As most of you know, Randy has been fighting a build up of stomach acid, causing great pain since last summer.  After ruling it out, twice, they went back again and decided to diagnosis him with GERD:  Gastro Esophageal Reflux Disease.  He has been prescribed some different medications to treat the erosions in the esophagus as well as some to help him keep the sphincter in the top of the stomach to open and close.  I'm not sure what kind of time we are looking at 3,6,9 or 12 months.  I don't know exactly.  After the specified time period, if Randy is still in so much pain, like he is now, they will refer us to a gastro-intestinal surgeon.  The surgery sounds really icky so we are praying the medication works as it should.

Also, Rueben had his appointment at the clinic yesterday.  We had a whole gauntlet of people to talk to in individual appointments in the morning.  Education (dealing with your child's school), Speech Pathology, Psychiatry, Developmental Pediatrician and Genetics.   Then we broke for lunch and the we all came back as a team to discuss their findings.

Rueben had his at the Monroe Meyer Clinic.  We were led around to all the stations like sheep.  We discussed their findings on the same day so we don't have to wait for the written report which could take 3 weeks.  They decided he does NOT have Asperger's Syndrome, nor does he have most of the more common ASDs (autism spectral disorder's)  They have decided he is on the spectrum, but they aren't sure exactly where he falls as some of his behaviors are classic autism and some are more HFA (high functioning autism).  His final diagnosis is severe ADHD (no kidding) and PDD-NOS Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified.  They even think it'll be easier to get a disability claim through SSI with the PDD-NOS than with the AS.  I'm just not a big fan of the change because I've been researching the wrong things for the last year and a half.

They are going to be implementing 2 BIG changes.  One, Rueben is accepted into their Autism Clinic.  He will be entered into both the severe and mild/moderate clinics.  The severe he will be getting "Severe Behavior Modification" to curb his self-abuse behaviors so he stops beating the crap out of himself.  Secondly, he will go to mild/moderate clinic to receive social interaction therapy which will teach him how to hold a conversation and such.  Eventually as the clinic phases out, members of both clinics will meet with us at home and at school.  The clinic personnel will "teach" the school discipline that works for Rueben and show them a good peer conversation modification study to try and get him social help at school as well.  The head of both clinics is Dr. Henry Roanne, MD, PHD ANDWHOKNOWSWHATOTHERABC's.  He has taken a personal interest in Rueben's behavior, mostly because he had a nasty melt down in his office.  He will work on Rueben's behavior modification himself instead of having one of his minions do it.

We cannot start to implement these changes, unfortunately, until after school starts 3 weeks from today.  Randy's company is changing insurance carriers and I'm sure they want to get paid for their services.  So, they will wait to start all this stuff until the new carrier is here and we have our new cards and such.  We have to keep him on the same meds and stuff until then. 

Hello all!

As I sit here this gorgeous Sunday night, I sit at the end of a good day and a great weekend.  Before I get to the good news, let me give you the well....not fantastic.

We still have not found out anything about Randy's health or the good job.  For right now, he has been offered a regional job that will get him through the house 2 nights a week and for a few hours 3 days a week.  He's taking it.  I hope there comes a time when he can take the other job, if it opens for us.  We are letting the Lord stay in charge of this one.  Right now, He's providing a regional job and Randy's fine with that.  He doesn't want to have to lose insurance for Rueben.  Also, the specialist has not called for the next horrible test or even a recap appointment.  We will call him by the end of the week if he doesn't call us.

I am doing a mystery quilt right now.  I'm pretty sure I blogged about it 2 or 3 entries ago.  Got the 3rd clue today.  I'm concerned that I bit off more than I can chew, but I really hate triangles and there's a bunch of them.  I can do this, I can do this.  Can I do this??  I have to or it will be a horrible waste of good fabric that I didn't get for free.

Okay....good news:

1.  Rueben's specialist appointment is almost here!  July 22 here we come!
2.  Randy's daughter B was here this weekend.  We had a lovely time.  We took the kids to the zoo with her and her family yesterday.  We walked all over the place.  My calves were SCREAMING by today...when we just walked some more!  We are gluttons for punishment I tell you!!!  After the darn near perfect day at the zoo yesterday....despite the crowds my kids were good!...we did railroad days today.  I can't wait til next year.  Maybe I can get my baby brother out here.  Railroad Days.  You see 5 railroad oriented museums over 2 days with FREE transportation via Trolleys or Buses all for 10.00 per family.  It was really a wonderful experience.  That being said, my kids were still tuckered out from yesterday so we didn't have as great of a day as I think we could have.  We did enjoy what we saw.  There was one that Randy and I really wanted to see, but we took the kids home because they were tired.  We want to go back this coming weekend to that one place.

