Recovering Noah

One of my favorite blogs is doing a “ Letter to Myself at age 20 ” and I couldn't resist. So, here we go! Dear Leslie. Sweet little Leslie. I know that you’re having a rough time right now, but I want you to know that this year – your 20th year – is going to be one of the most life changing years of your life. This is the year that sets you on the course of your future. But that happens towards the last half of your 20th year. The first half basically just sucks. Look, I know that you’re heartbroken right now. But trust me when I tell you that in six months time, you will be living in England and dating the man that you’re going to spend the rest of your life with. The One-That-Broke-Your-Heart ? Forget him!! I wish I could take the pain away, but, honey, I can’t. Your broken heart is what propels you to toss your cares aside and move overseas. If I stop you from that pain, you will never leave. And what’s across the ocean is wonderful. It really is. In the meantime,...

I did it! I realized what I can write about on Works-for-me-Wednesdays.... THERAPY STUFF. I'm a terrible cook, terrible cleaner, have no real skill in life except for being a stupendous collector of useless trivia... but I sure know my therapy stuff. OT, PT, Speech Therapy, ABA, Sensory Integration, Auditory Integration, Learning Disabilities, Cerebral Palsy, Autism, Autism, Autism... it's my life. My kids have gone through more therapists than you can possibly imagine and I've mentally filed every single tip and tidbit I've ever learned... and I even came up with some of my own. So there ya have it. I'll give therapy tips on Wednesday. And here's my first one... If you have a nonverbal child then you know how difficult it is to communicate with him/her. Not only is our Noah completely nonverbal, but he has cerebral palsy, too - which makes it nearly impossible for him to learn sign language. Plus, he stims a lot by flapping his hands and doing odd little twist...

I have long wanted to participate in the Works-for-me-Wednesday fun over at Rocks In My Dryer. But I honestly have not been able to come up with any contributions. Yesterday I asked my mom what I could write about and we brainstormed for a bit and this is what we came up with..... Do you hear the silence? Nothing. We couldn't up with anything ! Let's face it. I'm not exactly a person that people look at and think, "Now, there's a woman who is full of great wisdom and good ideas." Know what I mean? So, in lieu of having absolutely nothing to contribute - no tips, no helpful hints, nada - I am directing you over to Christine's blog .... because her WFMW post is sure to rock your world.

I saw this video on Kelly's blog ( The Dawson Diaries ) and, quite honestly, I don't think I've ever been more inspired by anything else in my life. I don't know if it will touch you the way it touched me.. but it touched me deeply. Nick Vujicic is a young man in his twenties. Cute as can be. From Australia. Preacher's kid. And just happened to be born without arms and legs. His testimony is amazing. There are no other words. Just amazing. At one point in the video he mentions that as a child he would cry and pray to God to give him arms and legs. And he would tell God what a testimony it'd be to His greatness if he was miraculously healed. But God had other plans for him... Have you ever prayed that prayer? I have. Many, many nights I would cry and pray for Noah to wake up in the morning completely healed from autism. I would say, "God, don't you know how many people would come to know that you are true? That you are real? Just heal him. What a testimo...

It's Monday! Time for MckMama's NOT Me! Monday ... After last week's admission that I sometimes pass gas and blame it on Noah because he can't pipe up and rat me out... Well, I most certainly was NOT embarrassed that I blogged about it. Nope. NOT me. So I did NOT stand in my kitchen, did NOT stare out the window, and did NOT get the sudden thought of "Man, what am I going to do if he starts talking some day and sells me out?" Nope. I did NOT think that. I did NOT go white in the face wondering if his first words might be, "I'm tired of you farting and blaming it on me." Nope. That thought did NOT occur. And I did NOT - NOT for even a split second - joke to myself, "I really should cut back on speech therapy in case he spills all my secrets someday." Nope. I did NOT think that. Because that would be bad. Very Bad. And I never, ever think joking thoughts. Nope, NOT me! And since Noah does NOT have sleep issues and is NOT frequently up...

I've never done a Works-For-Me Wednesday post before. Shannon over at Rocks In My Dryer sponsors it each Wednesday, but I never remember to do it. But today, my friends, is a different day. And I did something so cool and wanted to share it with all of you and then I remembered.... it's Wednesday! I can join the cool bloggers today and participate in What-Works-For-Me. Awesome! So, I don't know about you but we do most of our shopping online. While it's amazingly beautiful where I live, it's basically a shopping cesspool. There's just not a lot of shopping opportunities out here. Well, today I was ordering a bunch of craft kits for our upcoming semester of pre-k Zoology and I was buying them off of Oriental Trading Company.... even though I swore I'd never buy from there again because the craft kits are always missing pieces and the foam smells so bad that Sim literally made me leave them all on the back porch to air out before he'd let me bring them...

Mckmama over at My Charming Kids usually does "I did NOT do that" Mondays - where she gives a review of all the things she did "not" do during the week. They crack me up. The Riggs did one today, too. Click on the "Praying for Abby" link on my sidebar to read what they had to say. Anyway, thought I'd join in. After all, we should all have the ability to laugh at ourselves. So... here's my list of "I did NOT do's......" ************************************************************************************ I did NOT spend the entire week eating raw onions and garlic and then, in gastrointestinal distress, accidentally pass gas at the dinner table and blame it on my 7 year old nonverbal child with autism… knowing full well that he could not defend himself. I did NOT do that. And I did NOT just mention on this blog that I accidentally passed gas and blamed it on my child because that would not only be unladylike, but also indicate that I’...

