Sunday, May 19, 2024

Maycember

It's been a long time since I've updated this blog, but the girls have discovered it and have loved reading old posts. And they've been mining it for pictures for various school assignments - which is better than getting a text ask for a baby picture for a school assignment RIGHT NOW...

Abby turned 14 this month and we celebrated with our traditional breakfast birthday pancakes and presents. 




Abby is doing great this spring, she is getting along with all her teachers and despite intentionally choosing not to do an assignment in English, she has As in all her other classes and it looks like she'll squeak out a B- in English even without the assignment. She said, "I know I can't do this next year when I'm in high school." and I'm not inclined to fight with her over it.

Abby's in Stage Crew and has learned so many things. At parent teacher conference, her teacher said Abby is amazing. She is so talented and creative. She will do anything I ask and just gets it done and figures it out. Some kids complain about not wanting to do tasks, but Abby will do anything no matter how hard or messy. She has a perfect memory and can recite word for word any instructions I give and follows directions exactly. I rely on her. I wish she were a little more patient with some of her classmates who .

She was on stage crew for a dance concert at the beginning of the month and she was in charge of lights. They had some lighting issues and last minute changes. The day of the show, Abby decided it would be easier to start over so she deleted all the settings and reprogrammed it for the concert. At first her teacher panicked, but then Abby showed her all the features she'd used - many of which her teacher hadn't even been aware of - and she was amazed. And it worked perfectly for the concert. 

She's in choir and had a choir concert this week. She also had a solo - just a couple of lines. Abby had such bad stage fright that last year in Matilda when she was in the ensemble, the young women from our ward came to see her. She saw them before the show, came out for the first number then had a panic attack and didn't come out until the finale. I was sitting in my seat worried because I didn't see her on stage. Ever since then, we've been careful not to invite people to her performances and we always hold our breath... so far she's done well in everything this year but I was really nervous when I heard she had a solo. But she did great! Stepped down from the risers, stepped to the front of the stage, sang her two lines beautifully and then went back to the risers and continued singing. She has grown so much!

Abby also got an award in science - each teacher nominated 3 students that have impressed them this year and Abby was nominated by her science teacher. For her final project she built a volcano. She will erupt it on Monday - there is a mini bottle of sprite inside the volcano and she has mentos and red food coloring to add. She wanted to use red cream soda but we couldn't find any. She also drew the most amazing poster about volcanos. I didn't get a picture of that, but I am so amazed by her artistic talent.


Yesterday, Abby went to Camp Williams for an all day teen resilience seminar. We got a flier from the school district, it included rock climbing so she said she wanted to go. I dropped her off at 7 am. While she was there, they did a free rappel (no wall or anything to brace your legs against). Her hair was pulled back, but the elastic snapped and the wind blew her hair into her face which got tangled in the rope. They sent a soldier down with scissors to cut her free, but her hair was so tangled in the rope that they couldn't cut her free. So another soldier took pictures to document for insurance purposes that they had tried the safest option (cutting her free). And they sent down an emergency rope and switched the rope she was tied into, then let the other rope go and when it went slack her hair came free. What a miracle that she got out safely with even her hair mostly intact!

Here's a random video of Liam getting a drink after he went to his Kung Fu class, which he goes to Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. He just started recently, and is taking lessons at Shaolin Arts, the same place Sandy has been going for about a year. We picked it because they are close - we could walk there, but have the kids ever walked there? No.


On Friday, May 3 I took Liam and two friends to the park for our ward playgroup. These three 10-year-old boys had SO much fun playing on the playground. And it was 2 hours of completely screen free fun with no complaints. I didn't get a picture of them, but I did get a picture of the "campfire" they built under the slide. 


I also took Liam to see a homeopath. Dave at Dave's Nutrition in Salt Lake does consultations. And I've taken the girls in to get their constitutionals done. It's kind of strange, but we have seen some improvements from it and it's really inexpensive and no harm if it doesn't work. Liam's constitutional is Pulsatilla. 


