Well…the Honda lives.  It was just a broken hose and the fix will be less than $100.  Sweet. 

My dad used to get irritated when I would use a new Kleenex every time I would sneeze or blow my nose.   As an allergy kid, a new tissue each time meant that I would easily go through half a box in one day.  My dad would say of the tissues “get the goody out of it”.  (For those of you not versed in southernspeak, this means “use it up till you can’t use it no more”.)

 At 182,000 miles and counting, I intend to “get the goody” out of this car. 

On the way home from church yesterday, my car started to run hot.  The temperature gauge was just below the level of “pull over before this thing blows” whenever I stopped at a light or stop sign.  When I was driving it was fine… the gauge went back to normal.  Stop at light…up it goes again.  Anyway…I dropped it off this morning at our auto shop (run by a woman, by the way…love it).  I’m waiting on the verdict.  Small fix…it stays in our family.  Big dollar fix…bye-bye Honda.  

I love Doug.  One of the things that I love about him is that he is very focused and passionate about the things he loves.  I’ve learned over 15 years of marriage that with that passion and  focus comes one caveat…an amazing ability to misplace things.  This used to fray my last good nerve.  Over the years, he has gotten steadily better about it, and I have developed some patience for it.  (A little brag…He still has his original IPod that was given to him 2 1/2 years ago as a going away present from our awesome youth group at Calvary Chapel Orlando.  I gave that thing 3 months, tops.)  Anyway, Doug recently entered the world of Bluetooth.  You know, those ear pieces that connect with your cell phone that make driving and talking marginally safer?  Well, Doug misplaced his first Bluetooth in California last month while attending the Calvary Chapel Senior Pastor’s Conference.  I gave him a mulligan on that one, and we bought him another one.  Monday morning we were getting ready to leave for Lido Key and my sister Michelle came over to drop off some things.  As we were standing out talking in the yard, I looked down and saw the hook part of Doug’s Bluetooth laying in a pile of grass…but nothing else.  I picked it up and asked him, “what does that look like to you?”  He looked at it with shock and awe and went in the house to go get the intact, functional Bluetooth that he was sure was sitting on the kitchen counter.  As he was doing that, I found about 6 different pieces of it laying in the freshly cut grass.  Evidently, the riding mower didn’t just cut the grass that morning.  When he came out, Michelle and I were absolutely cracking up.  He asked me, “is that $80 worth of funny to you?”    

Bluetooth #3 has been in our family for 48 hours now.  

One thing that I’ve learned about having a child with autism in the age of the internet, is that there is always something new to try.  Kinda the “next big thing.”  I suppose most things in life are like that…how many new and amazing diets have come and gone in the past five years?   When we embarked on our biomedical treatment journey for Noah two years ago, I lost a lot of sleep and even checked out of life by reading and reading and reading.  I had serious OCD issues over it.  Some of that is good, and even necessary to a certain extent.   It finally got to be too much though.   I had to figure out that God is so much bigger than all of this.  I realized (duh) that God loves Noah more than I do, and wants the best for him.  So….doesn’t it make sense that I should start praying for wisdom about this stuff and wait on Him to give me the o.k. to try an intervention?  Now, instead of just haphazardly trying a supplement,  a special diet, or a new medication, I just pray and wait.  Some things have been immediate “no ways”.  Other things have been accompanied by peace….and I go ahead with those.  

All that said…lately I’ve been reading on my autism message boards about the Body Ecology Diet.  The little that I’ve learned about it involves buying young green coconuts, drilling holes in them to extract the juice and doing some kind of fermenting process to make your own probiotic.  HUH?!   So, I’m reading this stuff and telling Doug, “honey, when you find me climbing the coconut tree to treat our child’s autism, just call the loony farm.  I’ll be ready for them.” 

A few weeks ago, Noah and I visited his DAN doctor for a checkup.   Low and behold, what does he bring up?  You guessed it.  This coconut kefir stuff.  My response to him while sticking my fingers in my ears was “this is me not listening to you.”  He has figured out by now that I’m a total kook, so he just calmly continued to explain why this stuff could help not only Noah, but the rest of our family.   He gave me some information sheets to take home, which I just crammed in my purse…planning to ignore.  Later, when I was relaying our visit details to Doug, he said of the coconut kefir, “well…can’t hurt.  Why not try it?”  Great. 

 Turns out, you can buy the stuff already mixed.  Problem is, it’s EXPENSIVE.  So, after praying about it, I got the o.k. from God to try it and ordered two month’s worth from Amazon.  If it works, I guess I’ll be looking for a supply of young green coconuts and learning to use a drill.  That crazy lady up in the coconut tree?…yep, that’s me. 

We’re back. We had an amazing three days at Lido Beach. Last night, we got to watch a gorgeous sunset and on our way back to our room, a kind gentleman snapped this picture for us. 15 years and counting…