Keeping on that Fashion Train on a budget Spring 2015

Being a Mom is hard. Especially when it comes to our wardrobe. Long gone are the days of always having the latest trends in clothes, shoes, and bags. Now the kids have the latest while ours is struggling.  Well NO MORE for this mom.
Now yes I still love to head out in Jeans and a shirt, AND the 4 yr old is in constant need of clothes. So how do we do both? Let's face it some of us are tired of looking and feeling frumpy. I'm not saying go out and burn all of your yoga pants. Let's face it too clothes are pricey and they don't last, so when we buy for ourselves we want something that will last.

I love trends but now that we are a 1 income family and the kids constantly need clothes my wardrobe takes a back seat. Last spring I had enough of feeling frumpy and I started to make a change in my wardrobe. I still have all of my comfy clothes, bum clothes, etc. I went through my closet and purged some items and took them to a consignment store. I got an in store credit and used it to purchase a few new and new to me pieces. I scored a brand new J Crew red skirt that I LOVE!

I glanced through some fashion magazines to see what was going to be in style for Spring. I only purchased a few pieces that I could mix and match with what I already own. BOOM I had just created several outfits to have me looking in style. I went to tjmaxx, Marshalls, and Old Navy for my shopping. I also scored somethings at Ann Taylor Loft Factory. Late Spring/Early summer I did the same thing. I bought a couple of pieces (some classic, some trendy) to create some cute summer outfits. Fall and winter I kinda dropped the ball because let's face it sweaters and jeans are what I want to wear LOL.

Here we are Spring is here again and oh la la the color palette is all over the place. Mint Green, Sherbert Orange, Fushia, Royal Blue/Electric Blue mixed with yellow and white. I have also seen grey mixed with the orange and green.

Last year I scored A mint green summer weight sweater at ON. Hooray for it being in this spring. Same goes for the orange. So all I have purchased for this Spring is a pair of Blue Pixie pants from Old Navy and a white boyfriend button down shirt. I went to TJ Maxx and scored a Nine West yellow purse on clearance for under $20. Now all I need to complete the outfit is a necklace to pull it together. I'm not a huge yellow fan so going with an inexspensive bag or jewelry helps. The shirt I know I will use again with other pieces I own. Now I just need the weather to warm up so that I can wear my new outfits. I might even find a pair of grey pants to mix up with my mint green sweater. Here is my new outfit for Spring.

The fight for the RIGHT Diagnosis

Today Annalise had her full 4 hour testing for Autism. Now they are saying that she is NOT autistic. That's not how it sounded a month ago. I was warned that this would happen.

While Annalise shows the behavior side of Autism, she does not display the social communications deficit. So in other words they are saying she is NOT on the spectrum.  That's great right? But why do I feel that sense of dread that because she is so social thanks to my training that this could come back to haunt us down the road. They only spend a short time with her I spend all day with her and I see a lot more than anyone else. I'm worried that she is on the cusp of the spectrum and it could hurt her in school because of not getting the proper diagnosis NOW. I also feel like the stuff that screams autism is being downplayed because of her being a love bug. Every child is different.

They did say that she has a sensory processing disorder but won't put it on paper in those words due to insurance companies do NOT recognize it. SERIOUSLY?

They did give her a diagnosis of feeding disorder and delayed milestones. So they have suggested therapy and OT for Anna. We are still waiting for an OT since the last visit. They kept saying she has a rigid temperament. Well NO kidding.

This was just their summary today and I was told that they would email me their full findings. They also said that if the therapies do not work we would talk meds. Uh hold up why does she need meds? She's not add or adhd.

I am going to ask the pediatrician next month if he can get us a second opinion if necessary. They didn't even test her for 4 hours like I was told so. So we shall see.

I guess my biggest thing is  All of her behavior POINTS to autism, techniques and therapies for kids with autism work wonderfully for her, then HOW is she not mildly or should I say HIGHLY functioning autistic? All because she is social and smart? I'm sorry but I don't buy that.

Is my kid Autistic?

Anna was born a healthy child. She hit all of the milestones as a baby right on target. Was always high in percentile with her height and weight. Even when she started eating solids she would devour everything. Everything was going great until she hit 18 months old. I watched my baby girl go from eating everything to pretty much nothing and I do mean nothing. I talked with the pediatrician and he noted that there were some small red flags for autism but he was not worried about them. I was worried but trusting this Dr. when he told me this. As time went on we saw flourish with her intelligence and mastering things but the food aversions remained and got worse. There was a lot of refusal to potty train which may have been some negligence on my part. Over time I kept voicing my concerns to the Dr and time and time again he pointed out that she shows little signs but he's not worried. At this point I am talking to friends of mine with children on the spectrum (Thank you Theresa, Erin, and Teesha!) I see Anna doing some of the stuff but not all. I am being very vigilant at this point.

Fast forward to this summer where the signs are getting worse, She has become the work of TWO children. Yes she appears normal and if you are around her you would not really pick up on it, well someone did. I was asked if Anna had asburgers syndrome. I had silently thought this but to have someone who had just met my child ask me floored me. She saw in 5 minutes what our last pediatrician ignored in my opinion. When we returned from our summer travels I immediately started the process to get her tested.

We waited 2 months for our appointment this week. I was under the impression that it would be the full on testing, it was not. It was an assessment to see if she needed further testing. Which she does. Because she is so young they did not want to put her through the ringer if not need be. During the assessment the doctor saw what I have been seeing since Anna was 18 months old. She said that all of Anna's behavior is Autistic but she needs more testing for the social side. Anna displayed some of the social cues but not enough to get a diagnosis that day. Anna definitely has sensory processing disorder, hence the non potty trained, texture issues, food aversions, and the reactions to really loud noises.  When she explained how hard it is for Anna to process things it broke my heart. I knew that she was struggling but I didn't know how bad. It still makes me cry thinking about it. She did say that Anna is very smart and high functioning which is awesome.

