Our New HOME!

After months of searching, denied offers and lots of discussion - we bought our first home!

We purchased a 3 bedroom, single bathroom home with a detached one car garage on a half an acre in the town of Amery, WI.  

This home wasn't exactly what we "saw" ourselves in but after a few months we realized that our dream (a cabin-like home with some acreage in the woods) was just beyond our reach.  We weighed our options and knew that apartment living just was not working for us any longer.  We wanted our own space!  

We were getting antsy because nothing new (that was livable) was popping up in our price range.  Then this little house did.  We looked at it two days after it went on the market, gave an offer that night and after a few days they accepted!  It all happened so fast!

My parents took our kids for three nights, starting the day we closed, and we were able to get some things done with the help of friends.  We painted the concrete walls in the basement with white DRYLOK paint, epoxied the basement floor in a grey color, shellacked the interior of the kitchen cabinets/drawers, moved all of our belongings and painted the three bedrooms!  Whew!  It was exhausting.

We decided right away that the main-level carpet had to go.  I'm weird about other people's carpet.  They had a dog, they weren't awesome housekeepers...enough said.  We just accepted an estimate to get the entire main-level flooring re-done (except the bathroom) and are hoping to be able to finally unpack very soon!  For now clothes are in wire cubes, kids' mattresses are on the floor and most everything else is in boxes in the basement!

I hope to be able to share more of our home as we unpack and make it our own - so stay tuned!  

Celebrating Autism

April is Autism Awareness Month and Friday, April 2nd was World Autism Awareness Day.

Where to begin...  I meant to write this last week sometime but, alas, life happens and I find myself on the computer less and less, hence, the blog silence...again.  

We've been on this autism journey with Amelia for almost three years now.  It all began with a hunch that she had autism, an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) evaluation that placed her a mere three points off the spectrum and attributed her ASD characteristics to a speech delay, intense (private and expensive) speech therapy to supplement the therapy provided by the school district and an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) meeting this past January with her teachers and the school psychologist which led to a diagnosis of autism.

Amelia has caught up to age appropriate speech skills and has been discharged from speech at school and we are ending the private therapy next week.  It has been a lot of time, work and money but so, so worth it.  I met with her teachers and the school psychologist a few months ago for her annual IEP meeting.  Amelia is now on a consult basis for speech (it is hard to add it back on in the future if she falls behind again, hence, the "consult" status) and autism was brought to the table.  

The school psychologist (Mrs. R) has known Amelia three years now, she knows we've always felt she was different, she knows about her ASD evaluation and it's findings.  She feels what we feel - that Amelia has autism.  Her kindergarten teacher and special education teachers concurred.  We went through the formalities, did the checklist required to "label" her as having autism and you know what?  It felt good.  When we went to Fraser in Minneapolis for her initial ASD evaluation they stressed to us that the schools over label kids, they can label kids with little reason etc and getting a medical diagnosis is the better way to go.  Ok, fine.  We did that.  She tested slightly off the spectrum and they flat out told us that if we came back tomorrow she could test farther off or totally on.  In our opinion, they dismissed us too quickly.  I expressed all of the above to the faculty at the IEP meeting and Mrs. R looked at me and said, "I've known Amelia a long time now.  I see her on good days and I see her on bad days.  Fraser only saw her twice.  I know you were never satisfied with their results and I'm here to tell you I think you are right and I agree with you.  She has autism."  

Amelia has autism.  She's not autistic.  She's Amelia and she has autism.  I can't tell you how hard it is for me to not scream when people refer to her as autistic, like it defines her.  It doesn't.  It's just a part of who she is - not what she is.

It doesn't change anything.  She's been a challenging child most of her life.  She's beautiful.  She's very smart.  She's LOUD.  She's strong-willed.  She's funny.  She's an emotional roller coaster.  She's kind.  Basically, she's an awesome kid with a little extra AU-some (see what I did there? hehe).

Emotions are, by far, the biggest struggle we have with Amelia.  She is an extremely emotional child and she lets you know how she is feeling - loudly.  It is difficult to calm her because she can't hear you over her screaming/wailing/yelling.  As a result we started yelling to be heard over her and because of that our boys now yell to be heard.  We are just a loud, loud household.  That is something we are working on.  When she is in an emotional fit I just try and calmly say, over and over, "I can't understand you when you yell.  Please take a deep breath, calm down and try talking slowly."  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.  Sometimes I don't even try and, unfortunately, go straight to yelling.  We'll get there in time.  

Amelia has taught me the importance of patience and made me keenly aware of how very little I tend to have.  Patience is something that I work on every single day.  Some days I have an abundance of patience and some days I have next to none.  I've gone on an anti-depressant to, as the doctor put it, "lengthen my fuse just a little bit" and I can honestly say, it helps.  I don't like the fact that I have to take a pill every single day but when I forget to take it, it's obvious and quickly reminds me of why I was prescribed it in the first place. 

