I love to sing, play guitar, and read, but of course seldom pursue these as often as I wish! My favorite television show is Party of Five (from October through March or so) on FOX on Wednesday nights 9:00 est. I actually rarely watch any other shows on my own (Barney, Arthur, and Theodore Tugboat songs usually roam my head day and night!). My children have also discovered Winney the Pooh, whose movies and characters I'm growing to love!
My hubby, Roger, also plays guitar, and enjoys watching movies, science fiction shows (i.e. Mystery Science Theatre 3000), bad "B" movies and historical shows.
We are trying to learn all we can about autism and how to utilize treatments and therapies in the best way. We just travelled in late October to North Carolina to begin researching first-hand the educational program called TEACCH. The link attached below (under construction) describes it more fully. We have not been able to yet view a class, but I would welcome anyone's opinion on TEACCH that has children in the class at this time. As far as I know it is only offered in North Carolina, and offers classrooms for autistic children in the public school system, as well as eventually job training and assistance if necessary. I will shortly be designing a page about our musical son and adding to it several links on autism spectrum disorders.
Deciding whether or not to move to North Carolina is a new item keeping our family busy, in addition to the normalcies of life!! (Under construction) Attached here is a group of pictures showing our vacation that we just took to North Carolina - what a beautiful, busy, refreshing time it was!!
Spending time with both of our children, just playing and laughing and hanging out, is such a pleasure to us both. We want to be the best parents we can with God's help.
Christopher attends a local school for the handicapped, and the teachers and assistants are wonderful. Some staff have been trained in the TEACCH and Miller methods (a raised platform method from Boston, also great), and do some therapies with Chris. The TEACCH teaching philosophy is just starting to be known here in N.E. Ohio. We do, in addition, plan to partially (perhaps eventually completely) home school Chris, and possibly Colleen. I am researching the topic on the internet.
Colleen began to attend Headstart this fall, and is enjoying it very much! She especially enjoys riding the little yellow school bus to and from the school 4 days a week! I love to plan to organize my house, and am finally "getting there." I have completely cleaned out several areas, but of course have far, far to go. I've made it a rule to vacuum and pick up living room every evening, and to wash dishes! Everything else gets put off when necessary. I'm doing better about my computer addiction! :O) I have a cleaning schedule that I designed in HTML as a link below! (that I'm still trying to follow myself, as I am not as disciplined as I should be!).
I am pursuing a few home business plans. In the next few weeks I plan to advertise a legal typing business from my home, which I hope and pray brings in my former income! I also sell Avon, and assist a family member with a few calls for his surveying business.
We are non-demoninational evangelical Christians, and I love CCM (Amy Grant, Jars of Clay, DC Talk, Michael W. Smith, Twila Paris, among others) and Christian historical romances (Bodie & Brock Thoene, Michael Phillips, Judith Pella, for example). We love listening to many other types of music - Rush, Genesis, old U2, Styx, Journey, Sheryl Crow, Yes, Gin Blossoms, Peter Gabriel, and many more!
We have also loved hiking and camping, and plant a small garden every year! Hanging clothes on the line to dry in the summer is also a joy of mine (though folding and putting away is a pain)! Another honeymoon out in the mountains of North Carolina/Tennessee had been a dream now partially fulfilled! - with our two (or more?) kids around for the fun - but we also love to just be outdoors in the rolling tree-lined landscape of Northeast Ohio.