Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas Day! Ours has been a quiet relaxing one for our immediate family at least!

Darling Daughter did a wonderful job with the reading at church yesterday morning. The program last night went off with only a few minor problems. I overcame my fears and I think I did a good job with the songs I interpreted last night. We had at least one deaf individual in the audience last night and they said they might come to our interpreted services on Sundays. So that was a wonderful, unexpected outcome from last night!

I said we had a quiet Christmas but unfortunately my Hubby's parents did not, they spent the day in the ER. My MIL had been down and out with a virus this weekend and apparently my FIL took it last night as well. She found him passed out in the bathroom today and she got him up but then he passed out again, so she called an ambulance. They were both checked out in the ER and apparently there is a really bad virus making the rounds in the North Texas area. They are back home now and hopefully on the mend. Our holiday plans with them are up in the air at this point but we definitely don't want to go up there until they are all better and the house has been fumigated!

Say a little prayer for them and enjoy the rest of your Holiday! Blessings Ya'll!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Here is wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas! We have a busy weekend ahead of us. Darling Daughter will be doing a Christmas reading at Church tomorrow morning while Hubby will be interpreting the sermon. She is excited about doing the reading and does not seem to be a bit nervous!

Tomorrow night, we will be having a special Christmas Eve Service and both Hubby and I will be interpreting for that. This will be the first time in a long time I have done any interpreting and I AM nervous. Pray that it goes well for me and I don't goof up too much.

If I don't have time to blog again. We wish all of you a wonderful Christmas full of God's richest blessings for you and your families. If you can, take a moment and say a special prayer for all the men and women serving in the military. We owe them a great debt of gratitude for all they do to keep us safe.

Yeah, with a broken halo!

You Are an Angel

A truly giving soul, you understand the spirit of Christmas.

What Christmas Ornament Are You?

HALLELUJAH!!!!!!!

I am officially done with my Christmas Shopping! Yeah! I bought my last two gifts this morning, so I am finished! Now all I have left is a little cooking and a lot of enjoying the season! Yahoo! Now if it would just get a little colder and maybe snow!

Hope you all are having a Blessed Monday!

These things are so silly but lots of fun!

You Are Dancer

Carefree and fun, you always find reasons to do a happy dance. Why You're Naughty: That dark stint you had as Santa's private dancer. Why You're Nice: You're friendly. Very friendly.

Which of Santa's Reindeer Are You?

Hot Date Tonight!

Hey, I had a hot date tonight with a really cute fella (that I happen to be married to!)and we had a great time. Hubby surprised me with dinner at The Melting Pot. Yummy! We had this cozy little corner booth for two with hardly any traffic by the table. I think we saw one couple pass the table, with the only other people being waitpeople. That is pretty amazing considering they were packed. We will ask for that table again.

We went all out and had the "big night out" dinner. It was Cheese Fondue with bread, veggies and apples, followed by a yummy Caesar salad. The main course was lobster, beef cubes, chicken, shrimp and ravioli with veggies. The fondue was a highly seasoned broth. You cook your meat and veggies in the broth using skewers. We ended the meal with Flaming Turtle, which was chocolate, caramel and pecans flambeed at the table, served with cheese cake, pineapple, strawberries, bananas, brownie cubes and cake cubes. (oh, yeah there were marshmallows too! It sounds like a tremendous amount of food and it was plenty but the portions are cut into small pieces

It was a really fun meal and we totally enjoyed ourselves! Only negative thing was it was expensive but a really fun night for once in awhile. I think I will see if the girls want to go sometime just for dessert! Hope you all had as enjoyable of a Friday night as I did. Tomorrow we clean house! Whoopee!!!!!

Please Take A Few Seconds...

...and pray for the Family of Sarah B. Sarah was a 37 year old Christian, Mother of 4, who lost her battle with Lymphoblastic Leukemia on Monday. Sarah was a member of the Fairfax Church of Christ, where we attended for almost 7 years between 1994 and 2000.

Sarah showed such faith and courage during her battle with Leukemia and was a shining example to the Doctors, Nurses and other Patients. She is at home with her Lord now and is dancing with the angels.

I ask you all to say a special prayer for her family. She leaves behind many who love and need her. She has 4 children under the age of 9. My heart breaks for them as they are probably too young to understand.

Please pray for the comfort of God's hand on her husband's head. Please pray that the family will feel the love and concern of all their fellow Christians. Please pray for a measure of peace for their broken hearts.

Please pray that somehow these blessed little children will understand that their Mother did not choose to leave them. Please pray that a cure for cancer will be found.

Thank You for taking time to read this and to pray for Sarah's family.
I only have one more thing to ask you to pray for:

Please pray to God and thank him for all the blessings that He has given to you and your family, pray that He will open your eyes and heart to the wonder of it all.

Love It

It is so great to hear to the doorbell ring or that loud beating on the door that the delivery man likes to do. I wish I had done ALL my Christmas Shopping this way! Everyday it is a new surprise as to which package the delivery man will bring! Whoo Hoo!

Yesterday Scrooge, Today Tiny Tim!

Yesterday I was having a Scrooge day but after a really cute Christmas Program at darling daughters PTA meeting and some much needed attention by my wonderful Hubby, I am feeling more like Tiny Tim!

The third grade did a Christmas show yesterday (the school figured out real quick to have the kids perform at all PTA meeting to boost attedance)and darling daughter was a cutie patootee in red! One of the music teachers used to perform at Fiesta Texas (6 Flags Amusement Park) and it really shows in the programs. They managed to include Kawanza, Hannaka and Christmas into one program and included Felix Navidad to support our Hispanic Culture as well.

I can't say I enjoyed the behavior of some of the parents at the PTA meeting. They showed such disregard for other people's feelings, it was disgusting to watch. They allowed their children to run wild, knocking people over, it was such a stark contrast to how the kids behave during the school day, so I know they are able to behave, the parents just don't require it like the school does. It is a shame that parents expect the school to teach their child discipline but then don't enforce it on their watch. Ok I will get off my soapbox now!

Think I will go do some Christmas shopping while I am still in a good mood. Hope you are all enjoying a beautiful Weds. morning! Blessings!

Just Wondering

Think I have got too much time on my hands!

Your Language Arts Grade: 100%

Way to go! You know not to trust the MS Grammar Check and you know "no" from "know." Now, go forth and spread the good word (or at least, the proper use of apostrophes).

Are You Gooder at Grammar?
Make a Quiz

You Are Midnight

You are more than a little eccentric, and you're apt to keep very unusual habits. Whether you're a nightowl, living in a commune, or taking a vow of silence - you like to experiment with your lifestyle. Expressing your individuality is important to you, and you often lie awake in bed thinking about the world and your place in it. You enjoy staying home, but that doesn't mean you're a hermit. You also appreciate quality time with family and close friends.

What Time Of Day Are You?

Good to Be Home!

