy manager. Long story short, after Reiss had his seizure, the pharmacy gave us the right medicine, right dosage, wrong application form of the anti-seizure medication he is to receive should he start seizing again. See what I mean about my luck with medical professionals? We didn't even get what we were supposed to get and seeing how I am not the one who wrote out the prescription, it can't be anything I did wrong...there is clearly something wrong with the kind of luck I have with medical professionals.
Again, I'm getting off-track. Hmmm....wonder why Reiss seems to have a touch of ADHD along with his autism. ANYWAY....So I was talking to the pharmacy manager and telling him what happened and a little part of me was expecting him to tell me that since the medication we received was the correct medication and could be used for our needs that we would be stuck with it and out the $286 we paid for it. Yes, you read that right. $286 for ONE dose of anti-seizure medication. And here's the kicker: Thank goodness we have insurance because otherwise it would have been $446! You gotta love Big Pharma! But no, Mr. Rx Manager told me to just bring it back and pay the difference (yes, you read that right too - the correct form of the med is going to cost about $40 more than the one we already have) for the correct script and all would be well. So thank you, Walgreens, for not giving me one more thing to have to deal with on my already too full plate.
Well, folks, it's getting to be dinner prep time and I don't have anything to add to make any kind of grand exit so until next time....
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