I battled the hoards of people at Walmart this afternoon and I emerged with a cart full of groceries.  I was on time and under budget so I treated myself to one of my guilty pleasures.  Pull'n Peel's and A&W Cream Soda are among my favorite junk foods that I don't get that often. I felt victorious after surviving the craziness of Walmart on a Saturday morning and decided to celebrate a little bit.  Hey, on occasion I deserve it.  :-) Do you have a family friendly guilty pleasure that you would like to share with the class? This site is managed almost exclusively via WordPress for Android. Please forgive any typos as autocorrect HATES me. ;-) Follow @Lost_and_Tired Visit the My Autism Help Forums To reach me via email, please…

While at my parents house yesterday, Emmett created this bright colorful snowman out of Play-Doh. :-) This site is managed almost exclusively via WordPress for Android. Please forgive any typos as autocorrect HATES me. ;-) Follow @Lost_and_Tired Visit the My Autism Help Forums To reach me via email, please Contact Me

Lizze and I actually went to bed early last night.  She had a really hard time sleeping.  About 3am, Emmett comes running into our room screaming because he'd had a nightmare.  He crawled into bed with us and fell asleep snuggling me.  I couldn't get comfortable because I've had this knot in my neck for about a week now and it causing me a great deal of discomfort. It's like a pinched nerve and with Emmett wrapping his arms around me, I just couldn't sleep. Eventually, I moved downstairs to the couch and fell asleep.  However,  Elliott and Emmett both, ended up on the couch with me at some point.  I don't even remember what time that was but there was no sleep after that.  I'm sooooo tired and my…

For the last 30 minutes or so, we've been hearing helicopters circling our neighborhood.  We are also hearing police sirens and lots of dogs.  The last time this happened, last summer actually, Canton City Police had chased a fugitive and they believed he was hiding in our yard.  I want to go check things out but Lizze has forbid me from leaving the house.  She's right. I just miss being in the middle of this kind of thing. When I was a paramedic, I was called out on some really cool situations.  By cool, I mean exciting and sometimes dangerous.  I'm drawn to the things that others run away from.  Oh well, I'm sure we'll probably read about this in the paper this weekend and I fill you in on…

Those of you fellow special needs parenting veterans out there, you're probably all too familiar with this particular battle. The battle I'm referring to is part of the never ending war to make sure our kids on the Autism Spectrum, eat.  That may sound silly to those of you that have not ever tried to prepare a meal for an Autistic child with Sensory Processing Disorder. I'm here to tell you that it's not an easy task.  Kids and even adults on the Autism Spectrum can be very, very sensory sensitive.  While this can present differently for different people, there tend to be some commonalities. In the case of my kids, meal times are rarely easy.  The only exception is with Gavin.  He has become quite easy to feed and…

Gavin's had a so so kinda day today.  Unfortunately, we closed the day out with a tantrum and series of bad choices. We held him accountable for not listening and causing trouble.  It wasn't anything super major but it wasn't the first time this evening that we had to speak with him about this issue.  The consequence was that he lost his Yugioh cards and will have to earn them back. Unfortunately, it didn't stop there. When it was time for his meds, he was threatening to throw them across the floor. That cost him 10 Pokemon cards and he will have to earn those back as well. Again, he didn't stop.  As he stormed up the stairs to get ready for bed, he screamed in Elliott's face as Elliott…

Things have been really bad for Lizze lately, especially pain-wise. She's having to use her cane all the time now.  However, she wanted to go with me to the grocery store, especially since my Mom was going to watch the boys for a little while.  When we got to the store, her pain was so bad after the first few minutes that she was in tears.  We had discussed her using a motorized scooter that Giant Eagle offers but she wasn't comfortable doing that and was honestly too embarrassed.  Lizze told me to finish shopping and she would just make her way out to the car and wait.  I wanted to walk her out but she said she would be fine and I've learned over the years to respect her…

Our grocery situation has finally been fixed.  We haven't been able to go full grocery shopping in over a month.  This was a very meager month and I'm so grateful for our family helping us out in our time of need.  For those of you wondering what the heck I'm talking about, here's the backstory.  My family is on the Ohio Direction Card (food stamps). We have to recertify every year and that has always been a smooth process.  This year was different.  Some of our paperwork was lost along the way and our account was not renewed.  We resubmitted the missing paperwork and were told it would be done in a few days. Thirty days later, it still wasn't done and while we were able to stock odds and…