Tagged with " blogs i love"
Sep 4, 2011

Versatile Blogger Award

Blog awards are so much fun! And this one is so pretty, too; I love it!

Here are the rules that came along with it:

  1. Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to them in your post.
  2. Share 7 things about yourself.
  3. Pass this award along to 15 recently discovered blogs (contact them to let them know).

So, here’s a big thank you to Melissa at Someday, When I’m Famous… for thinking of me. Melissa is a great blogger and also an author, so check her out at her blog or on Goodreads.

And a few things about me (hopefully interesting ones!)

  1. I haven’t eaten potatoes in over a year, since I was found to be allergic to them, and I occasionally dream about ordering a big plate and scarfing them down before remembering that I’m not supposed to.
  2. I have become addicted to Netflix and have worked my way through several TV series, even though I’m sure the time could have been used much more productively.
  3. I haven’t been to church hardly at all this summer because we have run out of volunteers for Michael and I don’t enjoy children’s church any more now than I did when I was a kid myself.
  4. I am grateful that my friend Kelli has started a blog about reading through the Bible chronologically, because it gives me a bit of spiritual connection that I have been missing. (It’s called The Exhorter Reads if you want to check it out – we just started reading on September 1st, so you haven’t missed too much!)
  5. I haven’t used any of my stamping supplies in ages and have even bought the last several birthday cards I needed at the store (gasp!). My friend and I got together yesterday to talk about getting back to it on a more regular basis again, which should be a lot of fun.
  6. I have found that even a good school meeting leaves me drained and stressed, although at least without the residual anger and frustration that comes from a bad one.
  7. I am looking forward to cooler weather – especially since I am so tired of having allergy and sinus problems.

Now, onto some (relatively) recent blog finds. This is a bit of a mix, although all of these bloggers have some connection to autism. Some I read for enjoyment and comraderie, while others make me think and even challenge some of my previously-held ideas – and some do both!

A note to those of you I have passed this award on to – you are under absolutely no obligation to follow any of the rules that come with the award or even to acknowledge it in any way. You can choose to participate in any way you wish or to ignore it completely. I have listed your blog simply because it has given something to me over the last few months and I wanted to let you know.



Jan 23, 2011

The Most Awesome Award Ever Made

Okay, so I *won* the ultimate blog award not just once, but twice, in the last few days and have the dubious honor of lying to you about myself and then passing the award on to several more unsuspecting bloggers.

(Honestly, the only reason I am doing this is because I have been beyond unmotivated this weekend and have accomplished almost nothing!!)

Oh, and the award was created by Jill at Yeah. Good Times. and was awarded to me by Jean at Mommy to Two Boys and Gina at Special Happens.

Here are the rules (edited for use on a family-friendly blog):

1. You must proudly display the absolutely disgusting graphic that I have created for these purposes (put it in your post, you don’t have to put it in your sidebar, I think that would seriously be asking too much). It’s so bad that not only did I use COMIC SANS, but there’s even a little jumping, celebrating kitten down there at the bottom. It’s horrifying! But its presence in your award celebration is crucial to the memetastic process we’re creating here. If you need a higher resolution version… I totally have one!!

2. You must list 5 things about yourself, and 4 of them must be bold-faced lies. Just make some stuff up, we’ll never know; one of them has to be true, though. Of course, nobody will ever know the difference, so we’re just on the honor system here. I trust you. Except for the 4 that you lied about, you lying bastards! But don’t go crazy trying to think of stuff, you’ll see by the example I’ve set below that we’re not really interested in quality here.

3. You must pass this award on to 5 bloggers that you either like or don’t like or don’t really have much of an opinion about. I don’t care who you pick, and nobody needs to know why. I mean, you can give a reason if you want, but I don’t really care.

4. If you fail to follow any of the above rules, I will hunt you down and harass you incessantly until you either block me on Twitter or ban my IP address from visiting your blog. I don’t know if you can actually do that last thing, but I will become so annoying to you that you will actually go out and hire an IT professional to train you on how to ban IP addresses just so that I’ll leave you alone. I’m serious. I’m going to do these things. Starting with the 5 of you I’m about to pass this award on to.

5 Things About Myself Which May or May Not Be True

  1. I have not bitten my nails in over eight months.
  2. I am totally excited about planning a Chuck E. Cheese birthday party for my soon-to-be nine year old.
  3. I wish my company would go back to a business dress code because I am really tired of wearing jeans everyday.
  4. I love IEP meetings.
  5. I still think the graphic looks like a bear even after seeing the “kitten” on Jill’s blog.