He has been so emotional lately. I really need to get him in to see a therapist. He's had some bullying at school and I think he has some trauma from various things. I've been struggling to find somewhere to take him, but yesterday our stake did an Emergency Preparedness Fair and one of the classes was on mental health in a crisis taught by a therapist in the Jordan School District. He told me about this amazing website they created and a spreadsheet for finding therapists in the area that lists which insurances they take, etc. I have already picked one to try and sent a message through their website about scheduling an appointment. It is an amazing resource. If the link doesn't work, you just go to the Jordan School District website and click on Health and Wellness from the home page.

Liam's finishing up 4th grade. He's doing great. He was the only student in his class that got a 4 (highest score) on the standardized reading test. Which is very amazing because he has struggled in reading, but it is really coming together for him. He gave a talk in primary today. Here it is:

Today we’re going to learn about Alma and his people. Okay, so they got baptized and made covenants to God. Wicked King Noah’s army tried to kill them, but God told Alma about the army and they all escaped without getting killed. When I got baptized the water was around 50 degrees. It was really cold but I was happy to get baptized. I knew that God wanted me to get baptized and I didn’t want to wait a whole month to get baptized in warmer water. I know God is happy when we choose to get baptized. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen

Bill is still looking for a job. He's had 1 interview, a phone interview with a recruiter for a Director of Technology at Sundance, but didn't get called for an in person interview. It's very discouraging. He is applying widely to everything that even kind of fits. 

He took Abby and Liam last weekend to see the Aurora Borealis. They went to Stansbury Island, got a few pictures then as they were leaving, he looked in his rearview mirror and stopped on the side of the road and captured this amazing picture of Stansbury Island. It's so cool how you can see the stars and the different colors. 


Bill taught a class at the Emergency Preparedness Fair yesterday on emergency radio communications. He did a great job.

Sandy finished all her driving hours and drivers ed this month. Bill and I have a few more gray hairs after all those hours of driving with a new driver. She's careful and responsible and will be a great driver, but there is so much to learn! Especially living in a city with so much traffic.

On Monday May 6, Sandy got hit in the cheekbone during sparring at Kung Fu. She saw stars, but kept going and got hit in the head a couple of more times by another sparring partner - blows she would normally be able to block. By the time she got home, her pupils were different sizes and she was not acting like herself and Bill took her to the emergency room. They checked her over and sent her home without doing a CT scan. Bill gave her a blessing and promised complete healing.

The next few days were rough on Sandy. She had a headache that kept getting worse, she was struggling with light sensitivity, nausea. Couldn't focus on anything, couldn't text (which is when you know a 15 year old girl is in really bad shape!). Thursday night she was supposed to go to State Choir Festival and she got dressed and walked to the car, but she wasn't walking very steady and she was obviously in a lot of pain, so I took her to the emergency room instead. When they asked her what her pain was, she said a 10 on a scale from 1 to 10. They did a CT scan and declared her brain healing from the concussion. Her neck and shoulder had some tight muscles that were spasming, though, so they sent us home with pain meds and muscle relaxants and an anti-nausea medicine and she started improving. 

She sang in her end of the year choir concert Monday, May 13. She has forgotten some things, especially in math, but other than that seems fine. It was rough timing and she really bombed her math final. She needs to be retaught some things, but we'll work on that over the summer.

Then this past Friday she went to a party and was playing frisbee and another group was playing soccer and Sandy got hit in the back of the head with a soccer ball and got another concussion. Yesterday, she was nauseous and in pain and said she felt like there was a curtain drawn over one eye - which can be a sign of retina detachment which needs prompt medical attention so we ended up back at the emergency room for the third time in 2 weeks. Luckily an ultrasound of her eye and another CT scan showed that her retina and brain are fine. She's in a lot of pain again today and back to pain meds, muscle relaxants and anti-nausea medicine. And we're wondering if we need to bubble wrap her for the summer. 

Sandy and I went over to a plaza + art night at Taylorsville City. Every quarter they have two artists come talk and then each artist usually raffles off something to donate. Sandy won this beautiful print of an oil painting by Chad Poppleton. 




