Apple and Eve

So, I belong to influenster.com and occasionally they send me stuff to try for free and write about it on my humble blog. Today I got a box of apple and eve organic juices to try. The kids have pretty much decimated the juice boxes we got (lemonade, apple raspberry and fruit punch) and the hubby creature attacked the cherry juice. (I am not a fan of cherry anything) the kids were impressed with the yummy flavors and slightly surprised that I let them have a juice box. The hubs thought the cherry juice was perfect too. Would I buy it? Depends on the price..around here organic translates into expensive. Is it on the list for a treat for the monsters? Definitely! Do I recommend it? Based on the reactions of 3 very happy kids and a happy hubby..yes!

Beach Grandparents

When I was a kid, my parents wisely took us to the Outer Banks for a couple weeks every summer. When we got older, we were allowed to explore the village of Buxton without them. On one of our exploring runs, we stumbled upon The Old Gray House. We met the owners, Dewey and Mary Parr. Those two..wow. Mary was warm and grandmotherly to us, a pack of tourist kids from PA who were out unsupervised. Then there was Dewey. He sat us down and started telling stories of growing up on Hatteras and spending time at his grandparents house..the very house we were sitting at. The very first time I met him, I was convinced that there was nothing he didn't know and I quickly made daily visits to see him and soak up every bit of knowledge that he had to offer. That was some twenty plus years ago..at least. The Old Gray House has always been a must stop on trips to Hatteras and chats with Dewey and Mary have always been the highlight of my visits. I've always held them close to my heart and was so excited when they finally got a Facebook page. (Even if their website is pretty spectacular) Fast forward to 2013..I got word that they had lost their son. Thru constantly checking on them thru social media (and I mean obsessively), I became friends with a good friend of theirs. Sharon and I clicked pretty quickly and soon enough, I was fortunate enough to be accepted as a friend on their private Facebook accounts. What started out as me adoring them when I was a kid has quickly transitioned into my most treasured friendships. I adore them. I am fortunate enough to be able to call them my beach family. They are my beach grandparents. As I write this, my beloved beach grandpa, the one and only Mr.Dewey, is facing melanoma. He's got a couple surgeries coming up soon and I know that if any 84 year old can handle it, it's him and if anyone can handle getting him thru recovery, it's my beach grandma, Gram Mary. These are two people who have touched my life in more ways than they will EVER know and I love them to the moon and back a million times. If you're reading this, pray for them.

If you want to find the most amazing people ever created, look up the old gray house on Facebook or www.outerbanksshells.com

Please..don't tell me you're sorry.

I spent the better part of thursday morning at children's with Benny, his Aunt Steph and his cousin whom he affectionately calls Kitten. Physically, the little monster is absolutely fine, but the reason we all got up at the ungodly hour of 5am and made the 2 hr trek to Wexford was simple..he needed to be seen to determine if our suspicions of him having autism were true before school started. School starts, rather inconveniently, on the 25 and the first available appointment was the 13...at 8:30 in the morning.

When we got to the building (which, is, unfortunately, rather crappily marked) we were LOST. Fortunately, it showed on our faces and a kind gentleman directed us to the correct office where we were relieved to find that yes, we had an appointment there. We met with a very kind psychologist..Benny was not amused with her at first. Hey, he was exhausted, hungry and she was a stranger.This kid is terrified of strangers. His immediate reaction to her was to shut down completely causing her to do my interview and give me some paperwork while she ATTEMPTED to get him to play with her. Um, yeah..not happening. He FREAKED. Wisely, she decided to give us a break while she scored my paperwork and while she was gone, Aunt Steph tried to calm him down..yeah, wasn't happening either. Fortunately, Kitten woke up at the right time and snapped him out of it. By the time the dr came back, he was his usual, adorable, overly concerned with Kitten's well being self. She made herself friendly with Kitten and he decided that maybe, just maybe, she wasn't out to eat him, so he decided to play with her..as long as Kitten and Aunt Steph were nearby and he was allowed to check on Kitten whenever he felt like. I have never relaxed so quickly as i did when he started to play with the dr because i NEEDED that diagnosis and i knew we weren't going to get it the way the morning started.

