New job!

Well, I got a new job. I am now the postmaster at a small town post office. It means I won't have as much time to post. Not that I post regularly anyway... It was actually a bit of a fluke that I got the job. I was checking my mail and overheard the woman working the office that she was tired of covering that office and wished they would hire someone there, so I went home and looked up job listings. Sure enough, my local post office was hiring. So, I applied and waited. My interview was only five minutes, so I was sure I wouldn't be getting the job. But on the way home from the interview (it was an hour and a half from my home) I got a phone call letting me know I had the job. It's really exciting! This isn't just a job, it's an actual career. I have a two-day training next week, and then I'll start work as soon as I get home.

More shop stuff

I have a few more things up in the Etsy store and more to add. Lots of supplies, pendants and wire trees. I am also working on finishing some other peaces I have started. I will be adding some book marks, hair combs, and ribbon flowers.

More supplies and some other stuff

I have been adding more to the etsy shop, mostly supplies and a wire tree. I have more to list and I am expecting more in the mail and I am going to through together some assortments together and list though's. You can see the new items here.

New shop items

Including the necklace I posted about a few days ago I have also listed 2 different colors of unfinished swarovski jewelry chain. I have some more jewelry and supplies I am getting ready to list.
Items can be seen at our shop Here.

Turquoise Necklace

I just finished this turquoise necklace and earring set the other day. I made this set with turquoise beads, silver beads, glass seed beads, stainless steal jump rings, and a pewter pendent. I will be adding this set to the Etsy shop in a day or 2.

Non-Drowsy Dramamine

Well, I finally got around to using my Non Drowsy Dramamine sample from Influenster. We took a trip to see family and my son gets carsick on long, windy roads, so I gave him some Dramamine before we left. Now, I'm going to be honest here, I didn't expect it to work AT ALL. I used to get carsick as a kid, and Dramamine never did me any good. But, for my son, it worked. He didn't get any nausea at all. So, thumbs up Dramamine.

Graze box

I love Graze box. I was a subscriber once before but had to pause my subscription. I've recently restarted my subscription and it's just as good as I remember. You get a box of snacks (4 or 8) every 1-4 weeks. And if you go on vacation, pausing your box is easy to do. They offer a few different box option, my favorite being the Flapjack box. They also have a Sweet Treats box, a Savory box, an all inclusive four or eight snack box, and a sharing box. As I said, my favorite is the flapjack box. It consists of four oat bars (that resemble soft granola bars) in a variety of flavors. And they are so good. These snacks aren't cheap, you can definitely get similar snacks for less elsewhere, but they are healthy and delicious. And if you use my link to sign up, you'll get your first box free! So what are you waiting for? Sign up for your free box now! I recommend setting  your delivery schedule to every four weeks when you first sign up, that way you will have received and sampled your first box before paying for the second, so you can cancel with no out of pocket cost if you aren't satisfied.
https://www.graze.com/us/p/TARAR2M3T

Influenster #NurtureVoxBox

I recently received my first Influenster Vox Box, the Nurture Vox Box. It contained such goodies as Blue Lizard suncscreen, Non drowsy naturals dramamine, Hada Labo face mask, Attitude shampoo, and Redvines licorice (which seems out of place). It also includes coupons for a free box of Uncle Ben's rice, a free bag of OreIda potatoes, $3 off Hada Labo product, and $10 off a $35 purchase from Blue Lizard. All in all, a pretty awesome spread. I gave the licorice to my sister, because gross. I've used to sunblock for both my son and myself, and it works great. No burns, no breakouts, and my skin doesn't feel like it's on fire when I use it. Also, the price isn't too high so I'll be buying more. The shampoo smells funky, but similar to most shampoos. I don't like it, but I'm sure most people will. I haven't tried the face mask yet because I'm afraid it will cause my skin to breakout. I'll try it before I take a shower, just in case. Now, the Dramamine, this stuff is a life saver. My son doesn't do well on car rides sometimes, especially if there are windy roads and there are a LOT of windy roads where we live, so Dramamine is a necessity for car rides. Unfortunately, I haven't found an easy way to get him to take it yet. I haven't used the coupons yet because I haven't gone in to town since receiving my box.

