Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! 

Good by 2017 and hello 2018!

We've made it to another year! So hoping everyone had a good and safe Holiday vacation and New Years eve.  Jerid is now back at the STAR Program to start his new year and Justin and I are sick with the stomach flu. Jerid is just fine, thankfully.

We spent our New Years Eve at our friend Hope's house with her family and a few other friends. It was a quiet evening until all the kids got noise makers. LOL!

Still so much to contemplate and look forward to, Jerid will be going to Camp Eden Wood/ Friendship this summer. 

Karen and I are hoping to have the shop open a bit more often this new year, we will be sending items to sell to Shoreview, to try to make more sales. We were saddened to find that the venue for the Holiday Geek Expo was cancelled last year, to find out that the Geek Partnership Society (GPS) also had a Holiday show, we were not in that show, but we did attend. Should also point out that Karen has been working hard on our new web site, please check it out if you have a chance. www.temperancearts.com 

  We have been doing our best to keep the house warm, it's a big and drafty house, it is almost like a book of where's Waldo, to find out where a draft maybe coming from, you think you got it, then find out, nope, there is a bigger one you didn't notice. LoL! 

Well that is all for now, Happy New year everyone!

As Time goes by.

As time goes by, life gets lived. Things you once thought of yourself gets put on a shelf and simply gets dusty. As you, yourself gets rusty and less agile. I love the spring it brings on the expectation of the new. Sun begins to shine the snow melts and the trees begin to bud, flowers bloom. Also for some (like me) almost a feeling of doom. The thoughts of what what hasn't happened yet start to creep in. I know the vale is thin in the spring, as much as it is in the fall. I experience this in the fall as well. Extreme feelings become evident. Spring brings on the wedding season. Justin and I tied the knot (literally a handfasting) this spring, it was a highlight of this year. Following it came the lows. Thoughts of why am I here, what is my purpose in life. Also the budget for Jerid's CDSC plan was today. He is doing better. Which to say is very bitter sweet. You see the way the county sees it, if a disabled person is doing well, they need less money to keep them on the right track. It is the same logic of a construction foreman looking at a tall building with a great foundation, and saying "Okay it looks good, lets take two beams off the bottom, because the top looks good." That frustration aside, it's great he's progressed. Somehow my writing on my blog stopped with the the frustrations of the City of Carver and their need to make us leave our home so they can have a drunken party in front of our home. Which makes me wonder if our family matters in the world at all. I know something needs to change. I just don't know how. We can not (should not have to) move. I'm very much feeling that I am damned if I do and damned if I don't at this point. Looking back I don't think I was ever meant to have the future I dreamed about in my younger years. I know I am so lucky to have Jerid and Justin in my life, to have a roof over my head, as shop in my house and food for my family. I just wished I deserved it. I just wish I had a purpose in life, a direction. Something to contribute to society that made me feel like I belonged in it.

An Autistic Child has to leave this home for this weekend's event.

This past weekend in the City of Carver had their annual event called Carver Steamboat days.  It is run by the City of Carver Lions club. Which is an event that takes up the city streets, with music, vendors and a parade. What they don't want people to know is that they had to displace an Autistic Child and his family, so they can block off their home to have a out door concert and beer vendors serve beer until 12 am. on Saturday night.

Ok, I have to admit.  Those who have read my blog before, know that it is our family.  So let me explain the stresses that come with this.  We have been trying to get the Carver Lions Club, and the City of Carver to move this event from in front of our home since we tried to move Justin's father (who was a disabled Vietnam vet. moved back to his home after an extensive stay in a rehabilitation center.)  The city did nothing.  When we explained that we have a disabled child who lives with us, so they should move the event else where, they just offered a hotel room.  We have admit we took it.  We felt we have no choice.  So leaving our home to a city who doesn't care about it's constituents, and a Lions club who obviously doesn't care about the displacement of a child with autism and his care givers. We had to leave our home.

This year we have gotten ourselves a lawyer.  Not much good it did us. (not that we are ungrateful for what our lawyer did for us. She was as awesome as she could be not being an expert of this section of law, she did move small mountains.)  We still had to leave our home.  The only up side was we got food added to their bill.  So at least we didn't have to scrape for food, which we had to do the last two years.

