'Surfers Helping Surfers' Event - This morning at Bunker Bay....... AWESOME!!!

Next Events...

Sat 22nd Jan

Sat 19th Feb

Sat 5th March

Registrations 9am - Bunker Bay.

Everything you need is provided....volunteers welcome (NO surfing experienced required!)

HELLOOOooooooooo

Ok, so where has this year gone??? We haven't got together since the end of September....and I know its because we are all frantic just getting through our busy lives....time to take a breather and have a cuppa I reckon!!!!

Tuesday 14th December - lets say mid-late morning for a cuppa or early lunch??

We wont lock in a venue yet, lets see who is comming and will try and make it as central as possible for everyone. I'm leaning towards Margaret River way....so Bec, Erin, Elaine & Miranda can have a rest from driving to Busselton. Also, there is a new lady down there I'd love to meet.

It would have been nice to have a family thingie for Christmas, but I imagine everyone is pulled in many directions through to the end of the year, so perhaps we could plan a 'New-years' get together with the kids & fellas during the January holidays.....when things quieten down a little!!

Take care all, please email me if you can make it on Tuesday 14th.

Parent hood

Hi everyone,it's been a while, hope everyone is going okay. Been meaning to post for a few weeks now because I've got stuck on watching parenthood on GWN on Tuesday nights, late but I get sucked in everytime. There is a couple with an Autistic boy and it is very interesting to watch how the parents are dealing with it and family. I know it's a TV show but the producers must have done their homework because it is so close to home including the reactions received.

For the rest, we at home are having a good number of weeks and enjoying a beautiful boy, who even had a good muck around with my husband without getting upset at any stage. It was just hard work getting Kyle to end it.☺We haven't seen this amount of humour for ages and it just made our day.

Kyle is doing guitar lessons and loving it and he has even taken to playing the guitar to calm down which was our whole idea behind it, not that we told him that. It is definantly worth it and Kyle is doing really well too.

Well that's us at the moment,

take care everyone,

Elaine

School Holidays

Just a quick shout out to all you supermums! Hope you've survived the first week of the school holidays.

We were in Perth for most of last week, and survived with only minor damage to our bank account (Royal show!) Grace didnt do so well this year as we didnt have our niece with us.....she has been with us at the show the past two years, and its now obvious that she is an extremely positive and calming influence on Gracie. Anxiety was through the roof and the sensory issues were much more heightened than in previous years.

We have people staying with us off and on till school starts, so I'm not so sure if we'll have a chance to get together 'officially' ie: not sure how reliable I will be to turn up!! Having said that, we were planning on going to the FESA Expo in Busselton this Saturday 30th, so maybe we can meet at the playground if any of you are heading down too.

Take care, will email everyone shortly.

Cheers
Deb

Carol Grey Seminars

Hi All,

I've just come back from attending 2 days of seminars from Carol Grey. Wow where do I start? It went from 9 till 4 and the whole time was just full of information that had me rethinking my whole bringing up of Kyle. Carol was a wealth of knowledge, she is the creator of social stories and has worked with kids on the ASD spectrum for many many years and continues to. She showed us that they are a unique and special bunch of kids and we have so much to learn, not always them.

If you want info she is setting up a website where you can download lots of her social stories and plans ect. because she rather the correct info goes to people then to make money out of Autism. I'll check out the other sites she gave and maybe I'll email to Deb and she can forward them on since she has the email addresses.

Also thanks to my sister-in-law, I am reading a novel by Jodi Picolt titled House Rules. About an aspergers boy, very interesting as there are chapters from his point of view. The only thing as my sister(close enough) warned me he seems to know where he is different and can articulate it a bit to well according to me. But good and informative read also for family members and friends.

Enjoy your day and if anyone wants to know more let me know and I'll see how much I remember.

Cheers Elaine

well new term starts tomorrow adn my 15 year old is very stressed.

Meltdowns in teenagers are not pretty. :(

Oh well at least they dont happen as often and they are reducing in the level of distress so I guess things are on the up.

Instead of going on for literally months at a time they last half an hour or so now and for the first time ever I got an apology today!.

Now that was a huge positive.

And she is learning to be able to look at her actions and see where she has let herself down so that is the first step toward improvement.

She goes back to her alternative to education tomorrow and has to work out what she is going to do for the rest of the year when that finishes. She at least has a goal now and so fingers crossed she will be less resistant to work.

She is starting to realise that she has to toe the line to get what she wantsa and that is HUGE!

So while today has not been easy there have been some real strides forward.

Hope you all enjoy the school return and get enought time for a coffee break this week.
Cheers
Donna

JULY CATCH-UP

LONG over due get together scheduled for next week. Tuesday 13th July, 10:30am ....in Busselton (weather permitting) However, should it be wet and nasty, we'll have a cuppa at my place. Will email everyone on Monday with a confirmed venue!