Our Thanksgiving week was nice but involved entirely too much road traveling. Darling Daughter was off all week and my parents wanted her to spend a few days with them before Thanksgiving. We drove about 3 1/2 hours to meet them on Saturday, then turned around and drove home because hubby had to interpret at church on the 19th. Then we spent three days working around the house (and just enjoying some alone time together) before driving about 8 hours on Weds. to get to Arkansas for Thanksgiving with my Dad's side of the family.
My parents have a camp in Ark. which consists of a motor home permanently anchored and a little building about 12 X 12, which has a small bathroom with a shower, a stacked washer and dryer and a sleeper sofa (which is where we spend the night) while my parents and darling daughter sleep in motor home. We had Thanksgiving lunch with my Great Uncle and about 40 relatives. Then after lunch we drove to the Dallas area to my husbands parents.
Darling daughter had a blast at both places, she loves the woods and camping and she is crazy about her cousin that lives near Dallas. She is only 15 months older than this cousin so they play well together. As soon as we pulled into the driveway this cousin was running to the car and gave DD a best friend bracelet that has "best" on one bracelet and "friends" on the other.
We had a good visit with hubby's parents and two brothers (and families). My MIL has always wanted to plan a "girls night out", so this year she bought tickets for the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular for all 8 of the girls. She has three daughters in laws and 4 granddaughters. That was a fun trip. The guys went and visited with their grandparents who are shut ins now and live about 2 hours away.
Sunday we decided to leave Dallas early to beat the rush home. Boy am I glad we did. About 10:30 there was a major wreck in Waco which shut down both sides of the freeway causing all traffic to be rerouted, not just to the service road but thru town. Fortunately, we were there right after it happened so the traffic had not had time to really build up and it only delayed us about 30 or 40 minutes. If we had left after lunch like we usually do we would have had a much longer delay.
I think we figured out that we put about 1400 miles on my van this week with all the driving we did. Think I want to just stay home for awhile. Here is an interesting tidbit for those of you with children. Do not allow your children to collect acorns and then leave them in the car for a couple of days. Darling Daughter had collected a plastic container full of acorns while in Ark., left them in the car for about 4 days and opened them up on the trip home. She then let out a blood curling scream when she found worms in the container. I just slapped the lid back on and deposited the whole thing in the trash when we stopped for lunch! I don't think DD is going to be as anxious to collect acorns as she used to be!

Hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving and are ready for the Christmas Season to begin. We have our first Christmas party this friday, I guess I need to get busy and get the decorations up, so we will be in the spirit! Blessings!

Feeling Much Better!

Thanks to all who sent me well wishes last week, I am feeling much better and only have a little cough lingering. Darling daughter is out of school this week and spending a few days with her grandparents! Hubby also is off this week, so we are spending some much needed time together and getting a few things done around the house before the craziness of the holiday begins.

Hope you all have a safe and happy holiday! Enjoy your family, friends and of course the yummy food! Don't forget the reason for the Holiday! Thanks be to God for all of his blessings!

UGHHHH!

I habba stuffy nose and sore throat. I think it must be Fall allergy season!

I feel like the seven dwarfs:

1.Stuffy
2.Sneezy
3.Drippy
4. Crabby
5. Achy
6. Itchy
and hubby's favorite:
7. B*&^%y (I think you all know which one that is!)

Hope it will all "blow" over soon!

What A Way to Start The Week

I woke up this morning at 5 am to the booming of Thunder and Lightning. I tried to get a few more winks in before my 6:10 wake up call but the power went out which caused the rechargeable flashlight to light up the bedroom, conviently place by my side of the bed.

Hubby set his watch alarm and we tried to go back to sleep but with all the noise and the rude awakening, I was up! You don't think about how much of your life is controlled by electricity until it goes out. The alarm on the house has a back up battery but it starts blinking and beeping to let you know that your power has gone out (duh, I would not have figured that one out!)

I was trying to figure out what all I needed to do to get darling daughter ready for school in the dark, how to get the garage door hooked back up after we disengage it to get the cars out, if the school has power and if it is even worth getting darling daughter up for school, will the bus make it on time since the traffic lights are out?

We called the school and the answering machine picked up so we figured they had power and we should get darling daughter up for school. The power came back on at about 6:35 so I did not have to worry about the garage door and the bus was on time. So it all worked out in the end.

We had a good day at church yesterday. We have been involved in a long process to raise money for a new building. It has been building up (pun intended) with meetings, mailings and lessons all geared towards turning in pledge cards yesterday.

They had asked the families that they had designated as being "leaders" to go ahead and make their pledges last week, so we were already done with our part. They had a brunch during Bible Class and then a special service to encourage the rest of the congregation to fill out and turn in the pledge cards. The great news is that the "leaders" who turned in the pledges early (and less than half of the people that were designated as "leaders" actually turned them in) had already contributed almost 1/2 of the target goal.

There has been a lot of prayer put into this campaign and it looks like God has really touched a lot of hearts to give sacrificially and we should make our target goal. We have totally outgrown our building and there is no room to expand at our present location. I look forward to a time when we have room to all meet together in one service and plenty of classroom space to meet in but I also look forward to outgrowing that building as we continue to spread God's message to the people of this community.

It is an exciting yet scary time for us, as we try to begin this new signing ministry which hopefully with God's blessing will grow into a Deaf ministry. Please pray for all of us.

Close Call!

Whew I dodged a bullet last night! I shutter to think how close I came to a really awful situation.

It all started innocently enough, my hubby has a co-worker who recently adopted a 10 month old baby boy. He mentioned last night that co-worker is looking for someone to keep the baby for half days three or four days every week.

Being the helpful wife I am, I piped up, I could do that. It would be fun to be around a baby again. Hubby looked at me like I had lost my mind! He was right I had lost my mind!

What was I thinking? My Baby is 9 years old, my house is not child proof, it isn't even dog proofed anymore. My body is old, I don't want to change poopy diapers and chase a toddler (he is already walking).

After I did some quick thinking, I retracted my offer and told hubby I would keep my ears open for someone else who might want to keep the baby. I help teach the cradle roll on Weds. nights at church and that will do fine to keep my baby lust in check. I get to play with them, love on them, smell that sweet baby smell (except when they have poopy diapers) and best of all....give them back after an hour or so!

Yep, I dodged a bullet that time! Whew!!!!

Parable of The Toilet Seat

Once there was a family who lived all together in a big house, on a nice street, in the good part of town. One night the wife went to use the toilet in the dark as not to disturb her sleeping husband, as he was a hard worker and she knew he needed his sleep. She was very tired also from watching their children, taking care of their home and all the numerous volunteer duties she had. In her weariness, and the pressing urgency of her bladder (brought on in part from the numerous children she had bore), she forgot to check the seat and fell in with a splash.

The howling awoke the whole family as Mother, vocally expressed her shock at the cold, wet, water that now drenched her lower body and nighgown. The husband and children all had a good laugh at poor Mothers expense, Mother cleaned herself up, got all the children put back to bed (all by herself I might add because hubby was already snoring loudly by this point) and then she was able to go back to bed herself.

Little did she and her family know what lay in wait for them……From that simple fall into the toilet bowl had set in motion a chain of events that would lead to tragedy. As the family slept so peacefully, a tiny germ, introduced through the act of falling into the germ laden toilet bowl, took hold of Mothers body.

A few days later, Mother noticed that she did not have the energy she usually possessed. She shrugged it off , as we all know that Mothers do not have time to be sick. By the time the rest of the family noticed the toil the germ was taking on dear Mother, it was too late!

The germ took over her body and then her mind, poor Mother was not herself anymore. Father came home to find dirty dishes in the sink, clothes piled knee high in the laundry room, a message on the answering machine asking that Little Johnny be picked up from Day Care. Mother had simply vanished.

As for her Family, the dishes and the clothes eventually took over the house, as there was no one to clean them with Mother gone. Little Johnny was adopted by the Day Care Center Owner, as no one ever bothered to retrieve him that day. The other children have grown up to wander aimlessly around, begging from neighbors and friends. Father has taken to finding comfort in a bottle, as there is no one left at home.

So what happened to Mother? Some say she ran away to Tahiti because she knew she was losing her mind and did not want to harm her family in any way, others say she found a cure in Fiji along with a handsome young lover who does not take her for granted and NEVER, EVER LEAVES THE SEAT UP!



--This was written in response to Niki's blog about toilet seats, it does not reflect any problem in my marriage. My sweet hubby never leaves the seat up!

Remapping

I haven't written about my cochlear implant in a while so I thought I would post an update. I have made some real progress with it over the last few months. I was picking up a lot of background noise that was driving me batty, so when I had the remap session yesterday I had her change the sensativity. It seems better today.

