my "nice list"

The OT appt went well today. Our OT is super wonderful, and I'm so thankful we have her in our lives. A lot of today was paper work and discussing goals, possible obstacles etc., but I did unwrap one of his hands so she could take a look. She agrees that it would be good to begin leaving them unwrapped sometime in the next few weeks. However, she says she was happy with his hand, finger, and wrist movement. His thumbs being pulled in and the tops of his fingers being curved are not irreparable, she said. One thing she wants me to start doing right away (if I need a baby step before completely unwrapping his fingers) is to start wrapping his thumb separately, cutting a little hole in the tubifast, letting his thumb be outside the fist (but still wrapped). That will encourage him to keep his hand open some, and will promote his learning to push up on his hands (one of the things he should be working on). We also discussed my fear/obstacles with tummy time, and she suggested that we begin doing it on a boppy first. That sounds like a great idea! As far as the videos you guys are sending me of wrapping all his fingers separately, yes, they are great. But there is NO WAY Jonah will keep his hand open enough long enough or be patient enough to let me do that. One of those videos is like a 7-year-old. Jonah's hands are way too tiny and way too clamped into a fist to be able to do that... although I'd love to and may do that when his fingers are a little bigger and he's a little less wiggly. Thanks for the suggestions though!
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Now to something different...

There are some days when you just need to uplift and encourage someone. And some days that person you need to uplift is... well, yourself.

When I was a sophomore in high school, my English teacher had us write down each person's name in the class (except our own) on a sheet of paper. Then, beside each person, she had us write one compliment or one thing we liked about the person. She encouraged us to be creative and thoughtful about what we were writing.

She then typed all of the compliments the other students gave us on one small strip of paper for us to keep in our wallets. I STILL have mine (11 years later) and pulled it out today to give myself a little boost.

Here is what mine says:

Patrice - brilliant orator for students' rights with cute hair clips and maroon pants, strong and independent, one of the strongest people I know, mature, beautiful, my best friend (that was Kathryn's), upstart, very funny and nice, has a great smile, awesome complainer, great listener, good friend, shows Christ in her life in all that she does, the voice of the class, not afraid to ask the teacher for a favor that everyone else silently wants, confident, caring, brings life to the class, keeps me in line, always friendly to all, absolutely charming, makes me laugh, good breakfast person, great determination, sticks up for what she believes in, good listener, I love your laugh, strong in your views, won't back down, pretty nose, easy to get along with

See? Don't you feel better about me already?

Maybe a few of these need explanation -

- As you can see, there is a recurring theme of standing up for rights, awesome complaining, asking for favors everybody else secretly wants, not backing down, the voice of the class etc. This translates to: Must have annoyed the crap out of my teachers. Because of my good grades and strong relationships with my teachers, I did tend to speak up for us when we were overworked or felt there was an injustice. It was usually well received, but having been a teacher myself, I would have hated me. I apologize to any of my high school teachers who may be reading this... especially Ms. Hottinger and Mr. Cochrane... you guys were just too nice for your own good. I couldn't help it. It was the Roseanne in me.

- Maroon pants: They were really cute pants, if I do say so myself. I got them at a thrift store and they were this maroon velvet material. They made my tooshy (I hope tooshy really means tooshy in Australia and not something bad like fanny) look good too. And I didn't have much of a tooshy at the time, so that's saying a lot. I don't have them anymore. Believe me, they would no longer look attractive on me. It's funny how after you have a couple kids, your body seems to redistribute itself.

- Good breakfast person: This one was written by my friend Justin Vernon. EVERY day he would ask me what I had for breakfast, because it was always something really disgusting excellent like pizza, steak, spaghetti, vegetable soup etc. I would pretend that I eat normal, grown up foods now for breakfast, but that would be a lie. Nothing has changed. This morning I ate this chicken enchilada type casserole. Yesterday it was chicken and rice soup. The day before that it was Hershey's Kisses. Don't judge me. I am what I am.
(And apparently, you guys don't care what I had for lunch, but do have to care what I had for breakfast. So, there!)

Anyway, I was thinking about this list today and know that many of you are either teachers or work with the youth at your churches. I think this is a GREAT idea to unite your kids, and teach them to build each other up rather than tear each other down (which tends to be their instinct sometimes). Give it a shot! I'd love to hear your feedback on how it worked. Like I said, I STILL have mine, so obviously it made an impact on me. Kathryn and Jamie, do you guys still have yours?

Matt's parents and Kim will be here this weekend, and then Peyton, Amy, and the kids are visiting on Monday. Woo-hoo!

The basement is finished, although still empty. Gina says she is going to do an Extreme Home Makeover down there and decorate it for me. I told her she could do whatever she wants as long as I get to scream, "MOVE THAT BUS!" at the end. I'll take pictures when it's all done. I didn't take before pictures, but I think one of the men from church who worked on it took some, so I'm going to see if he can email me those, so you have a comparison. It looks great, and we'll be working on getting things ready to start dressing changes down there over the weekend.

Don't know how much time I'll have to post with all our company this weekend, so if I don't "see" you, have a great holiday weekend. Enjoy the pool!