You know, I love this song. I love the original of this song. I always start belting away at this song.

However it took me years to realize the damn thing was about Elvis.

I still love this song though.

I'm having a head desk moment.

If you like politics and are tired of debating it where you are called names, come here

http://community.livejournal.com/political_pub/profile

Anyone knowledgable about antiques? I got a couple of statues at an estate sale. I also scored two paintings one called Astroboy and the other Space(both have rockets on them) They will be for Aidan for Xmas. Some bird figurines that used to hold little amounts of Liqour.

Frustrated that I can have intellectually stimulating discussions with many fundy meany pooh pooh headed Christians but not with Liberals and some moderates without emotions and assumptions and crap getting in the way.

Seriously people

I mean frag I can argue that being Gay isn't any more sinful then being an adulter to a very firm Episcopalian and ergo his ickyness at Gay stuff is misplaced so why is he so against Gays but not Adulters and get him to agree. I can't get him to agree that Gay isn't a sin though, but damnit I got him to concede he is being harder on Gays then adulters on an emotional topic.

I can argue about Gays in the military with the self same fundies, or any of their deeply held beliefs, but God forbid I argue with many liberals on their deeply held emotional beliefs and then your a big bad meany, right wing extremist, or other name.

ARGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

More aimed at stuff I've seen on facebook right now, but yeah.

I can even argue and get fundies to agree it's not fair about Gay people not being able to marry(they won't budge on marriage but will grudgingly admit on civil unions). But yeah the fundies are the ones who are intolerant, incapable of logic and the idiots in America.
pfft

Autism, take five (Hubby the Grammar Nazi)
Autism, a personal perspective.

Professionals, who have experience in recognizing the symptoms, diagnose autism. Those professionals are pediatric neurologists, psychologists/psychiatrists, from which you get a referral from your primary physician to see, if you or the physician suspect autism. There are no cat scans, blood tests, urine samples, or any conclusive laboratory way to diagnose this difficult path in life. The diagnosis is all done by observation. The figures vary, depending on the organization, but the stats range from 1-166 to 1 in about a thousand kids have Autism Spectrum Disorder, abbreviated as ASD. It is unclear what causes ASD, though the speculation makes for some hot debates. One of the few medical treatments that have been proven to help ASD kids is applied behavioral analysis therapy, or ABA.




We've come a long way in the last ten years. After reading "Let Me Hear Your Voice: A Family's Triumph Over Autism" by Catherine Maurice, I've realized I hadn’t heard any strange psychotherapy, such as holding down your child to tell them how their inability to talk was affecting you; as if the afflicted child would immediately jump up and say, "Sorry, mom." Nor is the only option for dealing with autistic kids is to put them in an institution and feed them drugs. Now, specialists are identifying why autistic kids do what they do, and try to gently adjust their behaviors so they can live in society without drugs. Hopefully, in our generation, the cure for autism will be found; or at least a way to prevent it from occuring.


Lets take some time to talk about autistic symptoms.

Some common symptoms include, but are not limited to: difficulty speaking or understanding language, poor eye contact, flapping arms, standing on tip toes, aggression, inability to abide routine change, echoing words spoken to them repeatedly, lining objects up in strait lines. This list can be fairly baffling to a person who has never encountered a person with autism before. This list is really broad, and sometimes hard to understand, so I'll give examples of behaviors my son, who has autism, exhibits.

Poor eye contact didn't show up when he was being diagnosed, unless it was with professionals or people I was uncomfortable with. For instance, he wouldn't look the annoying neighbor who called the cops if someone drove slightly over the speed limit in the eyes. However, gregarious strangers who treated him like any other kid and didn't patronize him, were given perfect eye contact. Aidan still displays poor eye contact, especially when he feels he's in trouble. His eyes will traverse the room and seldom stay on one object. That makes it difficult for him to discern subtle body language cues.

Thankfully, my son doesn't display many aggression behaviors. My son will throw temper tantrums when he doesn't get his way and sometimes he bangs his head on the wall when he's punished for the tantrum. When he was a baby, he would cry until I picked him up. A visiting nurse told me that he wouldn't stop crying, since he didn't have a self-comforting mechanism. So the normal method, of letting him cry himself out, didn't work with him.


My son struggles with complex sentences at five years old. His younger brother speaks in paragraphs. He does comprehend more then he says. At times, I'm not sure how much of it is he is playing dumb and how much he is struggling with. It is very important to note that he's far from unitelligent, however. He can fix the vacuum cleaner when its stopped up, can take apart the radiator face no matter how tightly it was put on, can disable child safety devices with a single smirk, and leave me a helpless puddle at the end of the night.

Aidan, if you observe him, will be seen playing by himself, even though his siblings are a foot away. You also don't see a lot of imaginative play (playing at being a cop, or a super hero) from him either. He prefers playing with trucks, toy airplanes, or digging holes in the lawn; most of his play directly relates to work that he sees his father or others perform. This makes household chores unexpectedly dangerous to perform around him: one day he came up to me, so proud of himself, with both fists full of my favorite flowers - he'd seen me weeding in the garden and wanted to help.

