My favorite day, volume 3

So, it's Thursday again.  I have a new list of favorite things:
- free lunch at work, for 2 days running
- finding Phineas and Ferb books for Sebastian's birthday
- haivng people responding excitedly and enthusiastically to my blog about Sebastian's brushing.  It makes me think I'm not crazy
- running into an old friend from high school today, totally unexpectedly
- Great Wolf Lodge.  Awesome and fun and I can't wait to do it again.
- OT pay on my pay cheque this week.
- Monster Quest on Netflix.  I am addicted.
- sleeping.  Resting my brain.
- starting my photography course.  Learning, and talking with Geoff about it.
- Starting a Supernatural watch-a-thon with Geoff.  He's gonna love those boys as much as I do, when we're done.
- Having dinner with Dawn on Sunday- eating pulled pork and drinking Rolling Rock.  So nice to visit. I miss her.
- Sawyer's excited face when she goes to school
- Sawyer asking me "how was work?" every time they pick me up.
- Sebastian's got his hugme shirts and loves them.  Good feedback from the school this week.
- shaving my legs, washing my hair
- a cold breeze blowing in the window when I am sleeping

I have some stress on me.  Most of it is self imposed and involves me stretching myself too thin.  I have committed to some volunteer opporutnities, and have allowed myself to get sucked into some circumstances at work.  I don't have alot of spare time at work (my work actually fills my full day!!) and my spare time is pretty full too.  So I don't know when or how I will get this stuff done. 
I am learning to say no more often, and meaning it, but I still struggle. 
So remembering the good things that happen is a positive exercise for me, and one that is worthwhile and I know I should continue. 

:) 
Rosie N. Grey
The N stands for "nice thoughts".

If I were...

If I were a stripper (perish the thought!  GROSS, I know!), I would strip to this song.   

I heard it today after having not heard it for a long time, and that was the first thought that crossed my mind.

Rosie N. Grey
The N stands for "naked".

Date Night

Friday, Geoff and I were supposed to spend the afternoon with friends, having beers and listening to bands.  Long story short, people started dropping out, and we decided to postpone the event for a time when we could actually all get together. 

I had booked the day off work, but ended up having to work the morning.  I decided to keep the afternoon off and spend some time with Geoff.

We haven't had alot of time together lately.  We have the kids, obviously, but when we do go out, it tends to be with other people, so it really isn't condusive to one on one interaction.  So, spending the afternoon together was a new(er) experience for us.

We dropped the kids at my mom's, and they were staying over night.  SCORE!  :)  Don't get me wrong, I love, love, loooove my children.  But they are not always able to provide me with a good nights' sleep or a sleeping in opportunity.  I take what I can get.

Geoff and I then headed out to the Paranormal Museum in Niagara on the Lake.  I had gotten a Groupon for it a while back, so we got to check it out on the cheap. 

It was pretty cool, a little cheesy, but with some interesting and creepy things.  They have a window from the Donnelly's farmhouse, post-mortem photos and Lizzie.  Lizzie creeeps me out.  She is an old doll (horrible) and people claim that sometimes, she blinks at them.  No matter where I was in the room, I tried to keep an eye on Lizzie.  I didn't see her blink, but I probably would have peed my pants if I had.

They have a gift store there too.  It has some cool stuff, some ridiculous stuff.  I do think that our photos would be a good addition.  The person working the register, however, was very occupied discussing spirit guides with another customer, so I didn't think that she was the one to discuss merchandising and vendor relationships.  So I am going to email them and see if they are interested in carrying our photos.

After that, we walked around NOTL, checking out the shops and window shopping.  We stopped at the fudge shop and the english bakery.  I got an amazing tart at the bakery, chocolate-peanut butter- skor- caramel.  Amazing.  So good.

