Army Heritage Days 2012

The Army Heritage and Education Center is hosting Army Heritage Days complete with live re-enactors, lectures, and presentations. We’ve gone in years past and it’s been a lot of fun for the whole family. The event runs 9am-5pm Saturday and Sunday and is free and open to the public.

Armed Forces Day - City Island 2011

Harrisburg City and Ft. Indiantown Gap will once again partner to turn City Island into a military base for the day. Exhibits open at 10am. There is also a 5K fun run/walk hosted by the YMCA that starts at 8am, May 19th. The 5K is free for military members, but there is a small fee if registering online.

Letterkenny Army Depot is also hosting their annual line up of Armed Forces Day Events. There will be a children’s fishing rodeo, golf tournament, exhibits, tours, among other things to see and do for the whole family. Letterkenny’s events start at 8am and run until 2pm.

Carlisle Barracks Running Festival 2010

Carlisle Barracks and Carlisle YMCA are hosting an Armed Forces Day Running Festival. Registration begins at 7am for the 5K for ages 14-adult (fee), and ages 4-13 will run at approximately 10am (free).

Also starting on Armed Forces Day weekend, current military members and dependents can get a free annual pass to National Parks and other public lands.

I get home, and the house is pure chaos. The kids are so unbelievably hyper. The 5 year old won’t nap. Of course he won’t nap. His Poppy is here. We have respite here, and he loves our respite care provider. He never naps for her. Someone had the bright idea to say that he can’t have his iPad if he won’t nap. He’s tired and cranky, and not having his iPad makes it worse. I was really tired and cranky as well. I made it known that whoever had the bright idea to not give him his freakin’ iPad was a dumbshit. It was only punishing everyone, and in my state, I was NOT happy about it. I didn’t have the patience. I was of the mind to just give the kid his damn iPad already. Of course no one did, and so I took my bitchy self and started to get ready.

I opened all my new makeup and brushes and applied to my face. I mourned the loss of what I had the whole time. I lamented that my blush was discontinued. Small problems I know, but really annoying right before an event.

Then I opened the Spanx I bought. The pantyhose I’d been forgetting for weeks. Except they weren’t pantyhose. I put one foot in, and it came out the other side. WTF? It seemed I had gotten a high waisted (read: tucked under my bra) to the knee model. TO THE KNEE. I had about ten minutes to get ready at this point. This is where I was thankful for a couple things. One was that my dress was full length. The other was that I keep knee highs on hand to wear with my boots in the winter. So another Lucy moment: my pieced together pantyhose.

The last part is where I put on my shoes. I had gotten some of those gel inserts where they’re supposed to keep your toes from jamming into the toes of your shoes, and the heel ones to keep the shoes from slipping off. Neither worked. My toes were severely jammed into the toes of my shoes, and the heels kept slipping off, which in turn made my shoes slip off. I just tried not to walk any more than I had to until after dinner when everyone took their shoes off and danced.

Overall, a good time was had by all, and next time, I’m going to know where my makeup is, buy pantyhose ahead of time, and get shoes that fit – not rely on the gel insert thingys.

*I learned at the event that a double strand necklace looks good in the bathroom at home, but in practical application, it kept getting caught around one boob.

Saturday we had the ROTC Dining Out. It’s the first and only time I’ve been able to go since my husband has been at this school due to not having anyone to watch the boys previous years. Needless to say, I was excited to get dressed up and enjoy an evening out among other adults. I had no idea that the hours leading up to the event would turn into my own I Love Lucy episode.

This is how I sew.

It all started Friday. I didn’t get a chance to dye my roots until Friday. I got a call while the dye was on my hair, and the dye ended up being on my hair about twice the recommended amount of time. Thankfully, it didn’t all fall out since it wasn’t exactly a call where I was going to say, “Excuse me, I need to go rinse the dye out of my hair, can I call you back later?” Then later for dinner, we ordered pizza. We figured with the car show in town, we’d better order early. We had no idea that at 4pm, it would take my husband over an hour to go get the pizza when the trip is maybe 20 minutes round trip. After dinner, I passed out on the couch about 6pm. I could’ve slept all night, but I knew I still needed to hem my dress, so I forced myself to get up.  Of course then that night I couldn’t sleep until about 2am.

