autism, college, deafness, God

Fall semester

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When I was a little girl I remember labeling and assembling all my school supplies weeks before school started.  I loved the way the notebooks and pencils looked, all new, crisp, and shiny, and the way they felt smooth and clean in my hands.  To this day I still have a habit of ruffling the side of book pages, feeling absent-mindedly how smooth the side of the book feels as I read or listen in class.  I don’t know what it all means but I do know it hasn’t gone away.  On a side note, I think Ryan has inherited my addiction to school supplies – he loves his notebooks and bookbags very much – it’s so cute!

 

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It is a good feeling to have gone back to school after wanting to for about 15 years.  I remember in 1995 first considering that I would like to go back to college after that time being absent for 9 years.  When I graduated in 1987 I had been going for 3 1/2 years, and even though I didn’t realize it at the time I think I needed a break simply from not knowing what I really wanted to do with my life.  Continue reading “Fall semester”

autism, chris, colleen, college, residency, Ryan, transcription

Seems fitting to attend a great barbecue the week before school!

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Sometimes it’s challenging to get through the summer easily trying to keep two rambunctious boys happy and safe in the heat.  But all in all I think we all accomplished this this summer.  We have worked as a team – Chris stays at his paternal grandparents’ still (while we await, seek, and research the appropriate placement) and Roger stays over there a lot to watch him.  Chris is very astute and is trying his best to learn the ways of unlocking doors so he can get some freedom outside.  However, their safety (Ryan will escape and run off as well) is our highest concern so we do have some fancy key locks on the doors at both houses.  So it is up to us to get them out as much as we can for their activities and exercise.

 

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So all and all we were pleased with their summer programs – next year I would like to get Ryan to Chris’s camp even more days – we got a grant this year for him to go 6 days but if we can get three grants then next summer he can go 18.  Chris went all summer from June 22 or so until this coming Friday the 20th.  This is where they met for camp – we started taking Ryan there a bit a few days this summer:

 

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It was very nice and also had a wood path.  The boys would walk with their class in the morning on the wood path.  Then by afternoon they’d usually visited another place and ended up swimming in a big pool across the county.  Really nice program.

 

Colleen stayed busy with different friends, often attending anime events and swimming. 

colleen and friends

Rog and I worked, and went out of town for business in June.  We’re going again the first week after school starts.  I also made it through computer class and Algebra 850 – intro to algebra.  I just finished that about 2 week ago and was happy to have passed (it was hard!).  On a break now, working on some transcription but not tons and going to be trying to get the house in shape before work and school again (school starts week of August 30 for me – biology and intermediate Algebra).  0809101226 Speech therapy and certification in autism and deafness is still the goal, Kent State.

 

Working with Congress at this point with several liaisons to try to find away to get Chris into the program at NDA.  We sure hope and pray it works. 

(2020, as I said before, program was closed in 2014 for abuse.  Sad.)  Watch the video about NDA’s autism/deafness program.  (2020 no site)  I just feel so excited that this could be the right program for Chris.  (nope)