trishshack's Xanga

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Sun, 10 Jun 2007 14:09:45 GMT

I am fed up with Xanga and their bullshit. Last month my premium ran out and I renewed for a month, selecting NOT to subscribe. Yesterday morning I got an e-mail from Paypal letting me know I had made a subscription payment to Xanga. I filed a claim but was quickly denied. This morning I get an e-mail from Xanga telling me that my premium had expired. I've had it. I sent an e-mail to Xanga and I am sure I will get a reply about the time the premium runs out. I'm over it. You can come visit me on my new blog on Blogger.

Congrats on Getting Xanga Premium!
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Sat, Jun 9, 2007 at 6:44 AM

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Congrats on Getting Xanga Premium!
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CONGRATS ON GETTING XANGA PREMIUM

We're sending this email to confirm that Xanga Premium has just been added to your account, trishshack. Congrats on getting Xanga Premium and thanks for supporting the Xanga Community!

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Your Xanga Premium Has Expired
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Sun, Jun 10, 2007 at 10:03 AM

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Your Xanga Premium Has Expired
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Hi trishshack!

We hope you enjoyed your Xanga Premium - thanks so much for your support! We just wanted to let you know that your Xanga Premium has expired, and we've reverted your Xanga Site back to the free Xanga Classic settings.

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The diagnosis....

Fri, 08 Jun 2007 03:37:14 GMT

So today we went back to see the doctor and receive a diagnosis. I wasn't nervous for the past couple of months but this morning I woke up and started freaking out. The appointment was not until 12:45, which meant we needed to leave at 11. The three hours between when we woke up and when we left I was so nervous. So we got to the doctor's office and received a diagnosis: Asperger's Syndrome and Oppositional Defiant Disorder. The doctor did say that these two diagnoses do not typically go together but they are the things that describe his symptoms best. I had never heard of ODD today but I googled it once I got home and it fits him very well. She recommended speech and occupational therapy for B along with family therapy for all of us. She also recommended that he be placed with a teacher who is willing to learn about Asperger's and will work well with him along with Floortime training at home. She did recommend seeing a psychiatrist to "evaluate him for possible medications that would help with some potential hyperactivity and his acting out." We will not be doing that.

I talked with Fee this afternoon and she is going to send me a book about Relationship Development Intervention (RDI), which is similar to Floortime but Fee thinks that this will work better for B and I. I trust her opinion, especially since she is using Floortime with her ds. I am also hoping to find a way to start cranial sacral therapy and maybe chiropractic care with him.

I am a little overwhelmed with all that I have to do now. It felt like my plate was so full already and now I must add more. The most pressing things that I have to start doing:

Talking to people and getting recommendations for therapists.
Talking with the insurance company and finding out how much of what therapies will be covered.
Getting in touch with the school to find out what they will be able to do for him, especially the teacher placement. The principal and I have talked about B's evaluation and my suspicions so he is aware that we would be receiving a diagnosis soon.
Finding out what sort of state/government programs we would qualify for.

Right now I plan to take the weekend to absorb everything. I want to go to the gym tomorrow and will be watching a neighbor's girl (dd's age) in the afternoon. I can e-mail some people for a local autism support group and post on the Special Needs board at MDC for some advice on where to go.

Ok, it is late and I am tired and rambly. Cathy, I have your e-mail and I do plan to reply, I was just waiting to get this out of the way. Thanks to all of you that have been so supportive to me through all of this. It really means a lot that I have a few friends out there that I can call and talk to when I am totally spazzing out and get calmed down.

Ouch

Wed, 06 Jun 2007 23:52:26 GMT

Monday, June 04, 2007

Mon, 04 Jun 2007 16:33:08 GMT

For some reason my Xanga theme was interfering with my tracker so I disabled the theme.

This past weekend I went to go get dd for our summer visit. Last time I took her back I left the kids with dh but drove there and back in one day, 12 hours of driving. This time I left both boys at home with dh and stayed overnight. I left around 9:30 Saturday and got back around 5:30 last night. I knew B would be fine but J also did great. Dh even shampooed the bedroom carpets while I was gone. The rest of the house was pretty wrecked though.

This week is a busy week! Today I went to the gym and now I am getting the house cleaned up. Tomorrow is the kickoff for the summer reading program. They are doing a thing where you get points for the number of pages you read, or are read to you, and you can trade the points for prizes. Every week they have storytime with a special guest. This week there will be a magician. Over the next month they will have the police dogs, the fire department and something else. All ages of kids are included so hopefully they will all be happy to participate.

Wednesday B has a dentist appointment and we will go to the waterpark in the afternoon. Thursday we have the follow up with the psychologist in Tennessee. The appointment is at 12:45 and will only be about 45 minutes so I plan to take them to the zoo afterwards. Friday I will probably go to the gym again and fall into an exhausted heap afterwards.

