5 Things You Didn't Know About This SLP...

I guess the first thing I should tell everyone is I am an SLPA and SLP2B (a current grad student).

Thank you for visiting my blog! And thank you to Jessica for setting up this amazing linky party and offering a giveaway. Don't forget to head on over to Jessica's Blog to enter a giveaway for a $25 Amazon Gift Card (just in time for the holidays).

I decided to link up to share five things about my life. These are five personal facts and are NOT professionally related! Please share a fun fact about yourself in the comments, I would love to get to know my readers better!

FIRST, I spoke Spanish before I spoke English. Weird right? I grew up with Hispanic nannies and somehow just picked it up. Now its a great skill for "Bilingual"ish therapy.

SECOND, Almost eight months ago I got fixed up with my current boyfriend and we have a great story. I don't know what I would do without him sometimes! It's kind of scary to admit that I think I'm ready to get married (after I finish grad school of course).

THIRD, I am left handed. I am one of 5 left handers in 4 generations on my maternal side. Although, I play all (and I use that term loosely as I'm not very athletic) sports right handed.

FOURTH, I am a crafty person. In the least year I learned how to knit, crochet, and cross stitch. I wish I had more time to work on all of them.

FIFTH, I am a closet reality TV fanatic. A few of my favorite channels to watch are Bravo and E! and I'm not ashamed!!

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Breana

Vacation!!!!

For the first time in a few years I finally got to go on vacation to a NEW place!!! New York was an amazing adventure filled with the 3 F's (friends, family, and food). This was my first trip to a new place since my diagnosis almost seven years ago. I know what you are thinking, wow! this girl never gets to travel. Well it's true, traveling is something I want to do but don't have a budget for right now. I didn't realize how different it was going to be traveling with food allergies. Keep reading to learn about some restaurants I found and the ways I managed to not get glutened.

The first part of the trip was spent in upstate New York. Kingston/Boiceville were beautiful with a small town feel. My cousin got married at Onteora Mountain House. It was a beautiful venue in the mountains. The rehearsal dinner was at Hickory Smoked BBQ in Kingston. The restaurant was amazing at verifying all of the food they served. Platters were delivered to each table, but to make sure there was not going to be an issue, a separate plate was brought to me (directly from the kitchen) with a little bit of everything I could eat. When I wanted more food, the wait staff was great at bringing me out individual servings of everything. The wedding venue itself provided a gluten-free/ vegetarian option for wedding guests. I am still trying to figure out what I ate, but can tell you they have great bartenders that make great drinks. I don't know what I would have done without the open bar. The brunch provided the next morning was nice with an omelette station, fresh fruit, and some other not gluten free items.

Next came a few days in the East Northport neighborhood of Long Island. This included a day trip to Greenport, some wine tasting, and a stop at a side of the road farm stand. Greenport was a cute little city right on the water. We had amazing seafood at a restaurant called Crabby Jerry's. I didn't get a picture of my fresh seafood because I was so hungry I couldn't wait to start eating. We found an old-school ice cream shop and got root beer floats, took a walk and ride on a carousel. On the way home we stopped at Pindar Winery, only to find out they do not ship to California, and at a farm stand to get some fresh corn and fruit.

The trip ended with a few beautiful and hot days in "The City". My family and I stayed in a beautiful (brand new) Hampton Inn a few blocks from Times Square. We ate at a variety of different restaurants including Etcetera, Etcetera (http://etcetcnyc.com), The Lincoln Square Steak (http://lincolnsquaresteak.com), Macy's in Harold Square, and Ben's Kosher Cuisine. We also did the typical touristy thing, sightseeing by Circle Line Tour, The Empire State Building, the 9/11 Museum, and Times Square. Check out those amazing coffee cups from the Hampton Inn.

 This was dinner on the way home! The wine was courtesy of United Airlines for not having a pilot in the correct airport when it was time to take off. We only left 90 minutes late!

 I was very impressed how gluten free friendly all of the restaurants on the trip were. I had no trouble finding food to eat or places to snack around the city. My fear of traveling is over and i know i can feel comfortable eating most anywhere I choose to travel.

Have you been to NYC and found a gluten free friendly restaurant? Please share!!

Breana

ASHA 2015 and Freebie!

This past weekend I attended my FIRST ASHA convention in Denver, Colorado. I was very overwhelmed by the amount of exhibitors in the exhibit hall and by the amount of sessions and poster sessions that I had to pick from.

The first thing I have to do is yell a BIG thank you to Linda and Ray from Creative Speech Products!!! Not only did they bring me in as an exhibitor, I got to spend the weekend learning more about Teddy than I could ever have imagined.
Asking yourself what Teddy is? Teddy Talker is an amazing felt board manipulative system with many different components. The felt board kit comes with a variety of letters, mouth positions, a tongue and the Teddy felt board so students can manipulate the lips for different sounds. You can also get sound cards with the different phonemes and poems to help with placement, a toolkit with 5-6 different lessons for each phoneme and worksheets to send home, the B.E.A.R.R. track card game, and the Build and Say kit (review will be published soon). Teddy is great for kids as young as 3 years old who have speech sound disorders, apraxia, or even Down syndrome.

 This is Baby Bear, Teddy cousin. He and I were both saying "Oh, no!" when it was time to clean up.

I think my favorite part of ASHA was getting to meet all of the bloggers I have been following for so many years. Each blogger gave out some fun swag. Not only did the bloggers host a meet up during the conference (with prizes), but other bloggers (not associated with the blogger booth) were also on hand. It's weird to introduce yourself by your blog name and not your actual name.

ASHA also gave me a chance to make some great connections for the blog. Keep checking back for some amazing product and app reviews. I made some connections with Hamaguchi Apps, Colorcards, Northern Speech Products, Fiddle Focus, Virtual Speech Center, and Invention Labs (the creators of Avaz). There are also some product reviews coming that you are no going to want to miss!

I saw Shawn who is the author behind The Speech Wizard. We actually met at CSHA earlier this year. She is a pediatric feeding therapist when she is not working. I am really excited to learn from her.

I met the one and only Michelle Garcia Winner! I wish I had brought my Superflex book so i could have gotten her autograph.

I met Meredith from Peachie Speechie and even bought a few new t-shirts for myself.

 Super Duper had a HUGE booth as expected and even brought friends to watch their products!! Catch that amazing carpet! I wish i could have taken some of it home!

This was just one part of the convention center once the exhibit hall closed. Thank you everyone for making ASHA such an experience.

Oh!!! I almost forgot. I handed out a FREE product at ASHA. Here is the link! Go in and get the product before December 20 or its gone.

Already counting down the days to ASHA 2016!!!

Breana