Brain Tumor Awareness Month

    Today is the final day of Brain Tumor Awareness month. Just like last month I wanted to write a little about my family's experience with it. Most of you who know me and my family know when C-Man was 5 he was diagnosed with his first brain tumor. Six months later the tumor grew back and he had a 2nd surgery to have it removed again.
    While many know about it, not many know what got us to the day when we thought something might be wrong. I know this because it is the number one question I get asked when someone finds out that he had brain tumors. "How did you know?" I could throw a bunch of facts and percentages at you about brain tumors. But honestly I don't know all that. I just know our story. And our story may be different from another.
     For about 3 weeks he had been having some pretty serious headaches every day. Not your normal kind of headache where he says it hurts you give medicine and its over. The kind of headache that would make him drop to the floor and cry. Most of the time no medicine would touch the pain. Totally not normal for a 5 year old. He was also super clumsy. Tripping and falling a lot. He would walk at an angle so 9 times out of 10 when he was walking out a doorway he would walk into the door frame. So I took him to the Dr. and because he has pretty much year round seasonal allergies we all (including the Dr) just assumed it was that. We were probably sent home with our normal steroids and Zyrtec prescriptions.
     Then it started to happen. In just 7 days his eyes went from looking completely normal to all the way crossed inward. I took him back to the Dr. Pretty much as soon as we walked into the room the Dr noticed the eyes. So he did all sorts of tests. Following his finger, walking in a straight line, reading stuff from far away. You name it, he did it. He scheduled us for an MRI "just to be safe" and check things out. This was a Monday. The quickest appt for an MRI we could get was Wednesday morning. We went, they sedated him and took him back. We waited, and waited. They brought him out still asleep if I remember right. When he came out of sedation, wow, was he a mess. Crying like I'd never seen. We were told our family Dr would call us by the end of the day and let us know the results. So we went home to wait. Stopping on the way at Bojangles's and McDonald's for breakfast AND Lunch since Carter hadn't been allowed to eat all day. We watched cartoons, we played video games, we did anything we could to pass the time while we waited for the phone to ring. Around 3:00 the call we had been waiting for came. It was a nurse from the Dr's office asking us to come in and speak to the Dr. Clearly they tell you good news over the phone. So we got a sitter and raced over as fast as we could. The next 30 min is not something I like to relive. So I'll skip out on the details. But mainly we were told he had a mass on his brain and the next steps we needed to take, and where we needed to go.
   Within an hour we were on the road to a hospital 3 hours from home. He was admitted to the ICU right away. And the very next afternoon less than 24 hours after we had gotten the news of the brain tumor he was having a 6 hour brain surgery to have it removed. It was definitely the scariest time in mine or my husbands life. Little did we know it would be repeated 6 months later.
    Definitely not an experience I would wish on anyone. Even a scare is not something you wanna go through. And we have gone through a scare or two since. Like I said though, C-man's story and symptoms may not be the same of another kid with the same problem. But I can tell you, if it weren't for the eyes, we might have never known until it got REALLY bad. Wanna know why?



     Because this is a picture of our boy just 2 weeks before we found out he had a brain tumor.

Can you tell there's something wrong?

Yea, neither could we. 

But I am VERY happy to say he is a HEALTHY 9 year old boy now. Who has been tumor free for over 3 years. <3<3<3

What Autism looks like in our house...

     Today is the last day of Autism awareness month. I don't talk about Autism a lot outside of a little group I am in. Because, really, why would you want to talk about it all the time when you live it every. single. day. I am aware, trust me.
     Autism has its ups and its downs. It means something different for every family who experiences it. No two kids with Autism are cut from the same mold. I can ask my fellow autism mommies a question and most of the time they have very little advice cause they've never experienced that situation themselves.
   Don't get me wrong, Autism is great sometimes! If it weren't for Autism I wouldn't know so many things. Like did you know that there are around 8 or 9 different internet browsers? And my computer has had every one of those. Did you know that Ellen comes on every day at 5 pm, on channel 18, and Ellen is usually done talking and starts her dancing at 5:04. She is usually talking to her first guest by 5:18. She has many different segments and games, like Clumsy Thumbsy, know or go, kid ink, real paid for photos...and so on and so on. Also did you know that for two whole weeks at the beginning of April, Ellen only showed reruns and that way so upsetting?! No worries, she's back now with new episodes cause she had been in Australia. Another great thing, is if I wanna know the day of the week my birthday is gonna be on is the year 2015, he can tell me.
     The downsides are hard though. But they also motivate me to keep going and to try harder. Like now I am in the middle of an IEP mess with his school. I have been trying since he was first diagnosed at age 6 to get him an IEP. I am farther now than I have ever gotten before. He is in the evaluation process which he was denied before. I am drowning in paperwork too. In the end it will be worth it, but now? It's a pain. There are meltdowns, some minor, some major, that tend to get out of hand and make you question if you'll ever get the hang of this whole "Autism thing". There are weekly therapy appts, and frequent dr. visits. That can be both uplifting and discouraging.
    When I get into a corner where I just wanna cry cause I think I can't handle things anymore I have many Autism mommy friends in that corner with me who always know the right things to say to help me out. I am thankful for those friends every day. It's not a club you start out wanting to be in. But once you're in, its pretty awesome to be apart of. To share in the successes of other kids just like him is great. Its not what typical kids would achieve. But sharing that you're kid has finally made a friend that they talk about and and are excited about seeing and spending time with, having other members of this club to share it with is great.