I still struggle in noisy environments but I think I am doing pretty good in quieter settings. Music still does not sound so great to me. The audiologist says this is pretty normal and it will take longer for my brain to process the music just because it is more complexed than voices. She did make a special program that is supposed to make music sound better and it did seem to sound a little better when we tested it in her office.

Right now, I am really more interested in becoming more proficient with understanding speech. So I am not too concerned about the music, although I do miss having music in my life. I have come so far since last year, when I first started this long journey.

Hope you are all having a blessed week. Say a little prayer for my hubby as he is sick with a sinus infection and not feeling so well. Time for darling daughter to get off the school bus so I better go! Blessings!

There's got to be a morning after.....

We held on thru the night and survived the Birthday Sleepover! Whew, glad that is done with and peace returns to this house. Baby Girl celebrated her 9th Birthday yesterday. Hubby and I took Baby Girl and three of her closest (and noisiest) friends to dinner last night.

We took the girls to The Magic Time Machine. They had a blast, we were seated in a booth shaped like a hut with little windows and the girls spent a large portion of the time hanging out the windows trying to get the cast members (waitpersons) to sign their autograph (menu) books. They would scream everytime the Johnny Depp character from Pirates of the Carribean came by. He autographed by putting his sword thru the menus, err I mean autograph books. Basically, you don't go to this place for the food but it was an evening of fun.

We returned to the house for cake, presents, dress up play, movie and some impromptu dancing by the girls. One little girl elected to go home, rather than spend the night but the other two camped out on the family room rug. We seriously started trying to get them down by midnight and I think for the most part succeeded by 1 am. It was our own who had the most trouble winding down.

Hubby got up and fixed them some breakfast this morning letting me sleep in, (he is such a sweetie, I think I will keep him!) The last girl went home about 11 and took baby girl with her! So it is quiet here again. I am glad they all had a great time and I am very glad it is over with for at least another year. You would think noise would not bother a deaf person but it just adds chaos to confusion for me.

Happy Birthday to my beloved Baby Girl, we are so glad that God has blessed us to be your parents for the last 9 years. You are growing into such a sweet young lady and we are very proud of you!

Monday Musings

Hello all, here's hoping you had a great weekend. Ours finished better than it started out.

To those who care for "rest of the story" regarding the plumber. He called about 6 pm on Thursday and asked to come out and finish the job. He arrived at 6:40 and soon was working in the dark. My daughter being the sweet thing that she is, was worried that he might cut his finger or something and wanted to go hold the flashlight for him. I assured her that if he cut himself he would come to the door and I would (maybe) call 911 for him. I was not too sympathetic towards him having to work late due to the number of bright sun shiny hours I spent waiting on him. He finished the job about 8:30 and presented me with the $225. bill, then graciously took $20 off because he was such a sweet guy. I am glad to be finished with him and do not plan to use that company again. He never even apologized for all the time he kept me waiting.

Friday we had planned to leave as soon as darling daughter got out of school for a trip to my parents house but Hubby did not know if he would be able to make the trip due to problems at work. Fortunately, he was able to work everything out and we got on the road by 5pm. The only good thing about leaving here late is that traffic thru Houston was not as bad. We arrived at my parents home around 9 45.

We celebrated darling daughter's birthday on Sat. with a family party. Granny made her a doll cake, which thrilled her. I wish I had a picture but forgot to bring the camera. We visited with my brother and his family and watched the Aggies beat Missouri! Darling daughter has money burning a hole in her pocket now, as both my parents and my brother gave her money for her birthday. We keep trying to explain to her that she might (will) get some more money for her actual birthday and if she waits she might be able to buy something really nice, rather than just nickle and dime-ing it away.

Sunday, we went to church with my parent for a Homecoming Celebration. My brother and his wife came also (quite an accomplishment as my brother does not usually go to church) and we were able to see the refurbished building. The church building lost its roof in last years Hurricane and due to the delay in being able to repair it developed mold, so it took a year to refurbish and clean up the mess inside. The church had been meeting in a little annex building for the past year and there membership had dropped way down. It was great to see some old friends and renew some relationships. I guess it was fitting that it rained all day but we enjoyed the fellowship anyway. They provided a good BBQ lunch and lots of homemade desserts.

It rained on us all the way home, making the trip thru Houston rather "hairy" but we made it home safe and sound. This week will be filled with appts., birthday shopping and birthday celebrations as Darling Daughter will turn 9 on Friday. We are having a slumber party, so please pray for us as these little girls take over our home for the evening! Blessings to all for a great week!

Why I need Prosac!

I really wanted this to be a funny post about how service people keep you waiting for them but basically I am just really ticked off about this and I can't think of anything funny about it right now. This will be a rant rather than a comedy essay (feel free to check out now)

RANT BEGINS

Monday while I was out, the yard guys came by and left a message on the machine that we had a water leak in the yard. Lo, and behold , they were correct. So I called our lovely plumbing service people to come fix it. They told me they would be there in an hour, then they called and said they would be there in a few hours, then they called and said they would be there the next morning.

Hubby came home took a look at it (I wasn't sticking my hand down that hole with frogs, snakes and who knows what else) and figured out that it was a crack in the pvc pipe leading to the pressure regulator, that above mentioned plumbing service installed last year. He had us take our baths and fill up the tubs with water so we could flush the toilets and then hubby turned off the water.

Plumber came next morning and starts working on part and it begins to rain. So he put a temporary patch on it and turned our water back on. He assured me that he would be back out early the next morning to fix it, as long as it was not raining. No problem, I even had him look at the leaky shower in the Master bath. He said he would bring the part and fix it when he finished the outside job.

So far, so good, everyone is happy. This morning I wait for him until about 10:30 and when he does not show I call his company office. Oh, he will not be able to come untill 4 pm. Why didn't he tell me that before instead of having me wait all morning for him?I had several errands to run and had lost the whole morning waiting on this guy. I told them that it was fine if he came at 4 but he had to finish the job by 5 :30 because I had to leave at 5 :30. They did not know if that would give him enough time, so they said he would come out between 8 and 10am on Thurs. That would be fine as long as he is here and finished by 10:30 because I have to leave to go to work(at the school) at 10:30. Oh well, then they will have the tech call me at 3 pm because that may not be enough time, I can talk to tech and work something out. Fine.

4:15, still no call from Tech. So I call company again, oh they just talked to Tech and he will come out between 8 and 10 tomorrow morning. "Well he better come at 8 because I will be leaving at 10:30". Oh they will give him the message but he should be there before 10 or will call me and tell me he is not going to make it. I thought I was the deaf person here! Did I not just say, he had to come early that I would leave at 10:30 and they are saying he will be here at 10 am.

So tomorrow for the 3rd day in a row I will be waiting for the plumber to show up, Anybody want to lay wagers as to if he will actually show up this time? I guess they just assume that since I am a stay at home mom that I just sit around and eat bon bons all day and have nothing better to do than wait on the %$#@ plumber!

END RANT

So say a little prayer for me tomorrow that I can control my temper and my tongue as I deal with my less than punctual plumber!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAMA!

I know everyone thinks they have the best Mama in the whole world but I really do! I appreciate her more than she knows. She has always put me and everyone else before her own needs. She has been a wonderful Christian example and her grandaughter thinks she rocks!!!!! I hope she knows that I love her and I am so thankful that God made her my Mama!

Happy 70th Birthday Mama! Can't wait to see you next weekend!

It's Officially Fall!

