Archive for July, 2011

My Minivan

Found out yesterday that my minivan died! Oh No!!! It won’t turn over, we thought it was a dead battery, put in a brand new battery and everything turns on, radio, lights, etc even though the key isn’t in the ignition! We tried to turn it over and nothing! It died while we were driving it. Dean Mast said that we would have to take it to Ford and the low end would be around $700. Something about a grounded out modulator and it’s telling everything to turn on even though nothing is turned on. Not worth it, so we traded it in for another minivan.

Chuck knows a guy in town that sells cars, the sell here pay here type. Our credit is so bad we can’t buy anywhere else, we have to buy one from there or pay cash. With this minivan, everything works!!! All the windows come down, the doors all open even the back hatch! You can open the doors from the inside and the air conditioner works!! It’s a 2000 and we got it for $1,500. Fred, the car salesman, took my minivan in and gave us $300 for it as down payment. I HATE having a car payment but I HAVE to have a vehicle.

Today CJ has therapy at 11am and then I am taking him into Cleveland to spend the day with a friend he met at camp a couple years ago. Tomorrow he is off to Waldameer with another friend. It’s best to keep him as busy as possible then he has less time to think. I have noticed by doing that he’s a bit better and not so droopy.

My First Night On Sound

Last night was my first night running sound all by myself!! I was SO nervous that Pastor Carson helped me through practice and 15 minutes into worship, LOL!! But, I feel somewhat better about it. There is just SO much going on at once. It’s like the first time you learn to drive but I’m sure that after a while it will be no big deal. Pastor Carson said I’m still going to be in trial mode because of my hearing. Like last night I had him up to loud and he had to tell me to turn him down. I am over compensating making things too loud because I’m scared of making them NOT loud enough, LOL! I do want to keep doing sound so I hope he puts me on the schedule more the next three months. I’m sure I’ll stay on Wed. nights as it’s more a relaxed crowd, LOL!!

Here is where I sit and that is our sound board. YIKES!!


We drove to Willoughby for the parent meeting at Laurelwood and the doctor said he’s not releasing CJ until today. CJ is still talking of hurting himself when he comes home. CJ doesn’t want to come home and it’s not us. The problem with CJ is that he lets his “friends” dump all their garbage on him and he doesn’t know how to get rid of it so he tries to live with it and he can’t. CJ doesn’t have a filter of where to draw the line and tell others that he can’t handle all their junk. He thinks if he does that he’s being “mean” and not a good friend. So, he has lots of therapy to do to figure a way to dump what his friends are dumping on him.

CJ says that he REFUSES to tell anyone what his friends tell him because it’s “nobody’s business”. *SIGH* We told him he doesn’t HAVE to give a blow by blow of what they are telling him but he can discuss how what they are telling him MAKES HIM FEEL! CJ just has a heart to help the hurting world but he cares TOO MUCH and that is the downfall.

An example of this missing filter is that CJ is allowed some spending money to go to the vending machine once a day. I gave him $6 and when I saw him on Monday I asked him if he needed more money and he said yeah he didn’t have any left. I asked why he went through it so fast and he said that there are kids there that don’t have any money and he felt bad so he gave them his money. He didn’t use the money for himself! I told him that I wasn’t paying for other kids so I wasn’t going to give him any more money. He said that was a good idea because he KNEW that he would spend it on other kids and NOT himself. He knows we don’t have a lot of money and he would rather we kept it than give it to him. He would rather go without. I told him that them not having money is NOT HIS PROBLEM but he doesn’t NOT see it that way. If the problem is in front of him it’s HIS PROBLEM TOO. Now, this isn’t a bad thing but it can be because people like that can be taken advantage of so easily. CJ gives ALL himself and when others stomp on that he gets hurt badly and thus is the vicious cycle.

CJ doesn’t want to come home because he can’t stop his friends from dumping on him. When he’s in the hospital NO ONE can contact him but us so he’s “safe” there. We told CJ that he doesn’t have to be put into the hospital to get away from everyone. We told him that Nana and Don would love to have him for a while and we would pay to fly or bus him down. He look at us with wide eyes and said, “Really?!?” We said of course and Uncle Tony even wanted to have him for a while and he was surprised and happy to know that he’s NOT stuck here and that he can go someplace far enough away. But, if he continues to text these “toxic” friends while away it won’t do much good. We also told him he can’t just take off during school. So, if Nana and Don don’t mind maybe CJ might need to come down next month. LOL!

Sorry It’s Been So Long

It’s been quite the summer. On July 12th CJ tried to hang himself. I’m not really sure if he did so to die or to be put back into the hospital. We usually get him intense therapy over a hospital stay and he must have really wanted to be put back into the hospital. We found the huge nasty marks on his neck and I spent the entire day in the ER and then following the ambulance to Willoughby OH to Laurelwood and then signing a bunch of papers and getting him settled. I didn’t make it back home until 9pm. They say he is coming home tomorrow and I hope to get him right into therapy on Thursday morning.

