Well, It’s Been a Minute

Or make that more like 344,100 minutes.

Because how is it already August and this is my first post for 2025?

One could argue that I haven’t needed this blog of late in the same way I used to. It’s true that I have a living, breathing partner here with me every day with whom I can process my (many! oh so many!) thoughts on life, the universe, and everything. Or perhaps I have been finding other writing outlets (yes, a few, including starting a professional blog).

But the truth is, I haven’t really thought about it. Well, not often. Every once in a while a thought would pop up that “that would be good to blog about…” after which I would inevitably be pulled in a different, distracting direction and completely forget about it.

Life is busy. Always. So why this sudden pull drawing me back to having a public outlet for my personal writing? Dunno. But here I am on a Sunday evening, choosing to indulge that itch to write instead of attending to the myriad of other tasks I probably should be doing instead.

So what has been happening in the last, oh, eight months for the Sawyer-Espinoza clan?

Well, there’s been Jaime’s permanent residency status, having my last child graduate from elementary school, another high school graduate, my oldest two moving out into their own apartment at Utah Valley University, expanding my clinic to have four speech pathologists, an occupational therapist, and an administrative assistant, growing our volunteer accent modification class Jaime and I teach each week, busy with church callings, and just everyday, bustling life.

I’ve had quite the summer. I was the guest presenter at Aspen Grove’s family camp the beginning of the summer (free getaway vacation for me and Jaime – woohoo!), and I also presented at a conference in Logan in June, and just last week I taught five classes at BYU’s Education Week (and set an Education Week record for number of class attendees in the Clyde Building – exciting!). In July I took a solo trip to Vancouver, BC to meet up with my bestie, Liz, then the day after I got back we left for a week long Alford family reunion at Aspen Grove (I was shockingly good at the ax throwing…), and right after that Jaime and I took a two week trip to Chile (my first), arriving home two weeks ago.

And…starting a new job. I learned while we were in Chile that I had been chosen as BYU’s new clinic manager for their speech and language clinic. !!!!!!!! To say that this is my dream job is an understatement. I have wanted to be back at BYU for, well, always, ever since I was a student there many moons ago. My official start date was last Tuesday (yes, smack in the middle of Education Week), and there have been a lot of things to do with getting kids started with a new school year, moving out two children, and especially with transferring things for my clinic over to other clinicians. Because yes, Sawyer Speech and Language Therapy is still very much actively seeing clients, and continuing to grow, I am just stepping back from seeing my own full caseload there (although I am still seeing a few).

It can be easy to get overwhelmed by how many things I haven’t written about, or photos I haven’t posted, and then not get anything written at all. I don’t want to do that, so even though I have (hundreds!) of amazing photos from my travels and family adventures, and oh-so-many more anecdotes and stories, I’m going to make the executive decision that it’s better to get something posted rather than stressing on all that I haven’t done. (See how far this perfectionist has come?) Because I am tired and my bed is calling. (See how far this often over-scheduled workaholic has come in actually paying attention to her body’s cues for self-care?) Although here’s hoping that it won’t be another eight months before you hear from me again!