Moving Update!

Just thought I would post a copy of our flyer to rent our house out! I'm hoping it will rent quickly, that would definately be a big relief. So, if anyone knows anyone that might want to move to Alamo and need a house to rent...just call us!

The packing is going well. I'm trying to do 5 boxes a day. I know that even at that, it will be incredibly stressful and overwhelming during the last week. We have so much stuff!

I don't think I posted before when the big moving date will be, but it is in less than 3 weeks. We will load and leave here on the 19th of June, stay overnight in Cedar City and then drive the other half, and start moving into our new house on the 20th! We are getting so excited. It's all the kids can talk about.

A quick funny story. The other day, when we were packing, we had given each of the older children a box to start going through and packing a few of their own things that they want to take with us. The next thing I knew, I found Sam climbing up the stairs with a big box in his hands. He took it over to his train set and started loading it up. I thought it was so cute and left him to do his work. A few minutes later, we heard him scream and complain. Chipper had taken Sam's box and was proceeding up to his bedroom with it. Sam followed him up and waited. When Chipper had filled the box about half full, and turned away for a moment, Sam seized the opportunity and pushed the box and its contents down the stairs. We heard the crashing and then a very triumphant, "Aha"! from Sam. We've learned not to mess with Sam when packing!

It's Official...

I know that posting big news on a blog, isn't the most personal, but sometimes it's hard to keep telling the same details over and over again. I figured this was the best place to record it and send it out to all our loved ones so that everyone can feel in the loop.

We are officially moving to Utah. We have found a house in Saratoga Springs that we are so excited about! It is just over 3,000 square feet, 6 bedrooms, 2 family rooms and a big-fully fenced in back yard.

Now, for all the reasons we are moving. I'm sure that to many our lives over the past year have been nothing short of nomadic. As you all know, we have been working very hard and searching for answers, treatment, therapy, etc. for Sam. To say that in many ways he has turned our lives upside down would be an understatement. Don't get us wrong, we wouldn't trade any of it for anything. Our family has learned more, grown more, and loved more than we ever thought possible! He has been such a blessing in our lives. That is why we want the very best for him. We believe that with the right therapy, he can live a full and normal life and be able to speak and converse with others as he pleases. But this will not come without a price. Research shows with Apraxia that the sooner a child gets the therapy and the better the therapy, the better the chances.

As much as we've enjoyed many aspects of living in Alamo, it just isn't right for us. The school worked very hard, but it really comes down to funding and availability. It's just such a small district with limited funds and as much as their desires were to help us, it just wasn't possible. Plus, I'll be honest, our other children haven't exactly had the best experiences here either, and they are eager to go back to public school. We have loved homeschooling, but it is a difficult challenge on its own. Throw in a special needs child, and the task becomes extremely daunting. We've all done what we've needed to and I believe the children have thrived, but at the same time, I see them lacking in some areas. For example, Abby is such a nurturing and caring big sister. She can talk her younger siblings into anything. They adore her, but at 7 years old, I don't want her spending 80% of her time caring for her siblings. I want to see her play with little girls her own age and she has missed that.

So, with this move to Utah, Sam will be able to get the therapy he needs and be able to attend a wonderful school. In fact, in our neighborhood there are two churches and an elementary school with 2 speech therapists! Even in Vegas, the school he attended only had 1 for 5 schools. And the prices are so much better. The range in Utah County is $25-70 dollars for an hour session. In Vegas, it doesn't even start below $150 for 30 minutes.

John will continue running his practice in Lincoln County. He loves what he does and he loves the clients he works for. Because most of his clientel are government entities, he has a lot of flexibility. Plus, with the incredible staff we have, who do so much for us, he will be able to work mostly from home up in Utah with just several trips a month down here.

We are also excited to live close to John's parents. We left Provo 12 years ago to work in Vegas as Japanese tour guides. We never made it back up there to live! I hope they are as excited as we are to spend this time with them and strengthen those bonds. We are very blessed with a lot of loving and supportive family! How lucky we are to have so many in our lives.

We will miss all of our family and friends in Southern Nevada, but we are grateful for the memories we've had here and the opportunities to love so many of you. I know we won't be far, and be assured that our door is always open! We love visitors!

And we will post often, here on our blog with pictures and updates!

The Honey Incident of 2008

Today started off like any normal day. John went to work, I fed the kids breakfast, cleaned up, sent the kids into the family room to play while I swept and did the dishes, you know, the typical morning.

