Gavin’s in rough shape after his 2nd dose of the #COVID #vaccine

It's been a challenging weekend and I haven't been keeping up with the blog as a result. This will be a super quick update and I'll do more when I can. I wanted to let you guys know how Gavin is doing after his second dose of the Pfizer COVID vaccine. He recieved it at 3:30 pm on Friday. He was fine until late last night. When he finally woke me up at 6:30 am, he was in rough shape. So far his symptoms are massive headache, body aches, chills, and a whole lot of exhaustion. He also says that 2/3 of his spine aches, whatever the hell that means. There's no nausea or anything like that. I'm grateful for that because vomiting would have only made a bad situation…

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Gavin gets his final dose of the #COVID #vaccine today

It's gonna be a hectic day. I have a two hour meeting after lunch and it should finish up just in time for me to get Gavin to the health department for his second dose of the Pfizer COVID vaccine. I'm a little concerned about how Gavin is going to handle the side effects. More than that, I'm concerned about how severe the side effects will be for him because of all his health issues. The vaccine is absolutely vital for him and I'm not worried about its safety at all. Most people experience side effects, which is expected. I just don't know how they will impact him, personally. Gavin decided to do his IVIG infusion a day early so he wasn't putting too much strain on his body today.…

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Why I’m increasing my antidepressant today

I gave myself one week to grieve the loss of my marriage and that week was officially over. While I'm not hitting the ground running, at least as quickly as I was hoping, I am moving forward. In a little while, I have an appointment with my PCP over the phone, due to COVID. I've made the decision to talk to my doctor about increasing my antidepressant. The reason behind this is that I recognize that everything has taken a toll on me and while I'm not defeated, I'm also not in total control either. Depression is influencing me a bit more than I'm comfortable with right now, and frankly, it has been. The last couple of years have been difficult and I've been dealing with a lot. COVID has…

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My life can be hair pulling and trying to herd cats kinda fun

So we had a little drama this evening and while it's not a huge deal, it perfectly illiterates some of the unique challenges I'm trying to manage. We have a Soda Stream and the kids use it to carbonate their water. We've pretty much removed most of the sugary drinks from our lives. Anyway, I had to swap out the CO2 canister yesterday and for whatever reason, Emmett went and swapped it out again. Basically, he swapped a full canister for a full canister. That's not a huge deal because I can just swap it back when this one is empty. The problem was that I found it on the edge of the table in the kitchen. These canisters are under pressure and while they're safe, you don't necessarily want…

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6 Fun Ways to Celebrate Easter with the Kids This Year

Holidays this past year have looked a little bit different than anything we have ever celebrated before. Christmas was confined to immediate family only and New Year’s Eve was a casual affair. And with Easter quickly approaching, it seems like it will be the second Easter celebration in a row that will be kept to your close circle. However, just because we can’t celebrate Easter in the way we want to, surrounded by tons of friends and family, does not mean it still can’t be fun. You just have to think of creative ways to celebrate Easter at home! If anything, the pandemic has shown us how to make doing things at home more fun and meaningful than we ever thought possible. Here are 6 fun ways to celebrate Easter…

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I gave myself 1 week to grieve

As you know by now, I finalized my divorce about a week ago. If you been following for any length of time, you know that this was an emotionally complicated experience for me. This wasn't something I wanted and I didn't understand what happened. Fast forward a year and a half, and I've accepted that my marriage was ending. I'm not happy about it but I do understand it's for the best. As I've said before, the person I married doesn't exist anymore. It's not meant to be an insult to her either. People change and she totally acknowledges that. One of the complicated things for me is coming to grips with this. It's been challenging for me at times and dealing with depression doesn't help. My whole point is…

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I’m reprioritizing my daily life

I'm kinda pushing myself to get through today. Nothing drastic has changed but I'm feeling anxious and overwhelmed. I'm relieved that my life is finally moving forward and I can begin implementing some of the things I've been waiting to do. That's all positive. At the same time, however, I feel depleted and out of sorts. I slept pretty good last night and that's good. The problem I believe, is more about the years of stress, pain, and exhaustion that have culminated since 2014. All of that has finally reached its conclusion, and I don't have to be strong or stoic anymore for myself or my kids. I'm able to let myself feel these things now. I'm starting over and in order to do that, I have to go through…

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Buying this amazing puzzle helps support #autistic artists

If you've been following our story over the last year or so, You might remember how Emmett and I love putting jigsaw puzzles together. We've put tons of puzzles together over the last 12 months and really enjoyed doing so. I have to say that this latest puzzle we're undertaking is by far the coolest puzzle we've taken on. While we haven't completed it yet, we're working on it a little each day. The puzzle in question is by my friends at Zenaviv. If you don't remember, Zenaviv is a social enterprise, started by my friend Harish Bikmal. Harish is the father of a 19-year-old boy diagnosed with classic autism. Zenaviv is run by parent volunteers. They represent and support autistic artists. Each artist earns at least 66% of the…

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