End of a Weekend and more to come

Today has felt more like November is coming rather than May.  The wind is blowing and the sweat shirts are on the kids, myself and the dog.  It's COLD here in East TN.  I don't know what mother nature has in store for us in the upcoming months.  Currently there is a "freeze" warning tonight and snow in the upper elevations of the Smoky Mountains.  I am pulling the ferns in and snuggling under our down comforter tonight!

Logan is about to lose 2 teeth!  He is so freaked out it's incredabily endearing.  He is holding a wet paper towel in his mouth right now asleep.  He wouldn't eat anything but soup tonight and his eyes were bulging out of his head looking at me asking what was going to happen? Was it going to hurt?  Why was there blood.  I am glad he is asleep. He is sure to be dreaming of the tooth fairy tonight!

Hope you enjoy the pictures.  Have got to get these kids to bed and work in the studio tonight!  

ashlee's 80's bday party

logan's school field trip to the zoo

jack and I go on date to the mall

jack at chucky cheese

tatum shopping at target

mom at stroll on Carr st. / our store front in Homberg

don't tell me he dosen't look like Justin Beiber!

tatum waiting for Logan to get out of class

at Logan's Easter egg hunt at school

matt hangin' with the kids outside

i have so many more pictures to share.  I will do some more tomorrow.  going to get some of the new house.  promise! 

happy Monday! 

smile.

me myself and I

Logan at the Zoo with Kindergarden class

Three Ducks in Spring

easter has come and gone

spring is happening everyday

kids are getting tired of school and just want to play!

hunting for eggs

pretty in pink

logan found money inside!

one of my favorite flowers

almost 8years old!

jack eating a mcdonal's ice cream! no kidding!!!

i find that we have more to do around the house, guess that's why they call it "spring cleaning"!

i am flooded with kid clothes and happy faces, one i can't live with and the later i can't live without!

our front yard is sllllllllllllooooooooowwwwwwwwwwlllllllllly coming together.
 matt and i are picking up the plants etc this weekend. can't wait to move on to something else, the upstairs bathroom gets me excited these days, the front yard has seriously been a three year project! christ!
really?

we like to blame it on the kids (wink wink)

off to school

we are plotting and planning for new beginnings but nothing really a go yet.  we will come up with something.  

right now we are just trying to clean the house!

after that we can sit down and think.

until then i will just keep taking pictures and keep everyone saying cheese.

little miss thing

logan's kindergarden class/easter egg hunt

A is for Autism

April is Autism Awareness month.

If you read my blog and know anything about my family and beautiful son JACK you know he is autistic.

There are a lot of thing I could post regarding who he is and how much I love him.  But if you go back through my postings you will find all that out.  What is on my mind right now is how important it is for the awareness to spread.

Autism is "spreading" at an alarming rate.  I was just informed yesterday that Autism Speaks now says that it's 1 in every 84 kids who are diagnosed on the spectrum and in boys it is a staggering 1 in 54!

I am not one to follow popular belief in why or how.  I am not one to think it is something in the "air", but really WHAT is going on? I am starting to wonder myself.  Why ? How? What?

Autism has become such a part of our life that it seems "normal".


Children with disabilities is slowly becoming some what of a "norm".  When I was living in Los Angeles, I met more mom's at the parks who thought "something" was up than not.
The word Autism was thrown around like a blanket.

All I know is that five years ago I wasn't answering developmental questions about Jack at 14months but if you walk into a well visit today you are handed a paper and a pen to check off the YES's you can find.

YES she is doing this.  NO he is not.

Living in a house with one child on the spectrum and the other two not I am constantly swinging from world to world, hanging on my rope and jumping into the water of autism any second that it comes up on the tide.  It's not always.  I am a lucky one.  Jack is high functioning in many ways.  He seems so "normal"at times you forget.  And then something happens and you remember.

I love him.  The journey is always moving forward.  He is moving forward day after day.  He smiles with such happiness in his eyes I cry if I think about it too hard.  I am grateful for all that he is.

I am grateful for all the support now in the world and the people who spend their days working on trying to find out exactly what is going on.

I don't think there is a "cure".  I don't think it is a disease.  I think it's just different.  These kids are Zebra's living in a monkey world.  They see the world in such a different way.

I would give my left arm to see it for just one day.

What a beautiful and interesting world it would be.

Thank you to all who give our family support known and unknown it does not go unnoticed.  Life is a strange journey.  I am glad I have my "strange" Jack by my side.

To all those I have known who sit on our rainbow---happy sliding.

Pictures of March going into April

So much is happening around the house I am spinning like a tornado in Kansas heading for the Emerald City.

Pictures of the kids are the ONE thing for sure!

Enjoy.

Will write more later, when the dust settles and I can collect my thoughts and find Toto.