2011 Here We Come!

This is the last blog update of 2010, I hope you have all enjoyed reading about my mundane life and will come back in 2011 to see if anything exciting happens that's worth blogging about. If nothing exciting happens I will of course still blog about my day to day life.

I wish you all the best in this upcoming year, I urge you all to go and try something you have always wanted to do or to go try something new and exciting that you thought you would never do in a million years. Have fun, be safe, Dance in the rain, climb a mountain, go on that trip that you have always wanted to go on, basically live your life the way you want to, don't let anyone tell you no.

If you are going out to a party to ring in the New Year, if you drink don't drive, have fun and I will see you all in 2011!

Songs and Video Game Nerds

I have had 2 songs stuck in my head all week and it's driving me nuts! I start singing one then it some how morphs into the other one. The songs are Raise Your Glass by Pink and Secrets by OneRepublic. I am a big fan of Pinks so it's no wonder why I like her new song. But OneRepublic is new to me and I think I like Secrets so much is because it just has a great beat to it, its kinda of a melding of Rock and classical music.

Richard is playing a video game where he is flying a plane and having to do missions and I have noticed out of the corner of my eye that he moves his body to help with his control of the plane, like moving is going to help it at all. He was trying to get his plane to pull up so it wouldn't crash into the water and he started leaning back in the chair. I know for a fact that he isn't the only video game player that does this, cause I do it and I have even seen my brother do it. It just amuses me that we get so into our games that we think it's going to help, but it never does, it just makes us look goofy.

I can't watch him play the game he is playing because I start getting sick to my stomach, I have motion sickness and certain things can trigger it, like a video game that moves around to fast because the camera is spinning or something, I just start getting dizzy and feel like I want to toss my cookies. The weird thing is, if I am playing a game where I have control over the camera angle and make it spin, I wont get sick but if I watch other people I will. An example of this is a Wii game called Boom Blox, I can controll the camera really well and not get sick but if we are playing the game with mom I turn green because she can't control the camera at all and all it does is spin the game around really fast. I mean it even makes Richard sick. I can thank my dad for the motion sickness, transparently he had it really bad too, he had to either be driving or in the front seat of the car or he would get sick. This is one thing I wish he wouldn't have passed onto me. Oh well.

Kramer attacks the Zhu Zhu Pet

Richards parents got each one of us a Zhu Zhu pet, which is basically a motorized hamster toy. They thought it would be a great gag gift and it was. I decided to see what moms cats would do when we got to her house for Christmas dinner, they kinda just followed it around and sniffed at it. After dinner Richard and I came home and decided to see what Kramer would do. He had a completely different reaction to the toy, he watched it for like 2 seconds then attacked it, he does this every time it starts to move across the carpet. I had to grab my camera and get a video of him attacking it, of course once the video was on he really didn't go after it but I was still able to catch him attacking it. The gag gift turned into a great cat toy. Anyways here is the video I hope you enjoy it and yes there is sound.

We Like to Move It

Richard and I went to the gym at about 11:55pm and didn't stop working out till 1am it was a great workout and am looking forward to going back and doing it again. There was a new piece of equipment there that I believe is called an ab roller. HOLY smokes does it ever work your abs, I know mine are going to be screaming at me when I wake up in a couple of hours. It won't stop me from using it though, I really rather liked it and will be using it a lot. Other than that I didn't last very long on the treadmill only about 12 minutes, so I really need to work on that and build up my time again.

I am yawning a lot so off to slumber I go.

End of the year review (a few weeks early)

This year has defiantly been interesting to say the least, there have been ups and downs this year, which is pretty much usual of any year. We started out the year having to get a new truck because the Land Rover broke down yet again and it was cheaper to get a new one. I was dealing with an infected toe, that I ended up having surgery on in March where I had part of my toenail permanently removed, it took it till about August to finally heal completely. I did my work assessment for DVR at a company I really liked working at but they didn't have the funds to hire me on. The first part of July Richard hurt his back while at work and was put on light duty for about 2 weeks and he was in a great deal of pain but recovered, Thankfully.

Richard and I had some good adventures this year as well, we went gold panning with a friend then hung out with him at his camp site with a fire going and just chatting, we went up to Fairbanks and back to town in 1 day, which was a long trip but we had fun. Went out to Potters Marsh a couple of times, Made it out to Homer for a day with mom for something to do. Then of course there were a couple of trips out to the valley to visit his folks, Oh and his Aunt Kendy came up in March so we got to hang with her for a bit. So that was fun and exciting and lots of pictures were taken and posted on Facebook. Oh I also mended a friendship earlier this year as well.

The one big negative thing that happened this year was that Richard lost his job in October, he still hasn't been able to get another one yet. He has been out of work for over 2 months now, on the bright side its been great having him home, on the not so bright side, we do nothing cause we can't afford to do anything. We are getting along great with each other and haven't had a fight so that's a plus, our main problem is lack of things to do. I know that when the time is right, and the right job comes along it will all fall into place and things will go back to normal, for now we are just holding our heads above the water and praying that a big wave doesn't come and drown us. I have managed to stay pretty dang healthy and haven't yet had to go to the doctor so that is a big plus, Richard re-injured his back helping his dad but it wasn't to bad and the bill for going to the chiro was manageable and paid off .

Here's hoping that next year is as good as the good parts of this year were and no where near as bad as the bad parts of this year were. Or heck an even better year all around then this year would be cool too.

Kramers love for human food

I took this picture of Kramer a few weeks ago but didn't want to post it with out a good story to tell about Kramer, well today I finally figured out something to say about my cat. He loves to beg for human food, special sandwich meat, like turkey and roast beef, he also has a very bad sweet tooth. This cat has come up to me many times and has stolen a bite of a pop tart, cookies, peppermint bark, basically if its sweet and in my hand he wants to try it. He also has stolen bites of chicken tenders and has even stolen a piece of peperoni off of a piece of pizza before. Kramer just loves to steal food from me, if I know he likes it I will share a few pieces with him, or I get the Puss-in-boots eyes and very soft pleading meows.

Because I know of my cats fondness for human food I will call him over to me to see if he wants to try what ever I am eating, that is if he is around when I'm eating it. Now it doesn't matter where he is or what he is doing but if either Richard and I open a can of tuna Kramer is in the kitchen in 5 seconds begging for some, we only ever give him just the smallest itty bitty amount and that's only every great once in awhile. Today I was eating some sushi and Kramer was around so I called to him and he was over to me in 3 seconds flat. I held the sushi down to where he could smell it and he wanted nothing to do with it. The cat that loves tuna wanted nothing to do with the sushi. He is a very strange cat. OH and he loves, loves, loves ice cream.