Last night my salsa and I were chatting and she mentioned going to her planetarium. I haven't thought of a planetarium in ages but since she put the idea in my head I decided to look it up. B loves stars and planets so it is right up his alley. I did some googling and found out about the East Tennessee Discovery Center. It is really close to the zoo and it has a planetarium, along with a bunch of other cool kids stuff like a space shuttle, a lego lab and a kidspace. I plan to go when my mom comes so that there is someone to go into the planetarium and someone to stay with J. I don't see J staying in a dark room for very long at all.

Busy and tired.

How cool is this?

Fri, 01 Jun 2007 20:59:06 GMT

Home-Schooled Student Wins Spelling Bee

All Things Considered, June 1, 2007 · Evan M. O'Dorney is the 2007 champion of the 80th annual Scripps National Spelling Bee. Last night, the 13-year-old beat out 286 champion spellers from around the world by spelling "serrefine," a noun of French origin describing the small forceps used in surgical procedures. Robert Siegel talks with O'Dorney, a home-schooled eighth grader from Danville, Calif., who won a $35,000 prize, a $5,000 scholarship, and a $2,500 savings bond, in addition to a complete set of reference works.

Thursday, May 31, 2007

Thu, 31 May 2007 17:45:20 GMT

Well now that my slut got her package I can share the surprise I made for her dd.

Pattern: Jan by Wendy Bernard
Size: 4
Yarn: Bubblegum Pink Cotton Ease
Needles: US 6 Knit Picks Options
Mods: I did the tunic length because I didn't have enough yarn to do the dress. Instead of the garter stitch edging the pattern I increased in every stitch and then knit about 5 rounds before binding off. I also did single crochet around the armholes and neck instead of picking up the stitches as the pattern directed.

I did add a ribbon before sending it off but neglected to take a pic.

I do plan to knit this again but next time I will use a different stitch pattern traveling down the length of the dress instead of the eyelets. I think they are lovely but, as the pattern is written, a girl could not wear the dress without her panties showing through.

Ugh! I made a big mistake on my Sock Pal's sock!

Thu, 31 May 2007 02:16:12 GMT

Can I cry now?

Monday, May 28, 2007

Mon, 28 May 2007 14:59:00 GMT

Things are going decent in the garden. I quit watering and the tomatoes look like they are doing better. The cherry tomato plant is still very yellow. I am just going to wait and see what happens. Everything seems to be growing well except for the lettuce, which almost completely died out overnight. I am going to try to find some more seeds to plant but it is a little late for our area. I think I made a mistake though. I think that I accidentally bought bush beans instead of pole beans. My mom said I should wait a week and plant pole beans in there too but I am not sure if there is enough room. I hate to think that I went to all the trouble of building a trellis to not have anything climb it though.

Other than that not much is going on around here. Ds1 is at MILs til Tuesday. Ds2 is being a typical 2 year old. Dh is off work today for the holiday. And next weekend I go to pick up dd for summer vacation. My mom and dad are coming on the 14th and heading home on the 23rd. It will be nice to have them come here instead of me going there. They both work the whole time we visit so I feel like I don't get to see them that much. My dad and FIL have a fishing trip planned and he wants to do some projects around the house. Mom and I are planning on buying some patio furniture and doing lots off cooking.

I've been working on my Sockapalooza socks all weekend, which would indicate that I am getting a lot done but I am not. I had to pull out all of the work I did on Saturday because it was too small. I started again yesterday and am much happier with all of it. Once I have a little more to show I will take a pic and share what yarn and pattern I picked for my pal.

A few pics

Fri, 25 May 2007 17:18:32 GMT

After MIL and FIL left with ds1 yesterday I headed to Lowe's and got some supplies to make a bean trellis. I based my idea from this but suited it to fit my narrow beds. It is really not that crooked, I was just in a hurry to take the pic.

I also mentioned that we (mostly I) have been working on pressure washing the deck. The washing part is done, along with hammering back down all of the nails that popped up a bit. The difference is AMAZING.
Before:

After:

You can actually smell the wood. Here is one of the in progress pics I took that really shows the amount of nastiness that was on the wood.

I am going to seal it this evening. I found a wood sealer that only needs to dry overnight so it will keep J from being unhappy about not being able to go out.

The zoo has an albino alligator on loan through the summer. It was really neat.

And here are a couple of shots of my kids playing in the zoo's little water area for the kids.

J really isn't into playing around in the water and was mostly happy to sit on the squirting frog. B jumped right in and had a blast.

Also a pic of J earlier today, waiting for me to push him on the swing.

Hope y'all have a lovely weekend!

Busy week

Thu, 24 May 2007 13:58:31 GMT

Monday we had the evaluation. Tuesday I went to the ENT, tonsillectomy is scheduled for July 31. Yesterday was the zoo. Today I am cleaning the house because it is a mess and MIL is coming to get ds1. In between all of that I have been pressure washing the deck in preparation for sealing it. The people who lived here before must have never sealed it. I can't wait to be finished so I can put up pics of how amazing the difference is.