Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner

                                                     CHAPTER 15

  This evening we went to some  friends house and had dinner( btw.....uh YUM).....we took all the kids. I hate to admit it but taking all the children over to our families houses let alone a friends house generally stresses me out due to the fact that most people can't handle my children or don't understand them. Many times I feel like people are just putting up with us rather than "hanging" out with us. Tonight was somewhat of a relief I guess. These particular friends are easy going and seem to be more patient than most despite our children constantly pestering their animals and generally running amok around the apartment playing and being loud. They have invited us over a few times now, that's like a record! There have been times,many times our own family has acted disgusted when we've come over and it can be very hurtful so to have a friend come along and be so kind and patient with us is good for our hearts.

 

Buy one get one cut in half

                                                     CHAPTER 14

  Today's another two for the price of one day. I wasn't able to even get near the computer yesterday, it really was that busy. The day started of in a whirl of cleaning as I was expecting Troy's teacher and a few of his therapist at around eleven am, for a IFSP review. Three out of four were late but not by much it did make me a little concerned though because this meeting was to determine if Troy is deemed as having autism and if so what extra services that he will receive. All in all the meeting went well and he was officially diagnosed,according to the school district as having autism and in need of extra help. Now we are going to focus on getting the medical diagnosis. After our guest left the day was spent in a reckless abandon.....................no, not really. I continued to clean in hopes that we may be able to actually have guest over for a movie and dinner.......Yeah I kinda went around that one backwards. Rebekah did show up and hung out with me for the rest of the day and into the evening, so I did get some adult interaction today but I must admit that is WAS REBEKAH I was hanging with.

   A little background, Rebekah is a good friend of mine that I hang out with nearly everyday. I do this for adult interaction but usually what ends up happening is we both end up acting like children..so much for that adventure,huh?

   By Eight O'clock last night I was already falling asleep but I managed to power down a couple more hours watching stuff on Hulu with Laz.

Zombie in my own home

                                                     CHAPTER 14

   Even as I write this I am falling asleep and it's only 7:40 pm. Today was uneventful, We left at 9 this morning and went to my parents house across town and did Gabriel's homeschooling there. We also visited,ate some food and the kids made a mess of someone else's house. All in all a relatively light day yet I feel like a zombie. As soon as the kids are out for the night I am going straight to bed and I'm going to like it ;)

First Semester Down

                                                     CHAPTER 13

     Today is a Wednesday, in homeschooling terms that means the longest day of the week. Gabriel and I covered his first big Math test,a weekly phonics test, a lengthy poem reading ( The Jellicle Cats) for Language Arts, THe story of David and Goliath for History and reviewed "textures" in Art.  All in all we spent 5 and a half hours on school today and it went fairly smoothly. Now if I could just get everything else to fall into place as smoothly. Don't get me wrong, today went smooth in comparison to other's. But my "day to day" life as of late has been something of a whirlwind which obviously is anything but smooth. On top of my daily life of diaper changing,cooking,cleaning,running errands dealing with my children's disabilities and their special need's and all that goes with that,family drama etc. I have joined an art guild to top it all off......Ugghhhhhhhh I think I just signed my own ticket to insanity. Not to mention my health has been, well, BAD lately...but I'll spare anyone the details. My family and I could really use some peace right now that would be dandy.
  

Emma the Parrot and the Alphabet

                                                     CHAPTER 12

  I learned today that my 19 month old will say anything you ask of her. I was able to squeeze the alphabet out of her this evening which shocked me to say the least. I have been taking care of children with varying degree's of disabilities for so long that any bit of what's considered normal by societies standards, just blows my mind. Maybe being able to prod your 19 month old to say the alphabet is normal or "average" but for me it was a huge deal. She was even able to recognize  and point out the letter "E" all on her own. I wonder if this is from all the homeschooling stuff I been doing around her. Maybe she's picking up on that. Or maybe I am in the mist of a genius. Perhaps it's time to introduce her to the theory of relativity or Newton's equation:)

The Importance of Fresh Air

                                                     CHAPTER 11

   We had a rough start to our day today. I got Paul and Troy fed,clothed and on their buses respectively and on time.As soon as they were gone I fired up the home-school machine, however, Gabe's mind seemed to draw blank this morning. He could not focus,he answered everything incorrectly and he often mumbled his answers under his breath, drove me batty. After an hour and a half STRAIGHT of this behavior I had HAD it. I realized that perhaps it was time for a break from routine,maybe it was routine that was making him behave this way. But I wasn't about to let him off the hook so easy. I told him that though we were taking a vacation day from school that it would NOT be a vacation day from our chores. It took him all day and several rough patches involving mocking and back talking but by golly he cleaned his room and helped around the house.

