DaisyProudfoot

Christmas shopping - not started yet - but I have asked the kids to write out their lists. They've been told their budgets and have to work within them so no ultra expensive pressies unless shared Christmas day was getting very enjoyable as all my kids are that much older and chill out at Christmas but with the arrival of my two wee nephews living with us it's back to massive pressies for the littleuns (about half a million) from all the relatives from their mother's side of the family and no space for us. The nephews parents now spend Christmas day with us so they can have that "quality time" with their children which isn't so bad because it means we can leave them to keep the kids occupied while we concentrate on Christmas dinner. Unfortunately they were granted one day's unsupervised access each week this year so I'm not looking forward to their plans for Christmas.

Tally, I think it's lovely that you care for your mum and did initially think "good for you" We're all a worry to our parents whether we're one year's old or 71 year's old. Mums and dads never stop worrying about their children and at the same time they never stop being proud of their children either. Just like on this forum she'll chat to people about her good times and bad times and share the happy moments of which there will be many I'm sure. I'm still a worry to my mum even now and she always complains that I keep all my health problems to myself and why don't I talk to her when all I want to do is not worry her too much Support groups are a great way to meet new friends who share similar lives and that's why people go not because their lives are so horrible they can't cope. As one famous mouse once said: "If growing up were so easy it wouldn't take so long."

Looks like they finished at position 8. Do they get anything for that it's pretty impressive?

Happy Birthday Ian :party:

:thumbs: "God I've missed this place, didn't even know it still existed under the rockfall," says Tatters as she scrambles her way through the remains of the front entrance. She was unaware that Suze had already cleared the side entrance so she could take delivery of the lycra supersuit. "I wonder if anyone still lives here?" Tatters had been away from the Batcave for a while spending much of her time holed up in a place called Ebay and filling her home with tents, toasters and land rover parts. When she wasn't bagging bargains she was adding to her little brood and trying to teach them to spread their own little wings and leave her in peace. Now she dusted down her superhero outfit once more, sprinkled the glitter on her wings, struggled into those ###### high heeled boots and prepared to meet the party "One step forward, three steps back....that's the way to see a bat," muttered Tatters as she rehearsed the old password based on the joys of applying for DLA, statements and other Batcave heroics "Helllllooooooooo!" she shouted down the tunnels, not the first time she'd done that over the years. "Suze, Flora, Mel, Judgey, Kathryn, Smiley.....anyone?......are you still here? I can smell something and it don't smell like Friday's curry." From various orifices of the cave crept the heroes as they heard Tatters little voice chiming around the echoing walls. "Hi" said Tatters. "Have I missed anything?"

Got the results of my MRI scan back on my neck. Appears part of the spinal bone is putting pressure on the nerves in the spine which is why I'm having so much pain in my neck, shoulders, arms, hands etc. Been referred to a neurosurgeon now so not sure whether I'll be going down the operation route or the manipulation route. If it gets me off these opiates I don't care!

Done

Welcome Mad Kangaroo

We have bookcases full of books and I have lots of favourites. If it's kids books then I'd say my list includes: Five Minutes Peace The Witness - a Christmas story about a cat at the birth of Jesus Little Baa Peace at Last Grown-up books: My favourite authors are Sherri S Tepper and Robin Hobb From Sherri I love her Raising the Stones series (fantasy/Sci-Fi) and from Robin just about everything she's ever written including those written under her other name Megan Lindholm. It takes me months to read a book as I never get the opportunity these days.

Congratulations from me too. Hope its going ok and you've had a chance to speak to OH

It's always the same things have just got sorted and they're swimming along nicely and along comes another review. You could always moved to Newcastle Lisa. The LEAs no better than anywhere else but it's a lovely place to live and good value for money

I hope! So far this week: Saturday - washing machine broke down, it's the drum (worse luck) Sunday - toaster blew up Today - the boiler's packed in But...every cloud has a silver lining. I've just won a brand new 4 slice toaster in sliver and black on fleabay for �5.19! The washing machine part may be under warranty I've got British Gas cover for the boiler The joy of electrical appliances

Looks like I'm free that day so I'll tag along too please. Where we going BTW?

As some of you may recall I'm a Cub Scout Leader and I seem to have built up a bit of reputation for handling AS kids. Currently we have 3 AS boys in Scouts (which my DH runs) who were all in my cub pack and I have 2 AS (and one suspected AS) cubs in my current cub pack. They're all a great bunch of kids, we've taken them camping and on trips etc and I have to admit sometimes they're the best behaved of the lot. Maybe its either that having one of my own AS kids (ie Martin) the parents have more confidence in me or whether its just having one of my own I know their little ways - I'm not sure. It gets a bit huffier than the usual pack might be and we do have some interesting freak-outs at times but it makes for entertaining meetings and the parents are among the most helpful people I know

Yes Tally the station is right in the centre of town and if you hop on a Metro to Monument that's outside Waterstones which is even handier. Presume its the bigger Waterstone's shop folks. If I'm going I could always meet you at the station and walk up with you. I would email you a pic of me so you know what I look like! Is the meet open to Prodigal Daughters like me?

Personally, no, I don't think he does need a statement. School Action Plus I would say yes, he was on School Action at primary with an IEP which was sufficient for the size of school he was in. This one has a lot more pupils and a lot more staff. I'm just going to have a word with the SEN, can't believe he's never even rung me.When we met him before Martin joined the school he was very positive about the support he would give Martin - where is it now?

