Life with Three Special Needs Children

DVD Review and Giveaway: "Doc McStuffins: Time For Your Check-Up"

2013-05-28T18:49:00.002-05:00

I received a copy of "Doc McStuffins: Time for Your Checkup" to review. The boys and I watched the video yesterday. My boys are 11 and 3; however, both are developmentally much younger than their chronological age. My oldest was very engaged in the video. My youngest, not so much; however he is a very active child and does not like to sit still for very long!

Neither of my boys like going to the doctor. They have both been to so many doctor's in their lifetime that once they see where they are going we generally start having issues before we even walk in the door! I am hopeful that by watching this a few times, my kids see how the stuffed animals/toys are treated by Doc, and be a little bit more comfortable at the doctor. With their Autism social stories are good and what better social story than a video?

I enjoyed the video, although the tune that they sang in each episode started to get a little annoying after watching the video straight through.

Here is a little bit of information about the video:

Episodes:

1 - Gulpy, Gulpy Gators!/One Note Wonder
2 - Tea Party Tantrum/Blast Off!
3 - Arcade Escapade/Starry, Starry Night
4 - Bronto Boo-Boos/Brontosaurus Breath
5 - Doctoring The Doc/Hot Pursuit

Street Date: May 7, 2013
Director Prebook: March 12, 2013
Distributor Prebook: March 26, 2013
Release Format: DVD
Suggested Retail Price: $19.99 U.S./$24.99 Canada
Run Time: Approx. 120 minutes
Rated: TV-Y (U.S.)
Aspect ratio: 1.78.1
Sound: 2.0 Dolby Digital
Languages & Subtitles: English, Spanish and French

I am able to offer a copy of this video to one of my readers via a giveaway. So if you would like to enter the giveaway, enter below.

I was provided a this video for an honest review. My opinion has not been influenced in anyway.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

New Post on Private Blog

2013-05-18T21:21:00.003-05:00

I just posted an update on my private blog regarding Cassidy. If you do not have access and would like to read it, please send me an e-mail.

Cassandra

Book Review: "Couponing For the Rest of Us" by Kasey Knight Trenum

2013-05-11T19:00:00.000-05:00

Another recent offer from the Revell Book Blog Tour that I received was from "Couponing for the Rest of Us" by Kasey Knight Trenum. I was interested in reading this book because I have had a hard time finding a "happy-medium" when it came to couponing and was interested in what this author's method was.

I have done everything from buying lots and lots of papers to have multiple coupons to not buying any papers and not couponing hardly at all. I am trying to find ways to save more money on our grocery bill, which just always seems to be rising.

Kasey Knight Trenum is the cofounder of Time 2 $ave (www.time2saveworkshops.com), a frugal and couponing blog and conducts Time 2 $ave workshops frequently. Her weekly column can be read in Scripps newspapers nationwide, her work has been featured in Parade and All You and she has been interviewed on NPR's All Things Considered and HLN’s Making it in America. She has a personal passion for seeing women, men and families find financial freedom, be empowered to improve their lives and become purposeful givers. She and her husband and children live in Tennessee.

Ms. Trenum wrote this book in a way that people who have never used coupons before can understand them. She helps people by showing them the following:

Where to find coupons for what your family eats
How to make the internet do the work for you
How to find sale cycles and store match-ups (and what those terms mean!)
How to reinvent your shopping strategy and toss your lists
How to make grocery shopping less stressful - even fun!
How to turn money saved into money shared
Make couponing fit your life not become your life

One theme that Ms. Trenum continues to express throughout the book is that even if you only have enough time to clip and use enough to save five percent, you have still saved five percent and you should be proud of yourself for that. You do not need to compare yourselves to the "extreme couponers" who are saving a lot if you do not have the time for it.

That is where I fell into the trap and got burned out. I really felt like I needed to be saving 70% or more on our shopping and if I wasn't then what was the point. But, really, every little bit of savings every week will add up if you just do it when you have time. And if I have a busy, crazy week and cannot get through my coupons, then I need to just shake it off and start again the next week.

Ms. Trenum provides action steps at the end of each chapter to help people get started with their couponing journey. At the end of the book there are forms and tips to help your further with getting started.

Here is a transcript of a question and answer session with Ms. Trenum:

Q. I’m already busy, and couponing looks like a part time job. Do I really have time?

A. I hear your pain. If anyone thought she didn’t have time to coupon, it was me. I didn’t even consider it as a remote possibility. Time or no time, I couldn’t afford not to use couponing as an avenue to save. Soon I began to see how the benefits outweighed my investment. It was worth it to have several hundred dollars a month back in our budget, especially when our other household expenses weren’t going down. Will couponing take some of your time? Yes, but not much. I’ll show you the ropes so you can save both time and money.

Q. I have a small family. I don’t see how using coupons could help us much since our grocery bill isn’t that high.

A. The size of your family doesn’t matter. Whatever your grocery bill is, there is usually room to save. Even if you only spend $50 a week, wouldn’t you like to cut that down to $20 or $30? Aside from the numbers, when you shop ahead of time to buy what you use, it takes the stress of having to go to the grocery store out of your life.

Q. This seems like a lot of work, and I’m not an organized person. I don’t think I can keep up with all this!

A. Oh my! If you look up “unorganized” in the dictionary, you’ll find my picture. I really (really!) want to be organized, and I have tried to help myself in this area more ways than I can count. But you know what? I was not created that way. You can imagine my struggle with organizing my coupons. I had to find a way that worked for me (and didn’t consume my life), and that I could stick with for the long haul. Remember, couponing isn’t all-or-nothing. It’s what fits into whatever season of life you are in right now. What works for one person might not work for another; we are all unique. Be patient as you figure out what makes sense and works best for you.

Q. I’ve seen where couponing revolves around stockpiling and having massive amounts of food in your house. I don’t think I can (or want) to go there.

A. Fabulous! That makes two of us. My goal is to teach you how to save your family money and open up doors to give. It’s all about simplicity here; couponing isn’t an all-or-nothing deal. Couponing success isn’t measured by the size of your stockpile. I’d much rather be known for giving.

Q. I’ve always thought people who use coupons end up purchasing things they don’t need just because they have a coupon for it.

A. Guilty! I did it. Most people do, especially in the beginning. However, you’ll soon figure out the items that your family uses and what items make good donations. Beyond that, I’ll save you some time here. If you can’t donate it, even if it’s free or cheap, it’s not worth it. In some states you will still have to pay tax on the full purchase price before coupons. My mission has been to simplify; if my family doesn’t use it and I can’t donate it, then it’s just going to take up space in my home. You can always share your coupons with friends, schools, military programs and so forth.

Q. I’ve never been good at math—Can I do this?

A. Don’t worry, I was never good at math and you don’t have to be either. Besides, who said you can’t use a calculator? Throw one in your purse or use your smartphone

Q. How many grocery stores do you shop each week?

A. Lately I am happy to make it to one. I have been asked this question more times than I can count. It is not necessary to shop more than one store, or even to shop every single week for that matter. Whether you save 5 percent or 70 percent, you are still saving. Couponing has to fit into your life, not become your life.

I really enjoyed reading this book and it gave me a different perspective on couponing and will be implementing some of these ideas into what I have previously done. If you have tried couponing in the past and just felt like it didn't stick, or if you have never couponed before and are wanting to save your family some money, this is a good book to check out.