New school

Taking a big deep breath......we have made the decision to change Jamie's school, to Bunbury Grammar.....lots and lots of reasons......biggest one of all was that Jamie wants to go!!!  No freaks out over the many many changes and decisions that needed to be made.  He has all his new uniform, has had meetings with the school counsellor (who  has offered to meet up with Jamie once a week when he starts to have a game of chess and a chat).  We have sorted out the bus paperwork and where and when he will get on and off.   Now just waiting for the big day, first day of Term 3.   Fingers crossed it all goes well!!!
Amanda

Catalyst show

Hi all,

Yes we're back to reality.  We had a great holiday and the kids were just brilliant. 1 DVD in 7200km. Amazed us. We saw heaps and did lots. Kyle went pretty well, he had his days but we expected that. Didn't always make it easier though.  Next time we both agreed a holiday of planting ourselves somewhere and not moving.

We watched the catalyst show and loved it. We had a good laugh over the comments between the two guys about only wearing pacific clothing from Best and Less. Yep, Kyle's favourite!! It was good to hear them voice the struggles they have something we hope Kyle will managed someday. Definantly worth watching.

Autism Clothing (and other merchandise)

Found an amazing online shop today www.cafepress.com.au   .  I ordered some "palaeontologist in training" clothes for Jamie for his upcoming 9th birthday, but then today I looked at all their autism products!  OMG!  Amazing amazing statemtents and info on all their clothing etc.  I think I will definitely get the "I love someone with autism" shirt for me and the "I love my autistic brother" shirt for baby Henry, but am still deciding if it is appropriate for Jamie to wear something....or maybe I will get him a bag or something else.  I especially liked the slogan Always Unique Totally Interesting Sometimes Mysterious (AUTISM) - (something like that anyway)..  And the Autistic Today, Genius Tomorrow and the I have Autism, What's Your Problem or the Eye Contact is Over-rated or the list of famous people with autism..and I could go on and on!!!
Enjoy.
Amanda

Recent catch up

Just a belated thank you to all the lovelies that came along to our last catch-up. It was a couple of weeks ago on Wednesday 31st March, seven of us made it on a windy Busselton day!.....Plus my Mother-in-law, who was brilliant at keeping Griffin occupied so I could have a decent chin-wag (well done Janice!)

Great to meet Jacky for the first time, welcome hun! And a big thanks to Carol from DSC for popping by for a chat, as always, you're such a great support and we love having you....always such a wealth of knowledge!!

Will email you all very soon with an update on how our fundraiser went, have to say we are all very clever and did a brilliant job all round - thanks for all your hard work, hope you didnt all consume as much chocolate as I did!

Hope to set a date for our next get together soon, probably for the second or third week of term, lets all settle back into routine first eh! Would also like earmark a weekend gathering sometime this term....to get the kids together and start helping them along with some extra social networking! I was contacted recently by a new family who are keen to expose thier child to safe, friendly social opportunities, which reminded me we should really involve our school-age kids a bit more. Should be fun, might take a little more thought & planning of course!

Take care people, looking forward to catching up with you all again soon.

Cheers
Deb

Holidays

Hi All,

Thought I'll let you know of our exciting news. We are heading over east to Adelaide for our once a year holiday.  This is the first holiday where we will be traveling around without a real destination.  Kyle has always struggled with holidays and so we've stuck to the one place for the one holiday. But so far with careful planning, Kyle is excited and coping well. Thanks Felicity. He has been helping getting ready and been very interested in the whole affair. Something that's been good for our hearts. We'll see if I survive with 4 kids in the car for countless kms. Oh well all part of the fun.

So till we meet again, take care and may you all enjoy your holidays.

Elaine

Back to the Blog!

Hello all,

Its been pretty quiet in here lately, we've all been so busy with the new school year and settling back in to life after the chaos of the long school holiday break. So welcome back!

Our fundraiser is in full swing and has been blitzing! A few clever ladies have been selling them like hotcakes and comming back for more, thanks so much to everyone for putting in so much effort, it looks like we will raise several hundred dollars towards our library. Will let you all know the final figure in a couple of weeks when we have sold through.

How have all the kids settled back into school? We have our case conference/IEP next week and will have plenty to talk about. Grace's anxiety has been in full-swing and her teacher reports several challenges every week. I had been optimistic she would go really well this year as she surprised me with how well she coped with pre-primary last year, so my heart is sad for my little lady lately. Some of this is sensory, so will work with the OT on that, but we might give Felicity a call and look at getting her clever thoughts on all this.

Would love to hear how everyone else is going. Tish, hope Jarvis has coped ok with the move, a new house is always an adjustment for anyone, so hopefully he is alright and enjoying the 'sea-change'

Our last get-together was brilliant, we had about 12 ladies and several kids come down to Simmos in February, and great to meet some new faces. We also had a small, impromptu get together at Bec's house last week when I did a chokie drop down in Margaret River. Erin, lovely to meet you and your gorgeous boys, look forward to seeing you again soon. Things are looking pretty busy for the next couple of weeks, but how about we make the next catch up on Wednesday 31st March? Time & place to be confirmed, will put my thinking cap on....probably up in Busselton this time.

Hopefully everyone has been getting my emails with updates on up & comming seminars, workshops and other bits n bobs. I will start posting updates in here too, as I know how easy it is for emails to get lost in the chaos!

