2016 UDSF Statewide Buddy Walk

We were up at 5:15 a.m. to get ready and head out to West Jordan Veteran's Memorial Park by 6:30 to begin setting up for the event and then we were just off running ---Gary and Jena along with a couple of other volunteers helped do rocket launching all morning long.  I helped with the t-shirts and volunteers, the walk and the lunch.  At around 8:35 a.m. my phone pinged indicating I had got my required steps for the day.  I didn't check what the final total was by 2:30 when we left the park or later after unpacking our car and trailer and getting things put away.

We didn't even get a chance to do the walk because of being all over the place helping other things get done.  It was a gorgeous day for an outdoor event with bright blue skies and temps in the 75-83 degree range. We had about 1000 people.

Here are few pictures:

Last year Jena had helped Jessica, Elessia, Jolynn and I with the t-shirts.  However as soon as I started talking about the Buddy Walk, she was firm that she was helping with the rockets and she did a great job.  She is a hard worker.  It was a great event.

Glad to have that done.  I really didn't do much except serve on the committee and handle some assignments but I still was exhausted by the time everything was done. Thanks to Steve, Liz, and all of our volunteers who helped.

Now to our Conference on October 8, another big event and this time I am in charge of it!  After that I will truly scale back my involvement as I will be into the serious work of my internship by then and school and that have to be my focus for the next 9 months.

Happy Labor Day and a lot more laboring....

Labor Day we are glad we stayed home and worked in the yard instead of trying to compete with the masses in the National and State Parks.  Actually Gary didn't stay home in the morning--he picked up Allan for lunch and a bowling outing.  However the Rush was packed with families and kids so Allan decided it was too loud for him.  They headed back to the Memory Care unit where he lives and watch an old James Bond movie.

That evening, we headed to Salt Lake to watch "Beauty and the Beast".  Now I have to admitted that I wasn't super excited to see it.  In addition to having Tosha and Jena watch the Disney movie too many times to count, we have seen it as a stage production several times over the past 20 years.  Also, Jena performed in this production in one of her theatre classes and also in a "Friend to Friend" production just a few years ago.  That means I heard the songs A LOT!  I like the play and the music but it seems like it has been a bit overdone.

We had great seats just three rows up from the stage (Hale theatre is a theatre in the round) and we settled in.  Just before the show, I glanced at Jena and she had the biggest smile on her face as she was anticipating the show to begin.  It made me smile and glad to be there with her enjoying this moment....and then the show began and the music, the costumes and sets, actors and actresses, and the story engaged me once again in the story "as ageless as time, Beauty and the Beast".  It was great and fun.  During the scene of "Be Our Guest" they shot off large confetti guns and we got covered with gold and yellow confetti.

Jena with yellow string confetti on her hair and
a gold piece stuck on her shirt

I know this picture is dark but here you see the ground after we brushed our clothes and hair of most of the confetti.  You can see Jena's bright pink shoes in the middle.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday we "labored" a lot.  I had training almost all week except for Thursday where I was able to move somewhat into my office and read reports of my clients I am picking up.  Jena was busy with her mission and school. plus her evening activities.  Gary was laboring mostly on family history work and has done some great stuff getting families put together throughout his family line.  He is finding out that he has some "interesting" stories in his family. He also spent extra time with Allan, doing some major shopping with him on Friday and taking him bowling on Wednesday night.

In-between all of that I did make a trip down to see Ben.  He is still very quiet and disorganized.  I am trying to be patient and allow the doctor and staff to get to know him but I am struggling with that. They had decided only Gary and I could visit Ben--not Jena--after three different email exchanges they decided that the three of us could visit Ben together again.  That is what we were planning to do this morning but as they have decided that Ben is a flight risk, he has to have an observer in the hall and they were too short staffed to man that--so no visit! Remind me that patience is truly a virtue.

The other BIG period of labor this week took place yesterday as UDSF had their annual Statewide Buddy Walk..................it deserves its own blog post!

Hope your Labor Day weekend was awesome and that you enjoyed all of the rest of your labors as well.

And it's a......

BOY!!!

for Scott and Chantel

(and of course Scarlett!)

They had a gender reveal party on Friday night.  It turned out that Scott had to work so Chantel, Scarlett and her mom went to the ultrasound together.  Chantel's mom, Robyn, said that when the tech said it was a boy, Scarlett pumped her fists and said, "Yes" like it was just what she wanted.

We are all excited.  Fun for our son to be having a son to go with our daughters' cute sons.  That makes one granddaughter and two grandsons and TWO more grandsons on the way.  Pretty fun!!!

Some other pictures from the night: 

The table with the special cupcakes and yummy chips and dip
Notice Scott's amazing aquarium in the background

The cupcake with the special filling

Scarlett was dipping a chip into the blue filling but
when I wanted a picture she hid behind her balloon.

Jena is trying out the massage chair that Chantel won
from a party when she worked at Ogden Regional Hospital

It was fun to see many of their friends who have toddlers as well and hear them talk about have another one as well.

First week of school and internship for me

but no pictures.  Somehow I managed to skip out without Gary or Jena deciding that I needed to take a picture for the blog.

School is great.  It is nice to finally be in the "home stretch" with only three more semesters to go. August 2017 is just around the corner.  This semester we only will be at school until 9:00 pm on Tuesdays nights which is a big improvement over 10:30 pm.

This week, I also started my internship with trainings on Thursday and Friday all day.  It has been amazing and I feel so lucky to be at The Children's Center and to be able to learn and work in that environment.  There are two psychologist PhD interns who are full-time.  They are Patty from Miami, FL (and she is Cuban which is fun) and Jen from Pittsburgh.  Then there is a student from the U in her third year of school (Counseling Psychology) who will be there 10 hours a week.  Her name is Pamela and she is from Las Vegas. She is Latino and both she and Patty speak fluent Spanish which is such a great thing in our work.  They are in their mid-20s and new to all things LDS so we are coaching them through the relevant cultural issues for that population. Everyone else we have been meeting during our training have been so friendly and  give us advice and support.  I think everyone has told us--"Don't get behind on your paperwork" and "Don't worry.  We know you will make mistakes.  It is okay."  Another two weeks of training, observations and real meetings and then we will start doing assessments and be given clients.  They have a stack of clients for us to evaluate because they are so busy.

Here is the office that will be mine for the next 9 months.  The building was built in 1885 or something like that and restored in 2009.  They tried to maintain some of the features from the original style.  I have two windows which are about 12 feet tall with ceiling heights well over that. The office faces north which prevents some of the direct heat from the sun....and you can't tell but there are yellow sunflowers growing down there.

View out the window

These toys were left but the yellow one has to go.
It doesn't seem warm and calming to me!

I will start moving some toys and books in next week.  I knew I have saved all of these toys and books for a reason.

16 hours done---584 to go!!!