This book is currently available at your local or online bookstore.

I was provided a copy of this book for an honest review. The opinion expressed is my one and in no way has been influenced by others.

Book Review: "When a Secret Kills" by Lynette Eason

2013-05-11T18:21:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago I had received another e-mail from Revell Books for another blog tour invitation. This time it was to review Lynette Eason's latest book, When a Secret Kills. I promptly responded that I wanted to review this book. This book is the third book in a three book series and I had been anxiously awaiting it's release. I had read book 1, When the Smoke Clears, and read and reviewed book 2, When a Heart Stops, which you can read here.

Lynette Eason is the bestselling author of several romantic suspense novels, including When the Smoke Clears, When a Heart Stops, and the Women of Justice series. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers and Romance Writers of America. She has a master’s degree in education from Converse College and she lives in South Carolina. Find out more at www.lynetteeason.com.

When I started reading When a Secret Kills, the action and suspense captured your attention immediately. You didn't know what to expect and wanted to keep reading and not put the book down so that you can make sure that the characters that you had come to know through the series were safe.

At the end when the person responsible was revealed, I had no idea that was who it was. I was pleased in the fact that I was able to be surprised at the end and there weren't too many clues to reveal who the bad guy was until it was revealed as part of the story line.

In my opinion, this was a wonderful book. Ms. Eason has a writing style that can pull a reader into the story line and as a part of this series you really got to know all of the characters involved. This story was very action packed. I was left wanting more!

I am so glad that I have been able to read these books and think that anyone who enjoys suspense stories would enjoy them as well.

When a Secret Kills is available at your local or online bookstore.

I was provided with a copy of When a Secret Kills to review. My review is my own thoughts and has no way been influenced by any one.

Craziness!

2013-03-19T20:04:00.000-05:00

The last couple of weeks have been absolute craziness in the Sines household!

Caleb has been off -- and when I say off -- I mean that he has been teetering on the VERY thin line of become explosive. The smallest thing that we say that he doesn't like he can just meltdown. I also received an e-mail from his teacher that he has been very oppositional and causing problems at school. She asked me me if I had any thoughts. My first thought was, "Shoot me now!" Now, I totally do not mean that -- but seriously, some days it is just very difficult!

Steven is doing fairly well. He has been sick for over three weeks and is on his second round of antibiotics. He had an ear infection in one year, then we finished it and went back to the doctor four days later and the other ear was infected. So we have an appointment with the ENT on April 3rd.

The craziness has been surrounding Cassidy. Cassidy's last 60 day screen was up on March 6th, which meant that the new managed care organization that Kansas transitioned to as of January 1st was now the decision maker as to whether or not her treatment would continue or not. We have been unable to get an answer to what the appeal process is.

So far they have been extending her for a week at a time. Like a whole lot of progress can be made in a week's time.

Then last week things even got more chaotic. Part of the story, because of our privacy, I do not on this general blog, so I will put that over on my private blog. You can find my private blog here. You will need to receive an invitation to read this blog, so if you want an invitation, please send me an e-mail at cassandra {dot}sines @ gmail {dot} com (taking out the spaces and replacing {dot} with a period) and I will send you an invitation.

The part of the story that I will share here will show how God can turn a bad thing into a good thing!

Cassidy has been at a center that is three hours away from home, making it very difficult for us to visit, as well as participate in therapy on an in person basis.

On Tuesday, I had a regularly scheduled conference call with Cassidy's treatment team, as well as our local mental health provider and the managed care organization to discuss Cassidy and how she had been doing.

As we were finishing with the call, Cassidy's case manager asked me to call back so that I could talk with just her and Cassidy's therapist as well as the individual that was supposed to help us after Cassidy was discharged. When I called back, they informed me that as of April 20th, the girls unit would no longer exist, which meant that Cassidy's case manager and therapist would be losing their job. I felt like the breath had been sucked out of me. We were going to have to start all over with new people. I was also told that Cassidy would be integrated with the boys during the day, but still sleep seperated at night. So they gave us the option of transferring her to a new unit or leaving her there. Cassidy's case manager said she would send me a list of PRTFs and I could call around and see if there was a place where we could transfer her.

I immediately called Tony and filled him in. The next morning I received the list and saw a facility that was much closer to us. I called them and explained our situation and asked if they had any beds available. I was told that they did, but they were not sure whether or not they were able to do transfers. I was advised they would check and let me know. I received a call within 10 minutes later and was advised that they would transfer her. Thus began a huge amount of paperwork and lots of e-mails and phone calls to get things started.

We drove and picked Cassidy up on Friday and got her admitted to the new facility. She got very mouthy with me while we were there trying to get the nursing assessment completed, so they were able to get a small glimpse of her behavior. They've seen more behaviors since she has been there. I have our first in-person family therapy session tomorrow.

Giveaway: $100 Paypal or Amazon - Winner Choice

2013-03-19T19:01:00.001-05:00

I am participating in the Our Mom Spot March Blog Building Co-op, where myself and 15 other bloggers have gotten together to offer a giveaway of $100 in cash or an Amazon gift care, whichever the winner would so choose.

If you are interested in entering the giveaway, please visit this link to find out more and enter the giveaway via Rafflecopter!

Life with Three Special Needs Children and/or Cassandra Sines is not responsible for non-failure on the part of Our Mom Spot to fulfill the contest obligation.

Book Review: "You're Made for a God-Sized Dream" by Holley Gerth

2013-03-09T21:38:00.001-06:00

It's time for another Revell Books blog tour. This time I had the book, "You're Made for a God-Sized Dream," by Holley Gerth.

Holley Gerth is a bestselling writer, certified life coach and speaker. She loves connecting with the hearts of women through her popular blog and books like You're Already Amazing and You're Made for a God-Sized Dream. She's also cofounder of (in)courage and a partner with DaySpring. Holley lives with her husband, Mark, in the South. Hang out with her at www.holleygerth.com.

In You’re Made for a God-Sized Dream: Opening the Door to All God Has for You, Gerth shares how she found the courage to pursue her own God-sized dream, and encourages readers to say yes to that internal whisper that they are made for more and begin to chase their God-sized dream. Gerth walks besides readers as they define their dreams and becomes a personal cheerleader for each reader ready to stand up, defy their fear and start following their heart.

“We are made for a purpose,” writes Gerth. “And until we are intentionally pursuing it, we feel half alive. We are dreamers waiting for someone to wake us up so the real adventure can begin.”

After discussing the idea of a God-sized dream on her blog and sharing it with the (in)courage community, Gerth realized women were drawn to this life-giving message. She has devoted 2013 to shepherding her readers as they embrace their God-sized dreams. As a certified life coach, Gerth has developed several tools available within the book as well as Do What You Can Plan, a 21-day study that releases as an ebook on January 1, 2013. Join her every Tuesday at www.holleygeth.com, as her readers, including her ‘God-sized Dream Team’ of 99 readers committed to share their own journeys to live their God-sized dreams.

In "You're Made for a God-Sized Dream," Ms. Gerth includes a lot of personal examples of individuals whom she has talked to about their dreams. The number one thing that is apparent through Ms. Gerth's writing is that she is passionate about supporting women in their pursuit of their God-sized dream. I have had a dream for a little while now and have been thinking that it was just something of my imagination, but as I read through this book, I just had more peace about pursuing that dream and am anxious to get started.

