Don't Count Him Out

For two and a half years we have been running in circles between Logan's therapies and appointments...just trying to push him into some sort of normalcy.  It finally dawned on me about 6 months ago that no matter how much he progresses or improves, he will always be autistic and he will never be "normal".  That is hard for a mother to swallow.

I have been reluctantly gathering his toys together for a yard sale.  This has been a very depressing thing for me to do.  You see, there is nothing wrong with these toys except for the fact that they take up space and no one plays with them.  We have bought all sorts of toys in blind faith, hoping and praying that Logan will one day wake up and play with them.  You name it and we have bought it...Thomas the Train sets, Little People, ride on toys, McDonald's play/pretend toys, Spiderman, Buzz Lightyear, and of course the stuffed animals.  They all line the walls and just stare blankly from across the room.  It is almost like they are begging me to take them to a child that will love them.  Logan has thrown them across the room, broken their arms and legs off, and destructed most of them.  He has never truly "played" with them.  He has no concept of playing pretend and that is common with most children with autism.  The stuffed animals are the worst of the toys for Logan.  He doesn't like the way they feel and if you touch him with a stuffed animal he screams and has a meltdown. 

We have been trying to get him hug a teddy bear since he was a few months old and the reaction we would get from that was not pleasant.  His occupational therapist determined that stuffed animals pose lots of sensory problems for Logan.  First, most of them have fleece or fur that he has a tactile aversion to.  She also determined that he doesn't like to look toys "in the eye".  We started noticing that she was right...he would have nothing to do with any toys that had faces or eyes.  Just like people, he did not want to engage the toys or make eye contact with them.  For over a year and a half, he has been receiving therapy to help him tolerate the touch and feel of a stuffed animal and therapy to help him learn to "play" with them and show them affection.  This has been a very difficult process. 

This therapy started out with letting Logan jump on the trampoline (which is something he loves to do) while his therapist rubbed a stuffed animal under his shirt, across his arms, and down his legs.  It was not a well-received practice but eventually, week by week, he began to accept and tolerate the practice.  A few months ago she switched to a furry mouse puppet that she would put on her hand and pretend to talk to Logan.  He was terrified of the mouse and didn't want any part of it.  He would tell the mouse "go" and "no" and would scream for her to put it away.  Over the last month he has allowed her to play with the mouse and he has actually put his hand in the puppets mouth, squealed with laughter, and rubbed the mouse.  It is amazing what his therapist can get him to accomplish.  I accepted that this was tolerance and that he may never love a stuffed animal or even want one but that he could now at least tolerate the idea and not freak out everytime he saw one.  I was satisfied with that. 

I have several bags and piles of toys stacked up in Logan's room waiting for a free weekend to have our yard sale.  I have a pile of beautiful stuffed teddy bears and stuffed puppies that were given to him as a newborn that he has never shown any interest in.  There is a monkey in a red jogging suit that we gave him on his first Valentine's Day that was met with screams and violent behavior.  There is a soft little blue bunny my mother gave him for his first Easter.  None of these toys have ever been hugged or loved like they would have been if they had been given to a different toddler...a toddler without autism.  I have been hoping someone would buy them at the yard sale and give them to a child that would appreciate them.

Last night at bedtime I told Logan to tell everyone goodnight and he did his usual repetition of "nite nite" "nite nite" "nite nite" all the way through the house.  I picked him up and swung him over the baby gate and saw him take off into his bedroom.  I climbed over the gate and rounded the corner into his room only to find him standing there with his back to me at the pile of stuffed animals.  I stopped and watched for a minute.  He bent down and picked up the brown stuffed dog that my grandmother had given him when he was born.  He brought it up to his face and looked at it and then turned around and said "Bear".  I said..."Yes, it is a teddy bear"...even though it was a dog.  It didn't matter at that point.  He wrapped his little arms around it and gave it a hug and said "nite nite".  I said, "Would you like the bear to go 'nite nite' with you?".  He walked toward his crib with the bear in his hand.  I picked him up and layed him on the pillow and told him that I loved him and I gave him a kiss and he leaned over and kissed his "bear".  He closed his eyes. 

