In So Many Words

What a weekend! Did you ever notice that doing something different on Friday night makes the weekend seem longer?

We had a special service at church on Friday night to hear from our pastor’s son, who has just finished his first year at the American Film Institute in Hollywood. He shared some wonderful stories and a great message, but the best part of all was that Michael sat through an entire church service for the first time in his life!

Now, granted, this was with the help of the itouch (at zero volume) and a pen and paper to draw on, but it was an absolutely surreal experience for both me & Bob.

On Saturday, I went into work to do the reports that I usually do on Monday morning, since my boss will be at a funeral and asked if I could do them over the weekend. Bob took Michael to an outreach ministry event, another first, which went very well.

Later on, they went to Hersheypark for a few hours. Michael is now tall enough to ride all the coasters, so he went on the Great Bear for the first time (lots of firsts this weekend!). He called me right afterwards and said it was terrifying but he loved it! They ended up not riding any other coasters because it started raining, but they did get a couple of other rides in before they had to leave.

I got on a bit of a organizing and decluttering kick today and straightened up my bedroom closet. I also brought up the Christmas wrapping paper that had ended up in the basement last year and put it in the closet with the rest of the gift wrapping supplies. I also cleaned out one small drawer and got the big bag of Campbell’s labels prepped to send in – and good thing since the bonus offer ends June 15th!

What did you do this weekend?

Things have really been going pretty well the last few days, although I would have loved to sit down and write about what I have been thinking and doing. I spent most of yesterday evening, however, organizing my thoughts for a team meeting we had today at school. I do have to say that it was very enlightening reviewing all the communication forms that have come home over the last few weeks, and some patterns and clues definitely emerged.

We had a friendly and productive meeting overall. The main issue seems to be the willingness of the classroom teacher to accept new ideas and strategies, but the team is committed to ongoing education with all the regular ed teachers, and hopefully the additional supports we are putting in place will offset that difficulty.

Last Saturday I was blessed by a friend of mine who took Michael with her daughters to a family Halloween party. He had an awesome time running and playing with them and came home exhausted but happy. While they were gone, we were able to rest, watch a movie on DVD and go out to eat. Thank you, L! We love you.

Sunday was the last session for Fall Soccer, and all of the kids got trophies. Michael was so excited and is looking forward to the winter session, which is at an indoor facility. His buddy isn’t going to be there, but I am sure he will have someone else just as good.

This morning I slept very late due to being up so long finishing my notes for the IEP team, and had to rush to get ready for an ASD HOPE board meeting. This is a group that works with parents who have recently gotten a diagnosis and need help getting started, as well as with parents who are interested in starting a GFCF diet. We have various meetings and an information booklet that we put together. (The booklet can be downloaded from our website, if anyone is interested, although a lot of the information is for our local area.)

Tomorrow Michael will be meeting the psychologist I contacted for the first time. I met with her last week and was very impressed. More on all of that later!

So, I’m done rambling and must go to bed. ‘Night, all!