An Apple Pie

Take a GOOD look at my apple pie!

I made this with my bare hands! Of course, I used food processor to cut up the apples. Goodness I have that machine! That picture I took before I put it in the oven.

After bake the pie, it looked so GREAT and YUMMY, didn't it? Are you drooling?

I loved that picture!

It's time to eat the pie!

We had to add the whipping on the pie. Who wants to eat the pie alone?!

Not bad for a person who made a first pie on Thanksgiving day!

Actually I had to get Annie to do the sauce because I forgot one thing that I was supposed to put in it. Oops, just like a soup. Sighs, I forgot to put water in the boiling when I made a sauce. It ended umm a rock. I don't think I want to put that thing on my pretty pie. Annie saved my pie by making another sauce but she did put water in it. Eh. The main reason I asked her to help to make the sauce because I was busy rolling the crusts for the pie. And yes, I did made the crust by myself and other things. :D Oh, Annie taught me how to make whipping for the pie.

I found that recipe from the internet. It called "An Apple Pie by Grandma Ople." Don't be surprised if you saw that recipe has lot of sugars in it.

Happy Thanksgiving Holiday!!

A Soup

Last Thursday Annie and I wanted to celebrate Katie's birthday, Annie's youngest sister. I thought I should make a homemake soup since it was cold and rain day. Annie and I searched for perfect recipe to try. We wanted to try new recipes and taste new. It was fun to try! We found one soup called "The Lady's Chicken Noodle Soup" by Paula Deen. You know her? She was on Food network show. She usually make foods that looks so good because it has lot of fatty in it. Hahaha. I tried some of her recipes and it ended up so GOODY!

I thought--should we try the soup? Why not! Annie cannot able to help me prepare the soup or make a cake because she has to work on that day. Yup, I do not have class to teach, or take a class or practicum on that day. I just finished the hours for practicum. Nice for me. :D

I collected the ingredients what I need for the soup. I realized I had to make a stock! I never made my own stock. I know I have watched mom made a stock but never watch very careful how she made it. Oh gosh, I do NOT like the touch of a raw whole chicken! I went to the store and look at them--blankly. Of course, I love chicken but touch it.. Nope.

I got everything ready to make the stock. I made the cake and it was done. Okay, let's make the stock and see how pro I was. I read the recipe a several times to make sure I was doing the right thing. I put things in the big pot. The last thing was to put the chicken. EW! When I think about it, EW! Anyway, I realized I had to cut it up to put in the big pot. Me cut up?! NO! I had NO IDEA how to cut it up. (Funny, mom asked me that I had done with turkey from last year Thanksgiving. Actually, it was Annie. Not me. That explains...)

I started panic because I did not know what to do with it but I got an idea and looked up on YouTube how to cut the chicken. I got some idea how to cut the chicken. GOSH! Let me tell you---SERIOUSLY?! I have to cut the drums and legs but crack the bones?! I tried the first drum and heard the crack of bone! AAAAAAHHHHH!! Definitely awful sounds of crack bone! I wanted to close my eyes but afraid will cut myself with sharp knife! (Thanks, mom! You gave me excellent knives!!) Anyway, it made me shatter and drop all of pieces of chicken in the big pot. EW!

I got excited because I made the stock! It was boiling. Okay, I have to leave it boiling for about 30-40 minutes. After 40 minutes, I had to take all spices and chicken out of the stock. It looked so goody and fatty--of course. It smells so good. I had to wait until Annie and Katie come here before I completed the soup. I looked at the recipe again to make sure everything I have were on the table. I saw specific part on the recipe and it said I should have three quarts of the stock. That moment I got confused. I tried to remember did I put three quarts of water? It said I need to put three and half water in the big pot and should have three quarts stock after boiling. Uh ummm, was that a mistake? I guess so because I only put three and half cups of water instead three quarts! I had to measure the stock and realized I only had one quart of stock. Oh boy!

I started stress myself over that thing. I was thinking...do I have to do all over again? What am I supposed to do with one quart? Can I add two quarts of water? Will it make a big difference? It's driving me nuts! I emailed Annie for HELP! She didn't know what to do with it. No help, thanks Annie. I ended up added two quarts of water and pour it in stock to make it three quarts. I hoped it will not make any big difference.

Finally the girls arrived and I put all stuff in the big pot with the stock in it. The soup looked very interesting. We were exciting and nervous to taste the soup. I also bought french bread to go with it. Excellent choice because it tasted so great with the soup. After prayer, I tried it with french bread and it tasted good. So I grabbed the spoon and suck the soup in my mouth. My eyes raised and wondered..do I like the taste of the soup? That taste wasn't what I excepted it would be. The taste surprised me. I couldn't make up my decision if I like it or not. AND today I still can't make up my mind about this soup.

At least I tried my best! At least I tried something new. At least I got some experiences to make a homemake stock. At least I'm still alive after cutting up the chicken. At least it was fun time with Katie and Annie. :D

Swine Flu

Two weekends ago, I dropped dead. Yeah, I got sick over the weekend. It started from little bit Thursday night and end until about Tuesday. My coughs still randoms. (That sucks because I only cough when I laugh, when I use lot of voice, when I eat something thick, when I blah.)

