bye bye

WE SOLD OUR HOUSE (officially this morning!)!!!!!!


YAHOOOOOOO!!!!!



And now we are off!
I may or may not have computer access for the next couple days.


And by the way- saying goodbye truly sucks.

Almost gone

Well... here I sit on our completely empty living room floor in our almost completely empty house... and yes, my computer IS still hooked up. And yes, I may be slightly addicted :)

The moving van is packed to capacity thanks to wonderful folks from our new church who are driving an insane number of hours to move our stuff.

All that is left to do is for me to clean, clear out the fridge and say goodbye.

Our house looks a lot bigger empty :)

the big Non-assessment

Well... today did not go as well as we had hoped.

I think I had pinned way too much hope on this "official assessment" being done today.

Basically after 3 hours of various test and stuff with the child psychologist, the mental health doctor and the psychiatric nurse lady and the mental health social worker lady they told me they didn't feel like they had adequate time to give us an official diagnosis. Aiden doesn't fit nicely into any of their categories so they would need several more appointments to go through all of the possibilities.

Ironically I think the medication that has helped Aiden so very much actually hindered his assessment today. They said that his behaviour today didn't match the reports and assessments they have collected over the past year.

I felt like yelling "OBVIOUSLY they don't match!! He has only been on the medication a couple months and it has made a HUGE difference but that doesn't mean the issues are gone!".

And I guess all the work we have been doing over the past year with Aiden teaching him to recognize what different facial expressions mean, and how to take turns and how to express emotions in a healthy way actually was NOT helpful for his assessment. Go figure. The fact that he could parrot back what we had taught him about emotions meant that they couldn't just do a quick assessment. They would have to actually have several sessions with him to see how he actually responds in different situations.

Not that they didn't have huge concerns about Aiden. They just weren't sure what "label" to give him. They threw around the terms "Aspergers" (which is what serveral specialists have thought so far), "Anxiety disorders", "Pervasive Development Disorder- Not Otherwise Specified" (how's that for a label!) and they ended off with this statement "well, we know something is wrong we just don't know what".

Thanks for that.

And it was especially weird because the intake social worker we have been speaking with and working with for the past year wasn't able to make it in to work today so we had a substitute social worker who told me first thing "well, I actually know nothing about your son so we'll just see how this goes shall we?".

Great.

And they had not even gotten half the reports that they were supposed to get. I don't know who screwed that up but my pediatrician says that he sent over his reports and they didn't have them and the school says they sent everything over but the centre didn't have the most important reports from the educational psychologist and the reports from Aiden's IEP at school.

I had brought all of my copies with me and they took them and photocopied them and said they would read them over before writing up the final report but that didn't help us this afternoon.

Basically they told me that under normal circumstances they would simply schedule us for a series of assessments by all of their various specialists but since we are moving they can't.

So we really DO have to start all over in Ontario.

Plus we had to drive in blizzard-like conditions 3 hours each way. Fun.

So yes. I am rather discouraged about that. I had SO wanted it to be finished before we left. But obviously that is not to be the case.

Aiden

Tomorrow is a big day for us- Aiden's assessment!! We've been waiting for a VERY long time for this. This is the "official" diagnosis that will either confirm the previous Aspergers diagnosis we have (very likely to happen) or come up with some other diagnosis. It is a huge relief to get to this point after so many years.

And of COURSE Aiden is sick. His asthma is really really really bad and his croupy horrible I-can't-breathe cough is back. I HATE that cough. The poor child takes some serious asthma meds every day and it is just not controlling it. And OF COURSE I packed our super-duper-only-when-absolutely-needed meds. And OF COURSE I have no idea where they are. Typical. I just really didn't think we would need them this week. Sigh.

Aiden also lost his front tooth last night- in the middle of the night might I add. We heard him yelling that he lost his tooth at about 4 am today. So tonight the tooth fairy is going to visit :)

Those of you who pray please pray for Aiden- that he gets better quickly and that his assessment goes well tomorrow. Thanks :)

lovely

My husband took some beautiful pictures of my kiddos today... you can see them HERE if you are interested :)

Weekly Winners - it's still winter here.

Awesomer

Conversation overheard between my two sons...

Aiden: (jumping on our bed wearing a race car driver costume and toque and holding a star wars light sabre) Hey Owen! Let's be famous for our awesomeness!

