TrAdiTiOnS...

Every year, on the Day After Thanksgiving, we take the kidlets down town to the Holiday Open House. The kids were very excited to visit Santa. Madison was especially excited and she sure had a lot to say to him! She is such a big girl and she was all to happy to tell him exactly what she wanted! Bethanie was very shy. She agreed to go up and sit with him IF I asked him for the things she wanted. :O) So I did. Matthew was his usual self, wanting to run the entire show for everyone, even the kids that were behind us. We needed to leave. ;OP We also rode the carriage with the two horses pulling it. It was a beautiful night out and they all had fun! We came home, got into their jammies, had hot cocoa and now it is time for bed! Tomorrow we decorate our tree and the inside of the house. Our sweet niece is coming to stay the night with us as well!

GoBbLe TiL yA WoBbLe...

WOW! I cant believe it is THANKSGIVING! YAY! I LOVE Thanksgiving! I get to see nearly all of our family! This year is super special because we FINALLY get to meet our newest little Nephew, JUNU! He was born in June and we still have yet to meet him! I CANT WAIT to squeeze his cute little cheekies!!!

We are so blessed because we get to celebrate this holiday with BOTH sets of our parents. At 12:00 we are always with Jeff's parents. Then we go to my parents house and eat again around 4:00. Yes, we gobble til we wobble, but its only one day, and certainly is a memory we create with one another!

I am so grateful for my family. I feel so blessed to have each one of them as MINE!!!!

I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving!!!

nEcLeGtEd...

I have sadly neglected my poor blog. Sorry to leave every one hanging. I have to say, I wont be sad to see this year pass and become a distant memory. I am really struggling with keeping my precious "A's" in my college courses, and now I am home schooling our oldest. Jeff's new job has left him really "busy at the office" and it has all fallen onto me to accomplish. That is such a heavy load. I spend most of my time feeling exhausted. My Fibromialgia has been really acting up, to the point I can hardly walk in the evenings when I sit down. I have been VERY fortunate to have instructors who are working WITH me and not against me with the situation we have had over the homeschooling issues. My upper level psych class has the most awesome instructor. Her name is Beth and she has pretty much let me go independent study. I met with her today to go over some things they are doing in class, studying materials and going over my power point presentation that I will be giving on Autism Spectrum Disorders on December 4th. She really loved my presentation. Fact is, I am needing to really prioritize. My poor house is a wreck and to even THINK about putting up the tree next weekend bugs me, because nothing is organized, at all!

WaHoO! ItS tHe WeEkEnD!!!

I am so glad that this week is over with! We had a very successful week as far as our first week of home school goes. We named our school Ladysam Academy. :O) It is amazing to me that Matthew will sit here and do work for me. We usually take Bethie to school and come home and eat breakfast. He is chomping at the bit BEFORE we eat to get started on his work. It is amazing! WHY cant the school have these results? It makes no sense. I have noticed the stress level in our home DEFLATE. It is the weirdest thing. School, for some reason, was just too overwhelming for Matthew. I think next Friday we will be going to get his things. There is no love lost with his school officials.

Tomorrow we will start some birthday girl shopping for Madison. She will be three soon. Gosh, where did the time go????? Also, Christmas shopping. I love this time of year!!!

FoUgHt ThE FiGhT...

Well, we fought the fight and we have decided to end it. We have made a difficult decision. We have decided that the school system here will no longer be able to bully us (not that we would fall for it anyway) and we have decided to have Matthew take a step back, release him from this public school system and progress further with him in home school. I cant even begin to express the anxiety, stress, frustration, nights with loss of sleep, tears shed and arguments that this school situation has caused for our family. It has been awful. I feel so sad for Matthew because he is caught in the middle of adults at a stalemate with him in the center of it all. I don't at all regret our decision to pull him from school. Now maybe he (we) can heal from this terrible experience and he can actually begin to learn. I am looking forward to doing this with him. I will also be supplementing Bethanie into this curriculum, though she will stay in public school. We are so tired of the threats that the school has been dishing out, from 10 day suspensions to calling the police on him (because he is so full of anxiety that he will hit or kick). Now we can control him at home. I am so happy it has come to this! I am totally at peace tonight. I know we have fought for Matthew, we have stood up for him, stood our ground, and even though we were not successful at "winning" anything from the school here, we still won because we made our case, we stood our ground and we are finally going to PROGRESS, rather than REGRESS. I would do anything for any of my children. People who don't have a child on the spectrum can only guess what it is like. We live autism daily. Our whole family suffers from autism even though only Matthew has it. But you know what? He has value, as does his sisters. He IS perfect because God made him, he is who he is and I was the lucky one to be picked to be his mother. At the end of the day, *I* am the one who gets to hold him and kiss him and keep him safe. :) Too bad for the school because one day he is going to be a very successful man, and there will be little credit to them. THEY failed him. THEY gave up on him. I never will.

BuSy WiTh LiFe...

I feel like I have been seriously neglecting my blog. I HAVE! Sorry folks, but it isn't just my blog, it is my parents, friends and everyone. Without going into a whole lot of detail, just know that everything here is OK, but we are in a sort of transition state which I will elaborate on in the next few days or week. I am really loving this beautiful autumn weather we have been having. I am also getting very excited for the holidays that are upon us. School is going well for me, and I am looking forward to the semester ending soon. I did end up going pretty much independent study because of all the changes happening here, but I will be able to see this semester through. That is a POSITIVE thing! Anyway, keep checking back for updates. I will fill you in on things after we know more.....