*sigh*

The first we heard of the issues E was having on the bus was when the aide called me at home Friday one week before break.  He’d been acting out for a couple of weeks, but no one thought to let his autism teachers or me know about it until after a bad pattern had developed and the bus driver was left with no recourse but to write him up.

After a few more weeks of issues and an inability to work effectively with the aide, we had to have an IEP meeting to arrange for Spec Ed transportation for E.   We really want S to stay on the reg ed bus – with the bus stop 2.5 blocks down the street – so it is tricky.  We had agreed that the spec ed bus would pick E up first, and then I would walk S down to the bus stop.  In the afternoon, the spec ed bus will drop E off at the reg ed bus stop before S’s bus and we would wait together, rather than running from the house.  However, the bus driver called tonight, and she can’t pick E up until 5 minutes after S’s bus is due, meaning that I would have to walk both boys to the reg ed bus stop, put S on the bus, have E have a meltdown because he couldn’t get on the bus, and then try to get him home in time to meet the other bus.

 Needless to say, that won’t work.

So, I’m going to drive E & S to the bus and then E up to school until we can arrange something that works better.

My father-in-law, who has been an active part of our family, died unexpectedly on the Monday before Thanksgiving.  He had health issues, but we thought we’d have him for at least one more holiday season.  He *was* Mr. Holiday.  However, after a morning of running errands, including a routine visit to the doctor, he walked up to the porch and then just stopped.  That was it.  May his memory been eternal.

Life has been a blur since then.  My dh has been spending large amounts of time in his hometown with his mother, who had been with her husband since she was 16 – she is in her mid-70’s now.  Thanksgiving and Christmas involved lots of tears, as we really felt the gaping hole left by his absence.

One of the biggest challenges is how to explain to two young boys with autism that their grandfather has died and will not be coming back.  S seemed to get it, and he brings it up every once in a while, telling us that gramps isn’t coming back.  E doesn’t get it all, and he goes through their house when we visit, looking for him.  I lost my own father when I was a child, but it never occurred to me that a loss would hurt even more as I ache for my own kids’ sadness at their grandfather’s passing.

We are off to spend the night at my MIL’s tomorrow night – the boys still love going to visit. 

What a busy week! 

Last Friday, I chaperoned the autism classes CBI (community based instruction) trip to the local firehouse.  E woke up with 101 degree fever, so he and my dh stayed home.  S was excited and ecstatic.  S participated heavily in the presentation that the firefighters gave, and made a point of climbing up and sitting in the truck three times.  We all went to McDs for ice cream after the firehouse – the kids loved it.

 On Wednesday we had a Halloween potluck for bowling league and were supposed to come in costume.  I dug up my 50s outfit that I put together for a Close To My Heart convention a number of years back.  A word to the wise – bowling with a petticoat does not work.   :p 

I then went to school and chaperoned S’s 2nd grade class Halloween party.  The kids are a blast and he has the best teacher who does her best to include the special needs boys when they are in her classroom.  S really had a much better time than is apparent in this photo.

The most exciting part, for me, was when one of the other moms, who has known S for over 3 years now (our kids were in a non-cat pre-school class together),  came up to tell me what a HUGE difference there is in S’s behavior.  She hasn’t spent time with him since we put him on Risperadol at the end of April and she went on and on about how “on” he seemed and how impressed she was with how he answered all of her questions.  Dh and I have always tried to make treatment decisions (especially drugs) based on whether or not others (mainly at school) see an improvement in our kids’ behavior.  Our primary goal is for them to be successful at school, when we are not around, and we won’t subject them to any kind of treatment if there isn’t a noticable positive difference that is seen by other people.  I’ve seen too many cases of moms who go through a lot of various treatments and diets with their kids, swearing that they see a difference, only to have the school personnel say that they see no difference in the child.  How my kids do without my support is crucial for me. 

Yesterday was the kindergarten field trip to Cox Farms’ Pumpkin Patch.  All of the kindergarten classes for the school went.  It was so much fun!  I chaperoned the autism kindergarten class, and our boys had such a wonderful time.  There were no meltdowns, no problems.  E was in heaven because the pumpkin patch is one of his favorite places and he was so excited to take his friends on the big slide and the hayride. Not to mention munching a LOT of fresh kettle corn.     It was great to see how well behaved our kids were in comparison to some groups of neurotypical kids present (there were schools from all over the area visiting).

  We had a pizza party in the classroom when we got back at 1 pm – everyone was tired and well fed.  I was thoroughly pooped – I wish I still had the energy of a 6 year old!

With school starting, and my starting a new position (part-time) with the school system as a parent ombudsman, I’ve been way too busy this fall and unfortunately let this slip. 

 I finally did finish those patriotic socks – I had to take a break from crocheting dishcloths after making over 100 straight (literally).  I love how the socks turned out – they were the sock of the month kit by knitter.com for June:

 I’ve also started and am working on the feet of a pair of socks out of Cascade Fixation using Gillingham’s new book Knitting Circles Around Socks for knitting 2 at a time on 2 circulars.  It is different to knit with such stretchy yarn. 

 Right now, however, I’m in the middle of knitting up scarves for holiday presents for my bowling team and my kids’ teachers, aids and therapists.  I have 7 done and have another 5 or so to go.  I’m using a variety of fun yarn and big needles, so it goes rather quickly.

