Mortgage has been approved (or pre-approved rather)

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It has only taken 2 and a half months, but we are finally pre approved on a mortgage for our here in California.  Well, subject to some crazy stipulations such as:

  •  Vicky must write to HSBC to advise that Simon is allowed to actually use the money in the joint account (the same one that is in Simon’s name as the main account holder…. ???  Guess they know us too well perhaps?
  •  Simon needs to get written evidence from the company to state that he is not a shareholder.
  •  Simon needs to provide evidence of home insurance on the UK house… ???

These just seem crazy but apparently all necessary to prevent the bank from issuing mortgages out to folks who will end up not paying their monthly terms.

Looking forward to a day out at Gilroy Gardens on Saturday (think Jason, Amy and Charlotte may join us), relax with the bikes etc on Sunday, and then out to the Brit Mum’s BBQ and a friend of Vicky’s for a arty on Monday.

Simon hired a car on Saturday since he picked up a screw in one of the tyres in his car, to find that not only could it not be repaired but it was also a special order tyre that needs to be ordered from out of state.  Consequently it would not be sorted until Monday afternoon (today in fact).  When he called earlier this afternoon, the good news was that the tyre would be fitted when it arrived this afternoon and that it would definitely be here. Hearing the great news, Simon immediately arranged for the rental car to go back thus saving $40 for the next day of rent, and no sooner had this happened than the phone call come in to advise that the tyre had not actually been delivered and it would now be tomorrow.  GREAT.

So, we have had a spare tyre fitted to the car, the garage have kept the alloy wheel and will fit the tyre tomorrow when it arrives, and Vicky will need to take the car to the garage in the afternoon to have the wheels swapped over.  Simon is going to take Vicky’s car to San Francisco with him so that should there be a problem, there is a spare in that car.  Vicky, is only really doing the school run so if there is a problem, it can be easily left on the roadside and Simon can sort it on his return.

Oh the fun of running cars…. At least the sun is shining …..

A day of fun at the Chidrens Discivery Museum or not :-(

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Another busy week in the Rust Household.  We have been busy helping a colleague of Simons and his family acclimate to living the bay area.  We went to the Childrens discovery Museum in San Jose, to make it an even bigger adventure we went on the VTA.  We met with our friends Conny and Alexander at the Chenworth station and got the VTA to right outside the museum it was great fun and just long enough for the boys.   They had a blast in the museum playing on the fire engine, in the ambulance, the mammoth exhibit, the craft area, the bubble are and saving the best till last the water area.  We spent lots of time in the under 5’s room upstairs also.  As one of Elliots biggest issues is spending time in big groups when they announced it was story time I assumed he would not want to join in.  The session started and Elliot asked to look at an area near the story corner and to my surprise he edged to the story are and ask to sit and join in.  Wow this was a pleasant surprise.  He didn’t join in with the “thick” of the children but was happy to sit at the edge and joined in with the songs at closing circle.  Wow what an achievement. It feels like we are making progress finally as a few years ago when I tried to take him to toddler groups he would not join in any circle time.  This success is some what short lived though when it is time to leave the museum.  We had chosen not to go into the water area until then end of the day.  Elliot was having so much fun enjoying himself that he did not realise that he had gotten so wet.  Another thing that would not always affect most children but really got Elliot bent out shape and got very upset by it.  How frustrating as I hadn’t thought about bring him a spare change of clothes.  So by the end of the journey we had a very frazzled mummy trying to explain to Elliot that he could get changed at home and it really wasn’t a problem.  Some days the issues we have seem bigger to Elliot and me than others I guess this was one of these days.  Oh well nevermind tomorrow is another day.

Monday is here again…

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It’s monday morning again and it is time to get the boys ready to go for Elliot session at TSSV. AS ever the session starts at 10am.  It is really difficult to keep an eye on what is going on during Elliots session as Oliver is really being difficult this morning and standing outside the room shouting for Elliot.  The room Elliot has his session in has two way glass so that we can see in and he can’t see out.  Biggest problem is he can still hear and Oliver is pretty determined to make sure that he is heard :o(  It appears the session is pretty uneventful he was having a few issues with one of the exercises according to the notes but he soon got over it.  It helps that the session leader is very gentle in her approach and tries to encourage the child to take part but never forces them to do anything they are not comfortable with.

I am still very much in a stage of information overload as the mums that have there children in the Monday morning sessions have been on their journeys for longer than us and have lots more information of classes available.  I am currently thinking that the social issues may need a little more help so I am wondering about sports or gym classes I just need to find the right place.

Elliot: Session 8

    • Cheers: with structure and prompting, participated in building the town. Watches everything, aware of all things happening. Needs to build social confidence to speak his ideas, will talk quietly to adult if not pushed to do so. Did not like the Hex bug vibration, but was eager to be the builder and rebuild the walls when the hex bugs crashed through. I gave him the opportunity to touch the bug when it was off, but he was not yet ready. I turned one bug off and perched him on top of the wall near Elliot so that E could see the bug, the bugs job was to watch out for escaping bugs! This bug was E’s “partner”. I always work to desensitize a child to a stimulus that they are not comfortable with – I do not push it – I structure the situation so that the child continues to participate at the level he is comfortable with, while continuing to provide opportunities in a non-threatening way, to access the stimulus.
  • Challenge: maintaining group peer play, speaking to peers.

Sickness is on its way out thankfully

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Elliot is A OK now, but Olly is still having challenges with the runs 🙁  At least he finds it funny when he “poop”s 🙂 Shame that each one causes nappy change requirement….

On other matters, we now have our Maui trip in August confirmed and just need to book flights and a car while we are there – we are ALL really revved up for this holiday – going be a great time we are sure.  We will be just 1 mile from the beach (so is walkable), have a lovely house that has three bedrooms, TV, Wii console, private pool and hot tub, BBQ facilities etc.  We chose to do this rather than hotel so that we could have time to ourselves without needing to get irritated about the noisy folks in the adjoining room etc.

Simon’s watch will be back from IWC next week (yahoo – been gone a month if it does come back then…), so hopefully the rattle that it had in the case will be gone :-).

Vicky is starting up a new blog here on the website – please search for content tagged with ‘Aspergers’ to see the content as it becomes available.  It is called “A 4 Aspergers” and is being written from our experience with our eldest Elliot as we find out what challenges he has ahead of him and how we all navigate those challenges aver the weeks and months ahead.

Olly is beginning to act like a little sponge at the moment as he is repeating EVERYTHING he hears, and with considerable skill.  Daddy is needing to be extra careful as to what he says….  Olly’s wicked sense of humour comes out everyday and is increasing in wickedness as each day passes.  We will need to get our act into gear and get some videos for all to see.

Let the blogging begin…

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Inspired by friends blogging adventures I have decided that I will start an addition to Forkhall……….A 4 Aspergers??  I decided on the title as I have been thinking of an outlet and a way to chart our journey that we are currently on with Elliot.

I am sure that most of the people reading this will already know that this year has highlighted some issues for us that we are facing with Elliot.  His shyness still presents a big challenge along with other little quirks that Elliot has developed.  To get up to date where we are at please see the archives for January to April.  I hope to update the site at least weekly to inform you all of our progress and how the weeks pan out.  Hopefully you will find it interesting as we chart our  “Epic Journey of Discovery”  Good luck Elliot it is going to be a long ride……..