Blog away ladies, always lovely to chat!

life changes

Well every year that goes by more things change.
On Saturday night my mother in law died. It was expected and a blessing but of course has hit the children hard and me to although I know she wanted to go I am sad to not be seeing her again. She was a very accepting adn loving mother in law even after our divorce. Kirsty has not been to school for a week but I guess we will get her back there.

On a lighter note on Saturday I got the insurance for my horse riding business so now I can go out there and say "This is me this is what I do"

So I am hoping that soon I will be busy enough with teaching special kids how to ride that I wont have time to be worrying about life lol.

So I had better be off and go and do some tigns out at the horse paddock. Nice way to spend time and enjoy life :)

Have a blessed week everyone. Give those you love a hug and enjoy the little things in life. THey are the things that bring joy.

Donna

ASD Library....

Hello all!

Looking forward to catching up with you this week, hope you can make it on Thursday! Please call or email me if you haven't received the info - I sms'd and emailed everyone last week.

I am in the process of cataloging books to put together a library for us all! I had 9 ASD related books and Donna has kindly donated a few and got a lovely email from a lady in Perth who had heard about us and wants to donated 7 books (a complete stranger how brilliant is that!)....so I should have about 20 or so books on hand for you all to borrow as needed within a few weeks.

If anyone else has any books they don't need anymore and would like to add them to the pile, please let me know or bring them along on Thursday, they will be taken care of and of course returned to you if you ever need them back!

Hope you are all keeping well, see you soon.

Cheers
Deb

Well it's 11.59 Sunday night and it looks like my girl will not be going to school tomorrow.
15 year old girls with ASD are not fun when they decide that they are no longer interested in going to school.
She spat the dummy.

A week ago she was excited about going to school. Now she hates it.

She was throwing things in her room so hard that she terrified the dogs who were sleeping in my room.
Now of course I am wound up tight as a drum adn cant sleep and I know she wont be getting any sleep for a while.
*sigh*

I said to her that if she really didn't want to go to school she had to get a job and that was it I was teh nasty mother from hell and life got noisy. Tell you whatr i am glad I dont live next door. Dont think I would want to listen to a meltdown at nearly midnight.

Still it's not all bad news.
I found a place to give horse riding lessons from so just a few more small hurdles adn I can get my business up off the ground. Might have a helper after all lol.

Hope everyone elses school year starts just a little smoother then mine has lol.

Donna

Happy B'day Grace

Hi Deb,

Hope Grace's 'party'  went well on Friday, and you had an enjoyable day. We are facing the birthday week this week. Kyle hates surprises so he just pleads all week for us to tell him his presents.  Don't know what we're doing for a party. Kyle wants one cause thats the thing to do but the last few years he hasn't handled them very well.  Might just go to a park that way he can play how he likes with no social pressures. 

See you at the beach, I'll make sure Ella is around. Grace is so cute with her.

Elaine

The Gorgeous Edward!

We made it back to riding today after a few weeks break, and thought it time to share pics of the very special pony Grace & Jarvis are enjoying spending time with! The lovely lady in the picture is Donna's Daughter Kirsty who helps out with the kids lessons, and is quite an acomplished rider herself!

I mentioned ealier that Donna is experienced teaching kids with special needs, her logo is below - 'Giddyup Kidz'. We ride most weeks, so if you are interested in finding out more about Donna's lessons, or would like to just have a look, please contact either myself or Donna anytime. Edward is located in Busselton.

Thanks for today Donna.....sorry Grace was having 'one of those days' lol!!! Have we had enough of the school holidays yet Arghhhhhhh!!!!

A few happy snappies....

Gracie loved that mask & snorkle Santa gave her!......Yep.....she wore it to the playground in anticipation of a swim at the beach later!

The other shot was taken on Christmas night, probably the only shot of the four of us ever taken!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Hi everyone....

Hope we all had a lovely Silly Season, no doubt it was all ebbs n flows like ours!! Lots of highs & the inevitable lows, but generally a good time was had by all.

We've just come out of 3 weeks of house guests, plus staying with people in perth ourselves so its great to have our house back and can try to settle into the new year now. The kids are exhausted and Grace is hypering-out (more than usual)....so some routine is desparately needed.

Amanda - how did Jamie go in his play so far? Sorry we didnt make it to the Sat 2nd show, we had Jarrod's sister & her boys with us and just couldnt make it work.

An update on my previous post about Grace's Gift meltdowns.....yes there were a few, but our speechie managed to throw together a social story at the 11th hour and it did help prepare her a little. The gift voucher she recieved a few weeks ago was 'spent' today, she selected a Barbie sleeping bag, loves it & is excited about using it for our camping trip in a few weeks! Hopefully this will help her understand the concept next time ie: she chooses something to satisfy her Barbie obsession lol!!

Is anyone interested in catching up before school goes back? Maybe we can arrange a get together for sometime next week....if its not too hot. How about an ice-cream at Simmos one afternoon?? We start Vacswim next week and are commited to be at the beach by 11:20am everyday for those 2 weeks, so I'm thinking around 3:30ish??

Looking forward to seeing everyone again soon, take care ladies :)