I told my hubby that Fall had officially arrived last week, because I had my first "Pumpkin Spice Latte" from Starbucks! Yummy! It is funny that I like Fall so much because yellows, browns and oranges are not my favorite colors. However, I love the smell of apple cider, cinnamon and pumpkin bread baking. My favorite air freshener is the pumpkin spice oil from Bath and Body Works. I don't really like Halloween but love having pumpkins (prefer them uncarved) on the front porch. I love that I need a sweater when I walk out to the bus with darling daughter at 7 am. Here's hoping that you are enjoying this great Fall season where you are. Won't be long until it's "Soup and Chili Weather" but it needs to get a little colder.
Blessings!

First Interpreted Service

We had our first interpreted service for the deaf and hard of hearing yesterday. I think it went great. There are things we can do to make it better and to help it flow smoother and we are working on implementing those things this week. I think God was pleased with our work.

I was able to see some folks from A&M, who were in town for the A&M/ARMY game. It is always good to see familiar faces. The Aggies and the Cowboys won this weekend (how often does that happen?--Never!!!) So it was a good football weekend for our household.

Hope this week is filled with blessing for you and your families!

Crying Babies!

Tonight was my first night in Cradle roll at church in about 9 months. I usually help teach every other quarter but had to sit out the Spring quarter due to teaching a sign language class for the kids. Anyhow....it was good to be back.

Turns out there are only two kids in the class that were there when I left, all the others are new babies. The first one came in, a chubby little fellow about 4 months old, I think it was only his second time to be left in the nursery (Mom seemed a little nervous about leaving him) He was a cutie and it was great to be holding a baby again. Then the second baby came, a little girl about 6 months old. The third baby was a little boy, about 11 months old and then another little boy about a year old. Then all four started crying at once.

Fortunately, we had four sets of arms to hold them, but then we got two more, both about 18 months old or so. They were old pros at cradle roll and soon they were happily playing with the toys. There was actually one point in the evening where all the babies were happy and quiet. It did not last long though!!!!!

It is sweet to be with the babies again. I miss having a little one in the house. It is great to be able to give them back to Mom at the end of the hour too!

Pray for us!

Well, it is official now, there is no going back. Starting next Sunday our church will have interpreted services. This is really scary to me. I want this to happen, I want to open up these new doors but I am really scared of failing. We had a meeting after church this morning and had 6 or 7 that showed an interest and 3 people who were not able to come to the meeting. From that group, we have 4 people who are able to interprete so hopefully no one will burn out from too much work.

It is not a full blown deaf ministry yet, just an interpreted service on Sundays. It has to start somewhere though, and God will control how fast (or if) we continue to grow. Please keep us in your prayers. Most of the responsibility will fall on my husbands shoulders but I am his support team. Pray that people continue to show an interest in this ministry and that God blesses us.

Busy,Busy, Busy!

My In Laws are coming today. I am going to work in the copy room at school this morning. I need to pick up donut holes for Grandparents Day at school tomorrow. I need to mail a birthday present to my sister in law. I need to buy my Father in law a present for his birthday, because we are going to celebrate it early while they are in town. I should probably clean the house a little more. I need to fix something good for dinner, but will probably just pick up BBQ. Darling daughter has a doctor's appt this afternoon. I am still dragging from the cold that I had all weekend. I have already done all the laundry, changed the sheets on the beds, and cleaned the bathrooms! Whew, I am a little busy today but Praise the Lord I am able to do it all! I am blessed with so many good things in this life. I have a beautiful family, a lovely home, an exemplary school for my daughter to get her education at.

So why am I blogging when I have so much to do today?
Whoops! Better Get Going, Bye......

It's Raining!

It's raining, it's pouring!
I can't wait to start snoring!


Finally, we are getting some much needed rain.
Thank You Lord!

I hope it continues thru the night,
as I love to sleep during a rain storm!

Blessings everyone!

Blogger is having problems!

I apologize for the last post. I fixed it but blogger isn't correcting the post for me. In fact it will not even let me look at my post without going through someone elses blog to get here. I think it is a plot to drive us all insane!

The Computer Swallowed Grandma

The Computer swallowed Grandma,

yes, honestly it's true.

She pressed "control" and "enter"

and disappeared from view.

It devoured her completely,

The thought just makes me squirm.

She must have caught a virus,

or been eaten by a worm.

I've searched through the recycle bin,

and files of every kind;

I've even used the Internet,

But nothing did I find.

In desperation, I asked "Jeeves",

my searches to refine.

The reply from him was negative,

not a thing was found "online".

So if, inside your "inbox",

My grandma you should see.

Please "copy," "scan" and "paste" her

and send her back to me!

My Mom sent this to me, don't know the author or where she got it but thought it was funny and wanted to pass it on.

My Hearing History

Two people commented on my last post that they wanted to know more about how I lost my hearing and what got me to this point. I think I have covered it somewhat before on this blog but will try to give a synopsis of it.

I lost my hearing when I was 5 years old and caught the mumps from my brother. At the time, about one in every 200 cases of the mumps causes an infection in the inner ear. I was one of those lucky cases. I developed virus like symptoms and my Mom called the Doctor. He felt that it was just a virus and not related to the mumps so he did not have her bring me in. About two or three months later, my parents noticed that if I was not looking at them I could not hear them. Children adapt and I had learned to lipread.

My parents took me to the Speech and Hearing Center in Houston (about a 2 hour drive) every day for two weeks. My Dad would work the graveyard shift, get up and drive us to Houston, we would spend most of the day at the center. They were testing my hearing, fitting me with a hearing aid and counseling my parents regarding my hearing loss. Then they would drive us home and Daddy would go to work that night, only to do it all over the next day.

My hearing loss was such that the hair like nerves that line the cochlea looked like someone had taken a lawn mower and mowed out patches. The doctors recommended that they place me in the School for the Deaf in Austin. My parents refused. I was fitted with a hearing aid in one ear, the other was considered un-aid able because there was no speech recognition. I could (and still can) hear sound in my right ear but can't understand words.

So my parents sent me to a private Kindergarten (they had already planned to do this, as my brother had attended this school 5 years earlier) I did well in kindergarten and even skipped the 1st grade completely. I was mainstreamed into public school. I took some speech classes because of problems with the S and SH sounds, but I speak remarkably well for someone with such a profound hearing loss. I sound like I have an accent but I do not sound hollow like profoundly deaf people often do. I was a very verbal child and that helped me retain my speech.

School was hard for me, I was teased a lot for the hearing loss and because of my weight, some of which I am sure is genetic but a good portion I am sure was a coping mechanism too. I passed everything in school but only excelled in the subjects that I was really interested in. Everything changed during my Jr. year in high school.

The Aggies For Christ came to our church that Fall. I loved everything about it and decided come $#&& or high water I was going to A&M. Everyone told me it could not be done. My grades were not good enough, I would not score high enough on the SAT, my Dad even tried to bribe me into going to a local college (with a car and a phone in my room) but I was determined. In the end I was accepted into A&M University.

I did not recieve any special help while I was at A&M. I went to class just like everyone else, I tried to sit in the front so I could understand better and I made sure my professors knew that I might have to ask more questions than most students. It took me a little longer than most to graduate (I changed my major a few times and took a year or so off right in the middle)

While I was at A&M I became interested in learning Sign Language. I had never learned to sign before, but the A&M Church of Christ was developing a deaf ministry and offered classes. My husband and I both took classes while we were there.

We have been involved in deaf ministry ever since, with the Clear Lake Church of Christ in Houston and then later (after a job transfer) with the Fairfax Church of Christ in Fairfax, VA. I know sign language well now but have never relied on it for my sole communication.

Last Fall, I was at church and my hearing aid quit working(or so I thought). The next day I became really sick, virus type symptoms again. After many doctor appt with specialists, they still do not know what happened or why. But the end result was that my "good" ear(the one I wore the hearing aid in and could understand speech with) was gone.

