Testing Testing 123

For some reason, my main title and post title are not showing up. I just posted a new post and that isn't showing up either. Lets see if this works though.

Better late than never!

So sorry I didn't get this posted up earlier but I pulled out my old nintendo and haven't really done much since. So happy birthday Tony AND Violet. I was going to make a pic. video but I don't have any pictures of either one of you. Maybe next year.

Pride

Morgan and I just finished our Foster Care class last night and got our certificate. We still have to do 3 homesteadies (YIKES!) and take one more class on how to administer medications and then we are done!! The homestudies will take about three to four weeks and then we could have a child placed with us anyday. It may take a little while because we are not doing regular foster care and we are taking a child that is voluntarily given up so we have to wait for someone to pick us. I feel very excited and anxious. We started this process at the beginning of July and it feels good to finally be at the end. I am sad the Pride class is over because it was a lot of fun but having it end just made things a little more real for me. I did find out last night that I am not allowed to post pictures or say anything about the child on blogs or myspace or anything like that. Disapointing, I know. Anyways, we are excited about having another kid join our family. We have set certain standards about what type of disability we will take and which ones we won't but I know that when the time comes, we will have a hard time saying no to any child. I will post when I get the child (not anything personal, of course) so that people will know when we get them but we are expecting sometime around end of March/beginning of April.

Happy Birthday Lindy!! I hope you had a great day and gots good gifts. I am getting this just a few hours late but that is okay. The best part about being married to Morgan is having you as my sister in law. I am so glad that I got the opportunity this last summer to have you live with us and to get to know you. You are a great person and helped us out so much and I could never thank you enough for that. We really appreciate everything that you have done for us and everything that you still do for us. My children love you and have a special bond to you. You are so much fun and I always have a great time hanging out with you. I only hope for the best for you and hope that you will find a hot, british, rich uncle while you are away nannying that will make Edward look like a scrub. We will miss you so much when you are gone. I had a good time looking through pictures while making this video and seeing all the weird pictures that you download on the computer. There is no music for 2 reasons. 1. I don't know how to download music. 2. If I could download a song, I would probably download "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?". Love, Sara, Morgan, Wolfe, Teddy, and Wini.

My Valentines!

I completely forgot all about valentines day this year until late Wednesday night when my parents reminded me. I did not feel like going to the store so I decided I would just keep my kids home from school. They are young enough, they won't know. My parents though luckily had some chocolate hearts and red construction paper so we decided to just make our own and let the kids go to school. I think it turned out way cuter than buying valentines. Wolfe and Teddy wrote their names on the cards (Teddy needed a little help towards the end but Wolfe loved doing it). Anyways, I am SURE that my family in Vegas is DYING to see my kids write their names so I decided to take a picture and post it.
You can tell on Teddy's which ones he did by himself and which ones I helped with. Since Wolfe has two classes (his regular Kindergarten and his extended resource room) he came home with his backpack stuffed full of candy. Teddy was a bit jealous because there is only about 10 kids in his class and two of his Valentines were wasted with pencils.

Well, every year I always hope that Morgan will impress me with Valentines Day. He has failed miserably for the past 9 years and last year was the first time I didn't expect anything and this year I didn't even remember. He usually get me hand sanitizer (trial size and not name brand, of course. This is the usual gift for birthdays, Christmas, anniversaries, etc.) but this year he did something a little bit different...


If you are wondering what you are looking at, it is my table with no gift on it. I can't say that I blame him because I do still have 3 or 4 unopened hand sanitizers. I have to admit that I really don't care. I would probably be a little annoyed if he did buy me something and since I got him the same gift that he got me, I can't complain. He did however get up with the kids for me and get them off to school while only waking me up a few time to ask where to find clothes and to see what Wini is doing ("Hurry, hurry, look, you're going to miss it! It is sooooo cute!" I have seen it all, already, Morgan). Anyways, even though I am no longer his Valentines (Wini is now) it was a nice day. I love you Morgan and this does not excuse you for our anniversary (NO HAND SANITIZER PLEASE). Hope everyone had a Happy Valentines Days!

Scars and Legs

I know this is very cliche to say but I have nothing to post. I wanted to put up a new post because my last post are a little "Debbie Downer" if you know what I mean. So I decided to take some pictures of my scars and show them to you. I personally don't think it is funny but alot of you sick people found it humorous and loved the roller skating picture so I thought I would share. This is the inside of my ankle. The big blob in the middle is where my skin actually tore from my foot twisting around so far. When they first removed the skate it just looked like a skinny scratch on the top part of my ankle and then after they twisted the foot back around it was a circle on the side of my ankle. Wierd.
This is the side where they put the plate in and tied all the ligaments back together. It gets thicker at the bottom because that is where they recut it a few months later to take out the screws that were preventing me to walk. All the dot scars are just the staples. Apparently the doctor was to lazy to stitch.
These are the screws they took out of my leg (there are still 10 left in my leg). They crack me up because they just look like something out of our garage. I was expecting something a little more medical looking. It does look like maybe it required an allen wrench so that make it a little more fancy. The battery is just to show size, that was never in my leg.
This is a picture Teddy took of my leg. He didn't get why I was taking pictures of my leg but he thought it looked like fun. This is not the leg I broke by the way, just in case you were wondering what happened to my scars.
This is what I wished my leg really looked like. If this was my leg I would constantly be squeezing it and would always showing it off. I probably wouldn't wear the diaper, depending on how lazy I felt.

