Monday, December 25, 2006




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!

Saturday, December 23, 2006

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.

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Yeah, with a broken halo!

You Are an Angel

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

Monday, December 18, 2006

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!

Saturday, December 16, 2006

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.

Friday, December 15, 2006

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!!!!!

Thursday, December 14, 2006

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.

Friday, December 08, 2006

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!

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

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!

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

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.

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!

Monday, November 20, 2006

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!

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

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!

Monday, November 06, 2006

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.

Friday, November 03, 2006

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!!!!

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

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!

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

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!

Saturday, October 21, 2006

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!