Happy Holidays!

All the best for the season and all year long,
-Sally, Craig, Chase, and Corinne

Don't send a lame Holiday eCard. Try JibJab Sendables!

Look at me! All Political and Stuff!

So, I actually testified at a Health Policy Hearing of the Michigan House of Representatives. Crazy!

They are looking at 4 bills that will mandate that insurance companies cover treatments for Autism. (Right now, 99.9% of them actually state that anything with a diagnosis of Autism is explicitly not covered.) Read my post from April 27 for more information about this.

If you are in Michigan and interested in helping us pass these mandates into law, please contact your senators and representatives. The Autism Insurance in Michigan blog has information about how to help.

Chase Update
He is doing soooooo great! He knows all of the Christmas songs and all of his letters. He also has this Little Leaps game thing that plays games with a controller and a DVD. He keeps wanting to play it in German. He's able to turn it to German by himself, and he even follows the directions. Maybe languages are his super-power. Maybe he really was speaking Chinese before he started speaking English? We used to joke about that all the time.

Corinne Update
Our little peanut is putting words together in almost sentences. Like, "No momma pop! My pop!" and, "No momma cookie! My cookie!" It's amazing how different she is than Chase was. I realize now just how far behind his speech really was.

Christmas
I'm about 99% done shopping (mostly online) and about 1% done wrapping. I'm going to have to work on that soon. My favorite things that the kids are getting are guinea pigs and this thing:
Hopefully, I don't regret the guinea pigs...

Also, TechSmith put out our Christmas Card. There's an online version and photo album that you should check out.

Oof-da!

Thought I should pull that out. Our weather this last week really reminds me of our time in Minnesota: Freezing, SUPER windy, but not a ton of snow. At least that's what I remember...

So, the big news this week? Well, my back was bothering me the last two weeks. Cory jumped on my back and aggravated my bulging disk, which hasn't bothered me in over a year.) I decided to go in and get something stronger than my Tylenol. Well, I bent down to pick up the pen top that I dropped and BAM! My back completely goes out. Nice. It was more painful than giving birth without any drugs. Really. I almost passed out. At least I was in the doctor's office.

So, I've been out since Wednesday morning. I'm feeling better, but not 100%. I'm still taking my muscle relaxer and Vicadin. They help my back but make me feel kind of sick. So that's fun...

Anyway, I hope your days are all going better than mine.

Oh, April, the way I got the good hair pictures: played the show online, paused it, and used SnagIt to capture what I wanted. I'll try to get a picture of my hair soon. Craig's work party is this weekend, so hopefully, I'll get a good one then.

I'm Back (Again)

Thanks for bugging me April.

I've been busy and lazy about posting. I guess I needed a kick to get going. We'll see if I can start doing this more. ;o)

Anyway... I've got some pictures from Halloween through last weekend.

And, I actually included pictures of me, so you're in for a treat.

I chopped off my hair last Friday instead of going shopping. I went to Douglas J and saw Lourdes. If that sounds expensive, it was. Thank goodness for giftcards. Here's what the hair plan was:


I don't have a picture of me with the haircut, but she really got it to look just like the photo. I LOVE it!

In other big news, we booked a trip to Disney World! I go back and forth about the intelligence of this idea. We're going to be staying at a Disney Hotel for 9 nights. I'm praying now that the kids (and Craig) like it.

Well, I will try to talk to you all soon!

Amazing Race

So, my sister Sarah and I want to apply for The Amazing Race. We did once before, but at the last minute, so our video kind of sucked.

Anybody have any great ideas? If you know us, what would make you want to watch us? I know you would!

I'm still alive

I'm just pretty busy. Hopefully, I'll get back into updating the blog regularly very soon!

So, here's a couple things to make your day a little happier:





You are really cool if you know who this guy is:


Ok, at least these made my day happy! (Thanks Katie and Diana!)

Even Happier

So yeah, I'm even happier today.

Why, you ask?

1.


2.


3. I bought both.

4.

(Click picture to see full episode on NBC.com.)

5. We're going to be in Houghton on Sunday.

Have a great weekend everybody!