   I had a friend over for the most of the day (she had the day off from work). She helped with the kiddo's so I could clean and it came with the added benefits of adult interaction. After 8 years of  raising my broad, my vocab has probably dropped by over half, I don't even remember what math is and my greatest skill has become speed diaper changing. Luckily this friend is nice enough to put up with me despite my obvious "issues", but I only think she does it so she can hang with the coolest kids on the block;)

   The majority of today consisted of me cleaning. Things had piled up from the last couple of days,like laundry and dishes even the garbage was beginning to overflow. I got that all squared away thanks to some helpful friends and kiddo's. I even had time to cook a new recipe from scratch tonight, "Chicken breast with balsamic vinegar and garlic." It was delicious if I do say so myself...and I do;) As the day winded down I took to shopping at Target with Troy and a friend while Laz watched the other kids. I picked up some Easter stuff, a movie and some lip gloss. After I came home, I vegged on the couch for awhile,said goodnight to my kids and then watched Laz take apart a small engine for his go-kart.......in the middle of our living room next to our cream colored faux suede sofa......lol. Gotta' love that nerd! And now I'm here in front of the computer writing about my day in brief.

What Today Held

                                                     CHAPTER 10

          Today was good!

Saturday

                                                     CHAPTER 9

  Made dutch babies for breakfast this morning and no I am not referring to little dutch children rather a puffy oven pancake covered in strawberries,lemon juice and powdered sugar. After breakfast was over we managed to get babysitters for two of the kiddo's and then we headed off to the Lebanon Walmart to buy a bunk-bed. While there we checked out a bakery near by that had some of my artwork up. That was cool, I have never actually seen my artwork up anywhere other than a few shows I have done. Afterwards we stopped at Taco bell   and ended up running into an old friend,visited for a sec than sat and ate but mainly goofed off with Paul and Gabe they were at their finest. We headed back home and on our way we decided to stop at a another friends place to check his progress on his remodel. Beautiful house and just an all around cool place. After we finished up there we headed home when we realized we needed something else from Walmart. So Laz dropped me off at my parents place,where Emma was and I waited there for him while he went back.

Well about 2 hours after he left he called me and let me know that he was already home and busy setting up the bunk-bed with a friend. He said he would be done soon. I ended up calling him back an hour and a half later and asked him to pick us up because I was bored and wanted to cook dinner. So he came and got the kids and I and then we picked up Troy from Ma-ma's house and went to the grocery store to pick up items for dinner. We ended up having friends over and I made hot sandwiches (French bread cut lengthwise with pizza toppings) herbed salad and salt and pepper kettle chips. Once the kids where in bed another buddy showed up to watch the sleeping kiddo's while the rest of us went to Denny's to get some dessert. We were there maybe two hours and finally decided that we were all going to fall asleep in the booths if we stayed. So off to home and my other buddy whom I finished a movie with. Then on to this blog.

TROY

                                                     CHAPTER 8


          Today we had the "official" Birthday celebration for my baby boy Troy. It's been 4 years since his birth. We celebrated with family and a few friends. We had pizza and soda and wonderful fellowship.Tonight I will tell his tale. Troy was born in February of 06'. My pregnancy with him was an eventful one. I suffered from Hypermisis Gravidarum (severe morning sickness). I had lost nearly 30 pounds( hospitalized twice) and had developed a long lasting sinus infection that my doctor refused to treat until I ended up being hospitalized for coughing up blood clots. Around 5 months along I began to feel a little bit more normal and this feeling continued throughout the rest of the pregnancy. But by the end of the pregnancy Troy had quit growing due to IUGR and so I was induced at 38 weeks. Troy was born weighing a whopping 5lbs and 3 oz.

       Troy was a high maintenance baby, though not near as hard as our oldest. He grew at a typical rate and met all his milestones both physically and mentally. At around 15 months of age he began to regress mentally to the point that he no longer spoke and he did not respond when he was spoken too. He also began to express extreme bouts of anger/rage and non-stop high pitched screaming which he still does to this day. Because of this behavior we do not get out much and when we do Troy and I quite often get treated very poorly, it is one of the hardest things I have ever gone through. I have this beautiful Gift from God and that is all I see but others who only see a screaming child in public would rather just call him a brat among other things.