*** end of edited portion ***

Lets talk about the stims. A fancy medical term for behaviors we do to self-comfort ourselves. Autistic kids take those to extremes, probably because the world is so confusing. These stims include, rocking, flapping hands, turning in circles, chewing, lining up objects in a straight line, and yet more that I have to encounter. My son Aidan will walk on his toes, line up objects, chew on his clothes and any other object, he'll also lay on his side to stare to at wheels turning of his cars, and I'm sure he does others that I'm not aware of.

Other misc. frustrations: Erratic sleep patterns. Aidan is mostly ok, but every once in a while he wont' go to sleep till two and will wake at 6 a.m. When he was younger, I was always afraid he would wake up in the middle of the night and I wouldn't be able to tell, and he'd wander the streets. Other autistic children have dietary problems; many are on a low gluten or casein free diet. I know Aidan has sugar high stims, which splenda only makes worse. Many have sensory problems. They can hear the high-pitched hum of fluorescents. Doesn't bother Aidan so much unless they are really low and it's in an enclosed bathroom with tile on the walls. The echo of the tile on the floor and walls makes him uneasy, so he rarely uses the bathroom in a room with tile on the walls, nor does he like the bathroom fan or music being piped in. Another sensory issue is the clippers at a barbershop. Aidan will not tolerate those, so he gets his hair cut with scissors. Some kids wont' like tight clothes, loose clothes, certain fabrics, certain food textures, some don't want to wear clothes at all. Aidan if he can get away with it, likes to be naked as a jaybird. It doesn’t' matter if there is snow on the ground and it's 30 below. Another common frustration is many autistic people like a schedule. If you change that, they melt down. Some of my memories of my son when he was a toddler, was of him screaming from the time I began dinner, till it was on the table.


Before Aidan was diagnosed, I made excuses for him, in fact I'm still in the habit of doing so. Some of the ones I uses were: Oh he's just more left brained. He's just more visual then auditory learning. He's just the quiet sort. He doesn't say anything(ala John Wayne) unless it needs to be said. I couldn't find excuses for my confused outbursts. I caught myself yelling at Aidan, "Do I speak portugese?" It was one of those pivotal, I realised I had become my mother. Except, I wasn't sure my mother felt so lost and confused.


So, if your child acts, like your speaking an alien language, and or goes on for some length of time on some obscure fact, it might be time to evaluate his or her other actions. If they are always walking on their tiptoes, freaking out in grocery stores for no discernabile reason, or melting down because you didn't go home your usual way, it is a good idea to inform your Dr. If your considering hireing out your child as a demolition expert, or a electrician, but the only thing stopping you is their inability to be potty trained, and talk to the customer, They might have Autism. If they display any of the behaviors, I've written about, it maybe a good idea to discuss it with your primary physician. The earlier you can get intervention, from a reliable source, like ABA, the better off, your child will be.

Well, I made zuchinni bread and plan on making more. Kids liked the one in the cake pan. Had my daughter finish dishes. Swept living room floor. Made Vodka pork roast and oven baked mashed taters(with a bit of salt and parmesean cheese) and cucumber and green bean salad(with mayo and fig infused white balsamic vinegar).

Hopefully have chased off an eye migraine. Yaye ibuprophen and hot bathes.

Watched my son drink my snapple tea

Earlier this morning did a happy dance as my son aidan slept in and I got to do a bit of scouting for eve.

Did some more sewing on the tinkerbell wall hanging for my daughters xmas present.

Mentally made plans to make calzones sometime this week. Now I only have to figure out where to buy premade pizza dough.

Completely ignoring my spelling as my head isn't completely free of pain, and not going to feel ashamed by it either.

Lets see... Rescue stuffed rabbit from outside multiple times, as Aidan decided it was thirsty and needed a dish of water, check. Bring son inside, as he was trying to give the neighbors dog water, and then barked at them, and they barked at him. ch...eck Wake up husband to make sure he gave Aidan a hug for giving him Diet Dr. Pepper check. Grocery shopping and food making semi completed.

My good deed for the day.

I noticed what I assume to be a retired military guy, coming out of the Barksdale annex in Bossier city, he had a cane. I noticed him about 45 minutes ago, on my way to Shreveport to see if I can get a foot pedal for my Janome sewing machine(more on that later). So as I was coming back I noticed he was still walking somewhere. So I flipped a bitch, and parked on the side of the road to ask if he needed a ride. He didn't, but looked fairly surprised. Turns out he walks 5 miles every day to go to the post office to check his mail, and then chills out at a bar nearby and walks home.

Moonie

respecting her elders:)

Sorry but I get annoyed when I get emailed, ljmailed and have it show up in my flist.

Dear, when the person tells you they don't think you need to counter acorn targeting the college youth, you may want to heed that and understand your not going to high pressure sales them into giving you money. Especially if they've been adamant no donations until after they have moved and things are in place. Especially if they say they are sitting on their pennies. Especially after they told you to not burn your bridges with Liberals like Lieberman.