Cookie Madness

It's Christmas cookie time at moms house again. Every year we get together with a friend of mine and make way to many cookies. In the picture there is 2 different kinds of peanut butter blossoms, one with cherry kisses and one with dark chocolate ones, we also made ones with Carmel and mint truffle as well. there is also stacked up in this picture the sugar cookies from Pillsbury with Christmas trees, snowmen and reindeer on them. We also made M&M cookies, chocolate chip cookies, some kind of cookie that used cake mix, (I didn't like those ones) and Rice Krispie treats. Those rice krispie treats aren't the regular ones either, my mom got the recipe from her boss and they are soooo much better than the regular ones. I can't eat regular ones anymore cause they just don't taste right to me anymore. We started making cookies at 11am and were done by 4pm leaving moms house smelling like cookies.

There was a little drama before we could start making the cookies though, moms truck was to be in the shop this morning for an oil change but she also had a meeting at work to go to so last night we let her take our truck home after dropping hers off at the shop. When she got up this morning the dang truck wouldn't start, she ended up having to call a friend of hers to take her to work for the meeting. Once the meeting was done, she borrowed her bosses car to come get Richard to go get her truck then head back to the hospital to give her boss back her car. Then they came and picked me and my friend up and we all went to moms house, ML and I to start with the cookies and mom and Richard to see if they could get our truck started and over to the shop to be fixed. They were able to jump our truck and got it the shop just fine. It had been acting like it wasn't wanting to start for us when we would go start it up to go somewhere but would always start up, we figured it was because it was cold or the battery was going out and we needed a new one. Well it was in fact the battery not wanting to hold a charge anymore, so we now have a new battery in the truck. So all and all a busy day for us.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

It's snowing tonight, so I went and took some pictures and I just love how this snowflake looks. Its just so neat looking. I held my hand out and took a pic, then cropped the pic when I downloaded the picture to the computer. I just love it when it snows, it's just so pretty and calming. It's one of the many reasons I love winter.

The apartment is pretty much done being decorated for Christmas and it looks great, I just have to string up the lighted garland but need Richards help for that. I have gotten my Christmas cards done, I just need to go put them in the mail so they can be sent out to everyone. Plus next Friday I get to go to moms house with my friend ML and bake Christmas cookies. I love spending the day making cookies just the three of us, its so much fun and I missed doing it last year.

It's Begining to look a lot like Christmas

.....And the stockings were hung by the wall with care in hopes that they wouldn't fall off and break their stocking holders. I have begun decorating for Christmas, I also have static clings in the windows and the tree skirt on the stereo system, I forgot to grab the tree at moms will grab that prob some time this weekend. So all I have left to do is String up the garland, decorate the tree and fight some more with my 1000 piece puzzle of Santa taking a nap with a cat on his lap, and have Richard do his 1000 piece puzzle of nothing but Candy canes and decorating will be done.

It's looking like the second weekend of December will be the day we do Christmas cookies at my moms house this year, we didn't do them last year because Richard and I were out of town. SO that will be a lot of fun. I have always enjoyed making Christmas cookies with my mom. Then a few years ago a friend of mine joined my mom and I and its become a tradition that the three of us get together for a day and bake cookies.

After raining the first half of the week yesterday it snowed a lot, I mean prob a good 6-12 inches depending where you were in town. It was so pretty out. Richard and I went to mom's house for Thanksgiving and his parents were there too, always fun hanging with the whole family.

Book Wars

Why is it that authors seem to think its cool to release their books all at the same time? I was going through and finding release dates for some book series that I like to read and May is going to be a very hard month for me to decide what to read first. I have 3 books coming out in two days, of course right after each other too. One book comes out one day then the next the other two come out, I want to read all three of them really bad to see what happens next and now I have to choose the order that I will read them. This seems to be a trend with my authors lol, James Patterson releases a book and like the next day another one of my authors does, it happened this month and so far twice next year as well. UGH! I can't complain to much cause I love to read but I am going to be backed up in May. This isn't the first time this year either that its happened. I actually find it rather amusing.

A little bit of everything

Man o man is it cold here, well ok it's kinda cold here, 19 degrees out I mean it could be a lot worse and drop bellow zero so not really complaining there. But scarves and gloves might not be a bad idea if you are going to be outside for any length of time greater than 5 minutes. Still don't have a ton of snow here, a lot of it melted then froze so its a bit slick outside in some areas.

Last Sunday Richard and I got together with my friend Kaori and her little boy, we had a blast talking with her and watching her son play. We met up at Boarders and hung out there for a couple of hours. I love being able to see her when she comes up here to visit and work for her mom.

Tomorrow we find out if mom won the Nurse of the Year award, that she was nominated for. I hope she wins cause that would be so totally cool! But as I told her, she should feel honored just to be nominated for it. She says she has a snow balls chance in hell of winning but its still cool I think.

Saturday mom and I are going to the annual Christmas arts and crafts emporium at the Dena'ina Center, we go every year just mostly as something to do but we have fun looking at all the stuff and seeing what is new from last year.

Bored of being bored

What do you do when you do the same thing everyday for a month and then realize that you are so bored that those things that you have been doing aren't fun anymore? That's basically where Richard and I are at the moment. Our days are spent on the computer looking for jobs or on facebook, watching Netflix, reading, playing video games or going to one of my meetings. We can't afford to do anything else besides stay home. Monday we are going back to the gym, since we have to pay for the membership, might as well use it. But then its going to be the same thing every day just adding in a work out as well. I have also noticed that I'm bored eating, which isn't good. I'm working on my blanket that I'm knitting but I can only do so many rows in a day before my eyes start having problems and I can't concentrate any more. I stay up till about 2-3 am and am up by 10:30 the next morning if not sooner to only repeat it again.

A friend of ours came over to hang out for a couple of hours today, and then tomorrow we get to go see a friend of mine that is up from Texas to visit, so it will be fun to hang out with her. But other than that, nothing to do. If you guys have any suggestions please feel free to share them with me. I am even going to start working on puzzles so hopefully that helps a little bit as well. I might end up going mad from boredom, we will have to wait and see about that though.

The Bookworm Returns

Last week I got the bug to read again, I had taken a break from reading just because Richard and I have been staying up really late cause we don't have to worry about getting up early in the morning. But I have read one book so far and am almost done with another. Next week two books are coming out a day apart from one another and I don't know if I will be able to get them or not, I hope I can cause they are the next ones in two different series of books that I read, one is the new Alex Cross book by James Patterson and the other is the new Immortal book done by Alyson Noel. If I get both I have no clue which one I am going to read first, I guess it will all depend on which one is bigger.