This book is written like you are having a close friend conversation with Ms. Gerth. There are opportunities to "Go Deeper" throughout the book and at the end of each chapter. You can even print a copy of the "Go Deeper Guide" from Ms. Gerth's website under the "Books & More" page. She even gives a "Dream It. Do It." assignment at the end of each chapter to help you work through your dream to bring it to fruition.

Ms. Gerth provides a detailed explanation of and God's truth against "Five Lies That Keep Us from Dreaming." She helps us to see how our strengths that God has provided each and every one of us are an important aspect of our ability to fulfill our God-sized dream.

Ms. Gerth also gives detailed insight on how we can train our fears that might arise in the midst of working toward our God-sized dream. She likens it to "Cesar Millan, the 'dog whisperer,'" but instead helps us become our "own personal 'fear whisperer.'" Even though fear can be a deterrent to following through on a God-sized dream, fear can also be used to warn us about risks. Ms. Gerth explains this difference and how fear can work for you.

In one chapter, Ms. Gerth gives a description of five disclaimers about God-sized dreams. She says,

Yes, God-sized dreams are beautiful.

Yes, they're worth pursuing.

But they're not all cotton candy and daisies.

There are some things I wish someone had told me about dreams before I got started. And so, my friend, I'm going to share them with you.

Ms. Gerth continues on the book to describe what can happen when the dream might go wrong, how we can stop sabotaging ourselves, and why our dream is worth it.

As I said earlier, I am anxious to work through all of these steps that have been provided in this book to move forward with my God-sized dream. Anyone else want to go on their own journey? I would love to support you and be your cheerleader on your journey!

You can purchase this book at your local bookstore or at an online outlet.

This book was provided to me for free by Revell Books as part of their blog tour. My opinion of this book has not been influenced in anyway.

Caleb's Adoption Journey - The Waiting

2013-02-26T19:23:00.000-06:00

I had really planned on writing more about our adoption journey from the time we received the initial call from Caleb's birthmother and going to the match meeting, and then the waiting for the final call that he was born, before now. The last six weeks have been fairly hectic and then we got hit with two snow storms back to back and were snowed in since last Wednesday! I am so grateful that we survived and that school WILL be back in session tomorrow!!!!

If you missed any of the previous posts about Caleb's adoption journey, you can find Part 1 and Part 2.

So when we got back home from meeting Caleb's birthmother, we had approximately six weeks to prepare for Caleb's arrival. Fortunately, we already had the crib and a lot of clothes and other baby stuff. The big things that we did not have was a stroller and a car seat. Tony and I decided we would wait and buy a stroller and car seat in California, so we wouldn't have to fly out with it, to make things easier.

Getting things ready helped pass the time. During this time, Caleb's birthmother would call every few days to let us know how she was doing for the first couple of weeks. Then we stopped hearing from her. We'd try and call her at the last number that we had and we would learn that she had left that location. (She moved around -- A LOT!!!!!)

Then a couple of days later we would hear from her, especially if she needed something!

After about two or three weeks of this, the stress was really getting to me. I was beginning to wonder if she was just using us. I called our counselor at the agency in a panic one day, not knowing what was going to happen. She calmed me down and told me that we only had a couple of weeks until her due date. She told me to stay calm and keep preparing and to see what happened.

I'll tell you what, those next two weeks were very LONG.

But we finally did get THE call on February 28th! And that will be a post for another day!!!

Book Review: "A Kingsbury Collection" by Karen Kingsbury

2013-02-21T14:53:00.001-06:00

I was accepted into the Blogging for Books network and received my first book to review for them. The book that I received was "A Kingsbury Collection: Three Novels in One - Where Yesterday Lives; When Joy Came to Stay; On Every Side," by Karen Kingsbury.

I have loved every Karen Kingsbury book I have read since I started reading them in 2011, so I was excited to read this collection. However, when I actually read the book -- even being the huge book lover that I am -- I was a little overwhelmed with the size of the book. I really don't know why I was overwhelmed with the size knowing that it was a compilation of the three books in one! But just in case the size of the book deters you from picking it up -- it is 748 pages -- don't (or maybe you can get it in an e-reader format so the "thickness" of the book doesn't deter you! This book contains three wonderful books.

"Where Yesterday Lives," is a story about a large family of adult siblings who must come together for their father's unexpected funeral. Ms. Kingsbury takes us on a journey as the characters remember the past and then ultimately bring issues that had been hidden from the others out into the open so that ultimate healing can happen like no other author that I have found can do. As in previous Karen Kingsbury novels I have read, you feel like you are a part of this family and going through the heartache and struggles and joys right along with them.

In "When Joy Came to Stay," Ms. Kingsbury tactfully handles a very important topic of depression of a Christian woman. Being a Christian woman who is medicated for depression and who has a daughter diagnosed with a mental illness, I was thrilled to read this story and how the story evolved and how she was brought the main character through the rough times to an acceptance of her depression.

In "On Every Side," is a story that is another one of Ms. Kingsbury's books of characters having a strong faith and belief, even in very unsettling and unsure times. It also shows of God's goodness and how He continually puts people and things and circumstances in our lives to bring us to Him. I do not want to write much about this story because I do not want to give the story away. But I will say that this is a story that is a must read, especially in light of the way that our country seems to keep moving further and further away from God!

You can read the first chapter of "Where Yesterday Lives" by clicking here.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.

New Post on Private Blog

2013-02-21T13:39:00.003-06:00

I just posted a new entry on my private blog. If you are interested in reading it, please send me an e-mail at cassandra.sines@gmail.com.

New Post on Private Blog

2013-02-17T19:37:00.001-06:00

I just submitted a new post on my private blog. If you would like to read it, please send me an e-mail and I will send you an invite!

Cassandra

Book Review: "5 Days to a Cluter-Free House" by Sandra Felton and Marsha Sims

2013-02-09T19:16:00.000-06:00

It's time for another Revell blog tour book review. This time it is for a book about tackling clutter in your home entitled "5 Days to a Clutter-Free House: Quick, Easy Ways to Clear Up Your Space" by Sandra Felton and Marsha Sims.

As someone who struggles with clutter, I was very interested in reading this book. Here is a little bit about the authors:

Sandra Felton, The Organizer Lady, is a pioneer in the field of organizing. She is the founder and president of Messies Anonymous and the author of many books including Organizing Magic. Sandra lives in Florida. Marsha Sims is a national speaker who has taught seminars on time management and organization, managing the front desk, and projects and priorities. She has been a professional organizer for fifteen years as the founder and president of her Miami-based company, Sort-It-Out, Inc. The book is separated into two sections. The first section is entitled "Getting It Under Control." The second section is entitled "Keep the Good Life Going."
In "Getting It Under Control," the authors describe the term coined in describing their unique organizing method. This term is "Mount Rushmore." "Mount Rushmore" is designed to get a home in order in dive days. "The 'rush' part means the job gets done quickly. The 'more' part means you don't try to do the job alone; you get help."

