Tag: Michael update

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Week in Review: April 12, 2026

This was a pretty busy week for me, but at least I did get to do some puzzling and a bit of reading.

The autism mother to mother luncheon that I am helping to plan is this coming Saturday, so this week is crunch time. I still need to finalize the program and get the files ready to print for the name tags and other things. I’m planning to spend some time on that today and am hoping to get it all ready to go. I took off this Thursday and Friday to go to the church to put things together so we are all ready for registration.

Healthcare rant incoming: My son had his first cleaning with his new dentist. Before we scheduled the appointment, we had a consultation to discuss what they could do in terms of sedation for doing fillings or other work like that and they said they could prescribe Valium for him to take before the appointment. At his cleaning, they did find some cavities, but the hygienist told me the dentist said he wanted to see how he would do without medication for this first time doing fillings. I pushed back and explained that he needed the medication and that was the whole reason we did a consultation before scheduling the cleaning, to make sure it would be available. After that, she went back to the dentist and he did prescribe the medication. It’s so frustrating that we had to have the conversation again!

I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

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Week in Review: March 22, 2026

This has been a pretty good week. Peanut Butter turned 13 on Monday. He is still pretty healthy, despite his age, which I am thankful for.

In health news, I had my three-month check-in with the orthodontist, and he was pleased at how much movement has happened with my teeth so far. He gave me trays 13-25, so I will see him again in another three months.

I got to spend time with two good friends this week. Renee came over Friday evening and we ate together and played a bit of puzzle chess and then watched a few episodes of Best Medicine. She is a fan of Doc Martin, so I wanted her to see the new American version of the show, and she liked it. Then Kim came over Saturday for lunch and a movie. We get together every other weekend and take turns hosting. We had a nice time.

I haven’t been reading as much lately as I usually do. I have only finished two books in March, both of which were mysteries. I was about 80% done with a third one and then it automatically returned to Libby and I had to put it on hold again! I am currently about 40% done with another one; this one is on my Kindle so I don’t have to worry about it going away, lol.

Michael seems to be doing pretty well at his job. He feels like he has a good handle on the daily tasks. He has had a few awkward interactions with people, but we talk through them and I try to give him suggestions on how to handle them in the future. I know I have my own share of social issues, but I do have the benefit of a few more years of experiences to draw on.

All in all, a pretty good week!

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Week in Review: March 15, 2026

Another busy week in the books! I spent most of the week in the office training a new sales rep. It went really well, and I am feeling good about his future in the job. Now I am back to working from home for the foreseeable future, which is nice.

Michael had a good first week at his job. He was pretty stressed the first couple of days. Tuesday evening we emailed the hiring manager with some questions, and she got back to us the next morning with answers to all of them, so that made him feel better. He was finally able to start asking the person training him some questions about specific tasks as well, so that was good. For him, the biggest difficulty isn’t the job itself, it’s his communication struggles.

Michael also had a birthday this week, turning 24 on Tuesday! I took him out to dinner to celebrate, and he chose Longhorn Steakhouse. It was very good, and we had a nice time. He celebrated with his dad and stepmom on Friday night.

I took my car in for an inspection and oil change and was very happy it didn’t need any additional work. I also went out to dinner with the friend who helped me drop off my car at the mechanic. We had a good time catching up over dinner at Texas Roadhouse.

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Week in Review: March 8, 2026

This has been a very tiring week. I was catching up from time spent training at work and feeling stressed about having to do more training next week. I have also been quite anxious about Michael starting his new job tomorrow.

I think he is ready for the job. We went shopping for jeans since they recommended wearing them and he didn’t have any that fit. He hasn’t worn jeans in a number of years due to sensory issues. If he finds them too uncomfortable, he will have to wear his black work pants and hope they don’t get too messed up doing janitorial work. He also has his state ID and social security card in his wallet as well as a drink and a snack to have if they get a break or, if no break, when his shift is finished.

