Another Friday is here. And with that comes a weekend that passes too fast. With soccer and Scott working and chores and shopping and who knows what else will pop up. And right now I am being lazy! Yea for lazy.

Emma, who is trying to turn into a young adult way too soon, decided she wanted pizza for supper. I told her no, we've had it way too much lately and we could make something. Heaven forbid we don't go out on a Friday night. She still doesn't understand some nights it is nice to sit and do nothing.
Anyways, she disappeared for a few minutes and then came back with $31 and said if you order I'll pay. So, being the wonderful parent I am, after lots of arguing, I ordered. The pizza showed up and she ran for the door and paid the delivery guy, even giving him a tip, and took the pizza to the kitchen. The kids are eating pizza and I'm going to be good and have a salad. The pizza doesn't even smell good.

This past week was pretty low key. Emma stayed home sick for 2 days and I took half a day off Monday to be with her. We watched recorded episodes of Hannah Montana and Cory in the House from Disney Channel because The Rock was on both shows. I love him. He's just yummy. I want to bite him. Ok, now that I have that out of my system.
Emma lay on the couch moaning because her stomach hurt so bad and I sat in the chair with the show paused on Him as I drooled. She finally got tired of it and rolled off the couch just to grab the remote out of my hands. Then the sick little terd got back on the couch and laid on it. She only brought it out to change the channels when the shows were over.
I'm proud of her right now, well I normally always am even when I'm ready to lock her up for a few years (til she's 18 or so). I was approached by the speech therapist and the school counselor asking if I would let Emma join a group of students for lunch every Friday. This group is made up of special ed students that need help learning how to socialize and interact with their peers. Emma's role would be to help these students. Today was her first day and they played games while they ate. Basically what they are telling me is that my daughter loves to talk. She starts from the time she wakes up in the morning and doesn't really stop until she goes to sleep. Even then she keeps on talking, depending on how tired she is. No, really, they felt she would be good with the others because of Ethan and how much she helps him at school. It lets me know I'm doing a pretty good job at raising a caring young lady.

Ethan's not in the lunch group because there are too many others. He just does better with a one on one situation. Some days I feel he like he is going backwards and some days he seems just like a normal boy. His school work isn't suffering but there are times when it takes a lot to get him to focus on me. I have a feeling he tries so hard at school that when he is home he feels safe to just let go. He goes into that world of his where he is happiest and it is hard to get him back. I still get hugs (ok they are still leans but he asks for them I don't have to ask for them anymore), I still get eye contact when he is with me, I can still touch his shoulder or his head without him freaking out. It's harder for him to let others do those things now though. Scott cut Ethan's and Harley's hair last night ( I wanted to leave their hair long but the Marine in him just can't stand it) and Harley was done in under 5 minutes. Ethan's took so much longer because I had to help hold his head. I'd rather cut his hair at home because of these fits. I am tired of explaining my son to people. I know I don't have to but when they see an 11 year old as tall as me throwing a fit like he does, the looks I get are horrible. Even when I tell them what is wrong it feels like a majority of the people just don't get it. I don't bother to elaborate. I should take my time to explain what autism because I should be like so many other mothers who are out there trying to educate people. But why shouldn't people take it upon themselves to educate themselves. IS that wrong of me to think that? Probably so. When someone shows more interest than I do go into detail about autism and Ethan. I'm actually very proud at how far we have come. He's in a mainstream class and he's only one grade behind where he should be. He reads on grade level, the tests don't show this but who cares what the hell those stupid No Child Left Behind tests show because they suck. I've sat and read with him and I know exactly what he can do. The same for math. The kid hates math but he is so much better at it than I am. When he sits down to do math homework and I can get him to concentrate on that and noting else then he flies right through it. His memory skills for songs and movies just amazes me. And his doctors and his therapist. He can see a movie once and then relate it to someone else word for word, almost. He has to love the movie, which isn't hard for him, he loves movies in general.

I think all this is coming out because of Jenny McCarthy. I applaud her for what she has done and she has done it as a single mom, for the most part. I have no idea if her ex helps her or not. I caught most of her interview with Larry King and Holly Robinson Peete and I sat there agreeing with so much and then a co-worker came into my office to ask why I was talking to the tv. When I told him what I was watching he sat down and watched with me. I've changed the way a few co-workers think about autism. So I've done a little work towards the cause.

I haven't met anybody who dislikes Ethan. Every where we go someone is saying hi to him. Whether it's a teacher or a student from school, or even another parent. I hope it stays this way all through middle school and high school. I'm so afraid that when the elementary schools start blending the kids who don't know him will be mean. And I can't protect him from that. I'm hoping that there will be enough kids around him that know him that will jump in and say something. They do now! When a new kid shows up at school and teases Ethan the other kids are all over him to be nice. Before too long the new kid loves Ethan too. I can't protect the kids forever but I'm going to try my hardest and longest on Ethan.

Well, now that I've gone on a little about the two older I should say something about Harley. Today was his first school picture day. He chose his red and orange Hawaiian shirt (which is a nice button up shirt) and then brown cami pants. He was very colorful. He was so excited for the pictures. He loves school and gets up so good every morning. And then every weekend morning he still gets up and gets mad at me because I'm not getting ready for work so he can go to school. I hope his love for school stays but it won't because it never does. Ah well, I'm enjoying it while it lasts.
I love this school. Their goal is to have the kids reading, writing in cursive before they "graduate", and I even read something about math next year. It almost feels like they are pushing too much but he loves it and is soaking it all in. I'm not about to stop it or try to change anything.

Time to go, Emma has a friend spending the night and they have been too quiet for too long now and I need to investigate to see what they are up to.

