I need to ask you guys a favor. I have a poll to the right under my Gravatar about "Autism Speaks". I just want to get an idea about how the autism community feels about the organization. I hear lots of things but don't know if it's just a vocal minority. Thanks ahead of time for your help. If you can't find the poll here try this direct link. Here is the short link: http://poll.fm/1yumv please feel free to pass it around. Post it to your blog if you want to. I really want to know how the community feels. The more the merrier. LT

Marc, Not trying to single you out but your comment about the video inspired me to write the following. You have many great ideas and I want to thank you for having the courage to share them here. This started out as a reply to my friends comment but some took on a life of its own. Once again, great to hear from you. You make so many good points. I guess the video has been out a while now but it's new to me. What I don't get is the people on YouTube who oppose the video were saying things like "my child doesn't need cured" or "autism isn't a disease that needs cured". People were offended because autism was compared to cancer and aids. The comparison was in…

This is a very controversial video from "Autism Speaks". I'M BY NO MEANS ADVOCATING THIS VIDEO. I'm not sure how I feel about it. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDdcDlQVYtM] I guess I have mixed feelings. On one hand I think it makes a good point making autism out to be a predator of our kids. Because the truth is it acts that way. Some people effected by autism are very high functioning and successful. I hope that this video was focusing on those without a voice of their own. I don't think that they made demons out of autistic kids if you really listen. I think the narrator is supposed to be autism talking about what he has done, is doing or will do to our kids. The fact is that even the strongest…

Had a rough nights sleep last night. My back is bothering me to the point that sometimes I actually consider the surgery. However, I can still cope with it for now. EJ and ER both slept through the night for the first time is a while. EJ woke up at 4:30am and wouldn't go back to bed. The kids might be hanging with my parents today and G is going to spend the night. ER and I might have a very uncomfortable camp out on the living room floor again tonight. Lizze has to double her depakote today so we aren't sure how that's going to go. She has a doctors appt today at 3pm and we have to go grocery shopping. Maybe catch a nap later if we're lucky.…

Where to begin? I have been slacking a bit on posting mostly cause I've been in lots of pain and my computer needed to be shown who's boss. Lizze had an absolutely brilliant day. She got EJ and G appointments at the children's hospital. EJ goes later this month and G goes next month. She got a lot accomplished on the medical front today. Great job honey. I know she worked through a tremendous amount of pain today and I'm grateful for all she did. ER had another nightmare last night that ended with him and I downstairs on the living room couches. Not real comfortable for me but he felt better so..... EJ has been fighting us on wearing shirts. He can't seem to tolerate the seams. He totally…

Well ER just had a nightmare that we were all driving in the car and the wheels fell off and we crashed. He was pretty freaked out so now he's snuggling with us and going back to sleep. Thank you for sharing our lives. LT

Last night was pretty nice. I finally got to take something for my back. Some pain killers,muscle relaxers and motrin. I was out by 7:30pm. I haven't taken anything for my back for a really long time. I slept on the couch and at some point I ended up with ER draped across my legs. I kept trying to shake him off cause - though he was Maggie. I slept in and it was great. I woke up to Gavin having a meltdown over something I can't remember. But it was still nice to not hurt even just for a little while. Thanks honey. Thank you for sharing our lives. LT

Something is going on with Gavin. He's really off today and that's saying something. Today was the first day of summer break. All I can say is 1 down 103 to go. I'll be honest I'm not looking forward to this summer. We are getting Gavin in to see the doc's again because he is really starting to worry us. My first thought would be over medication but he's not over medicated. He is however still regressing. He brushes his teeth and you'd think he'd been finger painting with the tooth paste not brushing his teeth. He can't find things. He'd look for his backpack (which is on the couch where he put it) and can't find it. He will even pick "IT" up and look underneath it. His problem…