Odd thing that I was really sick on Saturday. My cough suddenly started on Friday. My nose was not running, etc but fever with awful chills. STINKY diarrhea (and now still have diarrhea..) Lost my voice. My body aches. My head was driving me nuts. My ears were not behaving good. Next day, Annie got sick.. Same kind I had! WOW! That was FAST! We were much better and have lot of energy compared to that weekend. However we still some left over.. Annie continued have coughs--not always. For me coughs random and continued having diarrhea..

Last night Annie told me that she found one that explains the difference between Flu, Colds, and N1H1. VERY INTERESTING! Good to know that both of us were on N1H1. Congratulation to us that we won the bingo. I'm pretty sure I got it when I teach ASL at TU. Lot of students got sick and some came with coughs. Sighs.

Click on that to see bigger picture so you can read it better.

The Weekend

I went to see the WICKED in NYC!

And we visited the Emerald City, umm, lot of GREEN in there..

Excited to see the Wicked.

Annie came along with me.

Neat stuff on the stage even the dragon.

That's my proof. I was here.

Had to take another proof as well.

Annie liked this picture. See Green? It's the Emerald City.

You see the coolest technology I'm holding in my hand. That technology is called captioned, funny name. Yes, I was able to watch and read the words of their conversations and songs. I loved it. I loved one song called, No Good Deed. I do not know why but oh well.. :D

The result that I LOVED the show even it was little too loud for me. But I was able to handle the loudness and enjoyed it anyway. I wish the book was not so awful to read--DARN! The author wrote several books about Emerald City and I wanted to learn more about it but it has lot of bad things in it. I'm not go for it--Clean books, will read it. Dirty books, will not touch it.

A Year Older

Sweet Katie gave me roses for my Birthday. I was thinking that we need something such as flower or something on the table because it looked bare. Now it's full of beautiful roses on the table and enjoy to stare at it when it's time to eat meals. Thanks, Katie.

Annie made me a strawberry cake. It tasted very interesting. That cake includes jello, real strawberries, and stuff. Annie did a GREAT job making this cake. Thanks, Annie. It reminds me of Missy. She made me a cake with a big ladybug.

Close up to the ladybug.

That's me and ready to eat that cake. Hey, it's time to put the candles.

Phew, Annie decided to put three instead ___. I can't imagine the cake covers the candles. Imagine it will lead to a big smoke after blow them off.

Well, I'm a year older now. I admitted I forgot how old I was. Yup, that was sad!

Loud Kids

That's middle school kids.

That's me.

I'm sure my parents will like this especially my dad. My dad always complained that I'm too loud when I was young. Today I went to middle school for practicum to earn some hours. I have been there a few times. The more I go there and the more I feel so sorry for their parents as well for my parents that they went through when I was young. Frankly, I'm sick of their loudness/noises.

The kids were yelling, screaming, and use loud voice. Even kick the table, pound the table, or something to get a person's attention, even more..drop the books on the floor, tapping with pencils, hit things, being angry, and more..but I'm sure you get the idea. Sometimes I had to tell them to walk to get their attention since they cannot hear you. Really, the kids did not know how loud they were. I remember I was young and I knew I can make noise but never understood how loud that can be annoying or pain. Anyway, one student has a cochlear implant and he often makes loud noises. He thinks it was funny, but for me it was very annoying. (I do not know how much he can comprehension things "noise" around him.) I had to tell him quiet down and focus on his work. He stared at me and ignored me. After a few attempts and realized it was worthless because his teacher was deaf.

Today has opened my eyes (ears) to understand how my parents went through with me. Suddenly I realized it is difficult to explain to a deaf child how loud he/she was. Because the concept of loudness is very abstract for them, deaf children. Yes, it's true that the children can understand the concept of loudness somewhat but different way--visuals. Visual like busy--sort of same idea with distract background. Or bright clothes can be loud. But deaf children might never realized that the loudness can hurtful. Annie gave me an excellent example. When you're in a dark room, suddenly there are several thick bright lights go wild. It will hits your eyes and your eyes will screaming and shut closed automatically because it hurts.

Wearing hearing aid was completely different with Cochlear Implants. I have two good examples for you.

1. Watching a television show or a movie:

With hearing aid, I had hard time to listen the show or movie because it was not loud enough but too loud for hearing people. Sometimes I was watching and turned the volume up because I was alone at that time. I forgot to turn the volume down after I'm done with it. One of roommates turned the television, it was very interesting to see them startled and danced same time to get the volume down very quickly. I don't feel it was too loud because it didn't bothered me at all.

With Cochlear Implants, we are on the right page to watch without feeling frustrated to listen or scared anyone when they turn the television on. Oh yeah, we used old imac to hook up our television in the living room. We do not have cables, so we rely on internet for television shows. (It's nice because it's free. But sometimes it sucks because of no closed caption. I recently learned that www.hulu.com have several shows that has closed caption! YAY! Still not many shows have that still...anyway you should check it out yourself..) Anyway we had to increase the volume up because it was too quiet and the quality came from internet not television. When I wanted to watch a movie, I inserted a DVD in Blu-Ray player and changed the plug from computer to television. I turned television on--of course--the television bursted loud and it caused me dance and rushed to turn the volume DOWN. Now I understood why they danced. If I wear my hearing aid, I won't dance for sure.