I had never really thought about a team approach to decluttering my home until just recently and, it was actually before I read this book. As a parent of special needs children, it seems like there is never enough energy at the end of the day to deal with papers and laundry and dishes and clutter. Our small group came over and helped us clean our kitchen and living room, as well as fix some holes in the wall that Cassidy had made with her foot prior to her admittance to the residential treatment center. I have to admit, the team approach was very helpful -- and FUN!!!!

In the introduction section of the book there is a "Maintenance Quiz" where you can "rate your ability to maintain organization in your house."

One thing that I liked about this book is that the authors admitted that they too struggled with disorganization and that too had to learn "what it takes to step out of the enforced confusion we used to live in." That statement alone gave me hope that I too can overcome this issue that I have!

They also used a lot of real life stories showing how people implemented the "Mount Rushmore" system and finished with a clutter-free home at the end of the time period they were implementing "Mount Rushmore."

The "Mount Rushmore" process is explained in detail. Each day a different section of your home is focused on. The first three days, the sections are based on your body. You're probably thinking, what? So was I when I first read it! Well, let me explain. The first day you only focus on items from the floor to your knees. The next day you focus on items from your knees to your shoulders. Then the third day you focus on shoulders to ceiling. Then that leaves you two more days. One of those days is focused on the inside of cabinets and the other day is focused on storage rooms and/or the garage.

They go into detail about sorting items into boxes based on their function and the room that they will go into, but so that you will actually have to read the book, I am not going to explain all of that here!!!

They provide a lot of do's and don'ts, as well as things to think about prior to getting started. If you are going to have a "team" help you, there is a sample "Game Plan" that you can use for your team meeting that your team can reference during the day. There are also ideas on how to pick your team

They even explain how to do "Mount Rushmore" as a team of one!

Once you have completed your "Mount Rushmore," and are ready to move into section two, "Keep the Good Life Going," the authors give a lot of tips about how to keep your clutter under control. They provide you with "House Clutter-Busters," "Family Clutter-Busters," and "Time Clutter-Busters" that can help keep you on track from going back to the clutter home that you have worked so hard via with the "Mount Rushmore" method to declutter and keep moving forward!

If you are interested in learning more about "Mount Rushmore" method to clear the clutter from your home, you can get the book, "5 Days to a Clutter-Free House," at your local bookstore or at any online retailer.

I was provided with a copy of this book from Revell Books as part of their book blogger tour in exchange for a truthful review of the book. In no way has my thoughts in this review been influenced by the receipt of this book.

Book Review: "Cheaper, Better, Faster" by Mary Hunt

2013-01-27T18:56:00.003-06:00

When I had received another book review offer from Revell Books, this time for "Cheaper, Better, Faster," by Mary Hunt, I just knew I just HAD to have this book. You see, with as busy as I am, I am always looking for ways to do things faster (and more efficiently) and am always looking for ways to save us money!

Mary Hunt is an award-winning and bestselling author, syndicated columnist and sought-after motivational speaker who created a global platform that is making strides to help men and women battle the epidemic impact of consumer debt. She is founder and publisher of the interactive website Debt-Proof Living, which features financial tools, resources and information for her online members. Her books have sold more than a million copies and her daily newspaper column is nationally syndicated through Creators Syndicate and is enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of Everyday Cheapskate readers. Hunt speaks widely on personal finance and has appeared on shows such as Good Morning America, Oprah, Dr. Phil and Focus on the Family. She and her husband live in California.

"Cheaper, Better, Faster," is a revised and updated book from a previously released book titled "Tiptionary," from 1997. So, as you can imagine, some things needed overhauls due to the changes in computers and banking.

Mary Hunt explains in the introduction that the "criteria for whether a tip made it into this collection were fairly simple: If it didn't insult my intelligence, included a reasonable expectation that it saved time or money, and prompted a response anything close to Wow! What a great idea! -- it was in."

In the book there are tips related to Automobiles; Cleaning; Clothing and Accessories; Food and Cooking; Gits; Health and Beauty; Holidays and Special Occasions; Home; Kids and Babies; Laundry; Money and Finances; Outdoors and Garden; Pets; Repairs and Maintenance; Shopping; and Travel and Entertainment.

I absolutely love the Food and Cooking section of this book. There are so many tips in there that I would never of thought of in a million years. Like, "ice cream cones - marshmallow plug. Stop messy leaks from ice cream cones by dropping a marshmallow into the bottom of the cone before filling with ice cream." Or, "Potatoes-washed in the dishwasher. When you have to wash a lot of potatoes, just put them in your dishwasher -- but don't add soap! Set it on a short wash cycle. The clean potatoes can go right into the oven or pot." Genius!!!!

The gift chapter had a lot of different gift ideas that I had never thought of. The home chapter has a lot of appliance tips, as well as tips to get rid of bugs -- yuck! For me, who does not have a green thumb at all, this is not something that I would ever use, but thought it was a definite "Wow!" tip. "Flowers--plants on their own. If you must leave small potted plants unattended while on vacation, push a needle threaded with wool yarn into the soil, and put the other end in a jar of water. The plants will stay moist their this wicking system."

These are just a couple of the tips that I have found in this book. I am glad I have a copy and am sure I will refer to it many, many times to help our family.

This book is available at your local bookstore on at an online retailer and is published by Revell Books.

I have received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. My thoughts have in no way been influenced by the publisher in exchange for a positive review.

Caleb's Adoption Journey: The Match Meeting

2013-01-20T16:04:00.000-06:00

About three weeks ago I wrote a post that you can find here outlining the events that led up to the beginning of our adoption journey with Caleb. Now, as I sit here are think back on that weekend eleven years ago that we actually met Caleb's birthmother and had what our agency called a "match meeting," I'm going to memorialize here.

After getting the call from Caleb's birthmother telling us that she had chosen us to be the parents of her unborn child, there was a lot to do, since she was due eight weeks later. Our agency liked to have what they call a "match meeting" where the adoptive parents and the birth parent(s) meet and kind of develop a plan of how the hospital is going to be handled, how visitation after placement is handled and, most importantly, how much or how little contact there is going to be and what type.

Since Caleb's birthmother lived in California and we lived in North Carolina and with her being within the last trimester, we knew that the best way to make to this happen was for us to fly out to California and go through the California office.

Since Tony was working as a contractor for the postal service he had a long weekend due to the Martin Luther King holiday, so it was a perfect time for us to go. If I remember right, we flew out on Saturday and flew back home on Tuesday.

We had arranged with Caleb's birthmother that we would pick her up Sunday morning and spend the day with her. We ended up going to the State Capital and then going to Sutter's Fort, as those were things she really wanted us to see.

It was a fairly good day, albeit it was an emotionally taxing day.

On Monday, we were scheduled to meet with the counselor to do the "match meeting." We picked up Caleb's birthmother again and took her with us to the meeting. The meeting went well and there didn't appear to be any "points of contention." She did request help with some clothing and we discussed that with our counselor. After the meeting, we took her shopping for some clothes, got her something to eat and then dropped her back off, since we had a VERY early flight the next morning.

At that point, all we could do was WAIT!

E-Meals: Free 1 Year Dinner Meal Plan Subscription for Bloggers

2013-01-18T21:53:00.001-06:00

Are you a blogger?

Do you need help planning your meals like I do?

Then eMeals may be just what you are looking for. I first heard about eMeals when Tony and I went through Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University. I tried it out, but things were pretty chaotic in our lives and I just never really took the time to look at it very closely and cancelled my account.

