I delight in the happenings as of late.

life has been a lot of fun lately. so let's have a recap:

last week the school district was on spring break so I had two days off, thanks to sickness turned into 3 days off and thanks to a conference turned into 4 days off. on tuesday, nat and i headed to slc to check out city creek, go to the u, the clinic, the u bookstore, temple square, the gateway and the hunger games. not to mention gourmandise and costco pizza. what more could you ask for, seriously? thanks for the great picture collage nat! :) it rightfully sums up a great and needed day!
being outside is finally a pleasant experience. on easter sunday, we enjoyed our first family fire of the year. i was too full from the delicious dinner to participate in eating my first s'more of the year but it felt so nice to be outside, smelling campfire and laughing with my family!

on thursday, i headed south via morgan/park city and a stop at carly's in heber. we had a wonderful time being crafty and catching up. somehow our fun times together seem to evade photographic evidence, however, we treasure the times in our hearts for sure! i'm so grateful "the clifford's" aka our dad's are lifelong friends so we can follow in their footsteps.

after my wonderful time with car, i headed to provo for a sleep at grandpa's on my favorite couch ever+a roasty toasty electric blanket! it's the recipe for sleeping perfection. friday morning, i woke up, went upstairs and grandpa informed me that it was raining. as we looked outside we watched the rain turn to snow and then watched it pile up over breakfast. oh utah and your blasted constantly changing weather. i was so grateful i could sleep at grandpa's so my drive to byu was so short. i spent the day at a conference on the management of childhood apraxia of speech up on byu campus. it felt so good to be back on that campus as more of a 'professional' than a student and to hear about apraxia from edy strand herself. she's a legend in the field and a fantastic presenter. during lunch, i went with 4 of my fellow colleagues to the creamery for lunch and 4 of the clinic supervisors followed suit. it was entertaining if i do say so myself. it was so great to hear about all the exciting times everyone has been having at their externships. i can't believe we'll all be 'moving on' so soon. finally, i dropped mary off at her sister's house which just happened to be on the same street as my great grandma and grandpa mcquivey's house. it looks just the same, only their chairs aren't in the window. i absolutely adore mary's nieces and nephews and had a great time going on a backyard adventure, attending an orchestral event and getting a big farewell wave from everyone at the doorstep! friday night, i enjoyed a quiet night with grandpa. first i enjoyed a dinner of ice cream and raisin toast (it was that, going and picking something up or a microwave dinner--the choice i made was definitely the best!) then we watched wheel of fortune, jeopardy (which as always, i only knew the answer to 3 questions--one of which none of the contestants knew the answer to which made me feel smarter), a complete hour of who wants to be a millionaire (this would be the gameshow i would be most successful on), and finally channel surfing before we gave up and went to bed--at 8:30. boy did that feel good! :)
saturday, it was time for an adventure. after breakfast, grandpa and i went up to BYU campus. it's always fun to go up there with grandpa because he watched the "upper campus" be built and knows what each building started as--for example: the now testing center was a library when he was there. as we walked into the wilkinson center, he told me how ernie was quite the guy...earnest "ernie" wilkinson. yep, he knew ernie. grandpa was also one of 3 students who had cars, so parking was never a problem for him. and tuition, well we can't even go there. the bookstore was as great as ever, got LB's requested hoodie and grandpa got his chocolate covered mixed nuts--can't go to campus without restocking on that supply!

after leaving campus and driving down 9th east, we made a stop at the cemetery. that's when spontaneity kicked in and we headed for payson to find the spot for the payson temple. grandpa doesn't travel too far from home on his own so it was a good chance for him and a fun chance for me to go with him and hear more about the way things used to be. we took the old road and relived the good old days when that old road was the only road! fyi, there is nothing built or dug that we could tell at the temple site. *see the picture above our journey ended with a trip to the new jdawgs by grandpa's house. i took him to the original jdawgs once upon a time and he really liked it. he was observant however that he was "by far the oldest one in the place" however, at 91, i wasn't too surprised.
finally i headed home.

