Big Plans! (My Version.)

Late yesterday afternoon, Maya's TSS (that's a wrap-around therapist who comes here and works with Maya - and Kurtis too at times -to help her learn coping skills needed to continue to grow and learn) and I were having a bit of a rough time dealing with Maya. She was upset because frequently, on Fridays, she will go to the home of Mandy's best friend and her family and often spend not just Friday night there, but the entire weekend too.

However, that wasn't in her cards yesterday as she needed to stay here -with me and with Kurtis -mainly because the kids' Dad was coming down to the house and well, he would have been upset had Maya been gone.

Anyway, she was bordering on crossing that threshold from a small tantrum into the full-blown meltdown mode and we (the TSS and I) were having to do some quick thinking and improvising to find ways to re-direct her and thus, avoid that stinking meltdown thing.

Finally, I lied to her and told her the reason she couldn't go there last night was because Jenn-Jenn and her husband had to take their younger daughter to Hershey yesterday, to see her doctors there and have a check-up, and thus, they wouldn't be back home until way, way late last night -like well after midnight, so Maya HAD to stay home yesterday.

And she bought that story! Thankfully.

But the deal was that today, both Maya and Kurtis would get to go to Jenn-Jenn's house and spend the whole day there with her and her family while Mommie has to work today.

And that left me with a whole lot of time today that I could do whatever I pleased, maybe even go wherever I might want to go too.

So, I decided with this extra bonus of free time that I am going to make a little bit of a trip over to Dubois because they have a Joanne Fabrics store there and I need to pick up a bunch more embroidery floss so I can begin my next project just as soon as I finish the one I've been working on and which is coming near to being completed now.

This trip for me is about like the equivalent to having just handed me Universal Orlando tickets!

I know you are now convinced I am totally crazy to feel this ecstatic about going shopping at a fabric store but it's true. Really and truly, it is!

Why?

Well because you do realize by now -I would hope -that I am addicted to the embroidery hobby I've gotten myself into over the past almost two years now. Oh. Yes. I. Am. Totally addicted!

My daughters sometimes might say I am obsessed with this hobby and perhaps that is true too.

But anyway, it's a rare thing indeed for me to be able to just pick up and go over the mountain to either Dubois or State College -the closest places to me that have a Joanne Fabrics store and thus, have a selection of embroidery floss for sale then too.

Usually, for me to get to go shopping, it is with Mandy AND with the kids in tow as well.

Anyone ever try to go shopping in a fabric store with a 6-year-old and a 4-year-old -both who have autism, for openers? It ain't a pretty sight, let me just tell you that! All too often they become upset -and or bored -or both and it becomes a super highway to Meltdown Mall of the mega variety too!

I like to be able to take my time when I go to this store, when I am shopping for things I need for my embroidery habit.

Yes, I will have a list with me today of the colors of floss I HAVE to get but I can -without the kids present -look at all kinds of other things in that store that also interest me.

To try to go shopping during the week at either of these locations also means a lot of extra other planning too -like making sure that some one will be here at the house when the kids are brought home from their day at the schools each of them attends. And if it's a day when Mandy has work, that means my time shopping then is going to be very limited. I'd have to leave here by 11:45 a.m. and it is at least a 45 minute drive to either place and I'd have to be back home by 3 p.m. to meet the first bus dropping Maya off, so there's that pesky 45 minute -at least -return drive home which then leaves me roughly about an hour and a half of time to do any shopping whatsoever!

And, if I'm going to drive 40 miles to do some shopping in my favorite store, then I don't want my gas being wasted with just the one-stop shopping then either. I want to be able to check out a couple other stores while I'm out too ya know!

So that's why yes indeed, this little trip today is the equivalent for me of being handed a nifty little bonus package -almost like a bit of a vacation -you see!

And when I get back home from this escapade, I'll be one happy camper, refreshed from my outing and yes, also relieved then to be back home, a bit poorer in the pocketbook yes, but excited and happy all the same!

See you later!