chris, colleen, life, organizing, Ryan

Graciously accepting help

childrenautism
I was just thinking this morning that this is one of the lessons I’ve had to learn. I’ve been thinking about, what are the things I’ve had to learn in this walk we’ve been on in life? Graciously accepting help, though I’ve not yet gotten very good as ASKING for help; accepting my limitations; and not being a perfectionist. There’s probably more, but that’s a start.

Years ago I made this web site: https://criscollrj.com/cleaning.html . Beth D. if you’re reading, I’m sure you remember helping me with this way back on Geocities in ’97!!! All the tables and everything for HTML coding. But I felt so guilty that I could not follow it. And I did not want to ask for help.
Continue reading “Graciously accepting help”

chris, dogs and cats, residency, Ryan

Where’s Chris? At the blue house…


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Originally uploaded by

criscollrj

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Chris has been at his new home over a month now. It’s going very well! It’s odd though to have him gone. I know he’s getting a lot of outings, is on a very good routine, and with the low-fat diet he’s on he’s lost 11 pounds!

Ryan has been asking about him and should be seeing him tonight (we’re going to take him to the chiropractor with us – his first car ride with us!) Ryan says, “Where’s Chris? At the Blue house.” Then he said, “Where’s Doreen? No Doreen.”

We are very busy still – the dog didn’t work out – we had to take him back to a home last Saturday. He was too rough with Ryan. If you look at that one picture of Ryan with the towel on his head, he was afraid of the dog.

I’ve been typing a lot again, and trying to clean house.

I need to update here more!

 

autism, chris, colleen, organizing, residency, Ryan

Almost time for my fall background change!


Ryan, my photographer.

Wow, it’s been a really long time since I updated. I’m not even sure what I wrote about exactly last (and don’t really feel like looking right now)

First, after taking tons of pics like this with my camera phone, Which he really wasn’t supposed to to do but got away with it as much as possible anyway , Ryan lost the battery to my camera phone. This explains why I’ve had no August pictures.

Continue reading “Almost time for my fall background change!”

Ryan

Ryan’s roster


Ryan’s roster

Originally uploaded by

criscollrj

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Ryan’s list of his class friends – he did this on his own and put on his wall (notice other artwork beneath – the chalkboard paint can’t come soon enough!)

Ryan H, Colin, Ryan R, Gryphen (i think?), Jack, and the last one I can’t make out….

He’s 6 and I think this is adorable writing! I’m so pleased.

I want us to start writing hand-over-hand with Chris too and see what he can do.

As always Colleen is making beautiful artwork – I’ll have to post more of her pics here too—

Just waiting on her homeschooling and have a ton more papers to do for the boys too and summer camps, etc…

children, health, sleep

Kiddo-update

CHRIS:

Chris has slept like 4/5 nights now and we’re so pleased! Dad took him to Home Depo the other day and he had a lot of fun with that, and he also took two walks around our neighborhood. He seems to be doing better after his med adjustment (Abilify went from 10mg to 15mg.)

But we are still pursuing applying for the National Deaf Academy for him. I will be doing that soon.

He is also going to be starting vocational training at a local school for half the day – I think he’ll like that a lot!! It will make his day more interesting – he’ll go to his regular school half day and the other half a day. He may start this year, yet.

His weight was going up but now seems to be stabilized at 200 pounds. I hope he doesn’t gain any more.

COLLEEN:

I filled out app. papers for www.ecotohio.org homeschooling today and plan to fedex to Columbus tonight. I’m pulling Colleen out of school.

The particular homeschool is a public school, not a traditional home school. I could not do a regular home school where it was all up to me. Even this is going to be hard for me, but I trust it will save Colleen. I hope. She’s currently failing 4 classes. She missed 40 days of school this year from illness. If she’s going to continue to be ill often, and continue to be as anxious and sickly (often caused by nerves, I believe) as she is now, I think she’ll thrive in this.

I hope.

“ECOT educates over six thousand students between the ages of five and twenty-one from every county in the state of Ohio.

Running an online school requires as many resources as a traditional public school. In addition to our teachers, a staff of counselors, school administrators, customer service specialists, computer programmers, database managers, school-funding experts, shipping handlers and consultants enable ECOT to work.

ECOT is a public school that relies solely on a fixed per-student state tax allocation, without the addition of property taxes, private funds or donations from special interests. ECOT, as a public school, charges no tuition.

