Try Outs

On Friday, I went to see a local production of a show called "Nunsense." It's a cute 5-woman show about a bunch of nuns trying to do a talent show to raise money. Diana's friend was one of the cast, so on Saturday evening, Trevor & Diana went to see the show as well. In the back of the program was information about a casting call for "The Producers." I was kind of hoping Lee would be interested in trying out. Community theater is fun, altho it is a good chunk of time you need to dedicate to rehearse & perform. In any case, Lee was not all that excited about being in a show, even though it's one of his favorites.

So I asked Trevor & Diana what they thought. Diana has had the community theater experience, but she was in Kindergarten at the time. Trevor has only just gotten to do some drama in Jr. High - but he has an awesome memory & knew the lines for everyone in the productions they did :)

Looking at the rehearsal dates & show dates, I realized if we're going to Canada for a chunk in June, Diana would not be able to do the show. She's set for the summer with her financing for school & her apartment, so she doesn't need to work. Trevor, however, has already been volunteering at the Boys & Girls Club. He is really looking to get some kind of work, so he would most likely be sticking around home anyway. Typically, the rehearsals & such happen in the evenings for these shows.

We eventually went & got Trevor signed up. He was supposed to bring some sheet music to sing. Trevor has a very nice singing voice, but he hasn't done anything to develop it. He decided to sing "Still Alive" which is the epilogue song for the game, Portal. In the game, it's sung by the AI program, GLaDOS (Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System). The pianist had a harder time following the tune, but Trevor just continued singing unless they stopped him. They also checked Trevor's range. When he was done - the rest of the people trying out applauded :) Still Alive by the songwriter


Next they had to try the dance audition. Dance Audition??? There was nothing in the casting call information about a dance audition!

So here's Trevor, on stage with 9 other people, trying to follow the choreographer in a tap dance routine. For those not very familiar with our son, lack of coordination is a marker of Asperger's Syndrome. I would not have encouraged him to try out for this show had I known the choreographer was so ambitious! The dancers (in their jazz shoes & flowy attire) were having a tough time keeping up! But I was so proud of Trevor for being up there, not giving up, and attempting as best as he could to follow along. He didn't fall off the stage or step on anyone, so we're gonna call it good.

He's only trying for a chorus part anyway! They want 50 people, it's all male except one female role, and I estimate there were 25 people (both sexes) trying for the roles. There was a number to call for call-backs this morning for principle roles (which didn't include Trevor) but that's fine. In the message they said they will let the chorus folks know later. Since the choir guy thought Trevor had a nice range & could stay on key, there's a good chance he'll be selected. Plus on the application, he put that he speaks German :)

I'm hoping he gets in (chances are good) so that I can see him on stage. I missed that with both of my kids in High School - both Lee & I did stuff like that, and I'd love Trevor to have the experience :)

Yard Stuff

This was our Sunday project.

We dug out all the grass & stuff that had grown along the wall here, & put in the stone border & filled it with bark mulch.

This is the deer in the neighbor's yard. They eat the bottoms of those juniper bushes - ha.

This is the area we're working on now. I've been moving my strawberry plants over to the planters & we're making little beds for the planters to sit.

This area gets a LOT of sun, so we're hoping it will be good for the strawberries & maybe some tomatoes. The stepping stones are so I don't get too wet in the morning when I water before work :)

Lee put the shelf in on Monday. It will be for whatever else - more strawberries? Flowers? Herbs? I haven't decided yet :)

Happy Mother's Day 2009

Last Sunday, my mom & Connie headed back to Canada. Since I needed to bring Diana back home anyway, we left in two cars in the morning, and took off to Eugene. My mom drove with me, and Diana drove with Connie.

I wanted to take my mom to brunch at the Oregon Electric Company, but they weren't doing brunch. Diana suggested Olive Garden instead.

It was a lot of fun and we (mostly) enjoyed the meal. The pork tenderloin wasn't tender :( After we ate, we went over to Diana's place so Connie & Mami could see where she lives. Then we went over to the UofO campus to show them where she has the majority of classes. It was kind of a rainy, wet day, and a bunch of people were out wearing aluminum heat blankets. We thought that was weird until we figured out it was the Eugene Marathon :P

I think Mami & Connie thought the campus was pretty neat, and hopefully the morning gave them a good start to the two-day trek back home.

Happy Mother's Day to my mom, Renate; Lee's mom, Rita; my sisters, Connie & Carolyn; Lee's sisters, Donna, Karen, & Myrna; our sister-in-law, Nancy; and all of our friends who are moms!!!

I'll be working in the yard most of the weekend, and going to see the new Star Trek movie :)

The actual event - Communion

It was a very nice day - my Mom & Connie had come down from Canada on Friday (LOOONG trip!), and we had the family over for dinner at our house before everyone went in to church for 5:30 Mass.

We filled up a whole pew - Lee is sitting in the one behind ours to talk to Myrna.

They had Connor walk down with Itzel, a little girl with Down's Syndrome. I would have put them with a typical peer partner, so that someone could coach them if necessary. As it was though, they walked nice & slow, stayed next to each other, bowed at the front, and then didn't know what to do next. There had been a table at the rehearsal right where they bow, but it got moved back so they were at a loss. The kids that came behind them told them what to do instead, so it all worked out.

You have to click on the last two photos to see Connor receiving the Body of Christ, and the Blood of Christ. For those not familiar with our Catholic traditions - that's a wafer of bread & a cup of wine that have been transubstantiated into Christ during the Mass. They still just taste like bread & wine :P

Connor is already excited for next Sunday Mass, when he can take Communion again - "No more just Blessing!!"

First Communion on Saturday

Connor's very excited.

Last Saturday, we did a practise and took photos (which is why I have these already).

My mom & sister will be coming down from Canada, and I don't know yet how many of Lee's family will make it...

This will probably be the last sacrament Connor does for a long time. I don't see him being able to do Confirmation unless it's really adapted for his disability, and I don't think we're going to see him doing a Catholic Vocation (like being a monk?) or getting married. Those all require a lot of soul-searching and inner conviction, which he doesn't do.

Who knows though - God can do anything :)

Birthday #47

Wednesday I celebrated my birthday.

I started off the day with a very nice gift from Lee - an hour-long massage at the wellness center we like. I will use this most likely with a furlough day, so I can get the massage, and tehn go home and relax the rest of the day. That's the plan, anyway.

On the way to work, I got my free Mocha Latte from Dutch Bros. The guy didn't even really check my ID, which I thought was funny. Apparently, if I really wanted to, I could have gone to all the Dutch Bros. coffee stands in town all day and gotten free coffee (my nephew, Daniel, has a friend who managed to hit like 15 one day). I like the idea of the local coffee stand giving you a freebie on your birthday :)

Connor comes with me to work, and I had baked a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. That was breakfast. Connor made my co-worker & the substitute teacher sing me "Happy Birthday" before he would let us eat any cake. Hee.