Folgers Iced Café™ samples from Crowdtap!

My second sampling opportunity from Crowdtap is Folgers new Iced Cafe concentrates. I received one of each flavor to try. I gave the original flavor to my sister, the vanilla to my dad, and I tried the caramel and hazelnut. Now, let me preface this by saying I'm not a big coffee drinker. I drink coffee on rare occasions, usually in the form of a latte. I also hate most latte/coffee/cappuccino drink mixes because they're too sweet. This new product from Folgers isn't overly sweet and you can actually taste the coffee. It truly creates a coffee shop level latte flavor, which I love. I'm going to be buying more of this stuff to keep around. I do hope they come out with more flavors soon.

AVEENO® samples from Crowdtap!

I am a member of Crowdtap's Aveeno Advocates program I received a free sample of Aveeno's Sheer Hydration Daily Moisturizing lotion and Protect+Hydrate SPF30.

The lotion works well, it softens even my toughest of scales (for those who aren't aware, I'm turning into an alligator). It has a weird smell, but the smell is very mild so it doesn't offend. my scaly patches truly are softer, even though I haven't been using the lotion daily. Of course, the lotion alone would not have softened my scales, I've been using an exfoliating scrub. But I've been exfoliating and moisturizing regularly for years and my scaly patches remained strong. The Aveeno lotion, along with the exfoliation, has softened my scales. I'll have to buy more if I want to stave of my transition to full alligator. I'm not sure yet if I want too, though. I kind of like the idea of becoming an alligator...

The sunblock I couldn't even use. The active ingredients include avobenzone, which burns my skin horrifically. I'm actually shocked that Aveeno would use chemical sunblocks instead of physical ones. I realize that many people prefer chemical sunblocks, but I've always viewed Aveeno as a brand for people with sensitive skin, and many sensitive skin types can't wear chemical sunblocks. So the sunblock doesn't fit with my image of Aveeno brand. As a disclaimer, I'm not one of those loons who believes that chemicals are evil. I just can't use chemical sunblocks.

Insert catchy title here

Hello. I'm Fawn I'll be doing some review's here on the things I use and voicing my opinion on stupid people. I will also review some get paid to website for people that want to make a bit of spare cash. I meant to post my introduction yesterday but my mother and her friend broke the pick-up five miles out of town and I had to assess the damage.

R is for Reviews

Starting next month I will begin posting reviews of products/services on my blog. And my sister will be joining me. We will be reviewing a lot of different products, and of course we will continue with our autistic advocacy. I've just decided that I need a platform to talk about the awesome products I love and I don't want to create a separate blog, because I slack off enough with just one to maintain. So soon their will be reviews. But they will make up less than a quarter of the blog content, I'm sure. My sister will be voicing her opinions on many things here as well, and she has a lot of opinions to voice. I'm sure she'll piss off many readers.

Q is for Quacks

Quacks aka the anti-science nutbars who call themselves medical professionals. They're a truly vile bunch of scumbags. They use fear mongering to prey on the ignorant for profit. They ignore scientific fact if it doesn't mesh well with their convoluted pseudo-science. They campaign against logic, reason, and common sense. They are enemies to humanity. And they do most of their damage to those who can't fight back, children. They convince uneducated and gullible parents not to vaccinate which leaves innocent children in danger.

P is for Pasta

I like pasta. It's probably my favorite food. It's so versatile. There are so many wonderful varieties of pasta to suit individual tastes. It really is the greatest food.

O is for OCD

I have OCD. I see and hear people all the time making OCD jokes. Usually along the lines of "I organized my closet, I'm so OCD!" People think OCD is a joke, they think it's funny. It's not. It's a disorder. It's not funny when I stand in the grocery store paralyzed because there aren't four of the item I need to buy. Mental illness isn't a joke. It's not.

