For the record--The Children's Center in 1981

This is a definite throwback picture- This was taken at a staff training at The Children's Center around 1981 or so.

I am in the back row second from the end on the right side.  The current director of TCC, Doug Goldsmith,  was a graduate student at this time and he is down two from me. Two further down from Doug is Jody (Webb) who was my roommate as a freshman and sophomore at BYU.  She was living in Provo and carpooled with me up to work each day.  She eventually graduated with a masters in marriage and family counseling and now lives in Hurricane, Utah.

The woman with the white hair was the famous Agi Plenk who started The Children's Center in the mid-60's to help the kids "being expelled from preschools."  It has grown to be a nationally recognized center for children from birth to age 6 and their families who are facing trauma or mental health issues.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving was a pretty day with blue skies.  Our front maple tree was filled with about 8 Robins which is very unusual for this time of the year.  However by the time I got my phone, most of them had flown away.

Jessica, Elessia and Liam headed up around lunch time and we began a busy time of chopping and assembling some freezer meals for upcoming Baby Zander's arrival.  I made 5 for us as well so that we are covered during these last two weeks of the school semester.  Crock pot meals are great for cold winter days when you have homework to do. 

Jena wanted to make cookies with Scarlett and Liam so in the evening, we rolled out cookie dough and frosted cookies.  As you can see, they were hard workers with a little help from their moms.

The cookies were great!

It was fun having Jessica. Elessia and Liam spend the night.  It made it even more like a holiday.  And it came in handy, as Gary and I woke early to go down to Provo to visit Ben and then pick up our niece Anna at BYU and bring her back for a couple of days.  Jessica was here to put in the turkey and we were able to play a few rounds of dominos as well (while Liam was sleeping).

I had found this picture of our first Thanksgiving with Scott.  This was exactly 30 years ago and Scarlett is the exact same age as Scott was in this picture (well plus a few days older.)

This picture was taken on the front porch of our home in West Jordan.  Notice on the front row Scott and Jessica are the ones with bare feet.  The back row is Jake Bird, Christie McKinney.  Front row Carmen McKinney, Jessica, Chera Bird and Scott.  Arms are my sister-in-laws--Chera Bird and Vonette Kerr.

I had to remind our children that we didn't take 100 pictures of the same shot to make sure everyone is looking in the right direction and don't have their cookies in their mouths.

No pictures from Thanksgiving day but it was nice to make things together with Anna, Jessica, Elessia and Jena.  My dad and Karla came for dinner as well as Scott, Chantel and Scarlett.  We missed Ben and Tosha, Austen and Niki.  We did all get to facetime with Tosha and Niki.  We passed the phone around the room and everyone got to say hello and enjoy seeing her and Niki.

Friday Jena, Anna and I headed off to the bowling alley for some practice.  Anna is taking bowling at BYU so we thought we should keep her in practice.  Gary missed out because he was taking Allan out to lunch at KFC because he had gotten 4 strikes in a row during bowling on Wednesday night.  That was Allan's tradition with his wife so Gary thought he would honor that.

NOw he needs to take me to KFC (not soon, we still have too many leftovers!).  I had the highest game I have ever bowled in my entire life during our third game.

our bowling selfie

Hard to see but it was a 193!!!!! I could have broken 200.  However after I got a strike in the 10th frame, I was walking up to bowl my first extra ball and thought to myself, if I do well in these two balls I could get 200...and I promptly hit my leg with the ball and got a gutter ball. Oh, well--shows that thinking does not help my bowling!!

Anna Giberson and Jena

Of course I had to print it off to prove to Gary--so it is hanging on the fridge where all such accomplishments end up.

We got home in time for my sister, Valerie and her husband Lance to arrive with my dad and the serious game playing began.  We sat downstairs in the game room and went from one game to another only breaking for snacks, water and food.  It was so fun.  However as they were getting ready to leave, Valerie and I sat down in the family room and began to quickly try to catch up.  In all of our game playing, we didn't get much conversation in.  I missed that and we will have to get together to catch up another time.  Thank heavens for phones.

After spending three days on fun, food, and games, Saturday began real life again as I spent the entire day working on homework and doing laundry.

Those piles of papers are the research I have done for my paper.
Let me say that it is much easier to do research online than
making a trip to the university library.
Technology is so useful.

Yoga pants and my "This is My Lazy Day shirt"--
perfect for a day when I must stay home and do homework.

I love school but the last two weeks of the semester can be brutal, especially if you are a bit behind on major projects.  Fortunately, I made great progress on everything yesterday and feel much better about what I have left to do.

