It was Friday again.

I did two hours with Theresa and her ABA therapist today. Theresa did good and so did I. We went to the pharmacy to pick up her fish oil afterward and she only tried to grab the candy at the counter a few dozen times.

She took a nap this afternoon while I went to get her some play-doh and paint. She requested very well for both of them! By the color and with the right words. She's responding to "give me five" with the proper motivation. Now she gets to do four fun things for one task.

I even managed to get one article written today. That's good but I have to increase my summer work load now. I can't do anything with deadlines during the summer but that's OK too. I'll just have to write more of my own stuff instead of what other people want me to write for them as a ghostwriter. I'm going to have fun figuring this out.

We have an appointment with the dietitian in a week to go over the new changes to her diet to heal her gut. OK it's time for bed and I've got to do a couple things before I can call it a day.

Summer's Started for Us

Today is the last day of preschool for Theresa. She'll be home in about an hour. Tomorrow we don't have anywhere to go. We'll just clean up the house a bit and do some crafts to work on requesting. I've got to get one of the charts the therapist use so I can keep track of what she does and doesn't do. 

I think I'll get her a picture calender/schedule so she knows what order things come in. I'm wondering how long she's gonna sleep when she gets off the bus today. She didn't want to get out of bed this morning. When I went to get her up she rolled over and pulled the covers over head. She talked to herself the entire time she was in the tub. Breakfast was interesting, she didn't want the cereal I gave her. So she got the one she wanted and poured it in the floor creating her own version of an indoor pool. When I got the vacuum out she turned it on and said "There you go." 

Nice of her to help wasn't it? She did good in speech once she got over her stubborn streak. She's come a long way in such a short time. It was September of 2009 when we asked for the initial Autism evaluation. It's now May of 2010 and she's well on her way to functioning on her own in a typical setting. The more progress she makes the more confused I get and the tighter I want to hold on.

Oh well, I'm the one that set the long term goal as her achieving complete independence I've got to follow through. Getting all the stuff out of my kitchen that she can't have is going to be difficult. So far I've eliminated the obvious offenders. Her pretzels contain soy and she got a 1 on Soybeans, I've got to eliminate them entirely for a while. 

The nutritionist charges $40 an hour or $95 for three one hour sections. So I get to come up with $95 to pay at the first visit to save $25 on the visits. OK it's about time to put my shoes on and go get Theresa off the school bus. 

Allergy Test is Back

Theresa's allergy test is back. She's positive for eggs and peanuts among other things. Those too will be the hardest to get rid of. Oranges and grapefruit are out too. Then there are some other things. Still need to know how you can be allergic to cow's milk and not to cheese?? 


Uggh! this is going to be fun. Anyone want lessons in making your kid mad? I'm becoming an expert.

Not So Peaceful Sunday

It's Sunday again, so far I've done two loads of laundry and most of the dishes that were so nicely left in the sink for me to take care of today. I'm beginning to wonder if I'm the only one that lives here. If I am it should be a lot quieter than it is.

I managed to sell two stock content articles at Helium this month. I liked the boost in earnings since ad revenue seems to be down a bit right now. I think it has to do with the pages not loading like they should. Oh, well, decreasing earnings are better than no earnings.

My recycling is ready to take off. Actually since I keep forgetting to put it in the car to drop off at the bins it's probably pass ready. I have to run to the store to get Theresa more juice, I knew I should have got her frozen juice. She doesn't go through it as fast as the bottles.

OK time to go back to cleaning up the toy explosion. She's not paying attention so I can clean them up. I get to give some of them away to the local Autism center to use in therapy! I think she's out grown some of them anyway.

It's Saturday

Well, it's Saturday, nothing much done except two loads of laundry and a trip to the store. I gave into temptation and got a thing of bottle tops yesterday. They do give the illusion that you're kids can't knock your drink can over. Not sure how I like them yet.

This is the last week of school. Monday and Wednesday Theresa has preschool in the afternoons. Wednesday is the last day of school. It's time to figure out what's going on in the community this summer. I think I'll start with the local library to see if they have a summer reading program. Theresa is starting to read.

