When we were in the mountains a couple of weeks ago one of our goals was to stop at a place the husband had been to a while back. He wanted me to see the place.
So this place was so ridiculous and fun. She's a local artist who essentially makes yard art, but man it's just yard art of the highest order.
For someone who has no interest in yard work at all, I have to admit that I suddenly want to landscape and have all the yard art ever. This is just adorable. I want to be THAT neighbor. I want to have weird, unnecessary things in my hard.
The kids loved the really giant things, like the dragon and the king kong. Hey look there's my shadow! I'm giant too! Do you think my neighbors would care if I buried a car in my yard for art?
What if it was cute? They probably would. Also I wouldn't tend the shrubs so it would look all life after people shortly. So no to that I suppose.
I have so many decorating aspirations and I swear this life sucks them all out of me. THIS IS SO CUTE. I want a little camper and to decorate it. I'm sick today so all I can do is imagine what it would be like to have such energy to decorate things and stuff. When it was all said and done, we decided we are going to be THOSE neighbors and I got two pieces of yard art and sorry not sorry.
The pig is a real working weathervane. Yes, I need to work on my flower garden, I know.
I have this GREAT IDEA for flowerbed edging...but it sounds like a lot of work so you know, haven't done it. But it would be SO CUTE.
When we were in the mountains a couple of weeks ago one of our goals was to stop at a place the husband had been to a while back. He wanted me to see the place.
So this place was so ridiculous and fun. She's a local artist who essentially makes yard art, but man it's just yard art of the highest order.
For someone who has no interest in yard work at all, I have to admit that I suddenly want to landscape and have all the yard art ever. This is just adorable. I want to be THAT neighbor. I want to have weird, unnecessary things in my hard.
The kids loved the really giant things, like the dragon and the king kong. Hey look there's my shadow! I'm giant too!
Do you think my neighbors would care if I buried a car in my yard for art?
What if it was cute? They probably would. Also I wouldn't tend the shrubs so it would look all life after people shortly. So no to that I suppose.
I have so many decorating aspirations and I swear this life sucks them all out of me. THIS IS SO CUTE. I want a little camper and to decorate it. I'm sick today so all I can do is imagine what it would be like to have such energy to decorate things and stuff.
When it was all said and done, we decided we are going to be THOSE neighbors and I got two pieces of yard art and sorry not sorry.
The pig is a real working weathervane.
Yes, I need to work on my flower garden, I know.
I have this GREAT IDEA for flowerbed edging...but it sounds like a lot of work so you know, haven't done it. But it would be SO CUTE.
So the plan was pretty straightforward, pick up the boy in the early evening from the Boy Scout flag retirement ceremony at the American Legion and then come home and do...ok well nothing. Based on my morning I was pretty down with that.
Then I got a message from one of my oldest friends, who has a cool TV related job and he said "Hey, I'm in town for the PBR and wondered if you'd like to come out and bring the kids?"
It's probably both a sign of my age and my mental state that my first thought was Dennis Hopper in Blue Velvet. It turns out he wasn't inviting us to swill beer from a can, however, it was far better than that. The Professional Bull Riding Thingamajig was in town and quite near us too. I had never seen such a thing so it was a go.
I went over to the Legion and luckily they were burning up the last flag. We went home and busted a move to meet up with Bryan at Gwinnett Arena. It has a different name now but whatever. They aren't paying me to advertise for them.
Bryan has a cool TV job and they were filming the competition. We learned that like in football if you call for a ruling, these are the guys who review the tape.
Louis and Julia were pretty enamored of all of it, and I gotta admit - Bryan has a pretty cool job for sure. Now for the next part I failed because we got to go in through the back, where the bulls come in and out AND we got to walk by some of the riders (including the world leader wooo!) which was all pretty cool. It was neat to see all of the behind the scenes stuff, none of which I got pictures of because I was so busy making sure my kids didn't get in the way of interviews or any of the people actually working back there.
