Monday Good Reads

Oh Friday, I re-introduced you to Missy, from 4 Little Monkeys, and told you about her new special needs support blog called Parent Warriors. I did not ask her for a guest post, so instead, I'm going to help promote the official launching of her new site. She's going to be running some giveaways over the next few weeks, so you really should stop in and see what its all about. Tell your mom friends parenting those children who are a little more unique than others about Parent Warriors, and let's get some support going!

What are you waiting for? Run on over right now and check out her very first giveaway, only available for 7 days. Tweet about it so your friends hear about it. Let's get the word out!!

(PS. The blog was designed by me!!)
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And for a literary review....

What happens when you live to be 105 and no one in your family bothers to visit you? You haunt the one that needs you most....

I'm a new fan of Sophie Kinsella and after hearing a bad review of this book, I had hesitation reading it. Oh, but I loved it. I laughed all the way through it. Her descriptions are vivid and colorful, and I truly felt like I was hanging out with Lara and Sadie, who are a couple of fun chicks to hang out with!! There's romance between the ghost and a living man. There's betrayal, love, and most of all, self discovery. 

I give this tale 4 stars and recommend that if you haven't read it, you place it on your MUST READ list today.

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 On Thursday, I have my VERY FIRST PR & Giveaway for you!!! I'm so excited!! Woot Woot!!

BSOW: Monkeys, Warriors & Eye Candy

 

You've met today's Best Scoop of the Week once before during my Raising Awareness Week last Fall. She gave us a gorgeous post on Holland. This lady really rocks my socks off. I met her first through another website, as we were pregnant with our youngest sons together. Hers arrived first, a bit earlier than expected.

She is an incredibly super mom (and Supermom), caring for the special needs of 3 of her 4 sons, advocating for them for their rights to learn and receive an appropriate education, that meets their needs, no matter how different they may be. This is one tough lady I'd want in my corner (and she has been!).

In addition to playing mommy to 4 boys, 2 of which are twins, she just graduated from college with her masters in special education. Did I tell you this lady rocks?

She talks about how very special her youngest is. She's shared with her readers how embarrassing little boys can be. She's got elephants in addition to her monkeys. She's even flown to Amsterdam International and discovered the beauty of Holland. She's even got a special needs support blog she calls Parent Warriors.

I am honored to share my ice cream with Missy from 4 Little Monkeys today.




And do you know Missy even brought us a treat....or three?

When the Drama Mama asked me to write about my first celebrity crush I had to think really hard. Everyone who knows me knows that right now I have a HUGE celebrity crush on Alexander Skarsgard. Just look at him and you’ll know why!

                                  
My tastes have evolved over the years, though. Drama Mama asked me to write about my first celebrity crush so let’s go back, way back to my 13th year. You have to picture me as an awkward teenager with a bad haircut, tall and skinny, braces…exactly what most of us looked like at 13. When most girls my age were debating the finer qualities of New Kids on the Block members I was debating things with my father like who was the better baseball team, who was the better pitcher in Major League Baseball. I happen to have been a tomboy at the time and had no thought of boys.

I was what you refer to as a late bloomer that was until one day when my dad took me out of school early for a special “daddy daughter day”. We had those often where we’d go to the mall, out to eat, or watch a sporting event. When my dad pulled into a car dealership I became confused until we walked in and I saw this guy standing there.

We got his rookie baseball card autographed, a baseball autographed, and I got a picture with him. For the life of me I have no clue where that picture would be now. I had been collecting baseball cards for about a year at this point so I was thrilled. Thus started my decade-long obsession with Mike Mussina. I even accepted my first job after college in Maryland hoping to see him play (and make him Mrs. TiredMom). After he moved to the Yankees I ended up switching my celebrity crush to another fine gentlemen. He was a lady’s man and even played one in the movies, Sean Connery. When my husband and I were dating, he tried to woo me with the voice. It’s all in the voice with Mr. 007. Sadly for my husband, it didn’t work.

Who was your first celebrity crush?

Happy Friday, y'all. Enjoy the eyecandy. See ya Monday with a special GIVEAWAY!!

Are you looking for my Red Writing Entry? Click My Write Side.

Raising Awareness: Living with Special Needs Day 4

Today I am introducing you to a VERY good friend of mine. She is a Special Education teacher and Reading Specialist. She has 4 boys, ages 12, 5 year old twins and a 3 year old. Her 12 year old is gifted. One of her twins has a learning disability and his brother, they believe, has Asperger's Syndrome. Her 3 year old has a known genetic syndrome called 16p11.2 duplication, PDD_NOS, and intellectual delays. Because of his genetic syndrome, her youngest is also ASD. Needless to say, she has her hands full. Please welcome Missy of 4 Little Monkeys. She is here with a very special post today.