Saturday, February 5, 2022

Menstruation Resources for Girls on Autism Spectrum

Abby (age 11) and I participated in a study regarding Menstrual Hygiene for Girls on the Autism Spectrum. They shared some amazing resources. I keep trying to share them with people and thought I'd organize it into a blog.

Puberty Books for Tweens and Teens to Read

These are books that are appropriate for your tween or teen to read about menstruation and puberty. The only one we've bought is the first one, The Autism Friendly Guide to Periods. It was great. Links should take you to amazon. 

The Autism-Friendly Guide to Periods

Welcome to Your Period!

Celebrate Your Body (and Its Changes, Too!): The Ultimate Puberty Book for Girls

What's Happening to Ellie? A Book About Puberty for Girls and Young Women with Autism and Related Conditions


For my older daughter, I also bought these books. Both of my girls read them and I thought they were excellent. 

The Care and Keeping of You: The Body Book for Younger Girls (American Girl Library)

The Care and Keeping of You 2: The Body Book for Older Girls


Resources for Caregivers

When we started the study the first thing they scheduled was an hour long meeting to teach ME about puberty, etc. I was surprised by how much I learned. You can find a pdf of the presentation here

They also shared so many amazing resources. I haven't looked at them all, but the ones I have used have been really amazing. You can see their full resource sheet here. Here are a couple I thought were really excellent:

List of Free Social Stories about Puberty

Amaze: Animated videos that provide age appropriate videos for tweens and their parents


Menstrual Hygiene

The study focused on menstrual hygiene, particularly the process of using and changing a pad. The researchers actually created a video of the process - customized with a mom that looks like me and a daughter that looks like Abby. I don't have access to the video anymore, but here is the process they had us go through many times. I appreciated the thoroughness of the training - Abby had it down in a time or two, though, and so the amount of practice in the study was really hard for us.

● Make sure you have these items on hand before practicing:

    a. Pair of underwear

    b. Clean pad

    c. Extra pads available in the bathroom (near where the child will change)

● Preparing your child’s underwear:

    a. Grab a clean pair of your child’s underwear.

    b. Lie the underwear flat on a tabletop.

    c. Open a new pad by removing the wrapping and piece of paper on the back of the pad.

    d. Throw all the wrapping in the garbage can.

    e. Place the sticky side of the pad across the inside underwear lining and press down to secure it in the lining.

● Prompt your child to practice removing and replacing a pad by saying, “_____ (Child’s name), it is time for you to practice changing a pad.”

● Hand your child the underwear you’ve prepared with a pad and say, “______ (Child’s name), put on this pair of underwear, and then change your pad.”

● Wait for your child to return with the underwear and pad on.

● While your child is wearing the pair of underwear, have them practice removing and replacing the pad while you observe. Removing and replacing a pad should look like the following:

    1. Walks into the bathroom

    2. Shuts the Door

    3. Stands near the toilet

    4. Pulls pants, underwear, and used pad down below knees

    5. Sits bottom on the toilet

    6. Removes used pad from underwear

    7. Folds pad and wraps it in toilet paper (at least once)

    8. Drops the pad in the trash can

    9. Wipes vagina with toilet paper

    10. Drop toilet paper in the toilet

    11. Opens a new pad

    12. Removes wrapping from pad

    13. Throws wrapping in trash can

    14. Lays sticky side of pad lengthwise along underwear and presses it into place

    15. Gets off toilet

    16. Pulls pants, underwear, and new pad up to hips

    17. Flushes toilet

    18. Washes hands

● At steps 8 and 13, if your child is likely to cause damage to your plumbing (i.e., throwing pad or wrapping in toilet), it will be necessary for you to provide guidance. 

    a. First, offer verbal instructions.

        ■ “_________ (youth’s name), place the pad/wrapping in the garbage can.”

    b. If verbal instructions do not lead to the correct action (i.e., throwing pad/wrapping away), you may need to physically demonstrate the correct process while explaining verbally.

● After your child has finished (as demonstrated by saying they’ve finished or seemingly given up, or are not sure about the next steps for completing the activity), praise and thank your child by saying, “______ (Child’s name), thank you for working. I really appreciate you practicing changing a pad.”