What now?  We are in the process of setting up a second ASD evaluation at Gillette Children's Hospital in St. Paul.  Maybe she'll test the same.  Maybe she won't.  Their findings aren't going to change the school's diagnosis.  I know, in my heart, that she has autism.  The medical diagnosis is just a formality at this point - just in case we would ever need it for any unforeseen reason in the future. 

So there you have it - my daughter has autism.  She is on the spectrum...

...and I couldn't be prouder of her and I know I am very, very lucky to get to be her mom. 

Family Day at MOA

Amelia was off of school yesterday and I was off work so we had dad take the day off too so we could have some fun!

For Christmas we received passes to Sea Life aquarium and unlimited ride wristbands for Nickelodeon Universe.  So, a day at Mall of America was in order!

We only went into a three stores - The Disney Store, The Lego Store (3 times...) and Creative Kidstuff.  The kids all got something from Disney and Lego by trading us some of their "Target gift card money" for "mall money."

By packing a lunch, bringing snacks/water bottles and having the gift of pre-purchased tickets/ride wristbands this was a fairly low cost day for us!

The kids were just mystified that they could ride as many rides as they pleased.  Usually we let them each pick a ride to go on together and that is it as ride points are not cheap!  Being able to go on whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted blew their minds!

The little roller coaster was definitely their favorite - they rode it over and over and over again!

Yesterday is a perfect example of why gifts of experience are awesome!  The wonderful day that we had would have cost our family of five a fortune, however, through a Christmas gift we were able to have a ton of fun that I know Amelia and Joe will be talking about for awhile!

Holiday Happenings

Wow, 2014 is nearly over!  Here is a look at our holiday season!

I "did" Thanksgiving on two hours of sleep due to a Wednesday overnight shift that ran two hours longer than scheduled to prepare for Black Friday.

I still don't, and probably never will, understand why consumers "demand" retailers open earlier and earlier each year for Black Friday.  It's a vicious cycle of competition between retailers and it continues because people continue to show up regardless of if it cuts into their family time.  I could go on all day about this but I'll spare anyone who happens to be reading this...you're welcome ;)

The first weekend in December Nana and Papa took everyone on the Polar Express North Pole Express in St. Paul!

We rode to the "North Pole" where Santa climbed on board to meet with all the kids and collect their letters!  It was a mostly fun night with stress levels rising as bedtime came and we still hadn't left Union Depot!  Everything gets harder when you have tired and crabby kids along...

The next morning we went to the tree farm with Jason's family to get his sister's tree!  *no pictures

Santa visited our library and brought along two of his reindeer!

Our friend, D, joined us!

Disney on Ice: Worlds of Fantasy

Amelia was sick for her kindergarten Christmas concert this year.  She was very upset so we had our own concert at home!  She got all dressed up:

She sang us her favorite song from the concert:

After she performed we had "pizza that comes hot to your door" (aka delivery) because that is what they were having at the concert as a fundraiser for the music department.  All in all, not the night we had planned but still a success!  

Christmas Eve I worked 9.5 hours, headed home, got ready and we left to start our Christmas celebrations.  We spend Christmas Eve with my family, sleep there and then spend Christmas Day with Jason's family.  Jason and I went extra casual this year at my parent's house:

Family "selfie"

*Christmas Day lacks pictures...but Santa came, kids woke up at 5 a.m., we played games, we went to Christmas with Jason's family and headed home in the evening - exhausted!  

We're looking forward to spending New Year's Eve at home tomorrow - with the exception of a chiropractor appointment late in the afternoon for Amelia!  We have frozen pizzas waiting, movies will be watched and I'm sure a game or two will be played! 

Halloween 2014

We had so much fun this Halloween!  This was the first year that we did a family costume theme and we made the costumes as well!

The Incredibles!!!

We got the idea to be The Incredibles earlier this year.  I mean, c'mon, we have our very own "Baby Jack Jack!"  I am so glad we decided to do this.  It made Halloween just that much more fun...for all of us!

I wasn't sure how to go about making the costumes and Jason said, "red sweatsuits!"  I figured I'd find sweats for the kids with no problem and struggle finding ours.  Wrong!  I found adult ones right away and the kids ended up with red, cotton shirts and fleece pants, ha!  The logos are made of fleece and I stitched them on, piece by piece, by hand.  Jason made the masks out of black duct tape.  It was a joint effort!

The Saturday before Halloween the Lion's Club in a neighboring town had a family night.  There were crafts and hayrides.  We met a couple of friends there and had a great time!