2. Listening a music in car:

I'm pretty sure that Missy, Heather, and Annie can related to that because it has happened to them. It's the same idea with number 1. I turned the volume all up! I liked the bass but didn't feel it was too loud for me. And yes, I was wearing my hearing aid. There were lot of overlap noises and I wanted to listen the music. Listening to it was worthless, so having bass and little other things were better than none. Of course, I forgot to turn it down or never thought they would use this car. When they turn the key, the music suddenly became a bomb of sonic! I could remember their facial reacts when it happened to them. You see, it didn't scared me.

With my Cochlear Implants, it's a big wow because I couldn't turn the volume all UP and it was TOO LOUD for me to handle it! I would go to volume 5-7 or 9-12 (it's depend on CD quality and ipod etc. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about!) on the highway. Wow. It's a big gap between a hearing aid and Cochlear Implants.

So everyday I thankful for my cochlear implants AND GRATEFUL that I was able to get both. Also everyday, well not everyday but often, I have learned something new with sounds. I can be quiet for my parents when I see them. Eh!

Voice Quality

You can called me nerd for this one because I am going to explain what I have heard the quality of voice from Annie. I am starting to wonder if I am becoming to a nerd or I always have been a nerd? Oh well, it's not my topic for today.

I had an opporunity to test FM system with my both CIs. I have been curious how the FM system works with hearing aids and CIs because some of children used for school. I remember I wore one when I was in middle school. They made us to wear a big box on our chest that attached to our molds. It was no fun because it's pointless to wear this thing. Teacher refused to let us wear outside and they were afraid that we will damage this expensive toys. I hated that body aid so much. To be honest, wearing body aid and hearing aid were not completely different. I thought it was just the same. I would prefer to wear my hearing aid than this huge ugly body aid. But our school got them when I was in 8th grade and I was glad that the year was my last before I left for high school. Whew.

Anyway, it was very interesting experiences I had with FM system. Annie was excited to test on me and want to know more about how it works with FM system. It turned out fun project for both of us. I have learned about FM system. First there is a tiny that attach to my CIs. You can see below that attach to my CIs. And there was a remote that controls tiny FM that attach to CIs.

When Annie started to talk, my face changed into puzzle looks. I felt the sounds were not right. Am I crazy? I tried to describe to Annie. Oh boy, it was tough to describe what I heard through FM system. I was not sure if it's right sounds or do I heard the machine sounds? Annie tried many different ways such as walk away from me, moving the mic on where she puts on her body, using Ling to test my comprehension, walking around, etc. We have learned so much in short time.

I have learned something that I never thought about that. After heard all of Ling sounds, I still confused with "M" and "O". It sounds the same to me. I hope my mind can tell the different in the future. In my mind, I still think the sounds were not smooth what I have been hearing for awhile. I told Annie about my thoughts. It was her turn to be puzzled at my comments. We discussed and tried to figure why I felt that way with sounds. Short after I realized that I have been missing some sounds without FM system.

Annie wanted to do listening therapy and play go fish with animal cards. She won the game and told me that I was doing much better than before because I was able to recognize how many syllables. Umm interesting because I don't know that.. Is FM system good for me? I don't know.

Soon after the game, Annie was talking. I noticed something funny about her voices. I told he that her voice kept making funny noise. It took her awhile to find what it was and it was fry. Wow, that was not that bad, uh? I noticed her voice quality. I asked why she does that? She explained that she tends to do that when she reached the end of the sentences. Interesting! But she also emphasized that it's not always that way. Umm.. Again, she added to that and said she might have sore throat and it may affect the voice quality. Wow...maybe.. Wow.. Not bad for me.

Suddenly I was curious why FM system was important to wear in school? (Remember my experiences in middle school...) Annie was ready to explain and got me lost. After second or third time, I finally got it. It made sense to me and I did picked up more sounds than CIs alone. I wanted to show it to you so you can get the idea. I was so happy that I found one perfect example picture. FM system transmitter goes straight to receiver (CIs) what the mic picked up from 1-3 feet from speech. Without FM system, a person speech goes less and less when it travel to CIs. It's harder to hear, with FM system it's much easier without putting lot of effort to listen the person's speech. Interesting.. But it does not have to wear this FM system all the time, it's good for conversation, school, umm other things like that.

My mind is still learning. Really, I need the sounds stay in my mind so it can recognize the sounds next time when I heard it again. Oh boy.. lot of work.. but I have learned so much about how the FM system works. Amazing!

DONE!

I was so glad that COMP was over! I can't believe that they excepted us to finish this COMP within three hours. Seriously, it's impossible to accomplish about 10-15 pages in three hours with lot of thinking on the topics, but I tried. Yup, I tried my best. My anxious will not go away until I know if I pass or not. Bummer, I won't know in four weeks or more. Sighs. I hate waiting for the results, didn't you? But it's done. DONE! I'm DONE, hopefully.