Improved Library

Yes, I worked on the library again. I know I talk about it a lot, but it's my favorite room in the house. Brian's too. Now that it's finished, I love to go in there in the evenings with a book, some water, and some Mozart. I love it!

We moved the loveseat leather sofa from the living room. Now there are two leather sofas in the living room, and the shorter loveseat one is upstairs in the library. With this great seating, and now that we've moved the tables around, the library is now a place to stop and rest.

A part of the book section.

Here you can see the sofa in its new place, and the tables in theirs.

Now I'll show you gifts from my family that are in my library. Here is a Tornado machine that I got with money from my mom for my birthday. We call it the Vortex of Death. :-)

It really helps with the ambiance in the room. It changes colors, too.

This conch shell is from my sister Kim from when she visited the Florida keys.

This shell and pumice are a gift from my dad from when he went to Hawaii.

This Newton's Cradle is a gift I got for Sam with my mom's birthday money for me.

If you ignore the folders on these two shelves, most of the remaining books were given to me from my dad. They are books that he's ready over and over, so that means a lot to me. The yearbooks on the bottom left from Brian's and my years at Mountain View for Jr. High and High School. There are two of each book because we went to the same school.

Lots of gifts here. The blue ladybug rock was painted for me by my sister Krysten, who is an amazing artist. I know this is just a rock, but you should see what she can do on paper! The little stone turtle is a favorite of mine from my mom, who knows I love tortoises. The two sisters are a gift from my other sister Kim.

The quartz in the center here was given to me from my dad when I was very young one day when he took me to Colossal Cave. I loved seeing that cave with him, and this is my favorite rock out of my whole collection (and that's saying something).

This is a beautiful rock-covered globe given to me from my mom. It's the most gorgous globe I've ever seen, and I've looked for decades. Nothing tops this globe. It is layered (somehow) with beautiful stones to represent each country and ocean. It is one of the reasons I wanted a full library, so that I could properly display it.

Recent Videos, Kid Pictures, and Scenery Pictures 1

Triple Sunset

Wide Open Sky

The kids got some Lincoln Logs, they're having fun with them as you can see here.

Take off.
A whole group of birds in the trees took off at the same time.

Rainy Day. The kids had fun today in the rain. See video below:

They were singing like this all by themselves. I just asked them to pause a moment while I started the camera.

Running in from the rain... and loving it!

Barbell Art.
The boys like to take dads barbells and weights and arrange them into artistic sculptures.
Here's what they created last week.

Recent Videos, Kid Pictures, and Scenery Pictures 3

I know it's not well lit, but the wind was just right to get this shot of the two flags mostly extended.

Alex having fun at the park.

Playing in the rain.

Sky, wind-waved clouds, encircled with trees.

Take Off. A gathering of birds all take off at the same time.

Recent Videos, Kid Pictures, and Scenery Pictures 2

The kids, playing in the rain yesterday.

Sam lost his 2nd front tooth in a week, so now he's got a big toothless grin. :-)

They just got some Lincoln Logs, and are having fun with them.

Here's a picture of my new lunchbag to show to my sister Kim. It looks like a normal bag!

The inside, thermos insulated and waterproof.

And now some more scenery pictures I've taken recently:
Great tree backlit by the sun.

Lit Sky.

Birds in a tree, watching the sunset.

Herringbone clouds, aka Macerel Sky: my favorite.

Hello to Everyone

Hi there! Not much happening here. Just enjoying the sun and better weather. Starting spring cleaning, that sort of thing. I know I've been hard to get a hold of lately, but I just wanted to let you all know that I'm fine, and that I'm thinking of you, and I hope you're fine too! :-)

The Physical Aspects of Asperger's Syndrome

I wanted to let you know that I have finished! I have been writing for the past three weeks. I've barely had time to eat or go grocery shopping. I had to force myself to stop writing on my birthday last week. It's either a short book or an incredibly long article. Many people are telling me to just write a book on this subject, which I could. However, I'm more interested in just getting this information out to those who are requesting it.

