a little update finally —

You’re a Speak & Spell!! You nerd, you. Just
because you were disguised as a toy doesn’t
mean you weren’t educational, you sneaky
bastard.

What childhood toy from the 80s are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

it is a lazy Sunday and I have SO much cleaning to do.

Last I wrote Chris was having a VERY VERY VERY bad time. We had an awful 4 months – February – sinus infections, ear infections with ear injury from hitting; March, 2 ear surgeries, missed most of the whole month off of school, plus drug reaction to Seroquel/Risperdol and withdrawal; April, entire month, I believe, from school, just about (he may have gone a week or so), had 1-2 more sinus infections; May, Tonsillectomy/Adenoidectomy, and finally had to start more meds as he was still being aggressive, self-injurious, and very very upset and not sleeping at all hardly (like 3-4 hours every few days is all); and June started horribly as well but FINALLY last 3-4 days his new meds (Tenex) is kicking in and he’s sleeping a little more and is seeming happier. FINALLY.

(2020 pans/pandas)

I had prayed that if we WEREN’T to send him to a new home that he would get better. I hope this is the sign, his getting better the last few days. He was hitting us so much and was so upset that we thought maybe he had to be placed in residential placement. With him being a minor this meant telling our county we couldn’t take care of him anymore, and having him placed by them in a new residence center for special needs people. We could still visit but he wouldn’t be coming home again. We hope now we can wait a while before making this decision. It is so painful to think about. But we also need to watch – if the behavior/state he was in returns we may have to take action – it was scary to live with him hitting all of us.

But, thank God for the moment. He is doing well now.

So, in the middle of all that, during Chris’ first hospitalization in March, our families came over and redid his room! (Don’t know if I posted this!) He has wood floor now and sea green walls. Very very nice! Then in May they helped us do a lot on the rest of our house – old brown carpet is GONE and we have faux wood lino in living room (this will eventually be in our room and Colleen’s room too). Kitchen has a marbly tile – and the walls of these rooms are peach. It’s SO nice! Beige carpets are GOING next out of the last two bedrooms (mold in ours – UGH!) and those walls to be repainted – ours, don’t know yet – Colleen’s, periwinkle!

We are also casually house hunting – we have several options (but no money! 😉 ) but can’t decide yet what to do. We can:

1. Stay where we are, building onto our house in the back and adding a garage (but we’re in a city and not sure about junior/high school for kids once they get there)
2. Move into a manufactured home, buying our own land (cool cool options there but not sure how long the houses actually hold up!
3. Look for a pre-owned home in our price range with what we’re looking for (4 bedrooms, 2-3 baths, basement, garage) which will be PROBABLY impossible!

Then of course on top of this we are STILL trying to decide whether or not to move to North Carolina. I don’t know that it is the ANSWER to all our prayers, I think from researching that they can be just as strapped there as Ohio. But we sure love the area and I am sure we’d be happy there. However, leaving our families and friends would be very difficult.

I am also hoping to go to SCHOOL! I am getting info on prerequisite classes to take at our local community college. Then (in several years when our youngest is in elementary school) I want to start my music therapy degree. It’s a very long-time, difficult goal but I’m excited about it! And if we move to Charlotte, Queen’s College there has a music therapy program too!

Then one last thing we are very proud of – my husband and I are both on the South Beach Diet! I have lost 11 pounds, he has lost 12! We’ve been on it for about 6 weeks now.

DH has been trying to look for a new job but it has been difficult with Chris’s health. He is trying to decide (another list 🙂 whether to:

1. Go drive a truck (he has a CDL and has never used it yet). Good money and probably can get in quickly – but he will be gone a lot – we’d miss him! But you only have to drive away from home like that for a year or two to get established and then more local places will hire you.
2. Buy a truck and drive as his own business (a little scary but probably more profitable if it works out) Scary with a new loan for a truck and what if it doesn’t work out? FEAR. But maybe a chance we need to take?
3. Just look for a local job and work at a factory or something, so he can be home at night (truck-driving will get him home only weekly or every few weeks). But this will be paying the LEAST and probably be the hardest to find (he would have to start at an entry level job with no experience, unless he does cleaning, which he has 20 years experience at, but pay is TERRIBLE).

I’ll post for now – dori