  Last year we enrolled Troy in "Early Intervention" which has helped him immensely. He has begun to talk again though he doesn't always understand what he is saying, rather he is just parroting. He said mommy for the first time just a few months ago, that was when I knew we were on the road to a better kind of normal. Things are looking up for the most part now if we could just nip this screaming in the butt than I would feel a whole lot better. He is a beautiful child in many ways I am proud to call myself his mother.
    

2 post kinda feeling

                                                     CHAPTER 7


   Due to ridiculous circumstances I could not post yesterday, so today has become a 2 for the price of one day. Not a biggie I guess considering yesterday wasn't exactly exhilarating. I think the highlight of the day was getting some fast food for the kids. The majority of the day was spent homeschooling and wishing the house would stay clean.

  The kids where wild yesterday, constant bickering,screaming and plain ol' fighting. I tried everything from sending them outside to play,time-outs and even the dreaded "parent-child talk." You know the one where the parent say's "We need to talk,mister." When I was a kid that was all my parents had to say and then it was end of story. Finally around 5 my friend Rebekah came over and we decided to take all the kiddo's to get some fast food, Jack in the Box to be more specific. the rest of the evening was spent detangling the kids arguments,de-ranching their hair in the bathtub and then once they were in bed, resuming my search for the perfect tunic.

Late night confessional

                                                     CHAPTER 6

      So it's nearly midnight and I suddenly am stricken with paranoia. I just realized I hadn't posted yet today and I am not about to break my promise of a post a day.

     Where do I begin? AW YES! In the beginning......no that isn't right. WAIT I'VE GOT IT, " There was a man"..no,no,no that isn't right either. "Call me Ishmael".....Yeah definitely not it.

    How about I just go over some history tonight,sound good?Tonight I will tell the tale of our first born, Paul Tomas.

     Paul arrived unexpectedly early though not much, 38 weeks to be exact. I wasn't even sure I was in labor. I was under the assumption that Los Dos Amigos had killed my gut once again. He arrived on December 14th, 2001. The first weeks of Paul's life where extremely difficult, he cried non-stop and I litterily went without sleep for two weeks. I thought I was going to go mad. Later on we found out that all that screaming was attributed to a neck injury he sustained during delivery. The poor guy was in pain and despite my best efforts in voicing my concerns to doctors I was repeatedly told "your young and raising a baby is hard work"........mmmhmmm thank you for your words of wisdom doctors and nurses. Finally around three months of age the neck injury manifested into a massive flat spot on his head which he still has to this day. He then began physical therapy at four months and that lasted nearly a year, his physical therapist cried when he left apparently he got a little attached, he was a very sweet guy.


         At around 2 we noticed Paul was not talking yet and had some other odd behaviors. Again I was told "You  are young and raising a kid is hard and that he will be fine." As the years passed Paul still displaying some odd behaviors like screaming and hitting his head, banging his head against walls and tables and chairs to the point he was hurting himself and breaking things. Staring off into space,didn't respond to his name and doing weird motions with his hands. Finally I found help for him but it took a teacher in his Kindergarten class  and several aids,test and exams to help me get Paul some help. Paul was diagnosed as being autistic towards the end of his kindergarten year. The following year he was placed in a specialized classroom called  "communications class" and it has helped  emmensly. He is now studying the same curriculum as his average 2nd grade classmates and doing it well. His only real big hurdles at this point are his speech which is hardly noticeable to most but to the trained ear their is some work that needs to be done there. Then his ability to control his emotions is also a hard spot for him but he's getting better daily.

    Today, was a good day!

Chuck Norris and other adventures

                                                      CHAPTER 5

  

    This morning, while still bleary eyed an semi-conscious I heard my mother in-law talking with Laz. I had forgot that she had Emma's car-seat from the night before and she was here to drop it off. That was around 7 this morning. After that I recall Laz telling me goodbye and then I was off to slumber-land again at least until Troy crawled into bed with me. It's kind of hard to sleep next to a small child who is eating crackers over your face, apparently he snuck them from the bread drawer. I got up and brushed off the pile of crackers from the side of my face. I looked at the clock and realized I had 15 minutes to get my oldest son up,ready for school and out the door for the bus. When I ran out into the living-room, there was Paul already awake but still in a bit of a stupor. I ran and got his clothes ready for him,popped some oatmeal in the microwave and proceeded to help him pack his bag. While Paul sat and ate I went on a search for his shoes and low and behold I found one shoe from each pair. Finally I discovered the lost treasure map to the worlds problems....ok not really, but I did find a matching pair of kicks for Paul and just in time for him to slip them on and head out the door.

     Paul waited for the bus by the front window like he does every morning. When his bus arrives he bangs on the window and tells me to wave at him when he leaves, I always comply. I'll be very sad when the day comes where he doesn't want me to do this anymore.

