Summing up my experience at The Converge Autism Summit

At the end of April, I drove to Greenville, South Carolina. They invited me to attend and promote The National Converge Autism Summit, put on by Springbrook Autism Behavioral Health. This was the first time I agreed to attend anything like this before, especially in person. It's been a few weeks, and the dust has settled. I wanted to share how the trip went, and talk a little about my first experience of attending a conference. First, my purpose for being there was to promote the conference. That included documenting my experiences, sharing on social media, and interviewing the keynote speakers. This was a great opportunity to grow professionally, and I took full advantage. It's not every day that I get a chance to sit down with Temple Grandin and…

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One day at a time

I spoke with the schools this morning and there's a better than average chance that we're done with school for the year. It ends next week and with Elliott testing positive yesterday, odds are he's done for the year. The same goes for Emmett because he's showing symptoms as well. Emmett, Gavin, and I will retest tomorrow. Gavin's doing fine. No symptoms and he's just carrying on like normal. I feel like shit, if I'm being honest. It's mostly a headache that I can't seem to shake right now but I feel run down, and I could sleep all day, if life allowed. Elliott's been sleeping a lot as well. Emmett seems to be doing okay, but he's always miserable when he has a cold, and his symptoms are similar…

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#COVID has struck my household for the 1st time and I’m feeling overwhelmed

I'm going to be honest. The level of overwhelmed that I'm currently at is tough for me to manage. There's a great deal of change occurring in my life all at once and while most of it is positive, not all of it is. To top it all off, we got hit with a whammy tonight. I'll just start out by saying that I realize that I'm not thinking about all this as clearly as I could be. I'm distracted and exhausted. I had to move a meeting this morning because Elliott was home from school and I need to take care of a few things that came up at the last minute. After that, I crashed for a good chunk of the day. Elliott was home sick, Emmett was…

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I had an unbelievably good day and yet I’m struggling a little bit

I've had an unbelievably good day. I'm starting a new job that I can't wait to talk about, and it's perfect for me. I'm so freaking excited because it's going to allow me to build a better future for my kids and grow my efforts. It's been a long time coming and I hope I can live up to the expectations. I was able to spend some time talking to my friend Kate Swenson from Finding Cooper's Voice on the pod this morning. She's one of my favorite people and we had a fantastic conversation. I'll let you know when to expect the episode to drop. Can't wait for you to hear it. My friends from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital will be on the pod again tomorrow to update…

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It’s been such a long day and I’m spent

It's been an exceptionally long day for a number of reasons. Emmett wasn't feeling well I spent five straight hours in meetings this afternoon. Emmett felt better as the day went on and was okay to go visit his mom. Normally, when they are home from school due to not feeling well, they don't go anywhere. One of the few exceptions are parental visits and this is only true if they aren't sick with something contagious. Most of the time my kids don't feel well, it's emotional or chronic in nature, if that makes sense. As with many kids on the spectrum, there tends to be a lot of anxiety related upset stomachs and things like that. I think Emmett is dealing with some of the chronic health issues his…

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Today’s going to be a good day

The last couple of days have been rough for me. I experience with emotions is very intense. That's not necessarily a bad thing but it can be overwhelming. I've always been that way but as I've aged, it's become easier to manage. Not perfect mind you, but manageable. When I get like this, I can start drowning in what feels like a tsunami of feelings, fear, and pervasive thinking. I always thought that was normal but as I'm learning more about myself, I'm understanding it's very much an ADHD thing. It's so interesting to step back and look at things because I'm able to recognize patterns in my behavior that make much more sense now. Once I recognize the problem, I can work on addressing it. The hardest part for…

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It’s taking some time but that’s okay

It's been a really long day and I'm physically and emotionally drained. At the same time, it's been a good day as well. We overslept a bit this morning but I got the kids to school on time. The boys are doing pretty good and I'm always grateful for that. Gavin's doing well and he helped me around the house today. I was able to get the bulk of my work load done earlier this week, so I'm trying to get the house caught up while I have the time. Work is actually going great and I finished the Temple Grandin podcast episode for next Monday. I'm so excited and can't wait for you to hear it. I had some running around to do before I spent the morning/afternoon painting…

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Final day of my 5 day trip and here’s what’s happened

I'm on day four of my five day trip. It's the last day of The National Converge Autism Summit and it's been an amazing experience thus far. Yesterday, I sat down with Ron Suskind and had 25 minute discussion on the podcast. Can't wait for you all to hear it. I got to meet and hang out with Kate Swenson from Finding Cooper's Voice. We took turns interviewing people. Both Ron and Kate are super down to Earth, easy to talk to, and have a wealth of experience in the world of autism. Today I will be meeting and interviewing Dr. Temple Grandin. I'm so nervous about this interview but it's going to be great. https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cc7up-8lX5I/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= I'm going to be leaving for home first thing in the morning, I have…

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