It's been snowing on and off the last couple of days, sadly not a lot accumulates there isn't even near a foot of snow on the ground yet. But I love to watch the snow fall, so pretty! Only part of winter I don't like is how slick it gets outside. Mom and I went to a bazaar on Saturday and while walking outside to get to it I fell for the first time this winter, I hurt my pride and my hip, its still a little sore but not to bad anymore.

Movie Memories

A few days ago I was watching Pawn Stars and they had this guy that had an old 70's fridge that he wanted to sell them and just seeing that fridge brought back a scene from a movie that I hadn't seen in about 16 years. The scene in the movie is these 3 teenage boys hauling a fridge just like the one on Pawn Stars up flights of stairs. I for the life of me couldn't remember the name of the movie I could remember that the dogs name was fuzzhead and that she ran away. Anyways today I looked it up on ask.com and once I saw the name I knew it was right, its called Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven of Bliss. I went to netflix to see if it was on there and sadly its not. But I went to youtube and someone had posted it on there in 9 parts, so I started watching it..

It's amazing to me how watching a movie can bring you back to what you were doing or where you were when you watched it. I was instantly a little girl sitting on the floor in the living room watching the movie with my mom, it wasn't the first time I had seen the movie but it was a movie we watched a lot when I was younger. I remember her saying that this one part of the movie where there is a bee in the car and they all get out and run away that the oldest boy acted just the way my brother would have in running in the total opposite direction of everyone else. It was fun to watch it again. I hope that one of these days that movie will be released on DVD and when and if it does, I will deff buy it for our collection.

First snow's sinus infection

The first snow has finally hit Anchorage and not just the hillside, it wasn't much but it stuck. Now to get more so it doesn't look down right ugly outside. It's supposedly going to snow tomorrow and Friday so we will have to wait and see. I have always loved winter, I can always be heard saying I rather be cold than hot, cause its so much easier warming up then cooling down. Plus when it snows its just magical and peaceful and so beautiful out. Now if people could only remember how to drive in it. Yesterday people were not having to much of a problem, of course the roads were clear so not like they had to much to worry about, its the first snow fall that really dumps on us that people forget how to drive in the snow. I tend to try and stay off the roads on those days if at all possible.

I sadly have come down with my first illness of the winter, I have a sinus infection, oh the joys of pressure in your head. This one isn't as bad as I have had in the past, but it still isn't fun to have, I feel like someone is banging a hammer on my head. Hopefully my meds will knock this one out and I will be back to normal shortly.

Life as we know it.

The job search is still on going for both Richard and I, he had an interview on Tuesday and we were supposed to hear back yesterday if he got the job but the company never called so yeah, that's where we are at. I know when the right job comes along for both of us it will happen, I just hope it happens soon.

Richard and I got our flu shots on Thursday, so we are now ready for winter. When I got the shot my arm didn't hurt at all but its been two days now and my upper arm hasn't stopped hurting, it's not as bad as when you get a tetanus shot but still it's annoying and I want it to go away. Oh well this is the price I must pay so I don't get the flu and get sick so I will pay it. Cause god knows I can't afford getting sick at the moment.

In other fun news, mom's water heater is on its last legs, it has a leak in it, which is what has been causing the pilot light to keep going out. Dad said he would replace it Monday for her, so Richard and I might be over there Monday to help with that, not sure though. Cause we all know how reliable this man is when it comes to getting stuff done for family.

Thanksgiving is fastly approaching which means my favorite holiday is just around the corner, I am already planning in my head how to decorate the apartment for Christmas. I have a few good ideas so it will be fun to see how they turn out. Now I just have to wait till its time to decorate so a few more weeks.

What day is it?

So, it's now been a week since Richard lost his job. We are still getting along fine so that's good. The only problem I now have is keeping the days straight. Today was the start of it, I went to call mom and tell her something and started dialing her home phone number when I realized oh wait it's Monday so she is at work. I lasted longer than Richard did with keeping the days straight cause he asked me Friday what day it was. I hate when the days all just start melting together cause its a pain to go what day is it and do I have anything planned for this day or the next.

I have had two meetings with the new lady that's going to be helping me look for a job. I really like her a lot! Richard likes her as well, we all seem to get a long great and she doesn't mind at all if Richard is back in the meetings with us. I am actually looking forward to working with her and looking for jobs. My next meeting with her is on Wednesday and I am for once looking forward to going.

Bad Day Today

Well today was not a good day. Richard was let go from his job today after he got back from lunch. I wasn't surprised it happened, I had a gut feeling after he had to fill out a report last week about why he was late the Friday beforehand. He had been on final notice at work for attendance issues because of when he was working with his dad. It was an honest mistake about why he was late for work that Friday and I will not go into details about it, I know it didn't happen on purpose nor do I hold the person responsible cause shit happens. It wouldn't have been a problem if he hadn't gotten himself on final notice. Oh well no use dwelling on it now. On the bright side, we have a ton of food cause we just did all that shopping with the pfd's so that's good, we will just watch how much we eat and make it last as long as we can, till he gets a job. I just don't know what we are going to do about a place to live if he doesn't get a job here soon. I guess the worst case is, we go back to living out in the valley with his parents, if they let us that is.

PFD Birthday Fun

The Apartment looks horrid, it yet again looks like a tornado went ripping through here. Mostly because we got the PFD and went food shopping so there are bags everywhere. When I am done writing this blog I am going to start cleaning this place up again.

Thursday was Richards birthday, we celebrated by going food shopping, then going out to dinner at Outback with my mom and brother. We had a good time and the food was great. We started celebrating his birthday a few days earlier by going to the two Purple with a Purpose Ace's Hockey games on Tuesday and Wednesday. The Aces lost but we still had a fun time. Richard also used his last 2 vacation days for Thursday and Friday so he has a 4 day weekend, which has been nice so far.

That's pretty much what I have been up to the last couple of days. The weather is getting colder and we are starting to guess when the first snow fall is going to be, Richard and I both agree that it's prob not going to happen till November, but we shall wait and see.

Ding Dong,The Wicked Witch is Dead!

My DVR appointment went pretty good actually, I explained my side of things that She who must not be named had told my councilor, and her and I decided that she who must not be named is not the right person to be helping me out anymore. She is just to scatterbrained and isn't teaching me how to work a certain website so I can look for jobs. Mahala (dvr councilor) is contacting a different lady that she thinks will be a better match for me. One that will actually include me in my job search instead of doing it for me and not letting me have a say in applying for jobs or not. I'm glad Mahala is on my side, turns out that She who must not be named kept complaining to Mahala about the fact that I wanted to avoid talking on the phone at all costs. Mahala got her to stop pushing that subject with me because people with hearing loss don't like to talk on the phone a lot because of the fact that they might not catch everything that someone says, and that its my right not to talk on the phone because of my hearing loss and to respect that. Any one who knows me knows I have a hard time with my hearing, specially if I'm sick and that I avoid having to talk on phones or going out anywhere in general till I can hear again. Just ask my mom, she hates when I can't hear cause she has to repeat herself a lot for me to get everything she has said. Of course it would be easier if she didn't walk away from me when she is talking to me, but that's just mom. :-)

Life back to normal, well almost.