As is often the case with me, I got a little distracted by an idea for a new kit I'm designing, so I was at the computer jotting a few things down. I figured the gate was up, the kids were safe, and they were all watching "Backyardigan's" so I had a few minutes.

Chipper's shriek from the other room, quickly reminded me that I really should never leave Sam out of my sight for even 10 seconds. He somehow had managed to climb up in the family room, lean over the gate into the pantry and get down a bottle of honey. He then proceeded to dump and smear the honey all over the new slide and jungle gym that Olivia got for her birthday. When Chipper yelled, it was because both Sam and Olivia were trying to slide down it and didn't make it real far. Don't ask me what the three older kids were doing while Sam pulled this whole thing off. They were in the room, but they aren't always the most observant!

Needless to say, the two little ones were quickly wisked off for baths and we had to clean the slide, floor, arm of the couch and part of the bean bag several times and I still think there are sticky spots!

I think I really lucked out with my first three kids, because they really didn't make many messes. But Sam will truly be the death of me, in one way or another! He certainly is trying to keep me on my toes.

I also wish I could say that was the only need for baths today, but several hours later, while the kids went outside to play, I was called out to find that they had completely buried Olivia in the dirt, except for her little head sticking out! Aah, the joys of parenting!

Sam's Evaluation

Well, today, I spent 3 hours at the school for Sam's evaluation in preparation for his annual IEP review which will be held tomorrow. It was exhausting. I know it's important to give a thorough record of his past and present behaviors, learned skills, what he can and can't do, etc., but it is so difficult to go through this over and over again! He is such a sweet and wonderful little boy, who tries so hard, but you could tell today during the evaluations that he didn't really want to be there. I think he gets frusterated when expected to do things in a timely manner, if he can't. I know that the purpose behind the evaluations is to get a guage of what he can and can't do, but I think it is also difficult for a little person who is working so hard and knows that he can't quite get some of these things.

As John and I were talking later in the day, mostly in preparation for tomorrow, we came up with the comparison of a computer. So, I'm going to record it here, partly for us, and partly for anyone else out there who is trying to fully understand what Sam is dealing with. I had never heard of a "motor planning disorder" or a "processing disorder" before having Sam and facing his diagnosis of Apraxia. But, one way to think of it is with a computer. How many of us remember the really "old" days of DOS. In the beginning, we didn't just turn on a computer, have Windows Vista pop up with all the wonderful things it can automatically do for us. Remember when we had to type in the commands by hand? Okay, I admit I'm spoiled, I have very limited memory of the DOS days, but I think we all know, where we're going with this. Most of how a computer works, is automatic to us. We don't have to know each individual process. For most of us, when we speak and communicate with one another, it is automatic. We've done it a million times, we learned how to do the simple stuff beginning as an infant. We don't break down each step, each word, while taking in the other person's dialogue. Most of it is an automatic plan that we established long ago. For a child, like Sam, it is as if he is working in DOS. He can't automatically formulate those plans, therefore, he has to work through each and every process, one by one.

To add to that, because of the white matter abnormality and the low muscle tone, he has physical difficulties with those automatic steps. If you go to say the word "cat", you don't have to think "my tongue goes here and then moves to here, my jaw opens this wide and then closes, my breath strength needs to be stronger part way through the word", etc. We just say the word cat. For Sam, he not only struggles with those steps, but also having the physical capabilities of moving his tongue, holding and stabilizing his jaw, having strong enough breath sounds, etc. So, part of the struggle and the therapy, is to strengthen all of those components, and then work on teaching his brain to do automatically what comes so easy for most of us.

And the school wonders why we aren't happy with their therapist who thinks that Sam is not only "too lazy to speak" but also that just playing with him will eventually get him to speak.

Needless to say, it's been very complicated! I'll post tomorrow and let everyone know how things go. John will be going alone, as I was not able to find anyone available to watch the kids. I have a more in depth knowledge of Sam's disorder, but he is the one much better at presenting everything. Plus, we spent several hours today going through his evaluation that we had done just over a month ago, by a private speech therapist in Vegas. Wish us luck tomorrow. In a District with limited resources, I'm not sure what they will be able to do for us, but it should be an interesting meeting!

Check this out...

I know I posted awhile ago about my scrapbooking blog, but I wanted to share some of the fun things I have going on over there! I am posting daily free downloads, along with challenges and tips and ideas for journaling and writing your personal history. If anyone is interested in any of this sort of stuff, check it out
here