My Boys

I haven't really got much to say but wanted to share these photos of the boys that i got over the weekend...love the one of Steven on the lazy boy, this is his cheeky sort of smile he give at the moment when asked to smile for the camera. And the one of the boys was Steven being silly but it was nice to capture them together and happy.

WELL DONE STEVEN

One very proud mum here and one proud boy of himself too....

YAY its Friday, boys have gone to their dads early today. We are getting back into the habit of walking to and from school which is good the boys enjoy walking as do but I need more motivation than what they do and it only has to be a bit cold to put me off walking. Have a friend coming over for a scrapbooking night tonight...will be good to have a scrapbook catch up as we haven't had one for some time now.

Steven seems to be more on track again at school and doing his work with the help of the computer....love his teacher at the moment and she does such a great job with finding ways to get him to do his work when he is stubborn and doesnt want to do anything. I also think Steven was happy to have Liam back at school today, Liam not so happy to be back after having 3 days off already I'm sure he would have happily stayed home for the rest of the week. I gave Steven on of the Wheres wally books yesterday because he is doing well at school and doing his homework not just at home but at his dads house as well which is great. YAY for the sun to be shining, got some washing dried on the line which is always nice...goodbye winter, hello spring.

PS. Just to edit yesterdays post...being a mum i just automatically thing all females are mums which is not true...so I edit to all women need to treat themselves...thank you every one for all your lovely comments they mean alot to me.

Im Back.....

So I haven't been around much....there has been alot happening and alot not that great and I don't want this blog to be negative so decided to just not post. But I'm feeling better today, had our monthly Autism meeting which was great. I get such a great feeling being in a room full of mothers\grandparents/support people who understand what its like living with autism as part of your daily life. Every time i go along with this list of things in my head that I want to talk about and mention the good and the bad just to get it of my chest and hopefully get some answers as to how to get help to get through the bad parts....but then i start talking and then next thing you know the tears come flowing out, LOL.....and i say hardly any of what i wanted to say...but its good to know I'm with others that are understanding....and when I'm tired and feeling down I'm more emotional and tears come more often, here's hoping for more talking at the next meeting. I found this book-Making Peace With Autism of trade me so have got stuck into reading this and really enjoying it.

With Stevens birthday just around the corner I have been on the hunt for some presents for him and found these Wheres Wally books.

Cant remember if i have posted about the wheres wally puzzle I got of trade me(I love trade me so much such a great place to find bargins) ski slopes wheres wally now lives on our coffee table. And I must say Steven is getter faster and faster at putting this together but doesn't want it put away completely.

And when i got back from my autism meeting nothing like a parcel sitting on the front door step to give me a lift and look what was inside.....

A treat for me from me...as mothers we are allowed to treat ourselves ah????LOL...good glad you all say YES.
And to finish off a couple of layout that I have done...this first one i did just for the sake of creating a layout for Stevens album...it wasn't a challenge or sketch it was done just because I wanted to,LOL. Since doing this layout Steven has lost another tooth, just last night he was mucking around at bed time and said to me'I just need to do something in the bathroom okay mum' so off he went and I could see him looking in the mirror wiggling his tooth madly trying to get it out....about 10 minutes later he comes our and says'look my tooth just popped out' followed with'im so glad I will get another $2'. So the tooth fairy did come but between Steven going to sleep and the tooth fairy going to get the tooth the tooth is yet to be found as Steven took it out of the bag and has misplaced it somewhere( I hope he didn't swallow it or anything like that).

This was a challenge for over at the Sketch Book...I really do love how this layout came together. The challenge was to use pattern paper with dots/circles and to use circle embellishments. And what better photos to use than the ones of Steven spinning the wheels on this bath toys, one of his many addictions.

Had good talk with Steven teacher and he is doing so well at school, and she did some maths worksheets with him the other day and is quite amazed at what he is doing. he loves his times tables but is also great at most maths and is adding BIG numbers together in his head and giving answers...he really does amaze me some days. Liam has been off school all of this week and today on the way to school Steven just started to cry and when i asked him what was wrong he said he missed playing with Liam at school...aww he so sweet. Liam will be back at school tomorrow so it will be interesting to see if they play together or not. So there we are all updated.....see you all again in a few weeks, just kidding I will try and get back into blogging more often again and also commenting on every ones blogs.

