On the Move

Joseph is on the Move
Classes have begun for the spring semester at the UofU for Joseph. He is a non-matriculated grad student (not yet officially accepted into the grad program). His classes in the Public Administration Department include:

• Administration Theory
• Research Design
• Disabilities Study Forum

Joseph's work in his internship at the Disabilities Law Center is very exciting and he really loves it. On Monday he was interviewed at length by KUTV's Rod Decker and was on the KUTV News at Noon, 5PM and again at 6PM. (We'll see if we can get some footage to include in a future post). A big refinery fire bumped it from the 10PM news.

The big issue is the budget cuts necessary because of the economic downturn. The State will be cutting budgets drastically, the question is where? Joseph has really enjoyed attending Appropriation Committee meetings and visiting with many different senators and representatives. He had a really engaging private visit with the Speaker of the House David Clark (R) in his office for 30 minutes on Jan 12.

At noon this coming Wednesday (21st) Joseph will be speaking at the UofU's Hinckley Institute in a forum: Service, Politics and Disabilities (See the program here: http://www.hinckley.utah.edu/events/forums/Jan_forums.pdf ). He also has several visits with other media outlets in the coming days. He makes a pretty effective spokesman for those with disabilities. Some of the potential loss of State funding could have a huge impact on our family.

Tim is on the Move
On Jan. 12th Tim had his followup visit to the surgeon on his leg. He took his thumb drive and talked the Dr. out of the X-rays. They show the plate, screws and pin Dr. Butterfield installed in Tim's Fibula. (click on this link: http://www.amicusvisualsolutions.com/cgi-bin/reference.cgi?topic=0711072_FibulaFixation to see an illustration of how it works, and click here to Enlarge a different one).

The next day he was back at work using his cool new scooter instead of crutches. Joseph clued him into the option, showing his dad photos of several styles downloaded from the internet. After the Dr. faxed a perscription, IHC delivered it to the house. The scooter is awesome on the straightaways, not so speedy to do a U-turn. At church today the kids were all jealous. In two more weeks Tim can walk on his new boot.

Gloria: the Bearings That Keep Us All Moving
The only reason the males in the Taggart household can move at all is because of Gloria's sacrifice and constant hard work. As transportation coordinator she has had to drive everyone everywhere this past little bit. Tim is anxious to try driving this coming week. He will just have to wait to put his protective boot on when he gets where he going. We'll hope for the best.