Well that was my post. I hope you enjoyed. Please leave comments so that I look more popular than Morgan (we are always competing). And then go visit his post and leave a comment (because I am such a good wife).

Misinterpreted

I think that some people may have misinterpreted what I was saying in my last post. Let me explain myself. First of all, when I found that web site with that autistic persons perspective, I found it interesting. I do agree with them on the fact that autism is not an illness that needs to be "cured", it is who a person is. I have yet to meet a parent or a person with autism who feels it is an illness that can be "cured" but I have not met everyone. In that article, the autistic person said that they would like help with the problems that come along with autism (like the eye contact or the not being able to focus on one conversation) but that they are not looking for a cure. So for someone to feel like they "hate" their autism, it is more that they hate the bad stuff that comes along with autism. Now to defend me a little. I am all for doing everything possible to help my child be more independent and to be happy and to help him deal with any issues that come along with autism. He goes to special schools, I drove him an hour and half to get him to Boise for speech and O/T three times a week and I do developmental therapy for him daily to help teach him how to adjust with the autism. I am NOT trying to "cure" it because it can't be "cured", I am just trying to help him get through obsticles that he has to deal with. I don't think I am a saint or wonderful for doing it. I agree that there is no such thing as a "normal" child. Every child has some kind of obsticle to get through. Some kids may be more typical than others and may not need as much help as other kids but most parents do what they need to do for their child and don't mind doing it at all. When I say that I don't like hearing about the "cures", I meant the kooky stuff like swimming with whales, rubbing ointments all over their bodies, adjusting their backs three times a day, acupuncture, feeding them only leaves for a month, or going to see a "healer" etc, etc, etc. I do appreciate people thinking of us and wanting to give their opinions but don't push it on me when I say no thank you and don't make me feel guilty for not trying. What I love is when someone tell me about therapies that can help with a certain problem, or a new company that has opened up with available spots, or guide dogs for autistic kids, something that will help, not "cure". I am always looking for a way to help him and to help me. I don't want to change his diaper when he is an adult, if someone has advice to give on a way to do that, I would appreciate it. I want him to communicate with me any way possible, if someone heard of a new technique to try I want to know. I know that I don't know everything and I like hearing about things to do for him that can help him be more independent because that is the only way he will be happy when he is older but I can't "cure" him and I don't want to. I liked everyones comments and they did not offend me. I appreciate all the nice things people said about us. I just wanted to make it more clear what I meant to say earlier because it sounded like maybe people might have misinterpeted what I said.

Maybe He Doesn't Want To Be "Cured"

I was doing different google searches today on autism. I was looking up "cures for autism". I love Wolfe the way he is but sometimes feel like other people don't think I do enough to "cure" him and so I was curious to see what I need to do to "cure" him. I came across this page in my search and found it very interesting.


A cure for autism?
Sometimes I feel angry when I read about attempts being made to 'cure' autism.
I do not wish to be 'cured' from my autism, and many autistic persons who are able to communicate their feelings, say the same thing.
Autism is not something that I have, it is something that I am. Autism is in every emotion I experience, in every thought I think. Autism is throughout my philosophy, my political beliefs, my religious convictions. Autism affects my choice of job, my taste in clothes, my favourite music and literature, the artforms I like, and those I dislike. I am autistic in my views on humanity, my opinion of individual persons, Everything!
Autism is not a cage, with us as the prisoners. You cannot talk about a person 'emerging' from autism.
If it were possible to remove autism from a person, you would get a different person. A person who, perhaps, fits in better with his surroundings. Maybe a person who abides by the rules of society more. A person who does not stick out. That person will look identical to the previous one, but will be a different person nonetheless.
Another autistic person said that when people talk about curing an autistic person, what they are actually saying is that they wish that instead of this person, there was someone else who is more 'normal'. Naturally that is not a nice thing to hear if you are the person they're talking about.
I'm not against medications which will alleviate some of the symptoms or problems of autism. For example, if there were something which would filter out the 'noise' of a crowded room and let us concentrate on one conversation, that would be very useful. If there were something that would help autistic people make eye contact (some autistics find this impossible), that too would help.
However anything that would alter my mind is so abhorrent an idea that I view it in the same light as homicide. I even find hypnosis horrifying. The idea of anyone else taking control of my mind and manipulating it is unthinkable.
I know that when people talk about curing autism they mean well, but they really don't know what they are talking about. Please keep any such cure away from me. Star Trek fans will understand what I mean when I say I don't want to be assimilated into the collective.

