Zavoral Villa!

In December 2016, we finally got some solid answers to why Tanner has so many struggles. He was diagnosed with General Anxiety Disorder (GAD) and Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD or SID). This post focuses on the anxiety portion of the diagnosis.  I will write about SPD later.  Overall, hearing that Tanner has GAD was extremely relieving.  In fact, in a very real way, it was vindicating.  For years, some teachers, neighbors, friends and family tried to tell me that Tanner's struggles were nothing to be concerned about. "You're over-thinking this." "All kids worry, that's normal."    "He never acts that way around us."  "He's just really smart for his age." Some days and weeks Tanner seemed like any other 3, 4 and 5 year old. Other weeks he acted just like my students on the autism spectrum. Other days, it seemed like his struggles were related to hypoglycemia. And yet other times, depression and anxiety seemed to be his plague. I ...

Jeremy and I went to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico for 6 days in January!!  It was all paid for by Hormel because Jeremy exceeded the goals for his brand. We were so excited to have this opportunity!! Cabo is the place where we Honeymooned! So it was really neat to come back 10.5 years later. (Tanner and Dallin stayed in Austin Mn with family friends half of the week and a newlywed couple in our house the second half of the week. They had almost as much fun as we did). Our hotel view was beautiful. The resort was inspired by Egyptian styles. Most of our meals were eaten at the resort, and it was all delicious. We ate, relaxed, ate, made new friends while eating, walked on the beach, ate, rested, wrote in our journals, ate while doing projects and reading books, and ate some more.  We went on a few excursions. We enjoyed massages at the spa. Jeremy went golfing on a super fancy golf course with co-workers. We both went Zip-lining! I've done a couple courses before, and this one was aw...