5 Bloggers To Whom I Am Passing This Award

To anyone who didn’t win, first of all, I’m sure you will very soon, and I’ll leave it up to you if not making you do this meme means I like you or dislike you. :)



Dec 31, 2010

Introducing Autism From the Lighter Side

Life is such a process, isn’t it? And coming to terms with an autism diagnosis in your child can certainly be a long one, with lots of ups and downs along the journey.

I was so fortunate to find a strong community of autism families in our local area when Michael was first diagnosed – six years ago now, it hardly seems like it could be that long, but it also feels like an eternity at times. One of the amazing moms I met along the way was Elizabeth Givler, and I was so excited to learn that she has started blogging, so you all can meet her too!

Elizabeth’s blog is called Autism From the Lighter Side, and here’s an excerpt from her welcome post earlier this month:

I don’t remember how long it took, but one day I saw the lighter side. I could either approach this with a sense of humor or drown in frustration and sorrow.
I chose the humorous approach. Then came advocacy, social stories, educational journeys… and I approached them also with as much humor and lightness as I possibly could.
Humor and lightness are the approaches that work for me. Yes, I still get frustrated, and yes, we still have our “moments”, however every day there is laughter in my house.
The goal of my blog is to share with you the ways I have found to lighten the load and brighten my days, and share what I have learned and continue to learn along the way.

I have really enjoyed reading her first few posts, especially the heartfelt Words and the humorous Therapies, or “Wacky things we do that seem to be therapeutic”: Musical mayhem.

Just as I found a welcoming and supportive autism community in my area six years ago, I’d love to show Elizabeth how welcoming and supportive our online blogging community is. If you can, please take a few moments to visit her blog and say hello (and feel free to subscribe to her feed while you’re over there)!

Happy New Year’s Eve everyone!!



Oct 31, 2010

Sunday Best – October 31st

Sunday Best is a collection of my favorite links from blogs I have read in the past week (or sometimes a bit more if I get behind!) Posts may range from thought-provoking or challenging to instructive or informational, with a dose of fun and light-heartedness thrown in occasionally for good measure.

No Pick Outs! – Some food-inspired thoughts from The Gang’s Momma at The Gang’s All Here! about adoption, the Great Commission and the Word of God. Sounds like heavy stuff, I know, but this is well worth the read.

A Message for the Village – A too-true post by Caitlin at Welcome to Normal about how we don’t always ask for help from those around us, even when we really need it. This really resonates with me and is a good reminder to those of with friends who may be struggling without showing it.

Learning About Friendship by K.I. Al-Ghani – A review of a book about friendship skills for children with Asperger’s and High-Functioning Autism by Maddy at Whitterer on Autism. I have placed this on my list of must-get books for Michael.

Aspergers Children and Manipulative Behavior – Interesting article at My Aspergers Child about various forms of manipulative behavior and how to address them (with “manipulative” being used merely to describe the type of behavior without connotating a “bad” child). I was especially interested to see something I have tried to describe from my experiences with Michael being given a name – “confusion promotion.” I’m not sure he does it on purpose, but sometimes I feel like we have gotten so far away from where we started that I’m not even sure what the original disagreement was about!

Auditory Processing Strategies for the Classroom – I am often commenting to Michael’s team at school that I don’t think they realize how much of the verbal information that the other children pick up doesn’t register with him. This article at National Autism Resources has a great list of suggestions that could be implemented for a child with this sort of difficulty.

Please feel free to share your favorites from the week in the comments – I’ll be sure to check them out!



Nov 8, 2009

Best Blog Award

Well, I by no means think I am deserving of this award, but I am thankful to Leah at Just Me for letting me know I am appreciated. If you haven’t met Leah, she is a pastor’s wife and mom to 4 girls, one of whom has special needs. She has also embarked on a spiritual journey that she is blogging about at 90 Days of Solitude.

I’ve been somewhat on again/off again with blogging in recent months, but every time I question whether I should continue, I realize how much it means to me to have this little place of my own and to connect with so many wonderful people. So I am working on not feeling guilty for posting irregularly or for not having time to visit other blogs and comment. I just try to enjoy the time I do get to spend online.

I have, however, spent a little bit of time working on my blog admin lately, and one of the things I did was to close the comments on posts older than 90 days. I hope it doesn’t turn people off, but it has really cut down the amount of spam considerably. Anyone who wants to contact me directly with any question or comment can still easily do so through my contact form.