I really enjoyed that because I do have a hard time medicating him when he can not speak to tell me whether or not he hates that medication or putting him through therapies that I have no idea are working or the very worst is sending him off with a therapist that I have no idea if they are being nice to him or abusing him (I do have a geat therapist right now but I have had awful ones in the past). I know that the only improvement I need to see in him is just him being happy (and learning how to communicate) and just because I want to see him get married and have babies doesn't mean that he wants to get married and have babies. So now I know what to say to people when they tell me what I need to do to "cure" him (which happens ALL THE TIME**) is just to say "maybe he doesn't want to be "cured".

**Sorry to anyone who has tried to tell people how to cure their child's autism. I do understand that you are trying to be helpful and I appreciate that people think of me and Wolfie and want to help but there is a large majority of mom's of autistic kids that are uncomfortable when people push their kooky ways to cure it on us. I do know that it is just with good intentions and people feel like why not try everything possible. It is because I don't want to put my child through uncomfortable situations that I have not tried everything. Thank you to everyone who has cared, I didn't post this because I am mad, only because I found it interesting and I agreed.

Sara does the weather

I got tired of waiting for morgan to get a new job so I took the initiative!

Happy Birthday, Becky!

Happy Birthday, Becky! I hope you have a great day and get spoiled today! Sorry I didn't call but I don't have long distance but just wanted you to know we were thinking of you!

Happy Sixth Birthday Wolfe!

Happy Birthday Wolfe! I love you so much. I love having you in our family.
Wolfie is a very wierd boy and WE LOVE IT! I appreciate how innocent he is and at times how quiet he is. He makes us laugh so hard. When we showed him this video he tried to blow on the screen to blow out the candles. He is still our little baby and we love him the way he is. It was hard for me to come to terms with how he is and how he will be in the future but I have come to realize how blessed I am to have such a sweet little boy and I enjoy taking care of him. I look forward to our future together and am so happy for all the many accomplishments that he has done in the past few months (he can now write his name). I know that he will continue to improve but all that matters to Morgan and I is that he is happy and healthy. So far he has been a happy and healthy boy.
When Wolfe was first diagnosed with autism, his doctor told me that I shouldn't worry because Wolfe would be able to get by on his looks alone and he was so right. All his teachers, therapists, and doctors LOVE him. I have even had therapists fight over who got to work with him. Kids at school are drawn to him and want to play with him. He is very special and even strangers can pick up on it.
I love having him in my life and I especially love that his name is now written all over my walls, doors, sheets, car, scratched in the table, and even part of it on Wini (she was his accomplice). My favorite times with him his when he plays nicely with his brother and sister and wants to be a part of what his family is doing, which isn't very often. I am grateful that he is so snuggly and likes to be kissed and hugged and squeezed. I have actually learned to enjoy the strange looks people give me when they see Wini walking through the store and Wolfe crammed in the grocery cart high chair.
Also I want to thank my neices and nephews for being so interested in Wolfe. I especially want to thank Bailey and Calvin for how helpful they are with Wolfe. They always try to include him and do a great job helping out with him. I am very impressed with them for including other kids with disablilities and not being afraid of them. Calvin has a friend in primary with autism that he befriended and by him doing so, other kids have become friend with the little boy. I love hearing things like that because it reminds me that kids are loving and understanding. (my other nices and nephews are great with Wolfe too, they just aren't around him very much)
Anyways the point is that I love him and hope he has a happy birthday!

TedZilla

Dateline NYC... Gigantic 4 year old terrorizes time square and shortly after photo was taken crushes a cardboard cutout of youtube and Blogger sensation Jenny Esplin.

Happy Birthday, Morgan!

This is Morgan and today is his birthday. He is 28 years old but only 19 when I first met him. My sisters introduced us and I liked his strange sense of humor. I think he is funny and we always have a good time together. Even when I get annoyed with him he can still make me laugh and make me forget all about why I was annoyed in the first place.

I love you very much. (These are not my lips, they are actually your cousins, I stole them. I get the point though.)
You are a good daddy and your kids love you and love spending time with you too. Happy Birthday, hope you have a good day!

We...had...the time of our lives...and we owe it all to youuuuu!

Morgan and I were a little sick of the same old same old (dinner and a movie) so to spice up the marriage we decided to take dance lessons. It was a complete success! We have never been closer! I brought the camera along and had the dance instructor take a picture of us during our recital. Don't worry, we were wearing our G's, they just crept up.

Merry Christmas to me!

Morgan held out until the last possible minute and then told me to look outside!
He had traded in our minivan because he thought that I deserved to have a new car that got better mileage. Yippeee!