This Craziness I Call Life

Apologies to my 2 faithful readers, my mom and my mother-in-law, for the lack of posts over the last month or so. And as I now feel the muscles in my neck cramp up a bit as I begin to type, I have come up with a wonderful reason (excuse) for my absence in the blog world lately. Our computer chair broke and I have to resort to sitting on the floor while looking up at the screen...not very beneficial for the neck. Maybe that is why I haven't spent much time at the computer lately. Sounds good to me.

I've been wanting to post about our Thanksgiving, remembering that my main purpose of this blog is to record the goings-on of the Aaron clan. I want to remember every part of this craziness we call life, and Thanksgiving 2008 is a perfiect example of life with the Aaron's.

I had been feeling a little sorry for myself due to the fact that this holiday season would be the first in my 34 years of life on this planet that I would not be spending one moment with extended family. Although, we were invited to have Thanksgiving dinner with a friend/co-worker of Alex's, his fiance, mother, future mother-in-law, grandmother, sister, brother-in-law, and two nephews. Sounds like fun, especially since that means I would be getting out of grocery shopping, cooking, and cleaning up the disaster that always accompanies Thanksgiving dinner at our house. But, it also means stress and hard work supervising a very energetic 8 year autistic child and introducing him to a new environment.

Let me back up for a moment. About two months ago Alex and I decided to put Jacob on some medication that would hopefully reverse the progression of his turning into the Tasmanian Devil. He was becoming somewhat out of control, not with his compliance or attitude, but with his body. He couldn't be still for any length of time and was INTO everything. Well, after taking the plunge, we were so thrilled to now have some of our sanity back and Jacob seemed so much more content and physically under control. So, when thinking of taking him to someone else's home, it gave us a renewed confidence that we could actually have a stress free and enjoyable time.

Well, we depart on our 45 minute journey to our friend's home for a wonderful Thanksgiving meal and about 5 minutes away from our destination Jacob lets out scream, just a normal "stimulating his vocal chords and likes how it sounds" scream. I then immediately looked at Alex and asked, " You did give him his medicine, didn't you?" Yep, you guessed it. It was the classic case of "he thought she did and she thought he did," and it didn't get done! We were both so frustrated at ourselves (me, especially, since I had just taken his medication out of my purse THAT morning) because this could have been a really nice evening, something we don't normally experience at someone else's home.

Due to our gracious and understanding hosts, we actually did have a nice time. Other than sniffing the appetizers and putting them back on the platter and throwing a foam puzzle piece and hitting our host in the face, Jacob did behave very well. That doesn't necessarily translate into a stress free evening, but it was a nice evening. I did have to take Jacob outside for a couple of breaks, especially during desert time...he loves to finger paint with pies. Josiah and Micah had alot of fun, the food was delicious, and we added a little something different to the Thanksgiving of our hosts. I wouldn't know what its like to have a typical family, but the challanges of being a-typical allow us to have experiences that create memories that not everyone can say they understand. Its actually refreshing and I embrace this craziness I call life.