Silly Boy

Annie asked me to help her by filming her doing speech therapy with kids. She have to give a big presentation at Speech-Language meeting this spring. It was a big deal for her. She had to borrow some kids for her presentation and she found several kids that their parents were willing to let us borrow their kids.

We visited one family with five or six boys. One of boys walked to me and started to talk. I told him I cannot understand him. His mother told him that I am deaf and use sign language to communicate. If he wants to talk with me, he need to ask Annie to interpret for him. He does not like the idea. He wanted me to talk with him. Actually he WANTS me to hear him.

He kept on the topic about me and my hearing issues. It was almost time for his turn to work with Annie. He left the room and wrote something and gave it to me. His face was very serious. He again tried to talk  as hoping that I would hear him. You can see how serious he was by writing big words, HEAR ME?! It was so funny! It took him awhile to accept that I CANNOT understand him even I can hear him with my cochlear implants. If he wants to talk, he need to learn sign language to communicate or use Annie to interpret.

So often, I always wanted to look inside of kids' head what they were thinking of. :D

The Roof

We got lot of rain recently. About two months ago, Katie told us that there were some leak in her bedroom. I had to check what she saw. I saw there were lot of water leak on the wall from the vent and one other area.  The odd is that the vent was not bottom, but it was middle of the wall. You'll see the picture to see what I mean. The carpet was soaked. I grabbed the towels and put it on the carpet where it was soaked.

Annie had to call the condo company about the leak. The roof man came and fixed the roof so the problem would be solved. The next day, rain comes and go.

Men came and ripped off the wall to see what the problem was. They found some mold were about to develop. One of men sprayed special thing for mold. Poor Katie because the insulter was removed and left it open for many days, even cold nights. I had to go and buy a heater for her. The reason they left it open because it has to be dry before they put it back. They thought it was fixed.

Nope, it wasn't fixed!! 

Annie had to call them again and complained it wasn't fixed. The roof owner came and think it was umm roof slider. That was causing the problem. So we have to call different people to come to fix roof slider or side? I don't know what it called. They haven't come to fix it. It have been opened and still having leak.. GRRR. Poor Annie. 

I hope they will get it fixed BEFORE the snow comes and decided to sit on the ground! It's not going to be pretty in the morning--when people found us frozen people. ;) Because it wasn't solved yet.... 

Forgot-Me-Not, O'Lord

This month has two things that we can looking forward to it. Actually, one of them had arrived last night. About one week ago, I convinced one of my visiting teacher to come with us to RS Broadcast night at Stake Center. Yahoo, I was able to pick her up, sit with us for dinner, sit with us to watch television (RS Broadcast), and rode with us until I drop her off. I hope she knows that she was not forgotten. And I hope she DID enjoy the event with us. I really enjoyed all four wonderful speakers from the RS Broadcast. All of the speakers have hit the right messages for us. I knew they have been prayed, pondered, and studied what they should give a talk to us. And I knew that they were inspired to give us the specific messages.

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf gave a sweet messages to us with gentle and so much love for us, http://lds.org/pages/general-rs-meeting-2011?lang=eng

I'm grateful for having gospel in my life and knowing the gospel is truly blessing from the Lord. I'm so happy that I had an opportunity to go the event and listen the RS Broadcast. Now I'm looking forward for General Conference and what the messages we need to listen and prepare us for next six months. My goal is to improve myself through listen and study the General Conference for next six months. Oh how wonderful message it can lift the spirit! I hope it will continue for many days ahead of me. I hope you all enjoyed the RS Broadcast as well.

New Ward

Ya'll know that I moved to Columbia, around 40 minutes south from where I used to live, Owings Mills. Annie bought a Condo last June. Living in a Condo was wonderful blessing than living in an apartment. No more loud kids, no more crowd cars, no more loud neighbors, NO MORE DOGS BARKING!!!, and many more. This place have trees around us. It was beautiful sight to look at while sitting on the couch in the living room. 


