Gigi's Summer Camp

On Thursday, August 10th, it was my pleasure to be the parent volunteer at Gigi's Summer Camp. Jena has been attending this activity each Thursday from 11:30-1:30 and had a good time hanging out with friends and doing some fun activities.  A local business got a grant to provide supplies and one of their employees paid time to organize an hour activity related to health and nutrition.  The parent volunteer organized another closing activity--my theme was physical fitness. Normally they have about 8-10 people with Down syndrome but there was only five today.

We started of with a pictionary game about summer activities and then they each made a handprint for a quilt which is going to be auctioned at an upcoming fund raiser.

Jena is working on planning her menu for the week and making a shopping list to match it.

We did a physical fitness scavenger hunt for the closing activity.  We divided into two groups and had a list of things that had to be done.  We took pictures and at the end we got to see the photos from both groups.

drinking water
Two LDS Elders (missionaries)
volunteers with us today as well)

toe touches

jump rope-one of the elders

our group minus Kaitlyn who didn't want to go outside

Kaitlyn

 
While the photos were getting ready, they watered their garden in the back of Gigi's Playhouse.

It was a fun time and then it was off to the races as we were heading up to Bear Lake for the Hall Extended Family Reunion.

And I am done.....

This is what the few days before August 8th looked like on my kitchen table.  Our final exam was going to be a case study that we worked on with a group of 9 other students.  It was both an oral and written exam and we had one hour to complete the whole thing.

We were given a 2 page description of a client and had to diagnosis the client, identify the medications that would be suggested, why, client education, how they worked in the brain, interventions, and treatment goals.  We had to take part in the group discussion and write down the answers on our own exam.  To prepare I had to study the major classes of medication, etc. so I made notecards to help me review.

I am glad to report that our group did excellent!!

And with that, I am finally really completely done with graduate school--all that remains is the grading and posting of grades for about 4 more assignments and it will become official.  That is suppose to happen by August 15th.

And before you ask, I am not sure what I am going to do with my "free time" because I haven't really had any yet!  The day after my final, Gary headed up to Bear Lake a day early for the Hall Reunion with his mother and sister, Jena and I spent the day getting ready for the reunion (as I had done very little on my assignments) and then we headed up on Thursday to join 50 other Halls for fours days and three nights at Bear Lake.  All of that fun will be in another post on another day---Gary and I are exhausted from all of the fun and all of the work that goes into all of that fun. So it is early to bed tonight.

Good night.

Back to Back Tender Mercies

Since I don't keep a journal, this is a spot where I record some things which are slightly more personal than family history stuff that I usually write about.  Please feel free to skip reading and move on---

As anyone who lives close to me (or whom I might have frequent phone calls with--my sister, Valerie), I have been very frustrated with the lack of communication between us and Ben's doctor at the State Hospital.  It has been ridiculous. Finally after trying to be "cooperative" and "part of the team" for several months, I set a deadline for mid-July and decided that things needed to change by then or I would "officially get mad"---whatever that means.  For several months I have been asking to have a meeting with the doctor in person without any luck.  That need intensified when Ben's medication was abruptly changed at the beginning of May and Ben took a "nosedive".  I spent 6 weeks trying to get an answer on why the medication was changed and why they changed it to a medication which had never worked for Ben in the past.  No answers.  Although the social worker was very supportive, he wouldn't discuss medications.  He had suggested that I call the patient advocate and a higher up management person in the hospital, but I was reluctant to do that because I didn't want to make the doctor mad at us.  That didn't seem like it would be useful. So Ben continued to decline and we continued to not get answers although I continued to reach out and ask everyone I could without going over the doctor's head.

Finally the day came in mid-July and after getting a very unhelpful report from Davis Behavioral Health (our liaison with the hospital), I did start calling "up the line."  Because no one answered and following advice of a friend who is higher up in DBH, I ended up talking to the medical director of the hospital.  She listened, gave me some general information from Ben's chart and promised to check into things.  That was late Friday night a few weeks ago.  Within a week, I had gotten more information about what was going on with Ben from nursing staff, unit administrators and finally some awesome emails from Ben's doctor himself.  And since that time we have gotten weekly emails keeping us updated on the whats and whys of things. It has been so amazing to finally understand a bit about what is happening.  Although Ben is still struggling, at least I feel like we understand a bit about the doctor's thinking and how he is making decisions for Ben.