Doesn't that look interesting!!!?????

Two weeks and two more semesters left until I am done with school!

A little bit of this and a little bit of that....

I know this picture is very hard to see but I was amazed to open the calendar on my tablet to discover that the light orange items had been added.  These are my amazon orders and when they are going to be delievered.  Amazing....too bad I can't figure out how to sync my tablet and phone so I can use both for calendaring.  Somehow Amazon can do it, but we can't  (And we have tried!)

The paint job is done on the main box of the library.  I have put the first coat on the doors but they need at least one more coat before they are hung.

I am now really excited as it is getting close to being done.  Gary is still concerned how we are going to put it up on its stand and screw it in but I am hoping to have a good weather day and several neighbors to help with that project.

Despite its weight, Gary was able to move it out of our kitchen in time for Thanksgiving holidays. (Thanks to those little furniture movers and a piece of carpet and Gary's moving know-how.)

Maybe we will have our ribbon cutting during the week before Christmas.  Watch facebook for the announcement!

Sis. Elaine Dalton

I don't know if you have ever pondered the "Five People--Living or Dead-that you would like to have lunch with" puzzle, but I have thought about it from time to time and filled the chairs with different people who I admire.  Those people change from time to time as life ebbs and flows around me.  A standard one for a long time has been the wife of Mormon (I have great respect for her as she was a wife in a very difficult time and raised a son like Moroni.).  My mom, Sheri Dew, Jane McCurry Owen(my great grandmother), Abigail Adams (a women like the wife of Mormon I think) and the list can go on.  One person on that list has been Elaine Dalton.  She served as the General Young Women's President in the Church and I loved her talks.  She was a good storyteller which I always like and could apply simple gospels lessons to life.

How lucky we were that we were able to attend the Young Church Service Missionary Fireside at the Little Theatre in the Conference Center in Salt Lake on Nov. 13th and hear her talk. She did a great job and it was an enjoyable and sweet moment to see all of those missionaries and their families together in one place.  

For the first time ever, the fireside was broadcasted to other locations throughout the US where YCSM are serving--Atlanta, Mesa, Idaho, San Diego, etc.  I think they said that there was over 550 missionaries serving in this program currently.  The goal is to make it possible for EVERY young man with a desire to serve to bring a mission to their "very door step" if that is what is required for them to serve.  Exciting times......

Jena with her cookie outside of the Little Theatre

So I had a little moment...actually two little moments of connection with Sis. Dalton.  These are those times which words can not really describe but you know and feel a deep sense of Heavenly Father's awareness of you. The first was just a glance across the audience, Sis. Dalton and I made eye contact--a random thing, but she smiled and I thought, "Well, it's not lunch but more than I expected."  Then they announced after the meeting Sis. Dalton wanted to shake hands with the missionaries.  However as we were heading quickly out to go visit Ben, I just hoped that we would get out the door before the crowd lined up to shake her hand.  After the prayer, we headed up the stairs and got in one of the the cookie lines (we didn't want to leave without one of their yummy cookies).  Around the corner came Sis. Dalton with some of the other leadership who was trying to have her stop at a certain point to shake hands.  She said, "People are in line, I will just go shake their hands while they wait.  She shook the hand of the missionary in front of us and then came and shook Jena's hand and thanked her for serving.  She then turned and grabbed my hand and said, "Good job, mom.  You are doing a good job."  A simple sentence and common to say in such a situation but the feeling was so intense that my eyes filled with tears.  Mothering is hard and while I am passionate about mothers and mothering, I know that I could have done so much better--especially knowing more now than I did then. But in that moment, I felt like my Heavenly Father was there, reassuring me it is okay, I needed that!

Teaching Sunbeams......

We have four Sunbeams in our class on most Sundays.  This is what it looks like for today---

The red bag in the middle is our usual stuff--crayons, handouts, bean bag, etc.  The white hamper on the right contains a CD player and a homemade xylophone (Jena made it at Wonderwood and we borrowed it for our lesson today.) and on the left is my rice box.  I made the rice box for work but used it first for an assignment for school.  I decided to make an activity today so that our Primary class can enjoy the rice before I take it to work.  That is about 40 lbs of rice in there. 

Our lesson today is on "Music Makes Us Happy" so we are going to have some fun times with music today.  Jena buried (Easter) eggs in the rice--some with pictures of instruments on them for us to pretend to play and others are rice shakers which we will use to make our own music.  Don't you wish you were a Sunbeam!

It is fun to work with the Sunbeams on Sunday before I work with basically the same age at my internship.  It reminds me what typical children should be doing and keeps some perspective as I work with my sweet clients and their parents.

