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 I think that it's outdated and inaccurate and we need to remove that word from medical terminology as well.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…

I met with Gavin and Elliott psychologist, Dr. Patti last night. We were discussing Gavin's recent esculation in the self-injury department and the impact it's having on everyone in the house. Gavin and Elliott were playing while we were talking. After we spoke Dr. Pattie was playing Candy Land with the boys and just talking to them. Gavin was basically playing the game by himself because he was simply taking everyone else's turn despite being correct several times. After a few rounds of Candy Land, Dr. Patti said the game was over and came back over to talk to me. Gavin continued to play and was getting annoyed that no one was taking their turn. I looked at Gavin and asked him "what did Dr. Patti just say to you?". Gavin…

The other night I posted about a very hurtful comment someone made about my family. You can read that here. I received a message this morning and this is what it said:   From Rockwood: "I'm not sure where to put this, so I'm just going to place it here. I'm the sister of ThyGuyX and I'm again horrified to see what he has said here. We were informed that this was happening this morning by a friend who stumbled upon a alarming rant my brother left on a forum he frequents. I can't begin to apologize for the actions of my brother, just as I can't begin for the other sites we found in his web history. The only consolation I can give you is that he will never…