Family members:  Papa, Mama, BigGuy, Girly, and no animals.

Papa/Husbeau is working outside of the house for the first time in easily a decade.  He is consulting, so no work means no pay; and he spends 2-3 hours/day commuting.  Thankfully, he likes the work and the environment.  And there’s that whole income thing….

Mama runs a successful consulting practice  and is still full-time managing child education experiences (which includes coaching our middle school level science team and running a coschool to provide group education opportunities to our own kids as well as the community).  She is a former technology project manager (certified Project Management Professional); has a Master of Arts in Teaching with additional graduate credits in Special Education and Teaching Children with Autism; and is a certified Positive Psychology coach (with a few other coaching certifications in there as well).  I write a lot.  See more about my background on the Work With Me page and where I’ve been featured on my Who’s Highlighting My Work page (which desperately needs updating)

BigGuy (formerly BoyChild) is a creative, scientific and dramatic guy with Asperger’s Syndrome (a diagnosis that no longer technically exists).  He  has a great (albeit geeky) sense of humor and enjoys busting out an occasional dance move.  Although we see no seizures today, he was diagnosed with atypical general epilepsy around age 2 and Reactive Airway Disorder around the same time.  He has an immune system problem that we have had to work around to keep him out of the hospital most of his life.  Thanks to research and diligence, we have.  He was also suspected of having cerebral palsy and profound deafness at 9 months old.  He has multiple food intolerances but we survived puberty.

Girly is a vivacious old soul.  She came to us by adoption as an infant from the state we lived in at the time.  She is our artist and our athlete.  Her kindness and helpfulness are only matched by her fire when she’s unhappy.  She is also very snuggly and struggles with her sense of belonging in the world at far earlier ages than we imagined possible.  She has challenged all of our disbeliefs around in-utero/newborn bonding and adoption loss.  But so far, she is fairly healthy.  A few food intolerances and a flag for neurological dysfunction that got her exempt from her vaccines (by two separate doctors… JUST to be sure).  Just full of love.

BigPuppy was our last  dog.  He was 11 years old when he died in November 2015 and truly, if we give him a sense that you’re supposed to be in our house and you pet him, you could not get him to leave you alone.  He barked A. LOT.  But followed us around the house and slept at our feet even if you were still for just 2-3 minutes.  He was also a hunter–which is rare for a Sheltie.  But no joke, big puppy would hunt down every animal in the yard for the kill and that has included one of our own chickens (that we were able to intervene on and nurse back to health).

Hound is our most recent former dog.  She came to us from a shelter in December 2015–soon after BigPuppy died–and left us in December 2018 due to escalating food aggression issues at the request of the kids.  She was never quite “our dog” the way Big Puppy was, but we still struggle with the fact that she WAS ours and she is gone.

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