That Time I Tried to Catch up on My Blog

Life is busy guys.

I haven’t been posting on much social media lately, so let me see if I can try and catch you up a little 😊 We’ve had A LOT packed into the last few years. I’m sure many of you can relate to that.

Summer of 2021 we had five cross country trips. Only one of them was planned ahead by any length of time lol. Then some other exciting things happened as well.

First, a trip to West VA, then VA to take care of some motor cycle issues.

This was when we still had the big giant van and Bandit had a big comfy seat to lay down in. We saw the sunrise in West Virginia, and had a little bit of downtime in VA before we turned around and made the 18 hour trip home. In the last picture, you can see JJ and Bandit, and looking closely, you can see that they’re tethered together with a leash.

One of the ways Bandit helps us, is by making it harder for JJ to bolt when something scares or upsets him, and making it harder for him to just wander off when something has his attention. On this particular trip, JJ and Bandit were in the yard playing, and JJ thought he saw a spider on Bandit. Panicked, he took off running. Bandit acted as an anchor to slow JJ down so we could get to them. The spider turned out to be dried cut grass. People are afraid of bugs, but JJ’s fear means he doesn’t pay attention to where he’s going. The road and any cars or obstacles on the road aren’t on his radar. Bandit buys us enough time to get to JJ before he can get to the road. That day he did what we needed him to do ❤️

Next up, about a month later, we picked up one of our daughters from an 18 month mission she’d just completed. This was our planned trip lol

He did a great job. Part of what makes autism hard for my two little boys is being out of routine. Doing something different – and that’s all a trip is. Lots of different experiences. Like Bandit acted as a physical anchor on that first road trip, he acts like an emotional anchor for my kiddos when their world is kind of off.

Following that, my husband switched jobs, so we snuck off to visit his dad who was in his 90’s at the time.

We had a nice time and it was so good to see him. We snuck in a visit to see my grandma on this trip, too ❤️

Shortly after that, we got word that my 25yo cousin passed away. We weren’t able to make it to the funeral, and I don’t have any pictures of that time. But this time, Bandit helped me. He’s good at knowing who needs his love and I’m so grateful for that.

Next on the list of fun things we did in the last couple of years, we had a wedding. This was a new experience for us, we’d never had a child get married before. That made it Bandit’s first time, too 😊

Then we were back in the car traveling cross country again. This time for my grandma’s funeral. I’m so thankful we took the time to see her when we were there visiting my father-in-law.

One of Bandit’s jobs is to just relax. He can then share that calm with those around him. Traveling. Funerals. Overwhelming sounds at the luncheon after the funeral are all things Bandit can help us with. As you can see, he did his job perfectly.

While we were here, we took the spend more time with father in law again. We brought pie over and we all enjoyed it together, then it was back on the road to head home.

After that trip we were able to go to UCM in Warrensburg to work with the Alpha Sigma Alpha sorority to raise money for Paws4Autism, the organization Bandit’s with. JJ had fun hanging out with the girls and loved the attention. It also just happened to be right around his birthday so they spoiled him a little. It was a great time and we were able to help raise funds that go back into the program to keep training and adding new pups to the program.

And then we were back on the road. We got word one morning that my father in law passed away. He’d been admitted to the hospital shortly after we’d visited with him at the end of October, but had started doing better. This wasn’t news I was expecting, especially after losing my cousin and grandmother. But we loaded everyone back into the cars and took the 20 hour drive west once again.

With funerals, there’s a lot of high emotion. Grief and feeling overwhelmed are just a few. And for us, add in exhaustion. JJ is like an amplifying sponge. He soaks in all of the emotion and feeling around him because his brain doesn’t filter them out. Then he sends them back out 10-fold. So being able to help him regulate those feelings and calm down is really important. That’s one of the places that Bandit can really help.

For JJ, we know that just touching Bandit regulates his heart rate and that’s a huge help. Another thing that JJ finds helpful sometimes is some deep, but gentle pressure. Here he is with Bandit resting with his legs on JJ’s lap to help with both. Poor JJ hadn’t been smiling a few minutes before because he was getting overwhelmed. Bandit is the fastest, easiest way to accomplish this.

My father in law was a veteran. He received his gun salute and this is the flag they presented his wife. I had a great father in law. I’m grateful for the sacrifice of him and countless other Veterans.

PS: Bandit didn’t like the gun salute…

After the summer and fall we had, it was nice to be able to do some normal, mundane things, like go to the dentist, lol

Dentist visits can make people nervous. JJ is no exception. We take Bandit with us to help keep JJ calm. You can see them working together here with touch and pressure to make the experience better for everyone involved.

Things were relatively ordinary for a little while, but we got to celebrate again mid 2022, and it rounded out the year featured above. A second child got married ❤️

We had a great time celebrating and Bandit was in on the fun, too.

We sure did need those two weddings to help offset the hard stuff that year encompassed.

After this, we started our school year. And this year we’ve been homeschooling both little boys, both with autism, instead of just one. And it’s been an adventure lol Luckily, Bandit is good at helping the boys, which I really appreciate since it can get overwhelming for all of us at times. This is honestly where so much of my time goes and one of the things that makes updating any social media more challenging than it used to be.

And yay! We get to do more normal things, too. Like speech therapy.

Bandit stays close, always within reach in case JJ needs him if he starts getting overwhelmed with therapy. I can remind him to pet his dog, and that usually helps get us back into the flow of things.

And during all of this, I’ve added more things to my learning and fundraising, I just haven’t been able to post them (see above lol). My favorite new thing is sublimation. I must now sublimate all the things lol. I’ll try and add some of that work later. It’s fun 😊

When people ask why a service dog. Or ask how it helps, these are all the things I think about, and more. But often times, it’s hard to put into words. I’ve been fundraising for a dog for JJ, but in reality, Bandit is there for us all. He loves without condition, he’s always excited to see us. He’s there for the good stuff, the bad stuff, and everything in between.

As my kids say, “He is good boy.”

Thanks for stopping by

XOXOXO

To check out the Paws4Autism organization, go here: PAWS

To check out JJ and Bandit’s page, go here: JJ AND BANDIT

If you’d like to make a donation, just scroll to the bottom of JJ and Bandit’s page.