Long story short, we walked out of the office with a preliminary diagnosis of mild autism with adhd and a recommendation for him to start first grade. The full report won't be ready until school starts, but that little paragraph on a piece of paper is enough to get things started for him and that makes me happy. He's basically a mild, high functioning Aspie with sensory processing disorder and adhd. i am thrilled to finally have my suspicions confirmed and now we can move on and help him be successful.

Now, about the title of this post "please don't tell me you're sorry". When i tell people that he's autistic, the first thing i hear is "i'm so sorry". THERE IS NOTHING TO BE SORRY ABOUT. he has autism, not cancer. He learns differently and has some trouble understanding things and expressing himself. Big deal. He's alive and it won't take much to help him succeed. Kids with autism are a lot of work, but i'm already 6 years into this..i know he's a lot of work. cute, but a lot of work. Kids with autism don't need your pity, neither do their parents. What kids with autism need is a lot of unconditional love and understanding. They need patience and a hand to hold. Their parents need understanding friends because being the friend of an autism parent isn't easy. We CRAVE grownup time without kids, but we're usually too exhausted to do anything about it. We run on caffiene and alcohol...energy to face the day and something to take the edge off of yet another day of being the only one who understands our kids. Our lives are vastly different than parents of normal kids..we can't just get a sitter..i literally have 3 people i can leave him with because he's hard to handle and he has trust issues, so most of the time, it's just easier to stay home. We need friends who understand the difference between a normal kid throwing a temper tantrum and an autistic kid having a meltdown because i assure you, they are NOT the same thing. I have NO patience for tantrums, but a meltdown has to run its course. He's not ill behaved..ask anyone who knows me, i run a tight ship..behavior standards are the same for everyone..HIGH. He has a hard time when he gets overwhelmed and he melts down..watch him in action and you'll see..its not the same as a tantrum. Most folks don't understand this. Life as a puzzle piece family is interesting, at times, crazy difficult, but its also a lot of fun. Most of the autistic kiddos I know are so full of love and they WANT to please..they just have a hard time figuring out how to do it. I'm not asking for you to feel sorry for me when i tell you he's autistic, i'm explaining to you why he's acting in a way that to you doesn't seem normal.

As of Thursday, August 13, we joined the global puzzle piece family. Its a family I am proud of. I've known in my heart for a while that we were going to be a part of it, but I had to have it on paper. Its not just my journey now..its my husband's, our older kids, our siblings and their families, my parents and my huge, crazy, loving extended family's journey now too. As they all come to terms with this whole puzzle thing, give them a hug, buy them a drink, but please..don't tell them you're sorry.

We were supposed to shove off at 3am one october friday morning. the plan was to get out of town before the school busses got going and things got crazy. thursday was a day of planning, packing, loading the van and getting the monsters to and from school. My best friend and i were going to be doing all of the driving and navigating for the trip. 14 solid hours on the road stood between us and the beach. we had planned on getting some sleep that thursday too, but we were too wound up and by the time the hubby called to say he was leaving work early, we had decided to leave as soon as he got home and changed his clothes. the kids were pinging and we knew that no one was gonna sleep anyway. the van was loaded, the kids were in their jammies (so were we..we had children to embarrass after all) and in their respective seats. the first round of caffinated beverages was placed within reach and we were ready as soon as he got home.

After a quick stop at her parents to say good bye (we had borrowed their van), we hit the road. I have never been so thankful for unlimited data in my life. I used google maps the whole way down and my facebook kept me awake so that i could keep her awake. The hubs was in charge of taking care of the kids. how many kids you ask? 4. ages 12, 7, 5 and 2. We had a van full. We had plans to stop when the van got to a half tank because my dad had warned me of a couple stretches on the route where there wasn't a gas station to be had for a couple hundred miles and cell service was questionable in a couple places too (hellooo...west virginia anyone?). When going to the beach, i usually go to delaware and crash with unsuspecting family for a night, then make the 6 hour trip to the outer banks the next day. not only were we not sleeping this trip, we were going on a route that i was largely unfamiliar with. It was going to be one hell of an adventure. 