I have known Bryan for a million years, it was so awesome of him to think of us and it was great to see him. I look like crap in this picture but I don't even care, it was epic.
Then we found our seats and discovered that hey, bull riding is a thing. It's a really FUN thing.
Can I say first of all that 8 seconds is a really long time? I mean, I feel like I have a pretty good handle on how long seconds are just based on cool downs on video games. The cool down on a video game is absolutely nothing like the 8 seconds of riding on a bull that would really like to to kill you. It would really really like to stomp in your head, but not for meanness. Just because it can.
I also learned that there is American Bull Fighting. I was feeling a bit like Hemingway when they said bullfighting was coming up. But then I learned that the version of Bullfighting featured here was really like playing Last Licks with a bull.
Playing Last Licks was a game we'd play in middle school and some in high school where you slapped someone and took off before they could get you back. The idea was to get in the "last lick" or slap. The bull did not seem to dig this game. The bull gets points in this game for acting like a jerk though so who can say?
The kids were really into it. This was probably the most sedate Miles was the whole time. The loud fun music, silly clown and the excitement with each ride had all four of them ecstatic the whole time.
I would not have guessed that Professional Bull riding NOR American Bullfighting would hold any interest for this crew, but they were all completely mesmerized.
It just goes to show you that your day can start off as total crap and by nightfall you're watching cowboys get tossed around like ragdolls on top of really angry bovine. You just never know what your day is going to bring.
We saw more than one guy go the full 8 seconds, I have to admit it's impressive as hell because wow how do you do that?
It was a fun, laughter filled end to a crazy long ass day. I can't believe how much fun my kids had or how much they liked it but I'm so glad we went. Thank you again Bryan for thinking of us. It wasn't an event I would have expected to like, or for my kids to like, but it was really amazing and ridiculously fun. It was an awesome Saturday night.
And Bryan, you're welcome for me not telling those guys in the truck to call you Boychick. That's the best poker name ever though. Sincerely - Long Liz.
So the plan was pretty straightforward, pick up the boy in the early evening from the Boy Scout flag retirement ceremony at the American Legion and then come home and do...ok well nothing. Based on my morning I was pretty down with that.
Then I got a message from one of my oldest friends, who has a cool TV related job and he said "Hey, I'm in town for the PBR and wondered if you'd like to come out and bring the kids?"
It's probably both a sign of my age and my mental state that my first thought was Dennis Hopper in Blue Velvet. It turns out he wasn't inviting us to swill beer from a can, however, it was far better than that. The Professional Bull Riding Thingamajig was in town and quite near us too. I had never seen such a thing so it was a go.
I went over to the Legion and luckily they were burning up the last flag. We went home and busted a move to meet up with Bryan at Gwinnett Arena. It has a different name now but whatever. They aren't paying me to advertise for them.
Bryan has a cool TV job and they were filming the competition. We learned that like in football if you call for a ruling, these are the guys who review the tape.
Louis and Julia were pretty enamored of all of it, and I gotta admit - Bryan has a pretty cool job for sure. Now for the next part I failed because we got to go in through the back, where the bulls come in and out AND we got to walk by some of the riders (including the world leader wooo!) which was all pretty cool. It was neat to see all of the behind the scenes stuff, none of which I got pictures of because I was so busy making sure my kids didn't get in the way of interviews or any of the people actually working back there.
I have known Bryan for a million years, it was so awesome of him to think of us and it was great to see him. I look like crap in this picture but I don't even care, it was epic.
Then we found our seats and discovered that hey, bull riding is a thing. It's a really FUN thing.
Can I say first of all that 8 seconds is a really long time? I mean, I feel like I have a pretty good handle on how long seconds are just based on cool downs on video games. The cool down on a video game is absolutely nothing like the 8 seconds of riding on a bull that would really like to to kill you. It would really really like to stomp in your head, but not for meanness. Just because it can.