Then Saturday, as I was getting ready to take a bath, shave my legs, exfoliate, moisturize, etc. I couldn’t find my good face wash. I haven’t been able to find it since we moved, and I’ve been using a travel size Clearasil wash that I found. I was hoping to use the good stuff at least the day of our event since I hadn’t found it in the days leading up to the event. No dice.

Hair done (I hate our split mirrors)

Then I couldn’t find my make up. I’m glad I looked for it before I went to get my hair done. I know I put it aside somewhere. I’m pretty sure anyway. I couldn’t find it anywhere. I felt sick. Over the last two years I have replaced my drug store brands with the good stuff. I had made the change to mineral make up from liquid foundation since I don’t wear it all the time, and I was wasting money throwing away liquid foundation that I wasn’t using before it expired. UGH! Such a sick feeling. It was ALL gone, except for a couple eye liners because they discontinued the colors I wear all the time, but I found a two pack of each on Amazon, so I had the other of each.

Where my make up is, my face wash is. I’m also glad I was indecisive about jewelry and picked up a second necklace on sale at Kohl’s on a whim. I had a necklace as well. It’s with the face wash and make up. I know it’s all together because I put it all together before the move so I’d have it for the dining out. We see how well that worked.

After all of that, I really did have to stop by the grocery store to get half and half. I figured nothing would be worse for my husband than waking up after a night of drinking to no creamer for his coffee. Not that it would matter to me, but I’m a nice wife like that. I also ended up stopping by Target because I forgot cough drops while I was in the grocery store. (Do you see the pattern emerging?)

Then I was finally able to go home to start the process of make up and getting dressed.

**Stay tuned for Part II**

Hopefully I’ll be back Friday with a new #SNRyanGosling.

We also clocked how far it is to the hoagie place from the new house. It will be half as far. Who wants to bet we still argue over whose turn it is to go? (For those out of the loop, it’s currently 0.6 mi)

What you’ve missed so far:

Zach sprained his ankle Monday. He was being a dumbass and fell down a slide backwards at the playground. This is why you tell your kids to not climb UP the slides, like we’ve been telling Zach since’ he’s been old enough to figure that one out.

This is what happens when you let boys dye eggs. You get “dead” eggs.

the penis mushrooms are home.

We moved those and put our name plate in the door since people seemed to like to park in our assigned spot at the new house. I’m sure the rude highly religious people with the Jesus message letter board on the front porch who share the other half of the house appreciate the penis mushrooms. If you want to follow moving shenanigans, I’m periodically checking in on Twitter and Facebook with such things.

Things of note:

-We’re going to like having space again instead of being crammed in on top of each other.
-I’m going to LOVE having a big kitchen even if I might curse the electric stove and not having a self cleaning oven.
-Built in dishwasher and NOT a portable FTW!
-Ice maker in the freezer!
-Did I mention SPACE!
-People living near us will get enjoyment out of watching me try to parallel park. I think I can count on both hands how many times I’ve had to legitimately parallel park and not just pull across a couple spots since I got my license in 1997.
-We can walk out our back door, and the pool is right there. RIGHT there. Pool passes and tired kids all summer, also FTW! Dare I say that Aaron may actually sleep?
-Closet space!
-Storage!
-Porches!
-No more asshole kids throwing apples off the apple tree off our back patio.
-I didn’t measure, but at least 12ft ceilings downstairs! We might have to get a real Christmas tree this year just to get a really big one like a remember my Uncle Denny having from my childhood.
-2 1/2 baths! Sure I’ll have to clean them, but we can give the kids their baths at the same time and streamline baths.

There may be more later.

Change is hard for any child. Moving is hard for any child. Military children are often expected to move more often than their peers who don’t have a parent in the military. In some cases (like my kids), they get to stay in the same place for several years. In other, like the case  of many of our neighbors, they can be in one place for less than a year before it’s on to the next. OK, so I can’t leave autism out of this because there are so many kids on the spectrum, and the moves and changes only compound this for so many of those children.