Owen: (jumping on our bed wearing a batman costume and baseball cap and holding a star wars light sabre) Ya Aiden! That's a GREAT idea!

Aiden: I KNOW!

Owen: We should practice our moves!

Aiden: Ok you be awesome and I'll be awesomer!

Owen: (yells loud battle cry and launches self onto pile of pillows) oh yeahhhhhh! I AM awesome!

I took the plunge

I just bought my own domain name (www.tarasviewoftheworld.com) through blogger... I happen to be rather technically challenged so I am really hoping it works... and that when they say it will work the same way and the rss feed won't need to change etc. that they aren't lying to me!! Because honestly? I don't know how to fix anything if it is all screwed up!

Please let me know if my blog is all screwed up!

Bestest Husband Ever

My husband wrote such a nice post about me today (you can read it HERE) and I just want to say I love him too :)

Changes changes everywhere

Today I had a certain friend ask me if I was posting all my stories about moving somewhere else... and no, I'm not. Honestly? My brain is a little fried these days. At least a few times every day I end up standing in the middle of a room wondering what on earth I should do next! I packed all the pictures off our walls today... things look so bare now.

The kids are all dealing with the impending move differently. Olivia is extra clingy and wants me to play tea party with her 24 hours a day. She is also not sleeping very well. She is sleeping in our room and her room has been emptied and is now being filled up with boxes and boxes and more boxes. I'm sure she wonders what on earth we are doing!

Aiden is hyper. And easily agitated. More than normal. He spends a good portion of every day provoking his younger brother to wrath. He also has a VERY loose front tooth that is almost ready to fall out. The boys have holidays from school this week which means they are both EXTRA hyper. Which is not the most helpful for me I must admit.

The boys new school is being wonderfully accomodating and doing all they can to ease the transistion. They sent us a little book with pictures of the boys' new teachers, classrooms etc. and we have been reading that with the kids as well as looking at pictures of the house we are renting.

I think that has helped a lot for the boys to be able to visualize, at least a little bit, where we are moving too.
Owen is a sensitive soul and has been responding to everyone else's stress. He is rather whiny when I am too busy packing or cleaning, he fights with Aiden a lot and gets crazy hyper when Aiden goes nuts, and his little sister wanting to play with him is driving him crazy. But he is also very sweet.

On Sunday we had our farewell at the church and my dear friend Becky stood up and said some very nice things and I bawled like a baby. Owen came and stood beside me saying "Mommy? Mommy? Are you ok? Why are you crying? Mommy?" I think I freaked him out a bit. Poor kid.
I had a very nice visit with Becky tonight.

I can't even begin to describe to you all how much I will miss her. The very thought makes my heart ache.

I am so very grateful for the internet and modern technology that will allow me to keep in touch! It won't be the same but it DOES make a difference.

We have had an offer on our house and that is VERY good news. It still is pending all sorts of stuff but at least we know someone is interested!

And Aiden's assessment date is in 6 sleeps... YAY!!! I can't wait to have that completed!

Moving day is quickly approaching... 8 more sleeps.

Where IS the off switch on this thing?

Oh. My. Goodness.

My son Owen? Is incapable of being quiet.

Seriously. The child has no volume control. He is either loud or louder.

He walks loud.

He talks loud.

He laughs loud.

He plays loud.

He is just an all around LOUD kid!

My mother says this is payback for me because apparently I was a loud child too.

I managed to convince the boys to play outside for a few minutes this afternoon in an effort to allow Olivia to have an undisturbed nap. Sadly, it is a little too cold out (only -13 C. or 8 F) so they didn't last long.

Of course I mentioned that if they didn't stick their heads in snowbanks they would stay warmer longer but I'm just the mom, what do I know. :)

Bathtime with Johnson's

My Olivia LOVES her baths and I love watching her enjoy them so much! This picture is her a little over a year ago (time sure does fly). We have been using Johnson's baby products since Aiden was a newborn almost 7 years ago. I love that wonderful clean-baby scent my babies had after giving them their evening bath. Since my babies have all had ultra-sensitive skin I can rely on Johnson's not to irritate their lovely baby skin! Even though Olivia is two now and the boys are definitely not babies anymore we still use Johnson's head to toe wash for their bathtimes. We also absolutely ADORE Johnson's soothing vapor baby bath. We use it absolutely everytime our kids have a cold. It works amazingly well!


