I'm sitting here at the computer eating cashews. There is no chocolate left in the house - how sick is that?! Oh well. Deren was looking at my bulging waistline last night - sans pregnancy - so I guess I need to be better about what I eat.

We didn't make it to the specialist yesterday. When I called and told them 2 of the kids have the rotavirus, they (nicely) asked me to stay away. Abby sees Dr. Rao (the allergy/immunology specialist) on Feb 9th. The rest of the kids see him on Feb 20th.

Jacob has been home from school the past 2 days. He has been coughing really bad, has flushed cheeks, and little to no appetite. My first thought was 'oh crap' (no pun intended ) - another w/the rotavirus. After a day or two, however, it looks like a cold. Joshua is also coming down with it, so I'll have 2 with a stomach virus and 2 with a cold.

Got a call from an OT at ECI yesterday. She is coming this Friday afternoon to evaluation Abigail's gross motor delay and determine whether Abby qualifies from services. I had to cancel Abby's appointments with the private OT last week and this week because of her bug. Next Thursday is Abby's appt with the neurologist (AND Deren's Birthday!). Please keep both Deren and Abby in your thoughts next Thursday. Let's hope for a happy Groundhog Day!

The city increased our water rates this past month. What with the drought and warm weather, we are having to water the lawn more than we usually do this time of year. Our bill last month was over $96! If I didn't have so much to pray about already, I would add rain to it!

On the knitting front: I am still working on a poncho for Rachael. It is becoming less and less likely it will be done before the spring, so maybe for next fall.

Deren's Aunt Jennifer sent us a nice note, as well as a chicken recipe. Here it is. I'm trying it tomorrow.

Grilled Chicken with Herbs & Garlic

1 clove garlic minced
1/4 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp. rosemary
1/4 tsp. oregano
2 tbsp. olive oil
2 tsbsp. lemon juice
1/4 tsp. salt
1 lb. boneless chicken breasts (I usually pound them to flatten them
uniformly)

Combine in bowl all ingredients except chicken. Add chicken breasts and mix
with marinade. Grill or broil immediately on lightly greased grill about 7
minutes per side. (Can also cover and let stand at room temperature for half
an hour or refrigerate up to 3 hours.) This also is delicious served cold in
a green salad.

..can't figure out how to delete that extra post, so bear with me. Abby is still pretty sick - not much of an appetite, upset stomach, throwing up on occassion, and problems at the south end, too. Jacob doesn't have an appetite, and Joshua is very fussy today. Soooo, I'm thinking they will all be well again sometime in February, seeing how this is a 7-10 day virus. Pray for me (I know, I'm asking that a lot lately). Oh, and pray for the kids, too - that's kinda selfish, isn't it? 'the kids are sick with a bad virus, put pray for me.' That's another 'God shaking his head a me moment' - He's having a lot of those lately - Deren can attest to that (he would be saying "Amen!" if he was reading this!

Not sure if I'm going to be able to continue with the bible, study, seeing as how it's from 11-1 on Tuesdays, and Deren can't take off work then, and no sane person would volunteer to watch a house full of the rotavirus. If only the duration of it wasn't so long (sighs again). Abby's OT is on hold, also, until she recovers.

The rest of the kids, including Rachael, have an appt w/Dr. Rao (specialist in allergy/immunology), tomorrow. While at face value Rachael appears to be doing much better than the boys, her lab work measuring gut and other immune system functioning is much worse than the boys. I am not expecting a pleasant appointment tomorrow. We haven't been giving the prescribed meds to the kids because they have had one gut bug after another, and won't take their meds when they're feeling bad. So this past 2 mos we would start a med for a couple days, stop it when they got sick, restart, stop and so forth. They were prescribed anti-fungals and anti-biotics - not a good class of drugs to be messing around with. So I don't EVEN want to think about how much I've messed them up regarding the meds. "Okay God? Are you done shaking your head? Because I need your favor again!"

We have had rain for the first day in ages here. It's been a dreary, cold day - I'm already whiny about it. I just finished eating a whole package of m&m's. I'm sure Abby will just LOVE that when she goes to nurse. Can someone just send me a cyber kick in the pants?! I'm off to pray, this all-about-me thing is getting out of control here.

In the news today: there is a rotavirus pandemic in the region. The pandemic has hit the Ebdon household. Rachael has been sick since last Sunday. Abigail started getting sick Wed night - the symptons hit in full force today. Soooo.. another week or two (or 3 or 4, if the boys get it) of cleaning up things that I would rather not mention - (sigh)

I am just getting around to posting pics today. It's been pretty hectic around here - all the more reason for me to be sitting in front of the computer eating a cookie bar!

