My How The Time Just Flies

Hi ya'll.....I have realized it has been quite a LOOOOOONG time since I have been here. As I have said before summer months are horribly busy for us. And now the summer has quickly turned to fall. My favorite season, by the way. And oh all the new sounds that this season brings. Leaves make this "skt skt" sound as they blow across the street. And they make this krinkalie sound when you step on them. It is SOOOOO cool!!!! I am also, very slowly mind you, starting to recognize more songs on the radio. They have to be ones that I have heard before, but I have gotten 2 right so far this week without Jay or Josie having to tell me what they are. I cant believe it has been 8 months since being activated. It seems like just yesterday. And even though it has been 8 months I find that I still find new sounds everyday. It is totally amazing.

And while I absolutely LOVE hearing again I sometimes find some things kinda still weird. Like watching television. Ok I dont usually get to watch tv till later in the evening. By this time in the day I cannot really understand alot (my audi says it's normal for some people to have trouble hearing later in the day due to fatigue, "brain is tired of sorting out sounds" kinda thing). Anyway, so when I watch tv I usually dont have my ears on and I just read the captions. Well the other day I happened to have time to watch a show during the day. And it was just kinda weird to be able to hear while watching tv. I know that sounds totally stupid, but I'm so use to not hearing it. Like on shows that we watch every week, I have an idea of what a character should sound like. Then when I watch the show with my ears on, the character sounds very different from what I'd imagined. I dont know, it's just kinda weird. :OP

Not much else is going on here. Toby did surprise me the other day. Josie LOVES teaching her little brother how to use sign language. I really didn't think much of it till the other day I was helping him get his "mud stomping boots" on to go outside. I had taken my ears off so I could slip on a hoodie to go outside, so I couldn't hear. Bubba realizing that I couldn't hear him signed "Mommy you beautiful" then he ran out the door to be with daddy and sissy. I couldn't believe what I had just seen. Oh yeah, I cried. Not only can I hear him say all these cool things, but the boy is learning to sign too. We still sign alot around here, and I hope that never changes. It's just been apart of us for so long that alot of times we speak and sign at the same time. He's gettin to the point where he can have alittle conversation without using words at all. Which is nice cause when my kids get shy, like in a crowd, they can still sign to me. Never in my mind would I have imagined deafness and learning to hear again would be apart of my life as an adult. But you know what, this is my life and I LOVE it. I love my family and friends and all the WONDERFUL sounds that this world has.

Fourth Of July Weekend

Hi ya'll. Well the fourth of July has come and gone once again. It dosent seem like it should be this late in the year, and yet it is. Isn't it funny how when you are a kid time seems to go sooooo slow and now that we are adults the time just FLYS. Well it was a pretty interesting weekend. By the way FIREWORKS ARE LOOOOOUD!!!!!!!! Holy cow are they loud. On Friday night we went over to Jay's cousins house for some hamburgers, hot dogs and such. Well when the sun went down they started to light off some fireworks in the driveway. Ok, I LITERALLY fell outta my lawnchair. Scared the living crap outta me. Josie ran up to me and said "Oh mom hurry and take your ears off." Usually I just turn down my volume if things get too loud.....not this time, I took my ears off and they stayed off till well after they had ended the fireworks. Ok for those of you who are laughing their butt off cause I fell outta the lawnchair I want you to know that I am blowing rasberries at you as we speak.



Saturday started as a rainy, yucky day. We were out REALLY late on Friday night so everyone in the house slept till noon, which was really nice for a change. Then we got up and ate some lunch and hung around in our jammies till about 4 when we got a call from our pastor sayin they got a bunch of fish that they were fryin and asked us to come on up. So we all got dressed and went up there. Then we went to the fireworks in Effingham later that evening and since it was a misty evening they totally SUCKED! (pls excuse my french). They were awful!!! The kids, who arent very picky at all, thought they were just blah. They said the fireworks we set off at daddy's cousins were more exciting. I dont know if it was the weather or a lower budget this year but it wasn't worth the trip into Effingham.