I have always wanted to be a meal planner. In fact, I have so many recipes that I think I get overwhelmed at the thought of sitting down and figuring out a plan, that I am basically paralyzed and do nothing. The kids have so many appointments that there are many days that I run "quickly" into the store to pick up "a few" things for dinner that night. I know that costs us a lot more money in the long run and I want to be a much better steward of our grocery budget. Plus we've gone back to eating out more than in the past just because with the stress of everything that we have been going through with Cassidy in the residential treatment center lately, I have just either had no motivation to cook or have been too tired or the boys have had too many appointments in the day that we would be eating late at night. And with Caleb, we need to have a pretty set dinner time, which we try to do within 15 to 30 minutes to Tony getting home from work.

A couple of weeks ago, I saw a Facebook post to a blog about the eMeals Blogger Network, which offered an annual subscription for bloggers. I figured this was the time for me to give it a try once more.

With eMeals, you can select from a number of different meals plans. You can choose from Classic Meals, Clean Eating, Simple Gourmet, Paleo, Low Carb, Low Fat, Portion Control, Natural & Organic, Vegetgarian, Gluten Free, Lunch Plan, and a Breakfast Plan.

Each week you will receive a menu plan as well as a grocery list, which can be coordinated with a specific store -- ALDI, Kroger, Plublix, Ralphs, Safeway, Target, Walmart, Whole Foods, and a general store option -- so that you get ultimate savings on your menus.

So, if you are a blogger and want to become a part of the blogger network, you can go http://blog.emeals.com/blogger-signup/ and sign up. If you would do me the favor of putting my name in the "How did you hear about us?," I would appreciate it.

If you do not have a blog, but want to give eMeals a try, you can sign up by clicking on any of the following links:

They have quarterly plans, semiannual annual plans that you can choose from. Take a look and let me know what you think.

Disclaimer: Links provided in this blog are affiliate links. If you sign up through this link, I will receive compensation. I would be greatly appreciative if you did sign up!! Thank you.

New Post

2013-01-18T19:37:00.003-06:00

I just posted an update on my private blog!

Book Review: "Vanished" by Irene Hannon

2013-01-06T20:21:00.000-06:00

In December I received an e-mail notifying me of another Revell Books blog tour. When I opened the e-mail, I was thrilled to see that it was Irene Hannon's most recent release, "Vanished." Since I read, "Lethal Legacy" back in August as part of Revell's blog tour, I have read many books by Irene Hannon and was anxiously awaiting the arrival of this new book and new series. To say I was not disappointed would not do it justice! This book was AMAZING!!!!!

From the first few pages, the mystery and suspense pulls you in and grabs you to the point that you do not want to put the book down until you get to the very last page. Even though the mystery was revealed near the middle of the book; there was a lot of questions surrounding how how that fact was going to be proven. And to say too much more about the book would give too much away. So all I'm going to say is read this book!!!! I will, however, share with you the description from the back of the book:

Reporter Moira Harrison is lost. In the dark. In a thunderstorm. When a long figure suddenly appears in the beam of her headlights, Moria slams on her brakes -- but it's too late. She feel the solid thump against the side of her car before crashing into a tree on the far side of the road.

A man opens her door, tells her he saw everything, and promises to call 911. Then the world fades to black. When she comes to, she is alone. No man. No 911. No injured person. But she can't forget the look of terror she saw on that face in the instant before her headlights swung away. And she can't get anyone to believe her story -- except maybe a handsome ex-homicide detective turned private eye, who reluctantly agrees to take on the case.

As clues begin to surface, it becomes obvious that someone doesn't want this mystery solved -- and will stop at nothing to protect a shocking secret.

If you go to Irene Hannon's Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Irene-Hannon/426433004084567?ref=ts&fref=ts) there is a trailer for the book. You can also follow Irene Hannon on twitter @IreneHannon.

I am looking forward to the next book in the series coming out in October!

I received this book in exchange for a truthful review on my blog. My thoughts are my own and were not influenced by Revell Books.

You can get this book at your local bookstore or on Amazon.com.

Caleb's Adoption Journey: The Beginning: January 4, 2002

2013-01-05T10:30:00.000-06:00

As I was sitting at Caleb's bedside at the hospital yesterday, out of the blue it hit me the true significance January 4th held for our family. January 4, 2002 was the day that we had our first contact in our adoption journey with respect to Caleb.

You see, we had been waiting a LONG time, had walked a very long and very difficult, heart-wrenching, and most importantly, God-ordained journey to get to this point.

Our adoption journey actually officially began in March of 2000 when we went to an informational meeting for an adoption agency. After the meeting, we truly felt this was the plan and the process to build our family, so we jumped in with both sets of our feet. We completed the necessary paperwork; we read the necessary books; we had the necessary home study visits; and most importantly we began working on our Dear Birthmother letter.

I then took a trip to visit my parents and saw a friend and was filling her in our adoption plan. She then told me about a young lady that we had known from our church who was pregnant and was interested in placing her baby for adoption. She asked if she could provide her with my information. I told her, "Of course!"

Trying very hard not to get my hopes up, I went home and went back to work and continued getting things accomplished on the adoption checklist.

To make a long story much shorter, that situation did not lead to a placement, but led to a lot of heartache and ultimately led to Tony spending 15 days in the hospital -- including three in ICU and being intubated overnight -- after having a four-hour MAJOR surgery. I knew that there was no way that I could have taken care of a newborn, taken care of my husband, myself, our home and continued working. But darn it all, I was so confused!

Due to Tony being so sick, we never were able to grieve the loss of that little baby that we held and cared for for almost two weeks until months later. When we finally did, we got back into the adoption process, working on our Dear Birthmother letter again. There were lots of phone calls, meetings, discussions, disagreements, frustrations with the adoption agency, as well as many tears over that letter. Until finally we had our approval and were able to get the required number of copies that the agency needed.

And then we waited. And waited. AND waited. AND WAITED. (I was not a very patient waiter.)

We began talking and wondering if this really was what God had planned for us. We talked about medical intervention, which we had never done, and sought counsel from some wonderful and dear friends. I talked to my doctor and he referred me to another doctor. We scheduled the appointment and they almost "guaranteed" that they could help us.

We (well, I should clarify that "we"' to be an "I") were almost desperate enough that we believed them and were ready to jump in with both feet without looking. Outside of October/November 2000, there were some of the worst five months of my life at that point.

I do not remember the exact day, but one day in November 2001, I called my doctor and told them I was done. I couldn't go through any more treatments. The nurse assured me there were more things they could do -- much more invasive, mind you -- and I just said no, I'm done. I couldn't go through any more heartache. Not even an hour later, my phone at work rang. I answered it and it was our adoption agency. The agency had received a phone call from a birthmom who had given birth at home, had been taken to the hospital, had no insurance and wanted to place her child for adoption. They wanted to know if we were interested in having our profile presented with about five other families who had been waiting as long as we had. I called Tony to get his thoughts, he said to go ahead, called the agency back and then waited. I truly felt this was God telling me that we had made the right decision to forgo any other medical intervention and that adoption was the plan for our family. I had a peace that I had never felt before.

Obviously, that was not God's answer for our family, but we were okay with it.