It has been amazing how much just a little information from the doctor has relieved me so much.

And the next day, at our "Pie--o-neer Social" for our ward, our bishop approached me and apologized for not providing us support around Ben as our Bishop.  This has been hard for me personally because we have had two great Bishops who had been Ben's Scout leaders in the past and were very close to us as a family.  They were often checking on us and on Ben and seeing what they could do for us.  It wasn't that we needed them to do things for us, but we so appreciated them checking about Ben. Being placed in a new ward where people don't know Ben or anything about him was very hard. What made it more complicated was that our Bishop is the CEO of Davis Behavioral Health. It has been awkward for him to "have his professional life and his Church life collide" and this has been difficult for him.  We were open with him from the very beginning that Ben was a patient of DBH and so it was weird to us because it felt like he avoided us as much as possible and never asked about Ben. Even when Ben was sent to the State Hospital, he never asked about him.  And although things haven't changed much since that conversation, I really appreciated having a chance to talk about this barrier with him and I respected him because it was a courageous thing for him to do.

Back to back --two of my "discouragements" surrounding Ben were relieved somewhat.  I get information from the doctor and feel like there is more of an expectation that communication is two way between us AND  I feel like I could talk to our Bishop about Ben if a need arises in the future. Something I wasn't really sure of before he spoke to me.

I accused Gary of "praying behind my back" to get two things resolved in back to back days.  I have been so grateful to Heavenly Father in answering prayers in my behalf.

The Last Day of Class- August 1

It is hard to believe that school is really coming to an end after three years.  It has been an amazing experience and I am so blessed to have the opportunity to learn about people and social work.  My internships have been great, my professors were amazing, and the 19 students in the Kaysville cohort have added so much to my life and to my experience as a student.

Kaysville Cohort 2014-2017

Utah State University

Sitting:  Gordon, Bethanie, Annie, Whitney, Alice
Mid-row:  Maddie, Cami, Amber H., Sylinda
Back:  Hailey, Amber S., Nancy, Curt, me, Rachel (bent down), Stephanie, Tara, Lisa, Suzie, Lori

Each one of them added so much to the past three years and we can tell stories about everyone. In fact, Annie and I did.  We decided to give awards to each person and to some groups of people in honor of our time together.  We did the group awards during the break and the individual awards when class was over.  We didn't know that CJ was going to visit Kaysville that night.  I think he learned a bit more about us than he expected to when he arrived.  He laughed so I guess that is  a good sign.

 Each individual award came with a certificate and a "gift" (from the dollar store).

Someone took this picture of us giving the awards--

Annie and I
Notice the screen in the background.  That is how our teachers
in different locations could teach us remotely.  It could be challenging on
some days with the mics and powerpoints, but it worked and we
learned so much.

For three years we have taken turns bring food for our class as we started school at 5:15 which didn't leave much time for eating.  It was such a great way to connect with each other and we had some amazing food along the way.  Tonight we were going out to eat together after class so Annie, Maddie and I provided some treats to get us through our last class.

I didn't take picture that night but here are some that my classmates posted on Facebook.

Alice, Rachel, Annie

Amber S. (at the restaurant after class)

Suzie and a look at one side of our classroom

Hailey and Suzie, two of the four classmates who
were pregnant during our 3 years together.
Tara and Annie were the other two
and all four had or are having boys.
I was pregnant with Jessica my last year of graduate school
the first time, so I know it is an additional challenge.

Amber H. and Cami

Amber has also passed her clinical exam.  During class, I teased her about taking notes since this was our last class and we had already passed the test---then she pointed out we still had a final to pass...that brought us back to reality and back to writing notes...one last time.

Alice in front, Tara in back

Tara, Whitney, Lisa, and Stephanie

Bethanie and Gordon

And Nancy and Gordon

 (I will add the remainder of the class when we finish our final on this Tuesday.)

And this post would be complete without a picture of our two main professors--they taught our online Law class.

From graduation:  Sean Camp, me, Susan Egbert

About three weeks ago, I wrote down all of the remaining assignments for my two classes on post-it-notes and put it in front of my computer screen.  It felt so good to cross things off when I got something done. Saturday morning I finished my final in Social Work and the Law.  Now it is just Pharmacology final that I have left. (Did I mention that I only have one more final until I am done???)