I will be taking my lunch from 9:30-10:30 to take him to work, and his dad will be picking him up at 2:00 to bring him home. His dad is retired, so thankfully he is able to do this. The alternatives are that I do it and extend my work day by another hour or Michael uses Lyft (which would get expensive!)

On Saturday, the registration opened for the luncheon I am helping to plan for mothers of children with autism. Our location is a satellite, so we serve lunch and then simulcast the program from the main site. Last year, we allowed up to 100 moms, but this year we are cutting it to 50 unless our fundraising suddenly shoots up. Yesterday I sent out 50 confirmation emails as well as approved 16 children for childcare. Today I sent waitlist emails to the few additional people who have signed up.

One change that has been made for this year is to allow people to come for the after lunch simulcast program if they can’t commit for the whole day or if they are waitlisted for the lunch. So those people will have the option to still hear the speaker, etc, which is nice.

Last thing I will mention is that I am struggling switching to tray #11 for my Invisalign. I tried both last night and today and cannot get the top one on completely. There is one tooth that just isn’t in the right spot for that aligner, I guess. I am really hoping I can get it on tomorrow.

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Week in Review: March 1, 2026

We got some great news this week – Michael got a job! He will be working part-time cleaning an office building. He starts on March 9th, the day before his birthday. I am so thankful he got this opportunity and am really hopeful that it will be a good fit for him.

Outside of that excitement, my week was exhausting. I had to go into the office all week to train a new employee. He did quite well learning the information, but it takes a lot out of me to be talking and interacting so much with other people. I am glad I had the chance to relax and recharge this weekend while Michael visited his dad.

Today is my dad’s 84th birthday. He lives far away from me, so we will just talk on the phone. I am grateful that he is doing well.

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Week in Review: February 22, 2026

Doesn’t Peanut Butter look cozy? I recently bought this self-warming pet bed and he absolutely loves it. He is definitely spending the majority of his time on it!

This has been another busy week at work, but I did take Tuesday afternoon off to take Michael for a meeting with a potential new dentist. He has to switch dentists due to a change in insurance, and we needed one who had some sedation options for when he needs work done (he is fine for a cleaning). This dentist does not offer IV sedation or nitrous oxide, but he does offer medication that the patient would take the night before and the morning of the appointment. Michael has been successful with a combination of medication and nitrous, and he decided that he is willing to try just the medication the next time the situation arises, so we went ahead and scheduled his next cleaning with this dentist.

I watched a very interesting movie this week called Rental Family, starring Brendan Fraser. It takes place in Japan and is directed by Japanese director Hikari. Fraser is an American actor living in Tokyo who lands a gig with a “rental family” agency, playing stand-in roles for strangers. It was a bit odd at times but heartwarming.

I also watched quite a lot of Olympic figure skating this week. I thought the women did especially well, and I enjoyed a lot of their free skates. I used to watch a ton of figure skating when I was younger, but I have been out of touch except for the Olympics for a while now. I enjoy some of the other winter sports as well, but just didn’t have the time to watch them this time around.

I hope everyone had a good week!

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Week in Review: February 15, 2026

This was a busy week. I went into the office for the first three days to train a new employee. It went very well, but it was exhausting. I am still going to be helping in that department, but the new person will be covering several of the tasks I was doing and I will be learning some new ones.

Michael has not been feeling well this week and after he complained of waking up with heart palpitations for three days along with being lethargic and having some difficulty breathing, I decided to take him to the ER on Thursday evening. We were there from 5:30 pm to after 1:00 am, but thankfully he didn’t have anything emergent. He is still not feeling great, so we will probably be following up with his primary care doctor next week.

I have not been doing as much reading or puzzling this week, so I was glad to finally be able to sit down on Friday evening and do the Valentine’s Day puzzle I posted yesterday. I am hoping to get back to more of my normal schedule this week.