Then there are children like mine. The oldest will ask after 2-3 years, “When is it time to move?” “I’m ready to move.” “Can we move now?” He doesn’t know staying in any one house for more than four years. He likes to move. In a way, he likes the ability to start fresh because as an Aspie, no one knows. No one bullies him. He’s the new kid everyone says hello to in the hall until they figure out that he’s different. In this aspect, he likes being the new kid in school.

The little one is ready to move too. He doesn’t really remember the last move since he wasn’t quite two yet. This time, he got to go see the new house with us. He was ready to back his toys and bed and go that night. He has no concept of all of the moving parts that need to be in place. Every day since he’s been asking when we’re going to the other house. I think his eagerness to move this time may be that it’s just a new house, but every thing else will still be familiar. We’re just moving to a new house on the same installation since they’re tearing down the old housing to build new housing. Yes, this also means you won’t hear about the leaky roof in the current house anymore (yes, it still leaks to this day since August 2011).

Someone who is going to make the first day of our move flow much better is our respite care provider. She’s going to spend the day with our five year old since he’s off school for most of this month. This way, we can concentrate on the movers. We did it the first time without help with the kids, but it’ll just make it that much easier this time.

Which brings me to ACS, EFMP, and IMCOM. Our current EFMP manager here will be retiring soon. Like end of May soon. At last news, they weren’t even interviewing people yet because there was a freeze on her job that IMCOM needed to lift so they could even place the job as being open to take applicants. If this doesn’t happen, and doesn’t happen soon, there will be a lot of families for the new incoming influx in July/August who will be left in limbo, and it won’t be pretty. Hopefully IMCOM can get their stuff together for our families because it’s now April.

What are things you do during your move to make it flow smoothly? I have to admit that I’m pretty light on the advice as all our moves have been door to door, and the kids have handled them well, and even get excited.

*Photo from istock

Some may have seen the new CDC numbers. I’ve seen the shock! Gasp! Whatever other exclamation you want to insert that the number has now been set at 1 in 88 for kids on the autism spectrum. That has been the number for military kids for quite awhile now, and no one seemed to notice or care. Now, all of a sudden, when the CDC makes that the rate for the entire population, the media makes it out to be a near tragedy. Now that the 1 in 88 number has finally become significant to people, I will ask you once again to go to www.cmkaa.org and use the one click feature to write your congressperson. Currently, the only military children receiving autism therapies such as applied behavioral analysis (ABA) are those of active duty soldiers. Retired? No services for you! National Guard or Reserves? No services for you! Wounded Warrior? Your child had services, and now, no services for you (once medically retired)! We need to change this and make the autism benefits part of the main medical benefit of Tricare, not an “educational” benefit. Seeing as how autism is treated by medical professionals, I think that’s only fitting, no?

Numbers are just that to a lot of people. Now, I’m going to give you two (what I consider to be) adorable faces to put with those numbers. Think of these boys, and all of the other children when you read this and think, “why should I bother?” You should “bother” because ALL kids on the spectrum deserve to have proper services without parents running through the proverbial gauntlet just to get the basics.

There is also a main AMFAS Facebook group, and there are local groups on Facebook as well. Come see if there’s a local group in your area (There is an AMFAS group for the Harrisburg area if you’re local). If you’re saying, “But I don’t have a Facebook account,” I really encourage you to get one. Even beyond AMFAS, there is a lot of information both autism and military related to be had. The military is really pushing its organizations to utilize Facebook these days since so many people are using it as a news source. It’s a good one stop shopping place to keep up on things. My husband often comes home and asks me if I’ve seen something because he knows I’ve usually caught it posted by three or four organizations on Facebook.

So, then why is it that the two Senators from Pennsyvania sent staffers to the briefing last Tuesday, but when I wrote to Rep. Bill Shuster, who is our representative, I got a rather spammy canned letter in return that was more concerned about the budget. Yes, I understand funding would be an issue, but we’re talking about people. Families. The military families that politicians have deemed so important. We have Joining Forces and the Army Family Covenant. Where are they in all of this? I don’t see them, do you?

Why am I singling out Rep. Shuster? Because Carlisle Barracks falls in his district. He is supposed to be representing military families. We have a VERY high retiree population in this area. One of the very groups that CMKAA would benefit. The PA ARNG Headquarters is at Ft. Indiantown Gap, PA. NOt in his district, but I know there are soldiers that live on post here who work there. Soldiers I’m sure who live in the district who drill there as well. Probably soldiers who would also benefit from CMKAA.

