Monday, January 05, 2015

Mixing With Michelle: THM Crock Pot Cooking Menu Session 1

Mixing With Michelle: THM Crock Pot Cooking Menu Session 1: This is  my official first attempt to create an ALL THM menu for the crock pot. With summer creeping up I know that I don't want to be s...

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Am I dreaming or am I walking through my thoughts

As I stand here listening to the waves crashing in and moving out. Smelling of salt water and fish, feeling the warmth of the sun on my face. Standing still, not wanting to wake. Forgetting I have a life beyond the rocks on the other side of the wall.
I slowly walk across the giant rocks, letting my feet feel for the flat smooth surface to balance myself on as I make my way toward the salience of my future. I found my self stepping on the smooth wet sand. As I move across the wet sand pushing up between my toes and sticking to the surface of my feet.
The waves move in and splash against my feet and legs. Trying to let me know who is in control. I stand and feel the spray of water come upon my body. I slowly move myself towards the sun and follow it down the beach as it slides down behind the edge of the ocean.
I find myself on the other side of the wall on the grass in peace.

Thursday, June 03, 2010

Dear Week




Dear Week,
I'm so over you. I'm leaving you for your best friend,
Weekend. Don't try to find us for at least two days.
Love (not really), Me.

Monday, May 24, 2010

autism

Have you notice that most kids with mild autism never look you in the eye or they do for a short amount of time. I am noticing that my husband has a few autism tendencies.

HOW DOES OUR BRAIN DEVELOP DURING CHILDHOOD?

POSTED BY DR. MEHMET OZ

When we're infants, we have all of this brain material compacted in a small space. Like tree branches, they overlap. That garbled anatomy makes it difficult to do some things, such as making decisions, because the jumbled structures crossing one another make it nearly impossible for our brains to focus on one thing.

As we get older-3, 4, and 5 years old-our brain starts deciding which branch points get developed and which sort of fall off. So the more we use certain parts of our brain as toddlers, the more we develop those kinds of neurons, while the opposite holds true for those neurons we don't use. The way we train our brains at an early age actually has an effect on which of those neuron systems will become good and strong and which won't.

In autistic children, the current best theory goes, those underused links don't fall off, meaning the jumbled mass makes it more difficult for autistic children to focus because too much is going on. This is different from Attention Deficit Disorder, which affects the ability to concentrate. Many of us actually had it as kids (but it was rarely diagnosed years ago), and difficulty concentrating on only one subject can be something we even carry into adulthood.

That explanation of neurological development can partly explain why our brains function in certain ways as we age. If we didn't listen to music as a child, or learn how to ski, or learn to speak French, then it becomes more difficult to learn those things as an adult because those neuron connections aren't developed for processing the necessary information

Does an autistic adult behave differently from an autistic child?

by Cleveland Clinic

Adults with autism demonstrate the same range of symptoms as children and adolescents with autism. The diagnostic criteria that are set forth by the American Psychiatric Association do not change according to age.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Wedding Anniversary



Tomorrows is John and I's 4th anniversary.

Friday, July 17, 2009

THe list of what we didn't have in the 70's


1. We didn't have cell phones. We had to talk into the receiver which was attached by a cord to a phone. We had to sit in one place to talk. Some phones even hung on the wall. We couldn't talk in the car. But you could still throw the phone down when you became outraged at the person on the other end.
2. We couldn't text message. We had to go home or fumble through our pockets for change to call someone and hope they were home. And rather than looking at texted naked pictures of each other, kids had to find their parents playboys hidden around the house.
3. Many of us didn't even have answering machines. They were very expensive. We simply went on with our lives ignorant of every little detail occuring in others lives.
4. Nor did many of us have calculators, they were $100 for the cheap versions. We had to calculate in our heads. Kids HAD to learn there addition, subtraction, long division, and their multiplication tables in school.
5.Furthermore, we didn't have computers. Without spell check, kids also had to learn how to spell and how to compose a sentence.
6. We didn't have the internet, if you wanted to learn about something, you had to go to the library or book store and ask somebody and hoped they knew what they were talking about. And home finances had to be hand written on these green graphed legers and calculated, often in someones head! And no internet dating or flirting, by God if you liked someone, you had to call them on the telephone or talk to them in person, live.
7. We had newspaper boys (what a historionic notion) who delived the daily news to your house. It also included comics and Dear Abby, it was sold as a complete package. And often the reader had to read for a couple of paragraphs before she got the whole story.
8. We didn't have email, we wrote letters by hand. And if you wrote with a pen, well you'd have to make a line through your mispelling, which would obvioulsy make you look like a fool to the recipient. And to mail a letter you had to go to the Post Office and buy a stamp for 10 cents (which always seemed like such a bargain)
9. I don't even think we had erasable pens back then, but we did have pencil sharpeners and pencil erasers, thank goodness.
10.There was no cable TV. We had 12 or 13 channels and Channel U. What was Channel U anyway? And there were no remotes so you had to go to the television and manually change it. People really had there shows back then. Readers Digest was living the High Life. And TV's were expensive, so most families didn't have one in the bathrooms, kitchen, and forget the kids rooms. Kids, you had to fall asleep in the dark. No wonder kids don't believe in monsters anymore.
11. We didn't have digital cameras. Every single picture you took had to be sent off to a photo lab for someone else to look at, so obviously we were limited with which moments we had to record. There weren't nearly as many bad cheap shots, or on the other hand perfect shots hanging around. You had the hand you were delt with, and you were essentially at the mercy of the photographer.
12. We didn't have GPS devices (and most certainly not on our phones), let alone, Mapquest. In Geography class kids, they actually taught you how to read a map. As complex as that sounds, it really made sense. So of course, we had to learn the difference in North and East and so on.
13. We didn't have medication for the ADD's. (The adults however were releived with Valuim) Kids were going crazy sitting in those classes learning all this stuff....although come to think of it, I don't remember witnessing an ADD meltdown till the 80's. Well at least I didn't have my own ADD meltdown till the 80's.
14. We had vinyl record albums, tapes, and 8 tracks rather than CD's, or IPODS. Tapes and 8 tracks were for the car, records were for the house. And if you wanted to make your friend a recording, you had to record onto the tapes which consisted of a lot of rewinding and fast forwarding, and the sound quality was dubious. I still think the sound out of a clean record is better than a CD.
15. We didn't have DVD's, but video tapes did exist, though like calculators, a pricy investment and rare to find. I remember watching Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer with some other kids at a bar while our Dad's threw back a couple of Milwaukees Best. If you wanted to see a movie, you had to get to the movie theatre before it went off. Going to the movies was a big deal.
16. Speaking of popcorn, no microwaves existed at homes in the 70's (but maybe in labs somewhere). Everything had to be heated on the oven or in the stove. That's when cold leftover pizza really came into fashion. So lots of dishes had to be washed, and dishwashers were luxury. Moms were in full support of Dad's perfecting his outdoor grilling skills. Sandwiches were big.

You might be surprised to know what we did have....like, digital watches, pens with digital watches on them elevators, TV dinners, and cameras the size of the tip of your thumb.