During lunchtime, Lee scored points again with having a flowering plant being delivered to me at work. It's a very nice little arrangement, and I'll do my best to not kill it (no promises).

After work, Lee got us Subway for dinner. Both he & I are currently working hard on our waistlines, and we knew we were going to go out to 'real dinner' after our TOPS meeting on Thursday, so we just put off that part. Still, it was nice that I didn't have to cook on my birthday!

Lee also took the time to remind people on facebook and stuff to acknowledge my birthday. That was very nice as well. Good job, Lee!!

Yesterday after TOPS, Lee got the boys and we went to Red Robin for dinner. Connor had the biggest grin on his face when the Red Robin staff came & brought me ice cream, balloons & sang me "Happy Birthday." Too fun.

Thanks to everyone for the nice birthday wishes - however I got them, via phone, card, facebook or blog!

TOPS State Recognition Days 2009

I just got back from my TOPS convention this morning. It was a fun weekend, with lots of inspirational stories, and good motivational speakers. We had a guy who has walked across the USA seven times now, and another gentleman who has lost over 100 lbs and kept it off for 13 years now. Good stuff.

These are the members of my chapter that attended this convention. We had four rooms at the Hilton in Eugene, and it was pretty busy. The actual convention is always organized chaos. It's volunteer-run, and the volunteers do their best, but it's never a smooth-running thing. At least this time, we weren't cramped, or boiling from heat, or not able to use the facilities due to lack of facilities!

Actually, my club's rooms were only a floor up from the mezzanine level, so I was able to take the stairs. The line for the elevators was pretty long every time the sessions ended.

On Friday, I wanted to grab Diana for dinner after we were done, so I told the ladies I was going to get her & grab some Taco Bell. Suddenly I was taking orders for 9 people :P That was fine. I got Diana & we got the food & went back to the hotel. We ate in the room, and Diana got to hear some of the ladies bicker, including my 83-year-old friend saying "Bullshit!" lol.

Saturday we got to see all the division winners (those people who lost the most weight for their weight division, from teens to folks who have had surgery for weight loss). There were at least four people who had lost over 100 lbs.! We also found out who our Oregon King & Queen are. Those are the male & female who reached their goal weights last year with the most weight lost since they joined TOPS to reach goal. The lady is 75 years old, and it took her 8 years. The man is a young guy with Down's Syndrome. He needed someone to assist him, but boy, was he enthusiastic! He lost 78 lbs or so, while the Queen had lost over 100. Amazing stuff!

For the afternoon session, all of those who have reached their goal are recognized and announced on stage, along with how long they've been a KOPS. I was at the 6-year mark this time. We had a new graduate this time, and she's in the middle of the photo. She lost 80-something pounds to reach her goal :)

After all that, the session ended at 3:30, so I called Diana about going out to dinner together. The rest of the club does the banquet, except a mom/daughter couple, and they asked to join Diana & I. We went to an Indian/Greek restaurant, and it was really good! After we dropped the ladies off, Diana & I went to the Sweet Life Cafe, which is a really hopping bakery near downtown. It was pretty cool. We shared a lemon bar & I got Diana an Apfel Studel to eat over the next couple of days. It was pretty big! Then I dropped her off at her place again, and I headed back to the hotel. The rest of the club were already in their rooms, and I chatted with my roomies a bit.

This morning we checked out early, got breakfast along the way & got home. Yay!

FAFSAs & Taxes

This being April 15th, I figured I ought to go and amend the kids' FAFSAs (Federal Application for Financial Student Aid). You have to show correct information, and they had originally filed under "Parents will file" status.

So I go in & change it to "Already filed" and put in the correct numbers. We had estimated pretty close, but the adjusted gross income was a little different from my guessimate.

Going thru the tail end, it says that you are agreeing you have submitted the information correctly - if not, you can be fined $20,000 and/or go to PRISON. Eek! Good thing I'm not a cheat and double & triple check everything any time I do stuff like this!

Diana must have this filed in order to continue getting her 90% scholarship from the Ford folks.

Trevor must have this as well, since all his funding is coming from the government. He's still looking for work, but nothing has opened up for him as of yet. In the meantime, he actually gets to pocket a bit of money for expenses, which he will probably be using to pay down the interest already accrued on last years loans...

I hate this stuff. *sigh*

Happy Kiester 2009

It was a whirlwind weekend.

Diana was brought home Friday evening by an old (young) childhood friend, who is attending college north of Eugene. The two girls enjoyed catching up with each other over the hour it took to get Diana home.

Friday after dinner, Diana went shopping with me so we could fill the Easter eggs. I got everyone a new shirt/blouse for Easter. Mine turned out to be too lightweight for the weather, so I guess I'll wear it sometime in June :P The guys all got a polo shirt, and Diana got a new blouse for her. The older kids & I watched TV and filled eggs in the later part of the evening. There was ice cream too...

Saturday morning, we packed up, cleaned up, did Diana's laundry etc. and left for Medford around noon. Myrna hosted a big egg hunt & bbq, and all Lee's sibs & folks were there, with a few friends of Myrna & Doug. There weren't that many 'little' kids, so the older ones had to hunt for eggs too :) Everyone got a lot!

Once the meal & hunt was over, we got to visit & stuff. I think it was down to just a few by 6:00, and we decided to head over to see Myrna & Doug's house they'd bought in Jacksonville. They are going to sell their big house and downsize, now that the kids are pretty much doing their own thing & Daniel is going away to college at George Fox U in the fall. My kids stayed at Myrna's while we were gone.

The house reminds me a bit of the one Lee & I lived in when we were in Garden Grove. The yard is just a little smaller, but it's about the same age. Nice garage & Doug & Myrna have plans for it :) Without the big property, I'm sure Doug will keep busy with the new place.

Daniel then directed me to the Greyhound Bus station. It's a new one now, not where we used to get Trevor when he attended OIT. After chatting in the car a while, we decided to go in and see if the bus was delayed or anything. Turns out it had a 'meal stop' in Central Point, which is maybe 10 minutes away. They hadn't arrived yet, and would be there at least 20 minutes, so Daniel & I hopped back in the van and went up to Central Point.

When we got there, I walked around the bus to see if Lee might still be on there (I knew he wasn't going to get a meal), and then we went inside to look for him there. Daniel got a call from his mom while we're in the store, and she was letting us know Lee had just called and he was in Central Point. That was kind of funny :) We saw him almost as soon as Daniel hung up the phone.

So back to Myrna's house then, and we got to visit more & watch some TV while the kids used the jacuzzi. Pretty much everyone had an early morning for Easter, so we didn't stay up till all hours :)

The next day, we got our gear together after Doug fixed us eggs (thanks!), and we went over to the folks' for coffee & donuts. I had to run back to the other house though, when I realized I'd forgotten my camera - doy. When I got back to the folks', we all got in the van to go to Mass at Shepherd of the Valley church. We arrived early enough to sit wherever we wanted, and with Connor, that means the front row. He did very well in a strange church - one of the great things about Catholic Mass is it's really predictable! Mom did very well too - I think she feels very comfortable in church, and it's something that's just very familiar to her - even with the Alzheimer's.