I'm still here! Just going through a bunch of stuff lately. We are embarking on a new dietary lifestyle after finding out that Noah is riddled with yeast and fungus (fungi?). Thought that chapter of our lives was closed ages ago, so I've spent the past week digging out all my old books and staying up late with Google. I'll write more about it as soon as I can do so without hyperventilating. Plus, I've rediscovered my intense love for my food processor (it rivals my intense love for my Dyson vacuum cleaner) and have spent the last few days with my head stuck in bowls and bowls full of pico de gallo. I stink. I mean really stink. Like, garlic is pouring from every pore of my body. I'm remaining in hiding until this passes. Oh! And I got offered a job. Yep. It took me 4 1/2 years to come to grips with being a stay-at-home mom. Seriously, 4 1/2 years I have fought this. For 4 1/2 years I've felt trapped. I've felt like I was no good at staying at home. I felt...

Do you see the little girl in the pink cap? Isn't she adorable? Her name is Abby . She's four years-old. She has leukemia. And she needs your prayers. Tomorrow, Abby starts her most intensive phase of chemotherapy . The problem is that there's a good chance she might not survive. You see, not only does Abby have leukemia, but her family recently found out that she has a gene marker that makes her FOUR TIMES as likely not to survive the first year. She nearly didn't survive the last round of chemo - and it wasn't nearly as intensive as the next round is going to be. Abby's family is asking that EVERYONE please pray for Abby as she starts her intensive chemo tomorrow. And I'm asking that YOU please visit their blog for more information on how you can specifically pray. Also, there's a video posted today that will give you more information on Abby's journey. If you do one thing today, please let it be this. Thanks.

If you are not reading Amy's blog , then: 1. What in the world is wrong with you??? and 2. Get yourself over there now. Like in NOW, as in ASAfreakingP. Got it? She did an awesome blog that I think a lot of us moms can relate to - and really put things in perspective. It's like she saw me sitting here in the same yoga pants (and I don't even do yoga) and stained shirt that I've been wearing since Friday, with no make-up, and stringy hair and literally thought, "I'm going to do this post for Leslie". So go over there and read it. You can thank me later.

I was watching the Patrick Swayze /Barbara Walters interview the other night and went into the kitchen during the commercial break. I breezed passed Sim and in my most sultry voice said, "Nobody puts Baby in a corner"..... and he just looked at me... like I was an idiot or something. I just stood there, you know, sort of... um... embarrassed while my husband and 5 year-old looked at me like I'd lost my mind. I finally explained that NO, I'm not insane and that I had just uttered one of the biggest lines in movie history. You big doofus . Turns out.... my dear husband had no idea what I was rambling about and has never seen - nor ever cares to watch - the movie Dirty Dancing. How could I be married to this man for all this time and not know that he hasn't seen one of the Greatest.Movies.Ever. Is it possible to get an annulment after 12 1/2 years of marriage? Because, clearly, I'm married to a stranger. So I've got it in my head that I'm just going to u...

This is an actual conversation we had last night at supper: Eli: "I wanna Qatar." Me: "You want to go to Qatar?" Eli is silent. Looks puzzled. Me again: "Did you say 'Qatar'?" Eli smiles: "Yeah, Qatar." Sim: "And what about you Nandini?" Nandi: "Yemen." Only later did we realize that Eli was saying he wants a GUITAR and Nandi was doing her best rock chick impersonation by saying "Yeah, Man!" Hmmmm.... and we thought it was our excellent geography tutorials.

Let's face it. I'm a bad Southerner. I don't watch Nascar . I prefer drinking water over Dr. Pepper & Ice Tea. And the only reason I know who Tony Romo is is because he's dating Jessica Simpson and I've seen pictures of them together on People.com. He plays for the Stars, right? Can ya'll just hold on a second while I make sure my doors and windows are locked? I think the Southern Police might be coming to evict me from the great state of Texas and I want to make sure I finish this blog post first. Where was I? Oh yeah. I'm a bad, bad Southerner. I've even been told I have a mid-West accent. I may spontaneously combust into flames at any moment. However, and this is my redeeming quality, I have discovered that since I had kids I have slowly started returning to my roots. And let me tell you.. those are some major country hick roots. I have found that I want to recreate certain childhood memories for my own kids and, therefore, am slowly turning in...

I hope you all had a great New Year. I trust it was better than ours. Mother Nature decided to bless me with the most monstrous cramps ever, so I spent the better part of the evening curled up in fetal position on the couch shouting, "Please God let it stop. Let me go through menopause. Pleeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaase !!" I'm quite certain Sim was wishing the same thing. I'm sure he was thanking his lucky stars that he was blessed to spend his New Year's Eve watching his wife roll around in agony with a bottle of Aleve in one hand and the remote control in the other. I'm positive he wasn't wishing he was in London or Sydney or New York with a gorgeous blonde supermodel on his arm. No. Not when he could spend it with me. I am the picture of all that is beautiful and healthy. Fortunately, though, the weekenders were in full force (we live on a lake) and they brought truck loads of fireworks with them to add some color and cheer to the evening. We were able to ...