Christmas is upon us once again. Typically,  this brings with it lots of stress as we scramble to prepare. This year,  however,  I started shopping months ago online. This is always a rough time for Lizze and so I wanted to avoid as much stress as we could. Luckily,  Santa was smart enough to predict what our kids would be in to.  From what I hear,  he did so with good accuracy.  I'm actually pretty excited. 2012 will be a year of new beginnings for the Lost and Tired family and we are going to begin some new traditions,  so that we can all be together over the holidays.  I want to continue to build on the success of this blog and reach out to help as many people as…

I feel like I should apologize for being absent the past couple of days.  I guess I view all of you as sorta extended family and I haven't talked to you in a little while.  Anyway,  things have been hectic around the Lost and Tired household this week.  It all started with Gavin’s scare a few days ago and transitioned into Lizze being down for most of the week so far.  She's not doing very well and so that doesn't leave me with much time to write.  Emmett entered into another cycle on Tuesday night and has a mouth full of cold sores now,  as well as fever.  Elliott has been struggling emotionally and so I've been trying to spend as much time with him as possible. Gavin is not…

Today, Elliott and Gavin received martial arts promotions. Below is a brief part of Elliott's promotion (Gavin's is still uploading). Both boys attend Summit Academy, which is a charter school for kids on the Autism Spectrum as well as kids with things likes ADHD ect. The school bases much of it's teachings on martial arts. This helps the kids to build self-esteem, self-discipline, respect for their bodies ect. This has been an amazing journey for Gavin and new beginning for Elliott. The kids earn promotions based on things like helping others, participating in class, doing their best and things of that nature. One of the things that the kids get to do during promotion is break a board. The board is symbolic of the obstacles they will face in life. By smashing through…

This is kind of a good news/bad news post.  I'll start with the good news first then work into the bad news. I picked up our van yesterday at the shop.  All the repairs were done and here is a brief run done of the repairs: 1) The Fixed the broken drivers side window. 2) Replaced front inner tie rods. 3) Replaced valve cover and cleaned intake. 4) New shocks on the back end. 5) Fixed rear brakes. 6) Aligned the front end. 7) Replaced air filters. 8) Replaced broken condenser. 9) Replaced accumulator. 10)  New tire on the front end. The total came to just about $2,500.00. Now for the bad news.  I left the shop to go pick up the boys from school and the check engine light…

The best of intentions Every day I set out to do better... Every day I have a list of things that need to be done. Things like,  laundry,dishes and random other household chores that always seem to get pushed off to another day. Truth be told,  I'm bothered by my inability to get these things done.  Every day that I wake up and see these things still needing to be done adds a few more pounds to the ever increasing load I find myself carrying from day to day.  I'm also aware that there is a tendency to erroneously associate ones parenting ability with the condition of the house.  I find myself on many occasions,  feeling guilty that I can't seem to ever get anything done. I feel like my…

We were out most of the afternoon with various errands and doctors appointments for Gavin.  My mom was kind enough to pick Elliott up from school for us because we were otherwise indisposed.  Instead of bringing him straight home she hung out with him for a few hours and brought him home a little bit ago. Within minutes of Elliott arriving in the house,  he started bouncing everywhere and ended up falling and cracking his knee on the floor. Even before that,  he had already started with the whining and crying.  After he fell,  it kicked into high gear. My mom hadn't even left yet and all the drama started. He was fine while he was with her.  While I'm glad he did great at his grandparents house,  it's frustrating…

Gavin made it through his appointment and his bowel is not obstructed. We may be dealing with IBS. However,  after some prying I learned that Gavin is once again eating toothpaste.  It appears as though I need to lock everything up once again. Of all complications that come along with Gavin's Autism,  the PICA is one of the most challenging.  Some of you out there understand and yet some of you couldn't even imagine the things that Gavin has ingested.  There is always a reason to be concerned and always cause to assume the worst. Posted from WordPress for Android

Gavin is now at the pediatrician getting checked out.  We will likely be sent for an abdominal xray to get a better idea of what is going on. I'm concerned that he is dealing with a blockage or at least a partial blockage. The other concern is that there is a chance he has actually been eating his socks and that is contributing to the problem.  While he denies this as being true,  he's never honest about what he eats right away. With that said,  we can get an idea of whether or he's hiding something by the way he reacts to the question. We have to assume that he's not being honest because his health and safety may be at risk by what he has ingested.  This will turn…