3 weeks!!!

It's only 3 more weeks until we leave! Exitement is really picking up here. I've got so much to do and so little time to finish all of it. Nikolas doesn't really understand "we're going to Mickey Mouse's house" but we tell him every day and he just smiles.

I made reservations for November 3 at Play-n-Dine so he can see JoJo and Goliath. They are still his favorites. :)

I've kinda planned which parks will be on what day...at least tentatively. Our wish volunteers are supposed to come to bring our documents a week or 2 before we leave.

Nikolas' CICOA case manager called today and our lockdowns for the van and his new special needs stroller have been approved so if we're really lucky we can take the stroller and rent a regular minivan instead of a lift van. A lift van would be nice to try but it's a lot more expensive. I know we aren't paying for this but there's no reason to be greedy. I wish I knew how much spending money they're giving us and what other things they've planned. I hear Give Kids the World do all kinds of special things too but I'm not sure what'll be going on when we're there. I think the surprises will be wonderful but I have a hard time not being the one doing the planning. It's the OCD in me. :) I'll be back when I know more!!

Feeling better...

Our (Boo's) surgery was a success! Boo's feeling better. He's still not 100% but definitely better. He's actually going to therapy tomorrow-PT, OT and speech. We're working on getting him a new stander and a therapy ball. His PT and I decided to give him the winter off from them and start back after spring break. Hopefully since he's had this shunt replaced and will be seeing the ENT, he will start making progress again.
School starts on the 12th and I will be sending Boo for a few hours before we have to go to the doctor. We enrolled him in all day kindergarten but that's really a trial. If he gets too tired then he'll switch to 1/2 day. Either way he'll stay in Angie's class for the next 6 years and that makes me much more at ease. She's a wonderful teacher and perfect for the lifeskills kids (and she's fine with cloth diapers-used 'em on her kids!).
Gracie's nerves are getting to her...a new school year will do that. She got a small new wardrobe to get started and is excited. Oh, and her grade school counselor has moved to the middle school so now she's got someone she trusts (who knows about her family history) that she can talk to if she's having issues during the school day. She also has a new schedule...they put her in Biology last week. Hmmmmm....Mr. D "didn't think she was smart enough" then Ms. M & the counselors changed the schedule and decided "yes she is". Ummm an IQ of 137+ and a college reading & comprehension level should be ok for biology & algebra. :P
Time to get back to sewing Boo's school wardrobe...nothing from the stores fits well any more.

Surgery is scheduled

Grrrrr...well, Boo is having exploratory shunt surgery on Wednesday. The neurosurgeon & I are pretty sure it's not the shunt but we need to be positive since that's the "easy" fix. If all is well there then the case kicks back to the new neurologist and she gets to try to figure out what's wrong and why we are having all these issues. Don't you just hate it when you can't figure out what's going on with your child!!! Oh, and the sleep study results came back but the doctor didn't give them to me. They sent them to Dr. H and will have her do it. What's up with that? We haven't seen her in almost 3 years. They must have seen something weird though. I'll ask about that while we're at St. V's too. (I'd better make a list!)
On a happier note...Gracie is away at church camp. It's her first time doing anything like this so I hope she doesn't get too homesick. I know she's really going to enjoy it and she was super excited that a spot opened up (4 days before they leave). I wasn't sure if we could send her since its several hundred dollars and daddy's still laid off. God bless my parents! They paid her fee (the church scholarshipped part of it) and sent some spending money too. They sent my nephew last year & wanted to send her but she wasn't ready then. Funny, Z is 4yrs younger but was ready first. I laugh at my sister 'cause Z is a carbon-copy of Gracie. He does spend more time away though since mom & dad are divorced so that came easier for him. Anyway, we got on the camp website and things look so nice...I'm really excited for her. I only went to camp 1 time and it wasn't church camp...it was a girl scout camp. It was nice but I didn't know anyone and definitely could have had a better time. Gracie is going with the youth group and she's become good friends with several of the girls so she's got support from others who've done this before. We talked about it on the way and both feel like there's going to be a big blessing for her there. After all that's why this spot opened up at the last minute and she was the only one who still "needed" to go. God works in unusual ways sometimes but he always gets his point across if we just pay attention.

Update-Gracie

It's official-the school is full of idiots (& I don't use that term lightly!) The school counselor called to respond to my questions about biology placement and during the course of conversation we began discussing the aspergers diagnosis. She thought it was just a "probable diagnosis not an actually doctor provided diagnosis". I reminded her again that I have sent 5 copies of this on a doctor's script as well as the doctor's dictation to provide the information they wanted and I'm getting the run a round from Blue River and the school. "She had no idea." Blah, blah, blah....Charlie Brown's teacher is talking again. These people are going to make me NUTS! Now we are going to have another 504 meeting at the beginning of the school year...waste my time again but I'll go. This time if we can't get something better than the general education intervention crud we had I will retain the attorney we talked to. No more messin' around. I'm way past done.
On the upside, Gracie did get in to choir and there was a space for her so it's official on her schedule for 8th grade. She also is in high school algebra and high school biology. We weren't going to put her in biology but she "had" to have it and was to the point of tears so the counselor called and asked what we wanted to do. I had already fought with her to get Gracie into Algebra (they wanted to put her back into pre-algebra which she passed this year). I told her to remind Gracie how much work and effort was needed. I heard her in the background saying she understood and wanted to do it so it's official. My child is crazy too and going to take 2 high school classes in 8th grade. This should be "fun". :\