I also learned that there is American Bull Fighting. I was feeling a bit like Hemingway when they said bullfighting was coming up. But then I learned that the version of Bullfighting featured here was really like playing Last Licks with a bull.
Playing Last Licks was a game we'd play in middle school and some in high school where you slapped someone and took off before they could get you back. The idea was to get in the "last lick" or slap. The bull did not seem to dig this game. The bull gets points in this game for acting like a jerk though so who can say?
The kids were really into it. This was probably the most sedate Miles was the whole time. The loud fun music, silly clown and the excitement with each ride had all four of them ecstatic the whole time.
I would not have guessed that Professional Bull riding NOR American Bullfighting would hold any interest for this crew, but they were all completely mesmerized.
It just goes to show you that your day can start off as total crap and by nightfall you're watching cowboys get tossed around like ragdolls on top of really angry bovine. You just never know what your day is going to bring.
We saw more than one guy go the full 8 seconds, I have to admit it's impressive as hell because wow how do you do that?
It was a fun, laughter filled end to a crazy long ass day. I can't believe how much fun my kids had or how much they liked it but I'm so glad we went. Thank you again Bryan for thinking of us. It wasn't an event I would have expected to like, or for my kids to like, but it was really amazing and ridiculously fun. It was an awesome Saturday night.
And Bryan, you're welcome for me not telling those guys in the truck to call you Boychick. That's the best poker name ever though. Sincerely - Long Liz.
I have to divide my day into two parts. Part two was divine. This is not about that part.
I woke up yesterday without much ceremony or issues, changed the twins, toddled about being me. I had a lot of stomach upset however, and without being too graphic - we'll just say it was the House of Tokyo effect and my friends from back in the day will understand completely.
As an adult I'm equipped to emotionally and physically handle such issues with mostly grace although I can admit I had some coffee anyway, knowing full well it would contribute to my situation.
The twins however, did not warn me they didn't feel well. That whole "not communicating" thing is problematic in these areas and they slugged down their share of coffee and right about then the pooping began. And continued. By 10 am I had changed six diapers I would describe as horrific. One was a downright disaster of hazmat proportions. I got them cleaned up and by 1030 am EVERYONE impacted had a healthy dose of immodium to stop the works.
My house, however, smelled like death poop. It smelled like if death had been eating rotten corpses and then had pooped in my living room. I washed my hands repeatedly and still, the house was just ugh, so gross. So I lit my little owl candle melt thingy to bring the wonderful smell of some Middle David smelly good things to life. I poured my self a cup of coffee and sat down to see what's new with Frank and Claire on House of Cards.
The kids were upstairs doing whatever it is they were doing. Louis was off at a Boy Scout thing, he'd been gone since the day before and my world is always worse without him however I had managed to wrangle the crazy while my husband got some well deserved sleep.
It was quiet. I watched one then two episodes of House of Cards, and I marveled more than once at how the kids hadn't ever come downstairs, it was unlike them. Our stairs creak MADLY however so no one can really sneak anywhere around here.
Diaper issues can be so frustrating. You don't expect to be changing horrible diapers when your kids are 11 but here I am. I'd lie and say I don't resent it but I do fucking resent it a lot. I'm not wired for this whole special needs kid thing. I do, however, love my children. So what that means is that despite the toll it can take on my person many days, I would still do anything for them. These two hours alone with my coffee were resetting me, refocusing me and letting me get my perspective pointed more positively.
That's when Julia came downstairs and said "Ewww, Mom what's in my water cup?"
I wandered into the dining room and looked into her cup, still sitting there since breakfast (I'm lazy, sue me.) I couldn't quite make out what I was seeing in the cup, fleks of something, something....reddish?
That's when my eyes did a cinematographer quality slow sweep into my kitchen where I beheld....WAX.
Wax all over the counter, down the counters, on the stove, on the toaster, on the floor.
FUCKING WAX EVERYWHERE.
My Middle David wax melt with wonderful smell had been gotten into and flicked, smeared and whatever else - all over my kitchen.