Whoo Hoot Wednesday

Another Wednesday rolls around.....the week seems to have gone quite fast and yet some days very slow. Thank you to everyone for their loving comments and thoughts for my friend and her family. Well my list is small this week and much the same as last week and I'm very very grateful for close friends who have endless support and of course for family.

Yesterday was not a good day and Steven ended up staying over night at his carer support persons place again. Not sure what is going on with him at the moment but things aren't good. He was good for her and we all got the time out we needed and today is another day....I didn't see him at school this morning as I normally will go and say hello to him when he stay away for the night, but I'm hoping he had a good day at school. He is back to his not doing any school work during school time and no homework and its so frustrating know that he is more than able to do it but he wont tell me or his teacher whats upsetting him and why he wont do it. on the plus side he is one of the top students for his times tables and that's great(he will be out smarting his mother in no time,LOL) and we have managed to get him to take care of all his belongings after school and pack away in his bag(as I type this I feel like I have typed it before so if I'm repeating myself I'm sorry...I may have already said this in an earlier post). As far as the school work goes i feel like we take one step forwards and then two steps back....very frustrating.

YAY for Liam who is happy for me to be leaving him at school by himself before the bell goes.....what a mission this has been and trying to encourage him to go and play with his friends. After a couple of weeks of tears most mornings when the bell went and i said i was going home now as long as he get to show me around his class, give me hug and kiss he's happy....YAY

Also big Congratulations to Janine and the birth of moo2 on the 8-8-08....now hows that for an easy birth date to remember. Big hugs to you and your family Janine

Creative weekend

So I have had a very creative weekend and got two challenges done...and not just a 12x12 layout challenge these were both off the page creations that I must say I'm very happy with the end results. Both challenges are from The Sketch Book.....this first one was to do a layout or a mini album about your work. So I thought I would take up the challenge and did a mini album.......



For those of you that noticed I missed the word boys out of my phrase on this page but have since added it

This was the celebrity challenge for over at the sketch book, it was to do an off the page item....mum got me this Kaisercraft beyond the page xmastree hanger for my birthday so I thought I would get that done ready for this Xmas.


What a stunning day we had today once the frost had gone....i got 4 loads of washing done and hung on the line too which is great...so much easier drying sheets and towels on the line rather than the airing racks. Tomorrow the house work gets done as i didn't do much with having a creative weekend instead...but the house work isn't going anywhere is it,LOL.

YAY its Friday

Nothing that is loved
Is ever lost
No one who has touched
a life, who has brought
beauty into the world
is ever truly gone.

YAY its Friday...what a long week it has been. The boys have gone to their dads...so i can start my mission of housework now and then a night of rest with a touch of scrapbooking i think. Nothing that new to talk about really the week has been a bit unsettling. Liam has been testing his boundaries with me which has been somewhat frustrating, Steven is slowly learning to take responsibility for his belongings and taking his bag to and from class and also collecting his clothing that seems to get spread across the school during the day. The last week Liam has cried when i have told him that I'm going to go home now but the last two days he hasn't so that has been really good.

Whoo Hoot Wednesday

This Wednesday Im thankful for family and friends....my boys can be hard work at times but i love them to bits and wouldnt have it any other way...they bring me so my joy and happiness

WHY?

Sometimes its so hard to understand why things happen. People say all things happen for a reason...my friend lost her baby yesterday she was 38weeks and booked in for a c-section in just over a weeks time. I cant imagine what she is going through right now. How can life be so cruel and take such a little, sweet innocent life from such lovely people...No one should have to deal with the death of their child.....

Layouts

A layout in 15minutes was the Friday night challenge over at the sketch book this week...so this is what i came up with...also you had to use pattern paper, doodling, die cut and your own hand journalling...i don't know that i like my journalling and may change it one day,LOL.

I got this happy mail on Saturday...I won a RAK from Niella's....so a big thank you to you Niella and I will be sure to post a photo of layouts that i use these on in the near future

These two layouts are for challenges over at Stampin Scrap and I have used my owl stamps that i got as a RAK from Lynda on this first layout...they are so cute the little owls and thought they looked good on a sleeping layout...but keep an eye out for more layouts with little owls..thank you Lynda this may just be my next addiction,LOL

Bits and pieces

What a busy week it has been.....first with all this wet weather school was closed on Wednesday due to flooding....boys thought it was great and any other day i would have too but it was the day of our autism meeting and we had Jen Birch coming in to speck and I was really looking forward to that. But after talking to mum she offered to come in and look after the boys for me, so YAY thank you very much mum for that. The autism meeting had a great turn out and it was really interesting listening to Jen...to get the point of view from someone living with ASD them self. As a parent of an autistic child i find some days a lot more challenging than others...but imagine being that child, having to try and fit in to be 'normal'-whatever normal is....the amount of pressure put onto that child to fit into a world that they cant understand. Anyway it was great meeting and a big thank you to Mark and Shelley for all the work/time they put into getting everything organised for this day to run smoothly.