I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Yesterday was Farmington's annual Cancer Walk-a-Thon. It raises money to help the Connelly House here in town. The Connelly House is there for families that travel here for cancer treatment for a family member and can't afford a hotel room. I've walked in 4 walks now and it hasn't gotten any easier.
But it's not supposed to be easy. It is 6 miles long and it starts at 8am. This year the goal was $120,000 and I read this morning that all of the 700 some walkers brought in $147,000. That is fabulous!
You can dedicate your walk to someone you know with cancer or just go to help a wonderful cause.
You can register your dog to walk with you and have fun taking a leisurely stroll, stopping every once in a while to pick up dog poo. Emma wanted to bring Vegas but I thought that next year would be better when she is a little bit older. We might even take Juni/Wanker (that is what I call him now since half the house calls him Juni and the other half calls him Wanker). There were lots of Dachsunds this year.
Scott, myself, Ethan, and Emma walked. Harley is still too little to go that far and I'm not pushing a stroller for 6 miles. We managed 6 miles in 1 hour and 45 minutes.
I haven't heard any complaints from Ethan and Emma but Scott and I have sore feet. Ok, I have a sore foot. I bruised my right foot somehow. I don't know how. We walked without stopping and I had good walking shoes on but I still managed to bruise my foot. The bottom of it is black, blue, purple, and green. It's pretty! I'm hobbling around the house today wincing. Being a big ol' baby.
We got groceries earlier and I wrapped my foot and that helped get me through the store. I still hobbled but I carried Harley because he decided to nod off after we'd been there about 5 minutes.
Hopefully it will feel better tomorrow.

Anyways, between the four of us we managed to collect $135. Not the greatest but we got a late start on asking for donations. Next year we are going to start 3 weeks early and see if we can at least double that amount.

Other than that not much else. Emma's soccer coach wasn't thrilled that she missed a game to walk but I feel the walk was a much more important part of her life. My mom, aunt, and grandma all had hysterectomies due to tumors in their utuerus or ovaries. Another aunt has breast cancer (she is in remission). Scott has had thyroid cancer and melanoma. We have plenty of reasons to walk and raise money. If he won't play her next week because she missed one game, she's made it to every practice, then she just might miss the rest of the season.

Ethan's teacher has walked 9 out of the 10 walks. She has sisters, aunts, uncles, her parents, all affected with some form of cancer. So far she is cancer free and I do hope it will stay that way.

I'm still working lots of hours and I've finally adjusted to it. Big plans are afoot at work for me. It's hard not to discuss it with my friends because I've been told not to talk about anything outside the office, well, other than family because it will affect them too. I'm not moving, I can share that much. I'm not going to say anything else because I have no idea who reads this from my office. I have a feeling a couple of people do even though they don't comment.

Parent Teacher conferences were Friday and both kids are doing well. Emma is the social butterfuly this year and has an A+ in Science, a B in Social Studies and something else, can't remeber what, and then the rest are C's. She is more interested in helping everyone else than in doing her own work. We tried to convince her that putting that much effort into her school work would bring up her grades. She has 4 more weeks in the grading period to bring up those C's. She is very capable of bringing home all A's. She just needs to apply herself.

Ethan has taken a leadership role in his class. I guess since this is his last year at this school he feels he's the big guy on campus and can lead others. Or maybe it is boss others around. Either way most people are getting a kick out of it.

I can't believe my 2 oldest will be in middle school in 8 months. I'm SCARED!

I need to go. Scott is making dinner and keeps hollering for some help. He is making chili, yummy! It's been raining most of the day and it is just cold here today. Chili and cornbread for dinner means that Autumn is here!

Isn't today the first day of Autumn?

I have so been the bad poster. Life gets in the way.

I'm home sick today and decided to try to sit up for a while to see how it goes. I put off and put off going to the doctor and now I'm regretting it. I have a severe sinus infection, 2 ear infections, and what looked like the start of strep. I feel like CRAP!

It is the end of the 3rd week of school here and the kids are doing great. Ethan has had homework once and Emma has had it every day. She hates it but loves it all at the same time. She adores the 5th grade so far and all 3 of her teachers. Its made the start of school that much easier.

Harley has settled into preschool just fine and loves going every day. He gets mad on the weekends when I'm not getting up and dressed just to take him to school. He has 2 little ones that he talks about all the time. The little boy is so much like Harley and they spend all day together from the sounds of it. The other is a little girl and she is just adorable. She doesn't say much but she does follow him around as much as she can all day. Little ones are just too cute when it comes to friends.

My work is fine, I've been working lots of overtime to help a co-worker get caught up. He had a heart attack and found that he has congestive heart failure and fluid in his lungs and is down to just 4 hours a day now. I'm doing his job in the morning and then back at my desk in the afternoon. The bosses are talking about moving me into his position if he has to quit due to his health. I told them I would let them know if it came down to that.

My co-worker, I'll call him Koko, gets annoyed by me every day. I call him Koko because he is a big guy and he reminds me of a silver back gorilla. Not nice, but he likes it, it tickles him for some reason. If I call him by his name he pouts! MEN! I bug him every day because of the way he eats and smokes. His smoking has gone down, at least at work, because I am constantly on him to quit. He knows he could go any day because of his habits so I don't know what the issue is. He told me the other day that he's so close to death why start now. I smacked him and walked out of his office. He has a wife and 2 teenage daughters at home that love him. I know that he has to want to be ok and quit smoking and change his eating habits.

I just got a little woozy so I'm going back to bed. I'll try to post more later. The first soccer game is tomorrow and I hope I'm ok enough to last thru that!

Have a great weekend all.