Random updates June 14, 2011

Money: managed to put $425 dollars into savings. $25 in a Christmas Fund, $25 towards Paris/Italy tix (I know I'll need way more than that), $25 DS educational fund, $350 Emergency fund. I need to upload one of those meters to keep track on my blog.

IEP/District: Ball is now in my court, they came back... can't say I'm thrilled. I threw it back in their court and trying to organize a phone meeting. I will not even go into the details.... sigh

Summer fun: Poor DS... this is the first official week of no school and we've only been to the park a couple of times. I've been swamped with appointments. Thursday I'm planning a trip to the city, we'll go to Fisherman's Wharf. We are doing our road trip to Nevada later next week, so that should be fun. DS loves a road trip.

Fitness: I have not worked out in a week! Very hard with DS to run. I am officially on a break and will resume when he is with his grandparents.

Dating: I have spring fever or summer fever... ready to date again ~ meow! I'm thinking about doing online dating... we'll see.

Off to cook... pork fried rice, tonight! DS hated the tacos. Booo!

Skimming through: The Courage to be Rich

by Suze Orman. I'm not a huge, Suze fan, but I do have this book and it's been collecting dust. And I definitely have the courage, so I'm striving for some financial freedom.

To be candid, my finances are NOT in the best shape and I'm ready to work them out. I am skimming through Suze's book to see if I can get any more helpful tips. I'm already on a budget, I don't use credit cards (because I don't have any) and I try and do conscience spending.

One thing she said first off was to create some goals. I try to always have goals, but don't really work on achieving them. I created some short term goals which I'm posting on my blog on the sidebar to hold myself accountable. I tried to make them realistic.. we'll see.

Ok, off to the playground/park with DS, round two. We already went this morning--PS... keeping my eyes out for some single dads!

Milestone--asking "where" questions

I know some of you parents out there may be like "huh, why is she happy he is asking questions, our kids ask questions non-stop!"

Well, DS has this "language disorder" added to his Autism label, and he has only been talking for about 2 plus years now and he runs his mouth constantly! But questions aren't his strong point. He will ask "What's that?", but no "why" or "where".

Today, I told him, finish your breakfast, we gotta go. And he said...

"Where we going?"

He has never ever asked a "Where" question. I quickly helped model the proper sentence "Where are we going?" And he repeated it perfectly, then I told him, to the courthouse to fill out some forms. He had no idea what the heck that was. Then praised him for asking questions! BTW... they have child care at the courthouse! I didn't know.

Yay! My baby's language is getting better every single day!

Weekly Dinner Menu June 12

Man, a week flew by! Here's my menu for this week:

Sunday
Clams in marinara sauce over linguine (will have to remove clams from DS plate, he doesn't like them)

Monday
Chicken tacos

Tuesday
Pork fried rice (I love making this)

Wednesday
BBQ Hamburgers and fries

Thursday
GF fried chicken and salad

Friday
Beef stir fry

Saturday
Grilled Salmon

Summer fun and summer learning!

Summer is here! I'm planning a lot of fun for DS including the beach, playground, fairs and festivals, grilling outside, a visit to Grandma in Nevada that is going to include the pool, playing Wii, sleeping in late and later in the summer he will be going to summer camp.

But for DS, it will not just be fun and games, he will also have a lot of "work" to do before entering 1st grade. Of course it will not be grueling work, and we will keep it as fun as we can, but he is behind in his therapy.

I won't go into a long story, but when he was 3, we enrolled him in at ABA center, that we trusted (they had been around for a long time, they had a PhD on staff) but they really did not perform at all; they did nothing and whenever they did do something, it seemed borderline shady. We complained throughout the 1.5 years he was there and had plenty of meetings but finally decided to pull him out. Since then a lot of people have made similar complaints and now they really aren't doing well. But for us, we regret having him there, we just weren't aware of many other options. We now are just trying to move past it all and forgive ourselves as parents.

Over the past year, we've been picking up their slack. But that means, a lot of parent involvement and a lot of extra work.

DS is doing very well despite the past decisions, and ready to mainstream but we really need to help him out in the following areas this summer to make sure he transitions well: 1st grade math concepts, more language concepts, peer play, behavior modification and also trying to help DS regulate his body, he is extremely hyper. I did a quick eval/assessment and mapped out goals for him.

I have some great materials that I will post another time that have proved extremely helpful, if any parents out there are interested.

I'm ready for a great summer, DS is already started having a great summer: his dad lives right on the coast and on the beach, so he gets to play on the beach all the time. I live 25 minutes inland from the coast.

PS: Heard back from the school district; they sent the IEP to me for my review and revisions. I did have some revisions and sent it back, so now the ball is back in their court... aye caramba!

Midnight in Paris

Has anyone seen this movie? I just saw it tonight and let's just say, I feel like booking a trip to Paris! I did have plans to go this summer, but had to push them back to maybe fall or next summer.

It was a good movie. I won't give too much away, but it was creative (artists and literary greats come to life), funny, it showcased Paris wonderfully and it had a good message.

I enjoyed it! Au Revoir.

Waiting for IEP final report

The IEP went pretty well, the director was open to my suggestions. They aren't exactly what I'd thought, but they are willing to give some things a try. Now I'm just waiting to hear back from them on utilizing their services over the summer and to read the final IEP, I don't think they added in my social goals and behavior goals. I'm hoping to get the report by the end of the week.

Now off to the divorce lawyer, we have to modify child support and add ons... always fun! NOT!