I had to take a photo of the kids at the baptismal font. The flowers were so beautiful, and those are just the ones at the font - they were all over the altar. Very nice.

After mass we took the folks home again, and then Daniel stopped by with 'all' our stuff (Diana's vest, a jacket that wasn't ours, and a toy Donna had brought that we didn't know we should take) lol. Then we headed home. We got to Canyonville around 3:00 for gas, and decided to stop at the restaurant there, since we didn't really have an Easter Dinner with Lee. That worked out nicely. After we got home, we loaded up Diana's gear, and she & I drove to Eugene to get her back to school.

It started raining on the way up, and we were grateful it hadn't rained up to that point all weekend :) I got home just after 8:30 - in time to log in to play WoW with Lee & Robert.

So, yeah - busy weekend! Happy Easter! And thank you, thank you to Myrna & Doug for hosting us & doing the big egg hunt :) It was great!!

She Made It!!!

We had a Older Girl Camp at Bandon, OR a few years back, and we were introducing our troops to geocaching. While looking up the caches in the area, I found there was actually a girl scout Travel Bug (trackable item) in one of the caches we'd be searching for.

Turns out someone else snagged it before we could find her, but once we got home again, I found out she'd only been moved south an hour or so. Diana & I made the trip to find her when we went to visit my niece, Karrie, and her new baby.

We grabbed the Brownie Girl Scout and brought her back to Roseburg, and had her participate in a Thinking Day event - we made a display showing all the places she'd been, and at the end, we passed her off to another girl scout who was on her way to the Girl Scout center in London in a couple of weeks.

That girl placed her in Regent's Park in London, and that was our part of the trip. I'm so excited she's finally made it to Our Chalet, and even gets to be her own geocache-starter! Hopefully her troop will come to collect her this summer.

Way to go, Brownie Girl Scout travel bug!!

This is the entry from a new cache created for the Brownie Girl Scout travel bug that our scouts had a hand in furthering on her journey (originally written in german):

Our Chalet
We’d like to dedicate this cache to the TB „Brownie Girl“, which started its journey 2005 in Florida and reached its destination Adelboden in December 2008.
It was started by a girl scout troop, who will visit the ‘Our Chalet’ (Girl Scout Centre) in Adelboden.
In order to find the cache, you need to answer the following questions, which all relate to Our Chalet or the Girl Scout Association. The parking area is only available on weekend,alternative: Silleren parking area.
1. Who established the Our Chalet? Sum up all letters from the first and last name = A____
2. Where are other world centres of the Girl Scout Association? Use the numerical value of the first letter of the country and addthem together= B ____
3. Who supported the planning and building of Our Chalet financially? Numerical value of 2nd letter of the first name = C ___
4. What was Ida von Herrenschwands’ girls scout name? Count the number of letters = D ____
5. Where was the first place located, which was chosen by the donators? Sum up the digits of the postcode (single digit) = E ____
6. What’s the altitude of the highest mountain in Adelboden (in metres, without comma) Add the digits of the number = F ____
Important: Please don’t remove the TB „Brownie Girl“ from the cache as it’ll be collected by its owner!!!!
You will find the cache at:N 46° B+2. E-1/D+E/D-1E 007° A+F+C+1. D/E/C-3
Good luck wish you
jumbo-jeter und 5wild

N 46° 29.382 E 007° 34.035 [Other Conversions]UTM: 32T E 390042 N 5149456 NE
5546.7 mi from your home coordinates
In Espace Mittelland (BE/SO), Switzerland

A Nun Joke

There were two nuns.. One of them was known as Sister Mathematical (SM), and the other one was known as Sister Logical (SL). It is getting dark and they are still far away from the convent.

SM: Have you noticed that a man has been following us for the past thirty-eight and a half minutes? I wonder what he wants.
SL: It's logical. He wants to rape us.
SM: Oh, no! At this rate he will reach us in 15 minutes at the most! What can we do?
SL: The only logical thing to do of course is to walk faster.

A little while later...

SM: It's not working.
SL: Of course it's not working. The man did the only logical thing. He started to walk faster, too.
SM: So, what shall we do? At this rate he will reach us in one minute.
SL: The only logical thing we can do is split. You go that way and I'll go this way. He cannot follow us both.

So the man decided to follow Sister Logical. Sister Mathematical arrives at the convent and is worried about what has happened to Sister Logical. Then Sister Logical arrives.
SM: Sister Logical! Thank God you are here! Tell me what happened!
SL: The only logical thing happened. The man couldn't follow us both, so he followed me.
SM: Yes, yes! But what happened then?
SL: The only logical thing happened. I started to run as fast as I could and he started to run as fast as he could.
SM: And?
SL : The only logical thing happened. He reached me.
SM : Oh, dear! What did you do?
SL : The only logical thing to do. I lifted my dress up.
SM : Oh, Sister! What did the man do?
SL: The only logical thing to do. He pulled down his pants.
SM: Oh, no! What happened then?
SL : Isn't it logical, Sister? A nun with her dress up can run faster than a man with his pants down.

And for those of you who thought it would be dirty, say two Hail Marys!

TOPS Leader

Last night I ran my first meeting as Leader of my TOPS chapter. *whew*

There were about 30 people in attendence, and I went off the outgoing leader's agenda, but next time, I'll have my own. It was confusing trying to find stuff I hadn't written :/

I will also rearrange the leader notebook, since I like to have the most recent information in the front, vs. the back of the section.

For the benefit of the newer members, I gave a little intro to myself. I apologized for my lack of skill at the head table, because I'd actually planned to start off with a different position, like secretary or co-leader to figure out how things run first. But no one else stepped up to the leader position, and since I'm no longer running a GS troop, I went ahead and accepted the nomination (and won by a landslide, seeing as how my opposition ran with the intent of not accepting if she won - we need at least two people to vote between - lol).

I do really love my club. It's the only reason I have maintained my 35-lb loss since December 2002, and I'm grateful for their support and understanding in my daily struggle with my weight. I know if I didn't go every Thursday to weigh in, I would have long ago regained everything and probably more. I truly need this chapter to keep me on my toes, and they really are a great, fun bunch of people.

I also really am happy that Lee is coming with me now too, and that he's doing so well. It forces us out of the house every week, and while going to a support meeting and then out for dinner might not seem very 'datey' to some, it works for us.

I appreciate Trevor staying home with Connor so we can do this as well. Connor tends to expect Trevor to do things to bug him (maybe because of Trevor's track record with that? heh), so having Trevor fix Connor dinner, and 'take care' of him for a couple of hours every week is good for both boys. And the 'taking care' means give Connor food, and then leave him alone - lol.

