So we have started to do a program called Brain Balance. It has some interesting theories. I started it with our 11 year old because we don't know what else to do with her. We've had her in counseling, we've had her on ADHD meds, we've took her out of a charter school, we've taken her out of public school to do home schooling and nothing has seemed to help. She's just all over the place all the time. She doesn't listen, doesn't know do anything about personal hygiene and she leaves little trails all over everywhere she goes. Maybe some of this has to be with just being a kid but it's not just that. There's something more that we've needed to do.
Our 11 year old has made comments about wanting to die or wanting to kill herself more specifically. After having worked with proctor kids and getting training with those programs we knew we needed to do something. That's when counseling and started and she meet with a therapist about once a week or so. The therapist prescribed medication to help her focus and help her with anxiety. That did seem to help but I've never loved the idea of medicating long term. I know there are times when that is important and essential but I feel like some of the behavior medication takes a part of the person's personality with it. When my nephew lived with us he was on some of the same medications and some others as well. He would get up to go to school and talk my ear off. Then he would take his morning meds and by the time he needed to leave to catch the bus he was just sitting there in a daze. No longer interacting with me just there. I felt some of the same things with our 11 year old.
After she had progressed through the therapists sessions they sent her on her way with several prescriptions for the medications they thought would help her. This went on for several months during which time we moved her from the charter school right down the street to a public school. This might seem backwards to some but the rigidity of the charter school was difficult for her and she had a hard time with the homework. Not actually the IQ side of homework but getting her to do it and then sending her with it to turn in was problematic. Public school seemed to help. She didn't have as much homework and she got out more frequently throughout the day for recess. After a year and a half or so we would meet with teachers and they all loved her but it did require them to go to extra efforts to help her. We felt like that was unfair to the other students and the teachers too. We began home school. This was very difficult with me working and my wife going to school herself and with a baby there too. She would do some of her work but it was a fight for most of the time. Again, it's not that she couldn't do the work it's just that she would rather be doing more "fun" things.
We didn't know what to do. Her attitude was getting worse and the more she matured the more we got worried about how she handled her body. Things like showering or wiping after using the bathroom were issues. Cleaning up after herself was nonexistent. And she is very large for her age and doesn't know the placement and movement of her body so sometimes she would knock over our other children. Somewhere I had heard about Brain Balance, probably on the radio. We had her assessed and it came back as a right brain underdeveloped diagnostic.
A bit on Brian Balance. The theory behind it is at some point during normal development the brain get's off rhythm. This leads to one side of the brain developing while the other side lags behind. Eventually the strong side started to compensate for the lagging brain. This leads to more and more unbalancing. If the program works it will help the side of the brain that is behind to catch up. This balancing leads to the solution to several of the issues that one might observe like those I've mentioned above.
So we are a month and a half into our 6 month session. I really like some aspects of the program and others leave me very skeptical. I do think some things have improved with our 11 year old. The things that make me skeptical are the at home exercises are the same for left or right brain deficient kids. Diet is another huge change as we've been trying to go to a sugar free, gluten free, lactose free diet.
The skeptic side of me says that any kid will improve when the work out 30 minutes a day with a parent there spending time with them. I've also heard a lot of things about how diet changes can help kids feel better and thus act better.
We will keep to it and hope for things to continue in the right direction. If nothing else it helps us spend time with her and helps her do some basic conditioning. When it warms up we will be doing more outside to help too. I'm not going to promise more reviews but if it comes up maybe I'll post a link or something in case someone actually reads my posts.
Sunday, March 03, 2019
Sunday, September 30, 2018
New Baby!
Last year we were blessed with adding a sixth child to our family! Introducing Clara Mace Schetselaar!
Monday, September 24, 2018
More to come...
I feel the need to be more consistent with this Blog. I am going to try to give more frequent updates and to provide more meaningful musings.
Monday, May 16, 2016
Quick Update
So I was told I need to update my blog sub-title, and it's true. So I did! I have been happily married for the last three and a half years. (I hope you might have noticed based on the fact I spent my anniversary at the Grand America).
I do want to update this more often. My wife recently started a blog for one of her classes. Everyone should check it out! It's at http://www.strengtheningfamilieslds.com/
She's written a few times and will continue to update it. It's more about her beliefs and feelings and how to help strengthen our families. I think it's something every family can learn from. Our families in America have really been under attack and it makes sense to do some fortification! Perhaps this is why in the Book of Mormon we learn about the Nephites fortifying their cities against attack!
