Oh, future, future, everyone calls you freckle...

So, I've talked a lot about many different things already.  Today we will be discussing Autism Spectrum Disorders.  One in particular.  The one that my Cassie has been diagnosed with.  Technically, its called PDD-NOS, but that just means she's Autistic, but wasn't diagnosed until later in life.  She was 10.  She is high functioning, but she doesn't have Aspergers because she had a severe speech delay called Apraxia.  That just means something gets screwed up between her head and her mouth.  This "disability", actually ALL her "disabilities" have been a huge source of humor and laughter in our house.

I must state here, the first of many times you will hear this, I am NOT going to win "Mother of the Year" anytime soon.  I find enjoyment torturing my children too much to even TRY for that.

So, along with Cassie having problems talking and processing information, she also has a problem reading.  She hates it.  How do schools handle children with reading problems?  Well they read in their normal class, then they get pulled out of class for special reading time.  Then they get sent home with the same "Read 1/2 hour and log it" assignment every day, including weekends.  Yep, THAT will help!!!  THAT will make them like it, whether they like it or NOT!!  Yeah, epic fail in my opinion.

So, we went to the library today (because she enjoys checking out books she'll never read and movies she does watch).  She took out the play version of "Romeo & Juliet".  Its a cool one that has both the Shakespeare AND regular "now a days" language.  She's been reading this, LOUDLY, since we got home.  I've gotten my daughter to read for 2 hours straight.  How do I know she's reading it?  Did I mention loudly?  Is she getting all the words right?  No.  But, because we are also watching a bloopers version of iCarly, she's laughing at her errors.  Oh, she just explained to her pretend cast mates that they need to "pause" rehearsal because she has to go to the bathroom real bad.

I think she'd do better in her reading group if they did more plays and less regular books.  I will be bringing this to BOTH her teacher's attention.  Thats what I do.  I find the best way to teach an individual kid, as unusual as it may seem, and let them learn without the pressure of thinking they have to learn.  

The movies she got?  Two Dr Seuss movies, one iCarly movie, and a "Find Spot" movie.  Yeah, Shakespeare, tween video and pre-school videos; one 11 year old little girl with an indefinite amount of interests and no embarrassment to keep herself from any of them.  Once again I find myself jealous of those on the ASD Spectrum! 

The Outlet Mall

WooHoo, right?  Well, for most people, maybe.  Me?  I'm not a shopper.  It gets more fun when you take my mom, me, and my daughter, Cassie, and send us to the mall.  The mission?  Buy 2 shirts, 2 pair of pants, and some Crazy Socks for Cassie to go back to school.  Why the socks?  Family tradition.  I'm not so much into the crazy socks as my Mom and my girls.  I think the crazy sock fettish skipped a generation.  But I agree that the pants and the shirts are needed.  Since my hubby was on strike, my mom felt the need to help, and I couldn't say no.  It makes her feel better.  We didn't get any pants, she is in-between-sizes and its hard to fit her.  But we did get the shirts and the all important socks.  Like 60 pairs, but we have socks.

Have I mentioned that Cassie is on the Autism Spectrum?  If you aren't familiar with it, she is classic in that she takes everything very literal.  She's still upset we didn't get 2 pairs of pants, but she did have a good time.  We all did.  It started when my mom showed up, we were standing in the driveway, and Cassie says "I got in the shower this morning, Nana!!!"  Nana told her a while ago that she had to go freshly showered, and so Cassie was.  But, so was Grandma, who came at Cassie, armpit bared, saying she did to, wanna check?  "Nana, NO!!!!  We have a neighborhood WATCH here!!!"  Now, I knew she was "very interested" about the neighborhood watch, but now I realize that she believes that all the neighbors are watching all the time, to make sure we are... well, I have no idea what she thinks they are watching for, but they are watching.

All in all, we laughed all day.  Like when I was on the phone and my mom pretended to see how a thong would look on my fat butt, causing Cassie to laugh & snort water out her nose and all over me.  Or when Grandma kept talking about (and showing us all) the new bra she was wearing.  Or when Grandma squeezed a rubber chicken and it squirted stuff all over her.  Or even when I jumped in the Dumbo the Elephant ride and it wouldn't take just one quarter.  But, as I explained to my mom, there are somethings you cant capture in a blog.  Like Cassie humming "Happy Birthday" while showing Grandma HER new colorful bra, or how hard we laughed when Cassie tried to sing "BINGO" in her own, special tune. 

I guess I'm just saying that blogging is fun, and it'll be a great tool to look back and remember, but I am so sorry I do not have the ability to include all of you in every aspect of my journey... or the journey Cassie has begun in her wish to "get to know" her Nana better.  I think it was a success, or at least WOULD be if we could get the woman to understand the proper way to play I-Spy!!

What do YOUR Undies look like?

Today I was going to talk about my day yesterday.  I was very domestic.  I'm talking homemade nummies using zucchini, cleaning, AND I made my own tortillas!!  Followed by a fun time with my friend Mo.  But something came up this morning that is very dear to my heart.  The Underwear Drawer.

So, its no surprise that Pitman and I have recently gone through a very trying time in our marriage.  I wont lie, we are still working on repairs, and we are working hard.  One of the things we found was a blog done by a Christian husband and wife team.  They email us daily little tips on how to be generous to one another, thereby blessing our marriage.  I get things from the wife, and you can see more about it here:  http://www.the-generous-wife.com/.  It truly amazes me, though, that the secret to inspiring your husband to be the best he can be is to have lots of sex and feed him good food.  Yep.  They know Pitman.

