I was thinking about what to post, when I realized, I’s Friday! It’s #SNRyanGosling day! Now that the major things have been taken care of, my days have been filled with the little stuff that crops up and is annoying – finish unpacking, figure out where that pesky address book went so I can mail out the “We Moved!” cards to friends and family, decorate, and still keep up on the every day stuff like cleaning, therapy, etc. Plus the boys added in a day of puke, which also resulted in a morning of phone calls to rearrange appointments for me. Fun times. Fun times. Is it summer break yet where the biggest thing we have to worry about is swim lessons and me losing my sanity?

For more #SNRyanGosling, go forth and make your own. Post. Head to the mothership to link up with the rest of us.

Now, I can breathe. I can concentrate on what’s important. I can concentrate on the day to day bullshit that we always have. The therapies. The behaviors we’re working on with the boys – the ones we’re trying to instill and the ones we’re trying to eliminate. The doctor appointments. Trying to figure out why Aaron is losing weight. What the hell we’re going to do all summer. You know, the usual.  I like the usual. Usual is good.

Now that our conflicts are resolved and I don’t have to worry about my older child’s safety as far as transportation every day, I can worry about more important things – like curtains. Like who the hell makes a window less than two feet wide and I don’t even know how long because I didn’t measure, but it’s going to need at least an 84″ curtain. We have one of these windows each in our bedroom, Aaron’s bedroom, the kitchen, and 2 of the bathrooms. Then I have to find a way to dress the windows on the doors in our bedroom and Zach’s bedroom. Why? Because I get migraines, and I need a cave when I get one, and in Zach’s room because I don’t want the light waking him up at the butt crack of dawn. I love this historical house and the huge windows, but at the same time it’s a pain.

But after all we’ve been through lately, bring on these first world problems. PLEASE. We need piddly stuff I can fix fairly easily for awhile. I think we’ve earned it.

We also met a nice neighbor. She brought us cookies to welcome us to the neighborhood. She didn’t even take them back when we told her we just moved from the other side of post. I really like her, and she’s not a Kool Aid drinker. They’re Air Force, which totally explains it. I think I’ve also made another friend through our ordeal. Even though it was all a pain in the ass and totally unneeded stress, it wasn’t all bad since I did meet a couple nice people in the process.

I think this is where I’m going to leave this chapter of our lives and move on with the rest – until the school decides to be asshats again. Six more weeks has become my mantra.

Oh yes, he did. 

There. Now I feel better. I’ll never understand why people have to lie instead of just doing their job the way they should the first time. I’m assuming the lying was an attempt at ass covering after an ass reaming. Note to schools, never mess with parents. You never know who they have in their back pocket. Especially parents who know their rights, and know that you can’t tell them you will not hold another IEP meeting because you just had one. If I request another IEP meeting, you’ll have one in the next 30 days and like it. Just sayin’.

Without further ado, the star of our Fridays, and hosted by Sunday,

Ever just have one of those aneurysm inducing weeks? Well it’s been like that for a good while here. It’s all coming to a head with most of it behind us now. It’s amazing how telling people they’re wrong will relieve stress. It’s amazing how when the school tries to tell you how great the middle school is, all it does is reinforce that you’re doing the right thing by pulling your kid from the district at the end of the year (more on this and the mediocrity that is our school system later).

But today, without further ado, I give you Ryan, and the weekly link up. Ryan lets me get out all my frustrations when my husband has heard it all before, and/or when my husband needs a good laugh too. I’ll be honest. My husband isn’t above reading these and laughing and nodding in agreement with us even if he doesn’t blog or comment along.

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.