New Addition

Recently, my husband went to the dog pound.  Austin has a friend whose mother works there.  Kevin was picking up the friend.  Well, Kevin picked up more than Austin’s friend.  He picked up Brutus. 

Kevin called me and asked if we could foster a dog.  He had been at the pound too long and they would put him down soon.  If we fostered him then we could give him a longer chance.  Our town has a 5 pet limit and Brutus would have us exceed that but the pound knows us a little too well and they were willing to turn a blind eye to it. 

An hour after we got Brutus home, Kevin called the pound to let them know that the Brutus had a home.  Kevin just wanted to see how the three girl dogs would take to him.  My daschund hates everyone but the other dogs loved him.  So we have 4 dogs now. 

Brutus is a basset hound, german shepherd mix.  I’m sure there is more to him than that but those are the two most obvious breeds.  We put him at about 3ish.  He is not fixed but that is on the agenda.  Luckily the girls are.  He is a pretty good dog.  He occasionally pees in the house.  We are having a tough time with that.  Hopefully once he is fixed that will diminish completely.  He was also food agressive but that is diminishing as well.  He will now easily take food out of our hand and he is getting much better at the dog bowl.  And he is learning tricks and commands.  If we tell him to show us his teeth he pulls his lips up and shows us his pearly whites.  He is also doing pretty good with “sit” and “easy.”

So here is Mr. Brutus:

Brutus with Olive resting in the background…

Just chillin…

Guarding a chewy toy…

Checking out a spot where Matty was laying.  He has learned quickly that Matty is the man with the food…

Laying under Laurens bed.  Yep she is a typical sloppy teen…sigh…

Smiling .  He loves it here…

FXS in the News

Time magazine just put out a story in it’s mainstream magazine on fragile x syndrome.  Normally I would copy and paste it but it is lengthy.  Plus there is a picture of the family that is adorable.  You can see the love. 

Please go and read it.  It is worth your time

The Fragile X Factor 
by Claudia Wallis
featuring the Wheeler family.

Summer Break

This year our kids are all over the place for summer break.  Lauren is staying at home with Matt.  We are paying her to keep him during the day.  She loves it.  Austin is working at my brother-in-laws landscaping business.  And Rachel is doing the summer program with her school. 

This arrangement seems to be working well with everyone.  Last year Matty and Rachel had a lot of transition issues.  (You can relive those posts here and here )  This year Matt has had no issues but that is because he is at home.  Rachel is still struggling.  Her summer program goes from 8-12 but she gets on the bus at 7 and gets home at 12:30.  Once the girl is home she gets her chores done and this is a total mess.  She is bored.  She misses her friends.  She doesn’t want to be home with Lauren.  She wants to go somewhere.  She wants to be at work with me.  Ummmm….I’m sure there are other whiny statements that she has made.  This girl is stressing me out.

But not as much as Lauren and Austins bickering.  It’s getting really out of hand.  Lauren actually told Austin the other day, “to just go and die already.”  This is to a boy who attempted to hang himself when he lived with his bio mom.  AND she knows that cuz she was the one who found him.  At first their bickering was funny because they picked at each other like an old married couple. 

But now it is out of hand.  It’s definitely crossed a line.  I don’t know what to do about it either.  I suggested that every time they bicker to sit them at the kitchen table together.  Kevin said that was what their bio mom did and it’ll just drudge up bad memories.  I was thinking in the shower that maybe instead that every time they fight badly make them play a board game with me and Rachel.  Rachel is a board game freak.  I wish I had the time, ability, and money for them to do a ropes course.  They are amazing in situations like this.

Kevin and I are just trying to deal with the issues as they come and get through the summer.  I hope someday we can enjoy the summer instead of just get through it.  Do you think that is too much to ask.

 

Blasted

I feel like the queen of one word titles lately

I hit a bump in the road at work.  Let me give you a little background.  I work in the banking industry at the front desk.  I’m not just a receptionist though.  I handle money flow in accounts, terrorist reporting, all kinds of stuff.  I no longer have an assistant since she had her baby.  I won’t be getting another one either.  Instead we are training another girl who is a step below me as my backup if I’m gone.  Above me, I have a supervisor and my boss.  I hardly ever see my boss and she rarely has me do anything for her.  I do my own stuff and on occasion something with my supervisor. 

Well, this morning we had a staff meeting.  When the staff meeting ended my boss asked that my supervisor and I stay behind.  My supervisor was sitting right next me.  She got up and shut the door to the conference room and sat down directly across from me.  I was freaking out on the inside.  What now!?

