Beating Autism

It's been two years full of doctors, schools, therapy and a lot of advocating, but to hear the words, "your son no longer needs the intervention services for autism" ........

There is nothing more sweet or gratifying.

We did it! We can now say we have a success story.

At the age of 4, Spencer was given the green light to enter Kindergarten next year.

No IEP's, No 504 plan, no Special Education.

Just streamlined in a general education classroom with other children who do not have Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Wow- what a blessing!!

I am so grateful that we had the experiences and the knowledge with Chandler, to see the warning signs in Spencer and get him early intervention. His progress is AMAZING!!

He will probably always live with Sensory Processing Disorder, and his auditory ticks but that's workable. Minimal meltdowns, and you usually know the reason behind them. Sensory related.

Spencer has the greatest conversational skills ever, the best story teller, imaginative little boy. Growing socially, emotionally and academically. Not just taking steps forward, but LEAPS and bounds!

It is so great to sit in a room full of professionals and have them all say, that they can't find a reason to service him as a child with a disability. He is for the most part, a typical 4 year old preschool aged little boy.

His language and speech tends to be beyond his years, but I find that soothing to sit and have little adult conversations with him. Nothing makes him happier and it simply makes my heart smile.

We could not have done this alone.

We did not do this alone.

We will continue to fight for Chandler. To find that sparkle in his eye. To fill the hole in his emotional and social being.
And it will totally be worth it!!

We can now say we have beaten Autism once. Now we are going to do it again!!

snowing, blowing and sick! Blech!

It's super duper icky outside right now. The wind is blowing the snow everywhere, I can hardly see out my windows because there is so much snow sticking to the screens. I shoveled a little walk path outside at one point and if I had to guess, I would say 8 to 10 inches of snow. And it is still snowing.

Meanwhile, from the insides of our humble abode, we are all sick. Strep Throat X FIVE!! That is a lot of Antibiotics to keep track of. And if that wasn't bad enough, Cory is back in the hospital. His staph infection in his leg has now become MRSA and they are having to increase his antibiotic drip to get him to slow down the growth. It's painful, the food is bad, and he is missed by everyone of us. Stuck here. In the house. With Strep.

I feel so helpless.

The people in Ohio are nothing short of AMAZING though. I am stubborn. Slow to accept a lot of help, but their figuring me out-so a HUGE thank you to those amazing people for all of their help!!

So, if you read this - please say a prayer for Cory. We want our daddy back home with us and this is his 3rd hospital stay since we moved here in November. We need all the faith and prayers you are willing to give.

Much Love!

cutest thing ever

I try to be a good example for the kids.
Praying often.
Reading my Scriptures.
Listening to good music.
You know, stuff like that.

Today, I caught Kady "marking" her scriptures.
Sort of like mommy does.
Except I don't use crayons.

Imagine This - It's COLD here in Ohio!

Winter has finally arrived, snow. Feezing temps. Blowing snow. Bitter bitter cold mornings where the bed is so cozy and warm it is hard to get up at the alarm. AMEN to Saturdays and sleeping in. (If the kids will let us)

Things we still need to do here -
First up - SLEDDING. Just not when the snow is blowing- that's just miserable.

So much to do, so little time. Not really on the time, but it was flowing.
Rock and Roll hall of fame. Johnson Farm. Amish Country. Museums, Zoo, Beaches (obviously when the sun decides to play nice again)
I LOVE it here so far.
Time has flown by and the people here are A M A Z I N G!!
I love our home, our ward - It is going to take a lot of convincing to get me to move ever again. Or for a Very Very Very long time. I just finished giving away most of our moving boxes in hopes that it means we are in deed here to stay.

Here's a little about our Ohio home this winter through pictures. This snow isn't bad, this is typical. Wanna come live here? :) Love and miss you all!

Aly and Chandler waiting for the school bus with at least 4 or 5 inches of snow. School would have been closed in Washington - Not here, this was nothing.

Icicle's on our house. These are the baby ones. The big ones can go from roof to foundation- So Crazy!

Cory's car- somewhere under all that snow.

And we enjoy all of this from the inside comfort of our home. There is no better way :)

My little claim to fame, kind of :)

During our short 5 month stay in Wisconsin, we had the privilege of getting to know many wonderful people. I was blessed even more to become friends with a very talented clothing maker, Natalie. She sells her own brand of Japanese inspired clothing called Koolmono. She does AMAZING work and I admired it the entire time we lived there.

She asked me just before we moved if I would be willing to take pictures of her daughter modeling some of the clothing to post on her ETSY store. I of course agreed because I LOVE taking pictures and I will never pass up that opportunity.

When she arrived that beautiful fall morning for pictures, she came with a couple of different outfits and asked if Kady would be willing to model some too.

Kady was delighted to wear them and the pictures were adorable. When we were all done, Natalie payed me with one of her outfits. (A payment, I still believe I got the better deal on.)

Kady wore it for the next three days straight before I was able to get her to wear something else. She now will bring it to me weekly to wear. So adorable, comfortable and colorful! The fabric is stunning and if I HAD paid for it, I still would have gotten the better deal!! AMAZING!

