It is time to join Lisa-Jo for 5-minute Friday. The time of day where you write for 5 minutes,unedited, just to show you can. Today’s prompt: After

Ready, set, go….

Be sure to link up at:

Time for Finish that Sentence Friday. And today’s snippet is….

“If I could live anywhere I’d live…”

Now I know you are expecting me to say a tropical island with a nice cabana boy who brings me wine at regular intervals…and yes that would be super cool (or warm, I guess). But if I could live anywhere?

I would live in Allie’s brain. Ew, gross you might be thinking? Really who would want to live in squishy brain matter….But I think it would be super cool.

I would be able to talk to fairies, sprites and nymphs (and I would also be able to figure out why they are different). I could look outside and see the fairy houses that were created overnight rather than looking at the leaves that have overtaken my flowerbeds. Instead of seeing a messy bedroom I would see a horse farm in one corner, a Barbie paradise in another and the oh so important stuffed animal corral on the top bunk. The only part of Allie world that Boo cannot be destructo baby in.

Then there is  the man cave that Allie has taken over. The playhouse that is where the American Girl Dolls live and have high adventures. Under the pool table? That’s not a pool table MOM (exaggerated sigh) that is where Tinkerbell hid the leprechaun so we can get his gold (thank you Auntie Krafty K for that trap by the way). Oh and that dollhouse? That is where Periwinkle lives in the winter. She travels (who knew) between Allie’s room and the man cave dependent on the season.

I don’t have a summer home, let alone a winter home. Yet Allie’s fairies have vacation homes, condos and leprechauns who give them gold. Maybe I can start charging them rent!

Yes, it would be awesome, wicked awesome, to live in Allie’s brain. If just for a day.

Most importantly, my mind would not be concerned with magnets, every day math or math facts! 

Please be sure to visit the hosts of Finish that Sentence Friday:

Small disclaimer. I am not to be trusted with an IPHONE. No seriously, my Kindle has taught me that I would get nothing done if I have an IPHONE. This is why it took me over a week for my Easter post. Oh well, I am nothing if not prompt!  So here we go, a week and a half late….

I am always nervous at the holidays. Boo doesn’t always react well to disruptions in her routine. Easter was no exception. The baskets kind of freaked her out. Not bad, not nearly as bad as the Christmas stockings. We kept it low-key, just us. She had fun decorating the Easter Eggs, until she tried to drink the vinegar.

The Eggs had cracks, but she had fun!

After Church when friends and family arrived for the Egg Hunt Boo was under the desk watching Austin & Allie on her IPAD. This holiday we were determined to be smart and not force her be involved. Rather we would celebrate and allow her to join us at her own speed.

We had hidden over 200 eggs (yep, we are crazy like that) in the yard. We gave the other children explicit instructions that the eggs on the deck were for Boo. They were welcome to the other 185 throughout the yard. We brought Boo outside, she took one look at the other kids running around and….JOINED IN!!! 

Boo was so excited by the eggs. She ran around the deck shouting EGG. She put them in her basket (way to go PT/OT). And while finding her 10 or so eggs took her as long as the other children finding their 180, she had just as much fun.

She spent the rest of the day carrying around her basket. Where she drew the line? Well, that was with the leaves….

The day was awesome. When it got too much for Boo, she retreated to her happy place. And we were all okay with that!

Crazy Puppy Bailey keeping watch

Happy (very) late Easter everyone! 

And because I am now almost in the top 10 and want to be there…if you haven’t had a chance please would you take a moment to visit Babble and “like” my nomination for Best of the Blogs? It is super simple. Just visit the page and click: like on Facebook or Tweet or Google+ (G+ can be multiple times, Facebook just once per person dang it!)

http://www.babble.com/mom/a-letter-to-new-special-moms/

Mother Nature is still going through “the change“. Saturday? Gorgeous! Sunday? Freezing! Monday? Gorgeous! Tuesday? Raining and freaking freezing (yes that is colder than just freezing because it includes rain).

As I sit in my office rocking working to Jimmy Buffet I was thinking how much nicer aka warmer it would be if life was a Buffet song. Think about it:

Boat drinks–20 degrees and the hockey game is on! Okay, not quite 20 degrees but it still works since I did have the Bruins on!

Cheeseburger in Paradise–we could have cheeseburgers without feeling guilty. Okay, I would take the cheese off. But burgers on the grill sound good, right?

A Pirate looks at 40–who wouldn’t want to go to Paris? 

