NNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Last night, my parents and I noticed that Noah was acting a bit lethargic after church.

By the time we arrived home and I tucked him into bed, he was burning up.  103 degrees and sooooo pitiful.

Noah was tugging on his left ear, so I assumed that an infection was brewing.  I took him to his pediatrician this morning to confirm, and learned that his ears look quite lovely, but that his throat is a different story.  She saw all manner of blisters and nastiness back there, so she ran a rapid strep test, which came back negative.  They are still sending the cooties that they collected from the back of his throat to the lab to double check, but she suspects that it’s just a mean little virus that has taken up residence.  Fluids, rest, Motrin and some herbal supplements were the recommendation.  uggghhhh.

So Noah will miss our Fall Fellowship night tonight.  He’s going to stay home with Doug and I will take Isaac for a while.

Please pray that Noah’s fever goes away…he’s contagious until that thing is gone.  Also, please pray that nobody else in our family catches it…I’m flying out Tuesday morning for the Grand Canyon and I don’t want to leave Doug will two sick children…and I reallllyyyy don’t want to be sick either.

I’ll see some of ya’ll tonight…

…that Doug has been blessed with lots and lots of extra gigs over the holiday season?

I already posted that he will be singing with Voices of Liberty at EPCOT three nights a week for the Candlelight Processional.

What I haven’t written about is the other gigs that have come in for Christmas.

A few days after the guys were let go at Disney, Sea World called.  There was a lot of back and forth over the contract, but the guys signed on the dotted line a few weeks ago to do shows there five days a week from mid-November through the second week of January.

Doug will need to sub out some of the days, but he should be able to do most of it.

They also have some corporate work around town and two big out of town gigs.

It is going to be an INSANE 8 weeks, but we are beyond thankful for all of the extra work.  As we read the newspaper reports of cancelled conventions and conferences here in Orlando, we realize that after the new year, the pool of work for groups like Doug’s is going to get mighty, mighty shallow.  We’re gonna get it while the gettin’s good.

We’re no stranger to an insane schedule.  What’s really nice is that we know that there’s an end to it.

Oh…and unless something changes, Doug will be OFF OF WORK on both Thanksgiving and Christmas day…something that has NEVER happened in our 16 years of marriage.

God is GOOD!  We are excited…and thankful.

…because I’m feeling rather random tonight.

Doug is in Hollywood tonight…Florida, that is.  The guys have an early morning gig there, so they drove down tonight.  Doug called a little bit ago to let me know that he arrived there safely, and told me that he is staying on the 30th floor of the hotel.  30th floor?  Of a hotel in Florida?  Weird.  I’ve always thought that something that honkin’ tall on the beach would just sink into the sand.

I sent an email to my sisters detailing some of the hiking gear that they need to be gathering for our day hike into the Grand Canyon.  Evidently my email was just a wee bit alarming, because my brother in law Hank gently reminded Lori that he really doesn’t want her to go out there and die.  I’m not sure if it was the part where I told them how we each need to carry a gallon of water down (because the water sources at the 1.5 and 3 mile rest-houses will likely be turned off for the season by then)…or if it was my suggestion that we each take flashlights, as our planned hike to Plateau Point is estimated to take 9-12 hours and we only have 11 hours of daylight while we are there.  oh. my.

It’s going to be a big Children’s Ministry work week around here.  We start the second quarter of the Discipleland curriculum on the 9th.  All of the curriculum is in and the student work pages have been prepped, but we still need to finalize lesson plans and organize all of the activity and craft materials for the entire quarter.  Our leadership team is coming over Wednesday night to bring all of the lesson plans together.  Pre-K and toddler lesson plans are my responsibility.  On Saturday, we’re having a work day at the church where we’ve invited everyone who would like to help to come and cut, organize, gather, file, etc., etc., etc.  By Saturday night, Quarter B should be in the can.  Woo-hoo.

Every year, the cooler weather sneaks up on me.  It is going to be in the low 50s/upper 40s Tuesday morning and Noah’s got nothing but shorts in his dresser drawers.  I guess I’ll be clothes shopping tomorrow.

Well…that’s all I’ve got.  Actually, I’ve got more…and could keep typing and typing, but I really need to take my random self to bed to get some sleep…

Yesterday, Isaac and I went to Noah’s classroom at the end of the school day to sign the papers for his new “talking box”.

