I know it's a weird title to a post, especially since I haven't hollered at y'all in awhile, but I just want to say thanks to Facebook. Thanks to Facebook, Matt and I are still in contact with friends from when we were stationed in Cheyenne, WY. When we first got to Arizona, we stayed at Temporary Living on base, and we were supposed to close on our house by the 15th, so that's as long as I booked us for. On the 13th, we found out that we would NOT be closing on the 15th, and the base had no openings for us. So Matt quickly Facebooked our good friend from forever ago, who we have not seen in at least 4 years and asked if we could come stay with him and his less than a year wife, with our kiddos. They didn't hesitate to accept us into their home. It was a wonderful experience in one of the most stressful times of our lives. Megan made delicious food for us and excepted all of our craziness. So thank you so much Jody and Megan and facebook!
I am also thankful to Facebook, so that during our crazy "leaving WA, not having a house, and trying to close on our house" process, I could always log on to facebook and ask for prayers and kind thoughts. So thank y'all for that too.
So here goes the post...
(Oh, you might want to go to the bathroom and grab a snack)
2 weeks before we left WA, we lost power. I know what you're thinking AHHHHH! Matt and I witness a true miracle that day and were shown proof that every thing we had been putting into Victoria's care was paying off. The key to the power going out, was Matt and I remained calm and we went through a plan with V. We told V we were going to eat dinner, play games and do some reading, and if the power was still not on by 9 pm, her and I were going to my friends house for the night, so she could have internet before bed. We know our limitations to the miracles that we ask for. She remained absolutely calm. It was amazing. She carried on a conversation and had dinner. Her and I ended up going to see a movie because she was doing so well, and not 30 seconds after we pulled out of the driveway the power came back on, but we went to see a movie anyways. It was an awesome evening.
She did very well throughout the packing and moving and traveling process. She was very helpful sitting in the back of the car with Micah on our trip. Our only minor glitch was when we stopped in Modesto, CA for the night, all 4 of us were in one room for the night. Although, she was a little nervous, she remained fairly calm.
When we got to Luke AFB, we knew that they do not have wifi in their rooms. The bonus was that it was a 3 bedroom duplex, so the 4 of us had plenty of room to hang out in. However, when we got there and told V that she would only be having internet from 8 pm - 12 am every night, because we got a hotspot and you pay for data use and that girl uses a little over 1 gig a night during that 4 hours. She had a quit a meltdown, and unfortunately I wasn't as calm as I should have been, so it took me awhile to get her back down to her normal mental state. But we did it, and she did great the rest of the 11 days there. We went swimming, she did a lot of reading. She was much more easy to entertain than Micah who was going on over 2 weeks of only having a couple of toys. He may or may not have watched a lot of TV.
Long story short, we are going on almost a week in our new house, and I am SUPER ready for Victoria to go back to school. In Washington, I had no problem telling her to go outside and play, which she loved to do. Here, it's 3 pm and 112 degrees. So she needs to go to school, so we can get her back on a schedule and away from that computer for 8 hours a day. Also, Matt and my stress has decreased dramatically in the last week, so we are able to stay calm and keep the kids busy.
Also, yesterday we lost our internet for some unknown reason in the middle of the day. It was weird, because the rest of us lost it and soon as my dad signed onto his computer, but who knows. Matt went into Vs room to see if she had lost it too, and found here with her head down on the desk. She said here internet was down, but she was calm. When he went back in there to tell her it was back on, she was still calm. She told Matt that she felt weird. He asked why, and she said, "I didn't overreact." I went up a little while later and told her I was very proud of her. I didn't want to overreact in praising her, because I felt that would have confused her on how to not overreact. (does that make sense.) This will not stop me from overly praising her in the future for being wonderful.
Matt is going back to work the Tuesday after labor day, and when he does that and signs onto the base we can start her ABA going again. There are a couple of goals that we would like to accomplish in the next school year. We will see which ones are attainable sooner than later. The greatest achievement I feel that Victoria attained with here last ABA therapist was the ability to verbalize her emotions, both good and bad. Here are some goals that Matt and I would like to see with Victoria's ABA
- carrying on a two sided conversation
- listening to what Matt and I say. for example, when we tell her something she needs to listen to all of the components. we are unsure how attainable this one is
-from 9 pm to midnight, she is in a zombie like state. it's like dealing with a completely different person. so we need some strategies for that.
- her 12am midnight bedtime. actually, we would be happy with a flexible bedtime. I wouldn't care if she stayed up late on the weekends. but sometimes she is so tired and exhausted and won't go to bed.
I promise to post pics soon. Thanks for reading. But gotta stop, my boo boo is awake. :)