This is the pride swallowing siege part of my life. I can't scream. I can't even really punish. I knew who it was before he came down the stairs, covered in wax. It was my Charlie, who loves the smell of these scented wax melts so much he can NEVER resist putting his hands into them, thus they can never be used without total supervision. I thought I had achieved that because they were upstairs and I was downstairs and seriously HOW did he come downstairs, flick WAX everywhere and take drinks of Julia's water - depositing wax and then LEAVE? HOW?
There are about 1000 videos and tips on Pinterest and youtube and the WEB in general on how to remove wax. Most of the involve an iron and I am allergic to my iron. Also, I'm not sure where it is. So after having a serious sobbing cry on my kitchen floor I figured out that the low melting point of this wax makes it pretty easy to get up with scalding hot water, never mind the skin on your hands though.
Autism parenting is just too damn hard some days. This was entirely too much to deal with before noon.
Here is my Jerry Maguire quote that in my opinion sums up Autism parenting on so many days. It's an up at dawn, pride swallowing siege that I will NEVER fully tell you about. Ok? Tweet
I have to divide my day into two parts. Part two was divine. This is not about that part.
I woke up yesterday without much ceremony or issues, changed the twins, toddled about being me. I had a lot of stomach upset however, and without being too graphic - we'll just say it was the House of Tokyo effect and my friends from back in the day will understand completely.
As an adult I'm equipped to emotionally and physically handle such issues with mostly grace although I can admit I had some coffee anyway, knowing full well it would contribute to my situation.
The twins however, did not warn me they didn't feel well. That whole "not communicating" thing is problematic in these areas and they slugged down their share of coffee and right about then the pooping began. And continued. By 10 am I had changed six diapers I would describe as horrific. One was a downright disaster of hazmat proportions. I got them cleaned up and by 1030 am EVERYONE impacted had a healthy dose of immodium to stop the works.
My house, however, smelled like death poop. It smelled like if death had been eating rotten corpses and then had pooped in my living room. I washed my hands repeatedly and still, the house was just ugh, so gross. So I lit my little owl candle melt thingy to bring the wonderful smell of some Middle David smelly good things to life. I poured my self a cup of coffee and sat down to see what's new with Frank and Claire on House of Cards.
The kids were upstairs doing whatever it is they were doing. Louis was off at a Boy Scout thing, he'd been gone since the day before and my world is always worse without him however I had managed to wrangle the crazy while my husband got some well deserved sleep.
It was quiet. I watched one then two episodes of House of Cards, and I marveled more than once at how the kids hadn't ever come downstairs, it was unlike them. Our stairs creak MADLY however so no one can really sneak anywhere around here.
Diaper issues can be so frustrating. You don't expect to be changing horrible diapers when your kids are 11 but here I am. I'd lie and say I don't resent it but I do fucking resent it a lot. I'm not wired for this whole special needs kid thing. I do, however, love my children. So what that means is that despite the toll it can take on my person many days, I would still do anything for them. These two hours alone with my coffee were resetting me, refocusing me and letting me get my perspective pointed more positively.
That's when Julia came downstairs and said "Ewww, Mom what's in my water cup?"
I wandered into the dining room and looked into her cup, still sitting there since breakfast (I'm lazy, sue me.) I couldn't quite make out what I was seeing in the cup, fleks of something, something....reddish?
That's when my eyes did a cinematographer quality slow sweep into my kitchen where I beheld....WAX.
Wax all over the counter, down the counters, on the stove, on the toaster, on the floor.
FUCKING WAX EVERYWHERE.
My Middle David wax melt with wonderful smell had been gotten into and flicked, smeared and whatever else - all over my kitchen.
This is the pride swallowing siege part of my life. I can't scream. I can't even really punish. I knew who it was before he came down the stairs, covered in wax. It was my Charlie, who loves the smell of these scented wax melts so much he can NEVER resist putting his hands into them, thus they can never be used without total supervision. I thought I had achieved that because they were upstairs and I was downstairs and seriously HOW did he come downstairs, flick WAX everywhere and take drinks of Julia's water - depositing wax and then LEAVE? HOW?
