Another Day, Another Dollar...

...Or thousands, to be spent.

This fall, the money issues are coming up. Fortunately, my husband's job seems to be secure, and he makes enough for us to live on and have a little set aside for emergencies. However, we have been spending too much lately. And not just on unnecessary luxuries like new TVs (though Hubby did buy one of those, and now it's annoying me because the thing is too big for the stand it's on, and isn't centered on the wall, so from my regular seat -- the one I always sit in on the couch -- the end of the TV overlaps the doorway according to my angle of view, plus the cables and plugs to the TV are all visible on the wall. It's very upsetting to my sense of decor. Hubby doesn't see the point in that, but feng shui, or my Americanized version of it, is important to me!).

Where was I? Oh yes, we're spending too much money. In October, we had the hyperbaric chamber rental. That has been going well so far, in that Hutton enjoys going in the chamber twice a day, and his sentences are getting longer and sound more "typical". We'll see how he does in the weeks to come if he continues to improve. The chamber goes back next week, and if he shows improvement during the "down time" we'll probably want to rent it again, or look into buying one. Did you say that will cost still more money? Oh yeah. Money. So, if the hyperbaric protocol works for Hutton, that's great, but means more money spent. If it doesn't work for Hutton, that just means we wasted thousands of dollars. Hmm. And time. Time is money, right? Well, not if you're a seven-year-old boy or a housewife, I suppose.

I bought tickets to fly home to Nashville for the week between Christmas and New Year's. Originally, we were all going to go for two weeks, and drive down to Pensacola to visit Hubby's family, too, but when that got into the $2500 range (AKA the price of renting a hyperbaric chamber for a month) Hubby balked. So, now the boys and I are going to Nashville for a week, not driving to Pensacola (we'll see the inlaws in North Carolina for Thanksgiving, when we visit my sister-in-law and her family) and we'll save on Hubby's ticket, plus car rental costs, plus Hubby can stay and take care of the pets, so no petsitter costs for that. Phew. But, still, another $1700 to visit family for Christmas.

Then there's the Christmas gifts to be bought for friends and family. I've bought things for a few people already, but still have more to buy, and I'm sure that will quickly add up.

And then, today, I took our sweet Sally to the vet for her annual checkup. She has two fatty tumors that are growing -- one on her leg, the other on the side of her abdomen, and the vet wrote up an estimate for having them removed. She's had these tumors for years, and when they biopsied them, they were benign, but the one on her leg started getting bigger this fall. So, it's possible there's something underneath all the fat. But, do we want to subject our 13-year-old dog to surgery and the two weeks of downtime to follow? Not to mention the $1100 or so for surgery? Sally's a great dog, but as Hubby and I discussed two years ago when she needed surgery for a herniated disk in her neck, it's a lot of money. So, we're going to wait on the tumors for a while, since they aren't bothering her.

I won't type anything else, or I'm sure to jinx us into having more money issues come up.

Melancholy Mama

Today is one of those melancholy days around here. It's the first day of November, the leaves are on the far side of pretty -- the trees are either half-leaved or have lost them, so they look bare and cold. Just a few days ago, when I went with Hutton's class on a field trip, the trees still looked very pretty, with lots of red, yellow and orange leaves. Once the leaves go, and the rain starts, the late fall blues are not far behind! Considering tomorrow daylight saving ends, too, I know on Monday we'll be walking to the school bus in the dark.

Today, I dropped Hubby off at the airport, which is another reason for melancholia. He's going to Barcelona for a week; he'll be giving several talks at some conference. We'd talked about everyone going at one point, but after our summer of vacation spending (Disney World and California) and the fact that Hutton will already be missing several days of school so we can go out of town for Thanksgiving (another expenditure, as well), we decided against it. I do feel sad to be left behind, though, and although a few days here and there of solo parenting are fine, a whole week is hard, especially when it's fall.

Another thing, is that Hutton and I (and Harrison a few times) have been spending time in the hyperbaric chamber, which is where I am now! This is great, in that I have high hopes it will have positive results for Hutton, but also tiring, as on school days, I have to get up at 6 a.m. so we'll have enough time to get a session in before school. The protocol calls for two 90 minute sessions a day, with at least 6 hours between sessions, and the 6 a.m. session, and one after school, works best with keeping our schedule as close to normal as possible. After waking up at 6 a.m. since Monday, though, I'm getting worn down. Although Hutton and I sleep during the morning sessions in the chamber, it's cramped and not exactly restful when we're both trying to share a pillow, and Hutton is a wriggly sleeper. So snoozing is more of a description of what goes on. This weekend I plan to do a lot more sitting on my butt and sleeping in to recover.

The past week was tiring in that it was the build to Halloween, as well. Thursday, Hutton's class had a field trip to a local farm, where there's a pumpkin patch, hay maze, corn maze, and petting zoo. I chaperoned, along with several other parents, which was fun, as I missed the trip with Harrison's preschool. Friday, Hutton had two Halloween parties I helped with. The first was the mainstream first grade class Hutton eats lunch with. They had a cute art project, but otherwise, I preferred Hutton's "real" class party. I know the teachers and other parents and kids in there.

Oh yeah: Crush alert! There's a father of a fellow student in Hutton's class I've seen several times over the years. His daughter was in Hutton's kindergarten class a few years back, and I've seen him at various class functions, including the field trip on Thursday. But yesterday was different. Why? you may ask. Well...he was in uniform! The man is a cop. I never thought I was into that, but seeing a normal looking guy suddenly transformed into crush material in just a day was pretty impressive. I don't know if it was the gun and clips in the holster, the badge, the tight pants.... Anyway, his wife was there, too, and she's very nice, as is the husband (I mean, he's at an elementary school Halloween party, for god's sake!), and I did my best not to stare. I did make a stupid joke to him about liking his Halloween costume. Duh. Hey, another mom in the class said the same thing later on, so I guess I'm not the only one.