My son Rueben, as you know, is Autistic.  One of his favorite things is trains.  He got to walk in the old trainstation and walk through and on real train cars from the 1800's-1971.  We saw costumes that people wore when they worked the trains, train movies (THOMAS...though we avoided those), and the best part for the grown ups were looking at the prices from all those times ago.  The best part for the kids aside from walking in and on was being able to operate a model train.  Rueben did great and the one he got to operate was Thomas so he was in high heaven.  Lots of riding stuff, playing with stuff, very hands on.  And yes, I did remember my pocket sanitizer and so Rueben got to wash his hands after he touched all the stuff.  I'm glad I packed 2 of them, but we went through one whole one.

They were so excited and it was really worth it.  While it was fun, my legs are fighting me to move.  Anyone says that the midwest is flat needs their heads examined.  I've walked up and down more hills in the last 2 days than I ever have all at once.  The only other time my legs hurt bad was when we climbed to Delicate Arch in Utah and that was only because I didn't stretch first.  Poor Mason....we had to carry him a lot today.  Little legs just hurt.

Enjoy your weekend and I can't wait to hear back from you.

Prayer requests:
    Provision of job and necessities for us.
    Report of help needed for Rueben.
    Safe travels for B and her family as they travel home tonight.
    Safe travels for friends D & S as they are on a much deserved vacation.

I forgot to mention that Randy had a very important job interview last Friday.  We haven't heard back yet, but the guy who interviewed Randy said it was very promising. 

If Randy gets this job, he'll be home nights and weekends.  It pays between 17-18 an hour, starting, with a fantastic benefits package.  He really needs this job.

Wow.  It's only Thursday but it feels like this week has just drug out forever.

Randy got his test results yesterday for the most recent invasion to his body.  And just like all the other tests, this one was normal too.  I have no idea what they plan to do to him next.  I hope they have a clue at least about what's going on with him.  He even had the same pain during the test, which we thought was good that it happened during the test, but it didn't make any difference.

Mason had a speech screening and hearing test for the school district last week.  He tested about the same as OPS, but he was 3 then (a week from his birthday) and he's 4 now, so he qualifies for services.  That being said, he speeks too well and is too smart for the special ed prek that Rueben was in.  She wasn't sure exactly what she could do, but she was going to try and get him into the Millard sponsored pre-school.  This school is more like a day care.  It's 250.00 per month.  The good news is, is that they have to have a certain amount of verifiable need students in order to qualify for government funding.  We got the packet in the mail on Monday.  Mr. Mason will be attending the almost full time preschool.  The older boys will be in school m-f 8:45 to 3:45.  Mason will be in a different elementary, has to be in the prek that has the speech thing, from 9:10-2:15 each day.  He will have transportation to and from school.  I know I'm excited.  He will be too, when I finally tell him.  I don't need him to talk about it every day for the next 6 weeks!

I do have a couple prayer requests today.  My foster mom's surgery is next Thursday.  I pray her surgery goes well and she's back up on her feet soon.

Here is one for my dear friends the Marvels, I've copied it directly from my outgoing email:

We have dear friends named the Marvels. They are both in their 70's. He's a navy vet with multiple health problems from aging. Mostly diabetic related. Helen has tons and tons of health problems as well. She currently has a stress fracture on her hip, but she spends most of her time creating quilts and clothing for charity. Doing "God's work" makes her feel like she is needed.

Carol woke up from his name in extreme pain. She got him to a hospital. The doctors agreed he had appendicitis. They could not operate while his sugar was over 500. They barely got him stabilized and in surgery when his appendix ruptured. The 20 minute procedure took almost 3 hours. Helen is at the hospital with him. He is in the ICU and unconscious. The doctors said the next 12 hours are critical. They have no idea if Carol will live or die.

Please join me in prayer for my dear friends. I'm trying to figure out how to juggle our finances so I can go to OK if necessary.

Have a great Thursday!

Howdy doody all! Just give me a second to say we are all okay from that horrible storm.  We had another bad one come through last night.  It didn't produce any tornadoes, but it sure caused damage like it did.  2 dead, 120,000 without power.  Scary stuff. 

Rueben is technically old enough to be going to Sun Dawgs, but alas, there is not enough caring supervision for me to allow it.  Christy won't be going either so Rueben will have some company.  I'm not sure if my sanity will survive.  I am still trying to get Mason into some form of pre-school for fall....just keep praying on that.