Then we started talking about whether we should think about international adoptions, but then that led us back full circle to our current agency. Tony and I decided if we were willing to go the international route, we should be willing to open our preferences with our current agency, where we had already completed all of the necessary paperwork, paid all of the required fees, and had spent so much time and energy over the last year. Around the first part of December, we completed a new "preferences" profile page and sent it to our agency.

Things were so busy with the holidays that we didn't have much time to just "sit and wait." Then came the snow storm of January 2002. January 4, 2002, we were snowed in. Granted Raleigh had only received four inches of snow, but an inch of snow closed down the city!!! They were just not equipped to deal with snow. We spent the day at home and that evening we were doing something on the internet. At the time we had the slow dial-up!!! We were on the internet for hours! I can't even remember what we were doing. I can visualize the picture of us sitting in our living room with the computer on our living room floor. I am not sure why we were in there and not in the office! When we got off, it was well after 9:00 p.m. And, guess what, we had a message!

I checked the message and was shocked when I heard it was from our adoption agency. I immediately got off the phone and tried calling, but even though they called from the California office, could not get anyone except for the 24-hour birthmother line. And because it wasn't an emergency, they wouldn't call any one for us. So we had to wait.

Saturday morning, we received a call from some dear friends that had come up from Florida for a wedding that weekend. We ventured out to meet them and learned about a small church, which turned out to be a church where we met some wonderful people and who were there to support us and pray for us during the next a year and a half.

Monday morning as soon as our local office opened I called and talked to the staff there, but they had no idea what the call would have been about. I would have to wait until after Noon to call the California office. I'll tell you what, that was the longest morning at work that I had had in a very long time.

When I was finally able to call, I learned that they had a birthmother, who was due the end of February, and they wanted to know if we were interested in having our profile sent. I told her yes, since Tony and I had talked a lot over the weekend about the possibilities. I was told that they would be sending our profile as well as one other one to her by overnight mail that day. And so there was much more waiting!

Tuesday was a normal workday and that evening we were going about our normal activities when the phone rang. I answered it and it turned out to be Caleb's birthmother. She had chosen us! I was in absolute shock. We talked for a while on the phone, learning about her situation, answering questions about us, back and forth.

Wednesday I called and talked to our counselor at the agency in California and we began making plans to fly out to meet her less than three weeks later.

And the rest, as they say in the movies, is history! I will write more over the next couple of months regarding our meeting with Caleb's birthmother as well as when we got "the call" that he had arrived and our trip out to pick him up.

What a Start to 2013!

2013-01-04T13:49:00.002-06:00

What a start to 2013 this week has been! The crazy week actually started on New Year's Eve and it hasn't let up.

Monday afternoon, I was piddling around the house and had started the dishwasher. I had gone into the boys' bathroom because Caleb had fallen asleep in our bed while I was trying to take a nap and he was watching a movie. All of a sudden, I heard our security system chiming, like someone was opening a door, but I knew it was not time for Tony to be home from work yet. I checked the panel and it was saying it was one of the downstairs sensors. When I went downstairs, I saw water dripping from the sensor and a light and then I heard the running water. I tried to run back upstairs; however, that is quite difficult when you are holding a 35-pound chunk of two year/almost-three year old squirming child!

I ran to the bathroom and there was water coming out of the toilet. I knew enough to turn of the water to the toilet and grabbed towels and started sopping up the water. I called Tony at work and told him what was going on and asked him what to do. He told me to check with my neighbors. Well, the only two neighbors that we actually know that I felt comfortable asking for help were not home. I started calling our small group and all of the guys were at work.

Tony got a hold of one of his friends and he came over and a friend of ours came over with her father-in-law. We spent a good portion of the evening getting things cleaned up. Thankfully, the carpet in the basement didn't get super wet. Tony went and got a fan and put it in the open space between the floors to try and dry out what was standing on the basement ceiling. Being New Year's Eve night; however, Lowe's closed at 6:00. I ran to Wal-Mart to try and find a dehumidifier. No such luck. Decided to try Menards. Thankfully, they were open until 8:00 p.m. I asked at the front desk and they told me to go to aisle 44 and they would be right there. Well, guess what, I could not find an aisle 44! I walked pretty much all over that store and finally found another employee and he told me where they were at. Lo and behold they had them right next to the stoves and range tops, because that's a logical place for them, right? Well, anyway, I picked us up dinner and got back home. I was so exhausted by the time I got the boys in bed, I couldn't move!

Tuesday was a fairly uneventful day. We stayed home and watched football all day. Didn't even get out of our jammies, which felt good. I took down our Christmas tree and went through a bunch of boxes and got things ready to donate.

Wednesday, Caleb went back to school and Steven had speech in the morning. I then had some other errands I needed to run. Tony had checked and we still had a lot of standing water. We decided we needed to call the professionals to help us as well as our insurance agent (which I had already called him on Monday). So in comes two guys bringing six or seven fans and three dehumidifiers. And they told me this was a "small" job. I really would have hated to have had a BIG job! They sprayed some stuff so that we wouldn't get mold and/or mildew. They tested the carpet and thankfully that was dry, but our carpet padding was going to need to be replaced. They ripped up the linoleum in the boys' bathroom, which we'll have to get replaced. They are going to clean out our air ducts to make sure that we do not get mold or mildew growing in there.

Tony went back to work Wednesday as well and had to teach Wednesday night, so he didn't get home until late. He came home and put down the garage door. I didn't hear anything, but he was looking in the garage like he had heard something, but then seemed satisfied that everything was okay. Well, Thursday morning when he tried to leave for work, the garage door would not open. Sure enough, one of the springs on our garage door had split in two! So we had to manually lift the garage door. I had to hold the door up while Tony backed both vans out of the garage. And that door is HEAVY!!!!!! So I had to call and the garage door people to come and fix that. Thankfully, they were able to come out Thursday afternoon and get us fixed relatively quickly. The door has two springs, so we went ahead and replaced both springs, not knowing when the second one might decide to pop as well. With the way things had been going it would have been just our luck that we would have just replaced the one spring and that very night or the next night the second spring would have given way. It just seemed quite logical to do them both and only pay ONE labor charge!

On Wednesday we received a copy of the actual screening report written regarding Cassidy. I read it Wednesday evening and was FIT. TO. BE. TIED!!!!!! There was so much written in there that was taken way out of context and misinterpreted that I am furious. I have spoken with Cassidy's case manager and therapist about it and they both agree with me, as they both heard what I was saying, but what was written was not close to be representative of that. Her therapist is even going to see if there is a way they can get some of that removed from the report. Because, in her words, "that language is very defamatory" to me.

So yesterday was a pretty emotional day dealing with the report I had received from the screener and then dealing with all of the mess of the flooding and the garage door. I then had a family therapy session with Cassidy, which was interesting, so there was no time for a nap. And we needed to keep Caleb up as late as possible because today he had to have an EEG to make sure his seizure medication is working. I was sooooo tired before it even became time for bed. I ended up not taking my night meds until just before 2 a.m. because I knew if I did there was no way I'd be able to stay awake. So right now, I am typing this on four hours of sleep -- so hopefully it makes sense!!!!!

Caleb's EEG has now been completed and I am waiting for him to wake up.

Doesn't he look so peaceful and innocent sleeping there?!?!?!?!

