Happy Easter. . .

Happy Easter. . . 

From the three of us!

Fitness!!

This is a picture Rachel and I took back in January '08, when she was living in Miller Apartments. It was a while ago. But, in addition, it's been a while since I've regularly exercised in my life. I'd say that the last time I regularly exercised was on my mission when I biked all day long. I was on bike for almost half my mission. After I got home, not much working out at all. So I've been pretty sedentary since then.

Anyway, I've been taking this Fit For Life class this semester. I talked about it in an earlier post. Back in January when I had just began running and stuff, I took a fitness assessment that assessed how "fit" I was statistically according to my age. I just finished my followup fitness assessment. I thought I'd report my successes!

• BMI: To start off, they took a waist to hip ratio. This test isn't super accurate, but it's much more expensive to do the better ones. So for my BMI, I burnt an inch of fat on my waist and an inch on my hips for a score of 19.2, which is normal. It puts me at low risk for cardiovascular disease.

• My Heart Rate and Blood Pressure: pretty much the same. But, I'm not sure how accurate their reading was because my heart rate was a little high when they took it.

• % Body Fat: They took a skin fold test. Once again, not incredibly accurate, but not as expensive. I lost 4mm of fat on my thigh, which was good. Overall I lost 1% body fat. I'm now at 12%. This is really good. For men, you must have at least 3-5% body fat to survive, but an athletic man can have anywhere from 5-13%. So this was good!

• Flexibility: They had me sit and reach, pushing a standard along a scale. Before I didn't do so hot, but now I've improved by 5cm. This is good. Even still, I'm pretty average.

• Push-ups: Before I could do 22 before I got pooped. Now I can do 32. That's good, I guess. According to my age group 19-24 is average (50th percentile). 32 is excellent on their scale (80th percentile). I've decided to do more push-ups to build my muscular endurance now.

• Curl-ups: These are like crunches, where I reach my hands about two inches past a line on the floor. I was given 1 minute to do as many as I could. Before I could do 47, which was in the 80th percentile for men my age. Now though, 59! Which is in the 90th percentile!

• Bench Press: I increased my max bench by 10lbs! This was a great success for me, because I've never really been super muscular. But, I'm going to keep working on it!

• VO2 Max: this is a measurement of how well I utilize the oxygen I uptake into my body. Before I was average, now I'm still average, but I did improve a bit. According to the test, I'm up-taking about 2ml/min more oxygen than before. I know it doesn't really mean anything to most anyone. That's good though.

So in conclusion, I improved in all my areas. It doesn't sound like much, but I think it is a drastic improvement! I'm proud of myself and hope to keep myself Fit For Life!!! That was cheesy.

Rexburg Drama

**Warning: Super long rant. . .

So, I wanted to share a little about what has been on my mind this week. If you're not familiar with my job, I'm a Psychosocial Rehabilitation (PSR) Specialist. My job is to work with developmentally disabled children in their home or in the community to train on skills that they lack. Some issues these children have include difficulties with authorities, aggression, or attention. Since I only work in the homes when my clients' parents are there, most of our interventions are spent in the community, including the library, stores, or parks when the weather permits. A big part of our services is integrating these children into the community and teaching skills of public behavior, so community interventions are very beneficial.

On Monday, I got a call from my boss saying that the Madison Library sent a letter banning us from bringing our clients there. This shocked me, seeing as it is a public library and they virtually said that disabled children were not allowed.

This caused an outrage among lots of people in the community and I heard that the board meeting was well attended by upset parents and professionals. The library board said that it was a misunderstanding, and that discrimination was not their intent.

The reason for this blog isn't to argue or show disrespect to those who made this decision, because I know there is controversy on the subject. I just want to share my feelings about it, because I feel like people in the community are getting a false idea of what PSR is, and I want to spread the word about something totally inappropriate that is going on in Rexburg. I think that whether it was meant to or not, this new policy is absolutely discriminative.

