660 + 556 Weeks

I’m currently sitting down on the esplanade at Caloundra, having a smoothie while Carmie is at her D&D group.  It is gorgeous down here.  I’m happy for the break, as I have had a very busy day.

I have quite a story to tell this week. We had our camping (mis)adventure this week.  We have been getting ready for this little holiday for so long, buying second hand and new camping equipment.  I had camping check lists, and we had to organise the food, which, for our family, is a nightmare going anywhere, let alone camping.  We left on Friday after lunch, after loading up both cars with all of our equipment (which took a couple of hours).  We arrived at the campsite at around 3pm.  We had a great location (or so we thought), right on the lakefront at a large camp ground.  It was beautiful there.  It was also incredibly hot.  And humid.  It took us three hours (!!) to unpack the cars and completely set up camp.  By the time we were done it was almost dark and we just did not have it in us to cook a camp dinner.  We had snacks for dinner, and we started a fire (despite the heat) so the kids could roast marshmallows (we did not win the parenting award for nutrition that night).  I barely got to sit down at all, because any time anyone needed anything, I had to get it, because I was the only one who knew where everything was.  I was exhausted.  We started noticing how loud the campground was.  Right next to us there was a group of about 20, half of whom were kids.  They had about 5 girls with them, around age 9, who decided to sing at the top of their lungs, every song they could think of with the word ‘fire’ in it.  We were ready to bomb their campsite.  Carmie and Arley enjoyed their marshmallows, and Jeff and I left them alone at the campfire.  One of the nicest parts of the trip was seeing them roast marshmallows together and having a real conversation, without bickering!  Anyway, it didn’t take long for Arley to get too hot and take himself off to bed to watch his iPad.  Pretty soon Carmie followed.  By 9pm, we were all in our tent, in a row, lying on our camping stretchers.  I woke up after midnight with the noise of some people having a little party down near the water.  I had to pee, so I took myself on a walk to get to the bathrooms, and on the way back I had the bejeezus scared out of me by a very large kangaroo bounding right by.  Then I went down and asked the inconsiderate revellers to be quiet.  They were swimming and drinking and playing MnM down by the lake.  Got back to sleep, but at exactly 6am we were woken by about a thousand young kids screaming and splashing and playing in the lake.  It was SO noisy.  Not the ideal campsite after all!  We lay around for a little, had cereal for breakfast, then tried to brush our teeth and wash up but the bathrooms were closed for cleaning.  We made our way back to the campsite and got changed into swimmers (meanwhile Arley and Carmie - and Jeff - were all in a massive fight).  I had to take Arley back to the bathrooms because he was yet to pee at all.  There were little holes in all the toilet doors where the old locks had been removed, and those holes were enough to give Arley stage fright.  He was refusing to use the bathrooms.  I coerced him, and then I had to stand on the outside of his toilet door with my hand over the little hole, while he yelled at me that his pee wasn’t coming out.  LOL. It took him 15 minutes.  There were plenty of people around too.  Haha.  We finally got back to camp and went to pick up our kayaks that I had rented for the morning.  We got two junior kayaks and two adult kayaks. They didn’t have junior paddles, so the kids were given adult paddles.  Not a good start, as Arley isn’t very big and neither kid is very  strong.  We paddled out through all the people on the lake, and within ten minutes, Arley was done.  He had gotten the hang of paddling and was quite good at it, he was just beat.  And complaining.  I then saw Carmie curled up on her side in the foetal position, on her kayak, floating on the lake.  So I paddled over to her to discover that she was sick.  So I took her into shore, back to camp.  Arley thought this was terribly unfair, so he went back to camp too.  I set them up on their iPads, and Arley asked to keep my phone so he could hotspot internet.  Jeff and I paddled away again, got around the bend, when my mum called.  I told her the trip wasn’t going so well, and while I was complaining, I realised that I was actually talking on my phone which I was supposed to leave with Arley.  So I paddled back to camp again, all the while imagining the fallout from Arley not having internet (turned out he was fine!). Then Jeff and I got back into our kayaks and we just paddled into the middle of the lake until we couldn’t hear the screaming kids anymore.  We actually had a moment of relaxation, but that’s when I broke the news to Jeff that I had looked at the weather forecast, and it was supposed to start raining at 11pm that night, and then rain all the next day.  As I saw it, we had three choices.  We could have a lovely night, spend tomorrow in the tent and then leave on Monday as planned.  We could have a lovely night, then pack up tomorrow in the rain.  Or we could leave that afternoon.  We chose leave that afternoon.  I had had enough of being hot and sweaty, and sticky and feeling dirty.  The lake was only knee deep, and it was a clay bottom so the water was brown and not appealing at all.  I couldn’t imagine staying there any longer in the heat, with all the screaming children.  Anyway, we went back to camp and told the kids we were leaving.  Arley had spent the whole time with his back to the campsite, facing a tree, while tuning out the world with his iPad and headphones.  He was ready to go!  We returned the kayaks and that’s when we noticed the dark grey purplish clounds on the horizon.  We got started on packing up and getting the cars loaded.  An hour in to packing up, the weather turned and we were suddenly in the middle of a mini hurricane.  Fun times when you’re unpegging a tent!  It was awful!  Haha.  And what made it worse is the kids were on their iPads, completely unaware, and kept asking us for things!  At one point Jeff was holding down the back of the tent, and I was hanging on to the guy ropes at the front, both of us getting lashed at, and Carmie popped over to tell us that Arley wouldn’t get out of the front seat.  I thought Jeff was going to kill her with his laser eyes alone!  Haha.  In the end, we litterally stuffed everything into the cars - the tent was a giant billowing ball and we just rammed it into Jeff’s car.  We were wet, hot, sticky, muddy and hungry.  We drove out of there, made it home, spent two more hours unpacking, and vowed never to go camping as a family again!  OMG.  Our three day camping trip ended up being less than 24 hours, and it was hell!  The amount of times we all said, “Thank God we are home” is not even funny.  It has taken us all week to recover, and I think I have PTSD!