This is what studying for that final looks like:

(Notice the M&Ms!  Critical.)

Taking the day off today in reviewing my medications, effects, goal planning, etc., but will be back at the table tomorrow night.

The finish line is truly in sight!!!!

Happy Birthday--to half the Halls!!

Our schedules have been complicated this year and we haven't really had many chances to get together (even without Ben and Tosha and family), so on Sunday, July 30th, which is actually Scott's birthday we got together and celebrated......

The focus is meatloaf and potatoes

James....

Zander and James hanging out....

Zander and Aunt Jena

 And the birthday cake.....Tosha also had a birthday during the first half of the year, but since they are coming in October, she will join Austen, Niki, Ben, Jena, Elessia, Grandpa Hall (Gary) and Zander on the second half birthday cake.

We had three options for desserts.  Scarlett chose cake and ice cream.

Jena made a sign for Scott and Scarlett and sang a song for Scott's birthday.  We couldn't catch all of the words but I thought I heard the word "bathroom".  When I asked her later about it, she replied, "It rhymes"...which I guess is a good reason to put it in a birthday song to your brother.

And for some reasons, we got no pictures of Liam during this whole evening. So here is a picture I took the day before when Liam and Zander came to play for a few hours (without their big people).

 And because I want Niki and Cooper to know that we thought about them (and their big people) every time we got together, here are a couple of recent pictures Tosha shared on Facebook of their cute faces.

The Russell family

Tosha and Niki

Austen and Cooper...

And while I know they miss us, too, this is what they get to enjoy every day.  The joys of island living!

Happy birthday, half the Halls!

Can't wait to celebrate with everyone in October.

Meanwhile on the home front----

Gary and I had the week Jena was at Camp K to ourselves....plus we have been adjusting to sitting on the bench at Church without any kids as well.  I have to say that after all of these years, that is a change. We are actually an "empty-nesters" on our Church pew now.

So while Jena is off growing up, we are growing up (or is that- older) as well.

The month of July has been crazy for me as I have been trying to do homework for my two classes AND study for my big national clinical social work exam.  I scheduled it for July 25 when Jena was at Camp K so I could get in one more big day of studying and then have a bit of recovery time to catch up with all of my homework when it was done.  Good thing Gary can take care of himself because he really didn't see much of me that week despite Jena being gone.

And after all of that studying and three years of school, I took the 4 hour exam and PASSED!!!!

Here is the proof.  I am not going to lie---it was a bit tricky as you were taking the test to know how you were doing because it wasn't just right or wrong answers, but clinical judgement decisions which you had to make after reading situations.  It is such a relief to have it done.  It is a big step to getting my professional license to be a social worker.

After such intense studying, it was hard to be back into homework mode after I passed the test, but I am happy to say that now all of my homework is done except for one more final which is a part oral part written exam on Tuesday evening.

Tuesday after I passed my test, Gary and I went out to eat to celebrate at a local cafe in Syracuse- Hugs Hes (or something odd like that.)  I had the salmon which tasted great but Gary's plate of pasta was a work of art.....

It is only right that I celebrated with Gary.  Without him, I would never have made it through this program and kept the rest of life in any kind of order.  Thank you, Gary, for everything.

So Tuesday night after dinner, I couldn't get in the mood to study or do anything so I was watching HGTV and guess what--a family from Utah was moving to Okinawa.  It was fun to see some familiar sites as they visited houses around the area.  It made me miss Tosha and family more but it also made them seem close as well. (I seriously did not understand how much my mom must have missed us when we were away.)

And the celebration kept on going when on Wednesday night, we headed to Bluff Ridge Park and enjoyed an hour long fireworks display by our friends, Theron and Stephanie Watson.  They own some fire work stands and end the season with this huge display.  This was the only picture I took. This year, Jena missed it but Gary's mom and sister, Charon, watch it with us.

With all of that going on, it seemed like the week without Jena flew by.  It was a good week for all of us.

Jena's summer

This has been a crazy summer for me with two difficult classes and my internship continuing through the summer as well.  I was worried that Jena wouldn't have enough to do to keep herself busy and happy.  She had her mission last summer but this year, there really wasn't anything to fill that spot.