We headed out for dinner.  We tried the Syndicate, a brewery and restaurant in the Falls.  I wasn't sure what to expect, but this was really nice and good.  The food was a little fancy, but delish.  The beer was ok, but altogether it was a really nice dinner.  We chatted and talked about stuff and acted like grown ups.   We did talk about the kids, but in good ways.  It was just really, really nice. 

We tried to decide what to do next and thought about maybe going to a movie.  There wasn't anything we wanted to see, at least not together (I would have seen Contagion, Geoff woud have seen Elite Killers, or something like that) so we hit up Blockbuster to pick up some sales.  There were some trashy, trashy people there, so we got out as fast as we could and headed home.

We were in early, and just watched some TV.  I had some OT to do, but I left it.  I didn't want to work.  We just hung out, watched Top Shot and chatted some more. 

All in all, it was a great night.  I missed Geoff, so it was good to see him again.  Maybe we can do it again sometime. 

Rosie N. Grey

The N stands for "next time shouldn't be a year from now".

My Favorite Day Volume 2

I missed it on Thursday, so here is this week's version of My Favorite Day.

- Geoff rearranged the living room and cleaned it.  It looks amazing and I didn't ask him to do it.  I didn't even hint.
- Zooz with the kids last weekend was amazing.
- rainy days this week made me feel snuggly and homey.
- Ordered Sebastian's OT stuff, can't wait to get it here.
- vaccumed the van, it looks great.
- fixed the van, it runs like a brand new car.
- half a day off on Friday!  :)
- lots and lots of Sawyer hugs


Good week.  :)

Rosie N. Grey
The N stands for "new week of wonderful".

ummmm....awkward!

So...

Have you ever had a dream about someone you know that you really have no business dreaming about? 

Last night, I dreamt about someone I worked with.  One of those kinds of dreams.  Not a super, dirty porno dream, but a little racey and completely shocking, because it came out of left field.

Now, I know I work with people that read this blog.  Before you ask me who it is, let me say:
1) I will never tell.  Unless I am really, really drunk and we are super-dee-duper good friends.  And you will have to pinky swear on your children's lives.  And maybe not even then.
2) It is not someone that I work directly with.  He does not work for the same client as me, we are not good friends, we don't talk outside of work, or even at work.  Sure, if we are walking into work at the same time, we would definitely say hi and talk about the weather. 
3) Yeah, it's definitely one of the last people you would ever think.

So anyway, I had this dream.  I didn't even remember it, until I got to work.  This man, that I don't even see every day, walked past me this morning and all of sudden, like a smack in the face, it came back to me. 

Now, I don't handle embarrassment well.  I get hot in the face, I blush, I stammer.  Yep, all of those things happened.  My face felt like it was on fire, and all I could do, for most of the day, was laugh at myself. 

I am so ridiculous.  I want to not think about this.  But I feel so awkward.  I know it's one sided.  I know it is nothing.

I can't stop laughing.  And blushing.  Sheesh.

Rosie N. Grey
The N stands for "naughty, naughty".

My first Yarn Along!!

Thanks to Ginny at Small Things, I have decided to participate (at least this week) in her Yarn Along.  Yeah me!!

Essentially she is asking what we are all reading and knitting.  So I am answering. 

This week, I am just picking up my knitting again.  I have several projects on the go, but since I am easing back in after months (let's face it, it's been about a year) away, I want to take it slow.

I was inspired earlier this year to create some fun, funky things for kids.  I started a Princess Leia hat, complete with big buns on the sides of the head.  Right now, I am working on the buns, trying to determine how long my tubes should be and the optimum size of the buns.  Very technical. But fun.

Currently, I am reading multiple books at the same time, trying to clean up the remainder of my summer reading.  My sister in law lent me her newest acquisition "Hollywood Monster" by Robert Englund.  Yes, that Robert Englund, who was Freddy Kruger.  Good read so far, I had put it down for about a week, and I am picking it back up again.  It is autographed in the front cover, complete with drawing.   Love that Robert. 