So our friends have now moved to Georgia so our lives have almost gone back to normal. My apartment looks like a tornado went through it cause we have all this extra stuff in it at the moment. Mostly food and trash. I am going to work on cleaning it up later today. We have also starting going through all of our stuff and getting rid of the stuff we don't use or need. We have to much crap in our apartment so I guess you could say we are decluttering the place. Yesterday we ended up filling up half the dumpster here at the apartment and that was just some stuff from storage and a few things from the spare closet. We are just working on the spare room at the moment which is also sort of storage. I'm sick of having so much stuff that we don't need. Plus when we move, less stuff to pack up and go through. I thank the friends we helped move for getting both Richard and I motivated enough to go through all our stuff.

I survived my weekly meeting with She who must not be named. I get a two week vacation from her cause she will be out of town. YAY! that means I don't have to worry about finding a place to park downtown near her office and at a parking meter. Sweet relief. Only had one problem with her in this last meeting, she tried kicking Richard out of the meeting. Saying it was awkward and that the meeting was just between me and her, I want him in there with me and that is my right. I mean why now after him sitting in on the other meetings does she try to kick him out? He is a big part of me being able to have a job, he has the right to have input into it because he is the one that is going to be driving me to and from work, he knows me better than she knows me, I want his opinion in the matter. It's only fair.

Other than that, I'm trying to get back into a routine again, this last week has been very hectic and stressful, poor Richard has a sinus infection so he isn't feeling very well. He is on meds though so he will be feeling better shortly. I have a meeting at DVR today, which I'm not really looking forward to cause I know why we are having this meeting, its because of what she said to my councelor when she talked to her earlier this month. I thought it was rather odd to have two meetings with her in a month cause I usually only ever have one meeting at DVR a month.

fun weekend and gearing up for battle

This weekend was busy but fun. Friday we had my friend Mandy and her boyfriend over for dinner, then after Dinner Richard and I went over to a different friends place and had a few drinks with them and didn't get back home till 2:30 Saturday morning. We then had those friends over for breakfast and spent the day with them and didn't get back home till about 10:30 Saturday night. Sunday Richard and I traded in some video games that we never play, and took my backpack over to mom's house so she could pack it up with her clothes for her trip to California that she is on.

I have survived another week of she who must not be named and am getting ready to do another battle with her on Wednesday. I really don't know how much more I can take of her, poor Richard is at the end of his rope with her already. That's saying a lot cause he is a very patient person. Then on the 30th I have an appointment at DVR which has me a little worried only because I had a meeting there at the begining of the month and usually only have one meeting a month or every couple of months with them. I am wondering if She called them and complained about me or something. I might just bring up schooling and see what they think because well there just aint any jobs up here for me.

The Job Search Continues

I didn't get the job. I had a feeling after the interview that I wasn't going to get it and I didn't. They were going to call yesterday if they wanted me or if they couldn't make up their mind and wanted me to come in for another interview and well they never called. Which is fine cause that just means there is a better job out there just waiting for me. If I don't find a job, well then I will start thinking even harder about going back to school. But I really only want to do that if there is a way I can do that with out having to take loans out cause I am not going put Richard and I in debt. I just wont do that.

Job Interview

I went in today and did my data entry assessment/test. I completed it in 14 minutes and 17 seconds. I felt pretty good about it and figured I either did really well or stunk to high heaven. They told me once they looked it over and basically graded it that if it was good I would get a call to set up a time to come in for an interview. I gave my friends a call saying I was done and they came back by to pick me up and take me home. I get home, change out of the clothes I wore to the assessment and turned on the xbox to play a video game and as soon as I am about to play the phone rings and it's them asking me to come in next week for an interview!! So Tuesday at 3pm I go in for an interview, so I must have done a good job on the data entry assessment. I am stoked I can't believe I heard from them so fast. I was thinking I wouldn't hear from them till next week if at all, and they called me maybe a half hour after I left there!!!

Job Search Update

Got a call today from the one and only company I have applied at so far. They want me to come in on Friday and do a data entry assessment/test thing which is the next part of the job application. I guess if I do good on that I might get another call asking me to come in again. So now I am nervous about doing a good job at the data entry, I tend to be a bit slow in entering it in but I make up for it because I am accurate. SO I hope I do a good job. It's a part time job but the hours are 20-39 hours a week, which I could so handle. and the pay is good. Plus they have a great benefits package, which is nice. But we will just have to wait and see.

Mending Fences

This last year has been hard on me, not in the way most of you think, it was hard on me because I was missing a part of me, a part I thought I could be with out, well it turns out I was wrong. I just hope it's not to late to fix what happened. My head and my heart have been fighting against each other all year. So many times I wanted to find a way to contact the friend I cut out of my life because she pissed me off in one conversation. I would find myself going man I want to talk to her, she would totally get what I'm going through or she would know what to say to make me laugh. I didn't realize till today that I do in fact value our friendship, it just needed to be reworked and new boundaries set up.

There have been days, where I wish I could of called my friend up and say hey if you aren't busy you want to come over and hang out for a few hours? Or even just chatting on the phone with her. I know I ranted and raved about her when I ended the friendship but really it was petty stuff that I should of just found a way to talk to her about. She indeed was a great friend to me when I needed her the most and even though there have been gaps of us not talking for one reason or another we always found a way to connect again. I hope my stupidity and stubbornness didn't ruin it.

I have grown up a lot this last year, I didn't know I needed too but looking back I was just as childish as she was in that conversation. I just hope she forgives me.

To The Anonymous Commenter on my last post

If you are who I think you are, you will probably read this so here it goes. I want to know why you left me that message after not talking for almost a year. If you are who I think you are, you really made me pissed with how you handled things the last time we talked. I am willing to talk to you on yahoo as of right now. I am a bit leery of where this might go and how we will handle things. So lets just take it slow, like I said I am not against talking to you on yahoo, you know my name on there. I still have you on my list, so if you don't have me still on yours, sign on and I will message you.

I don't mean for this to sound mean, I'm just stating how I feel. I hope we can work something out.

As always,

Stephanie

Fall fun

Fall is in the air, the air is much crisper now and well the State fair is going on. Richard and I went last Saturday. It rained while we were there but it was fun none the less, I always enjoy going to the fair. It's only a matter of time now till the leaves start really changing color and then the temperature drops and snow starts to fly.