Noah will be coming home with a Springboard Lite on Monday.

That little thing is pretty slick.  The technology is light years ahead of Noah’s last device.  It’s got a touch screen and has a TON of options.  As Noah’s teacher demoed the Springboard for me, I quickly realized that Noah’s new “talking box” is way, way smarter than I am.  I’ve got a learning curve to conquer.

The Springboard will stay with Noah’s teacher over the weekend…she is going to start customizing it for him.  Doug and I are supposed to take a ton of pictures this week…the photos will be loaded into the box to provide icons for Noah’s vocabulary.  Cool.

Noah will have a six week trial on the Springboard, and if he “passes”, the school system will purchase one for him.  Sweet.

When Isaac prayed for Noah last night, he thanked God for “Noah’s new talking box”.  Amen to that.  We are so excited…and thankful.

Like many Mommies, I’ve spent a lot of time in waiting rooms.

Most of that time has been on behalf of Noah.  Between DAN doctor visits, various therapies and lots of pediatrician visits in his early years, I’ve logged many hours sitting in waiting rooms with Noah.

Up until the past year or so, Noah has been a relatively quiet little waiting room buddy.

Now?  Not so much.

Noah now seems to think that waiting rooms are his special party place.  Yesterday, the waiting room at a dentist office turned into his own personal little Mardi Gras.

We’ve always known that Noah loves to tease.  (He’s Doug’s son.  Of COURSE he does.)  Along with Noah’s social and language gains over the past year, his ability to tease and his love for teasing have burst to the forefront of his personality.

So, yesterday afternoon, Noah and I went to see a pediatric dental specialist.  Noah’s regular dentist discovered his first two cavities a few weeks ago, and referred him to a specialist.  Noah will need to be sedated for the fillings, so we went to meet the specialist and find out about the procedure.

Noah and I arrived a little early, and sat down in an empty waiting room.  Our appointment was scheduled right after the office lunch break, so it was rather quiet in there.

Noah was relaxed and chilled out.  I picked up a People magazine to see which “star” needs to eat a brownie and sat back in my chair to enjoy a few minutes of quiet and mindless reading.

Noah had other ideas.

As soon as another Mom and child walked into the waiting room, Noah looked at me, and there it was.

The look.

My family knows “the look”.  If you spend any time around Noah, you will soon know “the look” as well.

Noah was ready to play.  It was ON.

Noah started laughing and wiggling around.

I kept flipping the pages of People.  Yo…somebody hand that poor girl a cookie.

More people walked into the waiting room.

It. was. time.

With a sparkle in his eyes and a big grin on his face, Noah shoved his finger up his nose and yelled out “DON’T PICK YOUR NOSE”!!

I’m still turning People pages.  Awww…the yeast roll that that “star” ate made her tummy pooch and now People magazine is begging the question, “Is she PREGNANT?!”

Over to my right…again…finger still lodged in his right nostril, Noah is yelling, “DON’T PICK YOUR NOSE!!”

Now he’s laughing hysterically and is right up in my face…finger firmly planted in place.

More people walk into the waiting room…Noah gets even louder.  He decides to up the ante, and do some…um…lickin’, followed with the shout out, “DON’T EAT IT!!”

It was a pickin’ and lickin’ party.

Now, I have to say here that parenting a child with autism has one valuable upside.  If you want to have any hope of staying sane and grounded, you must give up any care in the world of what other people think of you or your child.  For me, those cares are LONG gone, and I laugh now when I get one of those eye rolling or “what is WRONG with your parenting skills?” kinda looks.  Whatever.

So I kept reading.  And Noah kept picking.

And I was highly amused.  I have no idea how the other Mommies and children in the waiting room were reacting…I didn’t bother to look around.  I had time to sit and read a magazine, so nothing was going to interrupt me.  Welcome to my strange little world.

Now lest you think that Noah’s antics were uncalculated, let me say here that as soon as we were called into a private waiting room, the nose picking ceased.  His audience was gone, so Noah settled down and behaved himself quite appropriately.

That’s my boy.

Noah did great with the new dentist, and will go back in December to have his teeth filled.  The staff was awesome and will honor all of my specific requests for how he will be sedated (no nitrous oxide).

We’ll see how it goes in the waiting room that morning.