Sunday, May 31, 2009

Menu Plan Monday


Monday: Shrimp Scampi with Salad
Tuesday: Chicken Tot Pie with corn on the
Wed:Egg Salad Sandwhich with Corn on the cob
Thur Cranberry Chicken with rice
Fri:Apricot Pork Chops

Ingredients
1 lb. spaghetti noodles
3-4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp butter or margarine
4 garlic cloves, crushed
3-4 Tbsp grated parmesan cheese ( I'm omitting this, but would be good if you do milk products)
About 20 frozen shrimp

Directions
1. In medium saucepan, cook pasta as directed on package. Drain.
2. In skillet over medium high heat, add olive oil, butter or margarine, crushed garlic cloves and parmesan cheese. Stir continuously until starts bubbly. Then reduce heat and add “de-tailed and deveined” shrimp. Let simmer for 6-7
minutes.
3. Once pasta is cooked and drained, add shrimp sauce to the pasta noodles and mix well.
4. Serve

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Working on the husband

About 2 years ago, I found out there was such a thing as an autism service dog. The benefits of these dogs are numerous...besides being the child's best friend (and often only friend)...the dogs help with socialization's, giving the child something they can talk about with other people...when otherwise they have no idea how to go about having conversations with people. The dogs can be trained to keep the child from running off, alert the parents if the child wakes up in the middle of the night, console a child during a melt down, and interrupt self injurious behavior. The drawbacks are these dogs are SOOOO expensive. The cheapest being around $5000 up to around $20,000...and these are all not for profit companies we're talking about. They say you need to "fund raise" the money...I'm sorry but how the heck do you fund raise that kind of $$$??? I mean seriously, we just did a walk-a-thon and I was psyched to get $500! So the thought of a service dog for Isaiah was put on the back burner...it'd be nice but not for the price of a car!

Then came the school year from hell, and the evil neighbors and I began wanting a watch dog...I may not be able to afford a awesome service dog, but if I could at LEAST have a big scary looking dog that would bark at evil children, I'd feel a little better! I almost had the beautiful Husky Skye, although very friendly and docile, her big wolf like features might deter some bullies away from her!But as you know the husband backed out on that one.

The other night I stayed over at work to sit w/ a suicide patient (which means they pay me to play on the computer LOVE IT!)...after checking my emails, I got bored and started looking up service dogs again for the heck of it, who knows maybe I missed a site before, maybe there were new agencies...if nothing else it gave me something to do. Well, I came across a woman, who trains service dogs for profit, and get this charges $2000...WTF FOR PROFIT??? REALLY??? THAT CHEAP??? $2000 is a much more reasonable amount to fund raise! She wasn't in my area, Colorado I think...but that got me thinking...maybe I could find a private trainer! Well I found over 100 in my area most were just obedience training, but about 40 of them were licenced to train service dogs. I emailed every one of them. One in particular was extremely helpful, and we've emailed back in forth in great length. She is very experienced and is definitely training for the love of it!

Now the next challenge, getting the husband on board! He has moved past the NO phase on to the, I'll consider it stage, so we've made progress lol. I've found numerous links for him to read...I think the biggest problem is, he doesn't understand that this isn't just another pet, this is an actual working dog that could make our lives 100 times better...I mean seriously, going to a store w/ out him darting off in a 1000 different directions all the time, that alone is worth it if the dog does nothing else!!! So we shall see what becomes of this...he did say we'd have to find the kittens homes first before he would consider it...so that's first, I said ok one kitten for one dog lol. Keep your fingers crossed for me! I feel in my heart he is going to come around once he understands that this is something that will have great benefits for Isaiah.

Autism File...the video is done!

It's pretty amazing to watch this video...it all started w/ a magazine cover, in England...and took off around the world! I'm so proud to have gotten to be a part of it (we're towards the end, North West Indiana !), and have several personal friends in this video, who are the most amazing woman I've ever met! As much as I want to undo my child's autism...I would have never gotten to know how strong and amazing moms can be without it, so for that I'm grateful.


Tuesday, May 26, 2009

A glimps of my favorite part of Autism One

During Autism One, they had a dinner, and at the dinner, was an amazing little boy...who sang and played piano for us...I have a new favorite song! Can't wait to see this kid on American Idol some day lol

Monday, May 25, 2009

I'm HOME!!!!!