The ringworm that has plagued my foot is finally gone, I'm glad to be rid of it. It really didn't bug me but was just a pain to take care of. I have a really hard time remembering to take meds or put ointment on, I just plain forget to do it. I'm trying to get better about remembering these kinds of things and I have made some progress.

The job thing is going slow, I have applied for one job. Or well She who must not be named applied for a job for me. I don't have to deal with her till next week and am already starting to dread it. I don't think I will be getting a job any time soon. She told me about some of her brain storming ideas and she has no clue who I am or what I would like to do. This is an on going battle that I don't know how much longer I can last in. Never mind the fact that parking to see her is a big pain in the butt. It's way to expensive to pay for parking and the parking meeter isn't any better. I am going to talk to the lady at DVR about this to see what she thinks about the parking issue, cause we just can't afford to do this every week.

I think the leak in the bathroom has been solved. Maintenance hasn't been back yet and it's been over a week since they were last here. I hope they come and finish up the bathroom so I can stop worrying if they are going to show up during the day or not. In other apartment news, our rent is going up yet again. UGH! It went up last year in June and now it's going up again. Pretty soon Richard and I won't be able to live here if it keeps going up.

D'oh Visiting Homer

On Sunday mom, Richard and I decided to drive down to Homer for the day. It has been about 3 years since we had gone down there. So we got into mom's truck, which Richard was driving so mom could enjoy the drive, which she did. Mom and I made a deal that, she would ride in the front seat on the way down to homer and I would ride in the front on the way back.

We went down to the Homer Spit and got out and walked down to the ocean to take some pictures. Richard Went and picked up a few rocks to skip and I managed to get this picture of him, I think its a pretty cool action shot of him.

We went to the seafarer's memorial and there is a picnic table there and these two ravens were on it.

This boat was out playing in the water off in the distance.

On Saturday Richard and I are going to the Alaska State Fair, I can't wait to go and get my Husky burger and see all the stuff there. We will prob be there all day just wandering and enjoying the sites and sounds of the fair.

Getting together with dear friends

I jut got this picture in an email from my friend Larry who came up here with his mom in July from California to visit. I became friends with him and his mom through my friend Diane as they were her brother and mom. Larry took care of Diane once she got sick. I consider both him and his mom family and love and miss them a ton so its always nice to see them. I last saw them in December when I went down to Sacramento and they flew up there from Long Beach for the day to see me and meet Richard.

We had breakfast at Snow City Cafe, we had to wait over an hour for a table because the place is so popular but the food was well worth the wait and it gave us more time to chat and catch up. That is where this picture is taken. On the left side of the picture is Richard and I and on the right side of the picture its Larry, Mary Rita (another friend of Diane's that we know) and Judy, Larry and Diane's mom.

So in other news, the mystery spot on my foot isn't a mystery any more. The doctor thinks its ringworm and gave me some ointment to put on it for the next 6 weeks, oh joy! I also need to keep an eye on Kramer and make sure that he doesn't get it from me. So far so good on that front.

A foot problem

I took this picture on Monday night, I happened to look down at my foot and saw that I had this splotch/ circle thing on my foot. I got a little freaked out and called mom, she stopped by on Tuesday before work to look at it (god I love having a nurse for a mom) touched it told me she didn't know what it was and to keep an eye on it and if it got any bigger to go to the doctor. Well it's now friday, it hasn't gotten any bigger and has faded out but you can still see it. It's warm to the touch, or well I think it is, like it was on Tuesday and it hurts now. Not like a rash kinda hurt but like the bone is aching. This all started after I took a shower this morning, my foot did not like the water hitting it at all and has been aching all day.

I don't know what caused it either, I didn't drop anything on it, didn't smack in on anything, in fact the only thing I did this last weekend was go out to the valley on Saturday and fell but that was on my right side, I didn't land on the top of my foot, I didn't even land on that foot at all. I'm going to tell mom about this ache and see what she says, I might just have to go to the doctor after all and see what the heck this thing is.

The leak continues on

I went to check the mail yesterday and walking back to the apartment I watched Maintenance pull up and park so I ran the rest of the way to the apartment which wasn't far cause I was almost there anyways and told Richard to hurry and get dressed. Richard likes to just sit around in his boxers while at home. He asked why and I told him that Maintenance had pulled up and I wasn't completely sure but I figured they were coming to look at the hole and see if they had stopped the leak or not. No sooner does he get finished getting dressed there is a knock on the door. It's been over a week and maintenance still doesn't know where the leak is. It's not coming from the people above us and it's not the vent like they thought. They are now going into the attic to see if they can't find where this leak is coming from. I am no longer living with plastic bags taped to the ceiling, they put a piece of Sheetrock up and they have towels stuffed up into the hole to see if it can't help them find where the water is coming from. I hope they find the leak in the attic cause I don't know whats going to happen if they don't, I have a fear that its going to be tearing down the Sheetrock and looking for it and I don't want to live in a construction zone, been there, done that, don't really want to do it again. But I will if I have to. The only days maintenance doesn't show up are Saturday and Sunday. but since Last Tuesday they have shown up every day besides those two days.

Playing with Puppies is Hazardous to your Health

My In-laws got a new Boston Terrier her name is Munchkin and she is about 8-9 weeks old. Dad brought her and Charlie by yesterday so I got a picture of them. Richard and I decided to go out and visit with his mom today and play with the puppy. His mom decided to have him help her with something down in the barn and I stayed in the house to play and keep an eye on Munchkin. She needed to go outside and potty and since she hasn't learned to go down stairs yet I picked her up and walked down stairs to get to the back steps. I made it down the steps fine but seeing as how it has been raining all summer there was a muddy spot and I managed to find it and slip on it. I was still holding her at the time I started to fall and so I twisted and my right side landed on the edge of the steps but I managed to hang on to her and she didn't get hurt. If I hadn't of twisted and just fell I would of lost my grip on her and she would have gone flying and I didn't want to hurt her so I figured better me than her. I wont be surprised if I have a bruise in the morning on my ribs cause I landed pretty hard. But I was rewarded with a puppy kiss so all is good. hazardus

the ever expanding hole

I noticed this bubble in the ceiling Monday night. Tuesday Morning I called the landlord and told her about it and asked for Maintenance to come out and look at it. By the time they got to us on Tuesday the Bubble had gotten bigger but I didn't have a chance to get a pic of it.

