Ok, seeing as I have been tagged twice I guess i am going to have to think of some things you guys do not already know about me. I think I am kind of boring, I am going to really have to rack my brain.

1. I spent 3 hrs on Wed. with a scrub brush and some Mr.. Clean scrubbing gecko poo off the front of our house. It made me sick every day when I would go out the front door and so I started avoiding the front and would go out the garage. Well, enough is enough and I decided to reclaim my front door.

2. I love to read in the bath tub. This is the only place I can ever seem to have uninterrupted time to read. It is not unusual for me to be in there over an hour with whatever I am reading right then. Riley and Lorenzo are not allowed in so I only have to fend off liam for my private time.

3. I love to look at catalogs! I dog ear all the pages and dream shop (although i hate to shop if it is not on the computer or "in a catalog") I rarely ever buy anything but nonetheless i still love to dream!

4. I hate our dog. OK, so I know I am the one that talked jeremy into letting us get a dog and I am glad that we have her because the kids love her but........ she drives me nuts!!!! Once when she got out and we could not find her i was secretly thinking "good" and reluctantly went to find her.

5. I love pie. It is my favorite food. Whenever I make pie i always make 2 so I can eat it for breakfast the next few days. The kids will not eat it unless it is chocolate ,so as long as Jeremy is not up late raiding the fridge there is usually leftover pie for the next few days.

6. I once participated in "the Milk challenge" while in high school. I know, I hate milk, this did not help the fact either. For those of you who do not know about the milk challenge it is where you have to try and drink a gallon of milk in under an hour. It can't be done. One kid dyed his milk green so that when it came back up it would be more colorful. We had a huge bucket and after a while everyone started vomiting in this big bucket. It the most disgusting things I have ever done, I do not know what got into me.

Ok so I guess I am going to have to tag all you guys again, Holly, Janus and Cindy and maybe Lisa, Bethany and Catherine

Riley's Badges

liam was a handfull!

Riley's Cub Scout Skit

Riley got his Bobcat and Wolf Badge on Tuesday. He was so excited, he really loves cub scouts.

knot in my stomach

Jeremy came home from a Navy gig last night a little upset but was tired and just went to bed. This morning he came and got me up early to talk about the knot in his stomach. Apparently they were talking about the 5 month tour they have coming up next spring and Jeremy was told by the LPO that he is on it. So now what. I told Jeremy that he needs to go in and talk to his bosses and let them know the situation with Lorenzo. Last time Jeremy was gone for 3 1/2 weeks Lorenzo game undone, I do not even want to think about what 5 months would be like. Any kind of change is very hard on him. We have trouble with the transition from the weekend to school days, regular full school days to his short day on Wed. Not to mention the days Jeremy is gone all day. I am trying not to get to worked up about it. After all, Jeremy still needs to go and talk to his MC, but I am a little concerned. Maybe we will be getting out and going back to life on the outside.

Socks

Ok, this may sound a little pathetic but I miss socks. Now I know that I have never really worn socks, even in the super cold blizzardy weather of RI but now that I have not had on a pair in over 2 1/2 years I really miss them, So last night I put some on. They were some really soft chocolate brown chenille socks that I do not think I have ever worn and must have been some impulse buy at T.J. Max in RI. I had a primary presidency meting at our house last night and I am sure I looked a little silly with my socks but who cares, I enjoyed it.

It is not only sock's on my own feet that I miss but it is putting socks on Liam. Riley and Lorenzo have to wear them for p.e. and they are not as much fun to dress any more, but Liam is still small and I was thinking I wanted to get him a pair of Chucks and if I did that I would also have to by some socks. I got really excited about this (Maybe something is wrong with me) but then had a reality check when I remembered that he has never even owned a pair of shoes with laces and that he is particular about what he has on his feet. Blue crocs with buzz jibbits or his red crocs with buzz jibbits are all he will wear. I was letting him wear them to church because I did not want to deal with the fight of getting him t o wear his cute little gymboree sandals but I have been putting my foot down and telling him he has to wear his church shoes if he wants to go to nursery. It has been working so maybe I can do the same if I decide to get him some real shoes!

The other thing I miss is fall. I miss that crisp feeling in the air. I miss the colors. I miss my fall and winter clothing. I was wearing my jacket in the house a few days ago much to the kids confusion, but it just felt good and it needed to be worn. We keep it pretty cool in here (Jeremy's doing) so I could dress in my sweaters, turtlenecks and corduroys in the house but then I would have to do a complete wardrobe change when it came time to go outside.

I do love Hawaii, but I always have loved the seasons and going on 3 years without them I am a little homesick!

If you give a mouse a cookie

Ok, I know that I think everything I am currently working on is the cutest but these overalls I finished today are the cutest. I made them for first a teacher friend of mine, they were not as cute in an adult size, and they were a little different but these are a cute "little size". I want to make Liam a pair. He loves this book, I just need to find the time. Maybe next month. These are going to the U.K.

Well I decided to take a break from cutting out fabric appliqué pieces and am just sitting here listening to Jeremy practicing in the garage. Really I am procrastinating all the sewing I have to do. I think I got a little over zealous and I have a hard time saying no, so I will be sewing every night for the next 2-3 weeks at least. Oh well, at least I met my goal which was to earn enough to get the christmas shopping done.

Star Wars?