Okay....that's the update that I have, lets get on to the meet and potatoes so to speak.  My lovely sewing machine is in the shop.  But I've made the first payment and I only have 2 left.  The payments aren't horrible expensive either, so I should be able to pay it off within the month.  I have a ton to do before then, craft wise, so I'm hoping to have everything ready when I get my machine home.

I started on a Mystery quilt.  For those of you who don't know what that is, neither did I until recently.  Here is a definition for you:

          A Mystery Quilt is a finished quilt that the shop has the pattern to and has made a sample so they know what it looks like. They then rewrite the pattern to break it up into however may "piece clues" or pieced patterns that they want. For example if it was a sampler quilt, each block would be different.  They then advertise they have a mystery quilt available. You as the consumer, have NO CLUE about what the blocks or even the finished quilt looks like. You are given only vague ideas on each piece.   For example, this one that I'm doing is broken up into 6 pieces. It tells me exact yardage that I need for 4 fabric pieces: Light, Medium Light, Medium Dark, and Dark. It also describes how much material is needed to make the quilt pieces themselves, the finished yardage (70 x 84" or twin) of the quilt itself, the amount of fabric needed for binding, bordering (if you want to make the quilt bigger) and the yardage needed for the back of the quilt in "unfinished" size 70x84 or with an 8-10 in border. The instructions for clue one tell me to cut 5 3"wide strips of the light and medium light fabric. Then I sew them together into 5 containing one strip of each. That's it. The next piece will have the next clue.  Clues are given out at certain intervals. This store has them every two weeks until Aug. 23rd. Then, you have until October to "finish" them including batting, backing, quilting and binding. Unfinished quilts, but finished tops are allowed on display and they will have a contest of all the "finished" quilts in October. Everyone who makes a top or a quilt is invited to a party with free refreshments, door prizes and a little "gift" from the store. Then all the ladies vote on their favorite and one quilt wins. Don't ask me what the winner gets.  The instructions/clues are free and you don't have to show your work to get the next piece like you would in a block of the month. I get my clues free each time. The money I put into it is in thread and fabric. Of course they will give you a 5% discount on fabric you buy at their store to use on this project. I could only afford their fabric if I had two jobs and Randy had 3. I can get similar fabric of equal quality at Walmart for 1/4 of the price or more. Fabrics I choose at walmart range from 1-2.00/yard and fabric at country sampler ranges from 6-12.00 a yard. I know I'll need 8 yards just for the back!!  Hope this helps. There is a mystery involved, and I can't wait to see what others have done with the same instructions. It's just weird when you start a project and have NO CLUE how it will end up.

I picked up my four fabrics last night, and I wish that Walmart had a decent 1-2/yard inventory.  The selection was horrible.  It ended up being 4.44 a yard for each piece that I needed, which is definitely more than I wanted to pay, but less than what I would find at Hancock's or JoAnn's for example.  I'll let you know, periodically, how the mystery is going.  I'm hoping I can take a picture and figure out how to add it here, so you can see the finished product.

Enjoy the remainder of the weekend.  We are supposed to go off somewhere for breakfast, but I bet Randy will be sleeping a while yet.  See you soon!!

Hello all!  So sorry it's been so long.  We've had quite the uproar around here.

My birthday came and went with no huge to-do.  The biggest deal about it, was that a friend of mine with NO memory at all, remembered and called.  She knows who she is.

Rueben's birthday also has come and gone.  He is officially 7 now.  He's getting ready to begin his 3rd and final week of summer school.  After this is Sun Dawgs and here soon, his appointment with the developmental specialists at Monroe Meyer Institute will be here. He will be going to the autism clinic there.  He's been regressing big time, and I'll have to leave that for another post.  It is just so sad to watch my little guy go backwards when he is SO very far behind anyway.  I'm not completely sure he will be going to Sun Dawgs yet, I have to talk to them about their accomodations for autistic children.

Tyler's birthday is upon us!! This coming Wednesday my middle son will be 6.  He just finished his first VBS of the season at St. Paul's.  He really liked it and is looking forward to another VBS at St. Andrew's this summer and Sun Dawgs as well.  I have few concerns about him.  He is also flying right through his summer reading program at the library.  He's reached level one already and is almost to level 2.

I don't really have an update on Mason at this time.  He also finished VBS this last week.  They were on the road to Jerusalem.  Mason was in Zebulen, Tyler in Simeon, Christy in Gad and Tina in Dan.   Rueben was in summer school.