So, they poked a hole in the bubble and water came out, which means there is a leak, so they cut a hole into the sheet rock. Which is the picture above. While doing this, the guys ladder slipped in the bathtub and he broke the faucet and water start coming out and the poor guy got soaked. He leaves another maintenance guy comes in and gets the water turned off and starts fixing the bathtub faucet. Two hours later they leave (this is after 3 of them show up to work on the faucet), having not quite fixed the faucet all the way but enough so if we needed to we could take a shower and turn on and off the water but we had to push a screw in to turn the water completely off. No biggie, we just didn't use the shower that night. They told me they would be back on Wednesday.

Wednesday rolls around and They don't show up till like 4pm are here just long enough to finish fixing the faucet and tell us they will be back on Thursday for the leak.

They show up on Thursday, cut the hole even bigger(see picture above) to try and find the leak. No luck, its not coming from anything down here in our apartment so they have to go looking for the leak in the two apartments above us that share the same wall as we do. They cover the now expanded hole and say they will be back. So today is the 4th day of this hole in the ceiling and this horrid smell of stagnant water in the bathroom that comes out into the apartment so we have to have a candle lit just so we can't smell it in the living room. They still haven't shown up but they usually show up around 2pm here so I have a few hours to wait, hopefully they can get this fixed before the weekend. They don't work on the weekends and I really don't want to have this hole in the ceiling all weekend either.

Bombs away

This little guys name is Bob-Omb. He is a character in the Super Mario Brother's games. I made him out of Sculpey Clay that you bake in the oven to harden. I made him as a birthday gift for my brother. I need to get some more black clay cause I did such a good job on his that I want to make one for my self as well. I also if you remember made Hats out of the same clay for him for Christmas which he really liked a lot. I Love working with this clay and seem to have a knack for making cute stuff with it.

I am toying with the idea of making some holiday decorations with it as well. I don't know quite yet what I would make or how to make them but the holidays are still a few months away.

Grrr Where is my Modem

I was going to post a picture of what I made my brother for his birthday but alas I am still fighting with the old internet so it's a no go for now.

It rained all weekend here, I'm not complaining cause I love the rain and it just means that it's almost August and almost time for the Alaska State Fair. Gosh I love going to the fair, I just have such a great time there. It's the same every year, a few things change but other than that it's been the same as long as a can remember. It's the last big thing to do before the snow flies.

I finally got my hearing back in my left ear, it's not 100% back but I would say about 95% back. This happened yesterday I realized it only when a friend sent me a text message and I thought that the ringer on the phone sounded loud. It took me a bit but I got used to things being "loud" again. I am just glad that I can finally hear better I was getting annoyed with having to make sure people were on my right side so I could hear them.

In other news I am now reading Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. So I am making my way through the books. After I finish the Potter books I am going back to reading ones I haven't read cause I have a few more new ones coming out that I need to catch up on.

Not funny Mom!

We took mom to the airport last night so she could catch her flight down to Spokane WA. She is just going down for the weekend cause of her I believe 40th high school reunion. I woke up at 9am this morning and heard my cell phone beeping like I had a missed call and also doing its scream of death because the battery was almost dead. I look to see who the missed call is from and it says Dixie (mom's sister). I freaked out, first thing that came to mind was "oh my god, mom died in a plane crash". I hurry and call my voice mail to hear the message only to find out that it's mom and she made it there safely. I have no idea why she used her sisters cell phone instead of her own because she brought it with her. I promptly called her cell and left a message saying she scared me to death calling with Dixie's phone and to have a fun trip.

Back 100%

I have some great news, Richard is now 100% healed and is back to his regular job at Lowe's! He had a physical therapy appointment today and was able to lift over 40 lbs with no pain and so the physical therapist said he was healed and didn't need to come back. Richard then went to the other doctors office and got a release saying he can go back to work with out restrictions. Totally made my day.

In other good news, We will have our phone line tomorrow and then internet by Tuesday. So I only have a couple more days of fighting with clearwire then it's so long crappy internet hello great internet.

Clearwire, not so clear after all

About 3 years ago Richard and I got Clearwire internet, at the time it worked really well and we had no complaints and would happily recommend them to anyone looking for a good internet provider. Mind you that was three years ago and we were living in a different apartment with 7 foot tall windows and on the second floor. We had great service, now mind you the apartment was crap but the internet rocked, mostly just cause of the location of the building, turns out it is like smack dab in the middle of 3 towers of clearwires so its well covered. Didn't find that out till yesterday. Anyways I am jumping ahead of myself. As most know, we moved from that prime internet location because we couldn't stand living there anymore. We moved up the road about maybe a mile or possible two. And the internet worked great, or so we thought.

Shortly after moving to where we are now we had problem and lost the net, we called up clearwire and they said our tower that we have in the apartment wasn't working and they would send us a new one. Ok no problems there, new one came, we sent the broke one back all was good. till about April of this year. We started having issues with the internet not working, it would work and call up pages then all of the sudden we were getting booted off of the net and then it would work fine again. I called up and asked what was up and they said that they were having problems and it should be fixed shortly. Well they fixed their problems but we were still having problems of our own with it. We were lucky if it worked and prayed that it would last long enough to let us do what we needed to do online. We also figured out that it worked better on partly cloudy days, only partly cloudy. It wouldn't work on Sunny days or days where all you see is clouds and it rains (which has been mostly this summer). Mind you this Started in April, it is now the Middle of July and we are still having issues.

Last week Richard got sick of it not working and called clearwire to see what was going on cause it wasn't just us having problems, cause before all the problems started mom asked me what internet provider I used and if I would recommend them and I said yes, she gets clearwire and BAM it goes to shit. He is on the phone with them for like an hour, he does everything they say take the tower to a different window, how about a different room? Still only one bar of service huh? not holding, rotating through all five lights you say? weird ok we will have a tech support guy come to your apartment on Monday July 19th between the hours of 10am-1pm. After that phone call we got really great service, it worked as long as we were on it no problems at all, us thinking that wow maybe we don't have to worry about this tech support guy coming out cause I mean what is he going to do walk in and go oh there is a loose wire on the tower let me fix that.

So Yesterday I gave up my laundry day cause tech support was coming out, which worked out fine anyways cause I was able to get the apartment clean. A little bit before 11am I get a phone call saying that the guy would be here in less than 15 minutes, Bonus Points to the tech guy for not making me wait forever. He shows up comes in and we start talking about the problems that Richard and I were having with the net. The guy works on his laptop for a couple of minutes, moves the tower around asks when we noticed having problems I guestamated about April, he goes back to the laptop looks at it some more then goes yup it was April and huh. I'm sorry but you never want to hear HUH come out of a tech support guy. Because that means that you have just stumped him.