So, that's my Yarn Along for today.  Enjoy and feel free to join in!!

Rosie N. Grey
The N stands for " 'knittin' again".

Excited and Hopeful

Today, Geoff and I met with Sebastian's occupational therapist.  He has been seeing her since February, and it was time for a meeting to set some new goals and targets for the next 6 months or so.

It was a fantastic meeting.  She had some great feedback regarding Sebastian and his progress.  She has some funny stories about him and shared some of her frustrations.  It is so nice to get good feedback.  We very rarely get good, tangible feedback regarding Sebastian.  It was lovely to hear, even when she was talking about his stubbornness and idiosyncrasies. 

We have set some new goals for the winter.  We are bringing in his bicycle on Monday, and over the winter, she is going to teach him to ride it.  I am so excited! 

We gave up on Sebastian ever learning to ride a bike.  He hates the feeling of unsteadiness, his balance and equilibrium are not good, so he panics easily when the bike shifts.  His core body strength isn't sufficient to hold the bike upright with just two wheels (so we have training wheels) and he can't grasp how to make the pedals work, alternating the pressure from foot to foot to make the wheels turn around. 

But Kathleen has him riding a stationary bike.  Amazing.  I can't wait to see what else she can do.  It will take all winter, but by spring...who knows???

The main push of our meeting however was for Geoff and I to learn how to brush Sebastian. 

The process itself is called the Wilabarger Protocol using the therapressure brush.  It is a soft brush, with multiple bristles on it.  This brush is used on Sebastian's arms, hands, thighs, calves, feet and back.  Following the brushing, we do joint compressions on all his major joints, and then touch massage on his face.

Based on the Protocol, we have to do this about every 2 hours, or 6 times a day.

Yep.

Essentially what this will do is provide multiple benefits for Sebastian.  One, it will help him with his spatial awareness. Kids with autism often have trouble defining their physical space in their environment.  They might not know where they end and where everything else begins.  Two, autistic kids tend to be high anxiety because of something called Sensory Defensiveness.  Essentially, kids that are sensitive to sensory input will react in ways to limit the overload that they receive from the noise, smells, sights, temperatures and everything else that bombard them every day.  Some of the autistic kids will spin, yell, cover their ears, fight and lash out.  Others, like Sebastian, shut down.  His defense mechanism is to tune out everything, to fall asleep, to focus on a single object, sound or sight.  Both reactions drive their anxiety up, which then increases the cortisol levels in his body.  A build up of cortisol will lead to lethargy (check), a paunch, even in thin people (check), a lack of focus (check) and a difficulty in focusing and learning (check, check).

The brushing has been scientifically proven to assist in the breakdown of cortisol in the body.  It increases endorphins, which attack cortisol, and increase the breakdown. 

So, we are starting this brushing protocol.  I have ordered brushes and compression shirts for him.  Once we get them, then we are ready to start.  I can't wait. 

Kathleen showed us how to complete the task, by completing it on me.  She was surprised by my reaction, because following the session, my face was flushed, I was a bit sweaty and warm.  It felt good, I liked the compressions and the brushing.  She said the flushing and warmth proved that it worked.  She explained that it takes about 20 minutes for the protocol to kick in, and that would be when he would be at his best and most focused.

Well, all I know is that I went back to work feeling good.  I was stressed about what was going before I went to the meeting.  I went back and dealt with what I could, moved past what I couldn't.  I let go of the stress and just worked.  It lasted all afternoon.  By the time I was driving home, I was in an almost manic state, listening to Little Lion Man, singing at the top of my lungs.  When I actually punched the steering wheel, as I was rocking out, I realized I was a bit out of control.  I got home and it continued.  I made dinner and felt good and happy.

It has since worn off and I am tired now.  But if it can impact me that well, I can only dream about what it will do for Sebastian.  I can't wait.  I am so excited and hopeful.  This is the best feeling in the world.

Rosie N. Grey
The N stands for "new direction!"