There are about 1000 videos and tips on Pinterest and youtube and the WEB in general on how to remove wax. Most of the involve an iron and I am allergic to my iron. Also, I'm not sure where it is. So after having a serious sobbing cry on my kitchen floor I figured out that the low melting point of this wax makes it pretty easy to get up with scalding hot water, never mind the skin on your hands though.
Autism parenting is just too damn hard some days. This was entirely too much to deal with before noon.
Here is my Jerry Maguire quote that in my opinion sums up Autism parenting on so many days.
It's an up at dawn, pride swallowing siege that I will NEVER fully tell you about. Ok? Tweet
I fell into bed early, and slept like someone who had a full day of fresh mountain air that was crisp and full of goodness. I slept hard, drooling on my husband's pillow until the sound made me sit straight up in bed. It was was Julia. I heard her voice say something and I sat up. I could see down the hall, though, and her door was shut. I sat up on the side of the bed, waiting for more words. "Triangles, triangles, T T TRIANGLES..." the voice continued. It wasn't Julia but I couldn't figure it out. It was such a tiny voice. It occurred to me that it was Miles, and autism had woken him up or was making him chatty in his sleep. There were more ABCs and random words. Sometimes Autism is the puppy-baby-monkey of life. I got back under the covers and closed my eyes when I became aware of something else.
WOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
The earth was making a sound. Or, something was. This loud hummming, this sound. I got up and looked out the window to make sure I wasn't ground zero for some invasion but no, there was nothing. In fact I realized it wasn't a sound I was hearing, It was a sound I was feeling. I crawled back into bed, aware that the whole world was buzzing and wondered if I was dreaming.
I opened my eyes again, and realized that I was only feeling this because it was so still, so very quiet. The whole world was buzzing to me. I knew what the feeling was.
I fell into bed early, and slept like someone who had a full day of fresh mountain air that was crisp and full of goodness. I slept hard, drooling on my husband's pillow until the sound made me sit straight up in bed.
It was was Julia. I heard her voice say something and I sat up. I could see down the hall, though, and her door was shut. I sat up on the side of the bed, waiting for more words.
"Triangles, triangles, T T TRIANGLES..." the voice continued. It wasn't Julia but I couldn't figure it out. It was such a tiny voice.
It occurred to me that it was Miles, and autism had woken him up or was making him chatty in his sleep. There were more ABCs and random words. Sometimes Autism is the puppy-baby-monkey of life. I got back under the covers and closed my eyes when I became aware of something else.
WOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
The earth was making a sound. Or, something was. This loud hummming, this sound. I got up and looked out the window to make sure I wasn't ground zero for some invasion but no, there was nothing. In fact I realized it wasn't a sound I was hearing, It was a sound I was feeling. I crawled back into bed, aware that the whole world was buzzing and wondered if I was dreaming.
I opened my eyes again, and realized that I was only feeling this because it was so still, so very quiet. The whole world was buzzing to me. I knew what the feeling was.
I personally never listen to advice from people with names like Left Eye so we decided to go chasing waterfalls today. Luckily, Georgia has lots.
We set out today without an agenda except for our breakfast spot, and wandered north toward Tennessee. I still can't get used to the idea that Tennessee is north. It's hard wired into me that it's south. But no, north we went and into the Georgia mountains, past the Rabun Gap and into the land of magical scenery. It's just so beautiful here, I am so glad the warmer weather has returned.
Why are waterfalls so amazing? I'm not really sure. Maybe it's the huge rush of water, and the invigorating spray of the icy cold mist coming off of it. Maybe it's just the whole "majesty of nature" sort of thing. BEHOLD! NATURE! Something like that.