The doctor told me that my only hope for hearing was with a cochlear implant. I had always resisted an implant because they often destroy what is left of your hearing when they put in the implant and I never wanted to give up what I had for fear it might not work. I had the surgery done on Dec. 29th and it was turned on in Jan.

You can go back in my blog and pick up the story there if you want to. The progress with the CI has been really slow but seems to be picking up recently. Maybe my brain has finally clicked on and is understanding the signals a little better. Hope this is what you wanted to know, feel free to ask questions. I might even answer them for you! :)

Implant Update

Several folks have asked me to update what is going on with the Cochlear Implant, so for those of you who care I will fill you in (for those of you who don't care, GO AWAY, why are you here anyhow?)

I have been doing Auditory Therapy for a few months now and had a session yesterday. The Therapist is quite pleased with my progress. She put me through a series of exercises (verbal, not physical!) to test how much I was hearing with the implant. I would guess that I was getting 75 to 80% correct.

She would cover her face and read things off to me or ask me questions from a prepared list. I am also quite surprised that I was able to understand so much. You have to take into consideration that this was a controlled environment, it was a quiet office and she was speaking very distinctly. She also tried reading newpaper headlines and that was harder for me, I had a much lower success rate with that.

Next week I go for remapping of the processor. I am hoping that this will help me enjoy the sound more, as it is quite distracting and irritating to me now. The sound is "echo-y" and very "tinnish". This program seems to amplify certain sounds while dropping others, so I am hoping for more success after the remapping next week.

Thank you to all of you who ask about my progress and encourage me with your support and prayers. Please keep them coming as this is still a very hard task which lays ahead of me. I commented to the Therapist yesterday, that hearing with an implant is hard work, it does not come easily or naturally, you have to focus and really work to understand. She agreed with that statement and said that is what many implant patients struggle with.

I miss having the little one home all day but am enjoying the peace and quiet of having the house to myself. I am able to get more done without hearing "Mama, I am bored, play with me" or "I'm hungry" or "Can I go to ______'s house?" ALL DAY LONG!!!!

Hope you are all having a great week!
Blessings

"Nuff Said!

Go back two post, do not pass go.....

For some reason, blogger posted my latest post behind my blue mama post. If you want to know how the Hawaii trip ended, go back two post and read all about it.

Been In A Blue Funk Lately!

I hurt my neck this past weekend and have just been in a blue funk all week due to the pain and just not feeling up to par! So I decided to change the template of my blog and make it match my mood. Do you like the blue or the rose better?

Oh well, it won't be long til my neck is all better and I am back to my happy self once again. Blessings to you all!

All Good Things Must End!

Thought I should finish up the saga of the Hawaiian vacation since we have been home for almost a month now. So here is the final installment: Our last day in Maui was pretty uneventful. We had breakfast at the hotel and then Hubby went and had a massage on the beach. (I put the censored in because he is a little shy about being topless on the blog!) They had a little cabana set up and he got an hour long massage. He was feeling pretty good for our trip home.

The plane left Maui on time, we had a little mix up with the gate number for our departure and for some reason we had to change seats after the first leg of our flight home but we made it to the plane and we did get First Class seating on the way back. We flew from Maui to Kona and had about an hour layover there. There was a cute statue of two Hawaiian children. That airport is built on top of a lava flow.The picture is hazy due to the airplane windows but the dark strips are lava.
This Lava looks like what you typically see in pictures. Black tar like rocks with deep cracks in them. The airport looks like they just poured the concrete airstrips right over the top of it. It was not tilled up or anything planted on it. The airport is open air with just pavillions to wait for your flight under.

The flight left Kona a little late and was running late getting into Chicago. The seats were okay but not the great beds that we had on the trip from LA to Oahu. I was spoiled after that ride. Some people slept on this flight but we were mostly awake, reading our books or watching the movies. I could watch them but could not understand the dialog, fortunately they were pretty simple movies. Ice Age 2 and The Shaggy Dog, so most of the gags were visual. We were late arriving in Chicago and had to run to a different terminal to catch our connecting flight back to Houston. They said that it would be a 2 1/2 hour flight but in reality it was only about 2 hours from Chicago to Houston. It was a little hopper plane but had the nicest flight attendants of all the flights we flew. That is probably due to the fact they were not United Employees!

We arrive in Houston about 9am and lo and behold one of our bags does not show up. So we hike over to the lost baggage desk and I stay with the other luggage while Hubby goes to the counter. Guess who is behind the desk--Rude Employee #1- the same lady who was at the ticket counter on the flight out 8 days earlier. There was no mistaking it was the same woman, she had a freaky half afro/half corn row hair do! She had not become any friendlier in the last week either. She practically threw a claim ticket at Hubby and said the bag should come in on a 10:30 flight and to call that number to have it delivered to us. So Hubby and I call the hotel to come pick us up (minus one bag) and take us to get the car. Then we decide to go get something to eat and call the airline to try to get the bag delivered to Hubby's brother's house (where we are going to get some sleep because we are both exhausted by this point)

Oh, I should meantion that brother and family are not home, they are already in Dallas waiting on us to get there to have family birthday party for Hubby's grandmother and for us to pick up darling daughter. So we stop to eat and call airline about lost bag. There was no one intelligent enough to even take the address down and tell us when the bag might be delivered to us. So hubby was getting a little hot under the collar (BTW--hubby is the calm one in the family!)He finally told them to just forget about it, we would return to the airport and pick up the bag ourself. So hubby drops me off and I go into the baggage claim area to get the bag. Now, I have my ID, my claim ticket, and my luggage stubs all ready because I figure it is going to be a hassle to get this bag. I walk up to the baggage carousel and Rude Employee #1 is pulling bags off the conveyor belt. I see my bag, walk up to her and say "that is my bag, may I have it?" She says "I guess" and I walked off with the bag. She did not ask me for any ID or Claim tags, nothing! I don't believe she knew who I was because I had not gone up with Hubby to the lost bag counter. She just let me walk off with the bag. Once I got the bag in my hand though, I high tailed it out of there before she could change her mind.

We went to BIL house and took a shower and crashed for about 4 hours. Then we went out to dinner and came back and crashed again. We got up at 5 am the next morning and drove 6 hours to hubby's grandparents home (on the TX/OK border) and surprised his grandmother at her birthday party! Darling Daughter was happy to see us and waited a whole 90 seconds before asking "what did you bring me"? We enjoyed spending time with hubby's extended family before heading back to the Dallas area to hubby's parents house.

The next day was Sunday, so after going to church with his family (13 of us) we had a nice lunch at his parents before returning home (5 hour drive) Boy was it good to be back home and sleep in our own beds.

On the Road to Hana.....

Day seven of our vacation in Hawaii found us up at dawn again as we wanted to drive to Hana that day but still be back in time for a Luau that evening (can't leave Maui without having tried a Luau) So off we went down(and up) the curving roads to Hana. The area is very lush and green with many waterfalls along the way. We did find that the book "Maui Revealed" was obviously written with serious hikers in mind. One of the waterfalls the book writes about is The Three Bears. It gives very detailed instructions on how to get to the waterfalls from the main road. It talks about that it is a pretty easy walk but to watch out for the first step. So we are thinking, okay that means there is a 18" drop or something like that. Nooooo!!!! They mean that it is a 15 foot drop down an almost vertical rock wall. Ok as we already pointed out, I am both vertically and horizontally challenged, so I might could have gotten down but I sure was not going to be able to get back up. So we enjoyed the three bears from afar and left the rock climbing to the experts.

These two pictures are of the black sand beach near Hana. I have forgotten the name of the park it is located in. It was a well developed area but still quite a trek up and down to get to the beach. I was surprised that the sand was not hot since it was black. It is also more like smooth little pebbles than what we think of as sand. It was quite awesome to see.