It's called "The Physical Aspects of Asperger's Syndrome". In it, I've listed, detailed, and described every physical difference in the body of a person with Asperger's. It is more than a mental difference. The mental variances are easy to deal with when compared to the physical differences. It is incredibly hard to maintain health in an autistic body.

I wanted to write in detail about those things. I wrote it to help the 40 or 50 people I know who have Asperger's or whose children have it. They asked me to teach them; they wanted to learn what I know on this subject, and it's hard information to find. I will be teaching this information to those people at our gathering this Sunday. However, I also put it in writing so that there would be a record, and so that I could detail all of the many things I've learned on the subject, and so that it could help those who will find it in the future.

You are invited to read it if you'd like. It is online here: www.blueginger.org/physicalautism.html

There is also a .pdf version to download, but it's 78 pages long, so be prepared.

I worked almost constantly on this for the past three weeks, and I think it turned out very nicely. I hope that it can be a useful reference for those dealing with similar issues. And for everyone else, perhaps it can help you understand me a little better. :-)

Nature Pictures are Online (Finally!)

Last weekend, I finally did one of my goals, which is to get my nature photography on my site so that you can see all of it.

Now, there is a photography section to my online book: http://www.blueginger.org/.

NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY
Beach Pictures NEW
Cloud Pictures NEW
Lake Pictures NEW
Rock, Mountain, and Sand Pictures NEW
Tree Pictures NEW
Optics and Other Pictures NEW


In other news, Fred Thompson dropped out of the race today, so, for those of you following along, I'm now supporting Mitt Romney, who has been my second choice this past year.

January Pictures

Here are some more pictures for those of you who like nature pics for your computer background:

Winter Moon

Early Blooms

Winter Pecans

And from the family file: Sam and his Lego ship. The yellow shirt is his Homeschooler P.E. shirt.

Alex reading for school.

I also added a lot of info to my "Doing Now" column on your right, so read that as well to get caught up. :-)

I won the Geology quiz! :-)

I don't usually win things, but when it's a Geology quiz, my odds go up dramatically. :-)

Look, my name is listed first: :-)
http://geology.com/quiz/answers.shtml
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I've been watching this quiz since they were on #13. The only other quiz from this webpage that I've answered was #17, but I said "meteorite" instead of "iron meteorite", so that's what I did wrong on that one.
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Anna, you'd be proud... they're actually mailing me a gift for winning. :-) So, yes, I frequent Geology.com on a daily basis. I love it.
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Speaking of webpages, and since I'm already tooting my own horn: Cricket and I finally finished preparing the new Aspies of Austin bulletin board for her group AspiesofAustin.com. It's so much prettier and more functional than the last board.

We just can't seem to get anyone to use the thing just yet. They just keep using mass email to hold conversations. But it's early, we'll see how it goes. I'm happy that I did my part to help the group. :-)

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My sister Krysten just moved into her first house! I'm so happy for her and her family. It's a beautiful house too. They're not quite unpacked yet, which is totally normal, especially when the mom has a broken leg. My dad put pictures of it here: http://www.mikeoverstreet.com/. You can see that my nephews are enjoying it as well. Too bad she has a broken ankle throughout this whole move, but I know people in Tucson have been taking care of her. Congratulations Sissy!

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I mentioned on the side bar, upper right of this webpage, that I'm learning how to eat. This is because I've been sick my whole life, I mean really sick; and I think now, at almost age 34, I've finally figured out why. I've been actively searching for how to get healthy for about 9 years now, and this is the first thing that makes sense and that explains everything.

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Turns out, my body is even more autistic than my mind is. For seven weeks now I've been on the Gluten-Free, Casein-Free diet, and it's changing my life. I'm learning more and more, and now am starting to add the Feingold diet. I'm not just trying to be picky, or ultra healthy or anything. I just can't digest this stuff. It's called food intolerance, which is different than allergies. I've listed lots of links for information on this on the aspiesofaustin.com website, in case you want to know more.

