Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards | Lots of "stuff" going on!

I haven't been doing much posting lately, lots is going on. First, our IEP team had a meeting last week to discuss Luke's progress in this class. They all suggested what I'd already been contemplating - we need to look into other options for him, this class/school is not a good fit (have I already shared this here? see, I can't even remember!). I'm beginning to think that though my intentions are good, I really need to give up this idea that a "Christian" setting is going to be the best place for him. And for that matter, when the rubber meets the road, I don't think the people there have treated us very Christian-like. I am visiting a public preschool on Thursday morning that has EC classes that his therapists think would be a good fit for him. It is not an autistic class, more of a broad group of kids, but has a low ratio, well trained teachers, good balance of structure and flexibility, and his therapists would all be there... so besides being better for HIM (I hope and pray) it would all be FREE. I'm praying this works out and we can get him through yet another transition without too much trauma. I wrestle with guilt over putting him through all this, like I should have known and just put him in a class like they're suggesting from the start, but can't change that now.

SECOND (yes, there's more) my family is driving me plumb NUTS. For context sake, my grandmother is basically "Marie" from "Everybody Loves Raymond", just crank up the selfishness, manipulation, and rudeness a couple of notches. Her only redeeming factor (that I can think of right now) is that she lives in Louisiana and I never have to SEE her. Well, their 50th anniversary is coming this Thanksgiving weekend. She TOLD us all to throw them a party and how she wanted it done, then came back later and said they could not come up here for it after all, and that we all needed to come down THERE. She also "asked" me to make one of those slide-show-videos for them of all their old pictures from over the years. So, Eric put his foot down, said there was no way in h3%& we were all going to Louisiana for someone who demanded it of us and made me feel like crap all the time. It took a while for my parents to "get" that we were serious and were NOT GOING. I got this video made, which was not cheap, and determined that was my contribution to the whole thing and that she would have to be satisfied with THAT. Well, over the weekend Mama comes up with the bright idea that since all of us can't go, why don't just my parents, my brother, and I FLY down and just stay one night, to be there for this PARTY that my grandmother is throwing for herself. Well, Eric is just livid that they cannot let it go and make me feel guilted into everything. We talked round and round and finally decided that before long my grandparents will be DEAD, my dad will feel bad if we don't at least make some effort to PRETEND to be a happy family one last time (it's his parents we're talking about), so we would bite the bullet and I would go. So I'm spending Thanksgiving AWAY from my own family (husband & kids, plus his folks & sister/husband who I truly ENJOY being with). And all they eat down there is deep-fried, gravy laden foods so I'll be carryinig a backpack of IBS friendly food around with me the whole time, you can believe that. But it doesn't end there... every day there is a new chapter to this whole "saga", today's episode involved me getting the tickets and hotel set up because my mother had put tickets on hold for us all at $660 a PERSON in order to get the exact times she wanted. I told her I would not pay that, so she pulled the whole "martyr trick" and said she'd pay it for me. But here's the kicker - my parents have no money and never have!! They're just taking out another credit card to pay for all of this!!!!!! Makes me want to scream. Thankfully, I found us tickets for 224$ a person and the times are "tolerable" (sheesh). I've become so much more blunt and straightforward over the past year, that by the time this whole trip/party is over, I doubt I have to worry about my family anymore because they will probably excommunicate me!

Anyway, those are the big things going on in my life right now! On more lighthearted notes - Aaron is officially wearing underwear 100% of the time now (finally!), he turned 3 in July and has just been sort of stubborn about the whole thing. And Miss Sarah is just a little talking machine at 16 months, every day she says new words and phrases, and is just so much more SOCIAL than the boys were. Such a flirt, too!

If you read all this you deserve an award. Hope all of you are doing well! If I don't post much I am keeping up with you all, just the same. Hugs to everyone!

--------------------
Take care,
Michelle
...the greatest of these is LOVE. (I Cor 13)

Print Remind Me Notify Moderator