New Kids on the Block Love Fest

Gasoline to and from The Woodlands: $32

Dinner at the Cheesecake Factory with my mom, college roommate and her mother and grandmother, and some of my roommate's friends: $40.

An amazing Girls' Night Out complete with friends, family, and 5 hot members of a band (did I mention they were hot??): Priceless!

That's all folks!

This week I courageously, and with a great deal of thought and faith, gave my 30 days notice at work. Liberating, you might think? Not really. Or actually, not yet. I am concerned about the last 4 weeks spent tieing up loose ends, assigning new therapists to my current caseloads, and the ever popular financial question.

No, I will not be looking for another job. Yes, I will be staying home. What drags me into the suburban woman's dream? You guessed it. Family. I have big plans. Please note that I said, "plans". We shall see how those well-laid plans pan out.

On a side note, I took my mom to see NKOTB for the second time in less than a year. My love is renewed, the fire rekindled, the light burns bright. They have moved from a teeny-bop, sugary sweet, dreamy group of teenagers into broad shouldered, scruffy, sexy, fathers who happen to be amazing singers and performers. Their music has morphed from "Popsicle" to "Sexify my love" and "Full Service". Yes Jordan, you may give me the Full Service. I will willingly leave the bills, soccer games, therapies, school work, spaghetti dinners, and Transformers to accept your Full Service. And no, I will not be nervous.

End of the year for the boys

Caleb and Jansen have both finished their 2008-2009 school year and I am proud to announce my new Preschool 4 and 1st Grader!!! I am so proud of them both. May had to have been the most busy month yet, even busier than March due to the end of school festivities for each child, my work schedule, weddings, babies etc. Caleb received the Bookworm Award at school and was very excited to participate in his Kindergarten program. Jansen completed Preschool 3 and loved the Red, White, and Blue Parade and Picnic that his school hosted for them. Honestly, time is going so fast and I cannot believe that my youngest child is going into Kindergarten next year! AGH!!! At the end of it all, Jansen turned 4 and had an awesome American Idol party and he now shares his birthday with my best friend, Kara's, new son Andrew Keaton Davis. We are in for a busy summer!!!!!

Updates from insanity

Well, things have been really rough around here lately, thus I have not been blogging much lately. It seemed like things were going really well for Caleb until after his birthday when all things went down hill. He started having accidents at school and at home, he was up all hours of the night, as was I, he was having hour long tantrums. And finally we found out that it was all due to a fire alarm that went off at school and scared the peewilly out of him. Six weeks later, and Caleb was still not sleeping at night. One night he got up and got a butter knife and scratched up his bunk bed, my dining table, and his tv, all because he was trying to cut down his smoke detector. He and Josh went through the house disconnecting the green light on all the smoke alarms and voila! Caleb is back to sleeping all night long. Because Caleb has Autism and his language skills are still developing, we had no idea what the problem was and he couldn't tell us.

Which leads to the next development. Caleb's psychiatrist has been leaning toward diagnosing Caleb with Asperger Syndrome, but was always hesitant until the school could complete testing. So we started the testing process in October, and in April we had an ARD meeting for the school to tell us they are diagnosing him with Autism. So now that the words were spoken, and we have written confirmation of this, we are working to deal with it. There are so many uncertainties associated with this. Caleb has some fantastic strengths, and he also has some overwhelming obstacles. We work with him every day and learn something new about him and how he learns daily.

Anyway, that was a brief update on what has been going on in our lives. Hopefully I will be able to blog a little more in the coming weeks!

So many improvements!

I am so incredibly proud of Caleb! He had his birthday party this weekend at McDonalds and everyone came! He interacted beautifully with each child and even finally followed them up into the top parts of the play area. I know, that may seem like soooo not a big deal. But Caleb has never once actually gone into the tunnels all the way to the top. He looked totally typical, like any other 6 year old boy. We almost cried.

Anyway, we had a great time, he got some really great presents, and we got to visit with many of the other childrens' parents which was refreshing. Caleb is so antisocial that we rarely talk to or see anyone. Although since being in kindergarten, we have really been trying to push him out of his comfort zone and get him involved with more social activities. The cake was so perfectly delicious and McDonalds was so helpful. Total success!!!

Headless chicken

That is what I feel like. A complete headless chicken. Although, in all honesty, I should prepare myself for this every year. March Madness is in our house, as well as May Madness, and then followed by December Madness. Those months, always and without fail, turn out to be our busiest, craziest, hairiest months. This year there has been an abundance of babies. I guess those hot summer months are hot for a reason because 9 months later, babies are everywhere. Caleb's birthday, Spring Break, 4 baby showers, 1 tonsilectomy and adenoidectomy, 4 doctor's appointments, 1 wedding shower, Open House, Bunco, The Joy Ride, 3 birthday parties, 2 BBQ's, Spring Cleaning inside and out, preparing for two school Easter parties, and tons of work at both Josh and my jobs is covering our family calendar like a rainbow.

This year, Caleb had two parties. He had a family party, given by my mother in law mainly because Josh's side of the family would not be able to make it to his McDonald's party the following week. He chose McD's as the party place and quickly made his choices for friends to invite. That party is tonight and everyone is looking forward to it. Thank goodness for McDonalds. They provide everything, and we just have to show up and bring a cake.

My dad, who most of you know, is my #1 hero, will be losing his job in April. He desperately needs to have a double knee replacement, but he just won't do it. It is heartbreaking to watch him struggle to walk every day or to get up from his chair. We have all told him this is the time for the surgery, but he is insisting on trying to find another job. I can't imagine the feeling of being so close to retirement (in this terrible economy) and putting of a surgery that could change your life, just because you want to start all over in a new job. That is completely frightening from all angles. My parents are truly amazing!

Josh and I are so blessed. We both have jobs, two gorgeous children, we can pay our bills. We are so thankful and know that at any time, this could all change. I wake up every morning and thank God for all that he has blessed us with...things that we don't deserve but enjoy. And speaking of that....I went to a fantastic garage sale this morning. It was advertised to begin at 9 but Jansen has to be at school at 9 so I was a little late. Then when I got there I realized that it opened at 8:30. The reason I went was because I was looking at an air hockey table and a foosball table....both of which were sold by the time I arrived. But I was able to get Caleb a great new Rock-n-Roll shirt for next fall, a ceramic football bank for Jansen (he starts getting an allowance when he turns 4), a School Memories scrapbook for preschool-graduation, and a couple pots and pans that I had been wanting....all for the great low price of $2.75. My day has started off great!!

Back to Irish basics

I love to color my hair. It's just hair right?! You can cut it, perm it, flat iron it, color it, roll it, braid it. The beautiful thing is that it is never permanent and it will always grow out. Thank goodness for that, as I have had some really really bad hair cuts. Last year, I dyed my hair dark brown with blonde highlights, and then I colored it 4 shades of blonde for a trip to Los Angeles. As the blonde was completed, I almost passed out reading the bill. So it grew and grew until I couldn't take it any more. Just take me back to my typical natural color please. Less maintenance, less expense, just regular old me. Check back with me in a few months when I will be complaining...My face is so white, my hair is too red...I think I will go dark.