It's Official

The Other half has officially killed his knee. Last Saturday ,while playing basketball with his "Old Fogey" league, he did a jump shot and blew out his knee. A 4 Doctors visits, 2 xrays, and one MRI later the verdict is in, his ACL is toast. The other things in his knee are either stretched or blown out too. We have been told that his ACL will have to be reconstructed with either his own tendons or cadaver. My vote is for his own tendons. (Please pray they can use them) They will do some scoping/scraping will they are in there too. We meet with the Surgeon on Monday to get the full rundown of all the fun and to get a date for surgery.
This will be surgery number 2 for The Other Half in less than 12months. SHESH! I told him he's getting expensive and I might just have to trade him in for another model! ;) His sister texted him and said,'You might not think 30 is old, but you knee sure does!' That had me rolling!
On a serious note, please keep us in your thoughts and prayers. Him having surgery always makes me nervous. And I am not looking forward to paying off yet another surgery. Thank God for insurance!

Random Quote

Me: "G, I need you to get ready for bed."

G, is ferociously strumming his sister's pink barbie guitar to some Goo Goo dolls song.

Me: "G, Listen to me! You need to get ready for bed!"

G, still ferociously strumming:" I can't! I NEED to rock and roll!"

This comment comes on the heels of him having broken my mixing bowl while drumming to the sounds of the Foo Fighters. *Sigh*

Me, tiredly:" Ok, five more minutes of rock and roll and then off to bed."

G: "I NEED to rock and roll!!"

Me: "Five minutes or I take the guitar NOW.Which is it?"

G: "Ok, five minutes."

Even rock stars know when not to mess with mom!
;)

Wordless Wednesday

My 3 Boys

Thanksgiving

I can't believe Thanksgiving is almost here. This year has passed very quickly for me and my family. There is so much for me to be thankful for this year. Yes, I may not have the house I thought I would, but I do have a house, a roof over my head. I am thankful for that.

I am thankful for C's school and staff. She is flourishing there, even more than we thought she would. She hates being sick on school days! What?!

I am thankful for G's school and staff. With out those amazing women he would not be communicating even close to as well as he does now. They are miracle workers.

I am thankful for my friend The Psychologist who has helped to guide us with G. Without her expertise and friendship G's delays would have gone undiagnosed for several more years. I can't tell you how many people use to dismiss my concerns of his delayed speech, hyperactivity,and over sensitivity as him "just being a boy." She was the first person close to me that had the training and the confidence to say," I'm concerned too." I am so thankful for that.

I am thankful for The Other Half's new position and for his self growth. I am thankful that he is such a great father, lover of cats, and that he loves my dogs more everyday.

I am thankful for good friends and their love and understanding.

I am thankful for my self growth this year. I hope I never forget it.

I am also thankful for family and that they really do pull through for you when the going gets tough.

Last but not least, I am thankful that this year is almost over! This has been one big fat funky year and I can't wait to finish taking the lessons from it and move onto next year. Clean slate. (Ya ever have just one of those years?)

We will be traveling during this holiday. I love gearing up for it by making a mix cd or two. It kinda gives the travel a sound track, other than the 2 wild children fighting in the back seat and asking why the car is stuck in traffic and why aren't we there yet! I have found that sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do to feel hip and sane while parent or traveling. So my mix cd's usually has something hip, something old, something new, something emo, and something Laurie Berkner or Ralph's world-ish. I can truly say my cd's are eclectic!

To those of you that are traveling, I wish you safe traveling and I hope you keep your sanity.

For those staying near, I wish you a happy holiday as well!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!!!

Yet another leg of the Journey

I have written a little about my sons sensory processing disorder. Well now he is at an age where they need to find out if some of the things he is dealing with are in the autism spectrum or some other kind of delay. So this weekend I filled out a form that will rule out (or in) "regular" autism. His teachers and therapist have assured me that they don't think he is autistic. But by having me fill out this form it will help them to start to narrow down what is happening with G. In February we start another leg of our journey into special needs by having G tested by a woman who is amazing. She comes to us highly recommended by friends of ours who are colleagues of hers in the field of psychology. She is the go to woman for high functioning autism and a plethora of other things. She has no agenda other than the child's welfare. Sounds good.
We are doing all of these things in hopes of getting G the right programs and help when he starts school next August. By getting him tested early we can get him started on the way to learning in a way that he can understand. These test results will also help his teachers to help him and understand him better.
I have had many friends talk about being uneasy with children being labeled. I understand that. I really do. Unfortunately if you want any help, your child has to be "labeled" so that those around them know how and why to help. I am hopeful that whatever the out come G won't ever feel like "I am a kid with speech delay" or "I am the high functioning autistic kid." Our goal at home, and away, is to for him to be G, our son, who learns the way he learns, and is just as special and cool as anyone else.
This is an interesting leg of our journey.( Not that any twist or turn with G has ever been dull or uninteresting.) I feel that we are getting even closer to having questions answered that have tugged at my heart for the 2years that we have been on this road. I don't want my son to be anything that he is not, but I do want him to be comfortable with who he is. I really feel that these tests are getting us one step closer to getting us all there.

If you would like more information about Sensory Processing Disorder, The SPD Network has a very informative site. http://www.sinetwork.org/

If you would like more information on Autism, Autism Speaks will keep you informed. http://www.autismspeaks.org/

Christmas Shopping China Free

A local artisan turned me onto this great site called Etsy. It is a website filled with crafters/artisans from all over the world, but mostly from the US. I have yet to order anything yet because I still have to narrow down my gift ideas. There is so much to choose from! Most,if not all,of the artist take paypal. Etsy tells you how much that "shop" has sold and its approval rating. There is something for everyone ,or anything, on your Christmas list at Etsy. If you like giving one of a kind gifts,without breaking your budget,you are bound to find something on Etsy.

http://www.etsy.com/

Long Time no See

Well October was one crazy month that did not go according to plan. To make a long story short we were suppose to sign the papers on both homes the first Friday of October and be out the following Tuesday, 4 days later. Something came up for our buyer and so we had to post pone closing every week for the next 3 weeks! Then the buyer went MIA therefore voiding our contract. It turns out she was not pre-qualified like her realtor had told us. The buyer was so frustrated with the people she was working with that she just stopped returning phone calls. It has been a disheartening situation for all of us. The kids are very sad/mad that they won't have their new bedrooms. Because our buyer wanted all of our appliances I went out and bought new appliances, of which are currently in my garage. To top it off my house is emptier than ever and for the month that it has been back on the market we have not had one showing. We have always had,at least, 2 showings a weekend. So, I took it upon myself to list the house on Craigslist, in addition to it being on our Realtors website. I am really struggling to understand Gods rhyme and reason for all of this. We have had our house on the market almost a year. I am really getting disheartened/ depressed about this.

On a good note, The Other Half started his new DM job at the end of October and loves it. His districts numbers are totally in the toilet. These poor guys have not had a manager that cared. And for the last 6months they didn't have a manager at all! Luckily for them the Other Half is a total optimist and loves a good challenge. He has met every single one of his distributors and they were all down in the dumps, but they are hard workers, and are ready to do better, they just want someone to help them get there. Most of these guys already know The Other Half because he trained them to do their job or they've met at work conferences. We both know this has helped him get off to a good start with these guys.

A week after the Other Half officially started his DM job we went with some friends to San Francisco and Napa. I will post more on that later, with photos. It was a great trip!

To sum it up, October was interesting.