A Fabulously Flawed Life

 Hallmark Recordable Book ~ Drake's Reaction {Video} As a speaker at BlissDom , you get mailed a box of fabulous swag from the sponsors. This year Hallmark sent a recordable book with a note saying that they know how hard it is to leave your little ones and so here is something to help make the time apart a little easier. Isn't that so thoughtful!  I know, I know.  The guys over at Hallmark are marketing geniuses.  But it really meant a lot to me since it is really hard getting away. Here is Drake {and the boys} reactions to the book when I gave it to him.   {{giggle}}  <-- that's a link to our YouTube video.  xoxo, Laurie

I found this picture today of Drake at 19 months.  {{bwaahaa!}} I needed the laugh as I had a parent/teacher conference with Drake's preschool teacher today.  It looks like he's not ready to advance to Kindergarten.  {{huge sigh}}  The good news is that his preschool has a kindergarten program.  The classes are a lot smaller and he would get the one-on-one attention he needs.   So he could attend there and then if he wasn't ready to advance to 1st grade, we'd put him in a public school Kindergarten.  It might make the "hold back" a little less obvious or traumatic. The problem isn't that Drake's not smart, it's that he's not maturing at the same pace as the other boys in his class.  Yes, it's obvious that Drake isn't at the same stage - but I guess I just thought that he would step it up in Kindergarten.  His teacher is amazing and I can tell she has his best interests at heart.  So most likely we'll put him in Kindergarten pr...

Honestly, I'm not one that likes change.  {{gasp!}}  I know, I know.  You wouldn't think so considering how often I change my hair, how often I redesign Tip Junkie, and the fact that I'm in social media {which changes weekly}. So when Oprah announced that she was starting her OWN network {{bwaahaa on the pun}}  I was happy for her but bummed for change. Yes, I am a HUGE Oprah fan!  Why?  Well, there are many reasons but the biggest is that she empowers women.  I was a new mommy when she was doing her "self-help" series of shows and I really needed it during that time in my life.  Quite frankly, she was the only one there day in and day out - telling me that I can be my best self!  I just adore her for that. She has many new shows but the one that I'm really excited about is " Master Class ".  It's a biography series that shares hard-won insight from extraordinary achievers whose paths have inspired Oprah—and countless others. ...

    You may remember a while back when I made a few broken jewelry projects for Charming Charlie .  Well now that things have settled down, I wanted to use the rest of the jewelry they sent me to make a jeweled wood letter for one of my readers! On a whim, I uploaded a giveaway onto Tip Junkie a week later, I picked a random winner.  Of course, her letter was "E" one of the biggest letters in the alphabet.  {{giggle}}  That thing used SO much jewelry and was HEAVY!  Poor thing - I don't envy her trying to mount that bad boy on a frame.  {{snicker}} I think it turned out gorgeous!  It took me 6 hours to make as my jewelry supply was quickly diminishing and I was having to make cute pieces out of random pieces by hot gluing them together.  It was quite the project - but a stunning end result.  The picture doesn't do it justice - it's breathtaking. Afterwards, I was so bummed that I didn't make one for ME!  {{d'oh!}}  Dud...

{Visiting Nana}  Ahhh, Christmas memories...  This year December was a complete blur as I overcommitted myself with work.  It was a good kind of work which brought once-in-a-lifetime opportunities and made this Christmas extra special for our family. I worked with TJ Maxx/Marshalls and GameStop which was a lot of fun and once again made me get out of my comfort zone and learn something new.   I also launched 4 new sites, which took me 2 months just to design on paper {{giggle}}: T ip Junkie Printables Tip Junkie Homemade Gift Ideas and Patterns Tip Junkie Parties Tip Junkie Christmas I adore these new sites!  Not only are the Tip Junkie girls all dressed up cute, but these new blogs feature "the best of the best" within their niche.  They are perfect for quick browsing with powerful search functionality. {{love it!}}   They have exceeded my expectations and I believe are the next generation of "content aggregation" blogs. Belie...

This semester Davis was accepted into the Rocky Top Therapy Center .  It's an amazing program that our school district provides for kiddo's who lack specific types of social development.  Such as improvement in the individual's confidence and discipline while improving gross and fine motor skills, posture, balance, and coordination.   Davis went every Tuesday morning from 7 - 9am for nine weeks.  He picked his horse, Swifty, and every week he cleaned, fed, and took care of him.  At the ranch Davis was taught how to learn the body language of Swifty, build trust, and developed a strong bond with him. Davis' confidence skyrocketed thanks to this experience and the therapists were so incredible to see the specific needs of Davis and taught him how to find his "calm place" that he uses on the horse in real life experiences as well. At the end of every session, they ended their day with "ups and downs" where they gathered in a circle and shared o...

This is a very short video clip of Davis catching his first football during a game! A while back I overheard my oldest son, Davis, say that he "would never be a sports person".  I'll be honest, I gasped and it made me really upset.  What really bothered me was that at 10 years old he had already decided something so profound about himself. Naturally, I took that boy aside and we had a chat.  You see, I have raised Davis with the drive to allow him to experience the world so that when he gets older, he'll have all the facts to decide for himself what kind of person he does or does not want to be.  I feel so passionately about this and have  sought out specific experiences to try and make them well-rounded individuals. I'm not fully explaining myself the way I'd like to.  But raising a child with high-functioning autism - I decided when he was toddling around that he would live in OUR world and I would not allow him to slip away and live inside his own...