We had an F2 tornado come right through here on June 8th about 2:30 am.  It was a really horrible thing, though there were few injuries and no deaths.  We were without power for just over a day.  It wasn't due to the storm persay, as it was to the electric company cut the power as the tree in the neighbors yard was on the line.  The had to cut it, but had more pressing areas to go to before they could turn it back on.  Big pain in the butt.  We (as a family) volunteered with the Red Cross for 3 days.  Randy was home during this time too.  We moved a lot of tree debris in the Westwood neighborhood including Randy's grandmother's house.  I took a lot of pics, and maybe at some point I can finally figure out how to post some here. 

We had more horrible storms through here Wednesday night, but the worst hit area was Little Sioux, IA and it's Boys Scout Camp.  I'm sure you have all seen the news reports of that.

I'm still trying to keep my sanity with 5 children all the time.  The girls are blessings at times, but not so much at others just like any children.

Will try to update more when I can.  Been so busy with clean up and trying to keep the kids busy.

Prayer requests:
   The family and friends of those affected by Wednesdays storms.
    Anyone  affected by the flooding in IA (this includes my dear hubby having to drive so far out of his way)
    Hubby as he has yet more tests scheduled and he still has no clue what's wrong with him.
     RUEBEN:  He's having a real tough time right now, which means we are all having a rough time.  When I figure out all that's wrong...I'll post it.
    Finally, my married friends BJK....unspoken request.

Randy had his tests done on Friday.  He had his endoscopy done 10 days ago and there were no conclusive results.  He had an abdominal sonogram on Friday.  Everything looks normal except that his gall bladder is about 1/3 the size that it should be in an adult.  The radiology tech wasn't sure if it was the problem or not.....so they still don't know.  Waiting for a call from the specialist today to decide if we should have a follow-up appointment to decide what we'll do from here, or if we have to go through more tests first.  He's been having some form of test going on every Friday for almost 2 months!!

He has been especially sick the last few weeks.  4 or 5 days out of the week he has had symptoms consistent with the stomach flu.  He also has some additional symptoms, all stomach related.  I know he's tired of driving all over the country when he is so sick!  The docs office said today though, that if the symptoms he's been having come back, he needs to go to the ER to make sure he doesn't have some form of rupture that causes a great big long life threatening crisis that I can't spell or pronounce.

That day was also Field Day at the boys' school.  Tyler had all his events in the morning, and after going through Rueben's events in the afternoon, I was kinda glad that I missed it!  He had so much fun that morning that he didn't worry about us not being there.   :-[  We missed it by accident.

The school planned 18 events, 15 minutes at each event, for certain grades in the morning and then certain grades in the afternoon.  A lot of the events were different fun types of relays like carrying a ball in a toilet plunger and filling up a one gallon jug or bucket with the contents of a little cup of water or a wet sponge.  There was also tug of war, sidewalk drawings, and a big parachute to play with.  They had a large bbq set up for lunch with all the tables in the driveway so everyone was outside to eat.  Randy got to taste firsthand what an irresponsible teacher that Rueben has.  I gave specific instructions to the school that Rueben is a runner and therefore needs CONSTANT adult supervision when he's outside.  When we go there, his teacher was inside and she had NO IDEA where Rueben was and she didn't really care either.  She went outside, found Rueben sitting off to the side of his class, told him not to move and came back in to tell me where he was.  I said, "Could you stay with him until we get through the line?  I don't want him to run off".  She said "It's time for me to eat my lunch.  This is the only break I get." She turned around and left.  Randy got to witness her demean and belittle my son publicly in front of his classmates.  Randy tends to blow out at the mouth first and think later.  I was very proud of him keeping it together the way he did. He went to the principal to lodge a complaint.  She's retiring this year after 40 years of service.  Basically, she cares about Rueben about as much as his teacher does.  Randy and I are taking our complaints to the superintendants office and changing districts.  I have a meeting at the new school on Wednesday to register them for next year.

Needless to say, we were outside for 3 hours from 12:30 to 3:30.  Despite using sunscreen little Mason got his first sunburn.  He's scorched like a little lobster on his shoulders.  Using lots of aloe and he's feeling okay, but the burn happened on Friday, this is Monday and his shoulders and upper arms are still violent red.

Today, I'm finalizing all the things for Steven's party on Friday.  Calling the caterers to check up on food prep, plus I have 3 dishes of my own to prepare.  This will require planning, early shopping and preparation on my part.  

