Max was in the Mr. Wonderful Pageant!!!

Max was selected to be one of the ten male students at his high school to be in the Mr. Wonderful Pageant. He had to perform a talent and answer a random question on stage. There were three areas they focused on. One was talent, two was style and three was intelligence. I was so proud of him.

Here is the youtube video of his skit. I hope you enjoy watching Max perform.

Here is another video of him dancing. He is the third dancer on the left of the video.

Good bye Orchestra, hello Swim Team.

All summer Max went down to the school to practice songs with a group of the orchestra students for the back-to-school event for teachers. He went faithfully all summer, even though he didn't enjoy going and he had made the decision in the middle of the summer to drop orchestra. The last practice he attended I went to the counseling office and had his schedule changed. it  made me sad to see him want to drop out of orchestra. I will miss hearing him practice. 

 When Max got out of practice I told him we needed to tell his orchestra teacher that he had dropped orchestra. I told his orchestra teacher we had some sad news to give her. Max was standing near both of us and I was facing the teacher. I proceeded to tell her that Max dropped orchestra because he wants to focus on his Special Olympics swim team. Plus, he has no room in his schedule and he wants a lunch hour. I also explained to her that Max has been having anxiety problems. She looked at Max and said, “Can’t you do both swim and orchestra? Can’t you juggle both of them?” I was not happy with her asking Max those questions after I had just told her he is having an anxiety issue. She told Max if he ever wanted to come back, he could.

 Weeks later she stopped me in the school hallway and asked me if I was upset with her. I told her that I was not happy that after I had explained that he is not able to handle everything and that he wanted to focus on swimming, that she would turn to Max and ask “why can’t you juggle both activities?” She said, “I was just kidding, but I guess I can’t kid because people with autism take everything seriously.” I told her she was correct “you can’t joke because they do” take everything seriously. By this time Max had joined in the conversation and she said, “Max, I’m sorry I did something to hurt you, will you accept my apology?” Max said, “Yes” 

She then asked: “Isn’t there something else you are upset with me for?” I then told her that, I was not happy with what she said at the IEP meeting, in front of Max, regarding the reason she held him back in orchestra is because of his autism. Max then said, “I feel like Jackie Robinson, you know the movie 42?”

The good thing about all of this is Max joined the school swim team. He has enjoyed every second of it and he has also enjoyed swimming for Special Olympics. He even learned how to swim the butterfly. 

Max with two of his good swim friends. One of them he has known since they both were toddlers.

Max's last orchestra concert

Max playing his viola in Orchestra.

Click on the Max playing his Viola in Orchestra and it will take you to a video of his concert.

I miss hearing Max play the viola.

Max can wash clothes!

Over the summer Max learned how to use the washer and dryer. We spent hours learning how to sort his clothes and wash his bedding.. It's been an adventure.  One I'm glad we took. 
Last week he washed his bedding without my help.
Three cheers for Max.  

Here is his notes that we taped near the washer  and dryer. 

Life...with a special needs teenager

Max has been such a delight to have in my life these last sixteen years. He has taught me so many valuable lessons about how to cope, stay strong and never give up. When Max was little he loved to pull clothes off hangers, sit inside the dryer, bang his head on the floor and dart out the front door running towards a busy street.

Now that Max is a teenager I see different trials for him, not as physically challenging, but more of an emotional. He no longer desires to sit inside the dryer ( I don’t think he would fit) or bang his head on the floor (he stopped that when he was about six). The struggles he faces are more with social interactions and understanding reasoning behind why people act in ways he doesn’t understand. Max has more anxiety than he did years ago. And this summer proved that point when he had his first panic attack.

Right before I left for an adult church activity, I asked Max if he had his cell phone and reminded him to make sure the ringer volume was turned on so he could hear my call. I told him I would call to check on him. He was fine with that. Right after I was seated at the activity I looked out into the hallway and who did I see standing barefoot, red faced and sweating? Max. He had tried to chase the car all the way to the church building to let us know he couldn’t find his phone.

The horrible thing about all this is, I had his phone in my purse, I felt so terrible knowing I had asked him to keep his phone on and nearby and it was with me.

This was Max’s first panic attack and I hope he never has one again. Poor guy got a huge blister on his foot from running on the hot cement. 

He said, “Mom, one good thing that came out of this experience is, I learned how to cross the road.”

Max invented a New Word!

Represemble - which Max says means... We need to represent and resemble Christ.

Magnificent Max gave a talk in church.

Hello I’m glad you are here.  I am here for you today to talk on “Now is the time to prepare to meet God.”  I would like to live with God again.  The way we get back to God is through God’s Plan.  Elder Nelson in his April 2005 conference address, said, “We are here to be tested to see if we are worthy of receiving all that our Father in Heaven has.”   He said, “We prove ourselves worthy of his Glory, through our obedience.” Obedience to what? 

In Abraham 3:25, it says: And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them.

Jesus said in John 14:15; If ye love me, keep my commandments.

Heavenly Father loves us and wants us all to return to him, but he has said through his scriptures that “No unclean thing can be in his presence”.  Yet he knows that we are human and we have faults that will keep us from his presence.  Because he loves us he prepared a way that we can wipe away those imperfections so we can be with him again.  We all know that this is the atonement of Jesus Christ.  Jesus was the sacrifice that will allow us to return to our Heavenly Father, if we repent.

Alma 34: 32 & 33 says:

“This life is the time to prepare to meet God; Yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors.”

33 And now, as I said unto you before, as ye have had so many witnesses, therefore, I beseech of you that ye do not procrastinate the day of your repentance until the end; for after this day of life, which is given us to prepare for eternity, behold, if we do not improve our time while in this life, then cometh the night of darkness wherein there can be no labor performed.

This tells us that we need to prepare now.  We should not put this off because our eternal destiny is what is at risk.

In Elder Nelson’s talk, he shared the experience of the passing of his wife.  He talked about her worthiness and how she was prepared to meet God.  If we expect to live with God again, we have to prepare for that day. 

Everyone has talents.  One of my talents in life is baseball.  If I want to improve, I have to practice and prepare for the games.  To prepare I go to batting cages and baseball practices so my coaches can teach me about the game.  Each time I go to the batting cages and baseball practices I gain more knowledge of how to improve myself in this sport.  The baseball practices and batting cages help me to prepare to  play different positions on the field and to be a good team mate and how to make a homerun.

Like my baseball team, we have coaches in life that help us to gain the knowledge we need about life.  They are people that have been called by God to lead us, like the prophet and apostles and other church leaders..  God revealed in Doctrine & Covenants 1:38

 38 What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself; and though the heavens and the earth pass away, my word shall not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same.

In Amos 3:7 it tells us:  7 Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.

Like I said earlier, I want to live with God.  I Love Him and I appreciate all he has done to help me to be able to progress in life.  So I’m willing to make the changes in my life that will bring me closer to him and his kingdom.

I hope you can have the same desire to prepare, by listening to our loving Heavenly Father who wants to wrap his arms around you.