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Don't worry, most people do not need to be on a crazy diet like this. Only people on the Autistic spectrum and sometimes their close family members. It will take me several months to a year to clean all the wheat and dairy out of my system, but I'm already feeling MUCH better.

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I'm sleeping, which is amazing; my head's getting clearer and I can think better; and Brian says my eye contact is much better. I didn't think anything of it at first, even when he said that, till I realized two days ago that I've spent the past two weeks being fascinated with the details and color varieties in everyone's eye color. There are so many details in the color, and so many beautiful patterns in the iris of everyone I see, I've never seen this before in my life! Even my own eyes are amazing to me. I never saw how clear blue they are. It's like no one had eyes before, and I'm just noticing it for the first time.

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I haven't really lost weight yet, only one pound. But, I should point out that I've never lost even one pound since Sam finished breastfeeding. No matter how much or how little or how good or how bad I eat, or if I walked 21 miles a week or none, I always gained weight at the same exact rate. In the past 7 weeks, I should've gained about 10 pounds. That's just how it's been for the past five years, there was nothing I could do to alter it. So, to not have gained 10 pounds this past 7 weeks is truly a miracle.

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Also, my blood sugar rarely drops now. It was dropping every 1.5 hours, to below 70 mg/dl, which is serious, and crazy. No one should have to eat that often. Doctors from a few months ago found that my metabolism was ultra-fast. They also learned that I was malnourished. Not things they commonly tell highly-overweight people. Now that I know I should be eating this different diet, I know that I my blood sugar drops and my symptoms of malnourishment resulted from the fact that I was only digesting a small portion of what I was eating.

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I love food now too, that's also a first for me in my life. I've never liked food. I hated eating, I

found no joy in it, and I got no energy from the food. That's all changed now. Now, at the end of a grocery shopping trip (if I'm shopping just for me), I look at the cart, and I love what I see. I get excited about the wonderful food in there that I'll get to eat in the coming days. I've never felt that way about food before! It's truly a wonderful blessing to me.

Boy Things: Legos & Wrestling

Today I thought I'd share with you what the boys have been up to all week during this school-free time. They've been doing... wait for it... boy things!

Lots of Lego assembing...

My mom bought them the biggest Lego set that Brian or I have EVER seen! It is a ship from Star Wars. You'll have to ask them which one, but I think it was in an opening sequence once. It's Darth Vader's ship.

This ottoman is 4'x4', which makes this ship almost 3 feet long!

Very detailed. My husband, oh - I mean, my sons, enjoyed assembling it.



Great detail in the back of the ship too.

This is a video I just took this afternoon of the boys wrestling. I'm hoping that this video will entertain their younger cousins for a while. :-)Love you all!!!

Merry Christmas

Well, now I think I have finally figured out what Christmas is about... really big guns! Isn't this thing huge?! It's three nerf guns that can be attached to make one big gun. That rocket (orange and black) on the front goes 60 feet! He loves it! I'm a little concerned we're going to break a window with this thing. :-)

Grandma Judi and Grandpa Lee got him the biggest Lego set ever! -- which is exactly what he wanted. All YEAR I've been listening to him say he wants Legos, lots of Legos, and his very own (not sharing with Alex) Legos. He finally got what he really wanted! Thank you Grandma Judi and Grandpa Lee!

The kids opening gifts from Aunt Bridget.

More Transformers for Sam! Turns out his happiness level is directly proportional to the number of Transformers he owns. :-) So, you know, he's pretty happy now.

Our backyard this time of year, almost finished with Fall.

Our neighbor's pecan trees. I always think they're so pretty in winter.

This is a drawing Sam drew of the San Antonio temple (pictured below). You can see the tower, the doors and windows at the bottom, and the Angel Moroni statue at the top. The interesting part is the brown line he drew around the whole thing. I asked him what it was, he said it was the special protective force field that is protecting the temple. We told him that he's actually pretty accurate. :-) He loves going to the temple, and has begged (and convinced) us to take him again this week.

Five more temple pictures can be seen here: http://www.ldschurchtemples.com/sanantonio/gallery/