High School days

So this year my middle son enters high school and my youngest 8th grade. My oldest, my daughter, is still being home schooled, but I wish sometimes selfishly she would just "survive" public school.
Any whoo - I made it a point to contact key people before this high school year began. At the urging of my son's math teacher (and might I say Godsend) I am the squeaky wheel!! I emailed and made sure to ask in what way they would be supporting my son and I with the upcoming school year. I also made sure to remind them that with Autism routine and the unknown changes would be our first hurdle so I would need his school schedule so we could go over everything before his fateful first day. At this school they dint usually get the schedules until the first day which was one of the reasons my daughter struggled and she is now homeschooled. The school was new and not prepared for us or at least that is how I felt. So this time I wanted to start off differently for my son. He can benefit with the socialness of it all.
I did finally get his schedule the Friday before school and prayed that would be enough time. I was also lucky enough to find a maintenance man to help us get his locker open that we were unable to do at orientation. Another thing he was told to handle that first day. Hello **knock on head** he will get to overwhelmed and shut down. Ahh relief he was feeling relieved and he opened it several times after that and we went through that schedule until he felt comfortable.
Us running through the schedule and me taking the time to introduce him to key people so he knew them and they knew him was a huge pay off. I didn't feel like when I sent him to Kinder. UNPREPARED. Not us - ever again!!
He came home so loving it. The one thing bothersome was when I asked him who he had lunch with. I ask them all this question every day. Just to see whose names I hear & stay in touch with who they are surrounding themselves with. He was sad because he sat alone. For three days I would ask the same question and get the same answer. Then one day the answer changed not alot, but it was hopeful. He said that a girl came and talked to him about FISH club and asked if he had anyone to eat lunch with. He answered no and that was the end of HIS conversation. I was so annoyed with him. Why??!! I was telling him that was her trying to reach out and help him feel comfortable, but I had to pull the reigns on myself. Duh he is "autistic" social skills dummy. It's a work in progress. So I tell him you go and talk to her and ask her questions about FISH club. The whole speech about trying to meet new people. My sin has the biggest heart. So day 4 he jumps in my truck and I start to ask the usual questions. Before I get to the lunch question he says she walked over to him again. She gives him more info on FISH club and invites him to eat at the table with her and her friends. He was so happy!! His exact statement "I have new friends!!" I cried all the way to pick up his brother. Happy tears are such a blessing. He said she told him he could sit with them anytime and my son's innocent response, "really??" He's been eating with these seniors ever since. They even added 2 more freshman to the group. (I will say every high school should have stand up kids like the ones running FISH club) FISH club stands for freshman in senior hands!!
Tomorrow a better post not from my phone:) It's 1:35am and I need to try and sleep. Zzzzzz

In "autism" news

Friday my husband and I attended my middle son's high school freshman orientation. It was a nightmare bit chaotic. It started with us arriving early and picking up his class of 2015 shirt and then being sent to the auditorium. Let me just say I'm glad we got there early because it soon filled up fast and not even all the parents could sit. They they sent us to the gym to watch a pep rally. Just a motivator for the freshman, but we all thoroughly enjoyed it. It reminded me of my high school days of pep rallys and fun. We were then told we would be split up and he would go with a group & the parents would meet with a "counselor". He was already saying he wanted no part of it. Then it was the famous "I don't know". ugh When will this stuff get easier??!! Honestly, I was scared to separate too, but separate we did. I told him to go after I found out we were going to meet up as soon as the thirty minutes were up. We parted, I almost forced him and it took everything I had not to burst into tears with worry. 30 minutes later we met up and he had run into 2 of his friends and was pretty upbeat. Pfew RELIEF!! I made the right choice. 1 point for MOM!!
Then the good stuff. I found a counselor to explain the "schedule" to me because these don't look like the right classes. By the way the "schedule" is nothing but a course selection. UM hello, my son is on the Autism spectrum. He does not really care for surprises or chaos. Not only that as the counselor looks at it - it is wrong. He has 2 classes that are not for freshman. Really??!! Oh yeah they can't fix it now, but they will call me when they get it taken care of. I won't be holding my breath. Problem number 2 - HIS STUPID LOCKER IS BROKE!! Do you know how many times we practice that before school starts along with the schedule. OBVIOUSLY NOT. So they have no one that can fix it now, but they told him he should remind them on the first day of school. NEWS FLASH my son will be already facing new routines, new faces and now I hate to say this a new chaos.
I will be there the week before school starts and do my best to get a real schedule (preferably the right one) and get the locker fixed. Wish us luck - better yet please send us lots of prayers:)

A Day like no other

Today I awoke to hear that 31 men were killed when their helicopter was shot out of the sky. Not only were most of these US men, but some of the SEAL group that worked with the elite who "took care of " Osama Bin Laden. It was with sadness that I watched the news today. The days of banning myself from the one sided news media couldn't keep me from wanting details on the loss of so many men. I knew that this was a bigger loss than the one in 2005 when the US sent in a team to retrieve 4 SEALS & was shot down. Today seemed ominous. I attended my box packing for the troops with my group Cypress Cares and then came home. I had planned to attend my 20 year reunion, but just couldn't bring myself to want to go. How could I and enjoy myself?! I knew I couldn't.