MUSIC CAN MAKE ME HAPPY!!!!

"Thanks for America"

I took a moment to clean up my Halloween decorations and put out my Thanksgiving ones.

I have had these items since our first couple of years in Texas.

Of course the keyword is "Thanks" and it seemed very appropriate for this past week when we consider the great opportunity we had as citizens to vote for President of our great country and also that we celebrated Veteran's Day as well.  We are so lucky to be part of this great Republic and to have the privilege of voting for those who will represent us hopefully in the way we wish to be represented.

And while there is great concern over our nation due to Donald Trump being elected (as there would have been if Hillary Clinton had been elected), I have been calm because I believe in the checks and balances of our government and our right and responsibility as citizens to make our thoughts and needs known in behalf of ourselves and also those most vulnerable around us--"the poor and needy, the widows and the fatherless,"  We must be a part of the solutions not the problems.  So grandchildren and great-grandchildren of mine, vote, be involved in your community where you are able, and pray for the leaders of our nation and all nations that liberty and justice might spread to all.

And we decided (and Gary did) posted the flags in our neighborhood both on Veteran's Day and on Election Day as a reminder to our little part of the world that we are Americans.

The light from the rising sun highlighted the blue
sky and our beautiful flag on Tuesday morning-Election Day.

How appropriate that these two great days of our country--Election Day and Veteran's Day fall in November--the month where we are reminded to be thankful and grateful for our many blessings. Hopefully like me, being an American is one of those great blessings in your life.  Truly, God bless America.

Fall is hanging on......

and I love it so much.  Despite the fact that I spent all last week except for Wednesday at my internship (2 days regular stuff and three days of all day training for "The Incredible Year"  a treatment model for aggression in young kids--and yes, that counts Saturday!), I have loved the moments I have been outside in the great fall weather.  I ate my lunch outside at our picnic table at The Children's Center and it was perfect--blue skies, slight breeze and temps. around 66 degrees.  It was so nice after being in a conference room for most of the last three days.

There is a change coming in the weather and they say we might get snow so I went around the garden and took some pictures.  When I was winterizing the garden a couple of weeks ago, I couldn't bear to trim back the bushes which had some many blooms still on them.  Look how many flowers we can still enjoy (at least until Wednesday night!)

 Of course, it is fall for sure.  The leaves are falling from the trees and filling our yard.

Dawn over the mountains and through the trees to the east. 

   

 We have to keep a broom outside just to sweep the trampoline before jumping on it.

I love the fall and wish that we could go from fall to 2 weeks of winter and into spring right away.....but I guess why we like spring so much is that winter was there first to make us truly appreciate the spring (I know there is a wise lesson in that, but I will skip the commentary.)  Seasons are all great in their own way.

Progress on our little Library...

The Library is now in Syracuse...actually in our kitchen as we work on painting it.  I am so excited that we are getting close to having it ready for our Grand Opening.  I am hoping to get it ready for the Tuesday before Thanksgiving as I don't have school that night, but the glass for the doors hasn't arrive yet.

I am excited to have this little library and I hope it becomes a fun spot in our neighborhood.

I have completed the red and the sealant over the interior (as I wanted to keep the wood look there). Tomorrow we will begin work on the white trim.  Gary then will do the "roofing"--thanks to John Nelson for donating some shingles for us.

In addition to a signed copy of my sister's book "Ideal High", I have had another donation for my library.  A friend of Vonette's, Kitty, attended Nikki's farewell a couple of Sundays ago and happened to have a couple of Christmas Children's books in her car that she was going to donate so she gave them to me.

Exciting because I will be having a month of Christmas books to read in the library!!!  Did I mention that I LOVE books?!!!!

Happy Halloween

We had the traditional Chili and Scones at our house this year.  And for some reason I didn't really take any pictures after things got started.

We did a tiny bit of trick-n-treating with Liam

I already posted the final pose of Jena and Liam on the rock (in one of the prior posts on Down syndrome), but here Elessia is helping Liam get settled on the rock.  Notice Jena's new Lephrancan shirt--I found one on the internet and ordered it as a surprise for her.  She is already thinking she will wear it to school on St. Patrick's day.

You can see the orange pumpkin hiding the base of the Little Library.  So you can get an idea of the location east of our driveway by our big rock.

Scarlett and Liam trick-n-treating together at one house
(The Frances)

Jessica took and posted these comparison pictures of last year and this year.
They claim they didn't encourage such similarity in the poses!
I guess this is going to be the tradition of sitting on the couch for a picture.
We will have at least two more little boys on the couch.  We need to crop Niki
into these pictures.  Jessica, can you do that if we get one of him sitting in his costume.

