So the Van broke down AGAIN the other day only this time it was a really bad situation and ended up being pretty dangerous not only for us but all the stupid people that didn't know what hazard lights mean on a STRANDED vehicle. We had to get a police escort in order to push the van out of construction and into a parking lot so we could safely get the kids out and have it towed. We had the van towed to the AWESOME guys down at Waterloo Transmission. The have had the van for going on two days now and would you believe the van has NOT shown a single problem. They tested the fuel pump as well and it never failed or even showed signs of weakness.…

This is WAY off topic but I thought I would share anyways. As some of you know and others will be learning for the first time, we haven't had TV for years now. It was one of the sacrifices that we had to make in order to moving forward. We stream Netflix or Hulu and that's about it. Recently, Lizze and I began watching the "Lost" series. We had boxset so we were able to watch it start to finish on our time frame. Pretty soon we were cramming in as many episodes every night as possible. It took us about a month to actually finish all 6 seasons but man was it worth it. I have NEVER been so taken in by a TV series EVER. "Lost" had a way of…

I feel like we are a "good" family. I feel like we have a great deal of challenge in our lives. What I don't really get is why we just can't catch a break. I spent yesterday driving all over to get the kids everywhere they needed to go. We ended our day at the doctors getting Gavin's blood work done for this week. On the way home I pulled up to an intersection under construction. I was getting ready to turn right and head home. This intersection is all torn up and the right hand lane I was turning into is VERY narrow at the moment due to the construction. As I was making my right hand turn the van "shook" and then died. It wouldn't start again. I…

Most of you are aware by now that Gavin is REALLY struggling with self-injury. What set's Gavin apart from some other kids on the spectrum is that his self-injury is a choice and not a compulsion. By choice, I mean he does it as a means of manipulating a situation. The is simply a fact and not really open to interpretation. Some people may not agree with that but it has been PROVEN time and time again. If Gavin were an only child then it would be more easily dealt with but because he's not a only child we are presented with a major problem. In many ways Gavin has more influence over Elliott and Emmett then we do. They WORSHIP him and model their behavior after him. This is where we…