Okay, enough with that. We ended up transferred different ward from Hampstead Ward to Columbia 2nd Ward. I checked the LDS website and put the new address, it assigned us to Columbia 2nd. Soon after, I learned that ward have two deaf people. I was wondering who would it be. Maybe it will be good for me. 


Annie and I went to Stake conference and I ended up met two deaf people. One deaf woman with her husband and the kids. Other single deaf man. My heart dropped when I saw that deaf man because I knew him and I did not want to be near to him. (He fell in love with me and put a big pressure on me to say yes to go out with him. He is ..umm.. TOO OLD for me!) Poor guy, I had to blunt him that I will not go out with him. He got upset and commanded me to date with him because it's proper way. Guys, I do not want to go far with this. Now you get some idea why I do not want to be near with him. 


My heart sinks because I will have to face that deaf guy after we transfer to this ward. Annie and I got home and do whatever our things. I was thinking about the new ward. I really want to feel happy and able to focus on the spirit. I wanted to know what time the ward starts and which building we will go to. I checked the website again. I put our new address on the LDS website. I saw it gave us different information. I was puzzled--it said Columbia 1st. I can't believe this. I had to rub my eyes to make sure my eyes do not trick me. Yup, it did say Columbia 1st. 


I had to told Annie that we are in Columbia 1st, NOT Columbia 2nd. I do not know what happened but I was so happy to know that I do not have to handle that poor man. In fact, my worries were not over yet. I was worried to meet people in the new ward. 


I have been attending this new ward since June and I knew Heavenly Father lead us to this ward. Let me tell you why. Annie told RS presidency not to put us together as Visiting Teacher companion because Annie want me to make new friends without depend on Annie for communication. (Blah) Guess what? I ended up got a companion sister who can sign! The wonderful part was that we were assigned to visit three sisters. Actually, one sister. (Long story, different topic) That sister we visited know some sign language! She wanted to learn sign language! 


Awesome part that one of sister who visit me, she can sign as well! She does not sign very well but wanted to improved her signing language skills! I haven't met her companion yet but she said she wanted to learn as well. Wow, I felt I was truly blessed to be in this new ward. 


It wasn't over yet! Annie, I, and RS Presidency were discussing and I offered to give sign language classes for the ward to learn so they can communicate with me. They liked that idea. RS President talked with Bishop. Bishop approved and asked me if I can teach other wards as well. Yikes! Too much! I told him I will start our ward first and see how it went then we will work on it. 


Now I'm nervous because this Thursday I will start to teach sign language class to my ward. Yesterday the bishopric made an announcement about sign language class in the sacrament meeting! I think I can feel my sweating is about to start to come out of my skins. Oh yeah, I went in the chapel and wait for the meeting to start. There were two cute young women were exciting to see me and wave to me. They wanted to take sign language class. Well, I guess I will see them this Thursday. 

So far, those people--I LOVE THEM! They were so nice and friendly. I was happy to be in this new ward and I was relief to know that I'll be okay for several years. 

Chicken or Egg?

I couldn't believe a question "which comes first, chicken or egg" still around even brought it up in Sunday School this morning. I guess I had to share what is going on inside of my brain. I have been thinking of the question. At first I thought: Well, if the egg comes first, then who would sit on the egg to warm it while embryo developing into a chick? But it lead me to think different than a silly thought. Do Heavenly Father put Adam on the earth as a newborn? Well, it need a mother to give a baby. But it didn't make sense because a person need to give a born to a mother as well. Okay, the thinking cap didn't work.

I looked up the scripture and it has the answer for this question. 

Gensis 1:20-22

20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

Look at verse 22, God blessed them and told them to "be fruitful, and multiply". It's not for Adam, It's for birds and fish. It applied to animals as well. Heavenly Father put them as adult and they obey God and start to product babies. 

So chicken comes first! That's my opinion for the silly question....

