A Blog of Pics

Mum is out of town. Right before she left, we rescued a Mum Pug & her wee one.








GOATS! Bella, Mary, Mikey, George-Josh (long story), Denae & Dudley

Punky Rooster. The big man around the yard.

The first batch of chicks I hatched in the incubator

Duckies! Pom-Pom, Mack, Gravy & Quack

Screw the doors opening... they keep slamming

what should have been a fairly easy project to get everyone help and together has turned into a nightmare. we have a real estate agent, the housing & loan guy, mum & i... nobody can find something that works w/in a respectable price range. sure, we can go to 60 acres and have no housing restrictions... um... only 1 million smackeroos! no biggy. we found a property that we can do whatever we want to... we just have a giant watertower cutting out a huge slice of the property and live with the trashiest of trash on the other side. oh wait, there was that really great property that the owner "thinks" there are no restrictions. can anyone get an answer on it, of course not! so day after day after day everyone is upset, angry, frustrated... *sigh*

okay... vent over.

so what's going on? everyone feels frustrated and defeated. the purpose of this exercise was:
1. Get Sue & Jake out here with us. We can help take care of her. They can't afford to live in CA any longer. they need out.... immediately.
2. Get mum out from this upside down house that is draining her financially. sure, when dad was alive things were okay because they had the money from the equity in CA... right when he died the stock market crashed... and he never put "transfer upon death" on ANY of the money.
3. Get the kids out of the current school district. i have been fighting with these people since we moved here over my kids educational needs and they are fighting me non-bloody-stop.
4. Get me out of mum's house and into my own. granted, living with mum isn't too bad. we take care of each other... but if i ever wanted to date or anything... kinda gets awkward :D

sssoooo.... back to the drawing board we go... again... my dear friend, nichole, keeps telling me to hold onto faith. over and over and over having the same problems, same restrictions, same frustrations, it gets hard. i guess w/o these trials and tribulations there would be no need for faith...?!?!?!?

more to come... if anything does come... *sigh*

The door to one house closes.... a new one opens....

Well, we went in for a pushed extremely fast escrow on the house with the land.... and... at the last minute someone noticed a line on the title that said "one home only." Well, that wasn't going to work since we need at least a second home for Susie and Jake to move into (for those who have forgotten or didn't hear, my Aunt was in a nearly fatal car accident and is now paralyzed). SSSOOOO... back to the drawing board we went.

We found 8 acres for sale with a home one it. We are going to leave the home in front there and fix it up and turn it into a rental or guest house... who knows right now. Susie, Jake, Mum and I are going to put our homes in the middle of the property. So... with FAITH (that's for you, Nich) we are hopefully going to get this land.

More to come later...

Welcome Lucy & Jillian Gibson!

I just wanted to take a second to welcome the birth of the new Gibson twins!

Little Jillian has been having some complications and giving her new parents a nice little scare. Please pray for little Jillian!

Summer and Chickens and Moving... OH MY!

Summer is in full swing. We have gone to Chuck E. Cheese. We swim most afternoons. The kids are doing wonderfully well. A few chickens have died from the heat (which has been pretty depressing). I have made a wonderful chicken friend, Josh, and he and I are setting up to be breeding partners. I have a full sized cabinet incubator and just had my first hatch!!! We are now the proud owners of 6 goats (thanks Josh!). And... for the excitement of it all....

WE ARE MOVING

It goes a little something like this. Mum came back from her taking care of my Aunt who was in the nearly fatal car accident 10 weeks ago. We went to Farmer's Market and started talking to the cattle woman about her land. We found a real estate agent and 7 days later, put in an offer. 7 3/4 acres with about 5ish acres fenced for livestock. The house on it is about 10 years old and is 2,400 sq ft. Comes with a pool table, big fridge, and front loading washer and dryer. OH, and did I mention the HUGE in ground salt water swimming pool?!?! So, they accepted Mum's offer and we close a week from tomorrow. One of the best parts of it, the school district rates better than the current one AND I won't have to deal with that horrid really bad string of profanity principal any more. There is hope for a fresh start for KeelyMonster and the help that Colin needs. Now... to build a chicken coop.... :D

So, as it stands right now, the kids and I will be rattling around on the land by ourselves. In 6-12 months Mum is going to leave this house and join us out there, most likely in a new home, but if not, there should be plenty of room for all of us in the current house on the land. My aunt and uncle are hoping to leave CA as soon as they can and live with mum at the current house.... and they will have their home built on mum's land once they are ready. With Susie being in a wheelchair and all the complications of the accident, being with Mum is going to be the greatest thing for her. And having everyone apart, yet so close together is going to be one of the greatest feelings.

SO... pictures and updates to come soon. Now... time to find some boxes....

