Nice to meet you, Clara. I'm in South Fla too! :D

LOL I just keep telling myself, "Just take it one thing at a time, Jen. One foot in front of the other and I'll get where I'm supposed to go. " ;) Well, just to give an update. I dont' remember in the very beginning of this thread how much detail I got into about my hubby's job, but he works for the Clerk of Courts for Broward County. The judges have introduced legislation into Florida's House and Senate in essence asking that the Clerk be fired and all 9,000 of his employees laid off and then they would have to reapply as an employee of the state. We wrote all the senators and representatives and did what we could do but my husband informed me today that the Senate bill officially passed and the House bill probably will too soon. The clerk managed to balance his budget and be profitable inspite of not having any tax money at all and the judges want to put their hands in the pot and share the wealth. :rolleyes: I know it's not going to pass one day and then he will be laid off the next. I know it's going to take a couple of months before the transition takes place and in the meantime we are trying to get our plans together. Does anyone know about unemployment benefits?? I've never had to use unemployment before so I'm pretty clueless. Would my husband be eligible for unemployment when he gets laid off?? How long will they give you support while you look for work? DH has 20 years on his job btw. Thanks again ladies for all the wonderful helpful advice. You guys are just so awesome! :grouphug:

I would have said, "yes. I"m totally exhausted by the end of the week. " but I'm too tired to do it. ;) :D

:grouphug::grouphug::grouphug::grouphug::grouphug: I know how you feel. I didn't have a prize winning mom either. But that's great that you recognize what you want to do different and are doing it. I'm doing the same thing. :) It's so hard when you first start the journey. Feel free to PM me anytime you want if you need to rant, or a shoulder to cry on. If I can help you in any way I will be happy to. :grouphug: jennifer

Cool!! That is very encouraging to hear. Hopefully he'll move on to genuine expression sometime soon. He does use echolalia to express himself all the time. :) Thanks so much for giving me something to look forward to! :D

That actually happened in my neighborhood, but the police never told us anything!! I live in my city's downtown area and there was a bank down the street where robbery that went bad and they were holding hostages for hours and there was a threat of a bomb, we knew absolutely nothing about what was going on. We saw helicopters all over the place, police everywhere, S.W.A.T... We found out after the fact what was happening from the local news. I guess they don't care if we get blown up or not. I don't know what the police's standard policy is for notifying residents in an area of things like that, but our police never tells the citizens anything. We've had manhunts in this city as well for murderers who escaped on foot and again we only find out by checking the local news! :mad:

Thank you so much for thinking of me and letting me know. You rock, Cat! :grouphug:

Leather is easier to clean for sure, but requires regular maintenance. Cloth seats are not impossible to clean and can be cleaned easily with a wet/dry shop vac or if you have one of those steam vac/carpet cleaners like Bissel or Hoover, they have an upholstery attachement that you can use on the car as well. Kid's N Pets will get rid of any smells and Folex sprayed, rubbed in with your fingertips and then blotted dry with a clean towel will get rid of stains. :) Like the other posters said it's all a matter of personal preference. I hope this is helpful. :)

I know exactly how you feel. These kids are just so precious!! When we first were struggling with them we used to cry out to God and say, "God why us??" and now after allowing ourselves to be changed by what they have to teach us and by just having the honor and the blessing to know them and have their love we look up and say, "God why us??" They're difficult and they struggle so much, but they are just so awesome. I feel so blessed to have them in my life. :)

hehe Is echolalia a stage in their communication development?? Does actual expressive speech come after that stage? My son started totally silent, then he went to jargon, then jargon with some echolalia and now his is mostly echolalia and some words like "pizza" "juice" "cheerios". That's really all he says. I have a funny with him and the echolalia... He LOVES Veggie tales. They are his favorite thing in the world and he has everything veggie tales, books, toys, you name it he's got it. Well, they came out with a new Veggie Tales Bible and my son knew about it right away because he recognizes the way the Christian catalog looks so he grabs it right away when it comes in the mail and looks for all the Veggie Tales pictures. We haven't bought the Bible for him because he has a tendency to rip up his books. That's fine for books off ebay or whatever, but I draw the line at the Bible. So we were in Barnes and Noble the other day and he went right away to the kid's section and he found the Veggie Tales Bible. He was looking through the pages and looking and then when it was time to go, he grabbed the book held tightly to his chest and started walking up towards the registers. hehe My husband took it from him and put it back on the shelf and my son started getting upset and said quoted from the Veggie Tales Esther DVD, "You can't do this to me! I'm the queen!!" lol:lol:

Oh please don't feel embarrassed. It's natural. You're married. You have kids in the same house. It's bound to happen. There's no shame in having a healthy ahem "tea making" life with your hubby. ;) I read your post and I didn't respond right away because I honestly didn't know what advice to give you other than what you've already done. I still don't know. lol Maybe just give your son some space until he calms down a bit? I mean maybe just say something along the lines of, "I realize you're upset and don't want to talk to me right now, but I want you to know that I love you and I will give you your space, but you can come talk to me whenever you are ready and I will be here, but we need to talk about this." And then just wait until he's ready. And then you may as well explain the birds and bees to him when you guys do talk, or maybe even have your husband talk to him if it embarrasses him. I don't know what else to say other than that. Sorry to be so useless to you. :grouphug:

Here's another "real life" mom just like you. Trust me. You're not alone on your island. :) :grouphug:

Thank you, Bill, for the recommendations. I will start looking into them. :) Incidentally, would those things you mentioned be considered a supplement to her full curriculum or a curriculum in itself? Thanks for your time. :) *edit* I ordered LOF today. I will use it as a supplement to Singapore. thanks for the recommendation. :) Peace. :)

Cool!! We did the same exact thing. I just got my CD in the mail yesterday in fact. My daughter said the same thing about the full version. She LOVES it. She's been wanting to play it all the time since we got it. :) I think today is the last day of the sale so if anyone is on the fence this would be the day to decide. :)

LOL :lol: Ay, not to hijack the thread, but I have a crazy Greek restaurant story. I am Spanish and Cuban first of all. When I lived at home we never ate dinner before 9 or 9:30pm. We just never did. Fast forward and now I"m married. My husband likes to eat dinner as soon as he walks in the door from work between 5-5:30pm. It took me YEARS to get used to eating at that time. Mostly I would just eat a salad or something to keep him company because I was just never hungry. Well, one day my husband decides to take me to dinner to this local Greek restaurant in our city. We get there at 5:30pm and open the door. There is NOBODY inside. We are just kinda walking around because it was a pretty big place and we're calling out, "Hello?" hehehe Finally this little man comes out with a very surprised look on his face and says to us, "I'm so sorry. We're not open yet. Can you come back later?" So we go out for like an hour or so and come back like around 6:30-7:00. We are still the only ones in the whole place. hehehe We ordered and we served and just ate there all by ourselves. While we were eating, around 8:00 people started filing into the restaurant. By the time we left (close to 9pm), they were half full and had a full band playing Greek music. When we got outside and found our car my husband just turned to me and said, "Man! We are such DORKS!!" hehehehehee ** And now back to your regularly scheduled thread ** :D

Thanks again, vineyard, for such wonderful informative posts. You give me alot to think about. :grouphug:

Yet another here. My MIL died two months after diagnosis. :( :grouphug: Lots of hugs and support for you and your family.

hehe Thanks for the clarification. It indeed helps. :) I guess that is why Brad and Angelina were in Canada because they know they'll be left alone. ;) :) I actually am the same way with regards to famous people. I've seen 2 famous people in person in my life and both times I just left them alone. To me it's just a matter of privacy. If I was in there place I wouldn't want to be bothered so I don't bother them. :) I can't say that it would be the same for other Americans though because everytime I've ever told that to anyone their next questions is, "oh did you get their autograph?" hehehe But I'm sure there are plenty of other people like me in the States. I guess it all comes down to the personality of the person. :)

Newlifemom did such a good job explaining things that I won't add anything other than a welcome. :) I'm new here too. :)I hope you enjoy your stay.:)

Thank you for that link. It was very informative. I bookmarked the page. :)

I apologize then. I misunderstood your post. I thought when you said you had a lot of questions and then asked about Baptism that that topic was one of the things you had questions about. My bad. :)

I know right!! Sheesh!! That's such a messed up thing to do!! And in NYC of all places near the WTC site! :eek:

My public library has the Power Pac that has Spanish, German, French and a bunch of others. It is the full program. Maybe your library has it??

Oh they're soooo cuuuute!!! My daughter would love to see something like that. She loves animals so much. I do too. Thanks so much for sharing. :)