I’ve also been playing around with the new version of my blog theme (Thesis 1.6) and was very happy to see the ability to assign colors right from the options page. With the nested navigational options, I was able to include my main categories at the top along with the pages I wanted but not have it look too cluttered or overwhelming. I can easily change the background image whenever I want and modify the text/link colors to match.

A couple of other things I did were to add a widgetized fat footer (thanks to this super-easy tutorial from Thesis Theme Tools) and to put my blogroll back in the sidebar. The blogroll only shows the most recently updated blogs, but you can still see the entire list via the Blogroll link in the footer.

Oh, and one last thing. Through a post on Howtomakemyblog.com, I found a plugin that allows you to add your Twitter ID in your comments on my blog. You just enter your Twitter username (no html or @) in the box below the comments box before you submit your comment, and a link to your Twitter profile will appear below your name. You only have to enter your Twitter ID one time and then it will save it just like it saves your name, etc.

Let me know what you think about any or all of the changes. I’d love any feedback or other ideas you have.

And then go visit some blogs that truly deserve a Best Blog Award —



Sep 7, 2009

And the Kreativ Blogger Award Goes To…

I was so touched to be named as an inspiring blogger by Mia of General Hysteria, especially after being so hit and miss this summer. I am so hoping to get into a better routine now that school has started, although the first week was very up and down for us!

For those of you who don’t know how these shameless bits of linky love work, here are the rules:
• You must thank the person who has given you the award.
• Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
• Link to the person who has nominated you for the award.
• Name 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting.
• Nominate 7 other Kreativ Bloggers.
• Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.
• Leave a comment on which of the blogs to let them know they have been nominated.

So, now onto my lists:

7 Things About Me You Might Find Interesting

  1. My maternal grandmother was born in Scotland, although her family moved to the U.S. when she was around three or four.
  2. My paternal grandparents used to take each of us three kids camping once a week each summer. They were in a camping club, and it was a highlight of our summer (well, mine anyway, I don’t know about the boys).
  3. From the house I lived in (in Rock Island, Illinois), you could reach the Mississippi River by going either one mile west or one mile north.
  4. Our high school mascot was a rock. (The Rock Island Rocks, get it?)
  5. There really is a giant rock out front of the boys’ gym at the school, and the rival team in the next town over would occasionally spray paint stuff on it that had to be sandblasted off, thus making the rock ever so slightly smaller each time.
  6. We just put over 2300 miles on our car to drive out to Illinois and visit my family and show our son where I grew up. Ergo, the litany of hometown related facts.
  7. I am also slightly punchy after composing a very long email to the special education supervisor over our school describing an unfortunate incident that occurred on Thursday wherein the school secretary picked up my seven year old son and carried him into a room that he did not want to enter and, in fact, had told his classroom teacher he would rather die than go back into.

7 Kreativ Bloggers You Will Definitely Find Interesting

Storm at All Things Cherished – I always look forward to her Thought of the Day for encouragement or just something to make me think.
Lisa at Crazy Adventures in Parenting – She is so much more than just the person who holds me accountable for my to do list, although that’s how I found her.
Territory Mom at Delayed But Not Denied – Another encouraging mom walking the special needs path; I love her First Diagnosis & S-List.
K at Floortime Lite Mama – A sweet and genuine mom who shares from her heart about her journey with a child on the spectrum.
Anissa at #FreeAnissa – The beloved and funny mom from Hope for Peyton is striking out in a new direction and is definitely keeping it real.
2Shaye at Miller Memories – An all-around great lady whose blog I found not all that long ago but highly recommend.
Stimey at Stimeyland – An always entertaining look at life, autism, and gerbils.



Aug 15, 2009

Super Mommy’s First Blog Hop

BWS tips button

I have been meeting a bunch of new bloggers lately, and one of them is a fun lady named Super Mommy. In addition to posting reviews and freebies, she has also started sharing about her two kids, one of whom has autism.

For the blog hop, she is asking us to tell what our blogs are about, how we got started, and how long we have been blogging. So here goes…

I published my first blog post on January 26, 2008, so as of right now, I have been blogging for a little over 16 months, and it has been an exciting adventure. I started out just wanting a place to express my thoughts and “find myself”, and then I discovered this amazing community of mommy bloggers and parents of special needs children who want to connect with and support each other.

Tomorrow I will have been married to my husband Bob for 17 years, and we have one son, Michael, who is 7 years old and getting ready to start first grade in a regular classroom with behavioral support. We live in South Central Pennsylvania and attend a wonderful non-denominational charismatic church where I am involved in the special needs ministry.

