You Should Be Afraid

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(All layouts by Sharon this week)

Welcome to Thursday :) Mine started off last night, actually! I was trying to stay up to get a Skype call from Captain America, and by 12:30am, I couldn't do it anymore. I finally went to bed. SO tired. And he called at 1:30am. I was SO happy to talk with him, but my body had other ideas. We did chat for about an hour, but I don't know how exciting I could have been. hehe.

And I'm sure my sleepiness was part of the reason why I was so emotional today... Anyway, I crawled out of bed to make sure the kids were awake and getting ready at 6:45am, and they were. So I went back to bed. And I said by to Jake at 7:00 am, and went back to bed. And I woke up at 7:30am to say by to the others, then went back to bed. And at 7:45am, I drug my sorry butt out of bed permanently, tried to make myself look presentable (in 3 minutes), loaded Jim up, and headed out the door to childcare.

And parked on a manhole. Scary, huh? I must have been tired to have parked here!

Jim dressed himself...

I got him all checked in, then set up childcare for every Tuesday/Thursday from 8-11 in May, and headed back home. And had time to pee and grab a soda, and I was off to Jake's school to pick him up. And yeah, it wasn't such a great experience.

See, today is the TAKS test for the 8th grade for Science. And no, it's not counted as a class that they have to pass to be promoted. But it does count for something, I'm sure. Last time I had a therapy appointment for Jake, it was RIGHT during the Reading TAKS. And I rescheduled it. For a month later, I think. It took forever.

Anyway, I didn't wanna break the appointment. I needed help with Jake. I needed to know what more to do. So I told the office dude that I still wanted to take him. So he called for the TAKS specialist to come and talk to me. And I explained to her about Jake, and how I REALLY needed this appointment.

And she assured me that it would be fine. Although they'd REALLY like him to stay, she said she totally understood. And that she'd go and get Jake.

And then the principal shows up, and takes me into her office. Whaaat? And sits me down, and tries to explain to me just how important this test is for him. How he's been preparing all year long for it. OK, first off, he JUST got here. So no, he hasn't. And he's Autistic, and he could care less about the TAKS test.

So I explain how my husband is deployed, and how I have 5 kids at home, and how Jake is autistic, and how I've had to call the police on him twice in the past month, and how I'm at my breaking point, and need some help. And I actually start crying (again, mostly because I was sleepy and my emotions were RIGHT there). And so she goes and gets him.

Really? Did I have to break down and start crying in the principals office in order to get my kid out of class? Come on, school...

So I grab Jake, and we drive off to Dr. Meyers office on post. And I explain how he's gonna not get to take the rest of the TAKS science test, and he doesn't care, just like I thought. I tried to explain to him that it WAS important, just that him getting "help" and "Better" was more important. I don't know if he got it or not.

Anyway, we got to the appointment, and he had a GRAND time playing with the magnetic sand table.

And then, the lady behind the counter brings us the WRONG Dr Myers. The old dude from before. Nope, that's not who I need. So then she looks all panicked, and says that the OTHER Dr Meyers is out of the office for a training morning. Whaaaat? That army dude who made the appointment screwed it up! I still have the slip of paper in my purse that shows my appointment time and date, so I know I'm in the right...

But we can't get a hold of the dude. And we're out of luck. I just took Jake out of the TAKS science test for 8th grade, got him a big fat 0, and for nothing. I was kinda upset, but was holding it together all right. I had an Autism Support Group meeting from 10-12, and the lady behind the desk told us to come back after lunch, and that they'd get us in with Dr Meyers. Well, at least the day wasn't totally ruined, right?

So I drop Jake off at the house with Boxer (no point in going back to school if he's not gonna be allowed to finish his test), and I headed on to my meeting. And I couldn't find the right building at first, but eventually, and after enlisting the help of a lady in an office near where I thought it was, I found the place. hehe. When lost, ALWAYS ask for directions. That's my motto. ha!

And the group turned out to be REALLY REALLY great. It was a grass roots organization, started by a mom with an Autistic son, who decided that we needed a support group for parents, but especially for army parents. Because of our unique set of circumstances.

Anyway, it was really good. There were about 8 of us parents there, and a few therapsts, and a lady who worked putting special needs folks to work. Great line up :)

I really learned a lot. I learned that I need to call Tricare and get Jake assigned a Case Manager. So that when we move, all of his stuff stays together. I can do that. And that I need to get him diagnosed, so that I know where on the Autistic spectrum he is, so that we can better help him. OK, I can do that too.

And I need to get him to a therapist that specializes in Autism. Because Dr Meyers is a Family and Marriage counselor. And while that's good and all, I want different help than that. I want someone who works with Autistic kids on a daily basis, and knows JUST what to do with them.

