First off I just have to say thank you to all my church peeps.  Ya’ll blew our minds on Sunday with your surprise Pastor Appreciation gift.  The whole thing rendered me a blubbering and speechless mess.  I love ya’ll and I’m so thankful that you are part of my family.

So now that everyone is back to full health (except for an asthma flare that I’m dealing with compliments of the bronchitis cooties that moved into my lungs three weeks ago), we’re back to our “normal” schedule…whatever that is.  We had a busy weekend with our Children’s Ministry prep day on Saturday and of course, church on Sunday.  Doug is doing the Dapper Dan thing at Disney today and tomorrow.  I’m in the middle of trying to come up with some lesson plans for Noah’s Soma-RPM sessions.   I’m also trying to finish…finally…my prospective patient packet for the endometriosis specialists in Atlanta.  And I’m trying…in the midst of all this…to not have Isaac parked in front of the DVD player all day.  (Although I have to say that the video that he is choosing to watch…a collection of classic Donald Duck cartoons…is cracking me up so I really don’t mind so much.  Remember the Humphrey Bear cartoons?  That’s some funny stuff.)

So this morning, Isaac and I went to Kohl’s.  I needed to buy some shoes for an upcoming wedding (more on that later), so we headed over to the shoe department.  When I told Isaac that I needed some dressy shoes, he started digging through the boxes on the shelf.  He pulled out a random pair and said, “Hey Mom.  Here’s a nice pair of old lady shoes for you.”

just. great.  With my 41st birthday coming in a few weeks, that was especially nice.

Well, I’m out.

Ya’ll have a wonderful day.

So we got an offer on our house.

That baby was slap-the-mama ugly.

Dude offered $54 grand below our new asking price which is $15 grand under our previous asking price.  According to my math, that’s a $69,000 price swing.   yeesh.

We even humored the guy with a decent counter offer, but he said that he’s “done his research” and that’s what he based his offer on.

not. sure. what. he’s. been. “researching”.  I vote the inside of a Cracker Jack box while smokin’ on somethin’ reeeeallly grooooovy.

So that’s my little real estate update for the day.

Hope ya’ll are having a good one…

So 99.9% of the time, given the choice between shopping with Isaac (my five year old) and shopping with Noah (my 9 year old who has severe autism)…

I would choose Noah.

I’m just sayin’.

Noah has always been a good little shopping buddy.  He loves to be out and about and…except for the occasional wandering and picking things up off of the floor to snack on (just. ick.)…he is really easy to take along.

So last night, I needed to take Noah to Target to shop for a pair of jeans.  It’s FINALLY cooled off here in Central Florida, and Noah needed some long pants to wear to school today.

And…I decided…those long pants were going to be “real jeans” this time.

Since Noah was potty trained, I’ve dressed him in elastic waist pants.  Noah has always struggled with fine motor delays, and zippers and snaps have been a bit difficult for him to manage.  The elastic waist allows him to be more independent…not needing help in the bathroom from his teacher or her assistants at school.

Unfortunately, as Noah gets older, it’s been harder and harder to find elastic waist pants in his size.

So…since he has had some nice improvement in his fine motor skills over the past year (he’s got a great and persistent OT at school)…I decided that it was time to try some “big boy” jeans for Noah.

Last night after dinner, I took him to Target.  We headed to the boys section and I pulled a selection of size 10s from the rack.

In the dressing room, Noah took off his pants and eagerly helped me pull on the new pair of prospective dungarees.

I zippered and buttoned him up.

They seemed to fit just fine, but Noah was not in the least bit impressed.  He immediately started yanking at the snap and pulling on the zipper, and, confirming that his fine motor strength has yes indeed improved, Noah unfastened and unzipped those blue jeans and had them off in 5 seconds flat.

just. great.

Fine, I said.  You don’t like those.  Let’s try on another pair.

I chose a selection marked “relaxed fit”.

The second pair fit better than the first, but Noah had them back off in even less time.  It’s like he was auditioning to be a quick change artist.

