Dino's and Christmas Magic

The past few years I've watched many of my friends have a lot of fun with their kids and Elf On The Shelf. Heck, I even have a board on Pinterest of ideas if I were to ever get the doll. Notice, I haven't actually gotten the doll. Why? I've talked to my kids in the past and we've seen them in the stores, but my kids just didn't get the idea of it. They were like, Yeah, it's a toy mom moves around. Hello?!?! We are looking at it in the box and seeing you buy it. So, we never purchased one.

I still wanted to do something fun though and this got me thinking. Why not use something we already have? Need I add the toy is $30 and that could go toward an actual present. I read a link on Facebook that a family staged dinosaurs for the month of November to show their kids there is imagination. LIGHT BULB! My kids have dinosaurs! And one night I started it.

To see how they would react, this is what they woke up to.

The letter pretty much says so elves were spying on them and some of their magic they carry with them to get them back and fourth from the North Pole had accidently spilled on them, OOPPS! Now they come alive while everyone sleeps and reports back to Santa.

 It worked! They were SO excited and couldn't stop talking about these Magic Dino's constantly until I dropped them off at school. So, naturally this isn't normal and like any business public relations has to clean up, so Santa sent them a letter explaining more in detail what was going on.

When They came home they found a scroll waiting on the driveway. The squeals as they brought this in the house and read it were deafening. Now I was committed.

This is what they found the next few mornings.

Day 2

Dino workout turned into a silly game of drop the marshmallow in Rex's mouth.

 

 

Day 3

Dino dress up tea party!

 

 

Day 4

The Chair! Hit him with the chair! Wow! Dino's taking on The Undertaker?!?!

 

This has been super fun and the kids are having a blast. After they find the dino's they play and play and play with them in the set ups. I found my two year old, Riot, holding a few of the dinosaurs the other day yelling, "Wake up! Play wif me!" 

Now I just need to think up about 20 more scenes. Hope you all enjoy.





 

 

Living in a Small Town

This past week we had an other assesment about our children who have disabilities. This time it was with a state affiliated office. Let me tell you, those tests are grueling because for each question there are three parts to each answer. Each child's assesment takes about two hours. 

The guy interviewing us about the assesment was kind and helpful so that did help. His office accommodating to each of the children's needs. He was understanding when Paisley got overwhelmed by something and had to dust his office with his tissues while we talked. He explained how her OCD affected her and how her having dyslexia as well as FXS and an autism spectrum fight against each other. Yet, he was amazed at how she at only 7 years old has learned to cope and self soothe to the point you can't automatically see she is affected by something.

Then it came time for Seth. We had to go into detail about his issues, especially the behavior. The aggression is our biggest concern right now. During that discussion of the assesment, I had to decide the seriousness of the behavior. The choices to pick ranged from not serious to extremely seriouse, each helping by giving definitions to each answer. The definitions were determand and on how I feel others react or how it affects the public when they see such behavior.

When I answered the first few, the gentalman stopped and looked at the scars on my arms. He then asked me to take him step by step through what typically happens and why I didn't think it was a big deal. I did what he asked and told him I didn't think it was a big deal because I deal with this everyday, some days not as big as others. But it has become normal to me. He asked me to really think about the ansewrs and pointed out the differences between what I thought the situation was and what it really was. I was saying they weren't that seriouse and at most moderately. My reasoning is because of how the public, here in Preston, reacts to Seth's meltdowns and even when he gets "violent". The definitions were, the actions are annoying, cause others to look and wounder what is going on but the disturbance doesn't stop the others from competing tasks, or on the moderate answer that Seth would need to be removed so others can go about without causing a disturbance that is distracting. And we were answering on everything else except for the times when Seth is going to school because those actions are isolated to school. 

I had to stop and really think about all of the reactions I get here in Preston, Idaho. 

My eyes filled with tears at this point. I explained that there has only been a few times where I felt, by the tests definition, that there was a serious problem with Seth in public. This community doesn't shun, make fun, or be rude to Seth. These people, in Preston, are excepting of him, his issues, and when they see him breakdown, they don't point, whisper, or say mean things. They except him for HIM! They love him. It's when we go out of the area, even as close as Logan or Pocatello, we see the difference in how others see the issues. 

Seth walks home from school, by himself. And I know if he ventures off the path of his route I will get a phone call. Our neighborhood knows that Seth's walk home from school his his one thing he does with out a parent by his side. That is his one thing he does indepenantly, as independent for him because pretty much all the houses he walks past watch out for him. 