    After Paul had left for school, I got Troy set up with some oatmeal. He looked at it with a blank stare and then proceeded to smack the oatmeal with on open hand getting it all over himself and the counter. He eventually settled down and ate what was left then I threw him in the tub. Meanwhile Emma and Gabe woke up. Gabe came out of his room and asked if he could play on the computer. When I said no he went and sat on the couch where he stayed for awhile huddled under a throw and trying to conceal the fact that he was sucking his thumb. Emma woke up dancing with a big grin on her face, she was waiting for me to sing to her, it's something I do every morning first thing. While I sing she sways from side to side while bobbing her head around like a bobble head doll. I eventually get all the kiddo's ready and fed, luckily they all like oatmeal I just wish we could have avoided the "oatmeal smack-down."

     I home-school Gabriel using an online school called ORVA. So I got that all set up. We only had three lessons today,Math,Phonics and Language Arts, so that portion of our day was relatively short. In between lessons we watched a movie or Gabe played in his room, kinda a lack luster day really. I usually clean while he's on break but today,when I wasn't changing diapers or cooking I just sat on the computer or played with the kiddo's. Due to this my house appears to have been trampled by a stampede of sorts. As the day began to wind down I was able to go meet a couple friend's from church for coffee at one of the local Starbucks. I did this minus three children, I only took Emma. I am not quite sure I knew exactly what to do without all the noise. After our meeting one of my friends parted ways  from the coffee shop and thee other went grocery shopping with me. I don't know what it is about grocery stores but every-time I'm in one especially with a friend, I am suddenly a comedian and everything is funny.

Once I had gone home and my friend had left I made an extrodinairily late dinner ( Cheese tortellini and Italian sausage spaghetti sauce with herbed salad). Hub's and the kids picked at their food to which I said a big fat "thank you".....*sarcasm* It wasn't to much longer after dinner that the kids were in bed without to much fuss, an occasional request for a drink of water or a bathroom visit was all. after that Laz and I watched an episode of Heroes on Hulu then I got on here. That was my day in a nutshell...a very large nutshell.

I'll leave you with a word from none other than Chuck Norris (not really)......"There is no chin behind my beard. There is only another fist."

Impromptu Birthday Party

                                                    CHAPTER 4

   Today a milestone has been reached. My youngest son Troy or "Troy boy" as we call him is turning 4, it's his birthday! We are not having a party till next week but I was feeling guilty that we were not doing anything for him today so I ran to the store and bought groceries for an extra special dinner,6 cupcakes and the movie "UP." I couldn't resist the movie it was on sale at Target for 9$. Though he can't talk much yet I could tell he was happy.

People Watching and Funny Smells

 I have this issue, more or less a disease if you well. I am addicted to "watching people." I frequently go to public places just so I can see new and interesting faces. I like to sit back and read facial expressions and come to conclusions about what people are thinking. Today was an excellent day for this.


                                                 CHAPTER 3


      Today is the day of "Love," Valentines Day. This year I decided to celebrate by involving myself in an art show and wine tasting at Mark's Ridge Winery just outside of Lebanon,OR. There where approx. 15 artist showing and three of us (including muah) did live demonstrations. Between demo's I watched people,took in details from their faces,read into their expressions and body language and got the giggles when I filled in their silent conversations for them;) The things people say without realizing it are sometimes the funniest. Needless to say there were alot of interesting people there and wine, lots and lots of wine so those interesting folks only got more interesting as the show progressed. Things started to wind down by 4:30 pm and we started packing our artwork, trinkets and treasures away. I grabbed a few cards and a couple little gifts and said my goodbye's. Laz, Paul and Gabriel came to pick me up and whisk me away home. All in all it was a nice little show with many opportunities to see some new and interesting faces.

   Though the show and all was fun I was glad to be headed home as I had a massive headache at that point and I was super tired. On the way home Laz, the boy's and I chit chatted as usual. Everything from bacon to pillows was discussed. Occasionally we would have to put a halt to the chatter in order to remark about another dead skunk by the road and the horrific smell. Tonight was one of the worst. Three skunks, the dairy farm and what smelled like a pile of burning rubber all while we were on our way home. I think every couple of miles I came close to retching, it was pretty bad. I must admit we do get alot of road kill around here but tonight seemed especially pungent. By the time we arrived home I felt so relieved. Never before had I been so happy to come home to the smell of our Vick's vapor wall plug in.
  