N is for Non-verbal effect

Non-verbal effect is a term used to describe the treatment of those who don't speak. It refers to the fact that people who don't speak are treated as stupid, lesser, infantile. Those who don't speak are less likely to receive appropriate medical care. They are less likely to receive appropriate education. Doctors and educators often fall into the pitfall that A$ created: the idea that non-speaking means unable to comprehend. After having six seizures in one day my son was completely ignored by ER staff because he doesn't speak. The ER staff even saw two of the seizures, but they acted like it was nothing. One of the nurses actually said to me "That's just how those kind of people act." After his seizures finally stopped the doctors were ready to send him home the minute his eyes opened, asking me "So this is normal behavior for him, right?" It took months for me to get a referral for my son to see a neurologist, but only one EEG to find epileptic activity and receive a diagnosis.

M is for Martyr mommies

Martyr mommies is the phrase I use to refer to "parents" who call themselves warriors. These are the people who publicly bash their children on forums and blogs. These are the people who record and post to Youtube videos of their children in distress. These are the people who murder their disabled children and try to play the victim. These are the people who defend those who murder disabled children. These people consider themselves saints if they don't murder their children. These people are scum. They scream above the voices of disability advocates to insure their voices are the only ones that are heard. They suckle at the teat of groups like Autism $peaks because those groups perpetuate the martyr mommy ideology.

L is for Llamas

When I was a kid my siblings and I raised pigs. Since we lived in town we had to keep the pigs at a friends house. The house was about a mile from ours, so we walked there three times a day to take care of the pigs. Next door to where we kept our pigs lived a woman who raised llamas. They were mean SOB's. If we walked to near her fence, the llamas would charge the fence and spit. Before meeting those llamas I liked llamas, I always wanted one of my own. After meeting them, I hate llamas. They're assholes.

K is for Kittens

I've been searching for a kitten or two to add to our family. I considered getting an adult cat, but I worry that an adult might not adjust well to my son's activity and noise levels. So kitten it is. We had a cat up until October of last year, one that my son loved very much. Her name was Checkers. But when we were forced to flee our home we lost her. I posted ads online trying to find her, but nobody came forward. I found out earlier this year that one of our former neighbors found Checkers and kept her. It's nice to know she's alive and well, but it's sad that we lost her. I have spoken to the people who found her, and I believe it's in her best interest to stay with them. They're taking good care of her, and she has anxiety which makes moving difficult for her. We moved once when she was a kitten and the anxiety nearly killed her. So now we must find a new kitten for the family.

J is for Jazz

Jazz is one of my son's favorite types of music. When he was a baby I would play jazz music to help lull him to sleep. He still enjoys listening to jazz when he's upset. It soothes him when he's upset, stressed, or not feeling well.

I is for Injuries

I have a knee injury. It happened when I was 17 and continues to cause me pain regularly. Some days the pain is mild and I can just ignore it. Some days, like today, the pain is so bad I can't walk or stand on my own. I sustained my injury when I was in the army. The worst part is I can't get my medical records from the VA because I apparently do not have the security clearance necessary to view my own medical records. Cool, right? Or it would be if it wasn't interfering with my ability to get proper medical care for my knee problem. Most doctors just assume my knee pain is because of my weight. I am overweight, I know that, but my weight isn't the cause of my knee pain, my knee pain is the cause of my weight.

H is for Haiku(s)

Autism is not bad
We're not missing or broken
We've always been here.


Acceptance is love
Love is not conditional
Love us, don't kill us.

Don't hate your children
Show them acceptance and love
That is what they need.

G is for Goals

It's good to have goals. Goals give you a reason to get up in the morning when you're having a bad day. Goals help you make progress. Setting goals allows you to create a list of priorities in life. I have a lot of goals. Some of them are frivolous, some aren't. I think my most frivolous goal is to own the world's largest collection of Oddish paraphernalia. My least frivolous goal is to make the world a better place for my son and all other autistic children by spreading a message of acceptance. Shockingly, a lot of parents are offended and angered by the autistic acceptance movement. It seems that there are some parents, those who call themselves "warriors," who don't believe in loving children unconditionally. My goal is to show them how wrong they are.