"Mum, I'm a BIG BOY"

We went to Target to pick up a few essentials. A few of Colin's undies were starting to get a little snug, so we stopped to check the prices on some new ones. We walk over and he exclaims, "Mum, I'm a big boy! We need to get rid of my undies that my friends laugh at (he still has a pair of Thomas the Tank Engine) and get me all new BOXERS! I want boxers like a big boy!" So, we bought him a 5-pack of little boxer-briefs and he wears them SO proud! Through the day yesterday, he kept reminding me about how big he is now that he has his boxers on. *sigh* My baby is making his own underwear decisions...

Graduation 2009

My baby is all grown up.... Kindergarten C/O '09 *sigh*

Colin's Evaluation Results

Two formal diagnoses in one week. I recorded my sessions with the Psychologists so that I would be able to transcript this to everyone. Sorry it has taken so long, but that is a LONG conversation and A LOT of information I have to sift through.

Christian and I went back to the psychologist. What we learned about Colin really did not surprise us. However, hearing the actual age equivalents for his development was hard.

Most interestingly, the two psychologists "debated for a few days" on what his diagnosis should be. Colin exhibits a number of social difficulties often found in children exhibiting problems with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). He has a history of engulfing perseverative preoccupations, as well as the social deficits and behavioral rigidity typically found in Asperger's Disorder (AD). He is unusual in that he also continues to show some behaviors more typical of a high level autism. So, after much debate, it was decided that he would be diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome with Residual Autistic Characteristics.

Colin's intellectual functioning and academic knowledge were both in the low average level. He also ranges low average with expressive and receptive speech, manipulating phonological manipulation and speech articulation. Colin does have an average to above average level for his memory.

Colin's emotional development is delayed, with his sense determined by his immediate impulses and desires, but beginning to be influenced by his enduring interests, abilities and beliefs. His capacity to inhibit impulses, regulate emotions, tolerate frustration and delay gratification is poorer than his peers. He is insecure in his attachment due to ASD, with both separation anxiety and a functional/instrumental use of me. Basically, I am here to serve his every desire and whim at the moment he desires it. I have no purpose in life other than to wait and and foot on him.

Besides AD with residual traits of ASD, he has also been diagnosed with severe Separation Disorder and a sensory integration disorder, as well as ADHD.

Soon, the battle between the school district and I will resume. With the diagnosis in hand, advice from the woman across the street (she is a special education teacher in a nearby city) and the fact that I WILL NOT LET THEM GET AWAY WITH THEIR BULL SHIT ANYMORE... Colin SHOULD be going into 1st grade with a special education support team on his side. Should the school district try to deny him, we are prepared to get an advocate and get the Texas Education Agency involved. I WILL NOT let them tell me that he is "too smart" for services and is only able to receive them if he has "educational needs." The bloody diagnosis papers directly state that he needs services.

SSSOOOO.... that's the story of my little guy.

Some Chicken Pictures...

It's been hard putting everything together with Keely's Eval, so I figured I would throw in a few pictures of the chicken-friends.

What do you do with a dog run and old dog house? Build a chicken house!




The ducks... The week we got them, their first water play, and this week. Pom-Pom has the giant pom-pom. Quack is pure white (both female). Mack is the mallard (his green head fathers are starting to come in). And lastly is Gravy (the last two are male)




CHICKENS! Here are some of the girls in their house just after a HUGE storm.

Gloria, one of our Ameraucana hens. They lay green & blue eggs!!!

Silkies! The buff one is Bullet the Roo. We have 2 whites that we can't tell apart! Squished in the middle is an Easter Egger. She's a cross breed similar to an Ameraucana.

POLISH! They are a fun breed. We have two. This girl is named Elvis because of her crest.

Keely's Evaluation Results

Christian and I met with the psychologist. We thought we knew what to expect; what we heard surprised us.

FIRST, everything that is wrong with her is NOT due to some circumstance in her life. It is not due to a traumatic incident or what has been going on between Christian and I. It is genetic. These problems surfaced as a toddler... as some of you know, she was always... different. When she was 3, it was hard to really diagnose her with anything because she was so young. So, when she was young, they said "it looks like it will be this and looks like that..." they wouldn't formally diagnose her because she was so young. She DOES NOT have Asperger's Syndrome like they thought. AS kids are not this aware of their feelings and emotions. They are not this aware of what's going on inside them or outside around them. This surprised us the most, but when the psychologist explained everything, it made a lot of sense.

