Today was one of those days where I simply didn't cope well with anything. Between the shooting yesterday, the raccoons (and yes I said raccoons, as in more than one) in our attic, everything going on with Lizze, all that's going on with Elliott, Gavin's constant decline and Emmett's daily struggles, I'm drowning. I'm having one of those days that I think every special needs parent has. One of those days where the weight of everything on my shoulders becomes too much to carry gracefully. There's a great deal of worry about the future of my family. I'm really struggling to make ends meet and I've recently had a longterm partnership expire because the program was terminated. That has hit pretty hard and I've not been able to make up…

The boys are having a really hard time tonight and that's because we had a rough evening. I'm not going to sugar coat anything and I'll skip right to the point. About twenty-six minutes after five, Lizze and I were in the living room when we heard gunfire. We hear gunfire almost everyday but today was different. It sounded like someone had just fired off six rounds into the side of our house. I ran to the living room window on the north side of the house and saw the shooter riding a regular bike passed my side door. I followed him around to the front of my house. As he made the turn by our car, he looked at me through my front door and the gun in his…

I told you awhile back that we rescued a tadpole from the pet store and our plan was to safely let it growup before we release it into the wild. That day has finally come and we are going to release this little guy into the wild. Frogs are disappearing in record numbers and we want to do our part to help put at least one back. So, that's our plan for today. We're driving way too far away and hiking way to far in order to find the perfect spot for the him to be released. This should prove to be fun...

Everyone's in sort of a blah mood today. We had a long weekend and perhaps it just took a toll. Lizze is struggling with her migraine and unfortunately, her hip popped out this morning as well. One of the health related challenges Lizze faces is Ehlers-Danlos, a connective tissue disorder. Her joints are very, very loose and it isn't a Monday if something doesn't pop out of socket. Gavin deals with the same exact thing. His hip and shoulder pop out all the time. It's very painful for both of them and the sound it makes when their joints pop out is horrifying. I'm moving a little slower today. The boys and I spent most of the afternoon yesterday, helping build my sister's new deck. It was a fun but…

We have a few important things going on this week above and the usual overwhelming list of important things we need to do. Just to give you a brief idea of what we're looking at, I list the big ones: I have my doctor's appointment this week. We're going to discuss removing a couple of medications I'm still on. I don't know when I'll pull the plug on them but I just want to be on the same page as my doctor and have a plan in place. Elliott desperately needs to get into Akron Children's Hospital for psychiatry. They begin scheduling for November on August 1st. I have to call just before 8AM to get an appointment. Also on August 1st, the boys have appointments with their pediatrician. This…

Things settled down last night and we were able to go to sleep without any further disruptions. I will say that our room is directly below where the raccoon trap is set and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a bit freaked out by that. As far as I can tell, the raccoon never came back last night. I thought I heard something moving around up there but I didn't see anything and the trap remains untouched. We'll have to see what tonight brings. Having said that, we went about 2 weeks between visits the last time. I'm not sure how frequently this thing stops by but it's certainly not every night. Unfortunately, we have no way to predict when it will be there so we're in a…