Anyway, that's all for now. I'm glad I could update everyone and update my sub-heading!
I do want to update this more often. My wife recently started a blog for one of her classes. Everyone should check it out! It's at http://www.strengtheningfamilieslds.com/
She's written a few times and will continue to update it. It's more about her beliefs and feelings and how to help strengthen our families. I think it's something every family can learn from. Our families in America have really been under attack and it makes sense to do some fortification! Perhaps this is why in the Book of Mormon we learn about the Nephites fortifying their cities against attack!
Anyway, that's all for now. I'm glad I could update everyone and update my sub-heading!
Friday, November 07, 2014
The Grand America Hotel
So a lot has happened since my last post, met a girl, got married, had 4 kids (step kids), became a proctor parent, had several proctor kids. But this is about my recent anniversary.
I recently stayed at the Grand America (www.grandamerica.com) for my anniversary and after the experience question why it is rated as a 5 star hotel.
I booked my stay on 10/31/2014 for 11/1/2014 through 11/2/2014 with a company card as this was a nice treat my company offered me. I ordered the Honeymoon/Anniversary package so my wife and I could have something to remember our special time there. Included in the package is a single rose, two robes, two slippers and chocolate truffles.
When we showed up and checked in I was informed how inconvenient it would be to use my company card, even though I used it to make the reservation. I would have to fill out a form and then get a picture of the front and back of the card and send that in. I decided to use my own.
When we got to the room none of the promised package items were there, just a relatively nice hotel room. I went back to the front desk to ask. They said since I made the reservation so recently they didn't know what time we were showing up. Not a big deal, but it would have been nice to surprise my wife when we first walked in. We went to dinner that night and they told me everything would be taken care of while we were gone.
When we came back we had rose pedals on our bed in the shape of a heart with nothing else. While this was nice, it was not what we ordered. I called down and asked about the robes, sippers and truffles. They asked for a size for the robes and I told them an XL and a medium. A few minutes later I received a call from the on call manager apologizing for things and verified that we wanted a Large and a medium. I corrected her and said an XL and Medium. 30 minutes later (?!) a knock on the door from Housekeeping. She brought a Large...wtf...a medium and truffles. I explained I needed an XL and asked about the slippers. She asked if I had looked under the sink (that has no knobs or any other indication that there was stuff under there). She found the slippers, handed me the medium robe and truffles and headed back down to get an XL. 20 minutes later she returned with the correct robe.
The next morning we grabbed some breakfast and decided to use out $100 credit at the shops. We headed towards the Sunday Brunch and we we got there they said they were just serving menu items as it was only 9:00 am and brunch started at 10. We decided to walk around a bit and see the hotel and wait for brunch. After 20 minutes of walking around (turns out everything starts or opens at 10) we returned and said we just wanted to order something off the menu. They told us they were no longer seating and were getting ready for brunch.
So we went to our room thinking we would order room service. We found out there that brunch was $50 per person and there was a huge room service fee for something we could get down at the lobby. So we headed to the lobby for out $4 bagels and $4 small orange juice and $4 for a cup of hot chocolate! If you get rated 5 stars by charging 5+ times more then what things are worth than the Grand America is a 5 star hotel!
After eating we went to a few shops to spend our $100 hotel credit. After our purchase we went back to our room to pack up and check out. My wife tried on her rob and it was too big. I called down and asked if I could switch out the robe for a small. They said that would be fine and would try to get it up to us but checkout was in 30 minutes so they said that if they didn't make it up to us they would leave it at the front desk for us to pick up. It didn't make it up to us so we headed downstairs to check out.
When we went to check out I joked with the ladies there as they were the same from the night before. They handed me a paper to sign and it was for the wrong Guest. I would have loved to only pay $193 for my room but I informed them of the mistake. They got me the correct one. I looked it over and asked about the $100 Dinner room service charge. They looked it up and said that was for the turn-down service (rose pedal heart on the bed). I didn't order the turn-down service but before I could say anything they remembered what happened with things not being ready and told me they would waive this. I would have said that was the first real show of Customer Care had I ordered that service. Since I didn't, I really shouldn't have been charged anyways!
I asked if the small robe was at the front desk. She asked, "Oh, you want to purchase a robe?" ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I guess their employees don't know what packages they sell there. I told her what package I got and that I thought they were included. She made a call and told me they would be down in a few minutes. She asked if I had used my $100 credit. I informed her we had about an hour earlier. Of course it wasn't added in yet so I pulled out the receipts I had and they added that in. We waited a few minutes for the Small robe to show up and then we left.
