Should my kids exist....really? Has everyone lost their mind or just sensitivity? Why are people questioning that? This has been eating away at me for the past week now. I try to let the unpleasant things people can say roll off of me but there are just some things I really struggle with. This past week has been a pretty rough one for me. Especially with a few unpleasant comments I have received. I know the whole "sticks and stones....." but sometimes things really do have a way of getting to me. Especially if it has to do with my family. Lately these unpleasant comments seem to center around where or not my kids should exist. A few days ago, I "debated" with someone who offered me their unsolicited opinion.…

Apparently in our quest to get Emmett to eat "anything" we stumbled across something that will forever more be permanently banned from our grocery list. Yes...that's right.. I'm talking about you generic fruit loops. You will never again find home here at the Lost and Tired house. I have pulled in the welcome mat and changed the locks.  You will be saved for our next trip to feed the ducks. Just look at what you did to Emmett....... This went on for about 20 minutes before I got the idea to record it. So yes, it's been that kind of day. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VpbBoZVvkM[/youtube]      

Gavin is going on his 5th week of Clozapine now for Schizoaffective disorder. We are starting to see "potential" problems now that may or may not be related to the medications. Gavin has been having "accidents" at night lately. This is not normal for him and so it's concerning for us. I'm wondering if he is just so sedated by the meds that he just dosen't wake himself up to go to the bathroom. He was sick last night and puked up his dinner and night time meds but was then fine. So we aren't sure what that was all about. We suspect that it's more of the "bowel" issues again. He says he hasn't eaten any "nonfood" items lately. But that I his standard answer for when we ask…

Autism and Android   So perhaps you are already aware and perhaps you aren't but I develop on Android smartphones, specifically the Epic 4G from Sprint. My ROM's are pretty popular and you can view them here on my Android Development page. I use these ROM's and the attention they create to spread Autism Awareness through out the Android community. You would be amazed at just how much Autism Awareness has taken root within the community. I have mentioned before that I use Android devices to help Emmett communicate. It works really well and gives us another means of bridging the communication gap. Now here is my idea. I'm thinking about trying to set up a program in which I can take donated Android devices and turn them into a means of communication…

This has been a fairly productive weekend so far. My dad came over and helped me get the gutters cleaned out so it no longer rained inside our house. Since I hurt my back I haven't been able to work off a ladder so my dad laddered the house and emptied out the gutters for me. I got some work done inside the house as well. I did a few loads of laundry and cleaned out the cats litter box. I also did some dishes and scrubbed the stove. I vacuumed the pet hair and even brushed Maggie. Lizze's parents to Elliott last night so he could get out odd the chaos for a while. I still have to scrub the bathroom floor and that will be it for today.…

In my never ending quest to spread Autism Awareness and advocate for special needs parents I have started something that I NEED ALL your help with. I have made my feeling pretty clear about the use of the word "retard" to describe special needs children or other persons with special needs. I'm not going to go into all the reasons why I think this word is degrading,offensive, ignorant and inaccurate. You can read my original post here. Some of the responses I have received disturbed me a bit. Several people have suggested that because it is still a "medical" term then it's "ok" to use. I disagree completely. I think that it's outdated and inaccurate and we need to remove that word from medical terminology as well. There are many other words…

When it rains it pours. We've all heard that one before. At the Lost and Tired house, however, it goes more like this: "when it rains it pours....inside our house". Apparently the gutters on the 3rd floor must be clogged again because it's raining inside the house. The water runs over the gutters and down the outside of the house (you know, path of least resistance and all) and into our living room through the windows and around the windows. Have I mentioned before just how much I love this house? Just in case it didn't translate well online, that was total sarcasm. The boys had great days at school today so that was AWESOME. I called and picked up the van today. It would otherwise be just sitting there until at least…