The week ahead~

Sometimes I wish that Friday was a lot closer, but today I am a bit uneasy for Friday--
I am going to have my foot fixed on Friday~Then, on Saturday my husband is taking the kids to our church for his Uncles' funeral--I wish I would go and pay my respects, but I think I will be convalescing at my Aunt's-- I don't think I'll be ready to be out and about yet.
Today, I have plans to go to the library and stock up on some books.Yesterday, my neighbor Jessica played with Shane and my Jessica at a park across from the hospital while I had my SUPER long check in appointment for the surgery. I think the worse part of the appointment is when they told me how much they expected me to pay on Friday.... $2300.00!  I was so shocked.... nope... no one called to tell me this ahead of time.... and yup-- Jerry was very upset-- I text-ed him the amount at work and he immediately went to Human Resources to vent. I hope that today brings new,different answers !

So, we are 8 days into no medication for Shane... Things seems to be going okay-- While we were camping there were a few meltdowns-- but nothing that was really scary. So, I am feeling pretty good about taking him off the meds.
We used a combination of strategies to deal with meltdowns--

• When all the kids were asked to move the wood pile~ Shane got real loud and complained that he "always has to do Everything... " I explained very clearly to Shane that this task was a have-to and that if he didn't start helping that he would have a consequence.  He reluctantly helped out-- I used some cross talk to help him do more-- (Shane look at Mandy, she's a girl and she has three pieces of wood! -- Hey, look at Little Tony he has a whole stack I bet you can do more than him!, let's try !)It also helped that all the parents and family members around were GREAT about heaping the praise on once Shane was following directions!  
• In the evening. Shane was getting very crashy-- he was on super fast speed and we decided that it was time for a break-- so Jerry and I worked together we took Shane to our tent, and told him he could snuggle under his heavy blanket and read, or he could go to sleep- Shane choose to read! He did poke his head out the tent a few times, but it was great to have him decompress somewhere safely and calmly!
• The kids had all planned on learning how to be a Junior Ranger-- when it came time to go and hear the lesson-- Shane... threw a fit... :(   I took Shane off to the side and tried to explain to him, what was going to happen-- but Shane was past the reasoning point -- The decision was made to keep Shane at camp with me...  And although I like Shane to have to follow thru with things, this time avoidance worked for us! ... Shane and I ended up going on a "hike/walk" in the woods...
• We also brought my ipod and that was SUCH a blessing -- I had put They Might Be Giants, Here Comes Science -- on it and for about an hour Shane was happily listening, calm and still! Joy!

While at the library today I got complemented on the kids... Jessica was sitting nicely in a chair, and Shane was on  the floor without his sandals-- about 8 books spread out around him happily laying on his tummy reading a book-- about motor cross!  These are the moments that I strive for ! yahooo!

Anyway... it's time to get dinner started !