The pretty young lady in this picture is Nikki (no, it's not me - I wish I looked that good - you will not see many pics of me and there's a reason why LOL!). Nikkie has worked with Joshua doing behavioral therapy since he was one year old! She went on to work with both the boys, as well as Rachael (Rachael loved to play with Ms. Nikki and the boys - she thought of the sessions as hers, not Jacob's or Joshua's. Nikki was always so great and let Rachael participate. When Nikki came to the house Rachael would say "bye bye Momma", and go to work.) Nikki graduated with her Master's in Speech Pathology this past December. She moved to Austin, and is working as a speech pathologist for Early Childhood Intervention (ECI). We miss her terribly, but wish her the absolute best!

(sniff, sniff) In other news, I took Abby to her 9 mo well visit last Thursday. The news was not good - she has went from the 25 to 5th percentile in weight, she is also losing muscle tone throughout her body. What does this mean? Low tone is a neurological problem. Her brain is not telling her muscles to fire. Hence, her limbs are the constistancy of Gumby - you can move her arms and legs any which way because her brain isn't communcating "hey, I'm not supposed to be in this position!" She wasn't bearing any weight on her legs - she wouldn't lock her knees to stand up - just went floppy every time you tried to stand her up. Sooo... in come the specialists - the OT's (occupational therapists), the neurologists, the g.i. doctors, the allergy/immunology doctors, the chiropractors, ECI workers .. did I leave anyone out? I'm sure I did. What can you do?? Pray, pray, pray hard for baby Abby. She is such a little sweet baby. Jacob went this same route (and had about the same timing, give or take a month) before he regressed and went on to lose all this skills - eye contact, speech, socialization. In fact, low tone is pretty common in kids w/autism. In makes sense.. these are the first signs that something is not right in the nervous system.

I have been praying every day for God to send people into our lives who can help Abby, and to hold me tight so that I can deal with the outcome - no matter what it is. Good news - Abby started working w/an OT this past Monday. Sue worked with the boys, back when we had some money. She is a wonderful OT. She showed me some exercises to do with Abby, and Abby is already bearing some weight on her legs! We plan to keep taking Abby to Sue for weekly cranial sacral (sp?) therapy, and she will informally monitor Abby's progress. We are waiting for an appt with ECI - can provide OT, PT and other services in the home (providing Abby qualifies, which based on the seriousness of her delay I think she will). I'm taking Abby to a pediatric neurologist Feb 2nd - Deren's birthday! - so say an extra prayer for us that day. I'm still dragging my feet with the g.i. doctor. I had such a bad experience w/Jacob. He was having horrible gut issues and I took him to a g.i. doctor in Dallas that came highly recommended. She had a nurse come into the room and ask me to leave - said she doesn't treat autism. So I took Jacob to the allergy/immunology doctor we had just started seeing, and Jacob has improved so much - he used to be doubled over in pain everyday. So what I thought was a horribe experience turned out to be a blessing. But I still can't get too excited about dragging Abby into a g.i. doctor. We see the allergy/immunology doctor next week, and I am hoping he will agree to take Abby on as a patient as well.

Other good news: I started a Beth Moore bible study at church last week - didn't get to go this past Tuesday because Rachael has a nasty, nasty stomach virus. I am loving it! And God, it is such perfect timing! Amen. I don't want to 'go it alone' this time around. When the boys started losing all their skills and having all their diagnoses and problems, I thought God had cursed me - I'll just go it alone. Man, was that ever a mistake. I kept falling further and further into a pit of anger and self- pity. I'm still trying to dig myself out of that pit. It's so easy to say 'oh life is going good. I love God, He loves me, la la la..' But when the stuff hits the fan, so did my faith in God. This time, I am determined to hold on and hold on, and hopefully become a better servant in the process. Well, that's my sermon for the day. For copies, please send donations c/o the "autism club" - you know the address LOL!