I'm not sure I will ever stay at the Grand again. I expect better service from a 2 star hotel and this is suppose to be the best Salt Lake has to offer? I have already told my story to a few co-workers and they were amazed after the first half and couldn't believe there was more. I felt like it was the infomercial of poor customer service! Maybe my expectations were too high or I have higher standards working in the Customer Support industry.
Thanks you for reading.
I recently stayed at the Grand America (www.grandamerica.com) for my anniversary and after the experience question why it is rated as a 5 star hotel.
I booked my stay on 10/31/2014 for 11/1/2014 through 11/2/2014 with a company card as this was a nice treat my company offered me. I ordered the Honeymoon/Anniversary package so my wife and I could have something to remember our special time there. Included in the package is a single rose, two robes, two slippers and chocolate truffles.
When we showed up and checked in I was informed how inconvenient it would be to use my company card, even though I used it to make the reservation. I would have to fill out a form and then get a picture of the front and back of the card and send that in. I decided to use my own.
When we got to the room none of the promised package items were there, just a relatively nice hotel room. I went back to the front desk to ask. They said since I made the reservation so recently they didn't know what time we were showing up. Not a big deal, but it would have been nice to surprise my wife when we first walked in. We went to dinner that night and they told me everything would be taken care of while we were gone.
When we came back we had rose pedals on our bed in the shape of a heart with nothing else. While this was nice, it was not what we ordered. I called down and asked about the robes, sippers and truffles. They asked for a size for the robes and I told them an XL and a medium. A few minutes later I received a call from the on call manager apologizing for things and verified that we wanted a Large and a medium. I corrected her and said an XL and Medium. 30 minutes later (?!) a knock on the door from Housekeeping. She brought a Large...wtf...a medium and truffles. I explained I needed an XL and asked about the slippers. She asked if I had looked under the sink (that has no knobs or any other indication that there was stuff under there). She found the slippers, handed me the medium robe and truffles and headed back down to get an XL. 20 minutes later she returned with the correct robe.
The next morning we grabbed some breakfast and decided to use out $100 credit at the shops. We headed towards the Sunday Brunch and we we got there they said they were just serving menu items as it was only 9:00 am and brunch started at 10. We decided to walk around a bit and see the hotel and wait for brunch. After 20 minutes of walking around (turns out everything starts or opens at 10) we returned and said we just wanted to order something off the menu. They told us they were no longer seating and were getting ready for brunch.
So we went to our room thinking we would order room service. We found out there that brunch was $50 per person and there was a huge room service fee for something we could get down at the lobby. So we headed to the lobby for out $4 bagels and $4 small orange juice and $4 for a cup of hot chocolate! If you get rated 5 stars by charging 5+ times more then what things are worth than the Grand America is a 5 star hotel!
After eating we went to a few shops to spend our $100 hotel credit. After our purchase we went back to our room to pack up and check out. My wife tried on her rob and it was too big. I called down and asked if I could switch out the robe for a small. They said that would be fine and would try to get it up to us but checkout was in 30 minutes so they said that if they didn't make it up to us they would leave it at the front desk for us to pick up. It didn't make it up to us so we headed downstairs to check out.
When we went to check out I joked with the ladies there as they were the same from the night before. They handed me a paper to sign and it was for the wrong Guest. I would have loved to only pay $193 for my room but I informed them of the mistake. They got me the correct one. I looked it over and asked about the $100 Dinner room service charge. They looked it up and said that was for the turn-down service (rose pedal heart on the bed). I didn't order the turn-down service but before I could say anything they remembered what happened with things not being ready and told me they would waive this. I would have said that was the first real show of Customer Care had I ordered that service. Since I didn't, I really shouldn't have been charged anyways!
I asked if the small robe was at the front desk. She asked, "Oh, you want to purchase a robe?" ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I guess their employees don't know what packages they sell there. I told her what package I got and that I thought they were included. She made a call and told me they would be down in a few minutes. She asked if I had used my $100 credit. I informed her we had about an hour earlier. Of course it wasn't added in yet so I pulled out the receipts I had and they added that in. We waited a few minutes for the Small robe to show up and then we left.
I'm not sure I will ever stay at the Grand again. I expect better service from a 2 star hotel and this is suppose to be the best Salt Lake has to offer? I have already told my story to a few co-workers and they were amazed after the first half and couldn't believe there was more. I felt like it was the infomercial of poor customer service! Maybe my expectations were too high or I have higher standards working in the Customer Support industry.
Thanks you for reading.
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