I walked out of his bedroom and cried like a baby.  They weren't sad tears and they weren't happy tears.  I think they were tears of relief.  He can show affection.  He can be interested in things that other children are interested in.  He doesn't need to be written off.  I learn a new lesson every week and this week was no different.  He might take him a little extra time and a little prompting and patience...but I will never say that my child isn't "normal" again and I will never count him out.

This One's For You

I haven't blogged in a while and let's face it...I haven't had time.  Since school has been out we have been on a roller coaster of dysfunction.  Schedules are out the window, house looks like disaster zone, and there is no rhyme or reason to be found.  But that is okay...this is our life and we have to live it.

I am not going to stress over it too much.  I am keeping meltdowns to a minimal these days basically trying to keep everyone happy.  If that means a little dysfunction then so be it. 

I am happy to report that usually my children on the spectrum dominate our time and the rest of us and our neurotypical children take a backseat to the madness but for the past few weeks our world has been revolving around my ten year old.  My ten year old is usually always the child that gets put on the back burner at our house because of autism.  He does what he is asked, makes straight As in school, is well-behaved and for the most part goes with the flow.  Sometimes this is hard for him though, and as a parent it is hard to watch.  I know it isn't fair for us parents to be dealt the hand of autism, and for some of us it is more than one child in the house with autism.  But, how unfair is it for our children that aren't autistic?  They certainly didn't ask for this and most of the time my son is accepting and understanding.  Then there are times where he gets frustrated, just like me, and wants to curse autism. 

Landon plays baseball and it is his thing.  It is his outlet...his time to shine.  It causes lots of upheaval in our house of autism, but I cannot deny my son his love of baseball and his time to break away from the madness.  I have hauled up and down the roads to baseball games all season.  I have toted my two year old kicking and screaming in the throws of autism to the car.  I have chased him around and around on the baseball field with nothing more than the length of his harness keeping him from disaster.  We have gotten home so late that all bedtime routines and schedules were merely a memory.  But it has been worth it just to see Landon smile.  It has been worth all the bumps and curves just to see him in the spotlight for once...not being pushed to the back of the line.  So this blog is usually dedicated to my children on the spectrum, but today it is dedicated to the unsung child.  The child that accepts.  The child that never complains.  The child that is a hero to his brothers.  The child that deserves every once in a while to just be a child and not a miniature adult. 

This is Landon pitching during his regular season with the Contentnea Indians 10-U baseball team. 

These are pictures of Landon playing in the All-Star Tournament.  We had to drive over an hour away for three days for him to play in the tournament.  It was great to show Landon that our family can make sacrafices for him just like the other children.

This is Landon on July 4th with the Kinston Indians, our local minor league baseball team.  They are a division of the Cleveland Indians.  This was a big day for a ten year old little boy who loves the game. 

So, yes, our summer has been crazy and dysfunctional.  I have laundry piled up and housework to do.  I have pushed my children with autism to their breaking points, along with mine and my husband's sanity.  But lots of special things have happened for a child that never complains, always perserveres, and somehow endures this life that he didn't ask for.  This one is for you, Landon.

Life's A Beach...Sometimes

We recently took Logan on his first trip to the beach.  He is two years old, but considering the eventful last couple of years a trip to the beach seemed unimportant in the grand scheme of things.  With all of Logan's sensory issues and problems with traveling and riding in the car for any length of time we were nervous about making an hour long road trip to the coast.  But just like all other adventures with autism...we have to try. 

Everyone always prepares for a beach trip, but when you have a child with autism, preparation is key!  We made sure we had plenty of "comfort" foods like gummy fruits, plenty of juice, a weighted pillow for the car if needed, and of course and endless supply of DVDs for the car.  We made sure he had lots of sand toys in case sand just happened to be his thing, because you never know if he will have an aversion for something or all out love it.

The car ride there was a hit.  He watched Yo Gabba Gabba, Nick Jr., Thomas The Train, and Spongebob the entire way there.  Of course, we couldn't get him to look out the window at any of the scenery along the way, but as long as he was meltdown free I was happy with that. 