I work part-time in the promotional products industry (anybody need any mugs or pens with their logo printed on them??) and spend the rest of my time juggling housework, errands, and sleep with being Michael’s case manager and advocate.

A rare picture of the three of us together

A rare picture of the three of us together

Our Two Kitties

Our Two Kitties

Feel free to look around a bit and let me know what you think. I am always thankful for feedback on how the site looks and works for you. Here are some of the highlights (in my opinion, anyway):

Thanks so much for stopping by! I’d love to know you were here, and you can subscribe to my feed or follow me on Twitter if you’d like.

Check out Super Mommy’s Blog Hop post to meet her and join in, and her Melamine Snack Set review to enter a giveaway.



Jul 31, 2009

Asperger’s Syndrome Awareness Blog

I met a new blogger this week. I mean, I met a blogger I haven’t known before now; she’s not really a “new” blogger. She actually popped over from the Mom Blog Network, which just goes to show you it was worth signing up with all the social media sites I have over the last year and a half. ;)

Anyway, Shawnda’s blog is called Asperger’s Syndrome Awareness, and she is also writing a book about her experiences raising her son, who is 13 and has a diagnosis of Asperger’s. Pretty cool!

I was reading some of her posts and was intrigued by her thoughts on Least Restrictive Environment and whether the way it’s put into practice is really the best thing for some of our kids. I’d love to hear your thoughts on what she has to say about it. Do you think, like Shawnda does, that it’s often really code for spending the least money possible?



Apr 9, 2009

Honest Scrap Award

honest_scrap_award

I just happened to be going through my file of ideas for blog posts and found this cool blog award that I was given by Ellen at To The Max — in January! Guess I need to check the file more often. :)

Here are the official rules and regulations (which you can totally ignore if I nominate you and you have no interest in doing it):

A) List 10 honest things about yourself—and make them interesting, even if you have to dig deep!
B) Pass the award on to 7 bloggers who you feel embody the spirit of the Honest Scrap and whose blogs you find brilliant in design or content.

10 Honest (And Mildly Interesting) Things About Trish

  1. I am a voracious reader, usually finishing approximately 200 books each year. If you don’t believe me, check out my Shelfari bookshelf.
  2. I skipped first grade.
  3. I almost skipped sixth grade but was caught copying the answers for an assignment from a classmate (my one and only time cheating in school).
  4. I’m a sucker for just about any show on the Food Network or Style. (In fact, I’m watching a rerun of Whose Wedding Is It Anyway? as I write this.)
  5. I love the Chocolatier computer games and even take notes as I play so I can keep track of everything.
  6. It irritates me when I am leaving a comment on a blog and both word verification and comment moderation are turned on. I just don’t see the point. Not your problem, I know, but there it is. (I am open to changing my mind on this if someone could explain the rationale to me!)
  7. I have terrible teeth. They are crowded and crooked, and I have had more root canals than any one person should need.
  8. I have a degree in English Education, but have never taught professionally.
  9. Our ultrasound technician told us we were having a girl. I’m glad we had a boy.
  10. When my son falls asleep at night, it feels as though an actual weight has been lifted off my shoulders.

So, without further ado, I hereby pass this award on to the following blogs:



Jan 18, 2009

Maybe Some Sleep Will Help!

I know I said last week I was feeling stressed out, but I never dreamed it would be a whole week before I would get to sit down and write an update.  I managed to get to all my various commitments in this week, and everything actually went pretty well.  All six board members were in attendance on Monday night, and we were able to schedule some events and figure out who was going to take care of which to do items.

Wednesday night, I started a volunteer gig that is going to last for six weeks.  You can read a bit more about it at Life On A Page, where my friend Lisa is going to be blogging about the project and related issues, but basically we are helping several people who have mental illness and live in a group home.  It’s a wonderful thing, and she explains it better than I ever could in her introductory post.

…………………………………………………………………………..
WARNING:  Whining ahead!  Proceed at your own risk.
…………………………………………………………………………..

Okay, I’m back after a four-hour side trip to real life, but only to say I can’t really finish writing down all I wanted to say because I am exhausted and stressed out and basically feel like cr*p.  My reflux is acting up like crazy lately, and I am having to work very hard to keep my depression/anxiety at bay – probably because I need more sleep.

I still have a lot of stuff on my plate right now though (sorry I know that’s a recurring refrain and I need to just get it taken care of).  I think I am finally getting to the place where I realize I really can only do so much.  So I am going to look at my calendar and to do list for this week and try to make a game plan for what has to be done.  Then I am going to sleep!



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