Today a parent received a phone call, saw the news or received a knock on the door and today their world will have changed forever!! God Bless those men and their family's for their sacrifice.

17!!

So my daughter turned 17 yesterday. 17 I keep saying out loud like it will sink in the more I say it. This is the daughter that also has PDD on the Autism spectrum disorder. She has grown in many ways by leaps and bounds. She still has her moments that if we let her she would have us do everything for her. She wanted a small family get together how awesome is that. We borrowed a moonwalk from one of the organizations I do a website for. A very good organization by the way Krysta's Karing Angels. Check it out if you have the time.
Anyhooo, we jumped in the moonwalk in 100 degree weather. lol it was fun, and had moonwalk battles. We had such a blast. She is still in no hurry to drive THANK GOD!! She is still not good at making decisions on a dime and well, you can't drive in Houston passively. It's like pulling teeth or I get an I don't know to get an answer sometimes. I mean really kid how can you not know??!!! It's one of the trying things to go with autism. At least her great grandmother was in town for the occasion. The day went by to fast. Oh I forgot she declared she has a birthday week lol - just like her mommy!! haha

The Best Day Ever

I'm an outside gal. I love being outside, always have since I was a little girl. I remember sometimes admiring my surroundings and feeling these tears fill my eyes. I never knew why it just happened. Later in life I recall explaining it to my mom. It was as if I was noticing all this beauty and creation around me and almost felt unworthy to be in it's presence. It just enveloped me how beautiful the world could be. It doesn't take much to make this woman *me* cry, but not for sad things. I still get that I'm so happy feeling of tears or will be watching my now teenagers and something will be said between them or one of them will do something for the other and this sense or pride just overcomes me and sometimes so do the tears.
My middle son, who was diagnosed "autistic" when he was 4, gets that same feeling. Pretty awesome when you think about it. We worked vehemently on picture books to recognize what facial expressions meant. Some things parents take for granted, it's expected to see my grinning from ear to ear and know it's different than when I was aggravated with him. Those days are long gone.
This isn't the first day he has proclaimed the statement - the first time I heard it was 4 years ago. BUT I can say I couldn't remember the last time I heard it. The family started in search of a bike for his younger brother. Off to Academy we went, well it was the third store we stopped at, and my son found a toy grenade.... YES I know probably not what every parent wants their kid to play with, but it's a toy for crying out loud. His logic for wanting it made it sound like a great "game" for the family. When the "trigger" was squeezed it ticked down and then made a sound like it was exploding. Do you know what he thought of it's use should be?....HOT POTATO!!! I loved it. (We played when we got home and had a blast). Next stop was a Walmart, where he was lucky to find a game he had on his "game wish list" on sale for $20. Dad surely couldn't say no to that. There were other games on his list that he could have asked for, but he knows how tight we have to be with our money for now so it killed him for me to even bring it up to Dad. He didn't ask for the game, but I caught him looking in the window and knew he wouldn't ask. He was almost in tears as he and his father walked up to the ticket counter. "Mom", he says sniffling, "I'm so happy". The only reason he asked for the grenade - it was $1.99. Oh how I love my kids. Usually when Dad is off, he is a fireman, once every 2 weeks we try go out to dinner as a family. Dad and I had decided tonight was the night to go to our favorite mexican restaurant. We were seated and he looks at me from across the booth and says mom "This is the best day ever". I laugh and say I hope love bug, when you are older you remember all these "best days" and have some for your own children.

counting down

Oh, I'm counting down till the kids are out of school. I don't know which is more excited. lol So two more weeks, we have finally gotten rain in the dry old south. I've been working on 2 webpages maybe one more to add. Trying to get this stuff done so our summers can be spent fishing, vacationing, camping and whatever else intrigues us.
The part I'm not excited about - filling out all the paperwork reminding me that my middle son is going to high school next year. UGH!! I can say raising three teens at the same time has it's challenges, but with a good relationship just another day at "the office". Today this boss is taking a late lunch while the workers are arguing amongst themselves. lol
M

For the troops

So yesterday I had my family work our annual Cypress Cares golf tournament. It's CC's biggest fundraiser to help us raise some $$ for shipping our care packages over to the troops. They really appreciate bits of home. We are lucky to receive so many donated items, but the shipping is outrageous. It's about $14 a box, but sending 200 boxes adds up. So every fundraiser we can do sure helps. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and we had so many golfers show up to play. We haven't gotten our figures yet, but I believe we had a successful event. Everyone had so much fun for this wonderful event. We couldn't have asked for better. Next year I hope we get more golfers and more sponsers for our Veterans that play for free:)