Family Time

Did anybody else wake up to snow this morning?! 💜💜💜 I know most of you probably weren't thrilled about it, but I was!!! I absolutely LOVE the winter, and getting the first snow in September was just fantastic! :)

All right, now it's time to play catch up on the rest of this last week's happenings!

On Thursday Ryan had all of his therapy sessions again. This time he started out with occupational therapy, where his therapist had him take several typing tests. When Ryan first got home from the hospital he could only do the "hunt-and-peck" typing, and that was difficult because of his vision issues. Slowly he is getting his typing skills back, and during his typing tests he averaged 16 words per minute each time. He is certainly not back to where he used to be, but we were impressed with improvement! His therapist has asked him to practice typing at home for at least ten minutes each day.

Next up was physical therapy. It started out as the same routine as usual, and Ryan was pretty exhausted by the warm-up exercises. Then his therapist pulled out the "balance beam," and Ryan blew us away with his improved balance! He completed four walks across the beam (heel-to-toe), and only stumbled completely off the beam one time! Compared to just two days previously, it was a drastic change for the better!!! Then Ryan's therapist introduced two new exercises: squats on a balance ball/board, and bouncing a weighted ball off of a small angled trampoline and catching it. Ryan was very encouraged to feel his balance getting a little better!

Last up was speech therapy, which began with Ryan naming ten foods that are white. He only struggled a little, and was able to come up with 10 foods without any big hints! Next he had to complete an arrow cancellation exercise, which began with him crossing out all of the "up" arrows on the following sheet. Then, when his therapist said "Switch," he had to immediately change to crossing out all of the "down" arrows, then the "right" arrows, then the "left" arrows, and then back to the "up" arrows again. Not only did he have to remember which order the arrows were supposed to be crossed out in, but he had to be able to switch in the middle of a line, and keep track of which line he was on. It was difficult for his eyes, so after completing several lines he had to place another piece of paper over the lines he had already done so he didn't get lost on the page. Overall he did really well and only missed one arrow!

After that he did another alternating tasks activity, switching between an addition worksheet and a subtraction worksheet. He also completed a checking account balance worksheet, properly filling out debits and credits and doing the math in his head (whole dollar amounts, no change/decimals involved). Ryan finished off the session by unscrambling some sentences, and giving detailed descriptions of everyday activities.

On Friday Ryan and I were able to attend the temple together, and it was peaceful and strengthening and wonderful. If you would like to learn more about temples, please explore this website. We are so grateful that we were able to go together, on the 3-month-iversary of Ryan's brain injury. 💜 God is so good to us!

On Saturday we attended the launch party for a book by one of our favorite authors, Brandon Mull. It was such a fun show, and we all enjoyed the time together! There were characters from his books there, and Becca especially loved seeing the unicorns (in their human forms). 😃 Cole won an advanced reader copy of a book (by a different author) that won't be published until March of next year! And we couldn't wait to get started reading DragonWatch book 3 on our way home from the launch party!

Today, in church, we sang the hymn, "We Thank Thee, Oh God, For a Prophet". It reminded me how grateful I am to know that God still has prophets to guide us today! Remember Moses, Abraham, and Enoch? God loves His children who are alive today as much as He loves His children that were alive during past times. And we have the fabulous opportunity to hear God's prophet speak this coming weekend!!! I look forward to General Conference every six months, and I can't wait to learn what God wants me to know this fall! Everyone is invited to watch or listen to the prophet, and you can find the details at www.churchofjesuschrist.org.

When dark clouds of trouble hang o’er us
And threaten our peace to destroy,
There is hope smiling brightly before us,
And we know that deliv’rance is nigh.

Keep pushing forward. Keep trusting in God. He will not leave you comfortless!