By the time we got to Hana and had a terribly overpriced hamburger, it was time to head back to the hotel to get ready for the Luau that night. While hubby was getting ready for the Luau, I snuck down and ordered up a massage on the beach for him the next morning as a birthday present. He was quite happy with his birthday gift. The Luau was fun with good food, and decent entertainment. The Luau we attended was held near Black Rock and they had a diver climb up on Black Rock with a torch and then dive off as the Luau was about to begin. I liked the fact that they said a prayer before they began the Luau. They had singing and dancing hula girls (and boys) and a fire dancer. Good Piggy! It was a nice relaxing way to celebrate Hubby's 40th birthday and to end our vacation.

And On The Sixth Day:

we rested (sort of)!

We really did not plan anything for the sixth day because it was a holiday and we figured the traffic would be really bad. This was the closest we came to actually sleeping in, I slept till about 8 or so and I think hubby might have made it till 9. We had a late breakfast in the hotel restaurant, The Beach Club. This is the view from our breakfast table. Nice relaxing way to start the day! The next three pictures are some of the pretty flowers that we came across on the property. The smell was just amazing.

So much for resting, we ended up getting the car and going to South Maui. We went out to Wailea and drove through the lava fields. That was cool. I always thought of lava as being the black cracked stuff that looks like tar but this was what was blown out and it is porous and red colored. Some of it is black but the red fields were so cool looking because they looked like someone had spray painted little balls of syrofoam and dumped it all over the place. Again the roads were very winding and narrow and the locals would run you over if you did not get out of the way.

We ate at a place called Lulu's that was supposed to be the best hamburger in the nation--Not! but pleasant place and nice waiter. Then we walked thru these little shops that were basically open booths and got some good deals on some jewelry and things for little K.

We got back to the hotel in time to have a nice dinner looking out over the beach area and watch all the crazy people shooting off fireworks. One guy had made a huge mound of sand (about 3 feet high) and was dropping all kinds of explosive down a hole in the center. Since fireworks are illegal in our area of TX it seemed like they were all doing something they shouldn't be doing but apparently it is legal there, even Wal Mart sells fireworks in Maui! We watched them for awhile but decided a bunch of drunk people on the beach shooting fireworks might be hazardous to our health! There were two young guys throwing bottle rockets and ever so often they would get confused as to which way the ocean was, that was our cue to get the heck out of there!!!!

One more full day of vacation left. Hubby's birthday, trip to Hana and a Luau all coming up!

Day 5- Let's go Snorkeling

Sorry I don't have any pictures of the snorkeling, it was a little overcast and the underwater pictures came out dark, so I can't show you any of the pretty fish we saw. These are pictures of the boat I took off their web page and the round one is a picture of the Molokini Crater, where we snorkeled.

I don't know what it is about us but we never get to sleep in on our vacations, it always seems like we have to get up early to get somewhere. I had reserved a Snorkel Cruise on the Four Winds II and we had to be at the harbor by 7 am, so up and at 'em early on Day 5. The boat was nice and they had some fruit and bagels with cream cheese for a light breakfast waiting for us. There was a photographer onboard who went around taking everyones picture for the video they sell at the end of the trip.

It took about an hour to get out to the site at the Molokini Crater where we were to snorkel. I have snorkeled two or three times previously but am nervous about jumping into the ocean. I tend to panic and hyperventilate. My husband has repeatedly told me that it would be virtually impossible for me to drown out there as I float really easily given that I am horizontally challenged (ie fat) That may be true but my brain does not believe it and reacts by causing me to hyperventilate. I waited until almost everyone else was in the water before I dared to go in. I grabbed a boggie board and in I went.

I reacted the same way I do with MRI's and Cat Scans---I panicked! But I worked through it the same way I do with the test, I just talk myself through it and if that does not work I pray or sing and usually that will calm me down. It took a few minutes to get comfortable with the water but soon I was laying on my board with my face in the water looking at all the pretty fish. After a little while, hubby got a leak in his mask and was getting water in his sinuses, poor thing, that did not feel good I am sure.

They served us a BBQ lunch (which by the way in Hawaii--BBQ means grilled burgers, hot dogs or chicken breast--not BBQ like you get in the south with BBQ sauce) It was pretty good, although I am not sure I like the ground beef in Hawaii, it taste a bit different than what I am used to. They included beer and soft drinks (wine too I think) but we stuck to the soft drinks.

After lunch, we snorkeled a bit more! This time I just jumped right in off the side of the boat, did not even use the ladder. I was quite proud of myself for conquering my fear of the water. The fish did not seem as brightly colored as the one's we saw in Cancun on our honeymoon but they were still very pretty and facinating to watch. On the way back to the harbor, we stopped briefly in what they call "Turtle Town" and were able to see several of the big Turtles swimming around.

Hubby is suseptable to motion sickness so he had taken 2 dramamine tablets (less drowsy formula) but still was feeling rather poorly by the time we got back to the harbor. We went back to the room and hubby crashed for awhile. Later that evening, we went to the Aloha Mixed Plate (thanks for recommending it JB) I had the Coconut Shrimp (Yummy) and Hubby had a plate with several native dishes on it, I can't remember what all it had but I think it was Mahi Mahi with some type of Mango Chutney, Poi, Salmon somthing or other, and of course no plate would be right without the sticky rice and macaroni salad.

Hubby unfortunately suffered for most of the day feeling like he was still on the boat, rising and falling. We called it a early night and slept well, dreaming of beautiful blue water and pretty fishes.

Sunday in Maui-Day 4

Sunday, we wake up to wet carpet again! It is a total pain because you can't get into the bathroom without gettting your feet wet and then you slide on the tile floor. So we decide that if the carpet is still wet when we get back this afternoon we want a new room. Hubby calls the front desk and tells them the carpet is wet again.

Blogging Friend Maui Mama invited us to go to church with her and stay for a picnic afterwards. It was a 4th of July theme service with all the national hymns and patriotic songs. They had a group of men perform a song in sign language. It was very impressive, they were totally in sync with each other.

We enjoyed spending time with Maui Mama and her family. I have not asked her for permission to post the picture we took so I will not post it. The picnic was held across the street at a park. They had set up a waterslide for the kids and a pool. They had 5 young people baptized in that pool that day, it was great to be able to witness that. The congregation was very friendly, with lots of good food at the picnic. It was great to be with people who actually live on the island rather than just around the tourist spots.

Later in the day we went to IOA Valley State Park. All the pictures above were taken there. It was a beautiful area of greenery and streams. There were some beautiful pools but idiot people jumping off of the bridge into the pools from 20 or 30 feet up (in spite of signs everywhere telling you not to jump from bridge). One man was allowing his 6 or 7 yr old son to jump off the bridge. Hubby had to hold me back to keep me from slapping him silly! (Sorry, the child abuse investigator in me rears it head occasionally!) It was a little blonde headed boy so it was not like a native hawaiian who had done it all his life!

We made a stop at Wal- Mart for some supplies we needed for the snorkel boat the next day. We got off without any beach towels so we picked up some cheap ones and a couple of snorkel mask (apparently we got a cheap one of those too because mine broke the first time I tried to use it). We also picked up some groceries, whew people in Maui pay a lot for stuff. A box of wheat thins was almost $4., Milk is about $8. a gallon and gasoline is about $3.62, almost a dollar a gallon more than here.
I noticed that cars were expensive too, even used cars demanded a high price.

