Fun Weekend

Wow! We had such great weather this past weekend!

Friday, Kevin asked what I wanted to do this weekend. I said I want to run by Costco and get some bulk shopping done, BBQ, then veg the rest of the weekend. Made plans with friends here for them picking up the bed they loaned to us and seeing about us getting the Fridge they are selling us.

Saturday rolled around and most of us slept in a bit. I ended up waking up around 9, but lounged in bed until my back couldn't take it any more. Waited for Kevin to get up so we could head out. He finally got up around 1, and we were off to Costco by 2:30. Since Costco is in Boise, it was a good 45 minute drive, which I really don't like driving. Very flat, very dull, very straight.

Saturdays are probably NOT good Costco days. That place was packed and tho I probably wanted to look around more, we got a few items and left, fast. Neither of us could take the crowd. If not for the BBQ meat, and some Dinosaur Chicken Nuggets for Derric, I would feel the trip was wasted. But we got some good meat for the BBQ, enough that we managed two days!

Got home and started the grill. Had some yummy steaks, hamburgers, and baked beans. Yum. Managed to get some family gaming in, then little ones wandered off to bed. I followed not too long after. Talked Kevin into playing on the PS3 so I could fall asleep listening to him play. All in all, Saturday was a very relaxing day.

Sunday turned out to be just beautiful. Kauchana was able to talk Derric into playing at the Park (with the promise of bubbles). So those two disappeared for a couple hours. Xavier didn't want to give up his DS, which he managed to finally bring his grades up long enough to have his game this weekend, so he didn't go out. Dokota and Kevin slept most of the day.

Enjoyed some more family gaming until the internet went down, then Kevin decided he was hungry. There wasn't much left over from the BBQ, so he fired up the grill to fix the rest. Since it was so nice and warm out, I wanted to head to the BX to get a sprinkler the kids could play in, but they only had cheap plastic ones that wouldn't last more then a day. Headed to WalMart, but they didn't have any better of a selection, almost ended up getting a blow up pool for the kids to play in, until we get the garage cleared and can get a good look at our old pool. But Derric managed to find a water toy that looked fun for him.

Got home in time for the back yard to be in shadow, and to find out that I need to get a work order in for the back faucet, water seems to be coming out around the spiket, not threw it. So even when we hook the hose up to it, no water actually goes into the hose. Grrr. Guess we will need to wait on any back yard fun until we can get that fixed. Hopefully the weather will stay nice so we can enjoy it.

My physically therapy got approved to continue, so I will be continuing that this week. Not sure how many more weeks the insurance has approved, but just glad I get to continue.

Not much else going on. Kauchana has her dental today, so I will be heading out to that soon. Derric's next IEP meeting isn't until the 26th, so got a bit to wait on for that. All in all, the kids are doing really good.

Priced it out, and might be able to get the kids into swimming lessons again this summer. The pool on base is open, and they have some Family Splash Nights coming up, I think the kids would really enjoy heading to those.

Well, that is all for this update. Once I know more, I will post more. Have a good week.

Spring Update

Well, I think we are in Spring Time, but I am not too sure here.

The weather here is never one to set a trend, it is a guess each day how it will be. And forget weather apps and websites. They never help.

The kids had their Spring Break, but it rained and was almost too windy most of it, for them to go out and enjoy it. Which didn't bother the kids too much. Right before Spring Break, the 3rd Quarter ended. Grades were sent out. I know, I had meant to get them posted, but honestly, when the kids are on break, my mind tends to head that direction too. It was rough getting up on my Physical Therapy days....

But, Kauchana and Xavier's grades have been posted. I didn't get a report card for Dokota ...... hmmm? And I miss placed Derric's. Ooops. Links to their grades are up top, just click their grade level. I will see about logging onto the online site for their grades and getting them posted.

Not much has been going on. Kevin has been working, the kids going to school, if I am able to move after PT, I try to get chores done. It is pretty much the same. I do want to see about take the kids up to see a movie this weekend, but not sure if Derric will be able to handle the movie everyone wants to see.

Speaking of which, did you know this month is Autism Awareness Month? I only found out about it due to a few favorites on FaceBook constantly posting about it. It is interesting to see the sudden jump in care, just because of this Awareness Month. Some online support groups talked about "writing letters" to their kids. I thought that was kinda a neat idea, but then I realized, I actually suck at writing letters. Really I do. I mean come-on, I can hardly write a blog post without months going in between... How would I be able to write a letter? Plus, I see him, daily. What would I write about? What would I write to a future him about today?

Instead, Dokota wrote a beautiful peace. I got his permission, so I am going to post it. It really touches the heart. So I am going to end this post with Dokota's writing.

My Brother Is Disabled

By: Dokota
My brother has Autism. To be specific, he has high functioning autism, which means he is really hyper all the time. He doesn't realize that everyone else sees the world different than him. I have best heard it described like this: how we view the world is like a movie projector, with the pictures on the film in order. How People with autism see it is the same, but the pictures aren't in any order. My brother is eight, and has the mentality of a kindergartner. He loves to have fun, play, question the world around, laugh at his older brother, eat dessert all day, have friends, enjoy school, love his family, and just live life. He is in his own world, one that makes sense to him. We realize this, and all hope that he will invite us in, it is all we can hope for. Why would we want to change him? Putting him in classes only would only be trying to force him into our world so he is 'normal' and can interact 'normally' with others. He does that just fine, he sees the truth of the matter more often than I ever could, and people call me a genius. I have lived with him for all his life so far. It hurts to see kids avoid him because he wants to run around and pretend play Stormtroopers or Transformers. It hurts to have his peers come to me and say he is weird, that all he does is talk about Star Wrs or Transformers, that he is annoying. I have stopped caring, for I learned from my brother. As an adult, I learned from my (at the time) six year old brother. He didn't care. If they didn't want to play, he would expand his world, and he would put himself in the middle of a titanic struggle between clones and giant robots, with him being th center of it all. He doesn't care what his peers think, never has. He has taught me far more about life and how I view it than any other person could. He has a disability. The world states that a disability is a limit or difficulty of some form. Yes he has trouble understanding the way the rest of us do, but that doesn't limit him from being the best teacher I have ever had. It is because of my goofy, spontaneous, insane, lovable, cute, Autistic brother that the world makes sense. It is because of him that I can proudly hold my head high and say with vast pride and love that "Yes my brother has a disability, a mental handicap. Yet he doesn't care, for he views everyone equal, and this has never had to be explained. He doesn't discriminate, hold grudges, or care. What's your excuse?" Thank you dear brother of mine. You will reach the sky Little One.

And Dokota says he isn't a writer....