We stopped in Barkeyville at the Sheetz because this chick needed coffee..GOOD coffee and this was going to be the last of it i'd see for two weeks. if you wanted a good laugh, you should've been there. i had on fuzzy sesame street pj pants, a spongebob tshirt and my hair was in pig tails. my bestie was dressed the same way. the kids were MORTIFIED that they had to make a potty run with us looking like that (mission accomplished). After the coffee run, we hit the road again and i think we were in the middle of west by god virginia when the hubs woke up...he had to go to the bathroom. the idiot thought we were gonna pull over. um....no. there were no lights of ANY kind on that road, he could wait until we found a rest stop and got gas again. turned out he waited until we got into virginia (oops).

Now, anytime the bestie and i get together, its an adventure. Nonstop giggles await the poor person who is stuck with us. this trip..it was even more interesting because we were over sugared, over caffinated and under slept. All was fine until we got near Hampton Roads Virginia. we follwed a toys r us driver who mustve been more tired that we were (it was maybe 1am) and all was fine until he tried to run us off the road for the third time. I looked at her and told her to put her foot into it, i was NOT getting stuck in one of the tunnels when he wrecked. the kids were asleep and i had to pee. now, i'm used to travelling, and can hold my caffeine pretty well, but that guy..lord. he scared the crap out of us one too many times. we passed him and when we had put a safe distance between us, we LOST it laughing..so hard that we woke up my oldest who informed us that there were people who were trying to sleep and could we please shut up. yeah...that backfired because we lost it even harder. 

If you've never been to Hatteras Island, you don't know the joys of crossing the Herbert C Bonner Bridge. it is, without a doubt, one of the most unsafe bridges in the country (its actually ranked worse than the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnels) due to its age..long story, ask me and i'll write a post about that whole mess. I kinda kept the part about how bad the bridge was to myself..i didn't want to scare my now exhausted driver. Oh, yeah..as we were crossing the bridge, my mom called to tell me that she was going to buy lunchables for the kids to eat when we got there (we were going to land down there around 4pm according to the orignial plans). I laughed and asked her when she was going to go get breakfast..she said around 7. I asked her if she minded waiting because we kinda left at 4pm the night before and i was in desperate need of coffee and pastry. Yeah..i'm 36..i was in a WORLD of trouble for that one. I didn't tell her because i didn't want to worry her. She wouldn't have slept and i needed SOMEONE to watch the kids when i eventually crashed from sheer exhaustion. 

By the time the sun was rising, i had posted that i was home. i consider that island my home. its where my heart and soul belong. well, guess who got into trouble again? yup..i had also neglected to tell my beach parents and beach grandparents that i was leaving earlier. hell hath no fury like worried beach family. oy. We had crossed the lego bridge (aka the new, new inlet bridge..thank you hurricane irene) over an on again, off again inlet in the Pea Island refuge. (its an army bridge..is supposedly temporary and scared the crap out of my bestie) There had also been torrential rain shortly before we got there and there was water everywhere. Hell of a way to welcome the girl to the island!

As i'm getting into trouble all around for not telling anyone of our little adventure, we finally arrive at the parental units house (well, their rental anyway)..we left early to squeeze out another day in paradise and ya know what? i wouldn't change a single thing about that road trip. it felt absolutely perfect and theres no one else i'd stuff 4 kids, a spousal unit and a bunch of stuff in a mini van with and drive 14 hours on no sleep.

this little post was inspired by my friends over at finish the sentence friday. i'm co-hosting our weekly blog hop this week with my good friends Kristi Campbell and Kerri Ames.

http://new.inlinkz.com/view.php?id=539178" title="click to view in an external page.">An InLinkz Link-up

This summer is starting off with a bang..and a snap..and a pop..and an ouch.

the minions have been off of school for summer break, or parent torture, for a solid week now. about 3 days into the hostage situation, one of us ended up with a broken toe, 2 scraped knees, an elbow that looks like hamburger, a case of shock....yep, it was me. this is how it happened.