D, Joe and L

On Halloween day, Amelia's school had a Halloween parade and then the kindergartners had a short program for the parents.  We asked Amelia if she wanted a separate costume for school since being an Incredible alone isn't very much fun and she jumped at the chance to be, what else, a cat.  

It was the cutest little parade and the songs they sang for us afterwards...priceless.  

Amelia and her best friend, J.  These two go all the way back to 4K!

We found out this year that our kids just aren't big into trick-or-treating.  They were excited at the first few houses but then wanted to be done.  We narrowed it down to it being dark so next year we are going to make sure they each have their own flashlights.  For now, I don't mind the lack of candy in the house ;)

We're already brainstorming what we can be next year!  I forgot how much fun it was to dress up!

Weekend Family Fun

Well, we're attempting to sleep train Jackson...again.  He did ok in his crib for about 2 months and then towards the end of the summer he was back in bed with us.  He is a snuggler and a cuddler and does not like to be alone...ever!  He is definitely the most difficult of our three kids in more ways than just sleeping habits!  

So, here I am.  Sleep training.  Again.  I have to be up for work at 2:50 a.m. but here I sit.  Ready to go in there, rub his back, tell him I love him and it's time for sleep and walk out without caving and picking him up to comfort him every twenty minutes.  What better way to pass the time than dinking around on the computer?!

Last Saturday we went North to Jason's grandpa's cabin (about an hour from us) and spent the day!  When we first got up there Jason helped Grandpa pull the raft and paddle boat out of the water for the winter.  Joe had a blast watching them with "bun-ock-wers."

After the work was done we all went on a pontoon ride around the lake before that was readied to be removed from the water for winter!

Helping Great-Grandpa drive

Beautiful fall colors starting to appear :)

This young loon let us get so close!

When we got back we fixed lunch and then Jason, myself and the kids headed into the woods to put up a ladder stand for deer hunting.  We must have been a sight carrying that thing into the woods with three young kids in tow (especially when Joe thought maybe the ladder, horizontal at the time, was a set of monkey bars...) but we made it and they did awesome!  Amelia even helped out by carrying ratchet straps the entire way!  

While we were working at setting the stand up Amelia set off catching frogs/toads and examining them.  They were everywhere!

Joe kept obsessing over when the "treehouse" was going to be done so once it was all ready to go he went up with his daddy.

Jackson was happy as can be on mama's back!

After finishing up in the woods, Jason and I got a little target practice in.

In the clearing where our target was there was a little visitor:

NO zoom used.  He let us that close!  Well, the adults at least since we kept the kids at a distance!  Amelia named him Chuck!

It was a long, full and fun day!  Jackson fell asleep before we even got out of the driveway (literally) and Joe didn't make it off their street - tired boys!

Why the Blogging Break?

Wow!  It's been months since I last logged on here...woops!  Why?  Honestly, I am not entirely sure.  Life happened and it kept me busy.  

This blog originally started out as a way for us to keep our families up to date with our lives and, more importantly, Amelia as she grew when we lived in Milwaukee.  It's been over four years since we moved back home and I have struggled with what to do with this space.  I've gone through spurts of posting often and then quiet times.  This summer was the longest inactive period to date.

The reasons we had for starting this blog no longer really matter.  We are within a half hour of all immediate family members along with many extended family members on Jason's side.  We see family as often as time permits.  In particular we see my family weekly between Thursday night dinners after speech and them making almost weekly trips to our apartment!  So why do we need a blog to keep family up to date?  We don't.  

With that being said, I don't want to end this space.  I am going to try and post again, as often as my crazy life allows me to!  I have this feeling that it may be less of a "here's what we did today" type blog and, hopefully, more of a journal for me.  Journaling is therapeutic (so they say) and I think having an outlet to express things on my mind will be beneficial to myself and my family.

Things are changing around here.  We now have a kindergartner (eek!) and Jason and I have recently been able to take (a lot) of time for ourselves which I think we are finding is important.  At the end of last month we went on a trip to San Francisco.  The best part?  Nearly all expenses paid!  I won a prize in a sweepstakes through our bank.  I have a Milwaukee Brewers checking account and each time I used my card from March-June was an entry into this sweepstakes.  Lo and behold - winner, winner, chicken dinner!  I won us a trip to San Francisco.  Airfare, hotel, tickets to two Brewer/Giants games and some spending money*.  Wow!

*We got the rest of our spending money from a stash of cash we had from garage sale profits, online sales and birthday money!!!

Just last night we got away again with a trip to the theatre to see The Book of Mormon!!!

Talk about a good time - my cheeks hurt from laughter by the end!

So, the quiet on here has been good.  Lots of family time.  However, I'm hoping this post will be a new start to this little blog that once was such an important piece of our lives.  Stay tuned!

If you have Instagram, look me up!  @shelleyfro