ECOT provides a valuable service for all Ohio students and families seeking an alternative to traditional public education.”

“What sets ECOT apart from other public schools is its home-based online learning environment. ECOT’s ability to provide a statewide K-12 educational environment through its own secure Web-based network, or intranet, is unique. The intranet restricts access to non ECOT-approved Web sites while providing a wide range of teaching tools and educational sites that are appropriate for students of all ages.

Just like other public school students, ECOT students have teachers, counselors, class discussions, report cards and out-of-class trips. Unlike other public school students, however, ECOT students are required to use computer and Internet technology to access their lessons, may never meet their classmates face to face, and are not subject to a dress code!

ECOT parents do not need to educate their children alone: ECOT’s teachers provide quality instruction online and actively engage each student to offer assistance and guidance. Parents have the freedom to directly support their children’s education, while letting ECOT teachers do what they do best: teach.”

RYAN:

His IEP is today, in 2 1/2 hours. I think he’s done pretty well this year. I expect he’ll be at the same school next year for first grade. Can’t believe he’s almost done with kindergarten. He’s writing 3-letter words and is talking much better!

Both boys are getting new hearing aides soon.

That reminds me, Ryan’s lost the battery case off his hearing aide. I need to take it in to Jane to get it fixed…

children, Weather

Ryan’s new aide —


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Originally uploaded by

criscollrj

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8 hours today with Ryan – he is really enjoying her! They were coloring outside while Rog grilled us yummy chicken, burgers, and hot dogs. Chris enjoyed a lot of time outside too and had two walks and an outing to the playground. Ryan also played at the playground for about two hours with his aide.

I cleaned half of Ryan’s room today and D helped me do the dishes. She’ll be back tomorrow!

Chris’s aide should be back in 2-3 days… D likes to help Chris a lot too – she’s a sweet new friend!

Christmas, NaBloPoMo, Ryan

Spirit of Christmas

Ryan style 🙂

I was doing dishes yesterday but Ryan decided THEN was the time to start unpacking all the Christmas boxes I had hidden behind the couch. He also did some of this in the morning yesterday before school —

Let’s get all these boxes dumped!




Decorating Ryan Style 1

Originally uploaded by criscollrj.

What a bunch of tangled beautiful garland!




Decorating Ryan Style 2

Originally uploaded by criscollrj.

Garland still on bottom, and 2 strands of lights (continued even now) out.




Decorating Ryan Style 4

Originally uploaded by criscollrj.

This tin looks like a drum!




Decorating Ryan Style 5

Originally uploaded by criscollrj.

Putting all the garlands on the bottom …




Decorating Ryan Style 6

Originally uploaded by criscollrj.

Pulling all the garland out. He eventually got it all tangled and we had to get it all untangled last night 🙂




Decorating Ryan Style 7

Originally uploaded by criscollrj.

Last night:

The breakables, up high enough??




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Originally uploaded by criscollrj.

Love those lights…




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Originally uploaded by criscollrj.

Colleen’s room.




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Office wall




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Originally uploaded by criscollrj.

Santas (not breakable, on lower shelf 🙂 )




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Originally uploaded by criscollrj.

And half our stuff is still in the attic!




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Originally uploaded by criscollrj.

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children, life, Weather

Beautiful Lake Erie


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Originally uploaded by

criscollrj

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First time I’d taken Ryan up to the lakefront in a few years. He did great! We were only there about 15 minutes — had tons to do at home and also had a headache. But he loved playing on the playground and then we walked on the sand for about 5 minutes.

What a beautiful cooler day today! I don’t think often enough either that we’re very lucky to live 10 minutes from the lakeshore…

children, work at home

Ryan’s looking so much older —


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Originally uploaded by

criscollrj

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all of the sudden. And when he gets his hair cut he’ll look even older (that always happens). Wonder if I should get his hair cut like we used to do Chris’s (will have to post that look, the bowl cut that was so cute on him!).

We are enjoying the summer as much as possible without going nuts Chris just started school today and I think he had fun. It was a new school for him. They said he liked the water play. He always does!

Colleen is getting a lot of outdoor time with swimming with friends and her boating class.

The summer is really kinda going fast….

One more week until Ryan starts school! I’ll be working more then – I’ve taken a few weeks off.