Since I wasn’t in the mood to argue, I made the call to abandon the idea of making him wear evil jeans with snaps and zippers.  Patience quickly fading, I turned the “real jeans” back into the dressing room attendant, and took Noah back to the boys section to look at sweat pants.

I started digging through the pile of sweat pants, and…back turned to Noah…began to look for mediums.  I told him that I was going to choose a few pairs and that we would go back to the dressing room to try them on.

Apparently, Noah had no intention of going back to the dressing room to try anything on.

When I turned around with my selection of sweat pants, there was Noah…standing in the middle of Target…pants down around his ankles…ready to try on the new pants…right then and there.

Now we’ve gone from quick change artist to stripper.

oh. my.

And that ended our little trip to Target.

I picked out the pair that looked like it was most likely to fit, and headed for the checkout.

He wore that pair of sweats to school today.

And I’m going to wash them this afternoon and he’s going to wear them again tomorrow.

And again Wednesday, if it’s still cold out.

Maybe by then, I’ll have the nerve to take him out shopping again.

Maybe.

Boy it’s quiet out here.

With a few exceptions, ya’ll’s blogs are just as silent as mine.  Yahoo groups are mighty, mighty quiet too.

Maybe everybody is over on Facebook.

Well…not me.

I have a hard time keeping up with the friends that I have now.  I can’t imagine trying to keep up with the friends that I had 20 years ago.

Plus…I got on Doug’s Facebook account once.

Three hours later I got back out of the chair…having NO IDEA where all the time went.

Alas…I know myself all too well.  No Facebook for me.

Anywho…

I think we’re all pretty much recovered from our vacation and from the flu thing.  I’ve still got a lingering cough, but I guess I’ll probably be battling that for a few more weeks now.  (The joys of asthma.)  I plan on going on my first run this afternoon since I got sick.  I can’t wait.

Doug subbed for the Dapper Dans yesterday.  Add that with the DD Christmas rehearsals that he attended…that comes to a 40 hour work week at Disney this week.  Woo-hoo and thank you Lord.  Just in time to pay for all of our doctor and car repair bills that we incurred while on vacation.

We finalized our plans to take Noah for a session with Soma in Ft. Lauderdale next month, where she will be presenting at the National Autism Association Conference.   I can’t wait to have Noah work with her.  Since Doug will be in the middle of Voices of Liberty rehearsals for Candlelight, he can’t go, so my parents will be taking us.  My Dad used a bunch of hotel points to score two rooms for two nights at a suite hotel not far from the conference center…for about $45 total.  Yee-haw for cheap digs.  My Dad will hang with the boys while my Mom and I attend the conference sessions on Friday.  Soma will be speaking first thing that morning and Noah’s session with her will be about 45 minutes after that.  This is a rare opportunity to see Soma speak live, as she limits her time away from home and her clinic.  The rest of the conference lineup for the day is fantastic…including Dr. Rossignol and Dr. Usman…so I’m thrilled that we will be able to take all that in while we’re there.  We’ll pack up and head back home Saturday morning.

Well…that’s about all the news I have for now.

Ya’ll have a great Saturday.  I’m off to watch a little football…

…this lovely cootie-fest that the doctor told me is a piggy flu/bronchitis combination, I thought I’d toss a few trip pictures over on my photo blog which can be found here.

They aren’t in any particular order, but there ya go.  A picture of my bumper hanging on the ground in the Cracker Barrel parking lot is in the bunch.  I don’t know why seeing it keeps on cracking me up, but it does.  I don’t think that our insurance company is in the least bit amused…especially given the 9 grand that they spent repairing Doug’s car after our last bit of automotive excitement around here.  I’m guessing that we will be receiving divorce papers from State Farm any day now.

Noah went back to school today and seems to be back to normal.  I’m holding my breath, bracing for a post-sickness autism regression, but so far he seems to be okay.  I’ll feel better if we get through the next few days without a step backwards in language or behaviors.

Well…that’s it from the recovery room.

I hope that ya’ll are having a wonderful week…