He calls me over to his laptop and shows me the coverage area and says see you guys are covered but you are the the edge of 3 towers which shouldn't make a difference cause you shouldn't be having any problems at all. He then explained it to me as dropped calls and showed me how many "dropped calls" we have been getting with our service. Lets just say that last year we had only a few like maybe 5-10 a month which is normal, they went from that to 80-100 and just this month alone to over 1500 "dropped calls" which is bad. THen told us to cancel our internet through them cause he can't fix the problem we are having and that there is no point in paying them money. For a tech support to say that means a lot.

When Richard got home from work I told him what the guy said, and we went to go see how much dsl through ACS was going to cost us. There is no start up fee since we had at one point a phone through them so it's basically $89.00 a month for internet and phone. SO we will once again have a home phone again. Plus it will have caller id, call waiting and 100 interstate long distant minutes. All of that is included in the 89 bucks a month. So we signed up yesterday and now just have to wait for our modem to show up in the mail and for our phone line to be turned back on and to get a piece of paper in the mail with our new phone number on it.

So I do not recommend clearwire to anyone! they are a horrible company that doesn't know their head from the hole in the ground. All I got to say is thank god we never got a home phone threw them like they were pushing us to do cause it wouldn't of been working since April. WE still are putting up with clearwire till our modem shows up then we are canceling and never looking back and we are going to tell people not to go with them if they live in this area at all cause they would just be throwing their money down the toilet. Oh the tech guy even told me to tell mom how to get out of her 2 year contract with them, which is basically having her call and ask for tech support to come out and since it's just this guy he will come out and go yeah I can't help and the kill the contract for her so she can call and cancel with out being charged for ending the contract early.

Movie Madness!

Richard and I only made it to Toy Story 3 and Eclipse, his back was starting to bug him during Eclipse so we decided to call it a night and will see Despicable Me some other time. We had fun seeing the two we did see though. I have to admit I like the way they ended Toy Story,don't worry for those of you who haven't seen it I'm not saying a word about what goes on in it. I don't do that to people cause I hate when it happens to me.

On a funny note, while waiting for the second movie to start I ran off to the bathroom walked in and had no problems. Which in all honesty surprised me cause there is usually always a line for the woman's restroom at the movie theater at least when I go. I went back to the theater and Richard said he would be right back cause he too had to use the restroom, he comes back about 10 minutes later sits down next to me and told me there was a line to use the men's restroom. I about died laughing just cause I couldn't believe it. Richard even said himself that he was shocked and thought it was amusing.

Nose out of the book and into the Movies

Yesterday Richard & I went and had breakfast with my friends Larry and Judy form CA. It was so great to see them again. We went to Snow City Cafe and had like an hour and a half wait to be seated, but we waited it out cause we were catching up. Mary Rita another friend of theirs was there to and it was great to see her as well. She used to work at my high school while I was there. I had really good French toast there that was so sweet and nummy I want to go back and have them again, I just think it will be a while since they are always so freaking busy.

I am Half way through Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (year 4). Since my friend Tara hasn't been able to be online during the day, I have been reading more. I am still enjoying the books. I can see myself reading them to our kids if we ever have any.

Other than that Richard and I are doing a movie date night tonight. We are going and seeing Toy Story 3, Twilight Saga: Eclipse (second time) and depending on how we feel after those two possibly Despicable Me as well. I always love when we go to movies. It's something we don't do very often anymore so we are treating ourselves. Plus it's dark and raining so what better to do then go to the movies!

Magical Me

I have started rereading the Harry Potter Books, I am now on year 3. I started rereading them because Richard and I bought the Lego Harry Potter video game which made us both want to watch the movies so we sat down over 2 days and watched all 6 of the movies. This however just made us want to read the books so, there ya go.

In other news, I start job hunting in a couple of weeks. I have to have a meeting with my counselor from DVR and the lady I don't like before the job hunt begins. This is just to go over what is expected and so on and so forth. It's at least 3 weeks away if not longer cause my counselor at DVR is very busy. SO I am sitting around waiting for the phone call to set up the appointment.

We got permission to go back to the gym as long as Richard takes it easy, no working up a sweat for him. But both him and I are happy that we can go back and start working out again.

In other news, two of my dear friends from California are in Alaska and I get to see them on Saturday! I'm looking forward to seeing them. THey are getting together with a bunch of people on Saturday for breakfast and then possibly all going to the Saturday market afterwords depending on the weather. Should be fun.

Another Year Older with a little back pain

Today I am 27 years old. WOW! I remember thinking when I was little that I would never make it to the age of 18, for some weird reason I believe that the world would end in 2000. Little did I know that the belief is that in 2012 the world ends, so I guess if you want to believe it then I was about 12 years off. That and I thought by now we would be living in the sky like the Jetsons. I'm still waiting.

I had a great day today, I lounged around the apartment for most of it, I read a little more of the first Harry Potter book (3rd time through the series), did some dishes, watched Avatar, and then went up to mom's house so we could go out for my birthday dinner. Josh, mom, Richard and I went to FireTap for dinner and man o man was it good. I had this dish that is made with eggplant and was only able to eat maybe half of it. Then back to moms we went for cake and so I could pick up my gifts from her, she surprised me with 2 puzzles. So all and all it turned out to be a very good day for me.

Richard isn't nearly in as much pain as he was. He still hurts but can move a lot easier than what he was and that thrills me. this is the second day of him not having that much pain so things are looking good. He has the next 2 days off work and a physical therapy appointment on Tuesday where we are going to ask about going to the gym. We haven't gone at all this last week cause he was in so much pain and we didn't want to make things worse.

The only thing I really can complain about is the doc in the box doc, She just didn't listen to us when we went there Friday. Richard was in a lot of pain and wanted something for it, but we wanted to make sure that he could still work while on the pain killers. She said if she gave him something that he wouldn't be able to drive but could still work. I told her how can he work if he can't drive and she said well he has to sit down to work, no power equipment, then I said if he can't drive can you give him a note saying that he can't work cause I can't drive. Then she says well what do you guys want to do? and we are sitting there looking at her going I dunno doc what do you want us to do? She leaves to call Richards physical therapy doc, and when she comes back I asked well how about an anti inflammatory, she agrees then says I will give you prescription strength advil. Which by the way is 4 regular advil combined into one pill. Advil wasn't helping him to begin with and he was taking 5 advil with no effect at all. We tell her this and says well this is different. NO IT'S NOT! My mom is a nurse, it's the same damn thing as the over the counter shit! Then she gives Richard a script for a pain killer, just enough for the weekend and tells him to keep taking the muscle relaxers that he has. SO she wanted him on advil, a pain killer that has Tylenol in it (which all pain kills have in them) and the Formula 303's which is the natural muscle relaxer. Richard and I both agreed that this wasn't a good combination so he hasn't done it. To make matters worse, the physical therapy doc told him to just relax this weekend and do pretty much nothing, the other doc says that the best thing to do for lower back pain is to use your back! Excuse me? you tell us to take him to physical therapy then you tell us to ignore what the doc says and do what you say? I called her on it and she back pedals and says well don't have him just sitting on the couch and you bringing him everything he wants make him get up and get stuff and go to the bathroom is what I mean.