Here is the letter that was sent to 5 agencies which employ PSR workers:

February 8, 2010

To Those Using the Library for Counseling Children:

It has become problematical to bring problem children to the library for non-library functions. The library is a place for the public to use for library functions. It is inappropriate as a place of business such as work with problem children, especially when that use interferes with library functions. Our library functions are severely compromised:

• When tables for four are completely dominated by two

• When the safety of other library users cannot be assured

• When children’s difficulties that should be private are made public

• When behavioral control is lost to the degree that police must be summoned

• When common rules of not using cell phones in the library are ignored

The Board of Trustees of the Madison Library District determined at the November 18, 2009, meeting that the library should be restricted from use in the above conditions, and that if children are brought to the library, it should be for training in library use. The board determined that the library is an inappropriate place for counseling children. We appreciate your understanding regarding this issue and ask that you inform your employees of this library policy.

Sincerely,

Judith M. Dewey

Director

On behalf of the Board of Trustees

First, I just want to say that if someone is breaking rules or acting disruptively, library employees have every right to ask them to leave. If "library functions" are interfered with, they can ask people to leave. What bothers me is that each of their reasons is very flawed. I was in the library daily and I know what has been going on there.

"When tables for four are dominated by two"-- It is true that lately there have been lots of PSR workers in the library, since it is one of the best places to go for a quiet intervention. It gets busy and sometimes it is hard to find a table (though I have always been able to find one). So their complaint is that there are too many of us and we take up too much space. I can understand how this could cause frustration. However, this library is currently in the process of building a gigantic addition. They were able to get funding for this because of how many people were there every day. They should hope that the library gets crowded sometimes, or else there would be no point (or funding) for this huge addition! That said, when people from the community come in to study, they usually spread out all their stuff and use a four person table for one person. This is just something that happens, and always will happen. People just don't share tables with strangers. (Although, when someone asks to sit at the table I'm working at, I have never refused). If there were two-person tables, we'd sit there!

"When the safety of other library users cannot be assured"-- This infuriates me. Disabled does NOT equal dangerous. My clients have never put another library user in any kind of danger. In fact, I would venture to say that children with their PSR workers are the best-behaved children in the library for the most part. They are one-on-one with an adult who is trained to deal with outbursts or tantrums. If we have any doubt that our client can behave safely and appropriately in the library, we don't bring them there. This isn't to say that they are perfect and that there are never meltdowns, but they are children. As long as any children are allowed in the library, disabled or not, there will be tantrums. I hate that they singled out our clients. I regularly have unattended children walk up to me in the library, start grabbing my things, with no parent in sight. If there are problems with children, PSR workers are not the problem.

"When children's difficulties that should be private are made public"-- Their complaint is that they can hear us talking about personal things. I have been following news articles and reading comments and quotes, and we are repeatedly called "counselors." I fully agree that private therapy sessions should not be conducted in public. However, we are NOT licensed therapists!! Each of my clients regularly sees a therapist in a private office. We do keep confidentiality concerning our clients and their issues or evaluations, but the purpose of PSR is not for private counseling sessions. The purpose is skill training. Someone walking by might overhear a lesson on respect, or sportsmanship. They might see us doing a worksheet or playing a game. If the client starts talking about something that might be personal, we listen and talk with them about it, because we are mentors, not licensed therapists. I can guarantee that other community members talk about private things sometimes. Those conversations just come up. The point is, we are accused of holding counseling sessions, and people say these sessions need to be conducted in a private office. This would defy the whole purpose of PSR and community integration. Our task plans specifically state the places we can take our clients (public libraries, community centers, parks, etc). A private office is not even an option for the type of services we provide.

"When behavioral control is lost to the degree that police must be summoned"-- I know exactly what they are referring to. Back in November, a child ran away from his PSR worker (from a different agency) and she called the police. This was unfortunate. However, it is not something that happens regularly. When dealing with the public, library staff needs to realize that occasionally, emergencies will happen. Once the police were involved, the issue was not the library's responsibility. Banning PSR workers will not change the fact that sometimes problems happen in the community.