Belatedly posting pics from the Christmas holiday

The boys started back to school on Wednesday, and can you believe they were healthy for it? When Jacob saw his uniform shirt, he started to cry. Joshua was miserable at first, too - he likes to sleep in and gets pretty crabby if anyone else wakes him up. But they both ran to the bus. That afternoon Deren picked Jacob up 1/2 early from school and took him to the ophthalmologist (and I might have just spelled that correctly woohoo!) that sees Rachael. Jacob was prescribed prism lenses last Jan by an optometrist that sees a lot of local autistic kids. The glasses were supposed to help regulate his sensory visual disturbances. No go. Jacob was still crossing his eyes, so we decided to get a second opinion. Dr. Wang (Rachael's doctor) said that Jacob was far-sighted, and his current glasses did not account for that at all. I went to the other office today and got a copy of Jacob's records. The doctor had dilated Jacob's eyes, but did not put down any results. So now we are looking at paying for yet another set of glasses. Please pray that these will do the trick. Yes, Jacob can continue to cross his eyes because of sensory issues, but the underlying problem of not being able to see up close surely does not help the situation. I'm so frustrated.

Moving on.. I planted 2 thornless blackberry bushes, 2 swiss chard plants (hope they will make it!) and a fig tree in the backyard this past Tuesday. We planted 2 blackberry bushes at our first house. By year 3 they produced more than a gallon of berries - it was great. The kids "helped" me plant, especially Jacob and Rachael, my 2 helpers. The three of us were mudballs by the end of the day - they had a blast! They are so cute. When I hang clothes on the clotheslines (yes, we have clotheslines in the middle of suburbia - call us white trash if you will!) they are right there trying to clip the pins onto the clothes. And Jacob was irrate when I took down the Christmas tree on Monday. He kept going into the container and grabbing the ornaments back out to put them up on the Christmas tree. Meanwhile, Rachael yells "WHERE'S CHRISTMAS?!!" when we're out on a walk or driving.

We're having a babysitter come to the house for 1 1/2 hrs on Tues & Weds to watch the kids while I work 1:1 with each boy on their lessons. It will be a lot less expensive than trying to find a new therapist to work with them. Also, we had been so blessed by the wonderful talent of the women who had been working with the boys - Christina, Nikki, and Maria. First I prayed for another person as talented to come into our lives. Then I changed my prayers to "show me what I should do Lord." I decided I would work with them. Although I am definitely not in the league of their former therapists, I am committed to this. Please pray for the boys and for me to not disappoint them - I'd appreciate it :-)

Happy New Years! Keeping with tradition, I was in bed well before 10. I think I could count the number of times I've stayed up until midnight on one hand! I've never been a night person. Deren's parents left for the airport at 7am this morning. Jacob and Joshua were up to see them off. Joshua wanted one last ride in their rental car. Jacob said "bye bye" and cried when they left. We felt so bad for the little guy! All the kids miss Grandma and Grandpa.

We went to the park yesterday afternoon. I walked with Abby while Deren and his parents chased the kiddos around. Afterwards we went for smoothies and ice cream. Joshua is a Jamba Juice junkie - so is his mama! There is a good mexican restaurant right next to Jamba Juice, so we decided to get take out from there. I ate a plate that could probably feed three people, and was almost in a coma by 9pm. We watched a program featuring favorite opera pieces from the Lincoln Center. Rachael gave her own renditions to the opera. Oh - we also found out she's a closet Ricky Nelson fan. PBS had a special on him after the opera. Rachael boogied with Ricky for awhile.

We went to church this a.m. The first time we've been to church as a (semi-healthy) family since I don't know when. We had all the kids in their respective nursery rooms - so the healthy part probably won't last too long - but it was a really nice service. After that we stopped by Jamba Juice again (for me and Joshie!). Deren was reading the paper and left out an article about black-eyed peas on New Years. There was a recipe with the article. I went to the grocery store, got the last two cans of black-eyed peas, and made the recipe while Deren appeased the kiddos. Here it is - it is really good!

1 lb bulk sausage, hot or regular
1 C chopped onion
1 C chopped green pepper
1 C chopped celery
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 (14oz) can chicken broth
1 C converted rice (I used Uncle Ben's instant whole grain)
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 bay leaf
2 (14oz) cans black-eyed peas
Saute sausage, onion, green pepper, celery and garlic in large pot over med-hi heat. Drain and return to pot (I didn't have to drain). Add chicken broth, rice, salt, peppers and bay leaf. Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer 15 mins, stirring occasionally (didn't say whether to cover, I did for half the time)

Drain & rinse black-eyed peas, then add to pot and simmer an additional 5-10 mins, until liquid is absorbed into the rice.