Ok, Richard and I aren't the thinnest people out there, well scratch that we are just plain fat we get this. We are trying to do something about it, not as hard as we could be but we are trying. Now mind you at this point in the doc visit Richard has given up talking to her cause he is frustrated and just wants to leave, so I am doing all the talking and he can tell that I'm about 5 seconds away from getting up and slapping this lady cause she just isn't listening and stuff, She looks me straight in the eyes and says you guys need to join weight watchers. WTF? umm yeah with what money? I was about to give her what she had coming but I bit my tongue and said, are we through here cause I would like to get him home so he can rest. Thus ends the visit. I'm sorry but come on like we don't know we are fat? we don't need to be reminded of it, and the way she said it was quite rude.

Anyways, we have to go back to the doc in the box on Tuesday but luckily for us she wont be there and a different doc will be. I hope it's the main doc there cause if it is I am going to lodge a complaint about her.

Mini Melt Down

Richard hurt his back at work on Monday. He was out on a delivery and hurt it moving carpets and carpet pads into an apartment that is being remodeled. He went to the doctor and she told him to go to physical therapy 3-4 times a week for 5 weeks, and to check back with her Tomorrow to see how he is doing. He was released to work but just sitting down only so he is making phone calls for Lowe's. Thankfully all of this is covered under workman's comp so none of this is coming out of pocket.

Richard is in a lot of pain, I have never seen him hurt like this before and it scares me. The pain is mostly in his lower back but says that occasionally it radiates down to his knees. That's what is freaking me out the most, cause mom said if its radiating down to his knees it means he injured his spinal cord. So now I am all freaked out because of this and jumped to the worse possible thing which is, what if he can't work at Lowe's anymore? What if he can't work at all period, what are we going to do then? We can't afford to not have him working, I'm not working yet and if he can't work we are screwed and deff can't live in our apartment cause we won't be able to afford it. What do we do then, cause living with his parents again is deff out of the question, and we can't live with mom cause it just wouldn't be good to have all of us under one roof like that.

All of that caused me to have a mini melt down last night, I just got too overwhelmed with those thoughts. Richard went to bed and I came out here to the computer and about 10 minutes later he came out because he knew I was upset and made me tell him what was wrong. I broke down started crying and confessed all my fears to him. Then felt bad about doing so cause I know he is worried about it too, but I felt a bit better about him now knowing what was bugging me so bad. I tried to hide it from him cause I didn't want him to worry about me and how I am handling it. I want him to focus on getting better.

As far as I know, he could make a full recovery and all will be fine. Which is what I am hoping for. But right now we are playing that nasty game of wait and see. I hate that game cause it makes me play the what if game and that does us no good.

In other news I have an appointment at DVR today that I'm not looking forward to cause I know what she is going to say to me. She is going to tell me to start looking for a job because CHD isn't going to hire me. At least that's what I am thinking she is going to say to me, that and that I have to start working with that lady that I don't really like.

3 year old me on tape

While I was cleaning out my room at moms house a few weeks back I found a cassette tape that my dad had recorded a conversation that him and I had back when I was 3 and we were taping up my room to paint it pink. I just barely remember doing this, I remember a day where he recorded us talking but couldn’t remember why or what we were doing. Before I go into what was said on this tape I feel I need to explain some things about me so you can understand just how far I have come in my almost 27 years of life.

If you are family or a family friend you all know I was 17 days overdue and mom wanted me out, and that I have some medical and learning problems. Nothing to drastic but I have always been hard of hearing and very much dyslexic. Because of my hearing problems I have a speech problem, it’s not so noticeable today but it does rear its ugly head every now and then. When I was little I had to go through speech therapy so I could learn how to pronounce ph and th and for some weird reason if I remember correctly sp. I only say this because I couldn’t say spoon, it came out poon. Needless to say I had a very hard time pronouncing simple words and my parents bless their souls probably couldn’t understand 99% of the stuff I was saying. In fact mom likes to tell me that my brother was the only one that could ever figure out what I was saying if they couldn’t. Today after being in speech therapy from the age of 3 to about 10 years I can now say almost any word without a problem, yes there is still a few that I stumble over and some that I will never try to say cause I know I will never get them right. But I have learned to cope with my hearing loss and speech problems.

Now back to the conversation that was recorded. As far as I can figure out the reasons dad recorded the conversation was probably to A.) Have a record of me as a little girl, B.) Get me talking and help me learn how to pronounce words and C.) To show me just how far I came along in my speech problems. Apparently from what dad says on the tape I hardly talked while in speech therapy and only said 2 word sentences and he was basically doing the tape to show them that I actually did know how to speak more then what I was while in therapy.

There is a part in the tape where my dad is moving the chest of drawers to put tape behind it and he asks me to say it and needless to say what I say sounds nothing like chest of drawers. Dad laughs and says you have problems with that don’t you and little me says yeah and then I change the subject to monsters on my wall. To this day I very vividly remember laying in bed when I was 3 and looked over at the wall where my nightlight was and saw this shadow that looked like a troll go running across my wall above the nightlight. Dad goes on to say there’s no monster in your room is there? And I respond with no just on my walls. Which he responds with “well there can’t be monsters in your room because you have Max the germen Sheppard guard dog and he won’t let them get you and you have me and I will save you from them” I responded with “yeah you will save me”.

Dad says towards the end of the tape that I have no idea how much me sitting there talking to him is going to help me in the long run and that by talking to him nonstop while he was taping up my room that I proved my teacher wrong about not talking. I believe the reason I didn’t talk much as a young kid was that I was and still am shy and a lot of it has to do with the fact that when I was little people couldn’t understand me.

I’m thankful that I was able to go to speech therapy to help me learn how to pronounce words; yes I will never be able to say Chest of drawers right in a million years. It’s just one of the many words that I still have trouble with. When you first meet me, you would never know that I was the same little girl whose parents couldn’t even understand her. To this day my mom still corrects me when I mess up a word which happens every now and again. I get nervous when talking to new people and actually have to stop and think about what I am going to say so I can pronounce it right. I will never be the world’s best speller because of my hearing problems but I muddle through and do the best that I can with what god gave me and spell check. But I have come a long way in my almost 27 years of life and I am proud of what I managed to accomplish, even if it was just that my parents and the world could understand me when I talk.