"When common rules of not using cell phones are ignored" -- There are always people who come in talking loudly on their cell phones, and are asked (without tact, by the way) to leave. I agree, people should follow rules and not be disruptive. PSR workers are not the problem. I have to carry my phone because I have someone else's child with me, but if I get a call I step outside. We don't try to break rules. We teach kids to follow public rules. But again, if they see anyone breaking rules, they can and should ask them to leave. Nothing to do with PSR workers or clients.

One of the missions of the library is to promote a lifetime of learning. Libraries are not just for checking out books; they are places for studying and learning, and they are open to the public. If they are going to make a policy where no one can go there for work purposes, (although I'd hardly say that PSR workers are "conducting business"), the policy needs to apply to everyone. When the library board sends this letter only to agencies that deal with developmentally disabled children, they are discriminating.

I guess what upsets me is that the library did not try to discuss any of this with us. They just banned us, without warning or valid justification, and did it in an inappropriate way (Don't even get me started on them calling my kids "problem children"!!!) I just wanted to organize and share my thoughts on this subject, since it is a frustration I have been dealing with every day as I try to find alternate places to go in tiny Rexburg.

I really hope this gets resolved soon, so my clients aren't denied some of the most helpful resources for them in this community.

The Cake-Off!

So, some of you may know that I (Rob) entered myself into a Cake Baking contest in my ward. I was really excited for it. I wanted to win! So I asked a few family members and friends for delicious cake recipes and got some really good ideas, but in the end I finally decided on a cake that Kayla, a good friend of ours, made once (Thanks a billion, Kayla!). It's dark chocolate coconut, and I made the whole thing from scratch, batter, frosting and all. I was super proud of it. Here's the picture of my scrumptious cake!

Everyone that made a cake was a winner and got a small prize. In any case, there were some cakes that totally would have blown mine out of the water by aesthetics alone. A couple guys went all out and did fondant on their cakes. They looked really, really nice! Probably regular cake inside, but still. The Cake-Off was fun, and I felt accomplished with my yummy cake! Let me know if you want the recipe.

Kissaversary

Just FYI, we had our first kiss 6 years ago today! It all began Feb. 7, 2004, outside Joe's house. We know this thanks to journal entries. We also know, from said journal entries, that it was super cheesy and awkward! We were made for each other.

Happy Pancakes!

So I thought I'd post a small blog this morning because I made some delicious apple cinnamon pancakes and Rachel and I thought they were so very delectable! This is great, because I'm not a huge fan of regular/bland pancakes. Sorry, no photos, we were hungry. Also sorry, no recipe, I just throw a bunch of ingredients together and figure it out myself (I think I get that from Mom). But, you'll have to trust me, they were scrumptious.

On other news, we don't really have any. Rachel is working hard at her job. It's really rewarding for her. Her job recently began requiring certain trainings to be completed by the PSR workers (that's what she is). Today she was required to get defense/restraint training. I guess some of these kids can be really aggressive? I don't know. She doesn't get paid for this day of training, which sucks, but at the same time if she had to pay for it herself it would cost around $2000. So she's happy to do it with the rest of her co-workers today.