Again, why single out Rep. Shuster? He is ON THE HOUSE ARMED FORCES COMMITTEE. He is ON THE HOUSE ARMED FORCES SUBCOMMITTEE ON MILITARY PERSONNEL. He is NOT a co-sponsor of CMKAA H.R. 2288.

As a voting member of his district, I find this appalling. As a voting member of his district who is a military spouse I find this appalling. As a voting member of his district who is a military spouse with two children on the autism spectrum I find this appalling. As a voting member of his district who is a military spouse with two children on the autism spectrum and my family took the time to go to the briefing in DC and he did not, I find this ABHORRENT.

I know where MY vote will be cast when he’s up for re-election, and at this point, it’s not for a US House Representative who is on the House Armed Forces Committee and Subcommittee on Military Personnel and does NOT support the very military personnel he represents.

You can also check to see if your Representative is a cosponsor of CMKAA H.R. 2288. You can also write them and tell them why they should support this bill. No member of our military should have to worry about if their child has proper care. In the words of Karen Driscoll from Tuesday’s briefing, “If my son had brain cancer, coverage would not be an issue.” It’s true. If our children had cancer, everything would be paid for without the hoops we currently jump through. Because we’re fighting AUTISM, someone has decided they can pick and choose who gets treatment and who doesn’t. Tell me where the morality is in that.

The 5yo needed his OT (occupational therapy) continued. I knew full well that we’d have to find a new OT. The place where he was getting therapy only had a temporary therapist. One we waited 3 months for. One that waiting 3 months was perfectly acceptable to the Tricare people when I called initially. One that was an absolutely fantastic therapist, and I’m glad now to have waited for her because she taught me so much, but I found out had I gone to our Tricare office, they would have tried to find us someone with services sooner. I was still a little raw from someone in their office trying to refer us to the ABA provider for a psych eval for an official autism diagnosis, not one done by the school entity for kids ages 3-5 coughillegalcough.

This time, I wasn’t taking “months” or “we have an extensive wait list” for an answer. I’ve seen WAY too much progress for our son to regress. I can do some things at home, but not enough to be left hanging indefinitely. So I went from the post office to the Tricare office at our clinic. I spent a total of about 2 hours there. Two hours, 2 trips, and 2 very kind women who worked very hard to find us a provider that could provide proper services, and in a timely manner. I appreciate them more than they know.

It was suggested to me that I finally suck it up and do the Medicaid paperwork. Honestly, it wouldn’t matter. Medicaid wouldn’t magically make more providers appear that can provide OT to a 5yo with autism. Believe it or not, as broken as our current system is, the ladies in the Tricare office were just looking for ANYONE in the area that could help us. ANYONE. It didn’t matter at that point network, non network, green, purple, alien, just as long as they could provide OT to my son without us being on some indefinite wait list.

One of the ladies suggested that I write a nicely worded letter to the clinic commander about the difficulties we’ve had with the system since we’re here longer than most families. Most families here cycle in every July/August and cycle out in May/June. I told her about some of our providers who were fantastic. How hard it was to find some of them. And how hard it was to cobble together services. When I initially brought in the referral, they had no idea that the place here in town no longer had an OT. That the one they did have was temporary. So, I’m going to do just that. I am going to write that letter to the clinic commander about what we’ve gone through since we’ve been here. I’m mad and annoyed, but I’ve found enough kind and helpful people to keep me from truly losing my shit. If my letter can in any way help all of the other families with kids on the spectrum, even a smidge, then it’s worth it. I was told there are quite a few when I was in the Tricare office. I know from this journey of ours that started in January of 2010 that every bit of help matters, no matter how seemingly small to the person providing it.

This is just one more reason that if military families truly matter to our politicians as much as they say, then there needs to be measures to improve our Tricare health system, not gut it and charge us more.

*This sort of struggle is just one reason why only 10% of the 1 in 88 military children who qualify are getting autism services. OT falls under our basic medical benefit, but not all therapies do. If this bothers you, visit www.cmkaa.org and use the one click feature to let your feelings be known.