Menstrual Tracking

They also provided a period tracker as a resource. You can find it here.

I found this article a few years ago about the importance of period tracking - it's amazing, they did a study of girls in juvenile detention and found a link between menstrual cycle and the time they offended... then taught them to be mindful of that cycle. There are also links to more resources in the article.

Monday, July 15, 2019

Abby's Plans - A to Z - for the Future

I found this in my church bag yesterday. It was too light to get a good scan but I wanted to save it for Abby to look back at some day. I did not correct spelling.

Job Ideas
marine biologist
athor
illistrater
artist
computer programmer
engineer
musician
chef
actor
teacher

High School Jobs
watriss

Backupjobs
mcdonalds
chickfilla
burger king
artic circle

Wednesday, February 14, 2018

It is February!

No winter here in Utah this year, the temperatures have been in the 50s and 60s and it has been beautiful! Here's a quick dump from my phone a short update on what we've been up to so far this month.

It snowed just long enough for Liam's preschool class to run out and paint the melting snow:




Sandy & Abby have been taking a snowshoe class. Not the best winter for snowshoeing, but they've managed to find snow by driving up into the mountains.



Liam found these space shuttle suspenders with matching bowtie and fell in love with them.




Entertainment during sacrament meeting.

Abby recreated the 16 smooth white stones the brother of Jared asked the Lord to touch with His finger so they would provide light.


I taught Abby's class about handwashing last month and one of the UV flashlights was still in my purse. Abby found it along with some glow-in-the-dark putty.


We found a great mindfulness yoga class for the kids. Here is Liam with his teacher.


U.S. figure skater Nathan Chen attended the girls' elementary school. The other day they had all the kids with a sign cheering him on in front of the school.






Liam and his best friend building things out of magnatiles.


Valentine surprises for the girls - they got them the day before Valentine's day when they came home from school: books and a new shirt.


Thursday, October 5, 2017

My Poor Neglected Blog





The boilers were being replaced in our ward and they were mid-project the Sunday before conference. We had unseasonably FREEZING weather and it was cold in our chapel. Here are the kids trying to stay warm before sacrament meeting. As I was taking the picture, Liam asked if I had brought anything for him to eat after the "snack"-rament.

Yesterday I went to school to stick reminders on the elementary kids during lunch for our Sonic Restaurant Night. Liam came with me, he bought school lunch and sat there for an hour eating it. He loved the green beans the best and didn't like the mashed potatoes at all. The choice was chicken sandwich or turkey but I told them he is a vegetarian (which he is mostly) and so they gave him the vegetarian muffin basket: a yogurt, string cheese, and corn muffin. After we dumped his tray, I was trying to get the last few kids and the principal thought he was a kindergartner and started shooing him to class. He is as tall as some of the kindergartners.

Liam is still struggling with some of his sounds. We've been on the waiting list for speech therapy for a long time. This week I went to a class taught by a speech pathologist and was the only one that showed up. So she spent the time just talking through Liam's sounds with me and we made a plan. We're working on his "L" sound right now because if people could just understand him when they ask his name, it would feel like amazing progress. He substitutes "W" for "L" at the beginning of words, but says it just fine in the middle or end of words. So we've been practicing making the "L" sound with the tip of our tongues between our teeth. He is definitely getting better. She also suggested working on "k" and "g" sounds by using a tongue depressor to hold down his tongue.

Abby is doing great this year in school! It is such a dramatic difference from last year - and I had a parent catch me yesterday when I was at school to comment on Abby's new maturity. We spent the whole summer working on the problems we had in school last year. The most helpful thing we found was an occupational therapist who diagnosed Abby with a sensory processing disorder and has been working with us on a sensory diet for Abby (by diet they don't mean food, but regular inputs to her body - sleeping under a weighted blanket, lots of bike riding and exercises, sucking things like pudding/applesauce through a straw). We also took her to get glasses and discovered her prescription had tripled since last summer (-.50 to -1.50) which I'm sure explained some of her behavior in the classroom if she couldn't see. In the end, I don't know what all the factors were in her maturity/behavior change - I'm sure the things we did helped, but I suspect her own growth spurt (physical and emotional) and getting a new teacher helped as much as anything we did.

