Thursday Thread #38

Oh happy day…the weekend is almost here, and I cannot wait! It has been quite a week for us — here at the Davis household, we have been under major quarantine, all because of an icky, vicious, super-contagous stomach bug 🙁 boo. Luckily, after gallons of Gatorade and Sprite, a few boxes of crackers, and LOTS of down time, I think we are finally on the mend. Poor Troy got the worst of it though, so he may be out of commission a few more days 🙁 I hate seeing him so down. I am ready for us to both back to 100%.

 

1. Movin’ On Up. But now, on to brighter, cheerier things! Did you happen notice any changes around here? Hmmm? The ol blog {well, really the whole business} got a little facelift! Whataya think?? The blog was first to debut the new design, and next is the website {which I am SUPER excited about}, packaging and branding materials, and Facebook. Ahhhh — I just love a good spring cleaning! This one was WAY overdue…kind of like our house {oops}. I hope you like the changes as much as I do 🙂

 

2. El Champion! I am super happy to announce the winner of last month’s Autism Awareness give-away…drumroll…Lacey Martin! Congrats!! I am so excited to work with you guys 🙂 This family’s story is so amazing to read —  here are a few snippets that explain their experience with Autism:

 

My baby girl, Presley Rose, was born, healthy as an ox- 8 lbs. 6.3 oz. born three days before my due date in August, mind you. She remained in the 95-100 percentiles for her whole first year of life. She met all of her milestones – weaning, walking, talking, and fine/gross motor skills. To me and to the world, she was just like any other kid (well, to me she was a ‘baby-genius-supermodel,’ naturally).

She and I stayed home together for two years. I rarely left her with a babysitter and at 17 months she started daycare- and I went back to school. The transition was rough, but they kept assuring me it was normal and wouldn’t continue. Well, it never got easier and she suddenly quit talking all together. She cried continuously day and night. Was she depressed? That’s the only thing that ever even crossed my mind- I went back to school and now she was depressed. After many rough nights and a process of elimination, along with a multitude of tests, observations, surveys and evaluations, Presley was finally diagnosed a few weeks before her third birthday… Autism. At that point, we didn’t need a diagnosis to know that something was definitely wrong; all we wanted was our daughter back. Little did we know what that simple 6-letter-word would bring to our lives.

 

In addition to unraveling autism in our own daughter, we learned quickly that we needed to help other affected families in their own struggle by volunteering with Autism Speaks. After we received the diagnosis and realized how hard our road ahead would be we found this non-profit group and have since dedicated time and energy into funding for further research for the ultimate answer. We enrolled in an infant-sibling study with Washington University, joined the Autism Speaks walk committee, started an autism playgroup, started walk teams with our companies and most importantly have been able to connect with other local families & lean on one another for the support and acceptance we all need.

 

The cool thing about autism, sounds like an oxymoron, but the cool thing with any child with special needs is that when you reach a new goal, you hear a new word or witness a changed behavior you’ve been working toward– no matter what you’ve been dealing with or stressing about or crying over stops and you’re instantly reminded that you’re doing something right. I would do anything to have a “normal” life for my daughter but I am now convinced that regardless of reason, she has brought out the best in so many people and will continue to teach us all that life is limitless and with hard work and determination, anything is possible. She proves that each and every day of our lives. To all of the families struggling with autism, I like to say- stay the course, raise awareness, advocate and stir the pot!

 

Pretty great story, huh? Can. Not. Wait. to meet and work with them 🙂 Congrats, guys! And THANK YOU For sharing your experience with all of us.

 

3. Class is in Session. Ok I finally have a date set for my next photography 101 class — July 14th! I have been working on some great things for this summer’s class and cannot wait to share it all with you! If you are on the list to receive class emails from me, I will be sending you the class information and sign up link very soon, so keep your eyes peeled! If you would like to be added to the email list, please comment here on the post or shoot me an email. We had a great time in January’s workshop, so I hope to get the chance to work with some more of my fellow camera-lovin’ fools!

 

4. Wild Things. Maurice Sendak, the children’s book author who was famous for the book “Where the Wild Things Are” passed away on Tuesday from complications caused by a recent stroke 🙁 I was so sad to hear about his passing because I LOVED Maurice Sendak’s books growing up, and he had just started creating new books again after several decades. “Where the Wild Things Are” was one of the first books I remember reading with my mom and sisters {I secretly always wanted to act like a ‘wild thing’, but there is no way my mom would have stood for that!}, and my favorite part was “let the wild rumpus start!” {aka dance party!!}. So, let the wild rumpus start, Mr. Sendak. RIP.

 

5. Thread Tunes. OK I am a little embarrassed to admit this, but there is one song that Troy and I cannot get out of our heads for the love of Pete, man! It’s Carly Rae Jepsen’s Call Me Maybe. I really don’t like the song all that much, but I give props to it’s staying power {#2 on iTunes!} and catchy beat. So, it’s my Thread tune for the week…so go listen to it, and get it stuck in your head too 🙂

 

6. Sneak Peek. Tomorrow, I will introduce you to my sweet little niece, Lily. Until then, here is a sneak peek from our session…