I'm back from Autism One, and I must say WOW!!!!!!! What a GREAT experience...it was exactly what I needed! I tell you what, there is nothing in the world like Warrior Moms! What an amazing group of moms! Some days you feel so alone in this flipping battle and when you finally get together like that, and you meet other people going threw the same things you are, and juggling as many shit plates as you are, it's a great experience. This will defiantly be an annual event for me! I met so many of my amazing Internet friends...it was great to see them in person finally and I felt like we'd been friends forever, it was pretty cool. I think I wiped the vendors out of free samples lol...I have 3 tote bags full of STUFF! The lectures were amazing...how often do you get to see the greatest minds in the autism community all under one roof like that??? I must say my favorite was Raun Kaufman...I will post more on him later on, because he was too amazing not to share! I got my autographed book from Jenny McCarthy...I must say, my personality I'm not the awestruck fan type...I really could care less if your famous, I don't know you (not to sound unappreciative to the attention she's brought to our community because I AM grateful!)...but I did do the whole picture thing for the heck of it. I also got to see Age Of Autism speak...and they had a few of the Minnesota Somalian parents with them, and the one mom had the whole room in tears she was pretty amazing. I was bummed I had to miss Andrew Wakefield, he spoke before I got there...maybe next year! Anyway, that's just a few small highlights...like everyone had said, I did leave feeling refreshed, like I can take on the world now...Autism One really is recharging the batteries so we can continue this journey on the quest to heal our kids!

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Having a good week!!!


I'm am very excited to announce that I am able to attend the Autism One conference in Chicago this weekend!!! I was approved for a grant that will pay for the seminar itself...I am also going w/ another mom so we are able to split the cost of the hotel room and gas...so it shouldn't be a too expensive weekend...but from everyone I've talked to this is a must attend event.

For those of you who don't know what Autism One is, it's a conference full of over a 100 presenters, the greatest minds in the autism community. What i like is you have so many choices...it's not just at 1:00 you go to this presenter at 2:00 this one...there's usually about 4 different presenters to choose from, which is great since all our kids are different and we're all in a different spot in this journey, or should I say battle!

Another great thing, is I just found out Isaiah was accepted to attend camp circle of friends!!! This is the Summer camp for autistic kids that we did the walk-a-thon for. They can only accept so many kids, and this year Isaiah is one of them!!! I can't WAIT for him to go to camp!!! I hope he has a great time being around other kids like him, and hopefully maybe make a friend!

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Almost





This past year w/ the whole bullying incidences, I've been wanting a larger dog to hang out in the yard w/ Isaiah...but something that would also be a good family dog, that Xander could wrestle with, and that would be good w/ company. I had decided I either wanted a German Shepherd or a husky. I've been scouring the shelters and craigslist for a while with no luck. I went again Friday on my day off and saw a beautiful Siberian husky. I played with her for a while and took her for a walk. She was so sweet and gentle. I took her around the other dogs who were barking their heads off, she just looked at them and walked away. I took her around a cat who hissed at her, she wasn't phased. I tugged on her ears and her tail...she kissed me. I fell in love! I took a couple of pics of her and went home to show the husband...Mr. No himself...and to my surprise after he saw how much I wanted her, he said yes. So I grabbed Xander and we went to go get our new dog. We got to the shelter, and I told them I was there to take Skye home...they asked their routine questions...do you own your home, do you have a fenced yard, do you have another do...I answered yes to all the questions...the lady said we would need to bring our dog in to make sure they get along first. Crap! Kylee can take a little bit to warm up to other dogs. So I called Rob to bring Kylee in. Kylee was scared of the other dog...but she did ok, but the pound lady wasn't convinced. Finally it got too late and they were closing so she told us to sleep on it and come back in the morning. Well at some point before the night was over Rob changed his mind about her.

I have to admit I was devastated...in my mind, she became mine as soon as he said yes. I know it's stupid, I never had her, but I still felt like I lost my pet. I'll be honest, I'm still sad about it, I don't know why...I wish I wasn't...but I am. A part of me keeps hoping he'll change his mind...but I know he won't and if he did it would be too late I'm sure.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

sooooo

Isaiah has been paired w/ a 5th grade "body gaurd" on the bus, who's suppossed to look out for Isaiah...Isaiah likes this, he feels like it's 2 against 4 now, instead of him fighting by himself. It's a start I guess.

Better Not hold my breath!

