Hello world, nice to see you. It's been a long time....

I woke up this morning and out of the blue, I wanted to blog. So I grabbed my trusty iPad, signed into my blogger account, and wow! It's been over a year! Facebook has really become my expressive outlet, but I'm going to try to jump back in here....I like going back and reading some of my older stuff and remembering moments gone by. So....here's my promise. Or my desire anyway. I'm getting back to blogging. Today was one of those moments in live that you look forward to. At least, for me. It was Jonathan's first day of Scout Camp. We've talked about it for weeks, even more about it in the last week, and yesterday we went and got him registered (along with myself as an adult leader), we got up this morning two hours before it was time to leave, got ready, and got out the door fairly easily. Unfortunately that's when the adventure began. One thing I've learned in the last nine years is that nothing is easy with an Autistic child. Oh, you can prepare them for stuff, you can get everything ready beforehand, you can have all your ducks in a row (that's a Southern term for all you non Southern talking friends out there)....but nothing ever works out like you plan. This morning was no different. My first clue came when, less than a mile from home, I realized that J didn't have his morning meds. Holy crap. Not heading out to anything new and different without our morning medication regimen. So I turned around. Since J is pretty used to taking his own medication, I sent him inside to get it while I "timed him." In truth, I don't time him, but it's a good motivator to get him moving without loosing his focus, which is extremely short lived. He came back out pretty quickly, but I soon discovered he took one out of the wrong bottle, and instead got one out of the bottle I'd just prepared to stick in our 72-hour kits. Oh well, no biggie. We hit the road, again, and traffic was insanely slow. We arrived five minutes late, which doesn't go over well with Jonathan. And the moment we opened the door to the building, he started shaking. "I'm nervous." "You don't have anything to be nervous about...you're fine. I'm right here with you," I responded. We got him checked in, delivered to his table, and introduced to the Bear leader. I stayed put, knowing J needed me close. One of the other boys at the table was familiar, and I made sure J knew he was there. "Look Jonathan, it's Spencer, from church!" J wasn't fazed. They gave the kids breakfast (he had already eaten, but he went along with it decently, except for the small and almost unnoticeable (to others) meltdown about there only being one flavor of milk, his favorite not being it). We went back to the table, did a quick activity, then there was a lull. Uh oh. J started to fidget. He got up...and he started to spin. Usually it's a sign of self comforting, or deep thinking. I'm not sure what this morning was, but I had to stop it...there was people around that he might knock into. As I made him sit back down, the fidgeting got worse, and he got a pinched look. "I want to go home." "we're not going home J, we've been planning this all year," I said. "But I didn't want to come in the first place!" He countered. Oh crap, that was news to me. I continued, quietly, to try to calm him down, but he was t having it. At my adamant pushing, we made it through the next two activities, but just barely. By the end of the exploring activity, he'd worked himself into a frenzy. Then I saw him cough, and I knew it was about to get ugly. Forget the buddy rule, the two deep leadership rule, and every other scouting law....."Go to the bathroom, now!" I said. He turned, ever so slowly. "Go!" Two steps, and he lost his breakfast. "Run J!" Another few steps, and he puked again. Finally we got there, and I literally pushed him into the bathroom, hoping nobody was inside. I left him there, puking all over the front of him, while I went and told the Cubmaster in charge. A few minutes later, we were on our way home, and Jonathan sat in the back, half naked because I made him take off the pukey clothes; he played him DS and commented that he'd probably be sick for two days. Now....I am very well aware that he could have had a sick stomach and that's what brought on the stress and bad feelings. However, looking at my child four hours later, as he smiles and asks for a snack, I have a sneaking suspicion that the stress caused the sickness. I guess I'll never know for sure, but I'd put my money on the latter. In any case, I've already started talking up going back tomorrow. We'll see how it works out...but I think just to be on the safe side, I might get up a few minutes earlier tomorrow, and take a change of clothes with us.