growing up...

Yesterday, I tried to get Joshua to take a nap in the extra bed in Shawn's room. I would like to move him in there permanently in the next two weeks. My idea was to put him in his bed and I would lay down in Shawn's bed to make sure he didn't get out of bed. He was too excited though and kept giggling so I rocked him to sleep in his room and then moved him back into the bed in Shawn's room. I'm hoping today that he won't be as excited and fall asleep on his own. I figure if I can get him used to taking a nap in Shawn's room by the end of this week, I'm going to try to put him to sleep in Shawn's room this weekend (so I don't have to worry about lack of sleep and school). I really want to get rid of the crib and dresser in Joshua's room so I can start working on the room to set it up as a playroom.

Hello

I just thought I'd pop in and say hi! Did you miss me? This week has been incredibly busy since starting our new diet, especially since I've been taking Shawn his lunch to school everyday. I've collected quite the kitchen gadgets too. We are now proud owners of a juicer, a food processor (it's sad that I did not have one until now), and next week we'll be getting a yogurt maker!

Shawn spent most of the afternoon playing with his legos. He's able to build some elaborate stuff by himself but today he made me an ice cream truck. Here's a picture of his creation:

The thing on top of the truck is supposed to be an ice cream cone, lol. He wanted me to keep it but I told him I would just take a picture of it and then he can use the blocks to build something else.

I cleaned off the extra bed in Shawn's room (it had tons of Hot Wheels tracks on it). I'm going start trying to get Joshua to take a nap in the bed. That should be fun, NOT! I want to start tearing down Joshua's room and set it up as a play room for daycare.

Well, we've been going to bed late every night so I'm signing off for now to get some shut eye.

Taking a blogging break

I may not be posting as much as I have been. I'm super busy with our new diet. Hopefully, I'll get into a groove but right now, it seems like I'm going to the store every other day to get more produce. If you want to find out what's going on with us, check out my other blog. The link is listed over on the right.

Saturday recap...

Our yard sale was a success today. We started setting up at 6am and by 8am, we had people stopping by. I didn't make as much money as I would have liked but we didn't do so bad either. The Little Tikes sports car bed frame did not sell and a few other big items didn't either. At the end of the day when Don was getting ready to clean up, he offered a couple walking through the neighborhood their choice of anything left for free just so we could get rid of it. They ended up taking the coffee table, a computer, a computer desk that Don built, and some other small items and then gave Don $20.00 for it even though Don was giving it to them for free. I just listed most of the other stuff on freecycle or freeshare (whatever it's called now). A few things did make it back in the garage but not much. Mostly clothes that I'll probably donate, a hand woven rug (that I actually bought in Dubai), and a pair of roller blades. I told Don not to give away the rug. I was ready to sell it but it's probably worth over $100.00 and I was trying to sell it at a yard sale for $50.00. People just weren't getting the fact that it wasn't a rug we bought at Wal-mart and I wasn't ready to just give it away. The roller blades were worth about $80.00 new and I had a roller blade bag to put them in. The bag itself was probably worth $20.00 but no one was even looking at them. I guess roller blading is out of style now? I'll post before and after pictures soon.

I took Shawn to get his haircut after the garage sale. I'm so happy we found Casey! Anyway, she told me that Gel-E-Beans was closed now. That was a total shock! I'm really surprised that they were doing so bad since there isn't any other kids salon around here. I guess I have to start taking Joshua to Salon 705 now too.

After a busy day, we ended the evening with dinner at my Aunt's house to visit with relatives from MD and to celebrate Joshua, Aiden, and Andy's birthday. Here's a few pics:

Reading overload!

I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by my reading lately. I have to read the next chapter of Full of Grace by this Sunday and I've only read the first 2 pages. I have 30 more pages to go, lol. Then Shawn's EELP teacher from last year called me the other day because she heard that Shawn was seeing a neurologist on Friday (I wonder who she heard that from, lol). I love Mrs. Barber! She is so nice and she's even one of my MySpace friends. She called to let me know that she really doesn't think Shawn is Autistic and told me she was going to send a book home with Shawn called The Out of Sync Child. I also just picked up a library book so now I have 3 books to read and no time to read (except at night when reading 2 pages makes me fall asleep). Ok, I'm going to attempt to read some of Full of Grace now. Good night.