Course of treatment to help Anna: She has to see a nutritionist, food therapist, and receive Occupational therapy. We are worried about the OT as the doc said that our tricare does not cover it. I am looking into programs out there to help cover the cost just in case they won't cover it. She suggested 2 books for us to read to help. We are now waiting for ANOTHER appointment for the testing which could be January at the earliest. There are programs we can apply for, to help but we have to have the diagnosis in writing. It's very frustrating. I feel like like I am right back where I started from.
At least now I know that I AM NOT crazy. That I was not forcing something on my kid. Yes people actually told me this when I had mentioned the issues I was having with Anna and the testing.

Now to start the barage of appointments to help my baby girl.

Once Upon A time Love Not Hate

I feel compelled to write SOMETHING in response to yesterday's events. It has been eating away at me ever since I saw the first hateful bitchy tweet yesterday. An attack was made on a show and it's creative team that is VERY dear to me and for that I cannot be silent.

Let me tell you a little story to start out. 2 years ago I was sad to learn that an actress from How I met your Mother was leaving to pursue a leading role on another show. I had to know what this show was. It was called Once Upon A Time. I was delighted to learn that another actress that I adore would be starring as well. Miss Ginnifer Goodwin, not to mention that it's a fantasy fairytale show. That's enough for me I was onboard. So I WAITED for it to air, then to my amazing delight I saw that my FAVE pirate Lee Arenberg had a role. This was fabulous in my eyes. Throughout the pilot I was introduce to my Beloved team 7, as well as other characters. When it ended I was left craving for more. Each week a new story was brought to me, I devoured it like I was starving. Once was feeding a need that has been neglected for so long, I did not realize it was still there.
I was 36 years old married, with a baby. FULLY grown up no time for fun, fantasy or creativity. I'm also married to an officer in the Navy which means always on display. Have to behave and act accordingly. No time for fantasy. Have to be a grown up.(Especially when they can be so boring) Growing up I was BIG into theater but as I grew up it was not cool or accepted in my circles to be artsy, fantasy and the likes. No time for that when you have bills to pay, etc. Soon I saw that Once had spread to twitter where I met the most wonderful people. I could tweet for hours with people who accepted me for ME! I was allowed to indulge in arts, fantasy, etc and it was encouraged. I have become very close with some of my oncer sisters that I love dearly. We shared all of our interests, even those outside of once. Also I would be wrong if I did not mention the Oncer guys I met as well. Neil we miss you! ( I hope you know who you lovely ladies are, April, Abbe, Kim, Karen, just to name a few LOVE YOU GUYS!) I got connected with the awesome guys who portray #TEAM7 and it just spread like wildfire. I regained my courage to be me in real life as well as online. With the support from my once family I can be me in everyday life now and not care what others think. (THANK YOU FOR THAT!) I got to attend a con a few months ago and meet Lee and He was awesome of course. I also had the pleasure of meeting one of my Once Sisters and her sister who rock!

So let's fast forward to yesterday. To be honest I do not know all of the details because there are too many. I started seeing the angry, hateful tweets all over twitter after the panel at comic con yesterday. I saw Adam standing up for himself and his show. Yet people were still being hateful and insulting to his creation. This is HIS creation HIS baby. Without it we would not even have once. A lot of hate and ruckus over a a ship called SWANQUEEN that was NEVER going to set sail. I understand that we as human beings are greedy and we want what we want. But this was insane. People were tweeting Adam in attack form, as well as "Good Luck with ratings" "We're done", etc. Someone even accused him of not standing up for the LGBT community( which is untrue he did). Again WOW all of this ugliness because certain people of a particular ship (I know it wasn't everyone) were disappointed. Not to mention all of the hate that Jennifer has received. Can we be grown ups here. Now I know that some are teens and still have a lot to learn. But common decency and manners is for all ages. If you want to abandon ONCE, sad to see you go but do so while keeping your hate and ugliness to yourself. I myself sent out some tweets hoping that people would read them and remember to be kind, calm down and think before tweeting. In turn only ONE of my tweets spread and I got ugliness my way. I'm okay with that. They did not bother to read all of my tweets no biggie. I did not respond to them personally as to not engage anyone.

To whom this may concern: When you attack Adam, or anyone else associated with #ONCE you are attacking my family and that is not okay. It is not up to you what the content of the show will be. Furthermore Adam and everyone else on the #ONCE team give up a LOT so that we can enjoy once. They pull all nighters writing scripts, production, etc again ALL for us fans. They miss meals, holidays, and general time with their families all so we can have Once Upon A Time. For that I personally am grateful to everyone that works to create Once Upon A time for us. This includes every from from Adam, the writers, production crews, Hair/makeup/costumes, security, Of course our beloved Actors and Actresses, and anyone else who works with ONCE. They give so much of themselves so we can be entertained. I think that deserves some gratitude, not hateful bitter tweets, etc. Once is about LOVE, accepting of everyone no matter your walk of life. I'm just so sad over this and very disappointed. Shock is an understatement. I guess I grew to expect more than that from our wonderful group of people. I have seen some ugly tweets from members in the past and did not speak up. Shame on me for that. Oncers we are better than this. Love Not hate. Instead of being negative how about we be positive. Appreciate the gift that has been given to us. Trust them on their journey that they are sharing with us. You never know there could be something coming that we will love and embrace, could be better than the ship you are shipping. But most of all Oncers Lets's be kind to one another instead of the other.