I have done a little bit of scrapbooking but not a great deal. This layout was done for a grils night in challenge over at Stampin Scrap....simple but love the end result.


I have lots of catching up to do which i plan to do tomrrow after a good nights sleep tonight. Also some scrapbooking to be done as well....have to keep up to date and get these things done straight away instead of delaying so what better day to start than tmorrow when Ihave a nice and quite house...hopefully the rain will have eased of a bit by then...but im guessing it will still be here tomorrow.

Published

Okay so here is the article in the paper to give more awareness about autism....its long but worth the read.....But then I would say that ah,LOL.

“So common, yet so misunderstood.”

That’s autism for you.
Franklin’s Alison Exelby should know.
Her elder son Steven was diagnosed with ‘moderate’ autism when he was three and a half. Now, at almost eight, he’s mainstreamed and doing ‘okay’ at school, but only because his teacher this year understands the condition and can accommodate his special learning needs.
Recently Alison was delighted to hear from this teacher that Steven has actually started a conversation with her and is beginning to interact with his peers.
Like many people with autism, Steven is intelligent, inquisitive and focuses intensely on what he’s doing.
Unlike many children with autism whose frustrations are reflected in their antisocial behaviour, Steven withdraws into himself when he’s confused or frustrated.
But it wasn’t always so.
Alison recalls her son’s first 18 months, before she knew there was anything ‘wrong’. “He was screaming a lot and seemed frustrated as though he knew what he wanted but couldn’t make himself understood.”
Steven’s progress started when his Playcentre recognised his condition and referred him to an early education psychology service.
“We learned that he was a visual learner. And early intervention ideas like the visuals workshops were a breath of fresh air,” reckons Alison. They had to travel to Howick where the workshops were run but the effort was hugely rewarding.
“They showed Steven a picture of food – say a banana – and then took his hand to touch a real banana. Then they taught him that if he wanted a banana to eat he needed to take the picture to me.” Alison recalls pictures blue-tacked all round the kitchen. “And it worked: Steven could communicate! Eventually he learned to say the words and we stop needing to use the visuals.”
Steven loves pictures and especially photographs of people and events he’s part of.
Alison has scrapbooked the process of Steven’s development and he loves nothing better than looking through the photo albums. “He needs to see pictures that look like the real thing,” Alison says. “I had to explain to the kindergarten teachers that there was no point drawing stick people as they meant nothing to Steven, and so they got the visuals that Steven could understand.”
While he had one-on-one support in his days at kindy Steven and his family still had to cope with the real world which seemed filled with judgmental people.
Alison says because children with autism are not ‘visually impaired’ people tend to assume their behaviour is naughtiness, or simply the result of poor parenting.
Nowadays Steven is considered too ‘normal’ to qualify for Ongoing and Reviewable Resourcing Schemes (ORRS) funding. At first Alison was delighted to hear the description – until she realised Steven now gets no extra help just because he’s so highly rated.
“The cut off point is if the child is toilet trained, can count from 1 to 100 and knows his alphabet.” Alison’s rueful: “Steven’s assessment level is too high. He can say the alphabet forwards and back, and the same, counting up to and down from 100 – but that doesn’t alter the fact it’s hard for his teacher to sometimes keep him on task; he concentrates on what he likes doing to the point of blocking out everything else (and so seems disobedient); he has limited social skills – and although he’s not naughty he has his own addictions.” Alison describes these: “He’s meticulous about re-arranging things, he makes repetitive noises which his teacher and classmates have learned to ignore, and he has a phobic hand action, a kind of lateral wave, which indicates he’s stressed.” She asks, “How can you expect a classroom teacher to coax the best out of children with special needs like Steven’s when she has 25 other children to teach too?”
Anything that breaks into Steven’s routine can cause him stress – like going to the supermarket, and even the start of school holidays heralds a change in his behaviour.
Conversely, anything tidily in its place seems to delight him. Alison has many photos of items lined up, re-arranged in diverse shapes and blended colours – all evidence of Steven’s passion for orderliness and his love of numbers and letters.
This creativity comes possibly from Alison whose scrapbooking hobby can absorb her for hours. “I’ve had so much pleasure in recording Steven’s progress,” she says, “and it gives me so much more pleasure to see how much the photos mean to him.”
These memories so lovingly recorded also serve as a reminder to Alison to value and appreciate every little thing. “They remind me that Steven’s a happy little boy most of the time and being able to watch him learning to speak has been interesting and rewarding. Steven’s taught me a lot,” she says simply.
And she suggests the general public could learn a lot too.
“Autism is so common – and so misunderstood. People who know of a child with autism are often scared of the situation and don’t know how to cope. They can so easily get books out of the library and search the internet for information, and even spend time with the parent and child to learn more.” Alison adds: “Please don’t just label the child. And don’t condemn the parents. They need more help, not criticism.”
Footnote:The Ministry of Education has a web-site resource at www.minedu.govt.nz which is designed to give an insight into some of the challenges faced by school students with autism spectrum disorder(ASD) and includes valuable links. Althought aimed at teachers this information is also useful for other people supporting children and young people with ASD, including parents. It introduces some of the characteristics of these disorders, and suggests practical strategies for support. The Ministry also provides this information at no charge in booklet form and this booklet is available from the Post newspaper at reception, 18 Bowen Street, Waiuku.