Wednesday was a mild enough day, only a few choruses of "i'm bored..stop touching me" from the minions. fed the crabbies, dug out the 55 because i thought (wrongly) that one of them had died..still don't know that the issue was, but it stunk. BAD. sifted 210lbs of sand TWICE to make sure that i didn't miss any dead (and therefore REALLY stinky) crabbie type family members. got that tat put back together with everyone back where they belonged. decided to take 5 and some advil to recover from that little escapade when the furry, barking family members decided that they wanted to go out. Fine, i got their bark collars on them and proceeded to put them in the outdoor kennel. well, Stupid decided he didn't want to go in there and took off on me. little jerk only got as far as the neighbor's ac unit when something spooked him and he headed back towards me. the oldest minion yelled at him and he came by me so i made a grab for him. an ill fated grab for him. i missed. he, wisely, ran into the house (with my oldest right behind him). yup, i face planted right into the gravel of my driveway. thankfully, the oldest saw me, came right over to me, took my phone out of my back pocket (because he knows i'd cry if i killed my brand new phone) and helped me roll over. by this time, i was shaking..shit, i knew what was going on..i helped my hubby study for his first responder class. i was in shock. i quickly elevated my legs on my son and kept talking as i laid down and waited for the shaking to pass, which it did pretty quickly. i knew my toe was busted so i had him take my sneaks off and sure enough..it was black and blue and somehow, cut in two places as well. that explained the shakes. i sat up (with help) and looked towards the house. it was only about 3 feet away. might as well have been a mile. he helped me gimp to the recliner and quickly set about cleaning me up (i looked like a toddler who was learning to walk on the gravel). by this time, the hubs was texting me on his lunch break as usual when i asked him to call me. i told him what happened and he did as good of an assessment on me as he could from 20 miles away. i'd live, but was given strict orders to take some advil, drink lots of water, ice and elevate the foot and oh, yeah..do NOT nap. i sent a friend a text and she came up to check on me and hang out for a while in case i needed to go to the er. (no, i never ended up going..its the joy of having medical people in your contacts list) by the time the hubs had gotten home from work, i was miserable, but he surmised that i'd live. didn't sleep real well wed night..thursday sucked, today..well, i'm miserable. had to go pay the mortgage and go get supplies (its payday). that involved way too much walking for me. as i type this, i'm sitting on the front porch because its too blasted hot in the house, my foot is elevated and iced and i'm drinking lemonadade. the older you get, you realize its not the fall itself that hurts..its that quick stop on something hard that does! if this is how my summer is going to go, i'm going to need an air conditioned bubble!

Welcome to another installment of my favorite weekly blogging chore (and the only blog post i've managed to get up this week.. sorry guys)..FINISH THE SENTENCE FRIDAY!!! This week's crazy prompt is: after a hard day's work.

Some days, after a really hard day of picking up after ungrateful beings, i really kinda just wish i lived the life my cats have. i mean, think about it. they have their own staff, they sleep all day, play all night (assuming they have any desire to move), they can be as bitchy as they want whenever they want and people never bat an eye. Cats have it great! Take Spike for example. she's the new Queen in the colony, replacing her royal highness Queen Nermal after Nermie died right before thanksgiving. She's 6 years old and has never caught a mouse in her life. Spoiled much? well, lets see..her highness demands a dish of milk every saturday (caturday), she only likes to lick the tomato sauce off of PEPPERONI pizza, you don't dare say the word bath around her or you'll get "the look". The best spot in the house to sleep (as decided by the cats) is my middle son's bed. Yup, she has chased every single one of the other cats off of it and claimed it for herself. if she knocks something over, she gives you that "i'm a cat. i'm cute and superior to you. deal with it slave" look and sure enough, you pick up whatever she knocked over and pet her...like the slave that you are. I'm currently getting the look because the kittens are in my room eating..you guessed it, kitten food. guess who thinks it belongs to her. my husband, who HATES air conditioning, just put the big ac unit in the dining room because SPIKE might get hot and need me to turn it on. no mention of how the heat screws with me and makes me sick..noo, he's more worried about poor spike than me. Thats how its always been around here. we work hard so that our cats can have the best life pawsible. Hell, they even boss the dogs around. Big, "viscious" pittbull mix? eh, he's trained. they rule him. if he's on the ottoman and thats where one of them wants to be, he moves. that spot on the floor that he just made comfortable for himself? theirs if they want it. the water dish? he waits for them to finish. He out weighs them by a good 50lbs, but you'd never know it to watch them interact. they don't care if they put weight on..no such thing as swim suit season for them, workouts are something they DON'T do and laugh at us for doing. after all, they don't get fat, they get fluffy! That short night of sleep? yep..23.75 hrs isn't enough and guess what...they don't care. if there is one kibble placed the wrong way in their dish, they'll meow pathetically until we slaves show up to fix the issue. they've got it great and that's why, after a hard day's work, i really, really..just want to be a cat.