So, today's message was to get rid of your holey underwears, buy pretty ones, and throw a sachet in there.  I recently did this!!!  I got rid of all my embarassing ones, you know, the ones your mom said never to wear incase you were in an accident?  Yep.  Right in the trash!!!  And I got a package of 12 on sale because its back to school time.  Were they pretty?  Yes.  First all I could find were greenish in color.  I couldn't bring myself to purchase something that looked like they needed to be thrown away already, and I didn't want to go back to plain white.  (I've gotten dangerous as I've gotten older!!)  So I started to walk away.

On of the benefits of having a daughter who is OCD is she wont give up easily.  "Come on, Cassie, I dont like those"  "Wait, Mommy, I'm not done"  "Come ON, Cassie"  "HEY!!!  MOM!!!!  How about these?!?!?!"  The most beautiful purple hued package of Grannie Panties I've ever seen were dangling from her little hand.  "Oh, CASSIE!!!!  They are BEAUTIFUL!!!!"  "And, Mommy, they are your big size!!!!"  Gee, Cassie.  Thanks for bursting that Hallmark moment.  But, regardless, I got my beautiful undies!!  Ok, beautiful to ME.  I dont think you'll be seeing them on a Victoria's Secret billboard anytime soon! 

The sachet?  Well, no.  I didn't do that.  I really never understood making your undies smell good.  I mean, isn't that just screaming to perverts to break into your house to sniff your underwear drawer?  And if I go out in public I really dont want strangers coming up to me saying "Gee your panties smell terrific".  Yes, I'm posting this in a public blog, but my panties and I have a very intimate relationship!!! 

So, ladies, I challenge you!!!  YOU ARE WORTH IT!!!!  Toss out the old ones.  They are stretched out, holey, and the feel of new undies is a feeling second only to clean sheets!!!  While your at it, toss out your hubbies old ones, too!!!!!  And if he's been a good boy, buy him new!!!  If he's been a poopy head, remember, the drier must have eaten them.

Beginning a New Chapter...

In my attempt to find myself, I have to push my self to do things I've always wanted to do to see if I really want to do them, or if its only a fantasy.  For instance, I need to make my own tortillas chips.  I wouldn't even let the family buy any on our last shopping trip. I figured how hard can it be, right?  Get a recipe, make some tortilla shells, cut into triangles, and bake until crisp.  BINGO!  Home made numminess.  But that's not what we are focusing on today, because today I took a different step.

I've never been an in shape, athletic kind of girl.  I went out for track in High School and the coach admired my attitude and dedication!  She even said to the rest of the team, "LOOK AT LISA!!!  She hasn't earned ONE point towards her Letter, but she's at EVERY PRACTICE!!!"  I don't remember if this was before or after I accidentally hit her with the disc... but you get the idea.  Me & athletics, NOT a good match.  Not to mention, I used to be breastically enhanced, which is not conducive to any kind of sport except jello wrestling. 

While my breasts may be more suitable to athletic endeavors, the rest of me isn't.  I'm fat.  Plain and simple.  Not fat enough for my husband's company to approve Gastric Bypass, but I'm still on the OTHER SIDE of fluffy, but not "Damn" and definitely not "OH HELL NO!!!!".  But I'm enroute to changing that.  And today I took the 2nd step.  First step was eating less, next step is moving more.  So, I took my family down to the local "Fleet Feet" store and signed us up to LEARN TO RUN!!!  Yes, they are really happy about this (sarcasm, they are just humoring me, but I'll take advantage of that).  If you want to check it out, here it is:  http://www.fleetfeetsyracuse.com/Training/index.htm.

I won't lie.  I'm scared to death.  Well, I'm scared that I'm so out of shape I may die.  But having gone through all the tests for the Gastric Bypass Surgery, I know I'm actually healthy enough to, well, get healthy.  The information night (and special shopping time) is this Thursday.  I'm certain y'all be hearing a lot about this, and it should be interesting since Pitman and Cassie will be doing it too!!

So, let the betting begin!!!  How many days into the training will it take for Pitman to hurt himself or for Cassie to say "But I dont WANNA!!!" 

"You GOTTA Blog THIS!!!"

Yes, my friends, its been a few days.  Did I forget?  Oh gosh, no!!  Its just that my Mommy always told me if I can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all.  I just spent the day with my Mommy.  I love my Mom, I really do.  But she is a Mom.  We were supposed to stay for dinner, but I couldn't handle my family any more.  Cassie was getting more and more wound and was about to break out into one of her loud made for Broadway productions, and Pitman was eyeing everything in her house and drooling.  When he started calling over her dogs, I knew it was time to leave.

Towards the end, when I was worrying only about getting out of there before Cassie ate all her cream cheese, and I was watching a swarm of bees enter their back porched in area (my Dad ticked off about 452 nests while re-siding the house to make it warmer for the winter, yes, we winterize around here in August), my Mom hits me with "YOU GOTTA BLOG ABOUT THIS DAY!!!!"  Wow.  Really?  I wont remember half the crap by the time I get home.  Besides this is every day to me.

Except maybe the anatomically correct corn husk dolls that Cassie and Grandma made.  Yeah, it was SUPPOSED to be a girl, but one little husk in the middle kept sticking out.  It went down hill from there.  And Cassie saying "This one is simply AWFUL!!!  I'll give it to Mommy".  And one for Daddy that she has directed me to watch him closely to make sure he doesn't throw it away.  Here they are, aren't they cute?

But, alas, I had to escape before the natives got too restless, and Grandma will have to make her own.  I just hope she remembers to finally READ the instructions and soak the husks in warm water before doing it.  Oh, and I hope she can do it, because she wont have Cassie there hollering "DADDY!!!  GIMME A FINGER!!!"