We got back to the hotel, and I feel the carpet--yeah, it is dry! Until we turn on the A/C! So we went down and they offered us a room on the sixth floor with not as good of a view. The first room had been on the 9th ( they called it the Penthouse floor) and it was right in the center of the hotel (hotel was shaped like a U with a courtyard in the middle with two pools, a gazebo and a restaurant.) We went and checked it out, and while the view was not as pretty, the room was much better, it was bigger, airier, had great ventalation and two windows. We could have done without the A/C in this new room but not in the old one. The first room was long and narrow, with the rooms stacked one behind the other. This one was kind of triangle shaped, with better furniture (not as good of a kitchen but we did not cook anyway!) So we moved and were much happier with the new room, which did not have any water leaks that we were aware of!

We had a lovely dinner at the hotel that night. (part of the package we bought included a credit in their dining room) then off to dream land before we departed on our Snorkel Cruise on Day 5!

Maui-Day 3

Because we did not have a car, we were at the mercy of the transfer company as to when we went to the airport for our flight to Maui. They picked us up at 7 am for a 10:30 flight. We thought, no problem they probably have several hotels to stop at before the airport so we won't be waiting at the airport that long--WRONG. We are the only stop and we are at the airport by about 7 30 or so. The Aloha Airlines have nice, efficent, polite employees. We were greeted with smiles and asked would we like to go to Maui on an earlier flight? Sure, so we were boarding a plane by 8 am. No semi-strip searches, just polite people! The flight to Maui is very short. Basically they walk down the aisle and throw little cups of guava juice at you and then turn around and want the trash before we land!

So we arrive in Maui, all our luggage arrives in Maui. We ride the little bus over to the car rental place. Nice employees again--All right-- this vacation is getting better and better! We pick up the rental car-- a blue convertable (blue is hubby's favorite color--last four cars have been blue- we own two blue ones now!) so we put the top down and head to the hotel. Life is Good in Maui!!!!!

Maui has some traffic but nothing like Oahu. There is a constant breeze blowing, sometimes it becomes quite a wind storm but most of the time it is just a good breeze going on. We are driving past mountains and beautiful shoreline, gorgeous boats on the water, parks with people surfing. Life is REAL Good in Maui!

Get to the Hotel--Kaapanali Shores- we pull up and the bell hop greets us and tells us to just leave the car there and go register and then he will help us with the bags. Alright, polite employees--looking good. The hotel was older but you could tell they put a lot of time into keeping it looking nice. We check in and the lady could have been nicer but she was okay. The room is good, it is being reneivated in stages. So it has new paint, new carpet, new furniture but the cabinets in the kitchen and appliances are a little old. (Top two pictures above are the living room of hotel room and view from the balcony. Did I mention that it has a gorgeous view from the balcony? ) Still very satisfactory--gorgeous view out the balcony! We are very happy, until I take off my shoes and walk into the bedroom and step in a huge wet spot on the carpet. The spot is right between the bedroom and the bathroom, can't get to either room without stepping in it. First thing I do is make sure it is water and not dog pee or something equally disgusting. Nope it is just water and we figure it is coming from the A/C (we are right!) So we call downstairs, they say they will take care of it right away.

We have reservations for a Magic Show at 5 pm, several hours to kill, so we decide to go drive the West side of Maui and see the shore and the blowholes and stuff that is described in "Maui Revealed" (thanks for the recommendation JB) (BTW- we highly recommend this book if you are going to Maui--very helpful) On the way out of hotel we go by the front desk because there were supposed to be tickets left for us for two of the excursions I had purchased online before we left the mainland. So we remind them at the front desk that there is a big water spot on the carpet in our room would they please try to take care of it. Sure, they would take care of it. The front desk did not have our tickets so they told us to check with Concierge Desk. Now the Concierge Desk has a big sign over it that says "EXPEDIA and Concierge" but it should just say EXPEDIA because when hubby asked about the tickets, the rude employee (I have lost count of what number she is) said to him "Did you buy it from expedia?" Hubby says "No" and before he can say anything about the front desk sending us over. She says"then we don't have it" and turned her back on him!" How Rude! Maybe in Maui Concierge means something different then it does everywhere else in the world!

We stopped for lunch in a strip mall and found a wonderful craft fair going on, so we were able to pick up a dress and some stuff for darling daughter, very cheap. Coastline is beautiful, very winding and scary at times when you meet the locals on these very narrow roads. The water was beautiful, different shades of blue depending on if there was coral present. Very windy! (Picture is of the shoreline in West Maui, it was kind of overcast so the colors are not coming thru as clear as they were in person.) We spent several hours exploring the coast line. We got back to the hotel about 3 30 or 4 00.

Guess what the carpet is still wet! So I got a bath mat from the housekeeping staff (very polite lady--who offered to call about the wet carpet) She managed to get someone up there in about 10 minutes time. In fact I was in the shower and I could hear them sucking up the water with a wet vac right outside the door--I was glad I had shut and locked the door (don't usually if it is just me and hubby!) So Now we know that housekeeping has the power in this hotel! Good info to know!

We went to see a show called Warren and Annabelle. Annabelle is a ghost who plays the piano and Warren is a magician and comedian. I don't want to say too much about it in case someone reading this decides to go but it was a great evening and if you have the chance you should go. I had emailed them that I needed to sit towards the front due to my lipreading and they reserved us the two seats right in the middle down front and I was able to get most of the show through lipreading and had a great view of the tricks. Very Funny Show and very nice employees!

We get back to the hotel and you guessed it, the carpet is wet again. So we called and let them know and went to bed with wet carpet but nice Maui dreams! Tomorrow, Church with Maui Mama!

Oahu-Day 2

Blogger is not letting me put the pictures where I want them. The beach scene above left is on Oahu. The man on the right is our tour guide, Peter.

This was the oceanview (and other hotel view) from the 17th floor of the Waikiki Beach Marriott. The room was clean and nice. The bed was very soft and comfy. As part of our package, we had a free breakfast with the room. The buffet was very good but we had to get up early (5 am) so we could catch our bus at 6:15 am.

First stop: Pearl Harbor. Our bus driver was a 72 year old native Hawaiian. His name was Peter. Pictured above in the big hat and green shirt. Peter scared me half to death right off the bat, by turning onto a one way street and in trying to compensate and get back onto the main street almost hit a street sign with the side of the bus (I was sitting next to the window!) He told us the story of eating breakfast with his family as a 7 year old, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. His parents yelled for him to leave his breakfast and come with them, he said that he had a hole in the seat of his pajamas and did not want to get up and go with them. His babysitters' house burned down from fallout from the attack. Pearl Harbor was quite interesting and moving to visit. They have reflective captioning so I was able to understand the movie they show about the bombing of Pearl Harbor. We were able to pick up a flag that had flown above Pearl Harbor for hubby's grandfather. He is a WWII veteran and we thought he might like to have that.

After touring Pearl Harbor, we reboarded our little bus and started on a circle tour of the island. We went to the Dole Plantation (mostly just a tourist stop now) and had some yummy pineapple ice cream! Then we made our way around the island, stopping at various places along the way. Blowholes, beaches and a Macadamia nut farm. We also spent some time in front of Peter's house where he pointed out several trees in his yard and several of his relatives houses in the neighborhood (still don't know what was up with that!) It was a long day but we were able to see a lot more of Oahu than we would have seen on our own. Traffic in Oahu is bad and I would not want to drive there.

That evening we walked along the beach and ended up having a "Cheeseburger In Paradise". It was fun for us because our Life Group had just had a Karoke night and that was one of the songs that we sang. The cheeseburger was good but the chocolate desert was better! We ended the evening with a short stroll on the beach before heading back up to the room.

Off to bed for us, for tomorrow we go to MAUI!

Trip to Hawaii- Part 1

I know that it is going to take several post to tell you all about our awesome trip to Hawaii! Let me start off by saying that my husband has been very blessed in the last few years with his company and is a Manager with a major aerospace company. We are not rich (except spiritually) but are doing okay and have no debt except for the mortgage. I say all that so you don't get the wrong idea when I tell this story.

