Is it almost Halloween already?

Here we go.....it is 3pm on Wednesday afternoon, October 29th, 2014 and below is what I have so far....How in the world can I pull this off????  Sooooooo....off to work I must go, but I just wanted to show what we have done since this all started in 2007.  Some years I started weeks in advance, most years it is just days before.  Wish me luck or send a few prayers, I could use it all.

2014

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2007

Shhh...Not Now Ray

I have to share what Raymond did at school this morning, Mr. Personality. His school had all three emergency drills today, which the entire school participated in: first the earthquake, then the lock down, and lastly the fire drill.  During the lock down drill, Raymond’s teacher closed all the curtains and turned off the lights in the classroom.  The whole class was sitting in the dark, Raymond was in the corner with his nurse and they were all instructed to keep quiet.  That lasted only for a little while when Raymond started saying with his talker….”Hi...Hi...Hi!”  His nurse Kaylee was trying to tell him to…shhh, when Raymond then said with his talker…“I want”…”Sit with friends please.”  Kaylee said it was hard not to laugh, but she whispered something like….we can’t right now Raymond.  That is our little social boy!!!  So proud of how he is using his talker. We have prayed for so many years for him to be able to communicate with us.   

I bet you are wondering why we don’t have more videos of Raymond using his talker.  I know that much of Raymond’s progress on his communication device (Tobii) has been just us reporting.  It is really not that easy for us to capture video. Let me explain.  Raymond will start talking and we get excited and jump into a conversation with him or let him do what he is asking for, but once we grab the phone to record, he starts focusing on the phone and smiling and forgets about the talker. I finally captured a really good video of him communicating one of his “needs” last night.  I was so excited and really tried not to over “cue” him, my Speech and Language Pathologists (SLP) friends out there will know what I mean by that.  And he displayed 100% accuracy….again, our SLP friends will know what I mean.  I am very excited to finally present a video of Raymond’s amazing progress on his talker.  We are so proud of him and the progress he continues to make.  The Lord has answered so many prayers. 

Hebrews 10:23 “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful;”

http://youtu.be/WzeouxaE_Qw

 

Vote for Ray if you want to Partay!

Raymond completely loves high school!  We could not be happier with the opportunities that he has been presented with since he joined the family at CHS.  So, I have to share that last week Raymond, with the help of his aide Matt, decided to run for an office with the class club, The Soaring Hawks.  Our precious non-verbal kiddo ran for the office of Social Chairman!!! Matt helped him make a great campaign poster that read “Vote For Ray..If You Want To PARTAY!”  And Matt who is very technically knowledgeable, something I really struggle with, read the manual and taught himself how to use and create new pages in the new program that Raymond has for his Tobii communication device.  If they wait for me to program it, sometimes they wait too long.  So, Matt and Raymond prepared a page for his communicator complete with a campaign speech and a way to say “Thank You” after the speech and “Congratulations” to his fellow classmates also running for offices.  And last Friday was their election day, Raymond and Matt went around to all three Special Ed Classes to give his campaign speech.  After all speeches were delivered, the classes held their election…….and Raymond was named Social Chairman for this year!  YAY!!!!  We could not be more proud of our little non-verbal but extremely expressive kid.  This communication device has opened up his whole world!!!!  I have so many exciting things to share…..So I really need to give myself more time to write!!!  

 I am sharing the video of his speech below; he looked at the selection on the screen with his eyes and gave the speech to one of the classes.  You go RayRay!!!  So proud of you Bud!!!