Roxy's Mad House

About me

I live in Perth, Western Australia, with my husband of 10 years, Steve, and our two boys. I am a full time carer to our boys, who both have autism - our eldest has ASD and our youngest has ADHD/HFA, they are both total opposites to each other. Having two boys with special needs certainly makes life interesting and there never seems to be a dull moment =)

Having two boys with special needs kind of means that I don't have time for other things in life - friends, shopping (other than grocery), hobbies, even trying to do studies by correspondence is really difficult at times. This is because I have very little in the way of support from family (mine live a very long way away & Steve's don't really know how to approach the situation it seems).

So how do I keep myself sane when it seems impossible to find any time for me? Apart from reading books whilst waiting in line at the bank/doctor's/supermarket, I jump on the internet. I like to connect with people from all over the world, they don't have to have anything to do with autism as I can chat about a lot of things. Facebook is one of my favourite places and I am getting reacquainted with twitter again.

Naturally, I do a lot of research into autism spectrum disorders and most of that information is extremely useful to other people who are in a similar situation. That is why I wish to give blogging ago - not only to write about all the different research I come across but to also give an insight into just how topsy-turvey live can be.

My work

Before the boys came along, I used to work =) After finishing school, I did some temporary/casual work in the secretarial field for about 3 years. Working as a temp in Kalgoorlie was a great way to get a lot of work experience. My favourite contract was as a Site Administrator for 3 months just out of Kalgoorlie.

However I got bored with 'sitting on my backside all day' and decided that I wanted to travel around Western Australia and see some of this wonderful state. So, I entered the world of hospitality and worked as a casual barmaid, traveling from town to town. I only planned on doing this for a few months but it turned into a few years. They were great years though and I meet some wonderful people.

After having our eldest, I worked at a TAB (think gambling on horses, dogs, trots) every Saturday for about 5 years. It was great as it was fast paced - all punters want to do is put their bets on & watch their race. Major race days zoomed by so quickly due to the amount of bets placed. Even though I was good at my job & great with the customers, I was 'let go' as I wasn't flexible enough with my hours (the boss knew about the boys).

That was 3.5 years ago. Since then, I've just thrown myself into being the boys' carer =)