So we arrive at the beach and decide to take him the the North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores. We figured in case the beach were a complete sensory overload to go ahead and take him the aquarium first in case it wasn't an option later.  We walked in and he went wild over the fish and the exhibits.  He especially loved this interactive floor that he could walk on that appeared to have fish swimming under his feet.  In fact, we could hardly get him to leave that particular display.  He loved the fish and was especially excited by the sharks.  We were so thrilled at how well he did inside the aquarium because it was dark, had unusual lighting, there were lots of people everywhere, and it was extremely loud due to echoeing.  He was completely unphased.  We were so proud of how well he did there.  So far on this trip...we were winning.

Now we were feeling brave.  We left the aquarium and headed for the beach.  We unloaded all our stuff which looked like we were moving.  Then I put Logan in his harness.  I try to prepare for all scenarios.  I could just envision us walking up the beach and him sprinting off into the ocean without warning.  I can't even describe to you the stares we got for having my child on a "leash" at the beach.  I am pretty sure I heard someone say "looks like a dog", but I can't be sure.  I have become completely oblivious to the ignorance of the public eye.  I don't care about the scrutiny.  I just care about keeping my child safe and no one can ensure that safety but his dad and I. 

We found a great spot.  Not too close to the water, but yet not too far away and the best part was we were right beside a lifeguard stand.  I felt very good about that.  My older boys took off with their boogie boards and my husband and I set up "camp".  After everything was settled, I took Logan out of his harness and he sat right down in the sand and starting running his hands through it and rubbing his feet around.  1-2-3...I was waiting for the fallout.  Nothing yet.  My husband got out his sand toys and he started playing with them in the sand.  Big wave of relief washed over me.  He likes it!  Awesome!

Now our next hurdle is the ocean.  He has been glancing at the water but not making any indication that he wants to test it out.  We aren't about to have this much success and not attempt it so my husband walks him out to the ocean.  For a little boy who is such a fish in the pool, he was clearly intimidated by it.  He wasn't so intimidated, though, that he was frantic but just enough that he was cautious.  I was pleased with that reaction.  Sometimes he is too fearless for his own good and it was nice to see him a little guarded about something so big and foreign.  He slowly warmed up to the water but never letting go of his dad and that is the way I wanted it to be.  It was good to see him reasonable and rational regarding something that could potentially be dangerous for him.  We spent almost two hours on the beach and it was wonderful and meltdown free.



Now it is important to mention that by the time we left it was late in the afternoon and Logan had not had his nap and was clearly off his routine.  I was silently bracing myself for a meltdown or a complete breakdown, but nothing.  We put him in the car and turned on his video and he was all smiles.  We decided to push our luck even further by finding a great seafood resteraunt and having dinner on the coast.  We found this great seafood buffet resteraunt and had the most wonderful seafood dinner and Logan remained calm and happy.  By the time we left it was getting dark and close to Logan's bedtime.  He never showed any signs of becoming upset or insecure about his schedule disruption.  He had a wonderful and fulfilling day.  He rode home focused on his DVDs and very content.  We came home and gave him his bath (he had sand in places I didn't know were possible) and put him to bed.  I don't think he cried one time the entire day.  It was in my opinion one of the most perfect days since he has been born.  We have had plenty of rough days since our trip to the beach and several meltdowns, but this day proves to me that he can do things like other children and life is a beach...sometimes.

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You

Just wanted to post a quick thank you to Dana Sears of Designs By Dana for designing my awesome new blog design.  This poor girl has to use her creative genius to come up with a design that fit my family and my quirky personality.  I know very little about blog design so she had to be especially patient with me and do a lot of hand-holding but she got the job done.  She is a real professional and highly recommend her work if you are in search of a blog designer.  Please click on her button on my blog to see some of her other designs and contact her about designing a blog for you!

A Fish Called Spongebob

In the days leading up to Memorial Day weekend I felt almost as if I couldn't breathe.  Three day weekend...routines off schedule...and dysfunction...no thanks!  I literally dread holidays or extended weekends where two of my children on the spectrum are going to be turned inside out.  While most people are packing their suitcases, booking hotel rooms, lounging on the beach, or riding some waves, we are stuck at home on a rigid routine. 