Sandy has grown so much we went through two bikes this summer. She's now on an adult size bike and she looks so grown up. She has the same teacher she had last year - it's a 3rd/4th grade split class and really loves her teacher. One of the boys in our ward got baptized last month and they asked if a primary child would give the talk on baptism. Sandy wrote her own talk - I didn't clean up her atrocious spelling. She did a great job!




AND NOW IT CAME TO PASS THAT ALMA TOOK HELAM HE BEING ONE OF THE FIRST, AND WENT AND STOOD FORTH IN THE WATER, AND CRIED, OUT SAYING: O LORD, POUR OUT THY SPIRIT UPON THY SERVANT, THAT HE MAY DO THIS WORK WITH HOLINESS OF HEART WHEN HE HAD SAID THESE WORDS, THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD WAS OPON HIM, AND HE SAID: HELAM, I BABTIZE THEE, HAVING AUTHORITY FROME THE ALMIGHTY GOD, AS A TESTTIMONY THAT YE HAVE ENTERED INTO COVANENT TO SERVE HIM UNTIL YOU ARE DEAD AS TO THE MORTLE BODY; AND MAY THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD BE POURED OUT UPON YOU; AND MAY HE GRANT UNTO YOU ETERNALE LIFE THROUGH THE REDEMPTION OF CHRIST, WHOM HE HAS PERPAIRED FROME THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD AND AFTER ALMA HAD SAID THESE WORDS, BOTH ALMA AND HELAM  WERE BURIED IN THE WATER THEY AROSE AND CAME FORTH OUT OF THE WATER AND REJOICING BEING FILED WHITH THE SPIRIT.  WHEN HELAM WAS BABTIZED IT WAS PROBLY ONE OFTHE BEST DAYS OF HIS LIFE.  ON MY SPECIAL DAY WAS LOVLY.  WE PUT UP RAINBOW DECERATCHIONS AND THE WHATER IN THE FONT WAS JUST RIGHT.  MY MOM HELPD ME CHANGE AND DO MY HAIR.  AND MY DAD BABTIZED ME IT WAS ONE OF MY BEST DAYS OF MY LIFE AND I HOPE YOURS I TO. 
AND I SAY THESE THINGS IN THE NAME OF JESUS CRISTE AMEN
 




Saturday, May 7, 2016

Finally, an Update!

This little blog has been sadly neglected. But here’s a quick rundown of the past week.

Today, Liam played his first T-ball game! We signed him up fora Learn to Play series – each week they have a practice on Thursday, a game on Saturday. 3 weeks, 3 sports. He’s loving it.


Bill also buzzed his hair this morning. I love it this short!

Then while he napped at home with Bill, I took the girls and a friend to Gardner Village to see the Woodland Fairies. It was fabulous! The weather was beautiful – while we were there, as soon as we got on the freeway headed home, it started pouring. It wasn’t too crowded.




The Woodland Fairies will be out all month. They are all over the village, you can see one in the tree above the girls in this picture. There’s a wishing bridge where you get to tie a ribbon on the bridge and make a wish.



 
There was a parade.




The girls got to ride a unicorn and get their picture taken with a dancing bear.

 
The girls’ favorite thing was making fairy bracelets.  My favorite thing was the Fairy House Tour. They had an I Spy list with things to find in each house. The girls really got into it. They were each determined to find everything. We were there for 40 minutes.

I found my keys after they were missing for four days! (Both sets – my keys and the spare keys. We’re still looking for the spare keys.

Liam stuck them in the drawer with the plastic wrap and aluminum foil. I didn’t realize he could reach that drawer. I’d pulled apart every drawer and cupboard I thought was at his level, even pulled out the oven and fridge to look under/behind.

The day before I lost my keys, the van got rifled through. It was left unlocked and it seems there are people checking door handles in our neighborhood every night. There wasn’t anything in there worth stealing, but they made a huge mess pulling everything apart. Then they decided to steal the change drawer:

There were some pennies in there. Who takes the whole drawer?!