So there you have it my story...well our story. They had photos of Steven also with some of his many patterns and I was hoping they would use that photo but the used the one of me instead...never mind its not that bad a photo I guess.

With all this stormy weather this is what it has done to the little garden shed I have outside....its now in pieces with a couple of concrete blocks on it to hold it all down. Very scarey as when we were pulling it apart the wind nearly picked up a couple of the side piece and took them away but we manage to save them in time.

So lovely goodies from Scrappin patch, I just loved these little stickers when I first saw them on a layout of Hannahs and asked what they were called and then went on my search to find them...then when introduced to Scrappin Patch website I found them so they arrived along with a RAK...thank you very much lovely my goodies. If you have time pop over they have lots of great products.

And a couple of my now favourite cosmo cricket get happy goodies I got of the good old trade me

Whoo Hoot Wednesday

Well this week it would have to be that Steven wrote 14 sentences at school yesterday all by himself. For a not so keen writer this is great for Steven and he was so proud with himself telling me that he did it all by himself...WELL DONE STEVEN.

The boys have both settled back into the school routine, although Stevens sleep routine could do with a bit of work. Not much to catch up on will post some photos of my cards that I have been making tomorrow as the light is no good anymore today.

And the 2 RAK'S go to.......

I was going to get the boys to do this lucky dip for names tomorrow but being first day of school and a busy day I thought i would do it tonight.
So Liam went first and the name he pulled out of the hat was.........

....Vicki. I will PM you Vicki over at Stampin Scrap.

Then it was Stevens turn and the name he pulled out of the hat was......

...Kelly. Kelly I will leave a comment on your blog for you to email me as I see you are with wordpress.


A few photos of some of my latest creations, first is a layout I have done for the sketch book for the fortnightly challenge

A few cards that I have made over the last couple of days

Just love this butterfly one...not sure if i can part from it,LOL. I put some beads onto wire for the feelers and butterfly body.

These are the stunning cards i got back from last months card swap over at the sketch book. Great cards ladies looking forward to see what i get back this month.

And these stamps are a RAK from Lynda she did a draw and I was the lucky one who's name got drawn, so I'm going to have a play and make some cards with them...thank you very much Lynda

Bits and Pieces

Well I must say I'm glad the holidays are nearly over, I will however miss my sleep ins but with school back I'm hoping Steven will start sleeping through the night again and not get up at 3am ready to start his day. The boys have been really good these holidays and the 2 weeks have gone by quite fast.

Thank you to Roo for the happy mail you send to my boys.....Liam's face glowed when he saw there was an envelope there with his name on it. They love the stickers and have used them all already. Sorry its not the best photo, its really hard to get Steven to stand still long enough for a photo these days and the light reflection on Liam's glasses is very annoying...but its a photo of two sticker happy boys.