This weekend was no differently planned.  I tried to focus on how I could keep things normal and structured.  Now I wasn't going to let a beautiful; warm North Carolina weekend go by without some water play so we did hang out by our backyard pool most of the weekend and I immediately began to see that the pool was the answer to most of my routine issues.  I kept all of our boys in the pool most the weekend making sure to break for lunch and for my youngest son's nap at the appropriate times and somehow managed to keep everyone on course.  As long as Logan is splashing in water he doesn't even think about his Yo Gabba Gabba fixation.  In fact...we only had to look at Yo Gabba Gabba first thing in the morning before breakfast and right after dinner before bedtime.  It was nice to get a break from the insanity for once. 

Logan has been hanging out in his baby pool for the last couple of weeks and he loves it.  He could sit there and splash for hours if we would let him.  This weekend we decided to try in him the big pool and I was nervous that it may overwhelm him and might ruin his want to ever get back in the water again.  But just like with everything else in the world of autism...we have to try.  I slowly eased him into the water with me and began to walk around the pool with him slowly letting him get used to the feel of it all.  He was quiet to start with and then once he realized he was fine he began to squeal and laugh.  Then he began to kick his feet and splash.  After about 20-30 minutes he was trying to break out of my arms and wanted to swim and paddle on his own.  He wanted nothing to do with the pool floats.  This child truly wanted to swim and wanted no help from me or his dad.

It was amazing to me and was definitely wonderful to see him so happy and excited about something new.   It also struck a chord of fear in me.  If he is this fearless how will I keep him out of the pool when we aren't looking?  I could tell immediately that we are going to have problems.  After taking him out of the pool he layed down in the grass and began to convulse.  Screaming, headbanging, and legs thrashing everytime we had to pull him off the bottom rung of the ladder.  It was now crystal clear to me that the pool ladder will have to removed after every swim and that we are going to have to put latches on both the front and back doors to prevent Logan from being able to get outside on his own.  We received a Big Red Safety Box from the National Autism Association that included two door chimes.  We really didn't think we would need them anytime soon, but after seeing our son's new facination with water it looks like those chimes are going to be needed sooner than later. 

But this is alright.  We knew there would be things like this that we would encounter along the road.  We new there would be things he would be overly interested in just like the things that he has aversions for.  I am not so scared for his safety that I will deny him the enjoyment of the swimming pool.  This child needs happiness and pleasure in his world of torment and confusion.  I will not deny him that.  I will just continue to be the overly-cautious, proactive mother that I have been and I will continue to second-guess his every move.  It is worth it to see one second of pure joy on his little face.

Color Him Happy

I know children on the spectrum are overly obsessive.  I get that.  Everyday I am watching my two year old become more and more fixated on certain objects, videos, and activities.  One part of me is excited to see him interested in something...more like anything.  Then there is the part of me that is slightly frightened after eight hours of Yo Gabba Gabba Dancy Dance Bunch on auto-repeat.

These new fixations have become the nucleus of our household existence.  How can I get Logan to take a nap without having a meltdown when he has to leave his video?  I have to go to the grocery store...don't forget the Yo Gabba Gabba video for the car!  If I have to get him out of the car to go into a store he is now not only melting down because he doesn't like being in the store, but he is also melting down because he had to leave his video.  It is like adding insult to injury.  Not only is he completely enthralled with the Yo Gabba Gabba video, but he is now taken up an unusually focused interest in coloring.  He doesn't want to put the crayons down to play, read, or eat.  He is constantly walking around either saying "Color-color" or "Gabba Gabba".  He doesn't want to sit at the table anymore for meals because that means he has to leave his video.  He sits through an entire meal while screaming "Gabba Gabba" and throwing his food on the floor.  My husband and I can't even watch the evening news.  The older kids are limited to watching television in their rooms because Logan is dominating the television in our living room.