Our hard drive on the laptop crashed a couple days ago, so I can't load any pics. But as it so happens, we have no pics of Christmas. Jacob came down with (another!) stomach bug mid-morning on Sunday. The bug was worse than the one he had a week or two ago. WHEN WILL THIS END! We normally use only vinegar to clean in the kitchen and bathrooms, but I pulled out the bleach on Sunday. We have had kids throwing up for a couple weeks now. A couple hours after Jacob got sick, Rachael started having problems at the other end (kwim?). So our Christmas wasn't too jolly, but we survived, and tried to keep perspective. Deren and I kept asking each other "what are you thankful for?" throughout the day. We each had a couple hissy fits in the midsts of vomit and other stuff which I will not name, but we got through it.

Good news is Joshua is doing better. His nose is still running quite a bit, but his appetite is much, much better. He's been happy at mealtimes these past 2 days - yay! Rachael and Jacob, however, have really fickle tummies right now, and are not wanting to eat much. Their congestion has also picked up, so maybe this is the course of the bug (at least the current one).

I ended up going to Christmas Eve service at 4pm with Rachael and Abby. I helped Rachael hang an angel ornament on the tree during the service. I'll post pictures of the girls in their dresses when the laptop is fixed (hopefully next week).

Monday Deren's parents arrived from Canada, where they were visiting his brother, his wife and 2 sons. The weather has been beautiful (and quite a bit different from Canada!) here - in the 80's 2 days, in the upper 60's and 70's otherwise. Joshua is in heaven playing in the backyard. We are trying to potty train Rachael - no successes yet, and a lot of accidents. We put her in regular underwear - she will pee away in pull ups - so did the boys. How do you train kids in disposable pull-ups anyway? Wish Rachael success! She returns to mother's day out at church next Friday. Don't think they will appreciate Rachael having accidents left and right.

So it looks like church is out for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Rachael was fussing all night, and threw up her dinner from last night this a.m. at breakfast (eww!). WTH!! She was just throwing up last Friday!! We are going to fall back on our standing Christmas tradition - kids throwing up and/or oozing snot and/or hooked up to the nebulizer for breathing treatments. Abby, Joshua, and Jacob still have a pretty bad cold. Deren stayed home from work. Neither of us feel that great, but after cleaning up roast beef that's been in a toddlers stomach for over 12 hrs, who would??

I'm so bummed. When I prayed this morning I asked for forgiveness for being so self-centered. We are celebrating Jesus' birthday, and look at the sacrifice he made for us. Much, much bigger than a temporary bug. Does it matter if we go to church? (sniff, sniff) We will be thankful at home this year.

We were in the house going stir-crazy this afternoon, so I put the kids by the tree and started snapping shots. The one with all four has Jacob biting himself - Abby was attacking him with a Christmas ornament.

Otherwise, today was a day when you love to live in Texas - sunny and in the 60's. Deren is still working, so we played out in the yard quite a bit. I also opened the windows and let in some fresh air. What a beautiful day!

I am knitting a poncho for Rachael. It is going slow. I am hoping to have it done in the next week, and I'll post pictures. I don't think I picked that pretty of a yarn for the poncho. Definitely not too trendy. I turn into a vegetable at the yarn store - I can't visualize how the yarns will look finished. And then the lady started talking about changing the pattern for the different weights and gauges of the yarn - huh?

We splurged and got a Creative MP3 player at Walmart over the weekend. We got a really good deal - they price matched with a one day only sale Staples was having. I've been knitting in Kenny Chesney land each night - pretty nice.

Merry Christmas!

I'm SO excited! This day started off pretty lousy. Joshua is on another Christmas hunger strike - won't eat anything but a couple chips and a couple pieces of dry cereal here and there. Everything else is a pitch battle - he throws up, screams, smacks. If I force feed him something (this a.m. it was a bite of scrambled egg, for lunch a bite of chicken nugget) he pockets it in his cheek, like a squirrel with a nut. He can keep the food in his cheek indefinitely - or usually until I turn my back for a moment and then he spits it out. At lunch I dug through the trash for another chicken nugget and sat there until he swallowed it. Then I hugged him, gave him some skittles, and a movie. Jacob goes nuts while Joshua is carrying on - he IS rather loud. Rachael usually ignores Joshua when he is doing this, but will eventually break down and cry. Abby was trying to shriek as loud as Joshua. Mostly the other kids were ignored today while I fought with Joshua. And when he doesn't eat he walks around crying because he is so hungry. But he does not have the cognitive ability to put two and two together and realize he's starving himself, and if he would eat he would feel better. It's so frustrating. I called his speech therapist, Christina, and cried and whined to her for a bit. This is exactly what we dealt with last Christmas - ugh! She suggested giving him several mini-meals throughout the day - if he has to eat a bite or two of unpreferred foods (which is about everything at the moment!) at regular intervals he may not act up as much than if he eats larger meals only 3x/day. Make sense? Sounded good to me - except the bit about me doing all the feedings! I just want to crawl into my closet with my oreos at mealtimes now!