There's a lot of record keeping in the TOPS club, lots of awards, tracking gains & losses & turtles (staying the same), and I expect I'll have to set aside an evening every week to keep up with everything. Thankfully my co-leader has done ALL the head table positions in the club, and also other volunteer things for the chapter. I can rely on her to guide me until I figure it all out :)

And note to self - don't wear a silk shirt when speaking in front of a group. It doesn't 'breathe' well (the treasurer sitting next to me said my deoderant was working fine anyway).

Tooth Hurty

Connor used a joke to get out of class the other day.

"What time is it when it's time to go to the dentist?"
"Tooth hurty."

His aide didn't get it was a joke (it's not always easy to tell). She heard the dentist and the "tooth hurty" part probably through most of the day, and thought we'd forgotten to let them know Connor had a dentist appointment.

I got a call at my job about 2:35, because he was waiting to be picked up in the office.

I explained the joke, and that no, he did not have an appointment.

So Connor got to hang out in the office with the secretary who loves him to pieces for a half hour.

Whee.

New Guy!

Today at work, the new guy assistant in the classroom asked us, "Did you know that Bill Nye the Science Guy died in a freak accident?"

We all were caught off guard. I was like, "When? He was just in last season's Stargate Atlantis on an episode! What happened?"

The new guy goes on to tell us that Bill Nye was doing a massive experiment with baking soda & vinegar (like those frothy volcanoes for science projects) with a truckload of baking soda & a tanker truck of vinegar. When the two were combined, the explosion was so huge, it killed Bill Nye and they couldn't even find his remains!

Uh huh.

So then we're all, okay - so who told you this? Why wouldn't we have heard about this? And baking soda & vinegar don't EXPLODE.

But new guy is so adamant about this happening, he says he's going to prove us wrong, and he goes off to the computer to show us. Here's his proof: Bill Nye Article

If you are not aware, The Onion is a parody website - kind of like April Fools all year long. I told him if he didn't believe me, look at a few other 'articles' on the site and see if they made sense. This is what they like to do. They 'got' a bunch of Christians to think J.K. Rowling was a devil-worshipper, and they've zinged the 'real' media & embarrassed them very well.

And for anyone who noticed, the title of this post was a nod to Stargate. Whenever there was a cast change, and the new guy did something dumb, the others on the team would say, "New Guy!"

It just kind of fit.

Lesson Learned

I had previously posted about a transaction I had on ebay with someone who charged me shipping, even though he'd advertised his item had "Free Shipping."

Well, I tried emailing back & forth, but he was a moron (or was he?). He was not going to do anything to resolve the shipping, and so I waited the 10 days to open a case for resolution through ebay & PayPal.

Turns out even though they checked & looked through everything, they don't actually handle fixing things like that. If the item had been faulty (it's not) they could have reversed the charges for the whole thing, but they can't just refund the shipping charge.

Maybe the seller knew this the whole time, and he purposefully sets up his auctions that way? I don't know. He certainly didn't seem at all concerned that I was going to take it to the Resolution Center when I told him that was my next step. Maybe he's done this before, and that's just how he operates. I don't know.

So the lesson would be, next time cancel any auctions, no matter for what, if the invoice doesn't match up to the item description.

Email the seller first and get it in writing that shipping or whatever is different will be changed (although again, if they say one thing and do another, there isn't a whole lot the buyer can do once they click that "pay" button on the invoice). If they change it on the invoice before you pay, you would be okay.

I still came out ahead. I had a one-day coupon that actually covered the cost of the shipping and then some, but it was really the principle of the thing.

I still need to leave feedback. I will wait until he does mine first though. I am pretty sure when I leave negative comments, he's going to want to reciprocate. He still doesn't seem to get that the item description and reading the notes on the invoice are the seller's responsibility (or does he?).

Like I said, lesson learned.

Kiester Ranch March 2009

Yesterday we went to Kraig & Nancy's to visit. Diana was still recovering from the extractions, and Lee was working, so it was just the boys & me.

We all took turns riding Trinity, the very gentle 30-year old horse who is great for Connor & Trevor to learn horse riding skills on.

Trinity actually trotted a bit with me - he responds to the vocal tsk-tsk I do when I'm riding him pretty well.

This time around Nancy also took us over to the creek where the frogs are all coming out of hibernation - lots of croaking & ribbets.

Before heading back to the house, we also took a little hike to the Cougar Rocks on BLM land. Very nice.

Thanks again Kraig & Nancy!

Diana's Dental Drama

This is exactly what the x-ray looked like on Monday, when Diana went in for her routine cleaning. I figured since she was home for the week, she could get her teeth cleaned & any cavities filled, if necessary. Good news was no cavities, bad new - two wisdom teeth were doing this.

I actually gave her the choice of doing it Tuesday, or in the summer. She opted to take care of it now - she was home, able to hang out on the couch, and didn't have any other pressing things to do.

Since I currently have awesome dental coverage (they paid 100% for two crowns for me last year), this is actually a good time to take care of this.

That morning, I made her Apfel Pfannkuchen (German apple crepe-style pancakes), and I think I felt almost as nervous as she did about going in there. Ugh. Wish I could have done it for her.

The meds we got from Wal-Mart (Darvocet, Demerol & Prednisone) were the generics, and only cost $12 for all of them. I got them during the time Diana was under the knife, so she could use them as soon as possible.

I didn't take any pictures, but she looked like a little chipmunk - poor thing. We had her use ice packs and she set herself up on the couch and pretty much stayed there all week until Friday.

The Prednisone is a steriod to decrease the swelling, and thus the pain. Diana's system didn't appreciate it though, and she had to throw up a few times after taking it. I called the dentist and let him know, and he said if she was okay with just the ice packs, she didn't need to take any more. Good. She does get a little woozy from the narcotics, but she's to the point now where she can sleep through the night without the Demerol anymore, and is just taking the Darvocet when it really hurts. The swelling is almost gone now.

They stitched her closed after extracting the teeth, so hopefully that will help keep her from getting any dry socket problems. The stitches should dissolve after 20 days.

Connor had to look in her mouth to see where the missing teeth used to be, and he tells her the tooth fairy should be coming any day now to give her something. She wants to get a small pet for her quad room -we'll probably stop by Pet Co or Wal Mart or something on the way back to her place on Sunday.

Ebay Frustration

Last week, on St. Patrick's Day, I had a one-day coupon for 10% off something at ebay.

I actually had something I was planning to get that way, so I found a nice buy-it-now auction & placed my bid.

The auction stated "Free Shipping" which was one reason I even chose that auction to start with. It was going to be over in 2 hours, so when I noticed there WAS a shipping charge on the invoice, I put in a note to the seller, "please remove the shipping charge, since your auction is advertised with 'free shipping'. Thanks." I didn't think I'd hear back within two hours to get the item, and I know the seller can remove shipping charges, because I've combined things before, and the seller has that option to change the shipping if they want.

The sale goes thru, showing my 10% off coupon - and the shipping charge is still there.

So I contact the seller & ask again to have the shipping removed.