The gentalman was stunned in a way. He couldn't believe how accepting this community is. He asked how the police react to Seth. I told him the same way. They know he isn't a danger to others, unless he is riding his bike down the highway. I didn't add that part, that can be between us. When I told him we lived here, a light went on. He said he had a few others he assessed from here and heard the same thing. He told us that is rare to find a community as a whole that accepting. We finished up the appointment by having us think of reactions in other places and at the end of the test I wanted to get back home. 

I hear others say they hate Preston. They may have their reasons and that is fine but I love it here. Yes, it is an out of the way place. I have to travel kind of far to really shop. Everyone does know what I am doing, but I also put it out there. I feel safe here. I can let my disabled children outside to play. And, when Seth does run off, it happends, I don't get judged as being a neglectful parent for letting my kid get out of my sight. I mean, think about it if you just thought, "wait, I haven't lost my child and needed to call the cops before. That is bad parenting." 

Do you have to keep a constant eye on your kids? No, not like what I am talking about. You can leave the room and go to the bathroom, throw in a batch of laundry, load the dishwasher, take a shower and not worry your child will walk out of the house and into the road. Your child might know that is dangerouse. Mine doesn't. I have to keep a constant eye and it's not humanly possible. I have to sleep, shower, and take bathroom breaks too. It's during those times they would get out and I wouldn't know. Thankfully, we only had to call the police twice. Everything turned out to be okay, and we were lucky. Lucky, that the police knew us and understand the situation. That is because this is an awesome place to live. I have a little joke  I always tell someone that asks how long I've lived here and it is, I was born, raised, and hopefully will die here. I love it here. 

Looking At Life With New Eyes

Holy cow, I finally have a moment to sit down and write this. When I had my last baby my regular doctor told me during my c-section he noticed that my insides were a mess and nothing like he had ever seen before. I should go and see a specialist to check it out. Well, I thought, yeah it can wait. So a little over a year it did, but gradually every month my stomach would get more painful to touch, move, lay on, anything. The pressure almost felt like I had a baby still inside my belly. I’d had enough and made an appointment to see the specialist, thinking it was going to be a bad case of endometriosis.

The appointment came and tests were ran. While sitting in the room the doctor came in and told me I did in fact have endometriosis, but he noticed something alarming. The scar tissue had been hiding a massive tumor that was growing around my uterus and connecting everything together. As in, my abdominal wall was now part of my uterus, bladder, liver, kidneys, lungs, intestines, and bowel. He sat down and gave me the surgical options, all risky because of how much cutting would need to take place, I could bleed to death, or one of those organs could be punctured.

First things first we had a biopsy done to make sure the tumor wasn’t cancer. Those were the longest two weeks of my life waiting for the results. I didn’t sleep or eat. If I did eat I threw up. I cried all the time, thought about what would my husband do, my kids. Would they remember me if I died? I looked at my life and reevaluated everything, wanting every moment I could to spend with my family, husband, and children. I didn’t care about material things anymore. All that mattered was the time I had.

I remember the day the call came back from the doctor’s office. The sun was bright, Riot was in his highchair eating eggs. I was sitting at the table watching his little mouth move around as he chewed. Trying to imprint every detail of his face to memory. I looked at the number on the screen and hesitated to answer. After thee rings I pushed the button and heard the news. The tumor was benign, but fast growing and needed to come out as soon as possible or it would in other words smother my organs. The nurse paused and said, “You need to pay for half of this up front though. Can you bring in the $6000 this week?”

“No,” I whispered. “That is way more then we have saved up. Let me call you back after I t figure out how to pay for this.”

“We can’t go any further with out the payment.”

We hung up.

Two major emotions ran through me. Relief, it wasn’t cancer. Helplessness, I couldn’t pay for the surgery up front. I put my head on the table and cried for I don’t know how long.

I asked one of my friends who worked at a hospital what should I do. She mentioned a doctor who was very good and would work with patents who didn’t have insurance. I made some phone calls and set up an appointment with this doctor. He asked to see my file before hand as well.

We met with this new doctor and form the moment we started talking we knew this was the right way to go. He had me do another scan and found the tumor had grown more. We set the surgery date.

All went well, the only hiccup was the surgery went longer than expected. I’m so glad to have this over with and on the mend. Through out all of this, I found I have a great family and friends. They all were amazing and helped me out so much. I couldn’t have gotten through this with out you.