Updated

I'm fine. Nothing exciting to see Hurricane Irene. I was sleeping through it. (We had some strong windy before I went bed. It have been continuing for several hours and it's worthless to wait for it to pass us.) So the results was that we had strong winds, rain LOTS, and lots of broken branches and leaves. That's all what I saw around of the house. It  was enough to cancelled the church service yesterday. Over a million did not have powers at their homes. I was lucky one who still have powers. Because some of our (Annie and Katie) friends did not have their powers even they lived close to us. I guess it was depend on which line when the tree fell on it.

Yesterday my visiting teacher companion and I went to visit two sisters. I saw three threes fell on the floor. LOTS of broken branches and leaves all over the streets. Ohh, I should be thankful to miss us. One of my sisters said their cable, phone line, and television were out because one of their tree fell and cut off the line. Oh boy! I'm thankful for no damage or anything break around our house.  Oh yeah, we had a leak in our house. That will need to be fixed before another rain or snow in the future. Bummer for that one.

Interesting, Annie told me that Monday was cancelled and she don't have to go work. Because 27 schools did not have powers. My Towson University did not have powers but recently got powers back. I guess it's time for me to go back to work this morning. Bummer. Lucky for Annie.

Well, nothing exciting share with you guys compared to Cindy's experiences or Missy's experiences.  :D

So the news is that I'm ALIVE and FINE!

Natural Disasters

Crazy! I have been through ups and downs recently. I hope everything will calm down soon. So I'm sure everyone know about the hurricane Irene. Well, it's on way to us.  I don't think it will hit us so hard because it's more likely hit the beaches more than the land. Still we never know how much it will affect us.

There are so many people preparing for the hurricane such as getting food, fill up gas for cars, have enough water for three days, flashlight, candles, etc. We will fill up water in our tubs before night. People talking around here that we might lose powers. It's driving me nuts but it's good to know what to prepare for natural disasters. It won't be the same as Cindy had a few months ago.

Last Tuesday we had an earthquake. Yes, an earthquake in Maryland. Well, it starts in VA but it spread north because it was very deep ones. It was very interesting to see people's reaction about the earthquake. I was surprised so many people were clueless what to do during the earthquake. Serious, lot...LOT of people---It was their first experience with earthquake.

I remember when I was young, my school had two drills. One for fire drill and other drill was for earthquake. I know what I should do during the earthquake because of those drills. On that day, at around 1:52pm, I was doing laundry. I closed the door and was going to the living room. I saw a box sitting on the floor was shaking. Not really shaking, but almost like waves but small fast waves. I was unsure if my eyes were tricking me. I saw the plants shaking. I realized it was an earthquake. I ran to the door stand near outside to the patio. (Duh, I should run outside.) Oh well, during the earthquake. I can see the sun ray reflected on the patio--it looked like the sun was also shaking but it wasn't really. It was strange to think about it.

Oh my, guess what? I don't think the drills has sinked in my guts yet as it sinked in my memories. I was standing, waiting, and looking around to make sure nothing serious. I looked at the door--OH UH. I made an idiot choice. I stood middle of the glass sliding doors! GLASS DOOR! WHAT?!! What earth am I doing here!! But at that time, the earthquake finally calmed down. Rolling eyes at myself for picking the stupidest place for safe.

Now I guess we are waiting for the hurricane Irene to come and visit us tomorrow. It says Irene might come between 2am to 8am. Let's see what Irene can do for us.

Eh?

Yesterday morning I was getting ready for church. I saw Annie put mascara on her eyelashes. She looked pretty, I want one too! So I put mascara on my eyelashes, but somehow my bottom lashes got stuck together. I need Annie's advice how to solve the problem, so I called for her. I haven't hear from Annie yet and I have decided to figure it out by myself. I gave up and went downstairs to have a breakfast.

I went to the kitchen and Annie was there. Annie said, "You called for me, I went to the bottom of the stairs. You weren't there. I called but nothing response from you. I waited for awhile."

I was puzzled because I called and hear nothing from Annie. Whoops! I realized I left my cochlear implants downstairs. Eh, that's why I couldn't hear Annie's calling me from the bottom of the stairs. I thought I had 'em on my head.