But there is something about them. The allure is so strong that a 13 year old boy who can't stop talking about video games will climb out on the furthest rock he can and sit enraptured, just watching the fall happen. It was probably the quietest he was all day. He sat up on that rock and just gazed, watching everything happen as more and more water fell over the cliff. "Look Mom! A rainbow!" he called back to me. I got lucky and got it on film. I'm pretty sure I'm not supposed to tell his friends how much he liked that.
I can admit it though, I really liked it a lot. It's the sort of place that makes me feel recharged, renewed. The air is fresh, made crisp even by the cold mist coming off those falls. You can feel the power of the falls even from a distance. The noise is beautiful and deafening at the same time.
It's the kind of place where my children photobomb me as my husband takes my picture, and I'm pretty amused by it. Pretty sure there are no other humans in the world I would rather be photobombed by.
So random "it's in the DNA" fact, my son can be a lot like my brother in his mannerisms. This stance by my oldest son, is exactly the stance of my brother Matt when he is considering something. He shifts his weight exactly like this, when he's thinking about doing something etc. My son is considering climbing out on those rocks at this moment. He hadn't committed to it, but he was definitely thinking about it. He was eyeing them, and the water and if he could get that far out without getting wet.
Many people keep their autistic kids on a tight schedule, but we've always found that didn't work for us as a family. What works better is being aware of their needs, and their wants. Today we had no schedule and no plans. We didn't eat lunch, we had a late breakfast and an early dinner.
There weren't any complaints, there rarely are. We wandered the mountains in search of adventure and we found some. This waterfall was just one stop we made.
I will always chase waterfalls. They fill up my heart. It's the best feeling in the world.
I personally never listen to advice from people with names like Left Eye so we decided to go chasing waterfalls today. Luckily, Georgia has lots.
We set out today without an agenda except for our breakfast spot, and wandered north toward Tennessee. I still can't get used to the idea that Tennessee is north. It's hard wired into me that it's south. But no, north we went and into the Georgia mountains, past the Rabun Gap and into the land of magical scenery. It's just so beautiful here, I am so glad the warmer weather has returned.
Why are waterfalls so amazing? I'm not really sure. Maybe it's the huge rush of water, and the invigorating spray of the icy cold mist coming off of it. Maybe it's just the whole "majesty of nature" sort of thing. BEHOLD! NATURE! Something like that.
But there is something about them. The allure is so strong that a 13 year old boy who can't stop talking about video games will climb out on the furthest rock he can and sit enraptured, just watching the fall happen. It was probably the quietest he was all day. He sat up on that rock and just gazed, watching everything happen as more and more water fell over the cliff. "Look Mom! A rainbow!" he called back to me. I got lucky and got it on film. I'm pretty sure I'm not supposed to tell his friends how much he liked that.
I can admit it though, I really liked it a lot. It's the sort of place that makes me feel recharged, renewed. The air is fresh, made crisp even by the cold mist coming off those falls. You can feel the power of the falls even from a distance. The noise is beautiful and deafening at the same time.
It's the kind of place where my children photobomb me as my husband takes my picture, and I'm pretty amused by it. Pretty sure there are no other humans in the world I would rather be photobombed by.
So random "it's in the DNA" fact, my son can be a lot like my brother in his mannerisms. This stance by my oldest son, is exactly the stance of my brother Matt when he is considering something. He shifts his weight exactly like this, when he's thinking about doing something etc. My son is considering climbing out on those rocks at this moment. He hadn't committed to it, but he was definitely thinking about it. He was eyeing them, and the water and if he could get that far out without getting wet.
Many people keep their autistic kids on a tight schedule, but we've always found that didn't work for us as a family. What works better is being aware of their needs, and their wants. Today we had no schedule and no plans. We didn't eat lunch, we had a late breakfast and an early dinner.
There weren't any complaints, there rarely are. We wandered the mountains in search of adventure and we found some. This waterfall was just one stop we made.
I will always chase waterfalls. They fill up my heart. It's the best feeling in the world.
