Vacation!!

So Jesse and I haven't had a vacation with just the two of us since our honeymoon almost 8 years ago.... in fact we haven't spent anytime away from home together with the exception of the time in the hospital when I had the kids!! So imagine how excited I am that we are going to a conference this weekend at the Mt. Washington Hotel!!! YEAH!!! What makes it even better is that we got a scholarship to go so that the conference and the hotel room are all taken care of!!!! I am so excited to get away that I am already packed!
But of course, just about anything that can go wrong has gone wrong so far this week.... Where to start, we Cora and Haylee were sick ALL last week -- I am so sick of cleaning up puke -- but they have been puke free since Sunday which is good, but Haylee started running a fever on Monday afternoon -- ARGGG! I think it is from teething though, she has 4 teeth coming in on the top so she is very unhappy!!
Let's see, Cora has entered into her naked stage! Many of you may remember that Aidan was in this stage for a VERY long time -- I hope Cora doesn't last that long. I must of dressed her at least 10 times today and each time she would run upstairs and strip!
And then there's Aidan... I think he is just missing the routine of school. Vacation weeks for him are always difficult for us, although I am impressed that it took him till today before he lost it... but we have made it to the half way point in his vacation so now we enter the downward spiral until it is time to return to school -- not my most favorite time in vacations....
Finally, the van is on the fritz...it is not running well at all! So it is going into the shop on Friday --- we are praying that it will last that long --- and we are going to get a rental for the week so that Jesse can still work since we will need to money to pay for the van repair....
Oh, what a week -- but at least there is a light at the end of the tunnel!!

Experiences...

Isn't the hand of the Lord just amazing? I love when I can look back on an experience and see the Lord's work right in front of me!

I had a cool experience tonight that exemplifies these thoughts...

I ad a really long day that ended in a headache, but I still had to drop some things off at my parents home -- so Jesse volunteered to bring it down for me so that I could go to bed early (such a great guy) but I said no, I needed to return it since I borrowed it. But in actuality I just felt like I needed to go over there.

So I walked down to my parents house and they had the missionaries over with an investigator (who I have known for many years) -- so I drop off the book and mentioned that I still had a ton of clothes from the clothing swap if they knew of anyone in need. So the investigator stated that she could use some clothes for her son -- so I walked home and got my van with all the clothes in-- and I thought for sure that their lesson would be over by then, but when I got back they were still teaching the plan of salvation, so I sat to listen in.

Towards the end of the lesson the investigator asked a question about her and her son being sealed together and how that isn't possible unless she gets married and her son can be sealed to her and her husband. So before anyone could answer I felt that I really needed to speak up about my experience of not being sealed to my parents until I was 21.

Sharing that story not only answered the investigators question but I feel like the spirit really spoke to her! It was also amazing for me to share my feelings about the whole things in front of my mom and dad ans grammy (Pauline). The spirit for that one question, to me, just overwhelmed the room -- so much so that the missionaries ended the lesson! It was awesome and I am so glad that I listened to the little feeling I had -- because I know that the Lord wanted me there at that time just to answer that one question.

It was AMAZING, what a spiritual high!!!

Ouch!!!

Oh, my goodness it has been an interesting Monday!!

Let's see, it started by Haylee waking up after vomitting all over herself, YUCK!! I'm not a big fan of puke -- I mean my gag reflex has gotten better since I have had kids but still YUCK! She continued being sick all morning, the poor girl couldn't even hold down water!

Then at about 11:15 I get a call from the nurse at Aidan's school....he wasn't sick, but he did fall backwards out of a chair and hit his head on the corner of a bookshelf. Luckily Jesse worked an overnight last night so I had the van, because at that point I had to go pick up Aidan at school and head to the Emergency Room at Exeter Hospital. Thank heavens he was tired from being so upset so the ER visit was not nearly as bad as it could have been, considering they stapled his head closed -- up, an actual staple. Although I must say we were in and out in a little over an hour which isn't that bad.

Then I get home with Aidan to find Jesse on the couch complaining that he's not feeling well. Though I shouldn't be surprised -- he usually doesn't get enough sleep and ends up sick EVERYTIME he does the shift change....one would think that after almost 10 years at Wal-Mart he would learn that it is not smart to do these shift changes!

It has definetly been a MONDAY!!

Blessings

I have had the awsome opportunity to reconnect with a close friend from my time at UNH this week and in doing so it forced me to think about the past 8 years and how my life has changed since I last saw Ryan. Thinking about all this time really made be think about how blessed I am so I want to take a few minutes to acknowledge how blessed I really am!

1. My Husband. I have an awsome husband! He is suppotive of all of my nuerotic tendencies! He is the first in line to tell me that I can do EVERYTHING that I want to accomplish in life; and he is also the first one to tell me that I need to sow down and regroup. He is truely my soul mate and my eternal companion!

2. My Kids. I am so blessed to have all of my children! I was told at one point that I would never have biological children, and that was after I had gone through over a year of fertility treatment! My kids amaze me everyday, there is always something new and amazing that they discover and to be able to watch the light of learning go off for my children is just....AMAZING!