I’ve referenced the poem “Welcome to Holland” by Emily Perl Kingsley on my blog before

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.

But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.

and I’ve also offered it’s companion “Welcome to Beirut” by Susan F. Rzucidlo

"I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with autism-to try and help people who have not shared in that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this.."

There you are, happy in your life, one or two little ones at your feet. Life is complete and good. One of the children is a little different than the other but of course, he's like your in-laws, and you did marry into the family. It can't be all that bad. One day someone comes up from behind you and throws a black bag over your head. They start kicking you in the stomach and trying to tear your heart out. You are terrified, kicking and screaming you struggle to get away but there are too many of them, they overpower you and stuff you into a trunk of a car. Bruised and dazed, you don't know where you are. What's going to happen to you? Will you live through this? This is the day you get the diagnosis. "YOUR CHILD HAS AUTISM"!

There you are in Beirut, dropped in the middle of a war. You don't know the language and you don't know what is going on. Bombs are dropping "Life long diagnosis" and "Neurologically impaired". Bullets whiz by "refrigerator mother" " A good smack is all HE needs to straighten up". Your adrenaline races as the clock ticks away your child's chances for "recovery". You sure as heck didn't sign up for this and want out NOW! God has over estimated your abilities.

Unfortunately, there is no one to send your resignation to. You've done everything right in your life, well you tried, well, you weren't caught too often. Hey! you've never even heard of autism before. You look around and everything looks the same, but different. Your family is the same, your child is the same, but now he has a label and you have a case worker assigned to your family. She'll call you soon. You feel like a lab rat dropped into a maze.

Just as you start to get the first one figured out ( early intervention) they drop you into a larger more complex one (school). Never to be out done, there is always the medical intervention maze. That one is almost never completed.

There is always some new "miracle" drug out there. It helps some kids, will it help yours? You will find some if the greatest folks in the world are doing the same maze you are, maybe on another level but a special-ed maze just the same. Tapping into those folks is a great life line to help you get through the day. This really sucks but hey, there are still good times to be had. WARNING! You do develop and odd sense of humor. Every so often you get hit by a bullet or bomb not enough to kill you, only enough to leave a gaping wound. Your child regresses for no apparent reason, and it feels like a kick in the stomach. Some bully makes fun of your kid and your heart aches. You're excluded from activities and functions because of your child and you cry. Your other children are embarrassed to be around your disabled child and you sigh. You're insurance company refuses to provide therapies for "chronic, life long conditions" and your blood pressure goes up. Your arm aches from holding onto the phone with yet another bureaucrat or doctor or therapist who holds the power to improve or destroy the quality of your child's life with the stroke of a pen. You're exhausted because your child doesn't sleep.

And yet, hope springs eternal.

Yes there is hope. There ARE new medications. There IS research going on. There are interventions that help. Thank God for all those who fought so hard before you came along. Your child will make progress. When he speaks for the first time, maybe not until he is 8 yrs old, your heart will soar. You will know that you have experienced a miracle and you will rejoice. The smallest improvement will look like a huge leap to you. You will marvel at typical development and realize how amazing it is. You will know sorrow like few others and yet you will know joy above joy. You will meet dirty faced angels on playgrounds who are kind to your child without being told to be. There will be a few nurses and doctors who treat your child with respect and who will show you concern and love like few others. Knowing eyes will meet yours in restaurants and malls, they'll understand, they are living through similar times. For those people you will be forever grateful. Don't get me wrong. This is war and its awful. There are no discharges and when you are gone someone else will have to fight in your place.

But, there are lulls in wars, times when the bullets aren't flying and bombs aren't dropping. Flowers are seen and picked. Life long friendships are forged. You share and odd kinship with people from all walks of life. Good times are had, and because we know how bad the bad times are, the good times are even better. Life is good but your life in never normal again, but hey, what fun is normal.

I’m starting to have a new opinion on Holland and Beirut. I think of it as this; there are days I am in Italy, 

days I am in Holland,

and days I am in Beirut.

I’d like to think that my days spent in Italy are not always the typical things that everyone wants to see. I may spend part of my day in the Italian countryside, I may be hijacked and taken to Beirut…. I may relish in the fields in Holland and enjoy the scenery.

We may take our time but we will eventually be Italy again relishing in that amazing countryside and driving towards the Coliseum, Venice, and other places that everyone else looks forward to going while in Italy. We’ll be there eventually but in the meantime we’ll be enjoying the sights in Holland.

Because of the theme of the week, there will be no 2 Truths & a Lie post this week. I promise I will be back to my normal schedule next week. Please take a minute to say Hi to Missy. Thanks for hanging out Missy!

Tomorrow, I have 2 special guests for you, one in the form of a short interview with Kelly from  The Miller Mix, and a post from That One Mom at Only Parent Chronicles!! I'm so excited!