Heroes of the day:

My parents for having Noah and Isaac over to play and swim while I cleaned, tackled my “laundry mountain” and wrote packing lists. Mommy and Daddy, you are the BEST and I love you!

Isaac quote of the day:

While patting me on the head, Isaac commented “Hey Mom, I like your big hair.” (Yes…it’s in full “chia pet mode” today…no flat iron treatment and our Florida humidity is kickin’…)

Warped and disturbed sense of humor moment of the day:

I got the giggles for 20 minutes when I read an article in the Orlando Sentinel about the uproar over a local high school’s “Senior Superlatives” that were published in this years’ yearbook. The offending “superlative”? “Most likely to end up on ‘Cops’ “. Oh. my.

Favorite part of the day:

Tonight. It’s our only “family night” of the week…we’ve had something going every night. We ate out for dinner and Doug and I had a chance to connect over wings and fries. Yum. The boys had fun with their Daddy too.

How was your Saturday?

WOW. It’s almost vacation time.

I don’t know about ya’ll, but around this household, vacation time always seems to come at the tail end of a truckload of crazy.

I’m trying to tame the “crazy” and get the house clean and organized. I love coming home to a neat and purty house at the end of a vacation.

Doug leaves Sunday night for the Calvary Chapel Senior Pastor’s Conference. I’m leaving Tuesday morning with the boys…we’ll drive to Beaufort, S.C. to spend two nights with Michelle and her family. Thursday, it’s off to the Smoky Mountains…we’ll pick up Doug at the Asheville airport Thursday night.

Vacation packing is always quite interesting around here. I can handle the clothing just fine…it’s the autism/special diet/supplements and medications thing that throws the proverbial monkey wrench in to a job that should be rather mundane. My brain is having a hard time wrapping around it all right now…I think that I hear Starbucks calling.

So…that’s what I’m up to this weekend. What are your plans?

In the interest of full disclosure and “keepin’ it real” around here, I’ve got a little story to tell.

Ya’ll are gonna KNOW how much I need prayer.

Anyhoo….

Yesterday was Noah’s bowling field trip.

To get to the bowling alley, we had to walk the kids about a mile down the street from the school. Each adult was assigned two children to hold on to.

I was matched with Noah and one of the class “runners”. Noah’s little friend is one of four “escape artists” in the class who, for no apparent reason, will suddenly take off and run. I’ve got experience with this little one…which is why he was paired with me. I’ve learned that this little guy is fine as long as I hold on tight and keep moving in a straight line. Any distraction, stop, or deviation from the path opens up a small window of opportunity for escape. So…knowing what I needed to do…I took that child’s hand, and hanging on for dear life, headed straight up the sidewalk, full speed ahead.

As we came to a crosswalk, I hit the signal button…waited for green…and headed out across the street with another Mom, who also had two children in her care. The rest of the class followed.

As we came to the halfway point of our crossing, a lady on a bicycle, crossing the street from the opposite direction, came charging straight for us, yelling at the top of her lungs…

“LOOK OUT!!!!!”….in the rudest possible manner.

Oh. my.

Now. While I should have maintained my calm and restful demeanor and prayed for the rude and annoying woman, something inside me said…”oh NO she didn’t.” As I struggled to keep my son and my other charge from being run over I yelled right back as she passed….

“YOU LOOK OUT or I’M GONNA OPEN UP A CAN OF CRAZY MOMMA ON YOU!!!!!”

As I looked behind me for a reaction, the other Mommy walking with me was going at it at the same time yelling…”WE HAVE CHILDREN WITH AUTISM HERE!!!” and then moved on to inform the lady that her bike riding was doing nothing to reduce the size of her rear end.

As the lady on the bike continued to plow ahead through Noah’s class with her obnoxious “LOOK OUT!!!!”, I looked to Noah’s teacher and school behavior specialist for support. Instead of joining in on our tirade, they were doubled over, absolutely cracking up over our “crazy autism momma” reactions. Some help they were.

I think that I need to turn in my “Pastor’s Wife card” today.

Yep. Ya’ll need to pray for me.

Noah’s class went on an end of the year field trip to the bowling alley this morning.

Bowling used to WIG Noah OUT…too much noise…too much input. Not. fun.

Now he’s a bowling maniac.

Noah grabs the ball and, laughing hysterically, runs right up to the line and just chucks that ball down the lane.

We still need to work on his approach and his follow through, but the fact that he’s having fun makes me want to just leave it alone for a while. We can work on his pro career later.

Noah’s teacher…who is WONDERFUL…commented today that she loves doing activities like this with the kids because when they are engaged in….for lack of a better word…”normal” activities…you forget about autism for a while.

I couldn’t agree more.

Noah and his classmates had a blast.

I think that we’ll be doing some more bowling over the summer.

I took a few pictures yesterday afternoon of our soon-to-be sanctuary.

You’ll have to click on the photo to be able to see it…and even then, it’s not the best picture…but you’ll get the idea.

This is from the rear right side of the room…the stage is going to be on the wall to Noah’s left.

For those of you who saw this space before work started…big change, huh?