So, now that you know how we met- lets jump forward to this past week when Stephanie Nielson from NieNie Dialogues did one of her blog posts on Homemade Christmas.
Natalie had sent Nie some Christmas PJ's for each of her kids. Nie LOVED them and included them as "...the CUTEST and I mean, cutest! Pj's in history."
The picture that Stephanie used to show the pj's was one that I had taken for Natalie and that is now on Natalie's ETSY store for Koolmono and it was Kady modeling the Christmas PJ's!

My little girl was on NieNie!! I so love it and I am so happy for Natalie and the success that I am sure she will see from this. So my little claim to fame with a picture of my daughter on a well known inspirational blog!

Here are some of the pictures I took for Natalie and her clothes. To see her store, go HERE. To become a fan on Facebook, go HERE.

This is the picture on NieNie

Spencer in a fun, sure to inspire the "inner Ninja" Boys PJ set

I Absolutely LOVED this dress! Kady was at first a little less thrilled

Once she warmed up, she began to like it too.

But she still Liked the PJ's MORE! :)

a little bit of this and that, yada, yada, yada

Okay, lets see if I can collect all of my thoughts and write them in any kind of an order that will flow, let alone make sense.

This past week was a celebration of Thanksgiving. We have SOOOOOOO many things to be thankful for, where do I even begin.....

We were blessed with a two week visit from my mom. We shared a wonderful meal and spent time together, that I would extend to months if I could. We spent a couple of days just exploring Cleveland, and I am now fully aware of the areas, I am NEVER aloud to travel again. We also spent days discovering the beautiful things about this city, especially the history in Kirtland.

We found a Jo-Ann's, bought fabric and patterns and re-ignited my fire and desire to sew. We discovered several parks, that Chandler did NOT want to go to, but enjoyed EVERY minute of each of them.

We have also learned that deer, LOVE to wander through our yard. This is so delightful and I get excited every time I see them pass through. Yesterday, there were 4 together, so Awesome!
I have learned that my van does NOT fit in the garage- apparently two car, actually meant, small compact cars and use the other side for storage. :) lesson learned- and the passenger side of the van is once again- tainted with more love.

I have struggled getting the kids registered for school in a timely manner. They (the school district) just like to take their time, and the paperwork.... HOLY batman!! there is a lot of paperwork, Then I had to swear to an oath and sign in front of a notary, just to have them even registered. After all that- it will still take them 3 days to determine when the kids will start school. I have the luckiest children alive. No school in November except for about 10 days.

Don't even get me started about the things needed to register your car here. Since my van was purchased by my mother, you would have to give the BMV your first born, all of your mental ability to understand their process and then just give up and license your car in Washington. Haha- that's the truth. Well, most of it.
Again, the paperwork, the notary, and nothing was in one location. You have to pick up the forms from one, take your car to be inspected by another, go back to the first one, pay some money, then go to another location and finish. I am tired just thinking about it. And if you think that any of these locations are close to where I live, or even to each other, again, I will just laugh.
It must have been someones evil plan to mess with people in a way that makes absolutely no sense. Call it a governmental agency and Wala! you would have yourself your own DMV.

All kidding aside, I really do like it here. We have lived here Two weeks and it is so great!!! The ward is just fantastic, the house is wonderful, the ........ ya, that might be it- but I LOVE it!! no sarcasm there. seriously :)_

So in amongst our crazy, busy, no routine, need a routine, but still don't have one lives- we're good. Looking forward to the Christmas Holiday season. Reminding the children of the true meaning and sharing new traditions with them, in a new home, in a new city, far far away from the rest of those that we love and miss so dearly.

oHIooooo!!

We made it. We survived another move, despite my believing that TWO (big) moves in a 5 month period could be a breaking point for some. We survived. BUT not without the love and support of our friends and family. Being a part for 6 weeks, was definitely a trial. Two days later, Cory was in a car accident and suffered a concussion, which is still affecting him. I took him to the ER today to get checked out. He will recover, but it could be a long one.

We went to church in our ward today for the first time. It was nice. It felt so good, and welcoming. I am happy here already.

I am also learning to not see so much difference. I am not a racist, but I have also never been the minority. My first trip out to the grocery store was a shock. It was me and the white security guard in the entire store in amongst a sea of African Americans. I have to admit, I was uncomfortable, but only because I have never been that kind of minority before. Being the only woman, the only Mormon, the only mom with 4 kids, that is the kind of stuff I am used to. Being the only white person, was sadly a little bit of an awakening for me.
I have started to feel better about it now. There are a lot of really nice people around here- We live just outside the city limits of Cleveland, so there is still a lot of "inner city" attitude, and I struggle to understand what they are saying to me at times, but I am sure that with time, I will also get used to that too.

Tomorrow I sign the kids up in school here. I decided that with all the changes, they needed some time to get back into what would be their new routine, they will go back to school after the Thanksgiving Holiday and hopefully it will be an easy transition as the other kids are coming back from a holiday too and it will hopefully make it easier.

We have been blessed with Grandma Wise for the next two weeks. We couldn't be happier, we love having her here and taking her around to get to know this place. We are planning on going to Kirkland this next weekend to see the temple and the museum of church history, this will be a lot of fun.

I know that we are blessed to be here and I am thankful for the blessings we have received, We thank all of our friends and family, you have been amazing!!!

Next update with pictures - I promise! :)