Another day another Diaper

                                                                    CHAPTER 2



 Didn't get much in the way of sleep last night. New medication I've been taking has decided to mess with my metabolism. So at 1 am my body decided is was starving. I ate some fruit and some cottage cheese hoping that it would hold me. I finally crept into bed around 1:30 and crashed but it was brief. Close to 3 I was awoken by our youngest child, Emma. She was screaming at the top of her lungs.My hubs,Laz, got up with her so I felt relieved thinking I could go back to sleep. A few minutes after he left he came back and informed me that I needed to change Em's diaper. So I got up changed Em, got her back to sleep and I headed back to bed. At around 3am I was awoken again by our 4 year old Troy, as he crawled into bed with us. Then again, I was awoken at around 5am by Laz's cellphone. A friend called to let him know he wouldn't be able to help us mount our TV on the wall today since he's been in the office all night. I did not get back to sleep after that, rather I rolled around in bed with the hopes that sleep would find me but it was in fact "elusive."

   The morning was a little better but I was so groggy even the simplest of task seemed daunting. Even getting my make-up on for a girls luncheon was difficult to do as my eyelids felt heavy. I managed to get the basics done and was headed out the door when my babysitter let me know that they wouldn't be able to watch the kids. This wasn't going to work since it was suppose to be a kid-free get together, just a break for the "mommies." So I got all gussied up for nothing. I decided to take the kiddo's to my parents place so they could play with their cousins for awhile, they had a blast and I got to visit with the family for a bit.

   We said our goodbyes at around 4pm and headed back home. We came home to an empty house. I don't know where Laz is and my phone is dead and charger is missing. For now I am just going to assume he is helping a friend or his mother.

      While settling in I noticed Troy is almost asleep, so I lay him down and go about picking up the house. Within a few minutes I hear troy bouncing on his bed laughing. At this point I know that nap time isn't happening.I just let him jump, if I were to stop him now I would grow def from the high pitched screams of protest. A little while later I hear Gabriel yelling, " Mommy Troy took his diaper off and it is poopy,EWWWWWWW."  When I got up to survey the scene I was instantly hit by the aroma of  cinnamon rolls and freshly mown grass.........ok that was a lie, it was more reminiscent of a dairy farm. I grabbed Troy and got him in the shower and washed him off, then started him a bath and let him play in there awhile. In the meantime I muster up the courage to head back to his bedroom. All the while fear is running down my spine. Fear that the room is now painted a shade of brown. I flung open the door deciding to face my foe but where was it? My eye's finally settled on a small pile of material on the dresser. Which in fact was a loaded diaper but luckily there was only slight damage. A slight smear on the dresser and one on the blue penguin shaped humidifier on-top of their dresser.

The shenningans is all over now and things are finally starting to settle down. I now have dinner to look forward to and  barring another bedroom disaster, a great night's sleep as well.

Introductions

My name is Brittany but you can call me Britt.I am a stay at home mother to four children 5 if you include the cute goofy older man I like to call my husband. I decided to start blogging in hopes that it would be as cathartic as everyone say's it is. I plan to document my everyday life with my family for 365 days, starting with this post.

                                                              DAY 1

                      There was no school today so I was under the impression that I would be able to sleep in, I was wrong. I was awoken by my cell phone at around 7:30 am. The voice at the other end said " Hi, are we still on for the meeting at 9?" I had forgotten that I had an in home conference with two of my youngest son's learning coaches from Early Intervention. I of course couldn't say no, I just don't have that ability in me,*sigh*. So I got up as fast as possible in order to make breakfast for all the kiddo's and have time to clean my disaster of a house. I was in the process of  vacuuming up crumbs for the third time in the morning when I realized my youngest son was running around naked once again and the learning coaches were at the door. I ran to the closet and got a diaper for him, of course he protested because to him skin is just another form of clothing, so why add more. Anyways, then I ran to the door and let the learning coaches,Scott and Miranda, in. They were very nice and understanding of the situation.......Thank God.

                    The meeting went well despite the younger two's constant bickering and protest. By the time Scott and Miranda left it was time for lunch ( Noodles with veggies and sliced apples) and a surprise visit from my brother who flew in overnight from a land very far away called Maryland ;)  My brother is in the military so I have only been able to visit with him maybe a handful of times since he joined the ROTC program in college nearly 20 years ago. So it was a wonderful surprise not to mention he bought some of my artwork boosting my ego just a tad. After we parted ways it was back to the hum drum of homeschooling our middle son,changing diapers and frequent peeks at the wonderful thing called "the internet." My husband will be home soon and I probably should start dinner, what to cook?