I stand corrected...

Yesterday when I came back home from dropping Shawn at school, the entire pile of trash was gone. I was in shock. I really didn't think they would take the side table, lol. When I went outside to take a picture of our trash pile, Don came out to see what I was doing with the camera. He just couldn't understand why I was taking a picture of trash. Anyway, Don said that someone must have taken the water cooler because it wasn't there anymore. I don't have a problem with someone rescuing trash to reuse but that water cooler really did need to go to water cooler heaven! If not, I would have kept it until this Saturday and tried to sell it at the garage sale. The pile didn't look nearly as big as the other day because Don broke down all the boxes and had them neatly stacked. I will post pictures after this Saturday with the other before and after pics.

For my Spirtual friends...

Some of you know that I belong to another "Moms" group with my church. The group I belong to is called the Ministry Of Moms Sharing or Moms for short. Our group is kind of like a spiritual book club. We choose a book to read that usually helps us to become better moms or brings us closer to God. Some of the books we've read in the past are: MOMS A Personal Journal, Living as a Beloved Daughter of God, and Chocolate for Lent. This year, we've read Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World (which I highly recommend), Hail, Holy Queen (which was very informative but an extremely hard read! It read like a text book) and we are currently reading Full of Grace. We just finished the second chapter and I can already tell that this will be another book that I highly recommend.

On another note, I didn't even think to take a before picture of my garage. If I can make it outside in the morning before the garbage truck gets our trash, I will show you the huge pile of trash that came out of our garage. Some of it will have to go to the dump. I don't know why Don put it with the rest of the trash. Maybe he's hoping that they will take the old bedside table and the empty computer cases and monitors, lol. We still have a huge pile of "stuff" in our garage that we plan to get rid of next Saturday when we have a garage sale. I'll take a picture before we pull it all out. Anything that doesn't sell is going to Goodwill. Then I will take an after picture. That will have to do I guess.

Cleaning out the garage!

Finally! We've made plans for my dad to come over and play with the kids while Don and I clean out the garage. We are going to do it Clean Sweep style and take everything out and then take things back in and put them in their place whether it is up in the attic or in a plastic bin to be put on shelving. Of course, if there is anything that we plan to sell or donate it will have to come back in also but they will be in boxes or bins labeled and neatly stacked inside the garage. It's going to be a lot of work but I've been looking forward to this day since before Christmas! I'm just so sick of the clutter and things not in place! I'm not sure how much in advance you have to advertise that you are having a garage sale but if we can get an ad in this week, we are going to have a garage sale next weekend. All proceeds go towards my juicer fund, lol. Don't worry Andrea, I'm still coming over tonight and I will even shower first, lol.

What to do?

Since it's Spring Break and since Shawn was sick all last week, I figured we should get out of the house and do something fun today. I really didn't want to go too far away from home so we ended up going to the park this morning. At one point, both of the kids ended up in the recycled tire mulch pit and Joshua of course had to dump some in his hair. He was filthy! As soon as we came home I plopped him in the tub. You would not believe how much dirt and sand was in the water after I finished washing Joshua's hair. I guess I should have tried to rub some of it out before I brought him in the house. Oh well, lesson learned.

I have a sand box with a lid that I got for free from a freecycler but we haven't used it yet. Yesterday, when I was at the child care class, one of the girls gave me a great idea. She said that instead of filling the sand box with sand, fill it with rice. That keeps the kids from getting all sandy but they can still fill buckets and use dump trucks etc. I think I'm going to try and do this sometime next week and see how Joshua likes it. I still see a problem with rice being all over the yard though. I wonder if birds or squirrels will eat the rice on the ground. If so, that seems much better than having sand all over the place.

