New experiences coming right up

(This is a scheduled post…so I’m writing it Friday night, but you won’t see it til Saturday.  That’s because I want to be sure you have time to see this post with the exciting news!)

Tomorrow/today (Saturday) I will be spending the day at our local/regional DS conference.  The DSAGSL puts this on each year.  I’ve never gone, for a variety of reasons.  But this year, thanks to my buddy Adrienne, I ended up on the planning committee along with Julie. Both of us first-timers, and kind of representing the “moms of younger kids” set.  I also was asked to be part of a workshop with a parent panel on the process of doing the first IEP, transitioning from Early Intervention to the school system.  So tomorrow will be a busy day, one that I am expecting to be exhausting in a few ways, but I hope that it will go well for those who come.  I really hope more are in attendance than what it sounds like there will be.  Julie is picking me up at 7 am. Neither of us like to be up and presentable at that hour.  I believe some caffeine will be involved.

Then on Tuesday morning, Braska and I—more Braska than me—will be “the entertainment” (or the lab rat) for a demonstration by Lori Overland, all the way from Connecticut, at a seminar for therapists here.  Braska will be exhibiting her trouble moving food around in her mouth appropriately and her struggle with liquids remaining in the mouth when she tries to take a drink.  I’m really looking forward to this because Lori is a very well regarded expert on oral-motor issues and feeding, and we get an evaluation and recommendations from her for Braska as a “Thank You” for volunteering.  (Worth like $600!)  I’m all for any expert help with feeding!! And I love that we can be a part of helping people learn about issues that a tiny part of an already small population deal with daily. It was really neat how the kiddos who were originally scheduled were unable to attend and we jumped in to fill a need at the last second…just setting this up today!  Can’t wait to see how it goes.  I just hope Braska cooperates with what they need.  I do have to give a bit of case history to the group, so that will make me nervous, but I’ll make it.  It’s been a while since I’ve had to speak to a group of healthcare professionals, but I think I can remember how.

So it’s going to be a busy weekend around here—I already had an event tonight that I helped with at church, conference tomorrow, Father-in-law’s birthday on Sunday, couple appointments on Monday, and oral-motor seminar on Tuesday—I think I’ll have quite a bit of new and helpful information by the time I get to sit down, breathe, and process it all.  I’ll be sure to share.