Changes in Lattitudes, changes in Attitudes–who doesn’t need an attitude adjustment?

Margaritaville–one word: YUM and second word: flipflops and a third thought, would help with our attitudes!

Why don’t we get drunk and….–token song for the husband.

Fruitcakes–so our true friends join us 🙂

One Particular Harbor–who wouldn’t want to live on that beach?

Coast of Carolina–for those, like me, who cannot afford the airfare to St Somewhere.

It’s 5 o’clock somewhere–hence the margaritas and cheeseburgers at 11 am.

Happy Wednesday everyone! We are halfway through the week and almost to Buffet time!


And since a little self-promotion never hurt anyone. Would you take a moment to visit Babble and “like” my nomination for Best of the Blogs? It is super simple. Just visit the page and click: like on Facebook or Tweet or Google+

http://www.babble.com/mom/a-letter-to-new-special-moms/

Thanks!

Welcome to Monday, everyone!

What a weekend. Have I ever mentioned before that I am the least crafty person you would ever hope to meet? Well, that lack of craft-ability crosses over to landscaping.

I really love beautiful yards. I really hate yard work. But this weekend for the first time since sometime in October the weather was beautiful. I had no excuse but to get out there and weed the flower beds that still had last year’s expired daisies. I keep envisioning a Better Homes & Gardens cover shot when I picture my yard. Except it looks more like the Clampetts.

Where all the leaves came from I have no idea. But I used muscles I didn’t know I had in my arms, hands and back. And there is still about another 5 million more. I left those for the husband since my flowerbeds were finally clear. I thought of it as a gift, him not so much. He hates yard work too.

The girls had fun though. I probably should have taken out the camera to capture them running around, blowing bubbles and just enjoying being outside. Boo even went on the grass and the mulch by herself, no prompting. Guess the grass will no longer work as a fence to keep her in the yard. This is when you think, why are we doing therapy? She was so much easier to contain before!!!

And bonus, no shoes went into the fire pit!

Then this morning we had the monthly workshop with Boo’s special ed program. As much as I used to hate this process, really more that I found it overwhelming, I have come to love the workshops. To see how they are working with Boo and being able to incorporate some of the skills at home. It is also nice to be involved in the process. To let them know what behaviors she is exhibiting at home and be provided some thoughts on how to keep Boo engaged.

Boo has really come along way. Recently she seems to be making such progress. This weekend she danced (okay fancy word for jumping in place and waving your arms) and spun around. She made me ‘dance’ (or my version of running in place man) to Austin and Allie about 100 times.
 
Well, this turned into more of a weekend update! I am thinking between dancing and yard work that should count as exercise, right? Because it is always good to end the weekend on a positive note. Even if Monday morning means you have to go to work!

It is time to join Lisa-Jo for 5-minute Friday. The time of day where you write for 5 minutes,unedited, just to show you can.  Today’s prompt: After

Ready, set, go….

After I grow up I will do something meaningful.
After the kids go to bed I will relax.
After the husband goes to work I will clean the house.
After, after, after….

Why do we wait so long? I mean, I am the absolute worst at this! I put stuff off all the time. Not the important stuff, like taxes and work or family related. But “me” stuff. I am forever saying I will get a pedicure, when there is time. I will meet out for a girls night, after everything else is taken care of. I will read an adult book after I put the girls to bed.

Not that I don’t enjoy my life. But there is so much I am putting off until AFTER I do this one thing….

So why do we always wait for AFTER? Why can’t we live in the now! We put everything and everyone before ourselves, leaving our needs for after. After what? For after World Peace? For After our kids are grown (which sadly will come way before World Peace)?

I don’t have the answer for this one, but maybe after work today I will….

Time’s up!

Happy Friday everyone!

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This week’s Finish that Sentence Friday is a typical day in my life looks like….

My day? That is just so boring and uneventful. Plus you get to read about it here everyday!

I thought what a typical day in my life if it was casted by Disney (blame my girls and their obsessions).

9am I would wake to the sound of beautiful theme music and sunshine. Not the kind of sunshine that blares into your skull like a solar flare. The nice, warm sunshine that makes your skin glow. Glow like you are a vampire in Twilight (okay, not a Disney movie. Already off-topic, are you surprised?). 

10am after a long, blissful shower where the only sounds I heard would be birds chirping I would come down the grand staircase (without tripping) to see my children dressed in their best gowns without a smear, smudge or wrinkle. They would be sitting quietly awaiting my morning smile. As we proceed to the dining room to a healthy, already made and still warm breakfast we would talk about the adventures they would undertook in their dreams with their Nana (the dog from Peter Pan).

