And summer vacation is almost over.....

This has been a fast summer.  It is so hard to believe that school starts in two weeks and I know some people are already heading back this week.  It has been a good summer and we have had some nice trips to AZ for Kristen's wedding, a trip to St. George and one to Logan.  In between I have had all of the busyness of UDSF and a huge learning curve on foundations, non-profits and web designs.  It is crazy and not what I had been planning to do.  However I do like that about life---things are changing, chances to learn and do new things, serving people--that is some of the good stuff about life.

I already listed the things for the week at the end of the last post.  I did all of those things and survived.  I can't believe I did a TV interview for KBYU....some day some way you might see me talking about the Utah Down Syndrome Foundation (Actually I think I hope that no one sees it.  The direction of the questions was different than I thought and they asked me to talk about Jena some way during the interview--just seconds before the interview started. Oh, well.) We did miss the Wave Court reunion as I didn't feel well yesterday.

The Utah Institute of Special Education Law was intense.  I could not believe the complexity and processes involved in special education law.  It is nuts!  It made me so appreciate the teachers who handle that stuff for Jena's very thick IEP folder.

I was able to go to the temple with a good friend from Hong Kong, Sandy Lai.  We went to the Mt. Timpanogas Temple.  I had never been there before but it is similar in design to the Bountiful Temple although the furnishings and colors are, of course, different.  Big news at the moment is that there is a new temple film as part of the temple service.  No changes in words or anything--just redone and updated I guess you can say.  My sister Valerie described it as "intense".  I thought that was a funny word to use until I saw it.  Intense is a good word.  I will be interested in hearing from my other friends and family as they see it for the first time.

Jena had her last tutor session with Holly who has been her tutor the past two summers.  She has been awesome and we will miss her.  She is a student in special education at Utah State.  She is getting married on Saturday so we will see her at the reception in Bountiful.  I forgot to take a picture for Jena's journal so we will have to get one on Saturday.

Today the Sunday School lesson was entitled "Let the Prisoners Free".  It was about baptisms for the dead and temple work for the dead in general.  I had this sweet confirmation of the truthfulness of this concept.  In many ways the temple and all it represents is really the crowning piece of God's Church.  God would not have create covenants and ordinances which are required for men and not made a way possible for ALL men (and women and children) to partake in those ordinances.  It is logical and true (just in case you were wondering!)

The Project

I loved Pres. Uchtdorf's comments at the LDS General RS Meeting at few years ago entitled:  "Create".  It was made into a Mormon Message called "Create" which I tried to attach but for some reason couldn't get it to work.  Any way, he spoke how important it is to create things in our lives because it is a natural need we have and it can bring such a feeling of accomplishment and fulfillment. It is so true.  Finally in the busyness of this summer we carved out some time and started and finished Jena's room up-date.  She had been saying off and on for several months that she needed a new color for her walls because she "was not a kid any more".  Then she saw her cousin's room and loved it's new color of blue.  It is very unusual for Jena to express wanting something which made it even more important to me to do it for her.  We finally found the paint color that she loved and we started.

I am one of the messiest painters I know.
I didn't really understand it but I always ended up
with paint everywhere from head to toe.
One reason I wore a hat.

Jena helped paint too.
The color is called
"Caribbean Blue." 

It took us a while to find the color Jena wanted, but when she did, she loved it.  Every time she came into her room during the painting she would get a big smile on her face.  We pointed that out to her and she started covering her smile when she came in.  It made me glad to know that we had found the right color.  She was very definite about other colors as well.  She wants black accents and some green (not the yellows and oranges which I might have chosen.) I am glad because I think she loves her "new" room.  She calls it her young adult room.

In process

Her new desk area.  This is actual a workbench
which was on sale at Home Depot.  It is solid
and has black legs so it works perfectly.

This is a small area just left of her door.
We painted a magnetic primer on part of both
walls and then cover it over with paint.
The dark grey wall is actually chalkboard paint
and next week she can draw on it with chalk.
Chalkboard paint can be any color but Jena
definitely wanted this dark grey with
a sloppy edging.  She is thrilled with it.

Jena is 4' 9" and she will not grow any taller.  It finally
occurred to me as we were planning this project that
we could make her closet much more user friendly by lower
the rods and adding some more shelving.  Gary is very useful
for tasks like this and this is the final result.  Works great!

One of the things Jena liked in her cousin Nikki's room was that
she had a large quote on the wall.  I told Jena that she needed to tell
me what quote.  Months later she saw this on the Disney Channel
and told me she wanted it in her room.  My sister Valerie did
the vinyl lettering which we gave to Jena for Christmas (yes, she has
waited for a long time for this paint job.)  It works great and
the perfect finishing touch to her room.  (And on the emergency
preparation note, it is better than pictures above a bed in case of
earthquakes.  No broken glass on your head.)

The only thing left is we have two Broadway playbills being framed and her "Guys and Dolls" cast photo which we are going to hang around her desk.

Back to my starting statement, creating this room with Jena has been nice despite the frustrations of painting especially a dark color.  I am personally so busy with new assignments this summer that I can feel like I have not accomplished much at all.  But just stepping in her room calms that feeling and makes me feel good.  It is the same with our backyard---quirky as it is, when I look at our backyard, it reflects us and it brings me joy.

Message for the week--go paint a room, plant a plant, rearrange a closet.  It will do you good.  As for me, I have Monday--all day meeting with different parts of the Utah Down Syndrome Foundation, a "free" day on Tuesday, an interview about UDSF at KBYU and a visit to Mount Timp. Temple Wednesday, Thursday and Friday all day Conference on Special Education Law plus a meeting with UDSF officers and committee heads on Thursday evening, and a gathering of old friends from West Jordan on Saturday night.  A full week!  Life is rich with opportunities!  May your week be awesome too.