Are we the only family that has to keep the ketchup locked up?

Hooray for Mama Bear!

On top of working full-time, Mama Bear has been in school, taking the CNA course. It normally takes 12 weeks, but they crammed it into 5. So for five weeks, she would leave the house for work at 7 am, work all day, hurry directly from work to school, where class ran until 10 pm, drive home, and study. She finished last week. She earned straight A's. Now all she has to do is take her state test, and she can start looking for work. Hooray for Mama Bear!

Featured Blog

(I typed "random logo i stole off the internet" in Google Images, and this is the first thing that came up.) 

Sometimes I'll get all excited about an idea and make big plans, and foolishly tell people about them. Life immediately gets extremely busy and complicated so that I don't have time to follow through, and once again, it can laugh in my face. If you want to, you can read my original post about my Featured Blog feature, and laugh at me, too. I'm just now giving the recognition I promised nearly four months ago.

And the first Featured Blog goes to autism blogger and fellow misanthrope... (Is that an oxymoron? Are there rules for misanthropy? Go ahead, make some, I dare you. That should get you about as far as making rules for autism.) Where was I? Oh, yes, fellow autism blogger and misanthrope (and that's what I like about her) Jillsmo at Yeah. Good Times. Her blog defies description, so I'll just copy the introduction from her profile:

I have 2 beautiful boys: Child 1 is 10 and is autistic. Child 2 is 6 and OMGISN'T. I have this blog because lots of random shit goes through my head throughout the normal course of a day and I need a place to put it. Mostly I just ramble incoherently about nothing. I also curse a lot. Sorry, Mom.

You've been warned.

There are a number of interesting features on her blog, but my favorite is "All Kids Do That". If you have a child on the autism spectrum, you deal with some challenging behaviors, not to mention some challenging sensitivities that set off challenging behaviors. The thing is, and this is why autism parents stick together, when you mention these issues, the average parent of neurotypical children (and many professionals who have limited experience with autism) will either disbelieve you, or mistake your child's behaviors and sensitivities for garden variety childish behavior and whimsical preferences, and either suggest that "all kids do that" and you just need to learn to live with it, or give you detailed (and completely useless) instructions on how to fix the problem. It's like calling your boss from your hospital bed to tell him you've been admitted to the hospital with pneumonia, and having him say, "I had a runny nose once. Just take some cold pills and be back at work tomorrow."

Yes, problems with picky eating, doctor visits, hating school, not sleeping, and so on are not uncommon, but with autism, we are talking about these issues amplified by several orders of magnitude. Really, if you have a friend or family member dealing with autism, and want to have appropriate empathy, or if you are a professional or studying to be one, and want to understand, until you have lived with autism, you will never completely understand, but "All Kids Do That" will give you an inkling of what we deal with every day.

I have a deep respect for professionals who work day after day with children (and adults) on the autism spectrum but, if you get to go home at night and not deal with it for eight hours or more, it's not the same. If you have a child with autism and feel completely alone, we understand. Our kids may have different issues, but we've experienced them at a level of intensity beyond the nightmares of most people.

So read Yeah. Good Times. I strongly recommend starting with "All Kids Do That." Jillsmo, you can come claim the award, copy and paste the logo, and do whatever you want with it. Or if you don't want to post it on your blog, you can just leave a comment here, so I know you read my post. K? Or just totally ignore me. Whatever.

Happy Birthday, Mama Bear!

Mama Bear had a birthday. I took the boys to Walmart to get her a present. She likes to be surprised, but has very specific interests, so she usually makes a list of things she'd like, and we choose something from the list, so she gets to be surprised. This year, she didn't have time to make a list. The only thing we were sure she wanted was a DVD, but it was sold out. We spent a long time wandering around the store, and ended up getting her a gift card. We also picked out birthday cards for her.

Since I don't have her cake decorating skills, but wanted her to have a nice cake, we bought one from the bakery. BB wanted to get her a white cake with white frosting and red trim. GL wanted to get her a white cake with white frosting and pink trim. Since they couldn't agree, and I was pretty sure she'd rather have chocolate anyway, we got her a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. Since she leaves for work just as the cubs are getting up, and gets home from school after they are in bed, we decided they could get up early the next morning and have cake for breakfast.

BB woke up when MB got home, and she was eager for cake. I figured GL wouldn't mind missing the celebration as long as he got cake in the morning. (I was right.) So about 10 o'clock last night, we sang Happy Birthday, she opened her cards (which she loved) and the three of us had cake. We had cake again for breakfast this morning.

 Something doesn't look quite right…

How's that?

A Whiff of Kansas

This one goes out to DeAnn and the whole family at Snippets 'N Stuff. It reminds me of your guys and their sense of humor.