11am breaksfast would be over and the girls would go with their day Nanny (Mary Poppins, of course) and stay perfectly content. They would sing songs and do crafts or whatever Nanny’s do with their charges.

From this point on I would spend the day lunching with friends, going to the gym (no scratch that, if this is a Disney movie I would be in perfect shape), playing classical music on not just one instrument but five and I would not have one hair out of place. Oh and I might pencil in a pedicure.

Of course all the household chores would be performed by a nice young girl and her hand maidens.

6pm the family would reassemble in the dining room for a gourmet meal, a meal my children will eat without complaint. The girls would sit in their seats (read: not on my lap). Life would be in perfect harmony.

8pm both girls would be snug in their beds, watched by faithful Nana. I am sure Mary Poppins is out somewhere with Bert.

The husband would be home from a hard day of fighting the evil witch. We would go out for a nightcap or two (hey, I was off the Disney-theme in paragraph 1). My hair would still not be out of place….

Oh, crap. I just realized all the moms in the Disney movies are dead. Never mind! I will keep my life, as boring as it is!

Please join the FTSF hosts:

Dear Mother….Nature that is,

Are you feeling okay? I am wondering if perhaps you are suffering from menopause or the flu or some ailment that has confused you.

It is April. Not January or February. March is over. Last night my heat kicked on and I had it set at 58 degrees. I had to wear flannel pajama bottoms. Boo had to wear her thermal sleeper.

It was 24 degrees this morning when I left the house. I had to start the car early and defrost the windshield. We had to wear our winter coats and to Allie’s dismay she had to wear a hat.

It is April. You need to turn up the thermostat. My daffidolis are frozen and my tulips are stunted. You do not need to go too high, like 98 degrees in July. But I would appreciate something in the high-50’s if it wasn’t too much trouble.

With warmest regards,
Kerri

Many writers like Becca, more eloquent than I could ever be, have written about Robert Saylor’s murder. I am sorry that the Grand Jury didn’t see his death as a homicide. But it was. The question is who is at fault? The aide who left him unattended, the police officers that “may” have used excessive force or the theater worker who called THREE security officers?

Over the weekend, I spoke about my outrage that the officers didn’t understand they were dealing with a person with diminished understanding. Many of the people I spoke with are ‘in the field’ police/fire. They offered another perspective. They told me that I couldn’t possibly understand what the officers saw. That often people who are out of control maybe on drugs, may have a psychosis that the officers are unaware of, that there could be a host of other factors that impacted the officer’s judgement. We do not know what the theater worker told them, when they arrived on scene. We do not know if the aide had informed the theater worker that Robert was a man who had Down syndrome and did not understand that he could not stay in the theater. That she had called his mother and they would get him out of the theater as soon as they could.

I do not know what could have possibly made the officers think they were dealing with anyone other than a person with a disability. I have never responded to an emergency. But what I do not, and will not, understand is how this was an emergency?

We do not know the testimonies of the Grand Jury and what led to the acquittal. But we do know that Robert called for his mommy. How scary could he have been that it took three officers to try to restrain him?

The first responders I spoke with stated they do not have enough training in matters like these. They are trained in dealing with hardened criminals, drug-dealers, wife-beaters, how to respond to victims, sexual harassment, etc…but not on how to deal with a person who may have an intellectual disability. There simply isn’t enough funding to go around, right? We are laying off teachers, city workers, police and fire. They may be correct, maybe we need to place the guilt not so much on the off-duty officers, but on their lack of training.

As tax-payers, as parents, as for anyone with any ounce of common sense  I think we need to demand training in deescalating a situation with a person who has an intellectual disability. And it should be mandatory. When 1 in every 88 children have autism and 1 in 691 children are born with Down syndrome, it is a good bet that safety officers will come into contact with at minimum one person who has an intellectual disability!

I reached out to our school safety officer and asked her about the training they receive. She told me that as the SRO she keeps current on her training in dealing with youths with autism. However it is not required.

It should be taught in their police and fire academies and be required core training annually. 

Today is dedicated to autism awareness. But sadly, I wonder what is the point is raising awareness for Autism, for Down Syndrome, heck for Food Allergies if the most important person responding to an emergency does not have the training to help rather than to harm?
Never again should we hear that they didn’t know. Never again should we hear a Robert Saylor crying for his mommy.