So the school superintendent called me today, I was pleased that he responded quickly...said he forwarded my letter on to the principal, he hadn't been able to talk to the principal but that he would talk to him to find a solution...and he told me that I was free to contact whoever I felt I needed to contact. I said I don't WANT to have to contact anyone, I just want this solved, but if that's what it takes, I WILL do that...and I'm PISSED that this is being ignored! Meanwhile today the little brats were playing outside after school, next door, and I could hear the one bully brat singing loud enough for my son to hear about how he's a bully...nice how proud he is of himself huh??? These little jerks know their getting away w/ it, and are proud of themselves. He didn't know I was on the other side of the fence, he's lucky I didn't throw something over it and knock his ass out, took some serious restraint!

I'd be lying if I said I don't feel beaten down, exhausted and sad right now. I off to bed, I have no energy left to fight...I just wish this would end.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Enough w/ the principal on to the Superintendent

Dear Mr. B***,

My name is Michelle ******** and I am the mother of an autistic first grader that is mainstreamed at ****** Elementary school. We have had an issue this entire school year with my son being bullied by several children on his school bus. Our first reaction was to pull him off the school bus and not have him subjected to these children. However, our second car became unreliable so we needed to have him start taking the bus again. The bullying immediately started back up. I wait with him at the bus stop, to prevent it there, but once he’s on the bus there is no one to protect him. I contacted our advocate and asked her what I should do. She told me in her experience school’s take bullying very seriously and to go to the principal. I emailed Mr. K*****, who failed to respond at the time, but who later told me he had received my email. A few weeks later after realizing it was not being taken care of, I told my son to tell Mr. K******* any time there was an incident, which he did more than once…the problem continued. I told my son to tell the bus driver, which he did twice and both times my son was told by the bus driver that he couldn't get involved. Finally my husband and I completely frustrated and exhausted by the lack of action made an appointment with Mr. K*******. We called him on a Monday, and were told he could see us on Thursday. During the week he finally called the 4 children who my son can identify (there are other children who my son doesn’t know who are friends of these children who are also involved). We were assured the children were warned and this would stop, finally. As a precaution my son was moved to the front of the bus and these children were not supposed to sit by him. Unfortunately one of the children, who has been the “ring leader” if you will, moved up to the front to sit by my son. It is obvious this is a blatant attempt to intimidate my son, as obviously she is not sitting by him to hang out with him. My son told the bus driver she wasn’t supposed to sit by him, and the bus driver again refused to do anything. I again called the principal who said he would remind the bus driver these children are not aloud near my son. I’m sorry but I don’t think that is enough, she was given her chance to leave my son alone, and she didn’t! My child is completely terrified of this girl and her family, who (even the parents) has threatened my son with physical harm. My son often has nightmares about these children teasing him, and threatening him to the point that he has missed school. I am a very patient person, but I’m completely exhausted, frustrated, and at the end of my rope with this situation. I have given the school two months to solve the issue, which I think is more than adequate. I’m done being nice and waiting for this to end. I am now demanding a solution to this problem. My son should feel safe on the bus, and he does not! Every time he is bullied since it was brought to the schools attention months ago, is a direct result of failure to act on the schools part. If I have to contact every advocacy group, news paper, the mayor, and a lawyer this will stop! I have been far too patient for far too long, and I am angry and done now. I would appreciate your diligence in this matter.Thank you for your time.

Monday, May 4, 2009

Oprah and Jenny

Oprah isn't my favorite person in the world, but anything she touches turns to Gold...so this is could be HUGE for us

Jenny McCarthy is poised to become the next star in Oprah Winfrey's media empire.

McCarthy has inked a multi-year overall deal with Winfrey's Harpo Prods. to develop projects on different platforms, including a syndicated talk show that the actress/author would host.

The first collaboration under the pact is a blog by McCarthy on Oprah.com, which launched on Friday. Like other Winfrey proteges-turned-TV moguls, including Rachael Ray and Dr. Phil, McCarthy has been a frequent guest on "The Oprah Winfrey Show."

McCarthy talked to the chat queen about her struggles with her son's autism in conjunction with the releases of her best-selling books "Louder Than Words: A Mother's Journey in Healing Autism" and

"Mother Warriors: A Nation of Parents Healing Autism Against All Odds." McCarthy also was part of Winfrey's Friday Live panels twice, including this past Friday.

A former Playboy model, McCarthy burst into the TV scene as the engaging host of MTV's dating show "Singled Out," a gig that jump-started her acting career. She later segued into writing with a string of best-selling books and became an activist for curing autism.

McCarthy is repped by WMA and attorney Leigh Brecheen.
Jenny McCarthy inks Harpo deal
To develop projects including a syndicated talk show
By Nellie Andreeva

Saturday, May 2, 2009

walk-a-thon video