Happy

Despite the looming shutdown of Michigan's government, which really is very silly, I'm in a very good mood. Things that make me happy today:

• It feels like summer, even though it's almost October
• Our writing group went out for lunch to celebrate how awesome we are
• We're walking in Autism Speaks fundraising walk on Sunday at the Detroit Zoo
• I'm heading up to MTU to recruit for my company
  NMU too, but big whoop. ;o)
  
• Chase is doing great
• This is gross, but the fact that Cory puts her finger in her nose whenever she feels shy. If she's REALLY feeling shy, she does a finger in each nostril. We call that one the "Mary Catherine".
  
  
• "Decorating" a coworker's cube for his birthday
  
  

GM, Bowling, and The Family Guy Star Wars

So, GM workers are walking out. Like Michigan needs more crap. The thing that gets to me so much about the UAW is they have, what seem to me, such outrageous demands. It's hard for me to want to back workers that:

1. Get a pension
2. Feel entitled to next to free health care (and complain about $1.24 copays)
   
3. Can make $70 - $100,000 a year without a college degree
4. Refuse to do anything that might be slightly out of their job description
5. Work a minute that they don't get paid for
6. Have a clause in their contracts that the health care IS NOT guaranteed for life and MAY change and yet still are willing to fight it while creating huge issues for Michigan and the US auto market in general
7. There's more, but I don't want to take too much time

Anyway, that's the way I see it. This all may have worked 30 years ago, but now the world is different. Deal with it.

Ok. Now onto the good things.
I took Chase bowling. He loved it! They had this slide thing for the little kids to roll the ball down. Chase and his friend Ethan were pretty excited about it.


The Family Guy's Star Wars episode. Wow. This just rocked. If you didn't see it, there are plenty of clips on YouTube. Here's the trailer for it:

Updates from the Bad Blogger

Wow, you'd think I could find five minutes to write something once and awhile... Actually, if I could just take five minutes, it wouldn't be an issue, but you know how I like to talk...

Chase
Chase started preschool. He goes to daycare in the morning, and then the bus picks him up and drives him across the street (seriously) to his school. He's at school from 12:30 to 3:00 and then the 1 1/2 hour bus ride home. Funny how we live about 10 miles from school and it takes THAT long.
He LOVES school. He's in a class with six other autistic spectrum kids of varying abilities. I don't know all of the kids, but I do think that Chase is one of, if not the most verbal kids. It's vary structured and they do all kinds of things: speech therapy, occupational therapy, gym class, music therapy, and swimming.
He also loves the bus. To put it mildly, I freaked out when they said he'd have such a long bus ride. More like I was a weeping annoying parent. But, he has really surprised me and LOVES his bus ride. His bus driver, Sandy, is great, and since he's in a booster seat and buckled in, he's not wandering around on the bus. Whew!
He's also using the potty almost all the time, except he'll only stand. So that means only #1, no #2 or "poot" as he calls it.

Corinne
Or as we call her "Jaws".
She started biting two days ago. Because my major coping mechanism is to laugh, I'm not helping much. I'm hoping we work through it quickly. She's also throwing HUGE fits and hitting me, Chase, anybody who doesn't let her do exactly what she wants. Well, at home at least. She doesn't do this stuff at daycare, so I guess that's good. She just tells them "NO!" It's amazing the difference having a child that won't watch movies and talks so much. She's as much of a handful as Chase ever was, but in a totally different way. But she's so darn cute.

Lessons
This whole "autism adventure" with Chase has taught me more life lessons and compassion than I had learned in the first 26 years of my life. I can't believe the wonderful "differently-abled" kids, loving families, and caring teachers I have met. I feel ashamed that I ever made a shortbus joke, or complained that I couldn't find a close parking spot because there are too many "handicrapped" spots. Chase is doing really, really good and is really breaking out of most, if not all, of his autistic behaviors. But, I can tell you that if it turned out he was 100% "normal", I'm glad that we have been through what we have because it's taught me a valuable lesson and opened Chase up to people he might never have interacted with.