Friday night, Hubby and I took the boys trick or treating at the outdoor mall. We joked about how it was just like when we were kids. (No, not really. I had a great trick or treating neighborhood growing up, and we'd spend hours trick or treating on Halloween.) Our neighborhood now isn't good for trick or treating (no street lights, a few houses spread too far apart), and the boys had a great time at the mall (Harrison pronounced it the best day ever -- hey, he's only 4!) even though some of the stores gave out lame candy, or worse, stickers. The boys didn't seem to mind, and Hutton did a great job of saying "Trick or treat!" and following up with "Thank you!" after getting candy. (Though I was reminding him often.) After trick or treating, we went out to dinner at a Thai restaurant. Plus, one of the mall restaurants gave us a $20 gift card with the boys' candy, so Hubby and I will have to go back on a date.

After the boys went to bed, we watched The Fifth Element on BluRay. Hubby got it from Netflix, as he's been trying to rent good BluRay type films since he just got the fancy new equipment (he bought a new, bigger TV as well, that we don't really need and can't really afford right now. Hey, we're doing our part to help stimulate the economy!) About halfway in, I leaned over and said to him, "You know this movie is visually stunning, but seriously sucks." Hubby agreed, and we laughed about that as the movie continued and got weirder and suckier.

So, that's what's been going on this week. Man, I have to pee, and have 15 more minutes of HBOT time. Can I make it? I gave myself a UTI by waiting too long/running to many errands without stops last week, so I'm pressing my luck.

The End of Summer

This is the final week of summer vacation for the boys (and me!). Next Tuesday, Hutton goes to first grade, and Harrison starts his pre-K class Wednesday. This week, I've been doing my best to sleep in, as I realize these lazy sleeping-in weekdays will be over soon.

Hutton turned SEVEN on Saturday! I can't believe I have a child that old. Well, then again, I just turned SOME AGE OVER 30 two Saturdays ago, so it's possible. Just amazing how time flies.

Monday, we went to see Wall-E again with my BFF and her kids. I really do love that movie.

Today, we headed to the Evergreen State Fair in Monroe. Yeehaw! Before hand, I got my name down on a wait-list to rent a hyperbaric oxygen chamber. The phone rang as I was walking out the door, and it was the hyperbaric rental folks! Yes, I convinced Hubby that we needed this, and he agreed. He didn't offer to buy one, however. He said, "OK, rent one for a month and we'll see how it goes." Hey, that's pretty good for Mr. Cynical. So, in October, we're supposed to have a chamber headed our way. Another Yeehaw!

We started our fair day out in a bad way, however. The boys had to use the bathroom as soon as we entered the fair gates. The women's room line was out the door, of course, and Harrison was grabbing his crotch and dancing. Hmm. I very, very stupidly told the boys to go together into the men's room, and then to "Come right out!" after peeing, and we'd wash hands in the women's room. I waited by the door, anxiously, as I started thinking, "Bad idea!" as soon as they boys walked into the men's room without me. Can you guess how that could have possibly gone wrong?

Of course, there was a back door to the bathrooms. Of course, Hutton went out the back door, Harrison went out the front, and when Hutton wasn't with him, I said, "Where's Hutton?" Hmm. My friend's husband went into the men's room. No Hutton. CRAP.

My friend went to the lost kids tent, while I grabbed Harrison's hand and started crying, thinking, "Why do I even bother to try to be normal? What the hell was I thinking that my boys could possibly go to the bathroom without something horrible happening?" Sigh.

A few minutes, that seemed like years, later, my friend received a call on her cell phone. They had Hutton in the lost kids tent. Phew.

When we got there, Hutton was happy to see us, and laughingly told me how he got lost. Glad someone enjoyed it!

Afterward, the rest of the day went well. We spent too much money riding kiddie rides, though the boys and I also went on the Ferris Wheel, which was the highlight of the day for me. We saw some dogs being shown, and toured the barns of various livestock. We ate crappy food, and the boys won some crappy little stuffed animals, but they enjoyed themselves, and we managed to leave with the same number of people as we arrived with, barely.

So, a little reminder to myself that Hutton is not at the stage yet where he can be trusted in a public restroom by himself. It was very stupid of me to believe he was there yet, but lesson learned. However, this time he didn't run off, like he did the last time I lost him (spring of '07 at a birthday party). He simply went out the wrong door, probably following someone else out. Eh. I guess that's some progress.

What a Great Idea!

And for once, I'm not being sarcastic!

Surf on over to Lend 4 Health, a site where you can loan a family money to help them cover the costs of various autism treatments!

I'm going to loan money, but first I have to try to get Hubby to agree to loan me "our money" to buy a hyperbaric chamber so we can start HBOT treatment with Hutton. Think he'll go for it?! I brought it up over dinner (and wine) Saturday, when Hubby once again said that Hutton has brain damage from birth, not autism. (OK, sure sweetie. All of those doctors and therapists are wrong. It looks like a duck and walks like a duck, but it's really a...platypus?) I pointed out that HBOT is a promising new treatment for autism, as well as for, uh, brain damage from birth. We'll see. When I saw the numbers, I realized a hyperbaric chamber ain't exactly something I'm going to cover with a couple of coffee mystery shops, though. Hubby doesn't really drive his car much these days. He usually takes the bus. I'd much rather have a hyperbaric chamber, I think! Somehow I don't think Hubby would agree. We shall see...