As I was sitting here waiting for pictures to upload to an app on my phone, it hit me that eleven years ago this weekend we received a call from our agency that ultimately led us to Caleb's birthmother and Caleb coming into our lives. I think that will have to be another blog post in and of itself!

But this first few days of 2013 have sure been a roller coaster!

Cassandra

Christmas 2012

2012-12-26T21:33:00.003-06:00

Well, Christmas 2012 has come and gone. I have to admit, this year I just was not really in the Christmas spirit this year. I tried, I really did. However, no matter what I did, I just could not get into the Christmas spirit.

I do not think that I have completely gotten over the stress of having to admit Cassidy to the treatment center. I know having all of the appointments that we have had since the beginning of November has not helped either. It seems like I have been on the go constantly running from one appointment to another since the first of November. Those appointments included Caleb's neuropsychological testing over a period of four days, neurologist appointment, psychiatrist appointment, dentist appointment, lab work; Steven had testing at the public school for two days, his IEP meeting, occupational therapy, speech therapy; and had multiple phone calls regarding Cassidy. And I was just plain worn out.

I managed to get the large tree put up, but it took me over a week to get the ornaments put on it. I didn't get the small tree that we keep upstairs on the fireplace put up until the week before Christmas. I never even got the ornaments put on it. (That tree is Tony's Star Trek themed tree. We put all of his Hallmark Star Trek ornaments on it.)

I didn't even wrap one present until Friday night and that was because I had to get Cassidy's presents wrapped because we were going to visit her on Saturday.

I was very nervous about this visit. We were planning on taking her out to lunch, which would be the first time since she was admitted. I was so afraid that she was going to try and run off on us. Thankfully she didn't. We had a fairly good visit until the end when she refused to stop and listen to something that I wanted to tell her. Then things went down hill pretty quickly. We took her back to the cottage, but not before she yelled at me that she hates me. Her therapist was there when we got back to the cottage and she was trying to talk to her, but she was having nothing to do with it. It was interesting that she was trying to get every single staff member to side with her on an issue, but it was making her even madder because they were agreeing with me.

It turns out that I was so out of it, that I filed to wrap four presents for Steven and one present for Caleb. Steven didn't even notice, because we had a very difficult time getting him to open his presents anyways. Since his birthday is in a month I'll just save those items for his birthday. Caleb was thrilled with the items that he got for Christmas that this other item will wait for his birthday as well.

Even though I wasn't always in the Christmas spirit, I am extremely grateful for the true reason for the season, JESUS!

De-Ja-Vu

2012-12-12T11:05:00.000-06:00

I am feeling a little bit of de-ja-vu going on. Last year, December 16th, 2011, I was sitting in Wesley Medical Center's pediatric sedation unit as my little one was given some medicine to help him take a nap so that he could have an MRI to rule out tumors that would be causing his head banging and his extreme irritability. That was a very long and stressful day waiting to get that procedure done and wondering if we were going to be able to be discharged from the sedation unit in time to make it to his neurologist appointment at 4:00 p.m. to get the results of the MRI so that we would not have to wait the entire weekend for the results. Thankfully, we were able to Praise God that the MRI was clear and there were no tumors.

Now, here I sit on December 12, 2012, in Wesley Medical Center's pediatric sedation unit. They have moved from the sixth floor of tower four to the second floor, but not much else has changed. It's still the same nurses and the same views and it is still extremely traumatizing for my little guy.

They tried giving him some medication to help calm him down prior to the IV insertion; however, for some reason, it did not perform as intended today. When it came time for the IV insertion, he was not having any of it. It took a VERY long time and TWO different sticks to get the IV in and then it took two doses of the sedation for him to fall asleep.

It's now 11:00 and the audiologist just came out and said that she was finished and that there is no hearing loss, which is good news. But that does not explain why he has failed so many hearing tests. So we will wait and see what the doctor wants to do when we see him next week.

And lucky me, I get to come back here in three weeks for Caleb to have a sedated EEG on the 4th of January. Oh, the joys! I can almost guarantee that that is going to be so much worse than what I went through with Steven today!

Caleb's Neuropsychological Evaluation Take 2

2012-12-11T21:03:00.000-06:00

After Caleb's neuropsychological evaluation in 2009 where we received the Childhood Disintegrative Disorder diagnosis, we were referred to a developmental pediatrician and a geneticist. Between the two of them (as well as Caleb's neurologist and pediatrician), Caleb has had every genetics test that is currently available on the market ran on him and they have all come back negative.

We were scheduled to see the Geneticist again this fall and had that appointment in October. We talked about how things were with Caleb. I mentioned to him that we were seeing problems with Caleb's short-term memory. He can have completed a task and five minutes later if we attempt to talk to him about it, he doesn't remember. It was getting quite concerning for Tony and I and frustrating for all three of us.

One thing that the geneticist asked is that we redo his neuropsychological evaluation to see where things stand on that front so that he can have a concrete evaluation to compare to the previous evaluation.

I respect the doctor that did the evaluation and know that we got an accurate and thorough evaluation done. Knowing what we had known previously, doesn't make reading the age and grade equivalencies any easier this time around.

I have forwarded this report to the geneticist and am waiting to hear from him and/or the genetics counselor to hear their thoughts.

Here are the results. The first set of results are from the 2009 report, which I had written about here. I will put this year's results in red so that it will be easily discernible from the previous test scores.

This is some of the testing results:

IQ is 59, which he is <1 sup="sup">st

percentile. IQ is 54, which is extremely impaired and <1st br="br" percentile.="percentile.">

Verbal comprehension index score is 69, which is in the 2^nd percentile. Verbal comprehension index score is 57, which is <1st br="br" percentile.="percentile.">

Perceptual Reasoning Index Score is 75, 5^th percentile. Perceptual reasoning index score of 67 ,1st percentile

Processing Speed Index of 50, <1 sup="sup">st

percentile. Processing speed index score of 50, <1st font="font" percentile.="percentile.">

Reading – 2^nd percentile. <1st 1:7.="1:7." equivalent="equivalent" font="font" grade="grade" nbsp="nbsp" percentile.="percentile.">

Reading Comprehension <1 sup="sup">st

percentile. <1st 1:4.="1:4." equivalent="equivalent" font="font" grade="grade" nbsp="nbsp" percentile.="percentile.">

Math – 1^st percentile. 1st percentile. Grade equivalent 3:2 for Numerical operations and 2:1 for Math Reasoning.

Written language – 27^th percentile. <1st class="goog-spellcheck-word" equivalent="equivalent" grade="grade" nbsp="nbsp" percentile.="percentile." span="span" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;">PreK5:5.

Oral language – <1 sup="sup">st

percentile. 1st percentile. Grade equivalent 1:1 for Listening Comprehension and 1:4 for Oral Expression.

The doctor did an adaptive behavior evaluation to go along with the IQ testing to get the full picture of Caleb’s IQ for the MR diagnosis. The following is what was so hard to read.

Communication – impaired – 1^st percentile. <1st font="font" percentile.="percentile.">

Receptive communication – age equivalent 1 year, 6 months. age equivalent 1 year, 5 months.

Expressive communication – age equivalent 2 years, 10 months. age equivalent 2 years, 9 months.

Written communication – age equivalent 5 years, 1 month. age equivalent 6 years, 6 months.