Johnson's is celebrating 50 years of No More Tears and in honour of this momentous occasion they have come out with two new products... Johnson's baby bubble bath & wash and Johnson's head-to-toe foaming wash.


I was asked to review and blog about these two great products on behalf of MomCentral and Johnson's and I was thrilled to do it! We love both of these products. My kids love having bubble baths but because of their unbelievably sensitive skin we usually have to avoid bubble bath products. Most of them cause all three of my kids to break out in nasty rashes which is never fun. But we gave the new baby bubble bath a try and it was lovely! Fun bubbles for the kids and no irritated skin! Yay!

The head-to-toe foaming wash is great because it was easy enough for my kids to use on their own. They thought it was fun and ended up making some very interesting hair styles with the wash! And of course I always appreciate the NO MORE TEARS factor!
You can find lots more information on the Johnson's You Tube baby channel. They have great videos filled with good advice and you can sign up for newsletters to help with every stage of baby-hood!

We love Johnson's and definitely recommend their wonderful products to all you new-baby parents out there!

Weekly Winners- Prairie Sunset

Here are just a few pictures I took of the gorgeous sunsets here in Tisdale, Saskatchewan. Don't ever let anyone tell you Saskatchewan can't be beautiful!!


We all talk about Saskatchewan being the Land of the Living Skies... and I think you can see why. These pictures were taken in just a couple minutes.

Gorgeous. Now don't you wish you could travel here and see this for yourself?

You can see more weekly winners at SarcasticMom.com.

to the youth

There is a young man in our church right now who is part of the youth group and who is pretty upset that we are leaving.

This is what he says:

k so I am pretty mad.
It might sound weird but I am mad at The church. Every church I have been in has acted So immature and foolish. So dumb.
"OH the youth are so Awesome! They are doing such a good job! Lets kick doug out of the youth group and watch how good they will do now!" WHAT THE HECK! any one wanna explain that? I am really confused.

(I'm not going to name him here or link to him or anything because he has not given me permission to do so. Therefore he remains anonymous.)

And I get it.

I really do.

Because you know who gets hurt when difficult stuff happens in the church? The young people.

Stuff happens TO them. They don't get a say in it. They don't get to vote. Their concerns are often left unanswered. They share their hearts and are hurt in the process.

And it sucks.

If I could I would protect the young people from the garbage that happens in church. But I can't. All I can do is pray for them and entrust them to THE GOD who is bigger and stronger than all this nonsense. And encourage them to speak up. To express their feelings. To keep talking about it and keep questioning. Because you know what? God cares completely for those kids. He can handle their questions and their anger. They are not ignored.

So to the young folks in our church right now- know that we love you guys and will continue to love you guys long after we have gone. And thanks be to God for modern technology that will make it easy to keep up with your lives as you continue to grow- even through these tough times.

Wordless Wednesday- Happy 1000th post to ME!!!

(Please Note ALL these pictures were taken by my wonderful husband Douglas. You can see his photoblog HERE)

Quick update

I just wanted to give you all a quick update of what is going on in our life right now...

1. We are very excited that the new elementary school where the boys will be going in our new town is providing Aiden with a full time one-on-one aide for at least a month to help with the transition. This is AMAZING.

2. We have found a home to rent that we are pleased with. This is also amazing. We don't have an actual moving date yet ... we just know we will be in our new place by March 1st.

3. Several folks have looked at our home which gives us hope that it may indeed sell within a few months.

4. On the down side we are all sick. Doug is starting to feel better I think. The boys and Olivia seem to be holding steady with just a cold, not bronchitis or pneumonia yet. I feel like I have been run over by a truck- I have a nasty chest cold and my head is pounding but all three kids are asleep and I fully intend on taking advantage of the quiet!

Weekly Winners- the tea party

You can find more weekly winners at SarcasticMom.com.

Owen's Kindergarten Circus

My adorable son Owen had his Kindergarten Circus yesterday... which is essentially the kindergarten kids putting on a circus show for the parents. It was so cute.

Owen was the Sword Swallower...

Apparently he felt the need to watch part of the show upside down...
Here he is "swallowing" the sword...
And walking on "hot coals"...
At the end his whole class sang a few very cute songs.
5 is a wonderful age :)