To make matters worse I made a huge mistake last week and calmed a meltdown in a store by (out of sheer desperation) saying "Do you want Mommy to buy you some "color-colors"?  The screaming ceased and he began to repeat "color-colors" for the next 10 minutes as I wheeled around looking for coloring books and crayons.  I actually took him out of the seat of the shopping cart and placed him in the back of the cart and opened up the crayons right in the middle of the store and let him go to town.  There he was on his knees coloring furiously in the bottom of a shopping cart, babbling "color-color" repeatedly and for one single moment there was peace. 

Now I know what you are thinking.  You are thinking that I turned my son's obession into something positive and I know you are thinking this because I was thinking it myself.  I was actually pretty smug when I rolled up to the cash register and paid for everything free of screaming and head-banging.  But, (there is always a but) now I have created a monster.  I am now the proud mother of the "Color-Color" King.  Everytime I walk into a store he begins to scream at the top of his lungs "Color-color!!!!!!" over and over again.  He figured out instantly that the store has crayons and he must have them!  I tried taking the crayons I had already bought him on the next shopping trip, but that wasn't good enough.  He has to have more "color-colors"...better "color-colors"...the world will not be his until he has claimed all the crayons from all over the globe!!!!   I have three brand new packs of crayons that haven't even been opened just to prevent a meltdown.  Now you know I am one sick puppy for giving into this madness...but I am just plain desperate for peace and serenity on an outing.  I know I am being selfish for giving into the obsessions but they can come in handy in times like shopping or times that I have four tons of laundry piled up on the sofa.  It is amazing how many household chores I can get done now while someone is fixated in front of the television.  The challenge of breaking these routines is so difficult that I am giving into them and I know these things need to be limited but I seriously don't know how to do this without my son erupting like Mt. Saint Helens. 

I discussed the obsessions with my son's developmental pediatrician and he firmly told me to break the routines and to take the video away cold turkey.  I suddenly had a mental picture of me throwing the video in the trash can and watching my son spontaneously combusting.  Then I thought about me having to deal with the fall out from taking the video away cold turkey and imagined my son's pediatrician kicked back at home watching Sports Center on ESPN, eating a turkey sandwich in his underwear.  It is easy for these professionals to render what should and shouldn't be when they don't have to come home with you and help.  He can point fingers and then get off work and have a drink with a friend or go hit some golf balls.  Yes, I know professionals are educated in their field and know what they are talking about but they don't have to live it.  On our last visit I was also scolded because I was allowing Logan to eat gummy bears in the waiting room.  Gummy bears are the magical fruit.  They calm meltdowns.  They improve attention spans.  They create patience in a child that ordinarily doesn't have any.  My son's doctor told me that they were full of sugar and that only adds to his hyperness and that I should know better.  I told him when he stopped making me wait for 45 minutes to an hour to be seen then I will get rid of the gummy bears.  He didn't say anything else to me about that, but I digress.

So here I sit, typing this blog listening to five felt-like alien-mutants singing about social skills with their friend, a strange man in an orange jumpsuit with a toilet-seat cover for a hat, and I wonder am I doing my son an injustice by allowing these behaviors or am I making his life a little happier.  He is clearly happy as a clam and it is making my life easier, as well.  Am I just being selfish and trying to justify this behavior because it is appeasing my child and myself?  The verdict is still out.  I know at some point these obsessions are going to have to be broken but right now it is just a lot easier to give in. 

"It Can't Get Any Worse"

Whenever you say the words "It can't get worse" it usually does.  Last week was no exception.  It is amazing how many castastrophes went down in the course of a few short days.  It all started with trying to get my car inspected.  My license plate tags were about to expire so I had to take my car in for an inspection first before I could renew my tags.  I arranged to take my two year old to Play Date (a drop in child care facility that only charges by the hour) and after dropping him off headed across the street to a local oil changing center.  After waiting about an hour and a half they told me my car was ready and that it had passed inspection.  Sweet!  No bumps in the road today.  Smooth sailing it seemed.  I picked up Spongebob from Play Date and he was having a great time playing and running around.  We headed to lunch and then home. 