I'm undecided at this point, I know there are a dozen sights that have preschool curriculum at no costs. I can take a day or two each week and do a preschool program. We have three days with half hour speech sessions and one day with two hours of ABA. One night a month I have a parenting class that is ABA driven and a requirement to continue financial aid for her therapy. It's $55 an hour and she gets 2 hours a week. Thats $110, each week the recommendation is 40 hours a week. Since we seem to have gotten broker her therapy is covered 100% with a $3 weekly co-pay.

OK it's time to go get my clothes in. It's supposed to rain this evening so I'll endure the 90 something degrees it is right now to prevent having to rewash them.

Two Hours of ABA for Mom

OK I spent two hours in ABA with Theresa. I'm doing a lot better than I thought. I just keep asking her questions and forgetting to give her the answer. Sometimes the questions are too long. I forget that she's only three with all that she knows. 


The OCD showed its head today. The seats in the wagon wouldn't fold down.She had a fit. I'm good at ignoring the tantrums though. No talking to her but talking around her. 


OK now I'm watching Cheers. It's amazing how much you remember when you see things you haven't seen in years. 


Theresa is now trying to help herself to bread. 

Resting While Everyone Sleeps

My husband and my daughter are both napping quietly and not so quietly right now. Not in that order either. I just realized that I sent my child to school Monday without her snack. I know years from now she'll be on a therapist's couch telling them how that scarred her for life.

In a few minutes I should here my husband's alarm clock go off so he can go to work. I doubt I will he's become accustomed to me waking him on the days that's too tired to remember to set his alarm. I think he needs to see a doctor or go to bed earlier at night. Imagine if he had to work the entire day through. Maybe it's just the adjustment of going back to work after a year and a half. Of course it could be knowing that he's gonna have to work two jobs to come up with the income of one and that the summer is a time he has off. 

I did three loads of laundry and baked cookies. I put a roast in the crock pot this morning and I'm going to heat some sides to go with it tonight. Another reason I'm cutting back for the summer. I'm tired of preaching to a choir that's not listening. There will be no more wasted food just because "I don't feel like that', or "I'm gonna run to the store". We are effectively broke at the moment and well you're  over 40. Grow up. 

It is time to bring everyone to the same page. You get what you can afford if you don't want to end up doing without all together. 

Well, my resting time is almost over so I'm going to enjoy a nice peaceful glass of tea and my favorite book for a moment before I go back to work.

Note To Self

Note to self: get a new desktop computer and stop working off my laptop. Theresa just broke my splash drive trying to sit in mommy's lap. Once mommy put the computer down, Theresa began to loose interest in mommy's lap. She also tried to eat my dinner while her plate is still full.

Theresa identified an action today. This afternoon we had a make-up session for speech this morning and she said "we're jumping" while she and her therapist jumped in the trampoline! She's been identifying her flash cards now without being asked.

OK my overworked mind can't take anymore even of my own writing right now. Tomorrow is laundry day and we get to clean the house from top to bottom. I hope. One room at a time, I'll be making my cleaning list so I can go down it and check everything off as I go. That way nothing is left undone.

Just Talking about My Morning.

Theresa is dressed and ready to go to school. The end of year program is this morning. Theresa is dressed and ready to go. Daddy's not going. Why am I no surprised? Oh well, it's his loss. 

This afternoon we get to go to the financial aid meeting at Spectrum. Theresa's ABA has new guidelines, now there are classes that you have to attend. While they may be helpful I have a feeling that there will be too many a month that I have to make to get any work done. Yes I am the one that has to go. I take care of everything or it doesn't get taken care of. 

I used to wonder exactly how many times I'd have to explain the bills before it sunk in. I finally gave up and began taking care of everything budget related myself. 

I think I'll do an editorial about the stresses of taking care of the budget alone when you have others spending money that don't understand the term budget.

On the bright side my separate savings account is in tact even after the extended period of unemployment in this house.

I actually took a nap.

We went to speech this morning and I got to see Theresa write her letters at the end of the session. She even sat still to look at a book with Ms. Nicole. Theresa is back to lining things up again, she missed her noon supplement, I think. Oh well I can add it to tonight, What I can't add tonight is an extra dose of Ibuprofen. She's still napping, my nap was over an hour ago.