Daily Living Skills – impaired – 1^st percentile. <1st font="font" percentile.="percentile.">

Personal daily living sills – age equivalent 2 years, 9 months. age equivalent 2 years, 7 months.

Domestic daily living skills – age equivalent 1 year, 10 months. age equivalent 1 year, 2 months.

Community daily living skills – age equivalent 3 years, 1 month. age equivalent 3 years, 6 months.

Socialization – impaired - <1 sup="sup">st

percentile. <1st font="font" percentile.="percentile.">

Interpersonal Relationships – age equivalent 6 months. age equivalent 11 months.

Play and Leisure Time – age equivalent 6 month. age equivalent 4 months.

Coping Skills – age equivalent 10 months. age equivalent <1 font="font" month.="month.">

The only part of Caleb's original diagnosis from 2009 that has changed is Dr. Patton has modified Caleb's Mild Mental Retardation diagnosis to Moderate Mental Retardation.

Dr. Patton doesn't think we need to redo the evaluation until Caleb is 17 as we prepare for guardianship and adulthood for Caleb.

Book Review "Debt Proof Your Christmas" by Mary Hunt

2012-12-05T15:24:00.001-06:00

I received another book from Revell Books to review. This time it is related to Christmas and gives numerous tips on how to stay away from overspending by using "plastic" or credit cards on Christmas gifts.

Here is Mary Hunt's biography:

Mary Hunt is an award-winning and bestselling author, syndicated columnist and sought-after motivational speaker who created a global platform that is making strides to help men and women battle the epidemic impact of consumer debt. She is founder and publisher of the interactive website Debt-Proof Living, which features financial tools, resources and information for her online members. Her books have sold more than a million copies and her daily newspaper column is nationally syndicated through Creators Syndicate and is enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of Everyday Cheapskate readers. Hunt speaks widely on personal finance and has appeared on shows such as Good Morning America, Oprah, Dr. Phil and Focus on the Family. She and her husband live in California.

Ms. Hunt tells stories of her prior Christmas' where she has overspent by using credit cards and how she felt at the time the credit card bills started rolling in.

This was a very easy read book. I was able to read the first half of the book on the drive home from visiting Cassidy at the treatment center, which is a three hour drive. The last half of the book, Ms. Hunt provides a lot of recipes in chapters entitled as follows, "Gifts from the Kitchen," "Gifts in a Jar," and "Gifts from the Garden." Ms. Hunt also provides a lot of ideas for "Family Gifts," "Traditions Are the Glue That Holds Us Together," "More Gift Ideas," "Wrap It Up," "Dressing the House," "Holiday Entertaining," and "Family Fun."

The biggest thing that I got out of this book, is what Ms. Hunt calls "Developing a Plan." This is something I never really thought about doing for Christmas. But the first paragraph of the chapter sums it up for me and I want to share it with you.

You probably would not add a family room to your home without a blueprint, knit a sweater without a pattern, or head off on a cross-country vacation without a map. But when it comes to preparing for Christmas, most of us hit the ground running the day after Thanksgiving -- without a blueprint, pattern, or map. We get caught up in all the emotion of the season, and before we know it, we're taking Christmas three stairs at a time.

To make your plan, Ms. Hunt describes the following steps in detail:

Put your plan in writing.
State your purpose.
Use the calendar.
Plan according to your values.
Ask questions.
Include holiday spending plan.
Use the envelope system.
Enjoy the fringe benefits of cash spending.

Ms. Hunt also uses personal stories from some of her readers about their Christmas memories and/or traditions.

I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to keep their spending under control during the Christmas holiday and place their focus on the real meaning of the season -- JESUS!

I was provided a free copy of this book for a truthful review. In no way has my opinion been swayed by receipt of this book. No other compensation has been received.

This book is available at your local bookstore and/or online retailer.

November, November, the never ending November

2012-11-29T22:21:00.002-06:00

This month seems like it was never going to come to an end. It started with me looking at having more than 30 appointments, meetings, conference calls, therapy sessions, and testing sessions on top of all of the normal day to day activities that need to be done, like cooking, cleaning, dishes and laundry. I knew I was going to be run down by the time the end of the month rolled around. And the end of the month sure did seem to take FOREVER to get here.

Here I sit on November 29th and have one more day to get through and it's a doozie of a day. Tomorrow morning we go and receive Caleb's neuropscyh evaluation report. This was the testing that we did three years ago, that gave us such an accurate picture of our Munchkin and has enabled us to get much more assistance with respect to his care. For that we are very, VERY grateful. We hope to learn that things have pretty much leveled off with Caleb and no more regression has happened, although we see some things where we believe there has been. But this doctor is very knowledgeable, thorough and I know, without a doubt, that the results that we receive tomorrow will be accurate and the doctor will have put in a lot of time and thought and looked very close at all of the data. I shared with him my concerns about Caleb's short-term memory (or lack thereof) and am anxious to see what he has to say about that. Once we get this report, I will send it to the Genetics Counselor, who will then send it to the Geneticist we have been working with for their review and to see if there is anything they want to proceed with.

I had a lengthy telephone conference to review Cassidy's treatment plan this afternoon. They believe that some small baby steps have been made in her behaviors. I know it is not something that is going to change overnight. I am just hopeful that with the changes that the State is making in the medicare system, she can continue with her treatment as long as necessary.

Steven has had two days of testing this week at the public school for his IEP comprehensive evaluation. It was so hard leaving him at school that first day. He had never been there, didn't know anyone and I just had to drop him off and leave him for three hours. I know the school psychologist and the OT that he was going to be working with, as they were both there when Caleb and Cassidy were in the same preschool. Poor little guy screamed when I left that day. He did much better about me leaving the second day. We meet on the 14th of December to determine what type of special education services he will receive. I will be very surprised if he does not qualify for four days a week of preschool. We are planning on keeping him at our church's Kids Day Inn program, which is a mom's day out program one day a week, as that keeps him in the community and he enjoys it and is doing well.

So that's been our month. I'm hoping December is not nearly as busy as November!!! I seriously need a vacation!!!!!

Book Review: "Placebo" by Steven James

2012-11-09T20:58:00.001-06:00

I received another suspense fiction book from Revell Books to review. This time it was "Placebo" by Steven James. This is the description from the book:

Placebo introduces us to magician and escape artist, Jevin Banks. Still reeling after losing his wife and twin sons, he refocuses his talent to uncover the truth in an exposé filmmaking project. Struggling to wake up from a nightmare he can’t escape, Jevin works undercover investigating a controversial program that explores direct mind-to-mind communication. He finds himself in the crosshairs of one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies and a killer who will do anything and dispose of anyone who gets in his way. The truth must be uncovered before the brilliant killer makes Jevin his next victim and countless others pay the price with their lives.

I finished the book today and have to say it was just okay. It jumped around a lot and there were actually times where I wasn't actually sure who it was actually that section was about. It could also be that I have just been absolutely exhausted since there have been a lot of appointments for the kids lately.

I thought the book was good enough that I will definitely give the author another chance by reading another one of his books when I do not have the pressure to get it done for a review, as well as have a little less stress - which who knows when that is going to happen!

Revell Books provided me with a copy of this book for an honest review. My thoughts have in no way been influenced.

If you like suspense fiction, I would say it would be worth it to give it a read.