Because this was a 15 year anniversary and a 40th birthday celebration, we decided that we would splurge and go First Class. It almost doubled the cost of the trip for us but we decided that it was worth it, not to be cramped and uncomfortable for 15 hours travel time. I have flown 1st class only one other time in my life and that was a free upgrade on a one hour trip from Dallas. So this is not a way of life for us!

We took darling daughter to my parents on June 27th and spent the night with them. (Bed #1) and then drove to Houston on the 28th and stayed in a hotel that night (Bed#2) We checked the internet and the flight to Denver was scheduled, no problems. We went to bed early and got up at 4 :30 to catch our plane to Denver.

When we arrived at Intercontiental and went to check in with United, we were told that the crew did not show up for our flight to Denver, the plane would be delayed for 3 hours and we would not be able to make the connecting flight in Denver to Honolulu. The woman (rude employee #1) behind the desk obviously did not like her job, she was totally without emotion. United put us on a Contiential flight to LA (coach- about a 4 hour flight) and when we arrived in LA we were to catch a United Flight to Honolulu (also coach because they had no room in first class) They would not refund any of our money, said we would have to work it out with the company later. I am in tears by this point, our dream vacation is crumbling right before our eyes. Not to meantion that we had spent quite a bit of money for first class seats that we were not getting.

We were high tailing it from one terminal to another when lo and behold, because they had reissued the tickets that morning, we were flagged with the dreaded quadruple S and subject to extra security messures. So I am standing in the airport bawling as they pat me down and search my luggage. Well, it is hard to lip read when you are crying. So it was terribly confusing. Finally, we get thru security and get onto the plane bound for LA. Did they put us in the back or the plane?--No they put us two seats back from 1st class so we had a perfect view of all the wonderful pleasures that first class was enjoying. Our flight attendant (rude employee #2) on this flight also apparently loved (not) her job. I was beginning to think that there were no nice people in the airline business.

Once we got to LA things began to get a little better. We found out that the plane to HNL was going to be delayed by about 1/2 an hour but they were replacing our plane with a larger one, so we were able to get the first class seats. The two flight attendants on this flight were very good. Friendly, kind and efficient. They even gave us a box of Macadamia nuts as a gift. The plane was a 747 with sleeper chairs (made into beds) with little individual monitors and movies. That was more like it. So the 5 hour flight to HNL was much, much better than the trip to LA.

We arrived in HNL about 3 pm their time, which was about 8pm our time. It had already been a long day. They crammed about 12 of us into a passanger van and took us to the hotel. Traffic in Oahu is horrible. The bus driver was cutting people off and swerving into traffic, all the while keeping up a steady commentary about the island. He punctuated everything by raising his index finger above his head! Quite a character!

It was close to 5 pm when we arrived at the Waikiki Beach Marriott. Beautiful Hotel with a beautiful courtyard! We go to register and we have two rooms, which have both been paid for in full. Will they give us a refund on one, nope! We will have to work it out with the tour company later. The room is lovely with what they call a full oceanview ( I would have called it partial because you had to be standing dead center on the balcony to see the ocean but it was nice!) We ate at the hotel and enjoyed a good buffet and some ukele playing. We were pretty pooped so went to bed a little early that night (bed #3)!

So was the 1st day of our vacation! Six more days to go! To Be Continued!

Home From Hawaii!

Aloha! We are back home from a wonderful trip to Oahu and Maui, Hawaii! It was so beautiful there! We had a great time but are totally exhausted! I promise I will write all about it soon but not tonight! My bed is calling my name. I have slept in 7 different beds over the last 12 nights and am really looking forward to my own!

This picture was taken from our hotel room in Maui! Beautiful isn't it! More to come I promise! Blessings to all! Night Night!

Peaceful Day!

Today was one of those rare peaceful days. I had a lot of stuff I wanted to accomplish today but just did not feel rush or pulled in different directions today. I like days like this.

We did errands this morning going to about 3 different places to get the things we needed and then were home by about 12:30. We had leftovers for lunch and then darling daughter went to neighbors house to play. I was able to get some laundry and cleaning done around the house. Did some reading on the blogs. Chatted with my Mom on IM. Not quite as good as hearing her voice but still great to be able to communicate with her.

What can I say, it was just a nice, peaceful day! Thank you Lord for a day to recharge my batteries and feel content. Thank you for my A/C working during this hot weather we are having too. I hope this finds you all having a blessed week!

Finally got my rug replaced!

Don't remember if I blogged about this or not but I bought a rug from a store (that shall remain nameless--it is a big ball of gas in the night sky) and after about two weeks it started to come unraveled at the edge. The lady I bought it from told me that I had an unconditional 30 day warranty on it, so I call up the customer service department to arrange an exchange.

Well, of course nothing is ever as simple as they make it sound...I could not just bring it back, they had to send out someone to see the damage. So I had to wait for someone to come out and tell me that "yep it was coming unraveled" and "yes, they would give me a new one". He said it would be a month or more because they had to make the rug at the factory. This was around the end of March or the beginning of April. He told me they would call me when it came in and bring out the new one. Really nice, professional guy--I believed him (Silly Me!)

Fast forward to June and still no rug. So hubby calls and they tell him that it is waiting for us at the warehouse and has been there for some time. So I load up the rug to go exchange it (what happened to delivering it to me?) and I get there today and of course no one knows where it is. Finally after about 20 minutes (of my 8 year old feigning death because she is "soooooo hungry!") They locate (or so we think) the rug on the showroom floor so off we go, the warehouse guy carring the old rug and me and my 8 yr old following him thru the warehouse into the back door of the store. The rug showman does not know where the rug is, so after another 10 minutes, they finally locate it. It takes 4 men, 30 minutes to find a rug that I spotted the minute we got on the showroom floor.

Oh well, All's well that ends well. I have a new rug which does not appear to have any damage or unraveling edges. Hopefully, this one will last a long time, because it was not cheap! I still like this particular furniture store but they need to work on their customer service! In this particular case, it is "All about Me" because I paid for the rug! :0)

After all, it IS all about me, RIGHT?

I just finished reading a blog in which a preacher was complaining about flying and basically said some rather unkind things about overweight people on airplanes. Being a both vertically and horizontally challenged person (i.e. short and fat!) I guess I could take offense about what he had to say but really it just got me thinking about some other things.

It is all about me, right?

Most of the things that we get upset about are things that we feel we have been inconvienced by. I get upset because the guy in the car in front of me does not merge like he is supposed to but stops in the middle of the road. The unjustness of that guy making me slow down or "gasp" even wait for him.

What about the person in the "fast" check out line with 11 items when they should only have 10! The person counting out pennies to pay their bill, when I am ready to go with my money in hand? How dare they inconvience me!

How dare that overweight person brush my shoulder as they pass by me in the airplane on the way to squeeze their 250 lb body into a restroom made for a 100 lb body! (never mind, that my shoulders extend into the aisle--it is all about me!)

Where in the world did we come up with this idea that we are the most important person in the world? That our time is more valuable than anyone elses, that our needs are more pressing!

It did not come from Jesus Christ! He stressed over and over to us through his teachings that we were to be servants.

Even the disciples had trouble with this concept. Remember James and John wanting to sit on either side of Christ in his Kingdom. The other disciples got upset over their request and this is what Jesus told them:

Mark 10:
⁴³Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, ⁴⁴and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. ⁴⁵For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

I am as guilty as anyone regarding these things. I see this characteristic in my child and I want to change it in both of us. So I pray, "Lord please help me to put others first and to teach my child to put others first!"

Mostly, I pray, "Lord help me remember...It is not about me......IT'S ABOUT YOU!"