I'm in my last semester. It's going well. I'm taking Genetics, Old Testament (Joshua-Malachi), Fit for Life and Anatomy and Physiology. I'll try to say something interesting about each class (I said try).
1. Genetics is interesting. It's all about inheritance patterns. A simple way of putting it would be, "How'd you get red hair, when both of your parents have brown hair?" It gets so much more complicated than that. For example, how do Calico cats get their strange fur patterns? Various chromosomes in their "color" cells are inactivated, so they display multi-colored coats. It's much more complicated than I can explain in a blog. You might get bored.
2. I'm studying the second half of the Old Testament this semester. Last semester I studied the Torah (Genesis-Deuteronomy). It's a super informative class! I really enjoy the fact that I can take religion classes here. I've learned a ton about the Holy Land, the layout, the history, locations and boundaries. It makes Isaiah a lot more interesting. Right now we're studying about David's reign and fall. Something I never before considered, don't think I'm an idiot, David wasn't a prophet at all. He didn't even hold the Melchizedek priesthood. He didn't even hold the Aaronic Priesthood. I guess if I'd thought about it for a while, I'd have figured that out on my own, but it puts more perspective on his story, and personally I'm rooting for David, because I really want God to be merciful to me.
3. Fit for Life is a simple class where I learn about exercise and how it affects the body. I learn about the various types of exercise, how to exercise, and how to obtain good homeostasis. BYU-Idaho students also have access to a health center, where they give free Fitness Assessments. Outside my college it would cost me a lot of money to get one of those done. Anyway, I took one at the beginning of the semester and I'm scheduled for another at the end. In my class I'm required to work out at least 3 hours a week. This has been great for Rachel and I. I've been pretty active, running and lifting weights, doing workout videos and stuff. I feel more healthy!
4. Anatomy and Physiology is a good class I guess. Lab is really interesting, learning about all of the bones, muscles, nerve networks and yadda-yadda-yadda. Lecture is a different matter though. Most days I don't even know why I go. I took another class that taught me basically everything that we go over in lecture, but in greater detail. I feel really smart in the class, being able to answer just about every question with no studying, but it also feels like a waste of time.

Anyway, that's what's going on with us. Our plan is to work until September, then move to Portland. Chiropractic School starts in September. We're super excited to get out of Rexburg. This place has the most atrocious weather!

Holidays

It's been a while, so we're going to give a quick summary of the holidays and fun stuff since we last wrote in November.
First, I turned 23 on the 23rd of November! I ended up working a ton that day to make up for the days off I took for Thanksgiving, but it was still fun. After work, Rob made a delicious dinner of haystacks, then we went to a little cupcake cafe for dessert.

Later that week, we went to Salt Lake for Thanksgiving. Liz and her family were there, and Katie and Reuben were also. After Thanksgiving, Lindsey and Kyle showed up with their boys. We didn't take pictures of Thanskgiving, but we did have another birthday celebration for me there, complete with a Costco cake, my favorite.
We did after Thanksgiving shopping and got most of our Christmas presents while we were in Salt Lake. We came home and finished decorating our tree. Here is the finished product!

We spent Christmas in Sunnyside with Rob's family. We stayed at Tiffanie and Jeff's house (Rob's parents' old house) for the first couple of nights and spend Christmas morning with their family. Christmas day was spend with everyone at Tiffanie's playing games and eating lots of food. (We might add some more pictures later when we find some). We also spent a couple nights at Amber and Steve's. It was fun to spend time with everyone and we are excited for this fall when we will live closer to all of them.

Rob and I started our own family tradition of writing in a journal every Christmas. We bought our Christmas journal and wrote our first entry this year. We hope it will be a fun tradition for us and our future children to write about Christmas each year and add some pictures, and write about any major events or changes from that year. Also, we think it will be a good account of our family's main events over the years, since our personal journal habits are inconsistent :)

Christmas picture

When we were in Sunnyside, Rob and I got the chance to hang out with some of Rob's good buddies from high school, Skyler and Joe.

And I went to Diana's baby shower in Yakima and got to see Lindsey there too.

We stopped by my parents' house in Yakima since their renters had just moved out. It may have been the last time we'll be there, because they are planning to sell it.

We celebrated our 1st Anniversary in Sunnyside too! It's hard to believe it's been a year. We had frozen the top layer to our wedding cake and we ate some to celebrate.

For New Year's, we got together with some friends in our clubhouse and played games and barely made it to midnight without falling asleep. Since then, we have been getting back into the swing of things with work and school. We are working on our New Years Resolutions of eating healthier and getting in shape (we started adding Jillian Michaels DVDs to our routine and they are tough!). Things have been pretty busy but are settling down.