Hey Forbsay, it's a pain isn't it? Martin used to wake at all hours just to do stupid things like put up posters - 3am and you're putting up posters! Thankfully he does sleep through now, or if he doesn't he at least stays in his room and we don't know about it! Questions: 1. How old is he? 2. What time does he go to bed? Could he go to bed later? 3. Does he eat/drink before bed? 4. Does he have a wind-down time away from computer/tv before bed? 5. Can you spare time to do some quieter activities with him? Not sure I agree with taking him out for a walk before bed that would just wake my son up! 6. What is his bedtime ritual? Is there anything in particular he is doing at 3am which could be included into an earlier bedtime ritual? 7. Could you sleep in his bed with him and creep out when he's asleep?

Pleased to hear she's still doing ok Fran Hope she enjoys the prom.

Hello all, thought I better re-introduce myself as many of you will not know me. Joined the forum ages ago and used to be quite active here but dropped out for a long time due to major family commitments and a long period struggling with clinical depression. I've come crawling back to get some advice on Martin's education he's just moved from a small village school of 100 pupils to a major boy's high school of thousands of pupils and his AS is not going un-noticed so to speak. Kids he's fine with, teachers - that's where the problem starts It's all in the Education thread so I'll not repeat it here. Personally some of you may remember we took on the care of my nephew who was 16 months at the time which caused a lot of disruption with Martin but that's all in the past now. The nephew is still with us and now almost 4 years old, we also took on the care of his little brother in January of this year (then 7 months old - that's how long it takes to go through the court process) and he's now 17 months old and settled in well too. The parents get unsupervised access once a week. The rest of the family are fine - Martin's twin has also gone to high school and she is already showing excellent Artistic traits. The eldest is in his last year in sixth form and has just been accepted onto a Year in Industry Scheme so he can take a gap year working in engineering before he goes to Uni and the middle one (the 14-year-old) is preparing to do GCSEs and hoping to become a Genetic Scientist! Hubbs is still doing the same job, as am I and I'm struggling daily with my stupid Lupus - now on Opium-based tablets which are interesting if I take too many So....that's Daisy's life in a nutshell and that's why I have spent some time away from the boards. Good to see you all again

According to the HT the school has done all it can using the normal solutions - well if they have they've kept it pretty quiet from me I can tell you! This is the first ever call I've had with regards to Martin's educational standards in the high school (he's only been there one half term) although according to the HT his name has come up in lists from teachers on a number of occasions. If he really does need a statement then I'm all for it - anything which helps him to learn would be fantastic. If it stops the detentions too even better.

Can I come please? Haven't been on the forum for ages but it would be nice to see some faces because most of you won't know me. Guess if I do come better do some reading up,been about a year since I was last live. Newcastle's quite handy for me

thanks for the welcome back peeps and hello Pearl. I'll be honest my main concern would be that if he got a statement would the school then turn around and say that his needs were too great for them to cope with and he would be transferred to another school. He's a bright lad and could do well in this school given the opportunities. His brothers have done ok. I think I'm going to have to have a meeting with the head and the SEN guy after the holidays to clarify this further. Perhaps I'm just being suspicious and the school do have his best interests at heart. Head did say he's already had one AS lad excluded and didn't want this to happen to Martin. Always the same isn't it, life's just plodding along ok and then the AS problems raise their head again As if that's not bad enough I need to reapply for his DLA too cos that's just run out. Oh joy.

I know it's long time no speak for those of you who remember me but I'm back here asking for advice. As you may recall in the dim and distant past when I last frequented the boards Martin had more or less settled into his AS ways. He was coping well in primary school on just School Action and his anger management therapy was working well. THEN in September....he went to high school. On the whole he's coping ok with the anger side of things so that's good but education-wise, it's a different story. He's been coming home almost daily with lines from various teachers and his homework is proving a nightmare. Out of the blue on Monday I got a call from his head teacher saying that things were getting stupid and they should apply to get him statemented. I was somewhat taken aback as I thought schools were not very helpful when it came to statements (especially mainstream) and I told the head so. He agreed that a lot of people were against statements but he felt in Martin's case it would be beneficial. So there you go. Questions: 1. Will he benefit? 2. Are there disadvantages to statementing? 3. How will it affect him in the long run? 4. What do I do now? Any advice would be most appreciated thanks Daisy x

Well, I said I'd be back when he started again and Martin has started stressing out again but bless him I don't think I can blame him. There's a new kid just recently joined their class at school and he's also Aspergers. Naturally having to deal with the change to a new school the poor kids stressed out himself and because he's been told by the teacher that Martin's also Aspie he's clinging to Martin like a drowning man. Martin's finding it somewhat of a handful <'> He's doing his best to advise the lad on how to deal with his difficulties but its not easy. Apparently Martin (and his sister) are the only kids in the class the poor lad hasn't screamed at so far. Martin's doing his level best to support the kid but he has his own problems to deal with. In a way I think it's my fault too because I told Martin to be more accommodating with the lad because he knows what it's like dealing with change. Hey ho! Anyway - hope you're all keeping well and hello to all the many newbies (who are probably oldies) by now that I haven't spoken to yet. Is the Batcave still the life and soul of the party or does it need another good dust out again. Hobnob crumbs go mouldy you know. Anyways - best get reading some posts. Cheers Daisy xx eeekkk....where's me fairy? If you pardon the comment.

Anyone got addicted children yet?....I've got 4 child addicts already and one husband addict. Not sure whose the worst! I have to confess I have become completed obsessed with my Land Rover - my pride and joy. You may (or may not) remember me telling you all I bought her last summer and what with extra kids and a sudden mad passion for off-roading I've become a mad woman. Apologies to everyone who doesn't like 4x4s. The best thing about Land Rover owners is this wierd thing we have about lining all our cars up in a big long line and taking photos of them. Now if that's not a bit aspie!