Arley has pretty much refused all activities this week, and Carmie hasn’t been well.  I can’t wait until she is better again.  She is constantly nauseous and light-headed.  Poor thing.  She is booked in for her endoscopy on March 11.  I hope we get some answers.

I can’t wait to relax this weekend.  We are not going anywhere; staying home by the pool is all I want to do!

Arley’s final hours at the campsite.  Ha ha

A goanna who spent a lot of time roaming around us.  He was huge!

Yesterday I took the kids for much-needed hair cuts.  They look so cute!

659 + 555 Weeks

This week has gone so quickly, I can't quite believe it!  My kid brother Jay and his girlfriend Erika are still in town, but they are leaving early tomorrow morning.  They came over this afternoon to say goodbye to us and to have a good play with Arley (Carmie is down at her groups).  Jay and Arley played chess together and then had a nice swim in the pool.  Arley loves it so much when family members come to visit, so I'm glad he got some one on one time with his uncle.

Meanwhile, Carmie is down at Caloundra at her groups.  As of this week, on Thursday she goes down for a book club, then stays for a dungeon master training session, then she stays for her regular D&D group, which means she is down there from noon to 5pm.  She's becoming so independent now.  Well, she still left her lunch sitting on the kitchen counter, so maybe not that independent.

On Friday Clint took Arley to a place called Ninja Jungle.  It was a good workout for him, which he really needs.  On Tuesday morning I took both kids to taekwon do, and Arley had his best lesson yet.  He was absolutely kicking but, putting in so much effort, it was great to see.  Carmie was half-hearted as she was feeling dizzy again.

Carmie had to go to her endocrinologist on Tuesday.  He is going to go ahead and do an endoscopy on her, and possibly a colonoscopy as well.  She's booked in to hospital on March 11th.  Her doctor is ruling out a few different things and wants to get a look at her coeliac damage to try to understand why she is still feeling unwell.  Poor thing.

Yesterday I had to take Arley to the dentist to get his Invisalign for his bottom teeth.  While the top one didn't cause him much discomfort, the bottom one is making his teeth quite sore, and he is only able to eat soft foods.  I can't wait until his dental treatment is over, but one good thing is that we are down to monthly 15-minute appointments.  And no more chiro.  That's pretty good for us!

Jeff and I met with the kids' behaviour specialists on Monday.  We now have two - the main guy, and an assistant.  Carmie loves the assistant (Penny), and I really like Ben, the specialist.  He is getting Jeffrey and I on the same page and making sure that we look at all of the kids' 'problems' from an autistic perspective and having us question the reasons behind the kids' behaviours.  It's all very interesting and quite helpful.

Tomorrow we are setting out on another little adventure.  We are taking the kids camping.  We aren't going far, less than an hour north.  We are heading up to a place called Habitat Noosa, where the Noosa Everglades are (one of two everglades in the world, and there are no crocodiles).  We are camping for three nights, and we are hoping it's going to be a huge success, because we would love to do more camping!  So wish us luck!

Me and Jay

Arley getting his Invisalign.  LOL

Carmie before her groips today :)

658 + 554 Weeks

We have had a good week, with a few ups and downs.  Carmie has been sick with cramps and nausea, so sadly she has spent a little bit in bed, missing her Wednesday social group.  I have been able to spend some time with my brother Jay and his girlfriend Erika.  We all took the kids bowling on Friday morning.  It was a success, and the kids had fun.  I tied last with Erika, but at least I wasn’t last by myself!  Jeffrey and I went out with them on Saturday afternoon. We solved an escape room, which was really fun, and then we went out to dinner, which was excellent.  It’s so nice to go out for an ‘adults only’ dinner every once in a while.  We had a fun night.