We have to be at the school at 9:45 in the morning with her in uniform for the end of year program. Tomorrow afternoon we go to Spectrum. Then Friday we have ABA. We don' t have anywhere to go in the afternoons. 

I get to make a nice long list of things to do in the house and out so that I can finish them. I have to figure out where to put my tomato plant, and one day maybe my husband will understand that a stake and a string will work fine for holding it up.

OK back to housekeeping and eventually I'll find something to write about until I'll continue to ramble on about everything else.

Nothing to Do

Well, we only have to go to speech tomorrow. That's a half hour there, half hour for speech and a half hour home. 1 1/2 hours out of the house, we'll probably stop at the grocery store to get some things since we didn't get that much last night.

I think I'll dedicate a blog to my writing. I was reading an article that pointed out a few things and since I definitely have down time it's the best time to do it.

Family Shopping Isn't All It's Cracked Up to Be

OK the day is going nicely so far. I haven't gotten too much done but that's OK too. I did a load of laundry and hung it out under the clouds that are nearly gone now. I got the baby ready for school, picked some blackberries and did a few dishes. I haven't managed to get the floor cleaned yet though. Oh well.

Last night we went to Wal-mart as a family. We had to get a few things and they have a grocery department, one store, one trip, most needs met. Despite all the advertising they don't have the lowest prices on everything. Anyway as a result I 'm still trying to figure out the difference in the $15 and nearly $30 bottles of Acetyl L-Carnitine the drugs stores and doctors sell and the $8 bottle at wal-mart that doesn't have anything in it that Theresa can't have. Now to find compatible supplements to the rest. Why doesn't every vitamin, mineral, etcetera maker all make allergy free version of their products without dyes.

Now I know why I worry every time I send my husband to the grocery store. He pointed out that by himself he can be in and out in thirty minutes. He neglected to mention that he has a number of extremely high sodium foods that reek havoc on his high blood pressure and that one of his trips can blow my grocery budget for the entire month. He was a little irritable that my daughter and I spent ten minutes talking about potato chips and another five looking at a display of Clorox because she screamed "Corox" as we were going by it. OK so she still needs a little help getting the letters in the words.

My darling husband has a habit of picking up food without noticing the price or even what's in it. That bothers me, he also has a nice habit of complaining you're taking too long while standing directly in front of the buggy with his hand on it so you can't move.

That would be why I try to go to the store with just Theresa. When daddy's home to go I leave Theresa home so I don't have to take daddy. Is that bad? I really wasn't prepared to raise what is now a 42 year old man. I thought once my kids were grown my job was done.

This morning looking around at my own piece of isolation it's all worth it.

It's The First Day of My Vacation

Lovely I've got a whole $18.33 in my change jar. It's not even half full yet, but it sure is talking a long time to fill up. It seems I don't spend nearly enough cash and it seems I have been neglecting to have the odd amounts transfered into savings each week. I've got to get back on track.

So far this morning Theresa had a bowl of cereal, her morning supplements, some pretzels and a little bit of her hot dogs for lunch.

What have I done? I washed a load of blue jeans so we'd have something to wear tomorrow. I baked some cookies for Theresa. So far she seems to like them, I know she liked licking the bowl for the mix. I managed to clean part of my kitchen floor and start my shopping list. Update my working blog at Helium. Still not sure why I have two but I do.

Still left to do? Pay two weeks worth of child support or is it one? The amount of money in my checking account will determine if we're getting another week ahead or staying on track.

The shopping and a bottle of Acetyl L Carnitine and some Zinc for Theresa are also gonna be fit in. The Acetyl is approximately $26 and the Zinc is $13. A large bottle of zinc would work better, last longer and cost less than buying two bottles but the pharmacy doesn't carry the larger bottle. The zinc can wait but I have to find a version of the other she can take since she's out of it all together.

OK back to my life and focusing on my own projects. Once I get everything in order I bet I can find time to do a number of my own projects around therapy during the summer and still get Theresa involved with me.

I Want A Few ThingsI

I want a few things. What are they??

1. I want a house that I designed with four bedrooms, five baths, a large kitchen with dishwasher and all those other conveniences. I want a screened in porch all the way around the house too.