Please pray for my sanity that I can keep it all together between the excitement of Steven's  visit, the last week of school for the boys, Randy's mysterious illness, the party and all the other stuff I have going on.  THANK YOU!!!

Have a fabo Monday.  Tonight is girls night out for me, I'm hoping I can enjoy myself.  The last couple times we've gone out I've been a bit stressed.

about what's happened in the last month.  Randy is STILL going to the hospital for testing for his undiagnosed issues.  Lots of symptoms...no answers.

Rueben has had a horrible last 3 weeks or so.  School, home and church life have been affected.  He had a horrible field trip last week and I promised not to make him go on anymore unless he wanted to.  We left 2 hours before everyone else did.  I just took him home and put him to bed.

Mason has decided that I am super mean not to let him go to school until he's 5.  If it would up to me, I'd have sent him forever ago (like 4 years HA), but we have to follow school guidelines.  I think that reasoning with a 4 year old is similar to reasoning with a 2 year old....I should have just found a brick wall.  It would have resulted in the same headache...minus the drama.

Allergy season here in Omaha is definitely here.  Woke up this am and had to use my wipers to get the darn tree pollen off my car.  Normally, I just suck it up and bear it since I'm not a big fan of any allergy medication.....not so much with a broken nose.  I thought the sniffles hurt until I sneezed the first time after it broke last week.  Freak accident but lots of residual pain considering allergy symptoms.  I am not sucking down claritin like nobody's business refusing to either blow my nose or sneeze.  It's simply not allowed.

I no longer tape the nose, and I started wearing my glasses again yesterday...but....I found out I use my nose A LOT and I never realized it.  I scrunch up my nose when I smile and use other facial expressions.  I also scrunch up my nose to yawn!  Who'd have guessed.  I now try very hard not to laugh and yawning and smiling end up resulting in what looks like facial tics.  I am surely looking forward to when the healing process is over and I can go back to being my normal klutzy self.  I'm starting to think perhaps I should invest in contacts.  I hit myself in the face CONSTANTLY when I push my glasses back up on my nose.  One would think I would learn the first time....but alas time after time I am stupidly shoving my glasses up the bridge (broken part) of my nose and it results in a lot of creative (trying not to swear) language.  I'm trying to reduce my language as I have 2 parrots in the house and they don't need to be mimicking the mom whenever they have a chance.  If I could just get a 7 second sensor delay on their dad we would be all set!!

Off I go!  Trying to license all the cars, keep the kids happy, set up stuff for all five children for the summer.

SOMEONE SHOOT ME!!!  Just not in the nose!

Man, I know it’s been forever since I’ve been on.  So sorry about that.  Been super busy.  I was sick for the first 2 weeks we were up here.  I’m better now.  Randy’s been having some health issues that I will just touch on here (privacy needed).  We’ve spent 2 days out of each of the last 2 weeks in the hospital running tests.  While they have ruled out Cardio and Pulmonary issues as well as GERD, his symptoms are still strong and they have NO CLUE what’s wrong with him.

I remember being excited about finding a house we could afford and put money into savings to buy our own someday.  Welllllllllllllllllll, since I am constantly at odds with the school as they have removed 80% of Rueben’s services, we did not take that house.  We will still be at my foster family’s house where we will remain until we find a house we probably can’t afford as good.  This means that I have to return to work.  Oddly enough, when I didn’t HAVE to work, I had job offers all over the place.  Now that I HAVE to find work, I’m having a hard time securing myself a good position.

Mason turned 4 since I posted last.  He’s very proud of himself.  He thinks he’ll be starting school in August, but I’m not so sure.  They don ‘t have Pre-K here like they do in OK and private pre-schools cost a fortune.

All is same old same old otherwise.  I did apply for Social Security for Rueben.  I’m having him declared disabled so we can get some help making sure he has the proper medication.  I doubt we will get monetary support, which is fine, I’m hoping to get Medicaid for him so he can go to the doctor as much as he needs to and take the appropriate medications.  It’ll probably be a while until I hear back from them.

The kids’ 9 days of spring break is OVER!  YIPPEEEEE!!  While I truly dread summer break coming, I have also been a busy bee signing the kids up for stuff.  Rueben will be involved in Summer School the whole month of June.  After that he’ll be busy with Special Olympics.  VBS for Tyler, Mason and my two god-daughters ages 11 and 5.  Once July gets here, the 4 older ones will attend a FREE all summer long day camp type of thing 5 days a week.  Now, if I could just figure out what to do with Mason!!!

Until I post again……l

~M~

to let you know we arrived in Omaha safely yesterday.  Will check in again after I get the boys in school.