FTSF..it started in the line at the grocery...

its friday which means its FINISH THE SENTENCE FRIDAY!!! (aka the one day of the week i actually glue myself to the chair long enough to write a blog post) this week's topic is "it started in the line at the grocery" this should be good!

it was an adventure in itself..we had made a 3 hr drive to the west virgina line to pick up some hermit crabs that needed a new home. It was a kinda last minute trip and i had grabbed the only clothes that were clean..a tank top, a sweatshirt and a pair of jeans. Figuring we wouldn't be running into anyone that we actually knew, i was safe. my bestie didn't look much better as she had picked me up after she had gotten off work..at the pet store down town. now, for normal people, a 6 hr round trip to pick up 3 little crabbies would be insane, but well, we're not normal and we do this kind of stupid thing all the time. after we met the young lady who we picked up the "kids" from, we decided to check out the walmart down there since we were bored anyway and not in a hell of a hurry. we grabbed some snacks for the drive home and while we were waiting in line (why the hell walmart has 20 checkouts and only ever has one open is beyond me) we were talking about an old friend from high school who i had been texting while we were on our little adventure. with a gleam in here eye, my bestie decides that we need to go surprise him. I hadn't seen him in 20 years even though we'd been talking on facebook for a couple years. I sent him a text asking him for the name of the town he was working in and like an idiot, he told me (he later told me he should've KNOWN we were up to something). Thank spongebob for google maps. a quick look on there told me we were within driving distance and we'd get there before he got off work. PERFECT! fired off a couple texts home to let the hubs know what we were up to (no, it didn't surprise him in the slightest) and off we went. I was playing over caffinated navigator and keeping up the texts as if nothing was going on. it was all fun and games til we got within, oh..a half hr of him and the goober decides to see where i'm at (stupid facebook location services). "you're WHERE?" um..don't worry about it was my response. "how long til you get here?"" um..how the hell am i supposed to know..i don't even know where we are, its dark and ohio is FLAT. it all looks the same. you're the genius who busted me..figure it out." somehow, we managed to get there in one piece despite HYSTERICAL laughter on our our parts. we even made it in to the store and clear to the back before he busted us because i was laughing so hard i couldn't see straight. I heard him coming up behind me and KNEW i was in trouble. all i heard was "busted" and then HE started laughing (no, i don't even know what we were laughing at). he politely asked us not to make too big of a mess in there til he got off work and then we'd go get something to eat. i have no idea how we managed to behave ourselves for an hour..oh wait..we followed him around and basically drove him crazy (he didn't say we couldn't annoy HIM for an hour) and then we went out for coffee and caught up on 20 years before we made the 100 mile drive home..at 1am! It was the second most fun thing my bestie and i have ever done (except for that 14 hr drive to the beach in october that we made with the hubs and all 4 kids..on no sleep) and it all started in the checkout line at a walmart in the middle of nowhere, somewhere near the wva line!

 **disclaimer** i was, am and always will be the girl who has more guy friends than girlfriends. this particular friend i've known most of my life and is a brother from another mother. time has a way of separating us and facebook has a way of bringing us back together. the fact that we went about 200 miles out of our way to surprise him for no real reason was absolutely not surprising to my husband. in fact, he would've been more surprised if we hadn't done it. I've been to hell and back in the last 5 months. going to see this friend was exactly what i needed to do and i'd do it again in a heartbeat.