My boss started out the meeting with, “I just want to say that we support you with your health issues.”  Great they are buttering me up. And I was right.

Without great detail, the gist of the conversation was quite simple.  This surgery better fix me because my job is not a part-time job.  I can be replaced though they really like me here and don’t want it to have to come to that.  Oh, and they do believe that I’m really having medical issues but from now on I need to have doctors notes for when I’m out. 

But if I need anything all I need to do is ask them.  They will help any way they can because they really feel for me right now. 

Yeah, I can see that.  Thanks for the meeting.  This is why I don’t make friends at work.  Ever.

Maybe this is a sign that I should try to find something closer to my home or start looking a little closer into doing a licensed daycare out of my home.

Autistic toddler kicked off plane

I just ran across this.  What do you guys think about it??  I’d love to hear your comments.

There is also a video of the little guy too

*  *  *

Autistic toddler kicked off airplane

Monday, June 23, 2008

  By Ed Crump

CARY (WTVD) — The mother is telling her story exclusively to Eyewitness News.

 

An American Eagle flight taxiing to a Raleigh-Durham Airport runway was turned around Monday, but not because of a terrorist threat.

The crew was kicking an autistic Cary toddler and his mother off the plane.

As the American Eagle flight headed down the taxiway, two-and-a-half-year-old Jarett Farrell wasn’t a happy traveler.

His mother says she was doing all she could to calm the autistic boy, but got no sympathy from the flight crew.

“If they just would have been a little more understanding I think that none of this would have been a problem,” Mother, Janice Farrell said.

But it became a big problem for everyone on the plane. Farrell says that’s because the flight attendant was indignant.

“She kept coming over and tugging his seatbelt to make it tighter, ‘This has to stay tight’. And then he was wiggling around and trying to get out of his seatbelt. And she kept coming over and reprimanding him and yelling at him,” Farrell said.

One of the pilots came back to the cabin with a stern warning and Farrell says the frustration level escalated.

She says Jarrett picked up on that and things only got worse.

“He just melted down. He saw me getting upset. He was upset. He was on the floor rolling around,” she said.

The pilot returned to the cockpit, turned the plane around and headed back to the terminal.

“The pilot made an announcement that there was a woman and her child on the plane and the child is uncontrollable. And at that point I just broke down,” Farrell said.

Farrell says when she got back to her home in Cary she called her husband and they decided that she should call American Airlines corporate. She says a company representative apologized and said the incident should never have happened.

But that’s not what American Airlines told Eyewitness News.

A spokesman in Dallas says Jarret was pitching a “raging fit”.

And that Janice, who was in a front-row seat, refused to allow her bag to be placed in an overhead compartment, even though there was no under seat stowage.

He says that with a “passenger not complying with FAA regulations, this was the right decision.”

Farrell says even though her travel bag had things to calm Jarrett, she did indeed give it to the flight attendant.

“She took my bag and put it up top,” Farrell said.

Farrell is taking the train to see family in New Jersey and she and her husband say they will never fly American again.

 

(Copyright ©2008 WTVD-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)

I must be cool!

Last night I came home from work in some serious pain.  I spent 99.9% of the evening in bed.  Most of the kids like to hang out in my room with me when I don’t feel good.  They don’t want me to get lonely.  I like them.

Well, last night Lauren says, “Mom we should watch a movie.” 

“Okay.  What do you have in mind?”

“I don’t know.  What do you want to watch?”

“I don’t care honey.  I’ll be zoning the whole time anyway.”

“Ok then.  Are there any more really cool old movies that you think I should watch??  The last ones you picked were amazing!” (that post is here)

I was in total shock.  My 16 year old wants movie advice from me?!?!  I still got it.

We didn’t end up watching anything because she is easily sidetracked but I have two picked out for the next time she wants to watch a movie: Forever Young and Legends of the Fall.

A Happy Post

i really wanted to post something happy and positive.  I’ve been searching my brain for a funny story or something and i can’t find anything.  I know there are tons in there but none I’m able to access.

So then I decided to go find a funny picture but none of them made me chuckle.

But I did have an “aaaahhhh” moment.

My kids can say the most compassionate things.  Tonight we were discussing death.  I told the kids that the biggest rule I have is that I have to die before them.  Rachel was upset.  She doesn’t want me to ever die.  I told her that everyone has to die at some point.  So she told me that her biggest rule is that when I die I have to come back and haunt her.  Not in a mean way.  I have to follow her around and give her hugs whenever she needs them.  My baby girl love my hugs