F is for Friends

I don't have a lot of friends. There are only three people in the world I consider friends, and only one of them I talk to regularly. And by regularly, I mean we usually don't go more than six months without speaking. It's not that I avoid making friends, I just don't make much effort to keep in contact with people which makes them not want to be friends anymore. I don't mind though. I'm content with my friend situation.

E is for Epilepsy

My son was diagnosed with epilepsy last October. It took a lot of fighting and arguing with doctors and insurance reps to get him to a neurologist. The doc he saw in the ER and at the ER follow up wouldn't give us a referral to a neuro because she didn't believe he had a seizure. I had to find a new doctor to get a referral, and then after I finally got the referral my insurance wouldn't pay for the visit and I had to pay out of pocket.
Epilepsy is scary. Watching my son have a seizure I was completely powerless to help him and afterwards his skin was an ashy grey color. He looked dead. After having had 10 seizures in three months, he's been seizure free for almost a year now. I still worry, though. What if he has another bad seizure? Will the ER docs be less dismissive now that he's been diagnosed? I don't know, and I hope I never have to find out.

D is for Diabetes

Type 1 diabetes runs in my family. It's a really scary disease. My dad is diabetic, and I've seen him on death's doorstep because of it. When I was seven I watched the paramedics cart him out of our house on a stretcher. I thought he was dead. He was in the hospital for a long time, at one point he was so bad the doctors advised my grandparents to and my mother to have a priest give him his last rites. Instead they had him transferred to a different hospital where he recovered pretty quickly. I still have no idea what happened that he got so sick in the first place, but it was terrifying. Five years later his kidneys failed and he was put on dialysis. He refused to allow my siblings and me to be tested for a kidney match. Luckily my dad is one of eight kids, so he had no trouble finding a donor match quickly.

Now my dad's doctor is running a trial to assess the likelihood of developing diabetes in close relatives of type 1 diabetics. My son is in the trial. My dad is pushing hard to get my siblings, my nieces, and me in the trial as well. He worries too much that we'll all end up diabetic.

C is for Communication

Communication comes in many forms. Spoken words, written/typed words, gestures, facial expressions, hand signs, and behavior are all forms of communication. Communication can be hard sometimes, especially for disabled people. Communication becomes even harder when multimillion dollar profit engines work to silence disabled people. Autism $peaks works tirelessly to silence autistic people. They spend billions of dollars to insure that their narrative is the only one heard. If any autistic dares to share their experience, A$ is quick to shut them down. Because those of us who can communicate easily don't count.

B is for Bigotry

Bigotry is alive and well. Most of the bigotry in the autism community comes from parents. It's not really surprising, though, and it isn't completely their fault. The problem is that we as a society have allowed Autism $peaks to control the national discourse on autism. A$ spreads a message of hatred, painting pictures of doom and gloom. There's a reason autistic people hate A$. Because A$ treats us like we aren't human, like we don't matter. They refuse to listen to us. A$ believes that if we can communicate clearly we don't count, and if we can't communicate clearly we don't matter. Supporting Autism $peaks to help autistic people is like supporting the Nazi party to help Jewish people. Don't do it. Listen to autistics because when it comes to autism, that's who should doing the talking.

This year, support Autism Acceptance. Don't LIUB, instead #WalkInRed!

A is for Absence

I have been absent from my blog, and the internet in general, for the last six months. I'm not comfortable discussing the details of my reason for being absent beyond the fact that a threat was made against my son and we had to go "off grid" for a while to deal with it.

During my absence I made some changes in my life. I've decided to go back to college for another degree, though I haven't decide whether to go for nursing or software engineering at this point. I've applied for a local nursing program already and have been in contact with a university in SoCal about their software engineering program. I just have to decide which one I want to do more before the fall. Shouldn't be too hard.