His response is: I don't see any notes at all. You should ask me the question first b4 buying it and pay for the item. If you want to return i have to charged you for the shipping and you have to pay the shipping for the return. I wish you ask me b4 buying it. THE FREE SHIPPING IS NOT SUPPOSE TO BE THERE BY THE TIME I SEE THE ERROR EBAY WON'T ALLOW TO EDIT ANY MORE.

So he's an idiot. First off, he copy/pasted information to his auction without checking what it said. Then he never puts in a note once he realizes it says 'free shipping' (probably because he didn't even notice it until I pointed it out). On top of that - he ignores the note on the invoice.

Now, this guy has 100% positive feedback with over 100 items sold. So how does he not know to check the invoice for notes from the buyer?

It sounds an awful lot like fraud to me.

I sent him back an email requesting the shipping be removed again. And letting him know it is HIS responsibility to make sure his auction is correct AND to check notes on the invoices.

He basically said the same thing in response to my last email.

So now I have to take it to the Resolution Center. I don't want to send the item back to him - I don't trust him to be honest about it, to tell the truth. The item is fine anyway. Plus I'll lose my 10% off coupon, plus I'd STILL pay shipping!! With nothing to show for it!!

I have to wait 10 days to even send in my information. What a dweeb. He admits on the first email back to me that "it was a mistake" - so why didn't he note that somewhere on his auction? Why didn't he withdraw the auction & make the changes?

Because it went through PayPal, I should be protected. And reading through ebay's rules, it's exactly what I'd told him. What he's doing is fraud. You advertise free shipping with the item & then charge shipping? Eat the stinkin' $15, kid.

Tax Question

Yesterday I did the taxes with TurboTax again. It works for me. I get it well enough to do it, and I only claim stuff I keep receipts about - and that's what works for me. We'd probably see a little increase if we had them done professionally, but that would most likely be eaten up by the cost of the tax prep. :/

This year I have a new thing - Diana is still claimed as a full-time student on our taxes. She's 18 now, and has income from a couple of jobs (though not a whole lot of money) and she also got scholarships for college. She gets her money disbursed to her to use as needed (tuition, room & board). I don't claim her income, but there is a form from the college with the scholarship total & the tuition total. It's only for the first term.

If I put that "T" form in with our taxes, there's no difference one way or another. Should I leave that to Diana for her own taxes? Or have it be on ours?

Trevor didn't get one this year, although he got one last year.

I was going to have both kids file their own taxes this year even though they are claimed as dependents on ours. Trevor is living at home, after all.

Any suggestions or ideas?

And just so you know - we are getting a refund because Lee opted to have taxes taken out of his unemployment compensation, even tho that's not typical (yay Lee!).

:)

More fun about my job

As pretty much anyone who reads my blog knows, I work in a classroon with severly disabled students (Complex Needs Classroom). My job includes specialized feeding protocols, nursing skills, bathrooming and physical therapy activities as well as assisting in the educational components of kids in a school.

Since so much specialized care & education is involved, our classroom is kind of a center for our county. We serve multiple school districts, although most of our students are in town. So we're not a school district room, we're a classroom run by the Education Service District for Douglas County. The ESD also provides the Occupational Therapist, Speech Therapist, nurse, vision specialist & Physical Therapist that work with our kids.

Today I'm listening to talk radio, and I hear that Oregon wants to reduce the number of ESDs we have in our state. Currently, there are 21 ESDs. They want to drop that to 11. (This was proposed by a Democrat, btw).

The reason is the bureaucracy, of course. Each ESD has a superintendent earning at least $100K. On the radio, they were questioning whether an ESD even needs a superintendent at all. There's already the superintendents for the school districts. If ESDs are combined, the administrative staffing would be halved, at least. Those salaries would feed back into the school fund (which is so low now, they can't even estimate how many days we'll lose for next year).

The thing is, each child served by the current ESD employees have a legal document, the Individualized Education Plan. Trevor had one, and Connor has one. These IEPs make sure the student gets the services they need to be successful. Connor's lays out that he takes the Special Education bus, that he works with a modified curriculum, and that he gets an aide, for instance. Connor works with a Speech Teacher to help him figure out better how to speak (which is working wonderfully, btw), and he also has a Consulting Teacher available to help with his educational goals & how to reach them. Both these ladies are ESD staff.

I don't think you could eliminate the services provided by the ESDs at this point. There still needs to be some kind of central service place to get those specialized folks that a regular school can't support. Just like there are no school nurses on site any more. You get the one from the ESD to spend X amount of time with your student. As it is, the current ESD therapists have huge caseloads and are totally overworked.

It's all going to be very interesting to see how this plays out now. We're a pretty big ESD, so maybe we'll just absorb a few smaller ones? Our county is the biggest in the state already, but it sounds like they want to ignore the county aspect and just go by "northern coast, eastern, central, southern coast," etc.

If they close my classroom, would I wind up working with a student, one-on-one, for the school district? All our kids are 2-person lifts for equipment & bathrooming. Where will the mats be to have them be able to stretch out? Where would we feed them so kids aren't staring at us putting in feeding tubes or sitting for 1.5 hours to feed them their specific diet of pureed food? Would they get to do their goals of learning to become more independent? Would it be up to the aides to determine the educational plan if we don't have a certified teacher (there's no way each kid gets their own teacher)? Who would supervise us if the regular ed teachers don't even know these kids?

Oh - and just as an aside, we are being asked to take 4 furlough (unpaid) days next month. They're just going to shut down our room on 4 Fridays next month to be able to cover payroll. The rest of the school will be open...

I went home after being at work an hour today because I've already built up 9 hours that they can't afford to pay me for days I had to work that were not in my contract. (The school district had added conference days back in as regular school days, and we don't work when we don't have students). We had a kid out sick, so I could leave without asking for a sub to cover me (no money for that).

Anyway - I got the taxes done ;)

Yes indeed. Interesting times.

Appropo Sewing

Diana did a class this last term called "Reinventing Yourself" and this was her final project.

It was basically a sewing class, and you had to create a dress and a story to go with it, from medieval times.

As you can see here, her dress is red. Red was not a common color for peasants to be able to wear. So apparently, in her paper, Diana (Blanche) talks about how she won the 'favor' of a local lord, who bought her bread regularly, gave her red fabric, and also bought her a real bed. "Favors" indeed!

Also in the story, she described the death of her parents, and her husband (plague) and that she has a 2-year-old son (who will eventually die in the Hundred Years' War).

So, here's a photo of Blanche, the skank. And the butcher girl in her green dress, who did NOT have the favor of a lord, but apparently had to wear icky colors & sleep on the floor of her shop.

Oklahoma!!

apologies for the blurry photo - but you can see the set nicely!

On Friday night, my friend Rose & I went to see the RHS production of Oklahoma!


I was especially interested in seeing it, since it's the same musical I was in during my Senior year in High School at OVHS. Diana's friend, Becki, had the same role I played; chorus. I don't know if she sang alto or not.