Keely was anxious through the evaluation, sometimes angry, sometimes oppositional. She has a very negative overall perception over life, and a VERY negative perception of me. Her "working memory," where you take in info in the environment and try to figure out what you may or may not already know, is being affected by her emotional problems. The attention problems may not be from ADHD, but instead because she is so focused on her anxiety, negativity and emotional problems. The medication that she was on at the time of testing stays in the body for a longer period of time, so the test was inconclusive (she failed 1 of 3 tests). Basically, her cognitive tests all came back in the average to superior range (that means her brain is working great).

She is 7. A normal 7 year old is usually pretty oblivious to what is going on internally. Oh, not with Keely. She is very aware of her anxiety, depression, strain on her social interactions and behaviours; she is very emotionally distressed and has a very low self concept. A VERY SIGNIFICANT level of depression. She has a pretty significant level of anxiety which she manifests into physical problems (being tired, tummy aches, potty problems, headaches). This anxiety is almost obsessive compulsive. She has to have things in order and if they aren't they stress her out and she dwells on it until it is changed.

She is a highly reactive child. This has been since birth. She has an over reactive central nervous system and gets set off by stimulation. She is very hyper reactive and this leads to a lot of anxiety. A situation to explain this is if someone bumps into you. You and I would see it as, "Oh, we bumped into each other," whereas Keely interprets it as, "This person did it on purpose." She has no rational thought, she thinks purely on emotion.

She also has an attachment disorder. This had been since she was a baby. The core is that she has problems with trust and this results in problems with relationships. As long as things are going okay in her mind, everything is fine. Once something changes (and this is usually a misperception on her part) and it is not her way, all hell breaks loose. She perceives this as being done directly to her as a result of her trust issues. It's a vicious cycle because you never know what is going to set her off.

1st Quarter, 2009

4 months into 2009. Things have been chaotic, stressful, extremely hard to deal with and there has been a few glimpses of fun. I have tried so many times to write a new blog, but the emotional side of Marce took over and I couldn't finish. This is going to be scatterbrained and terribly wrote. I'm running on 4 1/2 hours of sleep, a whole lot of stress and just plain exhaustion. This has taken a few attempts to write and get across right.

January and February:
Kids behaviours started to spiral downwards. Keely became very angry, hard to even talk to. She would temper tantrum in her room for over an hour at a time 1-3 times a day. She wasn't the same child. She started talking about ways to kill herself (and for those of you who think "She's 7, she is looking for a reaction out of you..." NO.)

March:
The spirling Keely went from depressed with huge outbursts to the kid who pulled away from my hand in parking lots and running in front of moving cars. The kid who tried to get out of the house to lay down in the street and wait for a car to run her down. The kid who in the middle of eating dinner looked up and said, "I wish I knew how to get over the back fence so I could get hit by the train right now." SO... March 04, I took her to the pediatrician and told him how far down she had gotten in the past 3 weeks. He wanted to have her admitted to a Mental Health Hospital about an hour a way. That was one of the hardest things I have ever had to hear or do. During her week there, I saw her every day and talked to her on the phone every night. It was good for her to be there. The psychiatrist said that she has a mood disorder but didn't want to do a full diagnosis on her. Now she is on Prosac for her depression and Concerta for her ADHD (which has also made a huge difference on her behaviours). She started seeing her pediatrician weekly. She started seeing her counselor weekly. Although she seems so much happier, the counseling has seemed to bring up A LOT of emotional issues regarding me.

April:
Keely is continuing to see her counselor once a week. She had an evaluation on the 6th; I get the results May 4th. Colin has started weekly counseling with a FANTASTIC man who is a Certified Anger Resolution Therapist. On the 23rd, he had a full evaluation; I get the results May 12th. He started a new dosage of Concerta the first week of April and it has made an AMAZING change in his attention span. His teacher has reported that all of a sudden with the change of medication dosage he has made leaps and bounds. He has started to grasp sounding out words and started trying to write. The lightbulb turned on in his head and he grasps simple addition and subtraction. The best part is that when he starts to count, he does pretend dots in a straight row. Nobody can figure out how he knows when to stop the straight line of numbers, but in his head, he somehow does. It's rather impressive to watch.

During the first week of April, we added a new hobby to the mess. It's been a great new hobby on many levels. We have become owners of chickens. How? Why? Well, it all started like this... Mum and I were talking and joked about turning the garden area into a chicken coop and turning the doghouse into a henhouse for fresh eggs. 3 days later, construction began. We started with 3 fluffy day-old chicks and four day-old ducklings (the key word in that sentence is "started"). So, the girl with an absolute fear of birds has found herself loving ugly chickens.

The moral of the story, I've been pretty damn busy with going to doctors appointments and counseling appointments. I also take Mum out all the time due to her needing double knee replacement; I'm the chauffeur. More to come soon...

Hi January, How ya Doin'?

Hello January! I know that I've only known you for 3 days now, but I just wanted to say one thing... thanks for starting out uneventfully.