I hope that you will all encourage your children to get to know some differently-abled kids. Although it might be hard for your children to understand why someone is different, I promise you that you, your child, the disabled child, and that child's family will forever be changed for the better, and the world will be just a little better place because of it. :o)

Men in Crocs

Ok. Personally, I'm not a fan of the Crocs, brand name or otherwise. Maybe it's just me.

So, my big pet peeve today is men wearing Crocs. That's the worst. And wearing them to work no less.

I guess nothing says business casual like a pair of glorified jelly shoes.

Trees

So, I've been reading about all my friends in Minnesota having crappy weather. I should have remembered that we get your weather a day or two later.

So now all the money I'd saved for our Disney vacation next year now gets to go for a deductible. Grrr.

The suckiest thing is that our well and pump is under the shed. We had to cut enough of the tree away last night to get a tarp on it to keep the rain out. If a lot of water got it, it could contaminate our well.

Oh yeah, the power to the shed blew, probably to do with the light that was mounted in the center of the ceiling, and we have no running water in the house today.

Thank goodness Craig knows enough to fix that today.

Anyway, at least it didn't land 10 feet to the left. It would have smashed both of our cars.

MTU
I'm going to be going up to Tech for the career fair in October. I'm also doing the Northern one while I'm up there. I'm overly excited about this. I'm also going to do a little presentation to some of the STC kiddos. Am I cool or what?


Anyone else going to be up there?

Mommy Wars

Having a mother that stayed home with me and my sisters, and never worked outside our home after I was 2, I've had to deal with all kinds of guilt issues about having a career. I can tell you that I have the utmost respect for what my mom did and still does. After working part time for six months, I was relieved when I started working (almost) full time.

Working in an office is much easier (for me at least) then staying at home with two kids under three. This realization is what causes me much of my guilt. The other major guilt provider is my mom, who believed that people shouldn't have children if they're not going to raise them themselves and that daycare is evil. (She has come around some, since on Chase's bad days she too is convinced that Cory is much safer in daycare.)

Brought up the way that I was, I had never been to daycare, had never come home to an empty house, and been able to stay at our cottage for most of the summer, since we didn't have to be home for my mom to go to work. How could I not be that same kind of mom? I've struggled with this for three whole years, and finally, I feel that I'm at peace with the fact that I'm just not that kind of mom and probably won't ever be.

I enjoy my job. I enjoy being out of the house. I enjoy the validation from other people that I do a good job on my work (which is not something that a stay at home mom gets much of.).

And that's OK and my children won't be horribly messed up because I work. (Repeat)

Although, I do think that Chase is better when I'm around him and interacting with him constantly, I have even come to terms with this. I'm never going to be able to be there for him 24 hours a day for the rest of his life. He's going to have to learn how to cope with "the real world". Isn't starting now better than pushing him into it when he starts kindergarten? But I digress.

Anyway, there's an article from Newsweek written by a women who is sick of hearing all about the great "should mothers work or not" debate. I found it interesting, funny, and validating. The last line of the article is:

It's nice to read something that "gives us permission to be worse mothers," she says. Permission granted.

Thank you.

It constantly amazes me when someone that I see as super-involved with their kids says to me, "Wow. You do so much with your kids. I should do more." or "You have so much patience." or "How do you handle that?" --- Um, are you talking to me?

It seems to me that women who overdo the fight of stay home or work might be covering up their own uncertainty that they are doing the "right" thing. I know that's what I did when I was trying to convince myself, as well as whomever I was talking to, that staying at home was THE ONLY way to go.

I think that most, if not all of us, focus on our mothering shortcomings, not what we do that's good and right. Maybe today we can all try to concentrate on the good things that we do and not what things we're messing up.

Or, maybe we can just think that there's got to be worse mothers out there. That makes me feel a little better too.

How old where you?

How old were you when you got married?
(Please, fill in the survey to the right!)
I was 25. It never really occurred to me that 25 was young for marriage. I remember thinking that my mom had been "old" when she got married. She was 23, but in comparison with my best friends' moms, who were 19 and 20 when they were married, it did seem old. (Boy that seems funny now.)

I know plenty of unmarried people my age. There are plenty of times that these people are all going out for drinks after work and Oops! I'd LOVE to go, but I've got to pick up the kids from daycare. There are plenty of days I would like to just put the married/mommy stuff on pause and just think about myself again.