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Week in Review: February 8, 2026

I have been feeling more stressed this week. I think I could use some of these stress balls! Work is super busy as I am helping out another department, and in my personal finances, I am trying to get some information I need to finalize how to handle something. After several attempts, I think I found someone who might be able to answer my questions (fingers crossed). There is also no news on the job front for Michael.

On Monday, I had a combination endoscopy/colonoscopy. The procedures went well and the results from both were good. I am especially happy about the endoscopy because there were no eosinophils found in the biopsies, which means that my condition is under control with the medication I am on. That is a welcome change from the first 50 years of my life, with a lot of that being before I even had an accurate diagnosis.

Today, I was invited to go to a performance of Hadestown: Teen Edtion. The performance was incredibly good; it was hard to believe some of the cast were really teenagers! I did find the event quite draining, however, especially sitting in the loud, crowded auditorium before the play and during the intermission. I would have loved to have some noise canceling headphones at those times.

I have to go into the office Monday and Tuesday to do some training, so those days are going to be quite busy for me. I’m hoping things will quiet down a bit after that.

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Week in Review: February 1, 2026

This has been a busy week for me.

  • I had a meeting on Monday evening for the autism luncheon.
  • Tuesday, Michael and I had a telehealth appointment with his psychiatrist.
  • Wednesday, I took Michael to therapy and then had friends over (I posted about that earlier this week).
  • Thursday was a quieter day; Michael and I had dinner together, and he helped me rescue two pairs of glasses that had gone missing underneath the sectional in the living room.
  • On Friday, Michael had an in person GI appointment and an online meeting with OVR to discuss his job coaching services. He also was sent paperwork for a background check for the job he interviewed for last week, so we spent some time filling that out and getting everything sent back to the hiring manager.

The GI appointment was very interesting. After several different tests, they don’t have any real answers about his swallowing issues. We have been referred for a neuro workup and told that another possibility would be to see a motility specialist, since they don’t currently have anyone at their office who does that. She did say that it’s possible his swallowing issues and chronic constipation are related. In the meantime, he is going to continue taking the medications she prescribed since they seem to be helping a bit.

I have been a bit obsessive and completed 21 puzzles this month, which is exactly how many I needed to bring my waitlist down from 71 to 50. I did buy 7 puzzles before reaching that goal, however, and I bought another 3 this evening with a gift card I got from my boss for a Christmas/birthday present. So, not a total win, but progress.

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Week in Review: January 25, 2026

Here’s a picture out my window right now. I’m so glad to be inside and not need to go anywhere or do anything today. I’m also super glad I work from home and don’t have to worry about this tomorrow morning!

This was another quiet week for me. I went to the eye doctor’s office to order new glasses and picked out a really pretty purple pair. This was after I had ordered online to save money and waited 6 weeks to get the glasses only to find out they came with non-removable safety shields that weren’t pictured in the try-on window on the website. Those have been returned and now I am waiting for the new ones to come in.

Michael had a phone interview for a job on Thursday, so we spent Wednesday evening getting prepped for that. When the interviewer hadn’t called by 15 minutes after the scheduled time, I had him call her. Turns out she had put the interview on her calendar for next Tuesday despite confirming the Thursday appointment by email! She did go ahead with the interview on that call, so now we wait to see if he gets it.

I had an interesting week at work. We needed some help in our accounting department, so I learned a bunch of new things so I could help out for a little while. I am also documenting the tasks I am learning so I can help train when new people are hired. I have found it really enjoyable, much more so than when I am asked to help with customer service related tasks, I think because I like concrete, objective tasks with little interaction with people.

On the puzzle front, I am making progress on my to do pile but have also broken down and ordered a few new puzzles. My to do pile is down from 71 to 55, which is great progress! I have ordered 4 new puzzles, however, all higher end brands that are hard to get if you don’t grab them when you can.

I haven’t finished any books in the last few days, but I am enjoying a reread of Sheepfarmer’s Daughter by Elizabeth Moon. I read it many years ago as a teenager and am happy to say it has held up really well.