It was fun for me to get to hum along the same notes I sang almost 30 years ago (wow!).


The big differences in this show: 1) all the costumes were rented. 2) there was a LOT more kissing. 3) there was a lot more dancing.


I have vivid memories of trying to sew my dress, and help my friend Cindy with hers, until my mom got so frustrated with our feeble attempts that she took over and finished them for us. The fabric had to be inexpensive, and so we wound up with curtain fabric which was not very comfortable, and the seams ripped easily since it was a weave and not a knit. Add to that my misjudging my size (I was going to lose weight!), and my poor dress was lucky it held together for 3 weekends of performances!


I don't remember ANY lip contact at all in our production. Now, in this one the other night, it turns out the gal playing Ado Annie (who gets a lot of kissing in) is actually in a relationship (according to Facebook) with the guy whom she kissed the most, so that's not a biggie. I don't know if the leads were also dating while doing the show. That sort of thing happens in high school musicals :P


Finally, our chorus didn't do any dancing. We sang a lot, but we didn't dance with anyone. These kids all did a polka for the girl/guy dances, and the guys had a little line-dancing looking thing they'd done at the beginning of the show as well. I was impressed!


I don't recall all the lifts either, in our show. Some chorus girls were hoisted up on some guys shoulders to sing the finale. And I really don't remember as much of a fight scene in the dream sequence. The kids in this one were throwing each other across the stage! It was very exciting!


I guess my only complaint would have to be the lighting, and the sound. This is kind of the bane of RHS productions - maybe I'm just spoiled having grown up in So. Cal where so many kids were so into tech theater? I don't know. It bugs me when I can't understand the lead when she's talking, or see part of the cast when they're just out of the spotlight.


Still, it was a great effort & I'm always happy to support our local high school, community college & community theater. I certainly hope Becki continues with her acting, because it looked like she had a blast :)

Troop 371 Reunion

A couple of weeks ago, Renee & Mary worked out a surprise for Amanda & Diana. Diana found out sooner, and MARY spilled the beans to Amanda, but it was all good.

Renee decided to fly up for the weekend.

She arrived in Portland on Friday, spent the rest of the day with Mary & CJ & probably Brandon (who is talking with Diana in the 2nd photo).

They will all recover, but Renee had better sleep on the plane trip home.

Yesterday - they came to the 'Burg to visit. They left Portland around 8:00, got to Eugene to pick up Diana, and then headed further south.

Renee visited her cousin, and then they stopped here. We got to visit a hour or so (and Lee was bummed he missed them - he was at work), and after cake & donuts, they left to go see Renee's folks and Mary's family.

After those visits, they were going to head back to Portland. Same day.

Renee is flying out Monday, I think. Hopefully she'll be sleeping in the car & what.

Remember when we were 19?

How did THAT happen?

Last night, around 11:00something, Lee & I are mostly asleep in bed, when suddenly there's a loud "POP!!"

We both jump out of bed, because we have no idea what it was. I turn on the light, and we're looking around the room to see if something fell, or what happened.

We can't find anything around the room, so Lee's next thought is that something hit a window. He moves the curtain aside on the window above the bed, and the whole thing is cracked!
I used packing tape to get the little shards of glass off the bed & pillows last night, then vacuumed everything today.

It's only the interior pane of the double-paned window, and there's no damage to the screen either.

The whole window moves just fine still, so it's not like the house settled & squished it.

I guess it was just pressure from the air in the window? It was pretty cold outside last night, and around 60 in the room.

Lee said he thinks these windows have a lifetime warranty, and I'll find the receipt.

Still - what a weird thing!

School is saved!

Today an announcement went out that the State was going to get some kind of legislation to 'backfill' the deficit the school system suffered, and that we would NOT lose any school days after all.

It has to do with the Stimulus thing, shuffling some other funds around, and using up all the reserves (which will probably mean days off for NEXT school year - but that's in the future so we don't have to think about it..). In any case, we will complete this school year however it works out.

There's still no summer school, and yesterday & today I worked days that were not in my contract, since they were supposed to be conference days. This was to avoid loss of time for the kids once we cut days. There's another day in April that was supposed to be a non-contract day as well.

Now the schools & ESD owe their assistants for time for the last couple of days. We had a student that didn't come, so I only worked 4.5 of my 7 hours yesterday, and I'd planned a visit to the Jr. High schools today to see which would work best for Connor. That was 1.5 hours today. At this point, they owe me 8 hours of my time back.

I can't take any old time - I have to take time that I wouldn't need a substitute to cover for me. Basically, I have to wait until a student is sick or something, and then I'd go home early.

The other people in my classroom are already so short on sick leave (like, minus time) that they are getting their extra time put in there. I hardly ever call in sick, so I have, oh, pretty much 4 years' worth of sick leave saved up now. They can't give me my time back in sick leave.

It would be nice if I could take the Friday off for my TOPS convention this year...

Something to do

I mentioned before in my blog that on my lunch break at work, I only have use of an OLD Apple IIe, which is pretty limited in what I can do online.

I am able to check my work email, but not do anything but reply to emails from outside the Groupwise address book. So I can't create a new email to someone outside the school system - I always have to find a previous email & then reply to it.

I also can't post to blogs, or create any new posts on my blog. I can look at most blogs, but if there's more than a few pictures, it doesn't have enough memory. Video clips are not at all possible to view.

And of course, being a school computer, any shopping, Facebook, stuff like that is blocked anyway.

So there I am, with my 1/2 hour lunch. I'm done eating in 15 minutes (including nuking time) and I don't have enough time to really do much else. I knit while I listen to music, or write a little note maybe. I'm kind of tired of that stuff though.

The other day, I checked to see if I could look at 8-bit Theater - and I can!

This is a silly comic strip based on the 8-bit version of Final Fantasy. I got through the first 20 episodes yesterday. At this rate, I'll have a few years of something to read during my lunch break. :)

I love Black Mage.

Happy 11th Birthday, Connor!

Connor requested a "Thin Mint" green cake.

I will attempt to make one after school today :) It will be a chocolate cake, and then I use regular white frosting, add peppermint flavor & green food coloring, and that should make it pretty minty. I already picked up another box of Thin Mint cookies at the leader meeting last night (I knew someone would have cookies in their car!). I'll decorate the outside of the cake with the cookies then.

This morning Connor woke up to balloons and some presents. He is not the typical kid to shop for, so we just go with tried-and-true winners. White Cheddar popcorn, Sour Cream & Onion Pringles (or as Connor calls them 'green chips'), and for the toys, we just go Dollar Tree. He has a huge trampoline in the backyard, and he plays YouTube cartoons on his own. He already has enough games for the consoles we have, and is happy with those.