Just a heads up for anyone interested in dishcloth sets – I’m having a sale this weekend over at Etsy.  I’ve even included some new sets:

Our field trip for today was an outing to the local movie theater to see The Simpsons for the second time.  It was a milestone, however, being the first movie we have gone to where neither child needed to visit the restroom during the whole movie.  We sat and watched THE WHOLE MOVIE!!!  Woo-hoo!  I’m really looking forward to Horton Hears a Who which is due out in March. 

 I did bring some crochet to work on, as I can only tolerate one showing of most kid-friendly movie without something else to do. 

I remember how summers used to stretch out into infinity – school would never start again.  But that is because I was a child and bored, bored, bored.  Now summers stretch into infinity again, but I have too much to do and too little time. 

E and S participated in ABA training for a couple of weeks after summer school was over.  The school district here trains the teachers in schools with autism programs on how to do Applied Behavioral Analysis with their students and they need kids to demo on.  So, I volunteered to drive them back and forth so that they could be model students for a couple of hours a day.  The boys really like the attention and the teachers are so nice and enthusiastic.  It is a win-win situation.  But now they are stuck with just me for the next two weeks until school starts again.  We have an exciting field trip to AC Moore and Harris Teeter’s planned for this afternoon.   

I’m starting to teach a new class on Thursday night – Organizational Psychology – so I’m trying to balance kid supervision with reading the material, planning my classes, and prepping my PowerPoint slides.   I’m glad to add another class to my teaching list, but wish I had more free time to concentrate on prepping. 

I’ve found some new dishcloth patterns and have some new sets up in my Esty store:

Today is my dh and my 9th anniversary!  It is hard to believe that 9 years has gone by already.  He picked out a Citizen watch that I gave to him and he let me choose this:

It is wonderful – grinds the beans, tamps the shot, pours the shot, dumps the grounds into an easy to empty cup.  This one is much more deluxe than the Saeco I had for 4.5 years before this one – it has a bypass doser and it has an electronic clock with auto on and off.  Very quiet too. 

I’ve been busy busy busy working on crocheted dishcloths for my etsy store:

The white dishcloths definitely don’t photograph well – the yarn is the same weight as the colored yarn, but when photographed with a flash, they look less substantial than they are.  I’ve had a few requests for all-white cloths – even a couple of sets special-ordered – because you can bleach them.  I just wish that they photographed better. 

I’m going to work part-time for the school district here next year, so I’m off to get my TB test read!

The only resolution I got from meeting with my postmaster is that he admits that the software on the kiosk leads people to choose the incorrect postage because basically there is no such thing as a large envelope any more – anything other than paper in an envelope will cause it to be judged as a parcel by my post office regardless of how thin/thick the envelope is.  So, even though the software on the kiosk pictures an envelope that looks like mine as as a “large envelope,” I should click on the picture of the the boxes that look nothing like my large envelope and choose parcel when I mail large envelopes.  :p  

The postmaster even went over to the machine with me and agreed that if he were a regular customer he would have selected everything I did, but he still feels fine about holding up mail to charge more postage because of the USPS’ outdated software programming.  Some days I wish I were a lawyer…

 On a more positive note, I got some more dishcloths done:

This set went to April at 2Peas:

E has been having a hard time at summer school lately – I’m not sure why.  His teacher called me yesterday so that I could talk with him because he was crying that he wanted to see me.  We’re not sure why.  This is the first time that he and S have been in the same school for over a year and they are rewarding E for staying on task and completing his work with being able to go to S’s classroom and visit him.  I love how much E loves his brother. 

I was thrilled that my dishcloths went quickly the other night – I hope that everyone enjoys them.     I was *not* thrilled however, when 3 of the envelopes I mailed out came back to me with notes from the USPS that I needed to pay more postage. 

 Given that I have two boys with autism who make waiting in line a chore at best, pure torture for everyone on most days, it was a g-dsend for me when my local USPS put in a 24 hour electronic kiosk where you can weigh and purchase postage for envelopes and packages to be mailed in the U.S.  I’ve been using it for over a year with no problems.  Until the latest hike and changes in rates and regulations – it appears as if they haven’t updated their software and I am going to pay for it with extra postage, slower shipping as they return things to me, and poor customer reviews for slow shipping. 

I posted 3 packages after the kids went to bed Thursday night, and then went back while they were in summer school yesterday morning and posted 3 more using the kiosk and then dropped them in the slot at that post office.  The three that I posted Thursday night all came back, but I reposted and mailed out again yesterday.  I don’t know whether or not the three I posted yesterday will come back or not – I’ll find out today or Monday, I guess. 

 I’m furious with the USPS.  I used *their* machine.  I selected “large envelope” which is the correct category.  I used their scale.  Used their printed postage lable.  And if they are undercharging – that should be *their* problem, not mine.  The person I talked with at the national USPS phone line told me that I have to go in to the local post office and find out why they are doing this to my mail before they will do anything or tag our machine as defective.

I have NO PROBLEM WITH PAYING THE CORRECT POSTAGE.  I’m not looking to save money.  I *am* looking to save headaches for me and everyone else by using the kiosk and I need it to charge me the correct postage.  Once I weigh my item and select all the correct categories and print the USPS lable, they should take it and deliver it to its destination.  Period.  Or they should get rid of the stupid machines.  I can’t imagine that this process is cost effective and it may end up hurting my little Etsy business. 

Speaking of Etsy, I have some more dishcloths up in my store:

I really like the patterns for the square ones – they are quite thick and will do a great job with dishes and countertops!