2. I want my bills to stop going up.

3. I want the Summer off to work on my own projects.

4. One day I want to go back to the real world.

5. I want $100,000 in my savings account. I want it there before I'm too senile to remember that I wanted it. ( I may be running out of time for that part.)

Most of all I want my beautiful daughters to fly away knowing they can always come home.

Taking Some Time to Think

Today I'll finish up the project that should have been done last night. I'm not sure how long it'll take but I'll have them completed a day late. Once I finish I'm beginning time off to take care of my own writing. 


Theresa has a new medication for now. I don't see how it's helping yet. She just found a bag of candy she's not allowed to have. This is gonna be fun.

Distracting Myself from Being Offended

It's nice to know that as far as we've come in the world ignorance is still bountiful. Discrimination and prejudice still run rampant. I can't help but wonder why when you have no choice but to spend money out of your pocket without any help everyone tries to sell you everything but if you have some help to cut down on your costs they do everything possible to give you the minimum. There isn't even the question of whether or not you want the entire amount of whatever they just assume that you can't afford even the smallest difference in the cost.


I can't help but wonder if everyone/company in the world that offended someone by showing their own ignorance had to give that person at least half of there annual income if it would become less common?? While not ideal it would be nice just once to watch these snotty people that seem to assume (you know what they make of themselves) when your income leaves your senses leave have there income leave. Wonder how they would like to be treated as if they're stupid, or too far down the food chain to care about? 


Perhaps it would have been better had my senses left when my income began declining. That way at least I wouldn't be smart enough to know when I should be offended. 

Meeting Deadlines

I actually met my deadline for the 150 articles! Glad they were only 200 words each. Now I have 37 new articles of 200 words each to complete by midnight Friday. I'm gonna be exhausted and not able to sleep once again. Don't you just love it when you're so tired that all you want to do is lay down and pass out but the minute your head hits the pillow you wake up? 


Theresa's labs are back. Her zinc is at 124 and her vitamin D at 65. Her thyroid is normal, her lactic acid was elevated which can indicate an immune issue but the ammonia levels were normal. She was a bit irritated during the blood drawing and knocked the needle out of her arm. Since the ammonia wasn't elevated and she was irritated they don't believe that it's actually an immune issue. She'll have to be older to check it again and get a result that's useful.


There are a bunch of other tests that can be used to find more answers but her insurance doesn't cover them. We'll have to find the test specifics and then go from there. Covering the costs that insurance doesn't cover will take a lot but it might be manageable with enough advanced notice. 


OK it's back to work for me. I have to find the time to keep everything updated and there don't seem to be enough hours in the day. OK time to go back to my own self created stress so I continue to thrive.

Not So Good with Keeping Up

So far I'm not so good at keeping everything up dated each day. The other day Theresa walked up to me and said "I got to tell you something" then she walked away silent. Oh well it's a start. The pronoun is something I've waited for ever to hear. I'm proud to announce that she has the attention span of a three year old! She's even making messes, funny parents around the world yell at kids to stop with the messes and I beg mine to make them.

OK I may have an extended deadline by two days if I take an extra 37 articles. That'll work, it'll give me just enough time to catch up from today and finish on time.

Theresa's labs are back but they're  in her pediatricians truck. He got called out on an emergency in the middle of the night so we'll wait since it couldn't be avoided.

I'll Keep Things the Way They Are

We have two hours until Therapy starts. I have managed to finish an article I started before bed and one full article so far. When I finish the one I'm working on I'll have 126 left to finish by this coming Wednesday. That's six days counting today. I believe that works out to 21 articles of 200 words each day to finish on time. Funny thing is that I should be able to get at least two of these done in an hour and still take a break each hour. I'm not sure what I was thinking when I accepted this.

I have two hours on Monday and Wednesday that aren't interrupted, and some time in the evenings after Theresa goes to bed. The problem I'm finding is that I prefer to spend time with her when she's up no matter what else I have to do. Then I can't stay awake once she's in bed. She looks so peaceful right now eating her cereal in the little dress that she picked out. It's times like these that make it hard to believe that she can have tantrums that last for hours over something she can't explain and we sometimes don't understand.