And since I didn't take pictures on Halloween of the families, I took them off their facebook pages.

Jessica actually wore a cute sweatshirt with a skeleton and a skeleton baby as well on Halloween, but I didn't even get a picture of that.

Jessica, Liam and Elessia at Gardner Village Witchfest

Scott, Chantel and Fairy Princess Scarlett

And from across the ocean:

Niki, Austen and Tosha

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYBODY!  See you next year!

One Final Thought about Down Syndrome Awareness Month

and sharing on Facebook.

It was interesting to post so much about one topic over the course of a month.  I am so grateful for the sweet comments that people shared and their memories from part of our journey that we have traveled together. I wish there was a simple way to record those comments for the future.  I loved those little memories and observations others made,

Sometimes it was embarrassing for me to read the comments.  We might be unusual but it is not extraordinary for followers of Christ to do what He has asked of them.  Parenting Jena was one of those things.

We are just ourselves, traveling life's journey like everyone else.  We appreciate the support and the love that we feel from all of you and know we are all so blessed to know each of you.

And all we hope is that by sharing our experience, you can provide support and help to others in your lives, families, and communities who might be traveling a different road than "typical"....we are all heading for the same end.

National Down Syndrome Awareness (Oct. 3-Oct.6th)

Oct. 3:

This is a post by Nikki Nikki Zaccardi Lawrence who is the awesome mother to Wil. She worded this much better than I could. Jena has strengths and weaknesses of her own related to her trisomy 21 or Down syndrome. Happy day three of Down Syndrome Awareness Month.

(her post):  I have people say all the time that Wil looks like he has a mild version of Down Syndrome, or that he doesn't "have it that bad" 😂 this doesn't offend me like it could, I don't let things offend me very often. But the truth is, Wil has trisomy 21 just like anyone else who has trisomy 21 or Down Syndrome. He has a third copy of the 21st chromosome just like any other person with Down Syndrome. But just like everyone, people have their own talents and abilities at different levels. He is doing pretty well at talking where others struggle with talking. He didn't walk until he was 2 1/2 whereas others walk much sooner. It is my hopes and dream that as wil grows up, people don't compare his differences, but accept them, and love him as he is. After all, our differences are what make us unique and special. It would be a boring world if we were all the same. 💙💛 happy Down Syndrome awareness month! #wilcanfly#morealikethandifferent

Oct. 4:

I posted this comment along with an article about "We will never be empty-nesters)

A year ago we were offered a token invitation to attend the Empty nesters family home evening on our neighborhood "because Jena (our daughter with DS) has finished high school and we were...tactfully said...old enough." We are way past old enough but our life journey has been traveled slightly different than many of our same aged peers . We had empty nest years before the arrival of our first child and understood we might be giving up our future empty nester years when we added Jena as our little caboose. And I agree with this mom, we will try to follow Jena's lead but we aren't sure there is another place we would want her to be. We are boring without siblings in the house but hopefully her emerging adulthood can continue to grow and flourish from the safety of home. Gary and I will take our empty nester moments on dates and trips. It is a small price to pay for having Jena in our family.

Oct. 5:

Jena loves history. It started with her outstanding fourth grade teacher Joanne Spencer who taught her about the Native Americans and the pioneers and the history of Utah. We would get these random facts out of no where it seemed in the car or at dinner which would start a history discussion. Some of her favorite books are simple biographies about famous Native Americans or Presidents.

Each year as she was included in typical history classes throughout her junior high and high school years, teachers were first hesitant and then excited as they saw that she was engaged and learning. She couldn't pass the typical tests but with a little effort and creativity, she could be a part of the class. Thanks to all of the amazing history teachers she had who helped her understand the world we live in.

Here is her in 2006 during a family reunion trip to Washington, DC. This is at one of the battlefields in Virginia.

10 years old

#nothingdownaboutit #udsf

Oct. 6:

Jena on her birthday sharing donuts at school

Down syndrome is the most common chromosomal defect occurring in about 1 out of every 700 or so births. The number is dropping worldwide as more and more parents choose abortion when there is a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome. This post is not to start a discussion about the issues of abortion. I just hope that parents are making fully informed decisions which aren't based on fear and inappropriate information.

Jena is a fully functioning person with equal value in life to any other person. I honor her birth parents who allowed her life even when they felt unable to parent her as she needed to be parented. They could have made a different choice. How lucky we are to know her! #nothingdownaboutit#nationaldownsyndromeawarenessmonth