Thrive As You

Well, in case you haven't figured it out, I do a lot of work with Autism Speaks and the TN Walk Now for Autism . I've mentioned before why I feel it's so important to raise awareness but... I'm going to say it again. This week a group of high school kids asked Autism Speaks to send someone out to talk to them about autism. How cool, right? They wanted to learn more! And my "more," I mean, "at all." Of the 42 kids in that room with me, ONE of them even knew what autism was. Newsflash: 1 in 150 kids are being diagnosed with autism in the United States. In the UK it's estimated that the numbers are more like 1 in 67. We need, *NEED* to educate the masses. So I was thrilled to have the opportunity to teach these kids about autism and what it looks like and I encouraged them to go tell 10 people about what we talked about and make the information viral. I mean, Comic-Con and Twilight are trending topics on Twitter and yet autism is not? Really? The ...

Since Luke was diagnosed with autism almost 3 years ago, I’ve given this topic a lot of thought. It has come to a head for me several times in the last few weeks so of course the best thing I can think to do is write about it. We went to Arizona a few weeks ago to visit my parents. I was scared to death the travel with the boys, sans husband. You never know how Luke is going to react. Airline travel presents a whole host of issues for autistic kids. Busy airport, unknown scenarios, lots of transitions, waiting, having to take shoes off (OMG!), handing over security items TO security, loud noises, strange people, on and on and on. Then we get on the plane to succumb to confined spaces, loud noises, the expectation to be quiet and sit still for hours, etc, so on and so forth. Last time we traveled he did “ok” but Jeff was with me so we were able to manage things with a bit more ease. This time it was just me, an overstuffed backpack for each of us, and a laptop for me to carr...

So wow. People are starting to read my blog. So for those of you out there who don't know me personally, here's the abc's on who I am, today anyway. a- April, it’s my name.. or so they tell me. In any given day I don’t hear it too much. Everyone I know has a nickname for me, including Myra who calls me, “Hooker,” Jeff who calls me, “Pet” (it’s a joke), and of course the name I’m called the most is….”MOM!!!!!!!” I would be remiss if I didn’t include autism under “a.” So I will say ~ autism: it’s part of my life but doesn’t define my life. b- Boys. I gave birth to two and married one so I’m outnumbered! c- Chiropractor . I’m one of “those.” I’m addicted. I love mine. He made my headaches go away. Without meds. And I used to get A LOT of headaches. Also? Candy. I friggen love it. The sugary kind like nerds or runts or gummy bears or orange tic tacs or gobstoppers. It’s really good for my 6 pack abs. d- Doctors. I have the utmost respect for them (see: ...

Raise your hand if you get a million "forward" emails in any given week pertaining to who-knows-what because you automatically hit the "delete" button when you see them? Whoosh. That was a lot of hands going up, I felt it all the way through cyberspace! Well, I'm on that list to be sure ~ and this week I got this email from my father-in-law and it was a letter that Erma Bombeck wrote. The mouse was hovering over "delete," but for some reason, I opened it instead. Who knows why. I read it, a little bit stunned. Given what I wrote in my last post, I was kind of shocked to realize that Erma and I share(d) a brain. Crazy. So I wanted to share with you what the late, great Erma Bombeck had to say had to say about....... sweating. IF I HAD MY LIFE TO LIVE OVER - by Erma Bombeck (written after she found out she was dying from cancer). I would have gone to bed when I was sick instead of pretending the earth would go into a holding pattern if I weren't ther...