Oh, well she's my little princess and I wouldn't have it any other way. I'll keep all the stress and frustration because when days are good they're extraordinary.

Updating Myself On My Progress

So far I have about 134 articles left of the 150 due by Wednesday the 12th of May. I'm hoping to have a more productive weekend. I can't seem to find quiet time and when I do I'm too exhausted to focus.

While I may be ranting on to myself here it's actually rather theraputic. There are days when I have no idea where I am or what I'm doing, on a bad day I forget my name. The up side is that Theresa is having a relatively good week. Her ABA therapy is in the morning from ten to noon, then OT is at 2 with her original OT for the last time. I'm not sure what we're gonna do after that. Her entire schedule will be rearranged. Life really screws you up when you have a kid that requires a routine. To think in a few years she'll be a teenager that you want to have a routine whether they like it or not.

Oh, well I made a promise to myself to update this daily no matter how short the post and so far so good. Almost time for the school bus.

Some Things Accomplished This Week.

Well, we got the blood drawn. Theresa had to be stuck twice, she moved her arm and the needle came out. We spent an hour and a half making her sit on the potty just to get a urine sample. She finally used the potty though but she hasn't shown an interest since.

We didn't have speech this morning. She has preschool this afternoon. That's good I have 150 articles to do by the 12th. I'm glad they're only 200 words each. I'm going to leave this paycheck alone until I actually need it. I have to get my radiator fixed and new brakes.

Tomorrow morning Theresa has a dentist appointment. We'll be gone about an hour for that. I'm hoping she has a good morning tomorrow. After that I can work until time to go meet the other school bus. Maybe, Theresa is starting to like to go play in her room.

I saw a house for sale this morning but I didn't like the looks of it. Now if I can stop surfing the net and get down to work I may actually accomplish something this week. Well, it's time to go back to work and I'm hoping to promote a little bit tonight for a few minutes. It only takes a second to get some things scheduled, watch I just posted it and I'll have forgotten in an hour.

The To Do List is Making Progress

Theresa's got labs scheduled for after her speech therapy tomorrow. She's having a couple new tests and some repeats done. It'll be before lunch since she's the happiest after her visit to Mrs. Nicole for speech and I want her as cooperative as possible so she doesn't get too upset while they stick her.


Today Theresa only has a couple of hours of preschool. I'm going to try and rearrange her room while she's gone. We need to find the directions to put together her kitchen while she's at school too. It's hard to believe that there are only a few more weeks left of school. I'm wondering when her pictures will come back.


I can't wait to get the school pictures back, she was sooo cute in them.Right now she's trying to color her belly button. 


O.K. It's off to work for me now. At least I hope it is I redid the bills and so far it's not looking good as my income declines. Making up the difference is getting harder as time availability decreases.

Not Much Rest for the Wicked

Today has been a rather lazy day since it's Sunday. I do like to try and rest a bit on Sunday, I began my day by going back to bed to sleep a little bit longer. I managed to get a few things done around the house just because they couldn't be put off any longer so that I could sleep all day.

Theresa has school tomorrow and I've got to schedule her labs. The first part of the week will be normal but Friday we'll be without an Occupational Therapist. I'm hoping that won't cause a meltdown for my darling Theresa.

Adjusting or Not Adjusting to Change

Well, this has been an interesting week. We got some not so good news that we're not sure what to do with. Theresa's labs are going to be redone next week a finger prick for zinc and vitamin D then a tube of blood to run a food sensitivity test. Theresa is doing great, it's hard to believe that she began speech in September and ABA in late October/early November, OT began in November.

The private Occupational Therapist is leaving and I'm thinking of following her. I don't want anymore changes right now and I'm not sure how Theresa will react to another OT. Why is it that when you get used to something everything begins to change.

I'm not doing so well on the work front this month either, can't seem to get motivated at all. One day I'll focus enough where I can ramble on about how well Theresa's doing, how much we got done at home and just how much work I managed to get done.

Right now I'm drinking a pot of coffee, really need some caffeine, thinking about doing the dishes and watching reruns of NCIS. I don't know why but Mark Harmon is gorgeous. That explains why my husband complains about NCIS.