I had noticed earlier the day before a strange and foul smelling odor coming from what I thought was my toddler's breath.  All the possibilities flooded my mind.  Strep?  Decaying tooth?  Being the worrier I am I asked his developmental pediatrician at his follow-up appointment the morning of my inspection what he made of the odor.  After fighting off a wild animal and not getting a very good look in his mouth, he told me that he thought it was just drainage and it would run its course.  I had no other reason not to believe that and so I did.  After 24 hours the odor was now pungent and I knew of course that it couldn't be drainage.  We were sitting at my older son's baseball game and I noticed the odor was so prevalent that I could smell my son playing in the grass a few feet from me.  I was embarrassed that the other mother's could smell it also.

As the evening progressed I noticed the gnats and mosquitos were making their way into the evening.  I began to notice that the gnats were pitching in groups around my son's nostril.  They were literally covering the end of his nose.  I looked around and noticed no one else had an army of gnats gathering on their face and I knew right then and there that something was not right.

When my son woke up the next morning the smell greeted me as soon as I entered his room and I noticed his left cheek was swollen and red.  Back to the pediatrician's office we went.  I was worried that we would have to see a different physician because we were being worked in but thank goodness his regular pediatrician was the attending on call.  She walked in and inquired as to why we were there and she immediately noted the smell.  I told her about the gnat incident and my concerns that something may be inside of his nose and she agreed.  After holding him down and looking up both nostrils with a light she said she definitely thought something was up there.  This resulted in an immediate emergency referral to the ENT office.  I arranged to have my in-laws pick up my older boys from school and headed over to ENT.

It is important to mention that for someone unknown reason my son is extremely partial to having meltdowns in this particular office.  I am not sure if it is the length of time he is required to wait to see the ENT or if it is the closed-off play area they have for children, but everytime we have been in this office over the last year he has had a hellatious meltdown.  This day was no exception.  His ENT specialist had indicated that my child shouldn't wait when he has appointments and immediately be put into a room, but somehow they receptionist missed that tidbit and told us to have a seat.  I don't like to use Autism as an excuse everywhere we go so I thought we should at least try to see how things went without asking for special treatment.  Not so good, I tell you.  Not so good.

He heads right over to the play area where there is a little girl a couple years older than him.  She may have been four or five.  You could tell she was a bossy, domineering type of child.  The type that would set my son off.  I kept trying to get my son to sit with me but that was completely futile.  He kept heading back into the play area.  Every toy my son would pick up this other little girl would snatch from him and I could see him getting visibly upset.  Hmmm...looks like for once my son has better social skills than another NT child.  Imagine that, I thought.  This give and take went on for a while and then my son got really upset and somehow flipped off the back of a small wooden chair and I heard his head crack against the wooden molding near the floor.  Piercing screams now filled the waiting room.  I picked him up and he began to butt his head over and over in my chest and continued to scream.  Everyone was staring (what's new).  I walked with him in my arms up to the reception desk and said very politely, "Excuse me, but my son has autism and his doctor indicated in his chart that we should not wait here in the waiting room because he gets overstimulated.  Is there any way that he could be put into a room".  She rolled her eyes and took another big smack off of her gigantic mound of chewing gum and said, "Shug, we can't just let you jump ahead of all the other patient's just because your son has a problem".  I responded, "I am not trying to jump ahead of anyone I am trying to control my child from having a complete meltdown and your help would be greatly appreciated."  Somehow, after about ten deep huffs and a few more eyerolls my request was accomodated.