Ever since he got back from camp things have been tough for him. 2 of his friends have been telling him they are going to kill themselves and one time he was worried about one and went to their house and they wouldn’t let him in and they claimed to have a knife and were going to hurt themselves. He told his psychiatrist and I spoke with her and she said we had to tell the parents. I knew one of them so I told her dad and CJ’s worst fear came true as she told CJ she was NEVER going to be his friend again and that she hated him and on and on. He just can’t take all this and I found all this out on Tuesday morning right after we found out that his therapist was out sick and couldn’t see CJ.

Sometimes the stress of trying to keep CJ safe is just too much. I just had a conversation with Chuck about how I hope once he is out of school and in his twenties that he will be much better. Those three years sound like a million right now.

CJ had a panic attack on Saturday and he hyperventilated himself unconscious so he had to be taken to the ER. He was awake and talking when they took him in so he wasn’t out long but because he lost consciousness he had to be looked at. They gave him a shot of ativan and that helped. Then I got a call on Sunday that he had another panic attack, not as bad, and was given some more ativan and that helped again. Then I got a call later that night saying that they asked CJ what would really make him feel better and he said, “Playing the piano”. They had one and 2 staff members took him to it and he played for 30 minutes and came back a VERY much improved CJ. So, they asked me to bring up his keyboard the next day so he could play it whenever he wanted.

So, yesterday I made the 1 hour long drive with his keyboard just to have them tell me he COULDN’T have it because they didn’t realize it was 4 feet tall!?!?! WHAT!?!? What did they think it was a tiny toy keyboard?!?! CJ was very upset that they said he could have it and then that he couldn’t! He as happy that I had lunch with him and that I brought his books up and he could have those. So, I drove back home with the keyboard and put it all away. Very frustrating!

The doctor at the hospital changed his medication and I am hoping this new one will be better for him. I was on the one he’s on now and I was much worse so changed to the one he just got changed too and did so much better so I am hoping he will also do much better. The two medications that are approved for kids just didn’t work well, this new one is not approved for kids but since the first two did NOT work the insurance will pay for the non-approved medication.

I just got off the phone with CJ’s therapist and found out that she may be going into the hospital today and won’t be able to see CJ on Thursday. She has an infection on her face that may be staff AND she is taking the next 2 weeks off for vacation! I totally forgot about that!!! So, there is a male therapist there that used to do groups but is now doing individual counseling so he has a lot of openings. I told her I want him in twice a week while she is gone.

She said when she gets back that she wants me to come to some sessions because CJ actually opens up more when I am there. How odd! I didn’t know that, so I may sit in on some with the new guy too and get CJ to talk more. He’s such a clam but I wish he was more a ham, LOL!

Well, the night I got home from taking CJ to the hospital, Baby Peter found a kitten outside. Baby Peter LOVES being outside, and I went out around 11pm to get him to bring him in for the night when I heard this insistent crying and found a little starved black kitten circling Baby Peter. I picked it right up and it started purring and crying and I could feel EVERY bone in it’s tiny body! Someone had dumped it because it LOVED people and if it was from around here someone would have been feeding it!

So, I brought it in JUST to feed it and put some flea stuff on her but Joe saw her and went NUTS and named her Midnight and said that she was HIS new kitty! Oh wonderful, we have another cat!!!

Here is Joe with the Kitten when we first found her. You can tell he is VERY tired, LOL!!


Here she is sleeping on Joe.


So, I bought a toy and some kitten food and we are trying to fatten her up. I will make an appointment with the vet and see how old she is and if she is healthy. She seems very healthy, no sneezing, no eye grossies, etc.

Last Day Of Camp

Well, today is the last day of camp for both CJ and Joe. Joe has had a great time at Science camp. His friend Dylan only went the first two days but Joe went every day. He came home Tuesday with a bad headache and his face hurt from laughing all day long. He is exhausted when he comes home. Last night I went into his room to talk to him at 5:30 and he was sound asleep and he stayed asleep till 6am today!! I am not sure when CJ comes home, probably around 2pm. I hope CJ had fun at camp, I know yesterday was the day they went to the water park. He will probably come home exhausted too.

I haven’t been doing too much this week. I had an assignment to finish up and still have 1 more article to write and then I am done until Tuesday and I’ll start writing again. I haven’t sewn any quilt tops this week because of running errands and writing articles. I missing the sewing and I hope to do some more starting next week.

This is the video that Joe LOVES and I go around singing this song all day, LOL!!!