What the?

What the heck is the problem with my kids and toilet paper? This morning Kate was in the bathroom. I hear the all too familiar yell for toilet paper. I was busy so I sent Emma up to get some for Kate. First Emma went upstairs and came down to ask what I had asked her to do. Then here comes Emma with the roll in her hand to put Pogo out to potty. Kate is still yelling. Emma finally gets it to her and I don't think about it again. Later I run up to my bathroom and there is no toilet paper in my bathroom. Emma had taken ours and given it to her sister.

Now understand something, toilet paper is in full stock in this house at all times. We have eight people living here and four bathrooms. I buy toilet paper in bulk. Retriever toilet paper is an easy task. All bathrooms house four rolls at a time. The paper is stored in an easy to reach area. Come in my front door and head straight you will cut through the living room and go into the kitchen, from there to the dining room, my dads bedroom and one bathroom. There is a huge walk in pantry where one supply of toilet paper is stored. Come in the front door head to the left and down there is the family room, another bathroom, laundry room and a bedroom. The downstairs bathroom has a supply storage area. You guessed it more toilet paper is stored here. Now come in the front door head left and up you have more bedrooms. At the end of the hall is a closet with six shelves, again toilet paper is stored here in the largest quantity. Easily reached toilet paper. Emma had gone to the end of that hall and turned left into my bedroom gone into my bathroom and removed all or our toilet paper. SHE PASSED THE STORAGE CLOSET TO DO THIS. I don't think I will every truly understand how children think.

Sick Kids = Cranky Kids

All of the kids have colds. This makes for a very cranky household. I am hoping my dad doesn't come down with a cold. He will get his grapefruit tea going. This consists of taking white grapefruit and slicing it then putting it in a pan with water and simmering it. You then get a cup of it and sip it. You put it in the refrigerator at night and back on the stove in the morning. Remember to add water to the mixture to replace what has been consumed. The entire house smells like this "tea", not a particularly bad smell but not a good smell either. I make something similar but I use lemons. We also add honey, my dads is straight up. I have to admit, his colds don't seem to last as long. By the third day of this tea being heated up and a bit more water added, this stuff is stout. I don't think any virus could live through it.

We tried to medicate Caleb tonight. This is about like grabbing a bear out of hibernation and talking him into taking a small cup of foul liquid. In fact I think the bear is less frightening than a sick Caleb. I have already had one battle of the wills, this resulted in red sticky medication all over him and the floor. The medication has always been an issue, No matter how many strides we make with other this this is still a problem. I guess this is just one of the joys of Asperger's. Evan is easier, his doesn't manifest this way. As long as I didn't get any medication on his face he was cool

Lights Out

The copper wire theft problem in Las Vegas has been hitting us lately in our personal lives. The freeway I drive almost daily has been hit. I take this same freeway to my Brownie troop meetings every Friday, now half of that is dark. The track we walk everyday is dark half way around. Now our house has been hit.

I can not figure out how these people steal wire from the lights on the freeway. This is Las Vegas, the freeways here are never empty. This is a town that moves 24/7. I know someone has to see something. Mark insists that people figure it is workers and just move along. I have decided to question anyone I see on the freeway pulling wire out of light poles. I can understand the walking track. The parks close at 10:00 P.M. here, so plenty of privacy to do what you want from 10:00 P.M. to 5:00 A.M.

My house I can't figure out. Someone must have disturbed whoever tried to rid us of our wiring. Other than the breaker box being a bit torn up and wires pulled out no damage was done. We easily pushed the wires back in returned the inner panel and closed the outer panel. I have now installed a lock on the box. This means getting the keys down whenever a breaker pops.

Whatever happened to the busy body old ladies from my childhood? We need them, they could patrol the city just sticking their nose into things. I can clearly remember not being able to do anything without one of these women right there to stop me. My friends were plagued by the same women. These were usually older women whose children were grown and gone. They had plenty of time and energy to notice trouble and stop it before it could get going. We were all afraid to defy these women, they had a direct line to our parents houses. I think we are letting a valuable resource go unused. They could patrol at all hours, butting in and putting a stop to this problem. I can envision some thief trying to do his/her thing and an old lady grabbing him/her by the ear and marching them home.

I remember one from my childhood. Mrs. McManus, she was a woman to be feared. She was a tiny thing, with a thick accent. She could not have been more than 4' 2" but could halt the biggest kid in school with one word.She had survived her childhood in a concentration camp, nothing scared her. We knew not to even think something wrong in front of her. She was always outside tending her garden and watching us kids. She had a built in radar too. Her daughter and I played together. I knew her and knew she was kind but I still feared her. We need more people like her. She would put a stop to this.

Oh Brothers

My house is quite often chaotic. That's one of the things l love about my large family. This morning was no exception. The children are allowed to wake in stages. Caleb was the last to come down this morning. I was reading an article when he came into the room, I glanced up and back to my article. It took my brain a nanosecond to register something new had been added to Caleb's face during the night. Geometric shapes, and a black mustache . Bright bold stars, hexagons and octagons also a few squiggly lines. Now at the moment three boys share that room. The culprit should be easy to find. Wrong, no one is admitting anything. This isn't like words or letters, it isn't written on paper. I have no way of telling if this is done by a left handed person (Evan) or right handed person (Andrew or Caleb).

I sent Caleb to the shower. He came down with muted shapes, but still a face full of geometric designs. This is funny to a point. This might be fine with most children but an asperger's child finds no humor in this. Even if he did the art work, once he wants it off it should just come off. He also has a very nice black mustache thanks to some artist in the house. I know it wasn't the girls as he would have hearts and kitties and puppies, all in pink and purple. The girls also can not open their door or the boys door without waking an entire house up.

Caleb has been in a foul mood for hours now and shows no sign of letting up. Outbursts are loud and hateful. I am trying my hardest not to fall for this and lose my temper with him. He will simply look at me and use the good old "I win" statement and walk off. I learned this very early on with him. When Caleb is like this his rat terrier, Dori, is much more protective of him and follows his mood. The other children avoid Caleb's wrath and the other dogs avoid Dori's. When Caleb has calmed down this evening I will attempt to remove the art work myself. He is not good about his face being washed, handled and some days looked at.