We also found out last year that The City of Carver has been shooting off fireworks within 200 yards from our house, in doing so on the weekend after labor day weekend 2007 (or 2008) they did in fact light our home on fire. We were told this after we had gotten a new roof.  This was at the time when Justin's father owned the house and was in the hospital. We also found out that they didn't have a permit for those years and not one mention to the family, from the City or from the Lion's club.  So when we did get the lawyer we were told by the city we had to evacuate our home so they can shoot off the fireworks. Our lawyer called the state fire marshal. We then found out that evacuation of a family home for fireworks  is 100% illegal and in contacting the state fire marshal our lawyer did get the fire works moved away from our house.

This was what was blocking us from our home.  Our lawyer told us we could go home by Sunday night we couldn't believe they only left us enough room for our Honda civic to get threw the rows of bleacher and garbage cans.  They moved them the next morning after we  made a comment on Facebook with a picture of what they considered clearing our drive way.  They said they would clean up around our yard, it took them two days and us contacting them on Facebook yet again to get them to do what they promised.  

After they  posted this video, we were confirmed in our concerns about what happens in our front walk and drive way.

 Yep this in front of our home. What would you do?

Out raged yet?  It gets better.  Since we have moved into this home which has been in Justin's family for 5 generations.  We have been accused of trying to shut down the whole event. We asked them to move it, they then ask us to find a more appropriate site for the concert.  When we point out that they have 4 parks large enough to host the event, without having to move people out of their home. They then say it wouldn't work, because people would complain.  (really?)  We have been asked by the City of Carver and the Lion's club why we moved there if we didn't like the event there.  (again really?)  We also have been asked why we are complaining, they don't offer a hotel to anyone else.  (what?)

We don't want to take away their event, we just want it to be moved. So we can enjoy the celebration and even participate, maybe make people aware of the autism community.

All we are asking for is the quiet serenity of our home, and access to it  100 % of the time.

Please help this post go viral!!! Let the City of Carver, and the Carver Lions Club know that they are wrong in displacing our family.

 Thank you for your support.  I would also like to thank our Lawyer, who did everything she could and the State of Minnesota's fire Marshal, that got the fire works a safe distance from our home.

City of Carver and other news.

Big ass tent in front of our house Steamboat days 2013.

 Lets start this off by showing you this picture of our house during Carver's Steamboat days.  Yep, as you can see our house was completely cut off by four barricades.  We couldn't go to our house unless we parked a block down and walked there.  The music was at 94 decibels at the farthest part of the house from the tent. The music goes till 1am and there is no where to hide from it, if we wanted to stay home.  My Autistic son really can't handle the noise.  We were sent to a hotel by the comity, and no other negotiations will be had. The Mayor himself just said. "We wish your house wasn't there." They will not move the tent.  They will not stop the music at 10pm when their noise ordinances would require them to.   The true statement that the City of Carver doesn't care about the people of their town when money is on the line.  I thought living there was going to be good, now I am questioning it.  We have gone to the State Attorney General's office, and was told of our rights under the laws of the the city.  The laws that the City feel free to ignore.  If I had the money I would sue. I like my home and don't like feeling bullied out of it.

Jerid and Justin riding the Elephant at MN Ren. Fest. Festival Friday
Sept. 2013

So lets talk about a happy topic.  We went to the Minnesota Renaissance Festival, it was a beautiful day.  This year I came prepared, I brought the camera!  Jerid did it again and this time I got proof, he road the elephant!  So proud of my (not so)  little guy! He hates most things with four legs but he seems to really enjoy riding the elephant.  He seemed more scared of the horses this year so he sat on one but no luck on the riding. Still proud.  He is now in 9th grade and almost 15 years old Yikes!  Time does fly when having your having fun.

 So it's almost that time of year again. Thinking of Halloween and our loved ones who have passed. Eric Dibble (Jerid's Father)  was a lover of Halloween.  The day that he died we were talking about who we should invite to a Halloween party. He was 26 years old, he died due to a heart condition caused by Gaucher s disease.  I miss him very much.  Eric Bryce Dibble passed away 10-17-01.

Please, feel free to comment on the ones you are thinking about.

           Have a safe and Happy Halloween everyone!