It didn't suck and that was awesome

Life has been pretty crazy the past week. After what was suppose to be a quick faucet replacement turned into a mini renovation. By the weekend we finally had a working shower and flushing toilet. Ugh. I don't want to go through that again. It pretty much sucked any and all available funds and some not so available to take care of this problem. Ugh. Which has led me to have the worst attitude ever. It's just not a great situation especially with Christmas this week.

With it being Christmas we have a few things to get out of the way before the big day. The oldest this morning had her holiday school program. She had to learn the song  32 feet and Eight little tails by Gene Autry. Thank goodness it was on ITunes or she would have not learned it. "Mommy I have to hear the music to sing it" she would say.  Our paperwork said the program started at 9:30am and unlike most of the parents we were early. The thing about school productions is it brings out people you had no idea lived in your neighborhood. I also now know the woman next to me lost a bunch of weight because they took out a 30lb mass from her abdomen. People left and right were asking her about it and I was just amazed by all of this. 


All the kids were so well behaved (better than the adults!) and put on a great show.

They sang it all very well and though she doesn't look like she's singing she was opening her mouth at least. LoL. My husband was able to take off this morning to see it but with the bathroom b.s. last week he had to go back into work so the afternoon shenanigans were up to me by myself.


The next thing on our list was to go see Santa and it was up to me to take them on my own.


The last couple of years we have gone to see Santa at the local Bass Pro Shop. Santa's free and he's got the real beard and all that jazz. I was worried as we were heading out that way that it would be crowded since it seemed that people were everywhere. When I pulled into the parking lot I saw a bunch of school buses. Seriously? The reason I was getting worried is that with Avery it's just hard for her to wait, and to take turns. Paige can be helpful at times but I didn't tell her we were seeing Santa just going for a surprise. She realized it was Santa when we pulled into the parking lot. Then her excitement went into over drive and I had no idea if she still had her listening ears on.


As we walked through the parking lot I saw who the school buses belonged to. It was like it was a sign. The buses belonged to a local Christian special needs school. They range from elementary to high school children. They also have a specialized Autism program. I knew when I saw that that maybe I picked the right time to come to see Santa and God was giving me a break today. 


And by the grace of God the Santa area was practically empty. No line. We walked right up and waited for a screaming/terrified baby and laughing parents (it seriously was one of those funny moments!) to be done and we took our turn.

Waiting patiently!

The Smurfs had to come along to see Santa too.

Excitement in overdrive.

Personally I love these. They turned out awesome. The girls were so well behaved. Avery is looking at the camera in almost all of the pictures I took.


No meltdowns, no waiting in line, everybody was awesome.  This was certainly a highlight to my holiday so far!

Supplemental insurance policy for your child with Autism?

I had a phone conversation today with an intake/insurance specialist about setting Avery up with a speech therapist starting in January for when our insurance starts over. See way back in July we learned that we maxed out of Avery's insurance for therapy. She is only allowed 60 1- hour sessions. My husbands company does not have to abide by the Illinois Autism Insurance Mandate because they are a self funded policy. See this post for when we found out: bad news.

So the clinic I talked to today asked me if we had ever thought of getting a supplemental insurance policy for Avery that would be covered by the state mandate. Um say what? No I never thought of it. Plus no, nobody ever, ever mentioned it to us that that could be or should be a possibility.

The guy on the phone basically said well if you end up paying a larger amount of money for out of pocket expenses it could be worth it to  spend the money on a policy so that the mandate picks up the big bulk of it. Make sense? In the long run if you have to have a deductible of a couple thousand it would be worth it to get up to 36K in other benefits.

For Avery we are thinking it would be worth it. We really want her to have more speech therapy than what she is getting at school and more diverse therapies such as to try ABA out for awhile and see what happens. Majority of the time we feel we aren't doing enough for her and if this gives her more of a chance than what's the problem with at least trying right?

So what I am asking you my small amount of readers is, have you gone that route to bypass a crappy work supplied insurance situation? If you have gone this route what has been your experience? Was the out of pocket cost per month worth the therapies you received?

If you have a blog and think this might interest others who might have more experience with insurance and Autism would you please share so I can see what others might say? Thank you! 

One day with a kid with Autism is just One day

You know that saying "you meet one kid with Autism you've just met one kid with Autism". Well life with a kid with Autism can be described like that day to day.

Avery's been sick this week. She missed school Monday and Tuesday. When she got ready to go to school yesterday she was in a good mood, ready to go. She didn't fight getting on the bus (this is a hassle now these days) and I even got a great report from school. When they write that she said "Thank you!" in the right context it makes your heart beam with joy.

So what happens in the 12 hours she's been asleep to change her into a Tasmanian devil? Hell if I know. She was crabby. She didn't want to get out of bed. She was whiny when I put her down at her seat for breakfast. Which when you wake up early to make blueberry muffins that she loves you would expect a happy kid. No not so much with her. Whine. Whine. Whine. Wine oops I mean Whine. She didn't fight getting her coat on, and didn't fight standing at the door to leave. What set her off and this is where I don't have control over it is her sister was refusing to get in the truck to leave for school.  Like literally standing there with arms folded yelling at me. So when I lost it this am and said "get your ass in the truck" (fine parenting skills right there I tell ya!) that's when Avery started to get upset.

When Avery realized she wasn't getting in the truck is when she started to throw herself on the ground in the driveway. Which of course every parent driving their kid to our oldest kids school could witness. All the while the oldest is standing there yelling at me. FML.

I feel bad for the bus driver. She pulled up and saw me chasing Avery in the driveway and throwing her over my shoulder so I could get her on the bus because she was going all "no bones" on me. Since I now help get Avery on the bus the meltdowns are not that bad. So she cooperated on the bus (seriously?) and she was off.

When I got the other one to school she actually stopped to give me a kiss and actually said, "have a good day Mama!" LOL. One day little one, one day!