Well the rest of the weekend we just kinda puttered around the house, which was nice for a change since the summer months are really busy around here.

The Kids.

I thought since I have talked so much about my kids that I would try to post some picts so you can see who I am talking about. So here goes.

This is Josie. Our little june bug from buffalo.

And this is Toby. Our little monkey man from Alcatraz.

So there you have it.......now you can see the people that keep our lives from getting dull. They are a handfull but they sure are fun. :O)

Silly Songs And Whatnot

Hi.......finally got a minute to sit down and post. This week has been VERY busy. We have vacation bible school at our church this week and my best friend is the director so we have been helping her with some of the details. And Jay and I are helpers in the classes so we have been quite busy with that. Also we are going to be going to be seeing our friends from Branson for the weekend. We are all meeting in St. Louis. This will be the first time I have seen them since I got my cochlear implants....so I'm excited to see what everyone sounds like.

I got my ears adjusted the other day and so things are MUCH better. Everyone was starting to sound hollow and Jay said that I was starting to talk louder, and my audi said that is a sign that I need to come see her.

I also had a wonderful silly hearing moment. It was GREAT. As I have said before we sing alot ALOT of silly songs in our house. Well I was downstairs and I could see the kids in the hallway dancing. So I stopped what I was doing and tried to focus on what they were singing. They were singing that Elvis/Ray Charles song "I gotta woman, WAY across town, she good to me, OOOOOOOOO YEAH" They sing it alittle slower and more bluesy than most people do. They were just singing, dancing, and clapping to the beat. It was soooo cute. And I got to hear it. I wonder what else I have missed in these 5 years. This is TOTALLY AWESOME!!!!!!

The Monkey Man Turns Three And I'm God's Comic Relief

Hi ya'll,

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted. I promise to post more often. As you can guess from the title Toby turned 3 yesterday. It was AWESOME!!! Seems like yesterday I was toatin him around in my belly. Man has he grown. I put my ears on yesterday morning and all you could hear from the other room was "it me birf day.....it me birf day.......I'm free......I'm free (meaning three). Then he officially declared that he is now a man. I gave him a look and said WHAT!?!? to which he promptly replied with a scowl "Ok little man" :O)

Everything in the hearing world is coming along slow but sure. I still have some trouble with conversation, but surprisingly I'm getting most of it. Individual voices are just starting to come thru. Right now everyone sounds like they are talking in a well, but I have an adjustment appointment next week so maybe she can fix that. I'm so amazed everyday how I go from being totally stone deaf to hearing all in a matter of seconds when I put on my processors. When I get up in the mornings I dont put my "ears" on right away. I usually get the kids up, get a drink, go to the bathroom, and maybe do an odd little job before I ever get the chance to put them on. Well...Josie and Toby were watchin tv the other morning when evidently there was a knock at the door. Of course I didnt hear it or feel it. Well Josie looked out the window and saw it was the neighbor so she opened the door. (This is the neighbor that they call Grandpa so she knew it was safe to open the door.) Anyway she told him that mom doesn't have her ears on yet and that she would go get me. She came to me, got my attention, and signed the words door and grandpa. Well the neighbor could see all this from around the corner because of the way our house is set-up. He was so proud of how Josie being all of 6 1/2 can go from signing to talking. I am very proud of my kids. To them and Jay this is normal. And it's nice to know that while most other people look at you as odd or weird that with my family I am just normal mom. I know that may not have made sense to most, but try going thru walmart with 2 cochlear implants on in a rural farming community.

Speaking of Walmart. Here is a funny. Well it wasn't funny for me at the time, but Jay assures me it was funny. We were walking thru Walmart the other day and normally Toby dosent pay too much attention to the people around him. Well this day he was really paying attention to the people around us. And he realized that the people behind me were kind of staring. Not that I blame them, I'm sure it looks weird and I have no problem with people coming up and asking me questions. But anyway, all of a sudden Toby got this MAD look on his face and yelled, "It's mommie's ears, take a picture why dont ya" OH I WAS SO EMBARRASSED!!!!! So I turned around and apologized to the people and they of course smiled and said it was ok that he was just protecting me. Then they asked if it would be ok if they asked some questions. I said that would be ok and I answered them and we went on our way. As we were walkin away Toby yelled "NICE TO MEET YA, BUT NEXT TIME JUST ASK" Oh trust me folks God DOES have a sense of humor. And I must be his choice for comic relief.