Anyway, on to the exciting part.. Rachael and Abby both had a check-up with the eye specialist this afternoon. Rachael to monitor her crossing, and Abby as a follow-up to having her tear ducts irrigated a month ago. On the way to the office I heard a commercial on the radio with a lady talking about needing energy to raise her son w/special needs. I perked up and listened. The lady speaking turns out to be a friend of mine, Liz Scillian! It was a commercial for Citracal. It was the best commercial ever! And check out the Citracal website: http://www.standstrong.com

the first picture (in b&w) is Liz. I was in tears! I called her and was saying "oh my gosh oh my gosh!" How NEAT!!

BTW - good news on both girls. Rachael's eyes are not crossing so long as she is wearing her glasses. We may have to start putting a patch over her left eye for an hour or two a day. The doctor wants to see her again in Feb before making the determination. Abby is doing great after her procedure.

..off to the food wars now.

Calm before the Storm (Rachael & Abby last week)

In keeping with tradition, we have a house full of sick kiddos. The kids and I first passed around a stomach bug over the weekend. Now we've moved on to a cold. The boys missed their last 2 days at school this week, and missed their last sessions with Nikki, our ABA therapist who works with the kids in the home. Nikki has worked with Joshua since he was 1 yrs old. She graduated last week with a masters in speech pathology. We wish Nikki the best, but we will miss her very, very much. We are now out of therapists. Christina also got her masters in speech path last May. Maria had a baby boy this past August. I guess I need to start trolling the local colleges to find a student to train, but the idea does not sound right at this time. I will need to make a schedule so I can start working with the boys. Their ABA sessions are one on one, so maybe I can find a high school student to come and sit with the girls while I work with the boys. Sounds like a plan..

We are hoping that we will all be healthy by this Saturday - Christmas Eve. Deren has been healthy so far - say a prayer! Our church is having special services for families at 4 and 5. We haven't been since Jacob's first Christmas. The kids have been sick every Christmas since then (the makings of our tradition LOL!). There will be one Christmas service on Sunday. I am hoping the boys will be okay with this. They usually go to a classroom for special needs' kids staffed with trained volunteers each week.

I have been reading from the Bible with Rachael each day. She likes to sing Away in the Manger and the "Baby Jesus" song (from church). She points to Mary and the Wise Men and says "Baby Jesus."

Abby update: she is sitting up, eating rice chex cereal and meat babyfood dinners 3 times/day. She is saying "mama" "dada" and "bah bah." She is scooting herself from a crawling position (no signs of wanting to crawl yet)

Jacob update: there is no place safe for Christmas presents in the house! I hid some presents inside a grocery bag and put them on top of a shelf high in my closet. Mr. Jacob found them yesterday and had them opened.

Joshua: is Joshua. He escapes outside at every opportunity and plays with the leaves on the ground.

Rachael: loves all things Christmas this year - outside decor, trees, presents, songs, and candy. She'll say "Oh, this is good!"

Abby is sitting up!

Abby is waving and saying "bye bye" to Daddy! It is so cute! She says "bye bye" in a high-pitched voice that would do Joshua proud (for those of you who have experience Joshua's ear-piercing shrieks).

The kids are passing around a cold - AGAIN. Jacob, then Joshua, now Rachael and Abigail. The boys each missed a day of school. They are back today. This is the last full day of school before Christmas. I will be doing a LOT of praying for patience, kindness, and gentleness over the next couple weeks! May I not get bogged down in the moment but keep my eyes and thoughts on the Lord.

Knitting.
Haven't posted in a week. I took a beginner's knitting class at JoAnn Fabrics last Saturday, and I've been knitting (well, sort of) away. I am trying to figure out how I cast on 20 stitches, and then a couple rows later I have 30 stitches. I have heard of losing stitches (which I was doing plenty of last night LOL), but not adding them. My project for Saturday is a scarf. I am almost through 2 skeins of yarn, and nowhere near scarf length. With the width of it I should try for a poncho at this point!

By the way, here's a picture of Rachael showcasing the ornaments on the tree. Notice the glob of ornaments near the bottom - the whole tree is like this :-)

"It's a Star!"