Family Child Care Class

Today Don stayed home with the kids so I could attend my family child care class. It was just a consultation class that told me everything I need to do in order to get my license (which is a lot by the way). It seems like the money is quickly adding up on getting licensed. So far I've had to pay $50.00 for the pre-application, $20.00 for CPR certification, $30.00 for Basic First Aid certification, and $38.50 for fingerprinting, background check, local law enforcement check, etc. Don will also have to get the fingerprinting thing done so that will be another $38.50. Then I have to take a required 30 hr. training course that costs $96.00 and the test for that course cost $30.00. Then there's another class I have to take that costs $10.00 and the test for it which is $5.00. Then I also have to pay for the fire inspection (I'm not sure how much that cost but I think it's $45.00). That doesn't include any equipment that I will have to buy to pass inspection. I know it is required to have a wired smoke alarm with batter backup in the room the kids will be sleeping. We only have a smoke alarm in the great room (it is hard wired though). Our house is so small, it wouldn't be hard to hear from any room in the house but to pass inspection, we'll have to get an electrician to come out and hard wire another one in Joshua's room. Plus, I'm going to have to buy a child's size table and chairs, cots or nap mats, some extra outside play equipment because there has to be at least 12 outside activities for the kids, some bookcases to store toys because they have to be stored for the kids to be able to access them, I'm sure there is probably other stuff I haven't thought of yet. Luckily they consider Valrico a rural area so I qualify for a program through the Rural Social Services Partnership which will give me $1,000 to help me start my business. At least that is what I was told...I have to call tomorrow and get the details.

I was only planning on keeping a couple of kids but I may have to watch more just to make up all the money I spent getting licensed. On another note, it looks like Don will be working part-time at Lowe's again. Thank goodness, because we really need the extra money especially until I get licensed. It will probably be at least 3 months before I can get licensed since the finger printing/background check takes about 90 days to get back.

I'm free, I'm free!!!

That's how I felt today when we left our house after a whole week of being cooped up with Shawn. Although, I can't really say I was jumping up and down about it either. I was extremely tired and if it wasn't for Church and the fact that I paid money for the ride armbands, I would have much preferred to lay around the house all day.

Last night was a rough night for us. Don was spending the night in Orlando and I was secretly excited to have the house (and bed) to myself. I stayed up way later than I should have since I was planning to get up early to take a shower before the kids woke up. It felt like I just fell asleep and then all of a sudden, I hear this horribly loud noise. In my sleepy stupor, I jump out of bed and try to turn the bathroom light on (which is literally about 4 ft. from my side of the bed). The light didn't come on and I just thought it was burned out. By now I realize the noise is coming from the baby monitor so I turn it off and then realize that my clock is out and it finally dawns on me that we lost power. Since I was up, I went to the bathroom and then climbed back into bed. I was starting to fall back to sleep when I thought I heard distant screaming and realized it was Joshua. So up out of bed I go to get Joshua. As soon as I walked into his room he calmed down but I think he was freaked out that his night light was out and his fan wasn't on. I get him out of bed and was planning on rocking him in the chair for a little while before putting him back to bed when I hear Shawn screaming. Normally this is where Don and I pull double duty but since I was the only one there, I bring Joshua with me to check on Shawn. He's freaked out about his night light and there is no way I can leave him without him freaking out again. So I told him he could sleep in my room. So all three of us head back to my room in complete darkness. Joshua wouldn't settle down. I think he was excited because he doesn't normally get to sleep in Mommy and Daddy's bed. I thought if I gave him some milk he would settle back down and then Shawn said that he wanted something to drink also. I wish you could have seen me get the sippy cups down and fill them in complete darkness. I can not see in the dark so I felt like a blind person feeling my way around. I think I was still half asleep because it didn't occur to me to light a candle first but by the time I gave them their drinks, I thought it might be a good idea to light one. That of course helped me out a great deal and acted like a night light for Shawn but Joshua kept saying candle over and over. He was totally awake and I didn't think I could get him to go back to sleep but I told Shawn to stay in my bed and that I was going to put Joshua in his own bed. I rocked Joshua for a while to settle him down and then the power came back on. With his fan and night light back on, I put him in bed and he went right to sleep, yea! Since Shawn had his night light back on, he agreed to go back to bed and I was finally able to get some sleep...at least for about 2 1/2 hrs when my alarm clock went off at 5:30. I quickly ran the scenario through my head...since my kids usually get up between 6 and 6:30am, if I got up to take a shower, I would definitely be out before they woke up. But I was soooo tired and my mind kept telling me to sleep an extra hour and that the kids would probably sleep in so that's what I did. It worked in my favor because they didn't wake up until 7:30am but I really felt rushed trying to get us all ready for church this morning.