i couldn't get too far without a stop at one of my favorite temples. draper is usually pretty out of the way for me, so since it was more on the way traveling north from provo, i couldn't help but make a stop. living at home with no ogden temple has been...challenging to make it to the temple as often as i would like however, i have learned that whenever possible...take the unexpected opportunity...like today. i now keep a skirt in my trunk with my temple bag. always prepared.

that was a long run down of my adventures but i had to share because it was so fantastic! craig has reminded me a lot lately about the value of a small vacation and the trip to provo was it for me. i'm so excited that he gets to have a vacation when our family heads west in the upcoming days.

a trustworthy gut

My mom could quote me on a statement I made just a little over a week ago that went something like this: it's interesting that a lot of the people I work with could have gotten help earlier in their neurological event had they acted on their suspicions that all was not right.

I am now quoting myself, on lesser of a severe scale than having a neurological event however, if I had recognized the signs that I myself was sick and had gone to the doctor a week ago, the last 3 weeks of my life could have been a lot more....peaceful.

Now I sit here thinking...why don't I trust my gut more reliably to actually act on what I feel? I've talked previously about never suppressing a generous thought and although I know it is something I should always do, I still question myself at times. And sometimes, I don't even let myself think about it long enough to act on it, dismissing the thought before the possibility of acting on such a thought.

Tonight at institute, we talked about the second coming of Christ. At the end, Brother Clayton asked each of us to identify something we would work to change to be more prepared. Too many things came to mind, but the overriding thought that I think could positively influence a lot of different areas is: to become quick to observe and act accordingly. While I appreciate my mind, it talks my heart out of doing a lot of things.

I'm grateful to be a work in progress. The keywords being work and progress.

I delight in Autism Awareness Day.

Craig and the stop sign

In 2008, I posted the following to a my in honor of Autism Awareness Day:

Just thought I would do my part in educating a few more people in the world about the importance of early detection of Autism. Everyday in pretty much ALL of my classes we talk about the importance of early intervention when it comes to disorders like autism, syndromes like down syndrome, speech and language disorders, hearing impairments, and I could go on and on but let me just say for the record...the early years are the years you can make the biggest difference in a child's life--and that goes for any child disabled or not!

A few things I think everyone should know about Autism:

What is Autism?
Autism (sometimes called “classical autism”) is the most common condition in a group of developmental disorders known as the autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Autism is characterized by impaired social interaction, problems with verbal and nonverbal communication, and unusual, repetitive, or severely limited activities and interests. Other ASDs include Asperger syndrome, Rett syndrome, childhood disintegrative disorder, and pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (usually referred to as PDD-NOS). Experts estimate that three to six children out of every 1,000 will have autism. Males are four times more likely to have autism than females.

Common signs of Autism:
Autism varies widely in its severity and symptoms and may go unrecognized, especially in mildly affected children or when it is masked by more debilitating handicaps. Doctors rely on a core group of behaviors to alert them to the possibility of a diagnosis of autism. These behaviors are:

-impaired ability to make friends with peers
-impaired ability to initiate or sustain a conversation with others
-absence or impairment of imaginative and social play
-stereotyped, repetitive, or unusual use of language
-restricted patterns of interest that are abnormal in intensity or focus
-preoccupation with certain objects or subjects
-inflexible adherence to specific routines or rituals

It is crazy that since I wrote this, the incidence of ASD is now 1:88 which was released just last week by the CDC. And so, now more than ever, we need to be aware of Autism. We need to know how to support these amazing children, adults and their families. This includes supporting them in our classrooms, communities, families and social circles. It means learning about it, talking about it and doing something about it.

