Thursday, June 14, 2012

Starting a new chapter

I know I have been lacking in my writing lately, I apologize for that.

I am getting all the information gathered to start my own business, aka selling the therapy materials that I can make.  I have to figure up the prices and sizing scheme for the weighted blanket, compression vests, body socks, lycra sheets, and resistance tunnels.  Then I have to make all of the prototypes so that I can take pictures of them all, I mean I could use some of the ones that I have already made, but I want have a few on hand anyways. 
The good thing is I already made the account on etsy.com and I already have a name, I am using the name we planned on giving our foundation (A Special Destination).  This will give us the first step in getting the foundation up and running.

I have been thinking, thanks to a friend of mine, about homeschooling the boys again.  My friend palns on doing that for her children and, well, Eric and I had bounced around the thought before we moved up here; we just dismissed it after we moved to give the public schools a chance.  Well, nothing against the schools here, they are actually pretty great, they just do not exactly know how to handle Aiden's behaviors, which means next year when Scott is in school, they will not be able to handle his behaviors.  I give the teacher credit, she seems to be willing to try to learn, but there are just a few things that bug me at the moment.  Then theres the fact that we tried to get a waiver in to get the boys into the neighboring school district that has a very good autism specialist on staff, but they have so many kids on the spectrum in their district already they could not accomodate two more. Since we are plugged into a lease until Sept 2013, we cannot move into the district just yet unless we want to have to owe them.  I could handle paying the apartment off over time, but I am also in the process of trying to pay off our non-essential bills at the moment so why would I want to add to that already huge pile?  So that brings me back to my friend who is going to homeschool her kids.  That would make perfect sense for us because then I would not have to worry about making sure I schedule their million therapies around school because I could do the school around them.  Then I could see if my friend would want to do school together and we could teach our kids together that way they would still have the social piece that they need; let alone the fact that we could both set up the curriculum and two heads are better than one on that (I know I would have a hard time coming up with new ideas all the time).  But again this is all just a thought, I need to talk to her about it too.

My schooling is going along great, I am loving my classes and my peers have been great so far.  I even found out that Harvard offers a degree program in autism studies online (if I could get in that is).  But I still have the plan to get my BCBA and then my PhD so that I could help children on the spectrum by being their therapist and then also being able to diagnosis them.

Other than that life has been going pretty well lately.  I have been a lot happier than I have been, which is good.  I finally feel like I am where I should be.  I have been able to come to grips with past decisions that have affected my body and my mind and I have righted those wrongs.  I am finally at a good weight from recovering for anorexia (oh yeah, I have been open about that a lot more now too).  I am finally able to eat without feeling like I am going to get sick, and I my eating schedule comes more naturally to me, which is much better than having to set alarms for each of my meals.  I have a good exercise regime down, and I think I am finally getting some pretty ripped abs too.  I love myself again, which has been a long time coming and I could not ask for more.  I apologize for everyone who this is news to them, I did not intentionally keep this from you, I was embarrassed about it and I wanted to make sure I was on the right track and going to be okay with myself before I told anyone.  Main thing is I did not want anyone to worry about me, which you do not have to do anymore because I am finally healthy in all senses: mind, body, and spirit. 

The boys are doing good.  They are making progress so fast.  Their therapists are always trying to figure out what to do next without putting them way ahead of their peers when it comes to cognitive functioning (I am not trying to brag but my boys are some smarty pants).  Scott I am going to start working with on his signs a bit more strictly since he still picks up on those faster and uses them spontaneously more so than his verbal language.  Aiden is becoming a ladies man.  He is already betrothed to one little girl (and that wedding is definitely going to be happening :)).  But when he comes from school, I keep finding these notes from some of the 5th graders who help out in his class.  I have to say, my little guy is pretty loveable, but I have a feeling that when he is older I am going to have to be chasing girls off from him.