Anyway, we are wanting to go to the HLAA (Hearing Loss Association of America) convention in Nashville Tennessee. The convention runs from June 18-21st. I know we wont be able to be there for the whole time, but we would at least like to make it one day. There will be booths set up with different products designed to make life alittle easier for people with hearing loss. There will be seminars and lunches and all kinds of goings on. I really hope we get to go and meet some of our friends from Hearing Journey.

What Am I Gonna Do With That Boy??

Sorry it has been awhile since I have posted. We have been so busy around here but I really miss writing here. Not much is going on here other than waiting on the rain to stop so we can start planting. If I could just stop the rain for 2 weeks straight then we would be good.

Well I have learned that my son is smarter than what I give him credit for. My family is full of smart-alacks and this little one is no exception to the rule. The other day my best friend Linda was over here at my house and for some reason I was sitting on the floor. Well Toby came running up behind me and stubbed his toe. He promptly pulled off the disc part of my cochlear implants. Of course I couldn't hear what happened after that, but I saw Linda cover her mouth. So I put the disc back on and asked what happened. She said that after he pulled off my "ears" he said a word he's not saposta say. Well of course I had to get him in trouble, but I'm not sure the bad word was the thing that surprised me the most. It's the fact that my soon to be three year old had that whole thought process. "If I take mommies ears off she wont hear me say a word that I know that will get me in trouble" Only thing he didn't think of was the fact that Aunt Linda CAN hear. I'm not real sure I'm comfortable with a three year old bein that smart.

Hello...Hello Moto Moto.

Hi all, it has been awhile since I have written in my blog. So here I am. Things are getting so busy around here. SPRING IS HERE!!!!!!!!! WOOOOOOHOOOOO. I thought it would never come. Just a few short months ago I was looking forward to spring, but never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that I would hear spring. I can hear the birds. IT IS WONDERFUL!!!!! We are pretty busy around here trying to get things ready for our garden. It is still alittle to wet to plant yet, but it sure won't be long. Today the high was 72 and it was amazing to be able to drive with the windows down, although wind noise is still a HORRIBLE noise. You could smell the fresh cut grass. Needless to say we ALL have spring fever in this household. But along with spring comes allergy season. Now I dont have allergies, but everyone else here does, including the kids. On top of allergies Toby also has asthma, so we have a kinda love hate relationship with spring.

As far as my hearing it is going pretty good. I have had to have some electrodes in my right ear turned off cause they cause me to have an awful pain. But I go to the audiologist on the 21st of April and there is gonna be a representative from Advanced Bionics (the maker of my cochlear implants) there. She is gonna take a look and make sure that there isn't a problem with that device. I also hope she has some suggestions on how I can get those electrodes turned back on without causing pain. But even with all of that it is still pretty good. I am able to pick out a few more words during conversations and I had a WOW moment the other day. I can actually understand on my cell phone if the person on the other end talks slowly and clearly. It was AMAZING. I can understand better on my cell phone than I can on my CapTel phone.

Well you might be wondering about the title of this entry. It is actually a funny from our house. There is a movie called Madagascar 2. Well the hippo in the movie is called Moto Moto (the name so nice they say it twice). Well to hippo's it is sexy to be what they call CHUNKY. Anyway Toby walked up to me yesterday and said "Mommie I lub ewe, ewe are CHUNKY" Keep in mind when Toby says chunky his voice goes down like 4 octaves to a bass voice. I said "TOBY" And he said "But mommie I just think ewe are beauuuuuuuutiful." Now I ask how can you argue with that. And so in the mornings when I put my "ears" on for the day I always say something so I can tell if the volume is too loud and such. So now my new phrase is "Hello....Hello....Moto Moto."