One of the ladies gave me the name of her sons therapist, and she does Play Therapy with him. Sounded good. I'm gonna call tomorrow. And the 2 therapists who were there were ABA therapists. I can't remember what that means, but it sounded JUST like what I needed. Behavior modification of sorts. Yeah, SO what we need. BUT, until Jake gets an IEP from the school, he doesn't qualify for ABA therapy. SO, I just need to make sure that he gets an IEP. The big Autism test is next week...

Anyway, I really enjoyed the meeting, and the ladies there. And I felt SO at home with those ladies. They TOTALLY knew what I was going through. They knew what it was like to have a child that can act up, then the next minute, totally have forgotten about it. How if their routines are messed up, that they freak out. How things have to be their way. It really was nice being in a room of moms who understood :) I'm DEFINITELY going back next month!

I got home at about 12:45pm. And Captain America was skyping me. And I was SO bummed that our meeting had been messed up! I needed to take Jake back to the therapists office! Freakin messed up plans! So I skyped with Captain America for just a few minutes, and I had to go. He understood, and praised me for doing SUCH a great job (awe, shucks, thanks hon!), and off Jake and I ran, to the therapists office.

And we waited for about 15 minutes, and Dr Meyers saw us. And it was a good session. But not really what I was wanting. I wanted someone who would tell me and show me how to raise my autistic child. And Dr Meyers was more "And how do you feel about that?" kinda guy... Good, but not really what I need. I have Dr Slade for that. hehe. But Jake did talk to him a bit. And it was interesting to see a sneak peak into how his brain works.

We finished up, and headed back home. And I grabbed Jim from the bus, and he and I headed to Verizon. Because, mysteriously, during our session, my phone died. And charging it didn't help in the least. Crap. I don't need a crashed iPhone. I had enough crashed Droids...

Anyway, there was NO line at Verizon. Miracle of miracles, right? hehe. The dude looked at it, tried to turn it on, then held down the power button and the home button, until it rebooted itself. So THAT's how you do it. I couldn't find a way to take the battery out.

He said that it usually doesn't need to have that done to it. That it must be ME who's breaking (or jinxing) the phone (said in a joking way). Funny. ha!

Jim and I popped into the Family Dollar, which was RIGHT next door, and he got a few hot wheels, since they were on sale (with end of the month chore money). He got a diesel and a 5 pack. Not bad, huh?

And Amanda called, and said that she and Austin were on their way to Walmart, and did we want to come? Yes! We were really close to Walmart, in fact. So we popped on over there.

And shopped with Amanda for about 20 minutes. We grabbed some food for a picnic dinner at the ballpark, and headed back home. She had to get some stuff for her Pampered Chef party tomorrow.

When we got home, the kids helped me pack the sack dinners. Jake had gone to Zach's house to play, so I had Tom take over his sack dinner. Subs and cheese and yogurt and cheese crackers and a cookie. And water bottles. And we all loaded up in the suburban (not Jake) and headed to the ball park.

Tom had his first game tonight. Eme and I brought chairs, and Jim had brought his new cars. And he and some random little kid had the BEST time playing. hehe.

Tom in his new uniform (he changed in the truck - ha!). They're the Giants.

Jimmy found this mouth guard on the ground, and thought it was SO cool. Yeah, I told him it was SO germy and to get rid of it. hehe. Poor kid thought he'd found a treasure at first...

She looks like a polygamist girl. ROFL!

Here's Tom, RIGHT before he got hit in the shoulder with the pitch. He got walked to base.

I really did have an enjoyable time at the park. Sure, it would have been a TON better with a friend. But I did ok. I soaked up the sun, and really liked it.

I was a little disappointed, though, because it was supposed to be GNO tonight. And the game got in my way. The game started at 5:30, and they were gonna play 3 innings, or till 7:00pm. They ended up stopping at 7pm. And yeah, by that time, it was too late to go. And then, after the day I'd had, I was pretty tired. And really just wanted to go home and relax.

So at 7pm, we loaded up, and headed home. And I was SO itchy. I couldn't figure it out. We did a TON of chores, and I put away (in boxes that Kari gave me) books from the broken book shelf, and organized the laundry pile in the laundry room, and the house looked SO much better afterwords. But people were melting down, and needed to go to bed. I sent Joe upstairs, and he ended up pouting on the stairs, and maybe falling asleep there. Jim came in my room, because he was really having a hard time, and was instantly asleep. And yeah, I don't carry 70 lb kids up the stairs, so I think I'm getting a sleeping companion tonight.

Although, as I sit here in my bed, blogging, he's turned sideways, and is almost touching me. And yeah, there's NO touching while I'm sleeping. NONE at all. So we'll see how this goes... If he stays on his side of the bed, he can totally stay. If not..... it may be the couch for him....

Here's to hoping that Tomorrow goes more according to plan. Not that things didn't resolve themselves well today. Because I really did have a good day. But I was so tired and stressed for part of the day, it was hard.

Friday will be good :)


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Ha! Good one, Sharon! Yeah, you SHOULD be afraid of me - hehe