He did say something about various kids in his class giving him things at his party, so I had to tell him that the school kids were NOT bringing presents. They ARE celebrating with him at lunch with a pizza party, and I hope that went well. That's more or less the 'big' present this year. Pizza & drinks for 27 kids is a lot, but we can't do a party at home, since Connor would pretty much hide out in his room. Too many people in his 'space.' As it is, when we do Open House, he'll just tolerate people poking their heads in his room for a bit, or maybe one person coming in to talk with him. So this was our solution - he wanted a party, and this was the best way to do one. :)

He has requested spaghetti for dinner & then we'll have the green cake and vanilla bean ice cream.

:)

Blogging Blues

First off, I'm actually reading during my lunch time at work, but I can't post from the old Apple IIe, which is the only computer available to me right now (a student is using the 'good' computer during my lunch time right now).



The Apple IIe does not have enough memory to allow me to post anything on my own blog, or make any comments either. That's why I've been a little quiet on the blogs :)



We are in a little bit of upheaval with our school calendar. Seems we don't have enough money in the budget to finish this school year as is, so they will be cutting days. There's talk of no school on Fridays, adding a week vacation to Spring Break or cutting the last few weeks of school out completely. We don't know yet. Unpaid, of course, to save the district money.

My paycheck is spread across 12 months, even though I'm working 10 - which means I still have half a year's worth of paychecks to come, and hopefully it won't impact me too badly. Good thing I'm full-time, because the folks that rely on their part time checks to be a certain amount will be hurting, especially if most of June is cut.

Our illustrious govenor of Oregon has opted to take a 5% pay cut (out of the raise he just gave himself) and he's asking that teachers consider coming in to work for free.

Okay - it's one thing to take unpaid furlough - it's another thing entirely to do the job (that doesn't pay as much as the work requires) for FREE.

If teachers won't even go to trainings on their unpaid 'training days,' why on earth does he think they would spend 8 hours managing students? HE needs to come and take a Kindergarten class for free one day and see how far he makes it. Or a Jr. High math class, or a High School government class...

Ugh - I'll let you know what they decide...

A Summons

So... The other night, an officer came to the door & served Trevor with summons to appear in court next week.

Apparently, the guy who ran over Trevor's bike is being sued by our City. I guess they need Trevor as a witness.

As no one else has contacted Trevor about this, I think it would probably be a good idea for him to find out who the prosecuting attorney is and contact them for information.

In the meantime, I've warned Trevor that real life court is nothing like TV court. Also, if he's even called to testify, answer JUST the question - no long stories. They may ask him to describe the events from his point of view about the accident he was involved in, but again, keep it short & to the point.

Anyone else have any advice?

An Asperger's Quirk

As most folks that read my blog know, our 19-year-old son has Asperger's Syndrome, which falls under the 'umbrella' of autism (currently). It's such a high-functioning autism, that most folks will only notice something quirky & odd about a person with Asperger's. But here's a little peek into what happens...

Most of us have something in our brains (subconscious voice?) that reminds us about changes in routine - whether it's a big report being due, bills needing to be paid, finals, whatever. We figured out a long time ago that this 'little voice' doesn't work so well for Trevor.

In 5th grade, he spent two weeks on his bird report. It was very nice - all about the Western Meadowlark, which is Oregon's State Bird. When it came time to turn in the report, a student in Trevor's class was assigned to go around and collect them from the class. This student missed getting Trevor's from him (don't know why) and so since no one had come to take his report from him, Trevor put it back into his desk, where it had been 'okay' to be until this point.

He completely missed the fact that it was DUE and needed to be handed in for his grade. Two weeks later when we find out he has a zero grade for the bird report, and I tell the teacher I'd been making sure it was being done & had been finished, he told us, completely unconcerned, "Oh - that's in my desk." At this point, Trevor didn't have a diagnosis of Aspberger's and it took a lot to let the teacher accept his report that late.

When he went off to OIT and was completely responsible for himself, I figured this whole missing 'little voice' would make things very tough. Trevor wound up cleaning his room through one of his finals, because he'd gotten the date wrong. The little voice didn't tell him to double-check times, and it didn't remind him that Thursday was the last day of finals, while Friday his room needed to be cleaned.

This isn't laziness or lack of concentration. He can have a planner, write everything down, and STILL miss something very important that the rest of us would get that little "ding! ding! ding! - big important thing to remember is happening today!!!"

This morning, Trevor got up at 5:30 am, took his shower, ate his breakfast, got dressed, took his medication, and got on his bike at 6:30 to head to the bus stop for school. There was no bus. There was no school. Today is President's Day.

Thing is, he actually had checked on Friday to see if there would be school today, and was told it was a holiday. So he already KNEW there was no school today. He went to bed last night at 10:30, so it's not like he didn't get enough sleep. Obviously he's not overindulging in alcohol or drugs - another Asperger's trait - he's very black/white with things that are not legal.

The routine is to get up at 5:30am on Monday, etc., etc. Almost all of us would have remembered when the alarm went off, "Oh yeah - It's a holiday today!" and turned off the alarm and gone back to sleep.

Maybe a few of us would have made it as far as the shower, possibly the breakfast. But I can bet that NONE of us would have ridden a bike in the dark & cold for 20 minutes to a bus stop before we realized there was no school today.

Personally, I rely on that little 'something' to tell me a lot of stuff in my day-to-day life. As frustrating as it is for me to live with trying to raise a kid without it, how hard must it be for HIM?

Happy St. Valentine's Day

I went & picked up Diana last night from Eugene, so she's here for the weekend. She is doing so well with her finances, when her laptop motherboard went out, she was able to buy herself a refurbished Dell desktop, and she'll be taking that home tomorrow. She is soooo excited about the size of the monitor screen. She uses her computer for homework & art, and she's been hunched over her laptop since she got it (she loves it, but it's just not comfortable). Anyhoo - she's excited & now she will have a back up system when one or the other is having trouble (altho Lee thinks with cutting back on use of the laptop, it won't have as many issues since it may be due to overheating).

I woke up this morning to a box of Lindt chocolates (thanks Lee!!), and thru facebook I found that Dutch Bros. is doing free coffee today if you bring in 3 cans of food. I just was shopping yesterday & happened to get some cans of food for donation purposes, and now I get some awesome coffee!

If you are not familiar with Dutch Bros., they have figured out a terrific formula for success - really, really good products made with the best ingredients, super-cheerful employees, fast service, and freebies! When they open a stand, the offer free coffee the whole day to anyone willing to wait in line - not only does this cause the whole community to notice where they are, but it gives the newly-trained employees non-stop practice for their entire shifts. They also do free coffee for fundraising, like today it's a food donation. They also do free coffee for Mother's Day & Father's Day, and probably some other times. Even in these times, Dutch Bros. continues to expand & open new coffee stands. http://www.dutchbros.com/flash/ Lee's niece & nephews are part of their history - the guys that own the business are from Grants Pass, and Brian, Marla & (I think) Tony all worked at one of the original stands there when the business was just starting. I think they modeled the 'happy barista' on them, since that's just how their personalities are :) "Dude! You want some whip on that? Awesome!" (they swirl the whipped cream up the straw for the kids' hot chocolate - which is the best dutch hot chocolate ever).