But it was too late.  He was in full meltdown mode at this point.  As soon as the door shut behind us in the exam room his meltdown when from minor to major.  He ran around the room screaming and then began slamming his head against the wall repeatedly.  I grabbed him and tried to hold him tightly but he just continued to fight me.  I put him down and he ran over to the exam chair and went to slam his head into it but somehow missed his mark and busted his mouth on the arm of the chair so hard that he split his lip open.  Blood spewed everywhere.  At this point I began to freak.  Holy Hell he is a bloody mess and the doctor hasn't even come in here.  What am I going to do???  I peaked my head out the door and didn't see anyone so I grabbed my son (still screaming and melting) and we walked down the hall.  I can only imagine what we looked like all covered in blood and him screaming.  I probably looked like "Parent of the Year".  I finally saw a nurse and when I saw her I just busted into tears.  I told her what happened and she ran and got a bag of ice and some cloths.  I just stood there like a blubbering whale while she cleaned him up.  I kept apologizing and she was very nice about the whole incident.  I must have looked like a mental patient.  Sometimes autism catches up with you when you least expect it.  I can see the headlines now..."Strong Warrior Mom Turns Into A Pile Of Mush At Local ENT Office".  Finally, his doctor arrives.  When I think back on his facial expression when he walked in the room and sees me and my son sitting there all covered in blood and I tell him he has a foreign body up his nose, well, I just want to laugh.  He looked super confused and I told him just to ignore all the blood,  that we had a mishap and it was fine now.  He just laughed and proceeded to look up my son's nose.  Yep, he confirmed there was definitely something up there.  After a few numbing drops up the nose out it came...a gigantic wad of paper that had been intricately wrapped around a staple.  Only my child could have come up with something so creative and wanted to preserve it for future reference...where better than in his nostril?  Finally we were out the door.  I got in the car and strapped on my seatbelt and took a huge deep breath.  It can't get any worse, I thought.  Boy, was I wrong.

While we spent all day Thursday in the ENT office I was supposed to be at the DMV getting my tags renewed after getting my inspection done on Wednesday.  That didn't happen so we were in a real pinch.  My tags were scheduled to expire on my car over the weekend on Sunday, so Friday (last Friday the 13th) was my last chance for getting my tags renewed before they expired.  My husband, trying to be a sweetie, offered to take my registration with him to work on Friday to handle this for me since I had been under so much stress already over the past week.  He ended up getting behind and didn't get to take lunch until around 2pm and called me after leaving the DMV.  He didn't know what to say other than he couldn't get my tags because the computer system showed that my car had an out of date inspection.  "Impossible", I screamed through the phone.  I explained to him that I had it done Wednesday and for him to have them run it again...again...no inspection in the system.  I was livid.  I called the oil changing station and told them what happened.  After some investigating it seems as if they did an inspection on someone else's car and I paid for it and was given their inspection paper showing my car had passed and a receipt for my payment but nothing was actually done on my vehicle.  I had to pick the boys up from school by 3pm and knew that there was no way I would be able to get another inspection done and tags renewed by 5pm when the DMV closes.  As pissed off as I have ever been, I hauled ass to the school and picked up the two oldest boys and flew like Speed Racer to the oil changing place.  The guy comes out and apologizes and tells me to wait in the their waiting area and for me to know that there is going to be a wait.  A wait???  Oh, hell no there isn't!!!  See Dude...you messed with the wrong Autism Mom today!!!!  Oh yes you did!!! 

"No, Sir, there isn't going to be a wait.  You see I came here Wednesday and paid for two hours of babysitting services for my son who is autistic and sat here in your waiting area for an hour and a half while you inspected someone else car and I paid for it.  Now you are going to cause me not to be able to get to the DMV by 5pm and my tags are going to expire on Sunday.  Unless you want your waiting room to look like aftermath from Hurricane Katrina (because I can promise that you have never seen devastation until you unleash my son on a stack of magazines and some potted plants) then I suggest you take me right NOW!!!!!  He suddenly had some sort of epiphany and agreed to take my car straight back for inspection.  While inside Logan proceeded to wipe out a whole stand of business cards, tear up two magazines, unplug the drink machine, and type on their computer system...and for the first time ever I didn't even try to stop it.  I was numb and irate.  We left that place in a pile of dust and I think our Governor has now declared it a State of Emergency and they are getting some funding from FEMA to repair the damages, but I am not carrying that on my concscience.  Nope...not worrying about that!

I did manage to get my tags first thing on Monday morning without getting pulled and I did so after learning another valuable lesson in the world of Autism.  Never...never...ever...say it can't get worse...because it always does.  And for the record...Friday the 13th for me was an entire week, but hell, Friday the 13th is just another day in this Life With Spongebob.