Anyway, I saw this article on the front of MSN.com:

I actually haven't read the whole article yet, because just reading that intro made me think. Had I been crazy in love? Just Crazy? I think that I was naive. I never realized how much my life would change. Also, it wasn't so much the getting married thing as the getting pregnant a month after we got married that put a bit of a damper on the "fun" stuff.

Would I do it over again?
YES. I have a wonderful husband and two beautiful children. I am happy, just stretched to my limits some days.

I just wish that I would have appreciated single life more. I wish that I would have taken road trips with my girlfriends, visited friends that moved far away, kept in better touch of friends, and just turned the TV off more often.

In all of this bad stuff...

...there are the stories of the people who lived.

This bridge thing is bothering me WAY more than it should. I think it helps me to hear about the people that survived. I won't go on forever about the bridge thing, but there's a story about a couple that barely made it out of their car. They were on their way from Wisconsin because the woman's 2-year old daughter had been airlifted to a hospital in Minneapolis.


Wow. Someone was really watching over them. I hope that the little girl is OK, too.

Bridges

I heard last night about the 35W bridge. I can't believe it. I just hope that nobody that I know was involved. (I'll feel better when I hear from you all.) I'm pretty sure that everybody that I know lives and works north of the bridge, but it's so scary.

(I had to take the picture out.)

I've been terrified since I was a child of being on a collapsing bridge. And this happens to a bridge I crossed tons of times. I haven't heard a word here in Michigan about the construction that was taking place on the bridge. I wonder if the work being done, plus the weight of the cement barriers, plus the weight of all the cars is what did it.

It's one of those things that is never supposed to happen. How many times have I sat on a bridge or in a parking garage and felt it move as other cars go by? I sometimes feel a little panicky, and then I think, "You're being dumb. Bridges don't just fall."

My heart goes out to all the people and families involved. My thoughts and prayers are with them all.

Ice

My mom likes to eat lots of ice. My sisters like to eat lots of ice. I like to eat lots of ice. If you like to eat lots of ice, you can appreciate my excitement for the new ice maker we have at work.
It makes these great little thimble-shaped pieces of ice. Because of their shape, they hold just the right amount of pop in them. It's a really nice thing to have when I want a snack at work. Ice and Diet Pepsi, zero calories, fat, and point. Nice.

So what's sucky about this? My tongue is pretty much constantly frozen and I have to wear my coat in the office. But, it's soooo worth it!

Garden
Craig is a garden nut. We've had a garden every summer we've been here in Michigan. It seems to get bigger every year. Here's pictures of his first big harvest.

He made spaghetti sauce last night with some of the tomatoes. I'm glad that he's motivated to can this stuff, because I'm totally not.

Minivans

New Baby
My good friend Katie had her second baby last week! Steven Robert was born on July 23 at 7:58 a.m. He was 7 lbs/4 oz and 21 inches. I was just talking to Katie, and it sounds like everything's going good. They've been home since Thursday. Big Sister Sophie is very happy with the new arrival, so far.

Congratulations Katie, Erin, and Sophie! Ready to pick up that minivan?

Minivans
Speaking of minivans, I just trading in my SUV for one. I'm not sure exactly how I feel about it yet. I was kind of sick to my stomach when I left the dealer. While it is a really nice car, I've had 4 wheel drive for so long, it's odd. And, I also realized that there's only like two other minivans at work.

I probably wouldn't have done it, but after 95,000 miles of no car problems, I've had two wheel bearings, a cv joint, and something that I had never heard of go bad in my car. So, I traded her in at 99, 680 miles. I have a 6 year/100,000 mile bumper to bumper and 200,000 mile powertrain warranty now, so that's nice.

Craig is coming around, I think. He said, "These doors are kind of nice. I wonder why they don't put these sliding doors on SUVs? That'd be nice."

Why can't I let go?

So, most of you know already that there's a manager from my past that still haunts me. He really was worse than Michael on The Office. He was an "Idea Guy". We would bring a problem to his attention, but he would choose to ignore it, at least until he could swoop in and "save the day".

