I was surprised to see our assignments posted on Sunday this week. Of course that didn't mean that I started working early.....but Andrea and I set two goals for ourselves early on. The first was to finish the Email Community assignment by Tuesday. The second was to finish our peer reviews by Wednesday. We succeeded! Neither of those assignments were tough, just took a little time to sort through. Of course that left us with the genres to complete. The whole week we have kind of been talking about how we were going to do our powerpoint, and then deciding on what our 6th genre should be. Sometime last night we decided that we had to crank those babies out, or we couldn't party this weekend! I think we finally hit the bed around 3 am. I was relieved, though that I had gotten something accomplished. My powerpoint still needs some work, mostly just addition of information to my slides. I was torn about what to do for my 6th genre. I just opened Microsoft Works last night and decided to do a newsletter. I believe that a newsletter was on my original list, but I didn't do it because I didn't have the format. I realized that my laptop has more up-to-date software on it, so I decided to use it. The other reason I was torn is because I am still trying to bring my genres together. Here are the 2 thoughts that I have about it: Oh, but first I just have a question. Is there going to be point where we *write* an answer to our question point blank? I know that our genres are supposed to answer that question, and I have to tried to answer it. Although, the answer may be more implicit than explicit. Are people supposed to be able to read through our MRP, and glean their own answer to our questions? Anyway, I have taken a outright stance on the funding issue for AAC devices. So I was thinking that I could use my genres as information supplied in a court case of someone who is actively trying to get coverage for an AAC device, or I could use it some sort of National Advocacy Conference (where the genres are used to heighten awareness and *bite* them with the advocacy bug) Through my genres, especially the journal and column, I have tried to tie in an emotional aspect that would make someone think about the importance of funding. I was also thinking about the 2nd half of my journal entry....should I do a much later entry date (a point after which she has already received an AAC device) and use that information to provide personal reasons why coverage is so important? My first entry is a point at which they are discussing a device, but no coverage stands in the way. Maybe that would be a nice contrast. I was also thinking that maybe I could do smaller journal entries, but more of them. I think it would kind of nice to show a little progression from entry one to entry two, plus I don't want to write a book for each entry....... I know I am swirling a lot of information around in this journal, but it about time that I get this figured out.

What else? I hope that things are coming together. Sometimes I think it’s harder for me to see it coming together because I am on the inside looking out. I am still trying to scour through all of the information and make it coherent. Hopefully others can see progress.

So needless to say, my brain has been burning this week. Andrea and I were talking earlier in the week about how we realized that we were not really seeing the *BIG* picture, but rather little steps that hopefully would get us to the big picture. So together we are making a shift in thinking. You know what they say…….two brains are better than one!