How happy I was to read that the state of Florida dropped all charges against Erin Markes, the 19 year old mother of a 4 year old suffering from a fatal brain malformation. WHAT a tough time this mother has had. You can read the details here:

http://www.nwfdailynews.com/article/14659

WHAT a sad story though. Instead of receiving help for her around-the-clock care of her son she was tossed in jail, had a so-called doctor say on national tv that it was "the worst...

Ok so I've gotten all kinds of beat up over this subject in the forums but here we go again folks....
My boys had this past week off from school, mom was lonely down south and me with my rose colored glasses thought it would be a good idea to go down for a visit. BAD idea....she was merciless. She's getting ready to sell her condo so she was constantly at them - where they are, what they're doing etc. There were so many rules which constantly changed that they were all nervous wrecks -...

I picked up my eldest yesterday and his teacher told me that all of a sudden - this week - his handwriting greatly improved! I noticed this myself at home doing his homework with him - woo-hoo!! He has much better control on the pencil and is writing with much more ease! I wonder if this new diet could be working???!!! I try so hard to be objective but its so great when something works, that I THINK its working but then get confirmation from teachers!

...two entirely separate issues.
Neice first. Poor thing and poor husband. She was born and raised in Pak, led a pretty sheltered life. Got married to a guy who SO loves her and moved to USA with him. They seemed happy for the first few months. But now theres big trouble. Poor thing. She has her MIL here for 3 to 6 mos, doesnt know how to cook. Was picked on muchly by mil to the point that she told MIL to go to hell. Now MIL wants to leave and this will be big news back in the home...

OMG its 70 degrees today! Coats off, buds a-bursting, and the color GREEN starting to come out! Spent the whole morning, me and youngest baby-mine, outside doing yard work, getting dirty and loving the smell of spring dirt. I cleaned out their little sandbox, need to buy lots more play-sand but at least it now looks clean and ready. Lawn is looking pretty good too. My bulbs well the ones that the boyz didnt pick are doing nicely. I CANT WAIT till the apple and pear trees explode their pretty...

Thank you for the kind sentiments and comments!! My son is indeed on the autism spectrum, diagnosed as PDD (Pervasive Developmental Disorder) which means he's a high-functioning autistic. A good number of autistic kids have feeding and GI issues, his just happen to be pretty extreme. Its tough to manage but heck, people can get used to anything esp when its important right? Mealtime is intensive encouragement - take out a favorite book, read a page. Take a bite and I'll read more. That kind of thing....

ok so its one of my three "mama" days where all 3 boyz are in skool, I pick up youngest at 12. So I get a call from the skool nurse at 10 that my middle guy might have chicken pox and i need to take him to doc etc. It was just bug bites (gorgeous weather lately and we've been outside alot) but it really wreaked havoc on my day and our plans...we were supposed to have a play-date today but am supposed to keep him away from other kids till we're sure that its not ckn pox. So i had to...

Well i am back here, thx to ms sara who reminded me that this thing exists lol. Its been kind of a sad day, first the whole big day that CNN is dedicating to austism spectrum disorders (which afflicts my eldest and possibly my youngest) and also a report about a 19 yr old mom arrested and jailed for neglect of her 4 year old son because his weight was a mere 10 pounds.

You know, if I had listened to my son's docs without firing them, MY son would also have starved. To death. He...

mom is here and i've been pretty busy but it is SO nice to have her here. WHAT a big help it is. and company too, a real adult to talk to lol! I think she really likes her room and the boys are behaving so nicely, not much fighting lately so thats been nice too.

My mom SAVED our bathroom! My GOODness. I was telling her the whole story and how I try to get it clean with the bleach. She told me to use this other stuff, a Mold/Mildew remover. So I sprayed the whole shower down...

So I've been cleaning and de-cluttering my house before my mom arrives. I worked my tail off yesterday, cleaning out the coat closet, my bedroom closet and most of all, the "dining area". It looks just smashing!

Heres the thing though. We have a "dining area", a large alcove with built-in bench-seating and shelves...its U-shaped and seats 3 on each side and there are 3 levels of shelves on both long sides of the "U". These shelves have been the bane...

I just love having these good days. We had a lovely steak dinner over the weekend, boys were SO good at the restaraunt. Then yesterday and today were just really good days, got alot done around the house, roasted a turkey for dinner, made lots of trimmings. Hubby was so happy that the place looked as nice as it did, it made my day/week/month that he noticed! I've been keeping after the boys more and more - take out a toy to play with it but PUT IT AWAY before you play with something else. Its...

I gave the boys breakfast this morning then we were off and running. "Tapping dancing" class for the eldest guy at 9:30 then a birthday party to go to with middle guy. THen food shopping and dinner. whew! Looking so forward to tomorrow - I just have to bring eldest guy to yet another bday party at 10 am and then we'll have some time at home before we go out to get things for my mom's room and then out to an early dinner at my FAVE - outback. STEAK!!!! YUMMY!!!

This...

I cant beleive it, $20 thousand to re-do a VERY small bathroom!!! omGGGG!!

The contractor was very nice, highly recommended from a person I trust but heck that is SO expensive! He's going to give us an estimate to do just a new tub/enclosure and we'll leave the rest for now. Theres really nothing wrong with the rest, it works, its clean, its just very old. Its so expensive to live here. Most people in this area are doing their baths in marble with jacuzzi tubs and sensory showers...

It was 9 degrees yesterday!!! The eldest has a bad cold so he didnt go to skool yesterday, youngest didnt have class and I kept the middle guy home just cause it was so cold and snowing. I hated to bring the eldest guy out with his cold. Bad choice methinks because that means I didnt start up the car at all yesterday. This morning, I sent elder off on the school bus and got the younger 2 all bundled into the car, turned the key and - nothing but click-click-click. Car is all frozen and needs...

I am JUST so excited!!! Hubby agreed that I should get an estimate to re-do our bathroom. The guy is coming on Friday. THe very least we need to have done is have the tub and shower walls ripped out, the sub-walls re-done. And install a tub with enclosure, those one-piece smooth walled units so that I dont have to scrub between tiles with a toothbrush. WOO-HOO!! Hooray! If we get a good enough tax return, we'll go for the whole shebang, new floor, paint, heat lamp yadayada. But the BEST...