When I couldn't take the crap from him anymore, I asked to be removed from his group (where I was working on video deliverables) and go back to the writing group. First, he gave me a horrible review, full of straight out lies. And second, he told my new project managers that they shouldn't give me anything even slightly challenging because I wouldn't be able to handle it.
Really he was just insulted that I didn't want to be in his group.

When I left his group, he decided to try his hand at creating (and starring in) the video projects, and in turn, proved my point that he had no clue about what he was doing. Here is the resulting video.



And if you're wowed by what you've seen, he's available as a voice talent.

But, I guess that he did do one thing that I appreciated. MM, thank you for making me hate working there so much that I moved to a different state. And now I work at a WAY awesome company with a great boss and a great future, where I get to document great products.

Ah, I guess that should be enough revenge for me, but still, I wonder, should I put it on YouTube?


Oh, I thought that this was really funny too:

This is real. Here's the link to the page it came from.

Are "nerdy" things getting cooler, or am I getting nerdier?

So, way back in 2003 when we started using this IM thing at work, I wasn't really on board. We were doing the same thing with email, weren't we? After the initial resistance, I gave in, although it still seemed like a nerdy thing to do at the time. Now, I can't get through a day, or possibly an hour, at work without using IM and the smilies I used to think were so lame.

Next, it was blogging. First off, I'd hear about it randomly on tv and it seemed dumb. Then my friend Tim started one and I loved it! Then Jodie started one and it makes me smile (or laugh uncontrollably at least once a day. I thought it was fun to read someone else's blog, but no way I would ever to do one. Hmmm... We all know how that turned out...

I'm also never getting a cell phone for my kids.

Anyway...
At TechSmith we have a really neat new project called Jing. It rocks! And I'm not just saying that because I work here! But, if I didn't work here, I might not have tried it because of my attitude described above...

On that note, since you're my friends, you really, really, really should try it. There's a quick, fun video about it that you should watch. It's free to use right now, so why not try it?

The best thing about it for me is to be able to send a link in IM so someone can see what I'm talking about instantly, without having to stop to the conversation to create, send, and wait for them to get an email. Also, if your company blocks media files from email, this is a good way to share without sending through email.

And besides all that, it's just cool. I have to say, this is the most excited that I've been about something like this. So, you agree with me, right? I'm not nerdy, it's just that Jing is that cool.

Floods can't happen here, right?

So, whenever I see stuff about flooding, I think, "Wow. It's such a good thing that I'll never be affected by something like that."

Well, I guess that I still haven't been affected, but a water main break in Livonia has me thinking a little.

This was the expressway right next to the last place I worked.


Isn't that nuts? You should read the story, if you're interested.

I'm a Bad Blogger

I know I totally need to get my vacation pictures on here. I just haven't had a chance. I'll try to get to it today or tomorrow.

But until then, let me tell you all what is making me happy today:

1. I'm going to see Wicked one week from tomorrow
2. The Singing Bee
3. Websters added "ginormous" to the dictionary
4. Craig's new St. Ignace souvenir
   

And of course, these little monsters

25

RIP Cardinal, RIP.

Seriously. It was maybe 50 feet before where I hit the mourning dove yesterday. But, this time it wasn't like I surprised it. It flew out of nowhere straight into the grill of my car. He totally had a death wish, and I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Jodie, can you still be my friend?

The Birds Are Out to Get Me!

So, there may be a couple of you that know about my tendency to hit birds with my car. For those of you who are not familiar with my dilemma, in the last year, I've probably hit about 24.

No kidding.

This number includes the mourning dove that I hit this morning. At least I think it was a mourning dove, it happened really fast and it was dark. The stupid thing was on the ground as I came over a little hill and tried to take off just as I was going over it.

And the 24 doesn't count the close calls with the 3 different turkey families, the single flying turkey (just missed my windshield by inches), the multiple pheasants, and the owl that was sitting in the road this morning, less than a mile after I hit the dove.

The owl was odd. I saw something that I thought was a raccoon standing on its back legs, but as I got closer, I could see that it was a HUGE owl, sitting in the road. It didn't appear to be hurt and just looked a me. It was too dark and as I was trying to figure out how to make my phone record video in low light, it flew away.