Sandy lost another tooth this week. Apparently, it was her favorite tooth.








Her note to the tooth fairy says, “Take care of my favorite tooth.” Of course, the tooth fairy forgot to come that night and had to come while she was at school instead.

Friday, June 26, 2015

Happy Birthday, Sandy!

_SANDYcropped

 

This little girl is 7!  She’s not so little anymore…  She is so much help at home, she loves her baby brother. She loves to read, she’s been devouring the books she gets at the library and is excited to read some new books she got for her birthday.

 

Blowing out birthday pancakes the morning of her birthday:

_20150624_072701

 

Blowing out a giant chocolate chip cookie cake that night:

_IMG_0583 

 

Blowing out a pumpkin chocolate chip mini muffin at her birthday party with her friends today:

_IMG_0619

 

We do friend birthday parties every other year and usually keep them pretty low key. But I just finished a business program (more about that below) and one of the ladies in my class owns a blow dry bar called Pro Do. They style hair – no cuts or color, just hair styling. She has a storefront but she’s also gutted a 40-foot tour bus and put a beautiful salon inside. She drives her bus to weddings, events, AND birthday parties. 

 

_IMG_0596  

 

These girls each had their hair styled, nails painted, and lips glossed (and they got to keep their lip gloss).

 

Last night was the graduation ceremony for the business program I finished. It’s the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program and here is my class:

GoldmanSachs

It was a fabulous experience although rather intense. It was 16 weeks of classes, one full day a week and sometimes more. The classes were very useful – all taught by people who were successful business owners. The best part of the class, though, was my classmates. 27 successful entrepreneurs, all with experience, wisdom, and ideas to share. We became really close over those 16 weeks and it was fun to see them again last night at the graduation ceremony.

The end product of the class was that we each wrote a 5-year business growth plan for our own business. They will survey us after 6 months, 18 months, and 30 months to see how much we’ve grown (revenue) and how many jobs we’ve added to the economy. It’s an amazing program and I encourage any one with a business to check it out. It’s completely free.

Goldman Sachs has invested millions of dollars into this program with the belief that teaching business owners how to be more successful is the best way to create more jobs. The program was developed by Babson College. They’ve partnered with colleges around the country to offer this program, and they even have an online national version for those that don’t live in one of the cities served by the program.

 

The class involved a lot of soul searching and discussions about work-life balance and goals…. One of the surprising things that came out of it is Bill and I decided to drop our daycare this summer and have me stay home with the kids. The hope was to hire an administrative assistant and that hasn’t worked out (anyone know someone looking for a job in SLC?) but so far we’ve made it work.

We’ve had a  fun summer. We have a schedule. I’ve been getting up and going to the gym then swinging by the office to enter any checks and create a deposit. I get home by 7 a.m., just as the kids are waking up and we have breakfast. The girls are good at getting their morning chores done: they have to do 20 minutes of online school, make their bed, and do 10 minutes of cleaning.

Then we try to leave the house by 9:30 every morning. We have done some really fun things. Here’s a picture of Abby walking on stilts at This is the Place Park:

_20150623_104715

 

We’ve also been catching the summer kids movie on Wednesdays at the gateway, going to the library, parks, hiking, and more.

We try to get home for lunch and to put Liam down for a nap. The girls have to stay downstairs with me while Liam naps and if they read for 20 minutes and clean their room and the family room they get to watch some TV. If they watch TV, I can reconcile business accounts and get some work done.

It’s worked pretty well for us. I think the girls are really getting sick of each other. I could use some ideas for separating them. They have a love-hate relationship so I put them in separate rooms and they don’t stay very well. They want to play together – and sometimes they play beautifully together. But they fight a lot.

 

 

It’s been 7 months since I’ve updated this blog. I’ll try to go put a short post with some pictures for each month. But in December my dad was diagnosed with Esophageal Cancer that has metastasized to his liver. The kids all have shirts that say “I wear Periwinkle for my grandpa.” I guess I don’t have a picture of Abby in her shirt, but here are the other two.

_20150610_113029 _20150611_094135