One week ago today it became official.  The United States Congress has now passed legislation the removes the term “mental retardation” from all federal laws.  Now all existing education, health and labor laws will change the phrase “mentally retarded” to “an individual with an intellectual disability.”  Though it may seem a bit too politically correct, [...]

I met with a parent the other day who mentioned that her son with special needs had recently started school, and she had one of his therapists go with them to get him started.  It’s a good thing she did, because the goals that had been laid out for him by the previous program were [...]

Facebook is a phenomenon I can’t quite put into words.  You can learn more than you ever wanted to about people.  I have to admit I’ve become a “Facebook stalker” at times, checking in on status updates of any of a number of my 700+ friends.  (That’s not to brag, but you get to know [...]

I recently read an article about a family touting the special education their autistic son was receiving in his new school.  The family had moved from another state (not mentioned in the article) to a city in Tennessee, and their son was receiving exemplary care and education in his new location.  His skill set had [...]

As the 2010 United Way campaign gets underway in our community, the clients and staff at ARC Marion were proud to participate in the campaign kick-off yesterday that was a bit unorthodox.  Instead of the usual meeting of business leaders and agencies over breakfast or lunch with a speaker, announcement of the campaign goal, and [...]

My two-month-old baby had his first shots on Friday.  It was pretty emotional for me, since I knew I had a meeting to go to after his appointment.  I had completely forgotten that he was supposed to have them, and my babysitter was in the waiting room ready to take him home.  After he received [...]

A few weeks ago, I alluded to the fact that I’m not much of a reader, but I have found that once a good book gets in your blood, the interest in more good books sort of just keeps flowing.  When my husband suggested we go browse the Clearance racks at our local bookstore after [...]

This weekend was the start of college football.  Growing up in the south, I have loved this time of year since I wore my first Tennessee Volunteers cheerleading outfit as a two-year-old.  I like all sorts of sports, but there’s just something special about college football for me.
There were a few games over Labor Day [...]

I have friends and relatives alike who all of a sudden seemed to get on this “gluten-free diet” kick. over the past year or so  It seemed to have come out of nowhere, and I was pretty shocked and amazed when they would make such a big deal out of it.  If you don’t know, [...]