Over at The Sketch book it was announced that Scrappin Patch will be sponsoring the Friday night challenges for the next few months...how cool is that, thanks Scrappin Patch, what a great thing to be doing.

I have been right into card making at the moment so i have made a few cards to add to my little pile that i get form the card swap. I got my June cards swaps back from the sketch book swap and also got some cool owl stamps as a RAK prize...I will post photos later on today or tomorrow.

Well that's all from me for now off to enjoy some quite scrapbooking time, have an nice weekend before school is back on Monday.

PS...can anyone on blogspot help me out and give me a few instructions on how to add a link by typing a name or word and you click on that and it goes tot he blog or website? Janine(aka mummy moo) tried to help me out but she is with wordpress and i think its different to blogspot.....but then im just not very good with computer so it may be done the same way

Whoo Hoot Wednesday

YAY its Wednesday again...my list for this week is
Internet friends....love sending and receiving emails from all the wonderful people I have met online through blogging. hopefully one day i will get to met a few of you in person.
The holidays are nearly over(although i will miss my sleep ins when school starts again).
It has been another not too colder day today.
My story has been sent to the newspaper but not sure if it will be in this weeks or next weeks paper....anyone living in Waiuku? Its in their small local paper called the Post. Once its published I will also put the story on my blog for you all to read.
YAY for happy mail
Also gotta love that trade me for both selling and buying, got a few bargains for my self this week and sold some stuff that i have had listed forever,LOL.

Also I took up Megs challenge of sending a card via snail mail, so last week i sent a couple of cards and this week i will send a couple more. So nice to send something just because you can and to know that you have made someone smile when they receive the card(hopefully,LOL)

More calendar pages

Just a few more calendar pages that I did last night and today. Really enjoying doing these pages and they are a nice change to the standard 12x12 layouts. Loving the Cosmo Cricket-Get Happy papers and stickers too. Sorry the photos look yellow its the bad light will up load some better photos tomrrow.



Very cold today with thick fog this morning and it stayed around for some time, so have had the fire on since 12ish which has kept the house lovely and warm. Steven is away tonight so Liam and I got fish'n'chips for dinner and watched a DVD. Going to try and get another one or two calendar pages done tonight or some of the challenges I have sitting on my desk waiting for me to be inspired.

I have made a start on a my calendar for next year. normally i just print of the calendar on the computer and then do a layout for each month but this year mum got me for my birthday a KaiserCraft calendar, so i made a start on this last night since I found on trade me a calendar stamp. So here are the two i did last night. This was a photo from last Xmas out at mums on Xmas day. The other is Steven on one of our many visits to his granny grans house where she would get out this red bucket and fill it with water then with the couple of bottle caps he would fill them and water the plants....he did this till every last drop of water was gone, and then he would want another bucket full of water. But i just love this photo of him and shows his lovely curls he had and just a happy wee boy.


Liam being silly this morning with the crocodiles,LOL

What a lovely day we are having here today, the sun is out the sky is blue and its warm too. The boys and I went for a walk down the road and got some dvds out, so they are watching them at the moment. Liam wanted me to carry him home, but i told him big 5 year old have to use their own legs to walk and are to big to be carried around by their mums..to which he replied with I'm not a big boys I'm just a baby can you carry me now. Nice try Liam but its not going to happen. Hopefully the weather will stay nice and we can get some more walking in. Steven counted the crack in the path from half way up the hill to home and counted 222 cracks. It was great as it kept his mind of having to walk and it was great for his counting too he did well.
Right off to do a bit of housework and then some creating.

Your got mail.....

....for this week Liam has been out to the letterbox every morning to check what mail we had. So off he would go with the little bathroom stool and then he would coming running back in and tell me how much mail there is, and i would ask him where it was and he say oh its in the letter box should i bring it in,LOL...umm yes please Liam. So off he would go running out to get the mail. This morning i followed him out and got these photos...so watch this space for a layout to happen.

Even with a stool he needs to be on tip-toes,LOL so cute

Walking down the drive with the mail

Then he asked if i could take a photo of him holding the mail

So i took up Megs challenge and have made a couple of cards and will be posting those out to a few people tomorrow and I have really enjoyed making card.

RAK.....

...forgot to add that since I have had few little raks sent to me I thought I would pass on the kind thought to others, so to all you NZ bloggers leave a comment before the 21st of this month to go into a draw for a rak, there will be two RAK to be sent out....I will get Steven and Liam to pull a name out each from a hat.