But never fear---this summer is going great for Jena.  She and Gary bought Lagoon season passes and have used them especially on evenings when I had lots of studying to do.  That has been great and fun, but she has bigger news than that this month (July) -----

First, THE BIG NEWS-  Since Jena was released from her mission and people asked her what she was doing to do next, she would answer, "Go to college."  That has always been her plan since she was a little girl.  We figured that we would audit classes on a campus and take her with us or something like that.  Then "Think College" programs started popping up around the country for individuals with delays and Utah State started one called "Aggies Elevated" and then I thought maybe something like that will work out.  I have learned that Jena knows her life plan better than me, because in July, she found out that she was going to be part of a pilot program called Wonderwood College Bridge program and she is going to take two classes at BYU--how exciting is that!  She is thrilled.  She will be a part of a five person group in this pilot which is part of Special Education graduate project.  She will take two classes on Tuesday and Thursday mornings as an audit student. She will be accompanied by a BYU student who is called the shadow. In between classes they will attend the devotionals and forums, hang out on campus, attend art shows, or whatever. Then in the afternoon they will go off classes and have reading, math, speech and computer classes from 1-4:30 with Wonderwood.  It is expensive but even if it is just for a semester or a year, she will have the experience that she wanted and I think knew all along was coming her way.

We have known that the classes at BYU was in the works for a few months, although we didn't tell Jena until July when it was confirmed.  The other exciting news for her is that an opportunity has come up which will allow her to stay down in an apartment with two other young women with Down syndrome and 3 BYU students from Tuesday through Thursday night.  One of the girls is her good friend, Emily and they will likely be sharing a room.  I don't know if we are ready for us, but it looks like it is happening (final paperwork not yet signed but looks good).  Jena can't wait to buy things for her apartment in Provo.

So to get her ready, we stopped by BYU after visiting Ben in the middle of July and walked around.  I am sure she didn't care about our memories as we walked around a very changed campus and talked but it was fun for Gary and I.

She did like our stop at the Science Museum where I had to remind them I took chemistry there as a freshman and had to walk on crutches from my dorm to this building for a test shortly after I sprained my ankle during a "dating" activity----A lot has changed inside but they still have the pendulum which shows the rotation of the earth.

And they still have dinosaur bones.......

But there are more interactive displays than when we attended school.  There were several families there with young kids, checking out the different things.

As we walked around campus, I was telling Jena what the different buildings were.  As we passed the Harris Fine Arts building, I told her that is where they had art and theatre classes.  Immediately she said, "I am taking classes there."  I hope so, my sweet one,  that would be amazing.

We parked in the law library where I parked most of my masters program in the early 80's as it was in between my classes in the Education building on the west part of upper campus and the Clinical building at the very far east of campus.

This is the view of the Clinical building nestled in the trees on the left corner of the picture.  It is still the far east part of campus although so many more buildings have been built within the campus itself and roads are changed and even my dorm is no longer there.  That's progress for you.

Then a few days later, we had the opportunity to attend Hadley Burton's bridal shower,  She is one of Jena's good friends from our neighborhood.  How lucky Jena was to have her as a friend during high school.

On Tuesday, July 18th, Scarlett turned three and we stopped by after school to celebrate with her. Jena had picked out a bat and ball for her gift.  I tried to talk her out of it because I really didn't think Scarlett would like it....wrong, she LOVED it and right away wanted to swing her bat and hit the ball. Not really an indoor activity, but it was fun to watch her try to figure it all out.

a little fuzzy but isn't she cute!!

And Jena's fun kept on coming in July as she attended Horse Camp at Camp K in Emigration Canyon which is to the east of Salt Lake City.  She had a great time.  They got to ride horses every day and they also learned all about horses and got to help take care of them.  She was there for five days and four nights.

Jena and her counselor, Guzy
They always have fun names for the counselors.

We didn't know that one of Jena's friends, Rachel,
was there at horse camp, too.  Rachel will also be part
of the College Bridge program.

 Camp K is a beautiful spot and here we are picking her up on the last day.

Jena rarely allows the counselors to do anything with her hair other than put it in a pony tail.  I guess this week, she let them braid her hair every day.

Another change for Jena is that she has begun to attend the Young Singles Ward in our stake. She is growing up.

She still have a few more weeks until her adventures in college, Wonderwood and school get started again, but she will be busy---shopping, learning new things, organizing her room, and visiting BYU campus to get to know it better.  Plus we have a family reunion in Bear Lake this weekend.  I think she is having a great summer.