Our day out was very nice. We met my parents at St. Stephen Catholic school where they held mass under the carnival tent and then we enjoyed breakfast after mass. The carnival didn't open until noon so we had about 45 minutes to wait after eating but the kids did great and then Don left Orlando earlier than expected and met us there. So we had our whole family at the carnival. The kids had a blast! We put Joshua on the dragon roller coaster with Shawn and I wished I had my video camera or even a regular camera because I don't think he could have had a bigger smile or laughed so hard! I think that was definitely his favorite ride although he really liked the huge slide and the bouncy castle (he was able to get in by himself). We left around 2pm before the rain came down (thank you God!). I thought I was going to pass out from exhaustion and my husband was nice enough to watch the kids so I could take a nap. Although, our house isn't very big and it's hard to sleep when 2 boys are playing and yelling and running through the house but I still enjoyed resting.

Thank You...

Bed Head

So you might think after looking at the following picture that Shawn just had a bad hair day. Let me set you straight...that's what his hair looks like every morning. I'm not quite sure how it happens since he doesn't go to bed with wet hair.

He is still home from school today since he was still running a fever last night but so far this morning he isn't running a fever. Yippee, just in time for Spring Break (note the sarcasm). So I get to spend another whole week with Shawn. At least we'll be able to leave the house next week. That is if none of us catch what Shawn had. Since Shawn isn't running a fever, I need to get to the library today. I placed a hold on a Speed Racer DVD. It's the first 11 episodes of the cartoon so we'll see what Shawn thinks of it. I've already bought all the Hot Wheel Speed Racer cars (10 of them). They are hidden for right now. I think I'm going to use them as an incentive when we start the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. If he eats all his food, at the end of the day he can pick out a car.

We haven't started the diet yet but I've decided to experiment with some of the recipes so I can find some that are edible to us. This morning I made some pancakes using this recipe. They were ok, definitely edible but nothing I would brag about either. I definitely missed having syrup but I suppose we'll get used to the honey. I asked Shawn to try it and he said he loved it. He was already eating something else so we'll see if he'll eat them tomorrow. Also, I want to see if they freeze well. If they do, it's something I can make a large amount of at one time and it will be one less thing to worry about cooking during the week.

Yesterday our new water filter arrived. Don installed it and we now have clean drinking water. I know there are some people out there that will say that water has no taste and that all bottled water taste the same. I'm not one of them. I can definitely tell the difference in taste between certain brands of bottled water so I was a little scared that I wouldn't like the filtered water since it leaves the minerals in it. I'm happy to say that I liked the taste of the water! I'm going to have to go buy a glass pitcher so we can keep some of the water in the fridge.

CPR and FA Certified!

Last night I went to my CPR and Basic First Aid class. I basically just paid for my certifications. The instructor was nice and seemed knowledgeable but I guess since everyone in the class was renewing, he kind of slacked off. Now I didn't really have a problem with this because I've been CPR qualified many times. As an aviation electrician in the Navy it was required so I was qualified the whole time in the Navy and then had to get re-certified when I was hired by Skytech, Inc. I know where to place my hands and how to do compressions, etc. I just needed to brush up on how many compressions to breaths and I'm fine. We watched a video by the American Heart Association that explained how to do everything and we each had our own upper body mannequin or whatever they're called to practice on. However, the instructor wasn't really watching us (at least it didn't look like it) to see if we were doing it right. The infant body we practiced compressions on was just a plush baby doll from Wal-mart. We didn't even have to take a test. After watching the movie and practicing on the mannequins, he gave us our cards for CPR. The basic first aid class was even better...it lasted approximately 15 minutes. So, if you just want to re-certify let me know and I will tell you the name of this company. If you are looking to actually learn something, I would not recommend this company.

I'm getting claustrophobic in here

Shawn is driving me crazy. You can't really tell that's he's sick. It's like the only thing that is wrong with him is a cold because you can hear him cough and suck the snot up his nose every once in a while. He has all the energy he normally has but no where to let it out. I'm dying to get out of this house!