I mean this was so bad I had to contact Doodle's teacher. And she called back immediately cause it severely upset her. So what could be so bad that it made me hate living the life of an autism parent? Well, let me just tell you.
Saturday I worked kids club at Michaels craft store and the Gingerbread event. Doodle was with my parents at home. The day was pretty normal. Kids begging for the rest of my slime and not caring about any other customers that wanted to participate in the event. They were 11 years old. Where were the parents? Off shopping through the store, though they didn't really buy anything.
At the Gingerbread event a parent brought in a gingerbread house that had to be put together. Not to be decorated only. But put together piece by piece. And the icing was not doing it's job by acting as a glue. This was not a Wilton product. Took me just a moment to come up with a solution and the customer went from angry to happy and her product came out far better then other customers who were in the event. We were all very proud of the end product. For the first time of this customer and her daughter creating a gingerbread house she was happy and became a firm believer of Wilton icing. Once she learned all the tips and tricks there were to using the icing.
After I got home from work, tired and ready to finish all my work for my other weekend job I walked into my room. And there was Doodle playing on the bed holding out something that was long and different looking. I asked her what it was and she threw it in a turtle container for a toy turtle I bought last Christmas for her. I asked her again what she had and she responded with, "Nuffin'". I asked for what she had and she finally handed me the turtle container. And that's when I saw what I knew was not a toy and was as real as I was standing in the room.
I screamed. Screamed like I was being murdered. Because well, my safe haven of peacefulness was stripped from me. There was a live snake in the bedroom and I had no clue if she had brought in some of his friends and was just playing with the one or oh God I can't. I can't think about that.
I ran from the room. Panic mode as if this thing could fly and was chasing me with a knife. I was no longer safe in my own home. Look I can deal with toads, frogs, lizards and spiders. Snakes, that's a big ole NOPE!!! I couldn't go back into the room. It took me a bit to even get back to being close enough to get to the bedroom door. I tried calling my male best friend and he didn't answer. So I called my female best friend. She lives on a farm. She has to deal with these things every single day. I called her and panic stricken screamed into the phone, "Get to my house right now!" She asked if I was okay. I replied, "Get here as fast as you can! It's not good. I'm about to have a stroke!" She said she was in the long line at work but as soon as she checked out with her stuff she would head to my house.
At this point Doodle was in sheer panic. She was upset and crying. She came out of the room upset and crying. I asked where is the snake??? She pointed to my bed. Oh sweet Jesus in Heaven rapture me now!!! Praying she hadn't put the snake in my bed I screamed and ran from the room again. I some how found the courage to make it back to the bedroom to ask where the snake was. By this time my dad was by the bedrooms waiting for the snake to be found so he could find out what it was and get it out of the house. I asked Doodle several times where the snake was. She kept telling me she didn't know. Oh this was so not helping. My mother was chiming that she wanted Doodle to get the snake right now. All this frustration poor Doodle was starting to meltdown. I took a deep breath and told Doodle it would be okay, show momma where the snake was. Doodle led me back to the bedroom and pointed to the bedroom window.
The courage I had to muster just to try to get the blinds up. Normally, this is super easy for me. Saturday it was not. I couldn't touch the bottom of the blinds or even open the slates of the blinds to find out where it was. After what felt like years and my muscles not wanting to work properly I finally got the blinds up enough to see if there was a snake in the windowsill. Nope, no snake.
At this point Doodle kept saying snake outside. Snake outside. Considering that it would be easier on my anxiety to be outside verses inside this tiny box where a snake could find me so much faster. Not really but this is how I was feeling at the time. I walked out the back door and headed to the bedroom window. And before I even got close enough I could see it. My heart dropped to my feet. There I stood frozen unable to move. My mother came up behind me and said, "Well, is it out here?" I said, "Yes, there it is. Can you see it?" She couldn't and walked closer to the window. I said it's on the bricks on the ground, look down. And that's when she spotted it and ran inside to get my dad.
Thankfully it was a corn snake. Doodle had poked a hole in the window screen and slide the snake outside that way. I'm not a happy camper and I'm not happy at all with the situation that I found myself in. After the snake was moved to the back part of the yard, mainly in someone else's yard.
I had to go sit on the front porch and I waited on my friend to come to the house. I live 8 minutes from work and she took over 20 minutes to get to my home. We sat on the front porch and she tried her hardest to get me calm again after I told her what happened.
That night it took me until well after 3am to get to sleep and that's with the help of 10 mg of melatonin. And 3 hours of Alvin and the chipmunk episodes on the nick app. I'm still not fully over the incident and am practically bathing in frankincense oil which helps with my anxiety. And I was begging for rapture after I figured I couldn't sleep in my office chair and had to check my bed for snakes. And yes, I did debate on just sleeping in my car that night. I found a feather that was brown and beige and curled on my bed under my covers. I wasn't wearing my glasses and everything was a little blurry. But it was something curled up under my covers. "Jesus, take me now. JESUS!!!" I'm sure Jesus heard me but wasn't willing to help me out. Still love him though.
I feel like there is something that is slithering over my feet and touching my ankles. I can't handle this. I told Doodle the next day there might be a possibility she would lose Christmas cause she knows mommy hates snakes. Yes, I will be one of those parents. I have everything already purchased but she can get her Christmas on her birthday in January. That's the way I'm pretty much feeling right now. Thankfully, Christmas is a good ways off and I know I will calm down by then. God, I feel like this experience was just 20 minutes ago.
Currently the house smells like moth balls. Cause I need security in my life. I no longer feel as if I'm smelling a snake cause the smell of moth balls is overwhelming. And there's a bit of peacefulness but not much. My eyes are burning from the smell. But I'm reminded of my grandmother and her wardrobe from years ago, so there's that.
Monday morning I will be taking Doodle to school myself to get a social story about not going after snakes. I refuse to leave the school until I have that in my hands for the house. If she's brave enough to go after a snake the next one might be dangerous. She has no clue cause she has no fear. And it's that no fear that most children on the spectrum have. And that's the part of autism I hate right now. Doodle's teacher was concerned that Doodle might have brought said thing to school. Doodle's obsession has gone from looking at pictures of snakes and drawing pictures of them to now bringing a snake in the house. Nope, nope, NOPE! Yes, her teacher asked me if I checked her book bag to make sure there was no snake in there. I told her no I haven't, you're on your own for that check! I told her I'm trying to convince my friend to come over and check over the room with me cause I need someone to throw on the snake so I can get to safety. She laughed. I'm not joking.
So that's where we stand and right now I'm still popping melatonin cause I can't get to sleep because of the fear.
If I come home from working another event at Michaels and find my kid playing with another snake I will be quitting my job. I just can't handle that. Everyone at work has been well informed. They think it's funny and don't take me seriously. But I'm not kidding. Told Doodle's father that he needed to make sure there is life insurance on me cause I will be 6 feet under if there is another incident.
See you guys on the flip side.
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