Ok, if you have already seen this sorry but it was on my brothers site and another friends and it is very ENTERTAINING, I wonder is she made it big? Cindy Maybe you can ask Michael if he wants to learn it.

Lorenzo update

Well after I picked Lorenzo up from school yesterday I was hoping that he had had a better day, I was wrong! He ended up crying for over an hour in the morning and then at Lunch again and he was crying when I picked him up. I talked with the teacher and she does not know what to do. Everyone seems to be out sick this week so she was sending him to the office. I understand that you can't have him disrupting the rest of the class but there is supposed to be someone there to help him when he gets that way. I came home and called his doctor after that and he wanted to see Lorenzo this morning, so we went there at 9:00 and Lorenzo was having a lot of anxiety about school and the doctor noticed it right away. He also had lost a couple of pounds and I told the doctor that he has not eating very well and his snack I send him to school with is coming home every day. lorenzo has been complaining that his tummy hurts all the time the last week and I am pretty sure it is the stress and anxiety, we have been through this before. Well to make a long story short, we are going to add celexa back into his medicine regime but at a very low dose. This was the medicine that helped so much a little over a year ago but then Lorenzo started having more of the outbursts, rages, and Meltdowns that lasted days so we are going to take it slow and see if it helps. The nice thing if it works is that we will gradually take him off the other anxiety med.'s he is on now.

I think part of me is still in denial about this whole thing. I know something is not right, I have know basically since he was born but there is also a part of me that thinks no, he is normal he is going to snap out of this. If we have a few days or weeks that go well I think, OK, he is better things are going to be ok. But we always seem to end up back here. We have been spiraling downward for the last couple of weeks, but part of me just does not want to deal with it. I am seeing more of the highs and lows lately and it just breaks my heart. He has also been doing other strange things like when he eats it is like he goes into a trance. He closes his eyes and gets this glazed over strange look. i do not even know how to explain it.

There have been a lot of shown on tv lately about autism. I do not watch a lot of tv and I missed the one on oprah but a friend of mine told me about it and i was able to read about it online. I was able, however, to catch a similar program on Larry king Live a couple of weeks ago and it alarmed me how many similar characteristics Lorenzo had with the kids they were talking about. The only thing is Lorenzo is vocal and is not detached. In fact that is just opposite. But the way they play and the repetitiveness. The rocking back and forth and strange body movements. The problems with bowles and digestive systems. it makes me think that maybe the Autism spectrum is a whole lot bigger then people are giving credit. I wonder if that spectrum will open up to include more of the mental disorders or vise versa.

Carl Fontana - Jazz Trombone

I was up late sewing and listening to music and I forgot how MUCH I LOVE music!!! It has been so lond since I have been able to listen to something of my choice, the boys have controll over the ipod, that I just plain forgot how much I enjoy music. Now if I could just find time to practice! Here is a good one from one of the Jazz Great's!!

Lorenzo

Lorenzo has been having a hard couple of days. I think it is because they were off of school last week, and like always, is having a hard time transitioning. He was crying today and said he wanted to stay home from school because he is sick and if he goes to school he will get sent to the office. I asked him if he was sent to the office yesterday and he said yes that he had been there the last 2 days. I asked him why and if it was because he is sick and he said no it was because he was crying. Well, Jeremy took him to school today and went in to ask the teacher what was going on. I have been up there the last 2 days and she has said nothing to me. All she told Jeremy was that he has been sad and that she has sent him to the back of the class to wash his face and try to calm down and when he does not she has sent him to the office. I am a little upset because he feels he is being punished, who would'nt. He cant help his anxiety and he is supposed to have help there as stated in his IEP when he is having trouble. needless to say I am going down there to talk with her and the special ed coordinator today. I told jeremy I feel bad, if this was Riley I would have kept him home because of the cold but as it is Lorenzo he could be sick for the rest of the month and If I keep him home one day it is going to be next to impossible to get him to go back. I feel bad for the little guy!

Conference Weekend

I Love conference weekend. Not only is it a weekend that Jeremy is home, I like staying in my p.j.'s and laying on the sofa with the kids hearing the uplifting talks. it get's me motivated to be better! I guess I am a slacker, but I need to hear these things over and over again to keep myself close to the Spirit. One thing I have really enjoyed is the motab. I have never liked choir very much and the organ is my least favorite instrument. I remember sitting through an organ recital at USU by Dr. Drake and trying really really hard to just stay awake. At any rate, I have really enjoyed the Choir and the organ these past 2 days. I guess I must be growing up. The kids have been good and have been doing their conference workbooks thanks to a friend from RI and we have just been having an enjoyable weekend!

The only down side to our weekend is that Lorenzo is sick AGAIN. I think the longest we have ever gone with him not having something is about 2 months and that was only once in his entire 5 and a half years! I know that stress and anxiety can weaken your immune system but I just do not know if there is more going on. I have tried to find a link to bipolar and poor health but nothing so far. I guess I should not be to worried they are usually just colds but when he gets a cold they are bad. We have to pull out the nebulizer and he just gets really sick. We can all have the same cold here but Lorenzo will be 10 times worse then the rest of us. And it is that way with every little illness. I wish I could figure it out. I think I might take him back to the allergist and see if we should still pursue looking into food allergies even though we have already been that route before. Oh well, maybe eventually I'll know more.