Who am I?

I eat with my hands-handwriting is painful,
I am covered in deep bruises and cuts-my heart is broken on a daily basis,
I swim like a fish-water hurts my skin,
I love my brother and sister-wearing them down,
I am a natural at all sports-never good enough,
I like to make people laugh-can't figure out what people are thinking,
I can listen to multiple conversations at one time-loud voices take priority,
I love P.E. and recess-constant noises bring tears,
I am an expert on all animals-must be an animal,
I have boundless energy-weight comforts and calms,
I love my pets-muscles don't recognize gentle,
I am very smart-racing thoughts,
I need a scheduled day-change scares me,
I can convert hours to minutes-can't wait,
I love my cousins-world revolves around me,
I have a big heart-words can hurt others,
I love my Mom-world shakes when she is gone,
I can read-written words overwhelm,
I find comfort in things that are soft-will be 8 soon,
I love my Dad-he is not mom,
I am very daring and courageous-staples, glue and stitches,
I need to be loved-don't like to be touched,
I have beautiful eyes-don't look at faces,
Who am I?

My days will never be the same....

"Summer is over so why is it still hot"? This is the question my 7 year old asked me yesterday. School marks the death of all that is fun and warm right? Dave and I both had students at school Monday and it was a bit crazy for us.
Autism is a funny thing and there are many levels of "high functioning." I have decided that every parent wants to believe that their child IS high functioning, because it gives them hope. However, it gives me a lot of screaming, angry, scared kids to wrestle with on the first day of school! I was exhausted after school and I still had my own kids to manage until bed. Gone are the days of naps, gone are the days of swimming for hours at Kristi's pool, gone are the days when I could sleep in, gone are MY days. There is 20 minutes of reading for each of my 3 kids...2 of which have to be monitored at all times :( Learning Plans to sign, homework to finish, violin to practice, football to practice (and coach), behaviors to change, mean girls at school, mean teachers at school...I am sure all of you feel the same way I do, but it feels good to get it off my chest in into written words.

Olympic Craze

We have been glued to the T.V. for the past 5 days. All day long the T.V. is on channel 5 watching the USA in the 2008 Olympics. It is a phenomenon at our house. All play stops, all Disney shows are put on the back burner, all free time is spent cheering the USA on. We have become experts on all Olympic sports, therefore are better at judging and scoring than the actual Olympic judges and referees. We are savvy with the lingo and know all the USA athletes by first and last name. And I am pretty sure we could put on a blue suit coat and judge the Olympics better than the current judges!

We have also become somewhat of an expert on China. We were saddened by the murder of an American citizen and pray everyone else will return home safely. The kids do not love the idea of having to leave your family at a young age to become an Olympic athlete or only having 1 child per family. They are also still trying to grasp the idea of Communism. Hunter stated that when he is President of the United States of America he will "ban all Communists and work towards world peace" and furthermore, if the Olympics happen to be in China when he is President, he will have to really think about going or not. However, when he saw President Bush talking to the athletes and watching all the events Hunter decided that he would attend only if he could stay with the athletes and get all their autographs. "Do you think that they would want to come to dinner at the White House or would they be to busy?" Think big kid!

We love the United States of America and will continue to obsess about the events and athletes until it is taken from us. We hope to dominate the world and win as many Gold Medals as possible, but we do not want to make the athletes feel bad if they loose either! (Thank you Hunter for having such a big heart). Shout out if you are also addicted to the Olympics!

USA! USA! USA!

I sew-I am sewing-I am a Seamstress!

Remember the movie with Bill Murray, What About Bob? The scene where Bob has been lashed to the sailboat mast and it jubilantly yelling, "I sail, I am sailing, I am a sailor" that is how I felt on Tuesday. Jess, my crafty friend, has a fabulous idea of taking all the pants that are too small and making skirts out of them. I was thrilled because I seemed to have a LOT of pants in the "too small" category. Also, Jess offered to help hem the new clothes I got for school. So I was all game until I realized that it would involve SEWING.....AHHHHHH! Jess assured me she would do all the sewing machine stuff and I inserted "plus all things using a needle and thread". We got started right away by cutting all the pants up and pinning them where they needed to be. It seemed easy enough, then Jess asked me if I wanted to sew them....Uhhhh I politly gave her some excuse about never using other people's sewing machines and watched her sew away! Ok I did do some fabulous cutting and pinning!

The skirts turned out so so so cute!
The bummer (for me) was when the cutest skirt (camo) was still to small for me so Jess (much skinnier) got a new skirt! In all we made 3 skirts and hemmed 3 pairs of pants. Half way through the process Jess looked up at me and asked if I was O.K. Apparently the look of death was on my face. But it was not so bad and my headache went away about an hour after I got home. All in all a sucessful day for me and I proudly yell, "I sew, I am sewing, I am a seamstress..."

BFF's

I heard a songs today that I would like to dedicate to all you out there that fall into my inner cirlce of trust and can say you are my BFF!

"Gonna stay in bed today
Cause I can't stand the light
Don't know why I get so down
I won't be much fun tonight
And I can't believe
You still wanna hang around me
It's not so pretty all the time
You don't mind
To you it's all right
AS I AM
IS HOW YOU TAKE ME
NEVER TRY TO PUSH
OR MAKE ME DIFFERENT
WHEN I TALK YOU LISTEN TO ME
You almost know me better than
Me, myself and I
Don't know a lot of things
But I know what I got
It's not so perfect everyday
I don't have to try
Cause it all falls into place
Face to face, eye to eye
You're standing there
Feels good on the inside
I don't mind, I don't care
You're standing there
Seeing me for the first time
Seeing me for the first time...."

Don't laugh it is a song by...Miley Cyrus!
Much love to all of you out there that have made my life better just by knowing you.