The weather has been awful - so rainy and muggy.  We haven’t been swimming because our pool filter stopped working and the pool very quickly went gross.  It’s back to swimmable again now, but the weather sucks!  Instead we have been playing games and doing a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle.  I took Arley to the dentist on Monday to get his bottom Invisalign fitted, but I forgot to bring his Invisalign kit so the dentist couldn’t do it, however Carmie was with us with a very gross and dangling upper eye tooth, so the dentist numbed it up and pulled it for her.  I don’t know how she lets her loose teeth get so gross, but she is feeling much better now that it is gone.

Today Arley went with Chayse and Andrea to a local pool and splash pad, and Carmie went to her D&D session.  I only had to drive her down there, as a support worker brought her home.  We are using support workers for driving the kids around a lot now, and I tell you what, it makes life so much easier!

I don’t have much else to add, even though it’s been a really busy week.  We’ve had the car tyres changed, hired an accountant, had Bella groomed, I’ve been dealing with pool technicians and electricians.  The kids had OT on Monday which is always challenging - well at least Arley’s session is.  And we skipped taekwon do this week because I pulled my back out when we went bowling, and Carmie wasn’t well.  I’ve been walking around like a pregnant lady trying to keep pressure off my lower back.  All very exciting stuff!  LOL

656, 657 + 552, 553 Weeks

It has been a busy two weeks!  We got down to the Gold Coast for a little vacation, and it was a success!  It worked because there was a good amount of downtime for the kids.  We went out to dinner on the first night, then the next day we went to Wet n Wild, which was the whole point of the trip.  It was almost a disaster, but ended up going well.  The first ride we went on was a four-person ride that took you through a tube slide and then shot you into this giant dome funnel thing that sent the raft scaling the walls.  The look on Arley's face was priceless, and so were Carmie's screams.  Haha.  For the second ride we had to carry these heavy rafts up all the stairs, and when we got to the top, Carmie vomited.  Classic Carmie.  They had to call a 'code brown' over their walkie-talkies.  LOL.  While this was going on, Arley was holding up the ride because he was too scared to go on it.  So he's with Jeff who's in the raft at the top, and Arley's refusing to get in the raft, but Jeff can't go without him.  Ugh.  We had to wait until both kids calmed down, and we almost just left.  Carmie felt a little better and went down the ride with Jeff, and I had to coerce Arley into our raft, which took ten minutes, with everyone commenting behind me how bad they felt for him.  But I knew if he didn't go down this slide, he wouldn't go down any of them.  He did it, loved it, and his fear didn't rear its head again for the whole day.  The day ended up being really fun, and really exhausting.  The rest of our time away we just swam in the pool where we were staying and played games together.  It was a good, bonding family time.

As I always mention, Carmie hasn't been feeling so hot lately.  The kids had a paed appointment last week.  Arley is doing great weight-wise and meds-wise, so no changes there.  Carmie, on the other hand, had to get more bloods drawn, and she also had to get an ultrasound on her stomach.  The ultrasound results came back clear, but her bloods weren't good.  Her iron is at the very low of the normal range, which is really good for her as she's not anemic anymore, however her coeliac tTG number was elevated.  It is supposed to be under 10 (under 4 for non-coeliac), but last September hers was 30.  Carmie's endo said to wait a year because it was still on the way down from the original number, but now it's gone up to 50, and we have no idea why.  We are fastidious when it comes to keeping her gluten free.  So now she is booked in to see her endocrinologist and she's going to have to get a scope, which we've been trying to avoid.  It goes to show that when she's not acting/feeling well, there is something going on in the background that we need to address.  Poor thing, I hate that she has to deal with this.

Arley has started his Invisalign treatment.  I have heard from two different sources (one is our paed) that the first week to ten days of Invisalign are awful.  I was really worried but didn't tell Arley because I didn't want him to refuse to get them.  He has been fine!  On the second day he told me his front teeth were starting to hurt, so I gave him some Panadol, and they have been completely fine ever since.  He says he can barely notice it at all.  If only they had Invisalign back when I had braces!!

The kids have still had their therapies and activities.  I have come to realise that my full time job is organising the kids' schedules, driving them to activities, helping them through therapies, and keeping our family from dissolving into chaos.  It is full on. I also help Jeff with his guitar school. I have given myself permission to not worry about creating artwork, because I simply don't have the time.  One of these days!

My youngest kid brother, Jay, is here on vacation from Bali.  He brought his girlfriend Erika with him.  They spent the morning here.  Tomorrow we are taking the kids bowling with them.  It is really good to see Jay again, and Erika is lovely.

I'm sure there is more, as I haven't updated in two weeks, but my brain is a little frazzled and I have to get dinner on!