So - if you're anywhere near a Dutch Bros. today, get 3 cans of food & get your free coffee for a happy Valentine's Day!!

Happy Birthday Renee!!!

Gol - you were so cute!!

Hey - that's the old white van with the fake wood siding.

I hope you have a wonderful day today, tomorrow, and all weekend. Have fun & enjoy yourself ;)

Look how much you've grown since you were in your first year of Girl Scouts. Wow.

I'm so glad you were in my troop, and so happy you've grown into such a wonderful young woman. Lee & I are extremely proud of you and we wish you a great birthday!!!

Sorry you lost your head here.

Huh? It's my birthday? I'm 19 and in the NAVY? WTH?!?!?

:) you go, girl.

Behavior Plan

I had a meeting this morning with Connor's team of people at school about his continuing behavior plan. This is what to do when Connor behaves in different ways, so that everyone can stay consistent and he can figure out the correct way to behave that much sooner.

Everything seems to be running along pretty well now, much better than before the Christmas break - of course part of that could just have been his trying to deal with Christmas break! In any case, his only real hurdle right now is when he gets counted off the swings.

Connor gets both recess times, even though he's a 5th grader, and the rest of his grade only gets 2nd recess. We have both recesses for Connor because he really needs the physical time to reset himself mentally. I still believe that's true for ALL kids, but I'm not in charge of how they run the schools here.

The older kids leave Connor be on the swings, because they get that he really likes swinging (and they don't so much anymore) and so the issue happens at the first recess with the 1-3rd graders. When the swings are all full, you can stand in front of someone swinging, and count to 100. When you get to 100, the swinger has to give up the swing for the counter.

Connor has been getting very irritated, even to the point of pushing someone, when he's getting counted down. He yells "shut up" and "stupid" at the kid who is counting.

So we talked about doing social stories and comic strips to help him do a better job of behaving correctly after being counted down. He's supposed to say, "Okay" or "Your turn" and go and do something else OR he can count down someone else.

My take was that someone should be prepping him already before the recess that he WILL be counted down and he MUST share the swing. Even though this happens a lot, an issue with autism is the kids don't just pick up these patterns. It blindsides & angers him every time someone starts to count him down. So if he gets prepped that it WILL be happening, he can already start to mentally prepare for it.

Hopefully we'll get him to the point where he can just jump off, hand off the swing, and go do something else without all the anger & frustration.

But still, overall, he's doing really well.

:)

Confusing CSI

I'm a fan of CSI shows. I watch all three (which is why it was a big deal that we didn't get CBS for a long chunk of time & partly why we switched to DirecTV). However, I have to laugh at how easy the crime scenes are in the three shows. I think maybe the New York one is the closest to reality with the messiness of people's homes. The Miami show has everyone living in minimalistic, spotless houses, with nary a speck of dust. The original show is somewhere in between.

In any case, on all three shows, they wind up finding little tiny bits of something that will provide DNA or some kind of something that allows the team to track and find the killers. But because the crime scenes are so TIDY, they can find the ONE HAIR or whatever it is and find the killer.

I just can't imagine a normal house being that much help to investigators. If you have a house with kids - good luck finding anything usable for evidence that's going to lead you to a killer.

Then what if you have someone with hair like mine? In the photo below - on the left are two strands - one is thicker & curly like a corkscrew, the other is fine & completely straight. On the right are two gray hairs - one curly, and one straight. So according to the CSIs on TV, those are 4 different suspects! Muahahahah!

While my hair is mostly straight, I do have these odd curly ones that are thicker. They have dark roots, so I can't say they are going gray, and the gray ones come in curly and straight as well. My hair has changed with age & childbearing. But some has stayed as it used to be, although it's gotten darker over time.

I know - weird.

Oh - look from the edge of the lamp to see all 4. The second in from the left looks like part of the desk leg, but it's the straight hair. As it is, taking a photo of strands of hair was an interesting endeavor. Lighting is key!

Connor's Blessing

On Sunday at church, Connor was given a special blessing by our community at Mass. He did very well, and stood quietly to get his blessing. We had a couple other kids up there, one gal is in a wheelchair, and there's another little boy also with autism - HE wasn't really happy to be up there, but then this little guy is really still in his own world at this point in time.

Still, it was good for the people in church to see our kids, and know they part of their community, even if, in Connor's case now, it's not apparent by his behavior any more (which is a great thing, btw!).

After Mass, the mom of the other little guy came up & introduced herself. I hadn't talked to her before, just observed from where we typically sit. I think when the weather is better, I'll invite them over to use the big trampoline :) I'd like to have the mom over for coffee or something, but I know better than most that it's hard to go visit people with your autistic kid. It depends on what kind of behaviors her son has, whether he's okay to go to other people's homes. Connor is good about sticking close to us, but that's not typical for a lot of other kids with autism.

I'll see what I can do. :)

Autism Sunday - February 8th, 2009

Sunday the world will (hopefully) be recognizing families with autism at their churches.

Pope Benedict has called for all the Catholic churches to offer blessings for children with autism and their parents.

I'm grateful for the opportunity to let our community see how many of us there are, and hopefully teach awareness of situation.

Yes, we love our boys. It's just such a difference between our sons & daughter. Same parenting, such a huge disparity.

Here's Diana, off on her own, doing fantastic, even able to save enough money out of her food allowance to buy a desktop computer (her laptop is being iffy). She's on the Dean's List from her first term at University.

Trevor had such difficulty due to his lack of organizational skills that he can't go back to OIT until he can prove he will be successful. So he's working as hard as he can at community college so he can get back to where he wants to be. Yet he still can't keep $10 in his pocket more than 2 days, and he has yet to find any kind of job other than delivering newspapers or yard work. He is awesome at CAD, but there's no work for a college student in our 11.8% unemployment county right now.

Connor will most likely stay in high school until he has to graduate at 21. We have no idea where he'll wind up - but I can bet it won't be college. Hopefully he'll become independent enough to do some kind of job. At this point, I'm more concerned with what's happening in school now, and where he'll go for Junior High.

Yes, we grieve for the sons that should have been at Diana's level of intelligence & competence. We pray Trevor can mature to the point of full independence and hopefully become successful at having a career & family of his own. I think that's fully possible, it will probably just take more time for him to get there.

So, yeah - I appreciate people taking the time to pray for our family & our sons. We are just doing the best we can on a daily basis to help our kids be the best they can be.

Thanks.

Diana's new 'do and glasses

During the winter break, we went & had Diana get some new glasses. She was still wearing the ones we'd gotten her waaay back when she did a Girl Scout rafting trip with Amanda & needed a change! That was five years ago!
Yesterday we went to the same salon they had used for the MADE, only this time with a guy that actually worked there :) We really like the nice, layered cut, and he recommended highlights, altho at this time, Diana didn't want to pay for that - she still has some from the MADE, anyway :)

Cute, huh?

Oh - the guy was itching to do something (anything!) with MY hair, which currently looks pretty sad. :/