My Mom and I recently had the opportunity to attend two seminars which centered on various aspects of Autism: one hosted at the Jewish Community Center in Salt Lake City and one at Weber State University. In discussion after both of these seminars, Mom left feeling lost because it didn't seem that anyone talked about the things that she "would have talked about and that things she feels she needs support and direction with." In talking about what these things are, it's the things that anyone would almost automatically leave out of the conversation: the meltdowns, the hard times, the struggles and the ever evolving difficulties. While you work so hard to constantly overcome these things, they seem to have a way of coming back around. The times when Autism gets the best of things and life really isn't just different but its a fight in the trenches. As we continued talking about it, we realized we are just as guilty as the next in omitting the details most of the time. And so, my goal for the upcoming year is to help make Autism more understandable in terms of what it is like in my life, the life of my family, and most importantly what it is like in Craig's life.

Autism awareness begins with those who live with autism.

I delight in general conference.

I love general conference and I have been looking forward to it for a while now.

Each general conference, I have a particular question in mind as I participate in conference.

Each time, my question is answered. Try it. It's fantastic!

God still speaks to man today.

Is there really a better delight than that?

I delight in entertaining days.

Let's just discuss for a moment how awesome what I get to do every day is.

Here's some quotes that capture my day:

"That /r/ is still really tricky isn't it..."

"Yeah how about you work on understanding my /r/'s"

"I don't have apnea, I just stop breathing."

"You mean church?"

"That what I say."

"No, you didn't say church, you said, fwerend."

"Here, have a mint, next time I'll bring you a milkshake." *can you say bribery!

"Harder? Bring it on."

Oh, and if you're wondering what in the world the youtube video has to do with anything...I played it today to help a patient remember the word Earl. They'd never heard it before and I think by the end of the song...they thought I was crazy...however, I think there's no way the name Earl can ever be forgotten.

I delight in picture taking.

Until today, I hadn't taken a "real picture" (aka, with a camera that is not my iphone) since Christmas. Spending time with LB and the dogs was just the ticket. This summer, I fully intend to take more real pictures. Pictures of people, pictures of places, pictures of unique things.

I delight in integration.

"Pondering often precedes contentment."

During a Sunday School discussion of 2 Nephi 31-33, the same word kept coming to mind.

Integrate.

As a "Graduate Student SLP" I have spent a bit of time working on thought integration with patients. Particularly those with right CVAs (or cerebral vascular accidents, otherwise known as a stroke). These discussions are usually quite challenging because thought integration is something typically severely impacted in a right CVA injury. Essentially, it is what it sounds like, integrating all the pieces of the information to complete a thought, idea or concept of a particular subject.

For example: if you saw a picture of a woman, a table set for 2, pots and pans on the stove and a clock that read 6:00, you could reasonably conclude (often without really even thinking about it) that this is a picture of a woman likely waiting for another person to arrive so they could eat dinner together. They're having something hot for dinner because the food is on the stove. Additionally, you could probably also assume that she was waiting for her husband to get home from work to share the meal she has prepared.

Easy enough for you and I, but for others this can and is extremely challenging.

Integration. We do so much of it automatically. But what about the times when we don't integrate what we see and know with our actions and our attitudes.

I think Nephi's final message and plea is for us, the readers of his words, to integrate the teachings of the doctrine of Christ into our lives in so much that it changes the way we act, the things we do, and the way we view ourselves and our relationship with our Savior Jesus Christ.

To integrate, we have to read beyond merely what is written on a page. We must ponder. We must apply. We must assimilate what is being said to us--our day, our life, and our individual situation. Hence, the quote above, "pondering often precedes contentment."

When we have taken the time to ponder a concept and integrate it--apply it to us to the point that it could be reality--then we can be more easily be content with our current situation and remain hopeful about the good things we know are to come. Knowing, understanding, and integrating the doctrine of Christ as found in 2 Nephi 31-33 can help make this a reality for us.

***Post inspired by the talk: Content with the Things Allotted Unto Us by Elder Neal A. Maxwell, Member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, given April 2000.