Why? Why is it that birds are attracted to my car, or at least not scared of it? It makes me wince or gasp every time I have a bird fly anywhere near my car.

And, what's next? This?

No Time!

I just went back to "full" time. I'm doing 32 hours, taking Tuesdays off to get Chase to his summer programs. I'm working 8 hours a day, but wow, it goes fast.

Chase Update
Chase is doing AWESOME! His vocabulary has just blossumed over the last two weeks. He is even counting. His speech therapist said it's really good that he points to and actually is counting things, not just saying numbers. Here's how he counts, "1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 6." It's great.
The kids are at daycare now three days a week. Chase's teacher is great, and he is doing good so far. (Cory wasn't happy at first, but is starting to really like it, too!) The interaction with the other kids is so good for Chase, so I'm glad he's having fun.
We go back to our therapy group next Tuesday. He's come a long way since our last session. I just hope he shows them in group. Sometimes, he saves it for home. We'll see.

Fun Stuff
We've been doing some fun stuff, including a trip to the Toledo Zoo. My mom couldn't come at the last minute, so I had to take them myself, since I already promised Chase we would go. We were in the zoo for 6.5 hours! They were so good. See the slideshow pictures.
We've been seeing my friend Susanne and her kids a lot lately. We're having such a great time! Susanne even watched both kids while I had an appointment last night! That's the first time someone other than me, Craig, my mom, my sister, or daycare has ever watched them. It's kind of a big thing for me. I wasn't worried about Susanne being able to watch them, I was worried about them destroying her house! It went pretty well, and Susanne even bought Chase a Sponge Bob ice cream from the Ice Cream Truck. Thanks, Susanne! You SO rock!

All Kinds of Fun

Ok, that might not sound sucky, but not having enough time to get all kinds of fun new stuff onto my blog is sucky.

Now, since last time, we've been to Cedar Point, a Very Special Arts Festival, the Zoo, and had our last day of Chase's class for the school year.

Cedar Point
It went really well. It's funny how Chase was terrified of some things that Ethan would go on, and Ethan was terrified of things that Chase loved! Odd how that works.
The boys were troopers! They made it through both days at Cedar Point, an indoor waterpark, two nights in the hotel, and the trip there and home (thank you Grandma for the DVD player for the car!)

We were all tired, but I think that we're going to try to do it again next year!
Here's some pictures. I finally broke down and went for the slideshow...

Torrent Very Special Arts Festival and the Zoo
We stopped over at Chase's school for a really neat little art festival that they do every year. They have several different stops along the way to make crafts to take home. The kids made buttons, necklaces, glitter cards, and also had their faces (or hand) painted and ate snow cones.

Craig and I took the kids to the Binder Park Zoo on Memorial Day. I guess that I took more video than I did pictures, so there's only a couple. The best thing about this zoo is feeding the giraffes!

Here's some pictures of Chase and Cory, and their friends, Daisy and Evie at the art festival and a few of our zoo trip.

`

Weathermen

Why is it that weathermen get away with being wrong so much? If a person in another career was wrong as many times as they are, that person would be unemployed.

Even up until the storms hit yesterday, they were still saying that today would be dry. Um, it was pouring when I left the house this morning and it's still raining. Even better, here's the forecast from TheWeatherChannel.com for Cedar Point:Thursday's our evening at Cedar Point, Friday is our whole day. I guess it's not the crappiest forecast, but hot, sunny weather seems to go with Cedar Point.

Another thing that sucks today is that Cedar Point is only open until 7pm! I guess I've never been there this time of year, so I was totally surprised that it would close so early. I'm sure that will probably be a good time to leave for the kids. I'm sure that 9am-7pm will probably be a long enough day for them, and I guess us adults, too. Sigh.

Photos
Here's some pictures from Mother's Day.

Cory before the pickle was taken away.

Cory after the pickle was taken away.
Cory after Grandma made her happy again.Chase and (Great) Aunt Kathy

Cory and Mya

Sharing popsicles

Mya and Amy

Troublemakers

Where's Jose? Can you tell which is the real bird?