3. My eternal Parents and Siblings. I know many people say that they have the best family -- but I really do! My mom and dad are amazingly supportive yet they keep me very grounded. And my little (I use that loosely because they have out grown me) brothers are such examples to me! Rick put his life on hold to go on a mission and serve the Lord and that is such an example of following faith and just doing it! And Danny is such a strong person, more so than he gives himself credit for. He has battled through so much and each day is a struggle for him -- but he pushes through and I admire that in him!

4. Autism. I know at this point you think I have lost my mind but I haven't. Having 2 kids with autism is hard. But it has forced me to become an advocate for my children and their needs, it has also taught me how to be a better parent and how to teach principle in different ways, and it has taught me how to be more patient and how to look at every person as an individual and to adjust my perspectives to fit the needs of every individual.

5. Continued Learning. I am so blessed to be able to have a family that is supportive of me so that I could return to school and pursue a dream! I LOVE learning and I LOVE pursueing my dream!

These are only a very small list of the blessings in my life --

Blessings are amazing, but I think all too often they are over looked or forgotten so I am truely thankful for those times in my life when I can sit back and be grateful for every blessing that has been bestowed upon me!

The Innocense of Children....

Don't we all wish we could just watch the birds out the window all day without a care in the world? I think Haylee has the right idea!

Boys Will be Boys

It was such a beautiful day out yesterday that I took the kids out to play...we used chalk on the sidewalk and driveway, we ran around the house, we even pulled out our bicycles!

We were riding bicycles in the driveway when Aidan suddenly disappeared --- know where he went???

Apparently he had to go potty -- I had just taken the extra potty out of the van and it was in the garage -- so I look up to see Aidan dropping hid drawers in the middle of the garage to se the potty....did I mention the garage door was open and half the neighborhood was playing on the street?!?!?

At least he thought to go use that potty rather than having an accident -- what am I going to do with that boy!?!?!?

A Morning in an Autism Household....

Have you ever been so frusterated that you just had to sit there and laugh histerically? That is how today started for me. Here Let me explain.....

You see Aidan in his autistic mind has to take things apart and see all the pieces. He likes to try and figure out how things work, and touch ALL of the componants -- whether it is a toy car, the wheel barrel, or the bed.

Cora on the other hand, her little autistic mind doesn't like things taken apart. She likes things neat and tidy, she likes soft and cuddly things, and definetly does not like metal wirey things.

And Haylee, just likes to watch what is going on around her -- it is like her littl emind has already figured out that if she doesn't participate then she will not get into trouble....

Well in their bedroom there is a set of bunkbeds that Aidan and Cora sleep in, there is a toddler bed that Haylee sleeps in, and there is a crib set up as a day bed that their stuffed animals sleep in -- and that is about it since Aidan had taken apart and broken almost everything else or we have moved everything else to the playroom.

Can you see where I am going with this??

So I heard the kids up playing in their room around 7 this morning, so I slowly made it out of my bed and collected averyone's clothes for the day and got a tub filled with water so everyone could start the day nice and clean -- I took my time because the kids usually play for a while in the mornings.

Soon I could hear Cora screaming and throwing an all out fit and I could also hear Aidan laughing. So imagine my surprise when I opened the bedroom door and saw that Aidan had taken the crib mattress off of the crib and had taken it apart. Yes there was foam, plastic covering, and cardboard all over the room -- infact I found Haylee sitting on her bed UNDER a piece of foam!! And there was Cora screaming on the floor since her foot was touching the metal coals of what used to be a mattress and right next to her was Aidan laughing and having a grand old time -- so proud of his accomplishments -- next to Cora!

I wish I had batteries in my camera to catch the scene!! It was one of those times where I didn't know what else to do but to laugh and try to ignore the situation! I mean what else can you do?!?!

Oh what a way to start the day!

"Moommmma"

I hearby declared that I am changing my name to anything other than Momma!! Cora seems to have the whiney Momma down to a tee and she can't just say it once or twice...no she says it about 500 times! I know that I should smile and be thankful that she is talking to me at all -- but the whining really gets to me!!
On another note, Haylee is getting to be such a littl edare devil! She has decided that she it to big to crawl up the stairs, she now holds onto the railing and climbs up and down like a big girl!! What happened to my baby girl!?!?!?! Cora can't even do that for heaven's sake! Uuhhhggggg.....
THey are growing up to fast, I feel like I just left the hospital with Aidan and that was more than 4 years ago!!! Although I must say that I have decided that I am not getting older, I will forever be in my 20's as the kids get older and more self sufficient!!

Ice Cream

I wa so excited to look out the window today and see the SUN!!! YEAH!! It was finally bright and cheery, I just wanted to run outside and lay on the lawn -- or should I say muddy and stil snowy front yard. I was hoping that the temperature would match the bright sunny mood -- but when I took Aidan out to the bus I noticed that it was very windy and a little cold... but I don't care there was sun!!
I was so excited about the sun that Jesse and I went out for some ice cream tonight -- Norman and Yvette were here playing with the kids -- we ended up going to Stillwell's down the street. It was so yummy! I had a great peanut butter sundae and it was great, wait didn't I already say I liked it....oh, well. But the fun part was the ice cream parlor had a shelf with a bunch of older board games -- you know checkers, snakes and ladders, old maid..... So Jesse and I played a game of checkers and I totally kicked his butt!! It was great!! Anyway it was fun!