     I made this collage up at the beginning of the month so people could see what Autism looked like in our house. For us, Autism is:

~Hating to take pictures, so you get a grumpy face or a surprised face cause you caught them on camera. 

~It's schedules, INSANELY DETAILED schedules

~It's weekly therapy appointments with more than one kid along. 

~It's unusual christmas and birthday lists. 

~It's Friday shirts.

~It's unusual requests, like one of these pictures is him with an overhead projector that he asked for, FOREVER. 

~It's quiet lonely moments, and loud chaotic moments. 

~It's hardly ever seeing the front of his face cause he is happier in front of some sort of electronic. 

~It's "It's 5:01, why isn't Ellen on TV yet?!?!?"

~It's paperwork, never ending, lengthy paperwork. 

~It can be exciting and heartbreaking all in the same day, heck, same hour. 

So, I am sure everyone is aware of Autism. It's everywhere lately. But this is just my little piece in hopes that the next time you are out in public and you see a kid screaming or fighting with his parents, throwing stuff, Whatever. Maybe instead of thinking, wow what a spoiled brat. Maybe think, there might be an issue there that is making that kid act like this in a public setting. (We had one of these issues recently, and it was a result of, he didn't want to be out of the house, people were standing too close to him, and it smelled weird in there). Its different for everyone. 

Yep, I said it.

Sometimes, Autism just sucks. Yep. I said it. We have been having quite the difficult time with C-man lately. So much so that our family dynamic is changing. It is a struggle almost every day to deal with the new an different thing autism is throwing our way. Hopefully with the help from our Dr. and his therapist help is on the way. But, for now, it just sucks :/

That's all for now!

Pizza

   We love pizza around here, its the only food that every member of the family with eat. Even picky crazypants. We usually order it, but I like to make it at home too. About a year ago my husband found one of the best goodwill finds ever. A bread machine! For $5, in perfect working condition. I've made a lot of bread in it, but my favorite thing to make is pizza dough. It makes everything so much easier. I am in constant search of the perfect pizza dough recipe, and yesterday I found it! It was easy to work with, buttery, flaky goodness. Here's where I found it!

http://www.momontimeout.com/2012/02/bread-machine-pizza-dough-recipe/

Ingredients:
2 c flour (I like to use bread flour but all purpose and even a combination of AP and wheat flour works)
1 Tbls butter, softened
1 Tbls sugar
1 tsp yeast
1 tsp salt
1/2 c plus 2 Tbls water (105-110 degrees)

Doubled (for 2 pizzas):
4 c flour
2 Tbls butter, softened
2 Tbls sugar
2 tsp yeast
2 tsp salt
1 1/3 c water (105-110 degrees)

I have a big pizza pan, I think it's like 16-18"? So I doubled the recipe and it was a perfect thickness.

Thanks to Momontimeout for this wonderful recipe!

Jinxed!

     I knew it was gonna happen. I knew I shouldn't have talked about it, but I did. Now I've jinxed myself. Potato slept through the night for 4 days in a row, some days sleeping more than 12 hours! Unheard of for him. Well I had to go talking about it and guess what? Up 4x last night. Yawwwwwn. Good thing he's cute.

Christmas!

   Of course this morning I couldn't find my camera. So all I have are a bunch of grainy ipod pictures. Doesn't matter though, they still captured what I wanted. Smiles and happiness! Really great day, and it was declared the BEST. CHRISTMAS. EVER. by both big boys.

Enjoy!

M and Potato

HILARIOUS Crazypants

C-Man and his very specific, PLAIN GREEN SWEATER he asked for that was bought for him by some really sweet and wonderful friends!

Potato's first gift unwrapping experience.

SUPER EXCITED Crazypants, he screamed with happiness for HOURS this morning!

My favorite. C-Man never has much of a reaction to gifts, never gets excited. But boy did he give us a pretty sweet gift this morning. REAL EXCITEMENT AND HAPPINESS!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Hope your day was magical!

Remembering an amazing man

   Yesterday the world lost an amazing man. But, heaven gained quite an angel. Pastor Robert Wensil was "M's" preacher since birth I think. Then mine when I joined the church at 15. He was one of the nicest, most sincere people I have ever met, funny too! I remember before M and I got married we had to go to pre-martial counseling with Robert. It was all we could do to hold back our laughter during that session. But, he also gave us amazing advice that we still remember to this day.
   He was the one who was standing at the end of the aisle the day I got saved and the day I got married. If it weren't for him my family wouldn't be what it is today. When I was pregnant with "c-man" I got kidney stones and was in the hospital for 5 days. M couldn't be there most of the time cause he had to work. I remember one day Robert came up there and sat with me for hours. We talked about the most random things that day. Carolina basketball of course, and the dumb bank robber on the news, and that crazy hair style the news lady had. I think he knew I was lonely that day cause even when there wasn't much to talk about anymore he still sat there with me. He visited us when we we're scared to death right after C-man was born and in the NICU. He called when C-Man had his brain surgeries. Even when he was in the midst of battling his leukemia he came to the hospital to see us the day Potato was born, less than 5 months ago.
  He was an amazing man, we will forever remember him to the great changes he made in our lives. He will be greatly missed!

Robert with M and I, the day we got married <3