Hi All!
Another 3 blog day! It is an illness!
Actually, I just wanted to tell everyone that I just posted episode #17 of my podcast - Learning to Live With SD. This episode is a major shout out to the other SD bloggers I have met in my blogging "travels."
Trisha
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Good News!
Hi All!
I had speech therapy today - I used to have appointments every Wednesday but am down to only every other week.
Anyway - I wanted to share with you. Susan (speech therapist extraordinaire!) said that my voice sounded the best it has ever sounded - the tone was good and it sounds "normal!" Did you catch that word - normal! She played me a recording from two weeks ago and then a recording I made today - what a difference! She was so excited! Needless to say - so was I! There was even talk of going to every three weeks and eventually once a month. Progress is being made!
We had the same conversation we have had each appointment for the past several months - why is my voice doing so well? The answer is still "Who knows!" but, we both agree that my latest baby step of improvement is from the fact that I am becoming better able to "catch" my voice in a decline before it goes totally haywire. Then, after I notice my voice going down, I remediate with a much lower volume and more of the exercises - especially inhalation voicing. Did I tell you that I read totally on the inhale for about 5 minutes yesterday? Just wanted to see if I still could do it. Susan said that probably helped a lot to whip those darn muscles back into shape.
Another HUGE contributing factor was the use of my Spokeman. I just love that darn thing! Even writing about it makes me think fondly of it! Using the microphone helped keep me from stressing my voice by pushing for volume and allowed me to slowly make progress while still being heard.
I am so happy that I am doing well! Of course - I thought I was especially fine voice today but . . . I am always a bit nervous about going to Speech. Sometimes she sees things I don't - like pushing my voice too far. However, I am STARTING to get better about that!
More exercises, massaging, and reading. Can't stop now!
Trisha
I had speech therapy today - I used to have appointments every Wednesday but am down to only every other week.
Anyway - I wanted to share with you. Susan (speech therapist extraordinaire!) said that my voice sounded the best it has ever sounded - the tone was good and it sounds "normal!" Did you catch that word - normal! She played me a recording from two weeks ago and then a recording I made today - what a difference! She was so excited! Needless to say - so was I! There was even talk of going to every three weeks and eventually once a month. Progress is being made!
We had the same conversation we have had each appointment for the past several months - why is my voice doing so well? The answer is still "Who knows!" but, we both agree that my latest baby step of improvement is from the fact that I am becoming better able to "catch" my voice in a decline before it goes totally haywire. Then, after I notice my voice going down, I remediate with a much lower volume and more of the exercises - especially inhalation voicing. Did I tell you that I read totally on the inhale for about 5 minutes yesterday? Just wanted to see if I still could do it. Susan said that probably helped a lot to whip those darn muscles back into shape.
Another HUGE contributing factor was the use of my Spokeman. I just love that darn thing! Even writing about it makes me think fondly of it! Using the microphone helped keep me from stressing my voice by pushing for volume and allowed me to slowly make progress while still being heard.
I am so happy that I am doing well! Of course - I thought I was especially fine voice today but . . . I am always a bit nervous about going to Speech. Sometimes she sees things I don't - like pushing my voice too far. However, I am STARTING to get better about that!
More exercises, massaging, and reading. Can't stop now!
Trisha
Glimpses of Texas Past
Hi All!
As you may know, I live in Dallas, Texas. Well - I live in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. What, you may ask, is a Metroplex? Good question! When Hubby and I moved to the Dallas area we were confronted with the Metroplex concept over and over and over. We were puzzled for a bit. Finally, we figured out that a Metroplex is basically a HUGE collection of cities in and around the two big cities of Dallas and Fort Worth. So - all the suburbs around the area - we are still not so sure how far the Metroplex reaches - are included in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.
Anyway - my point is that while I live in Dallas, Texas, I live in the middle of a big, urban/suburban area with an astonishing number of very long and very high highway overpasses. A lot of people think that all of Texas is rural and crawling with cattle and cowboys. That isn't true. Yes, once in a while a "country boy" will drive into the "big city" in his pickup truck with his cowboy hat and you will see him driving around. However, that isn't a real common occurrence. And there are cattle here and there on empty tracts of land (BIG tracts of land) which are future shopping center sites. In Texas, if you use the land for agriculture, you get a really big property tax break - hence the cattle. If you drive out of the area for about 45 minutes or so you can start seeing real farms and ranches. Go a bit further and there you have the iconic Texas everyone thinks of - big stretches of ranch land with a house in the center. Horses and cows and stuff like that.
I do like to imagine what life was like in our area in the past when it really WAS covered with cattle and cowboys on horses. On my way to sign language class last night I passed one of the few farm/ranches hanging on in the outskirts of Dallas. It is bisected by roads and bordered on one side by a major highway. Normally I might see some cattle hanging out and one or two calves romping around. Last night, however, I saw horses. Beautiful horses. They were in a small cluster under some trees and made such a lovely vignette. One horse actually broke away from the group for a short time and trotted around the field before returning to his group. In that moment as I was driving by I was transported back to when this entire area was filled with fields where horses ran free. I could almost see a cowboy sitting on his horse watching his herd of cattle as they slowly moved towards a new pasture. I felt like I saw history.
Then, I was back to the real world of traffic and people who really don't know how to drive!
Trisha
As you may know, I live in Dallas, Texas. Well - I live in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. What, you may ask, is a Metroplex? Good question! When Hubby and I moved to the Dallas area we were confronted with the Metroplex concept over and over and over. We were puzzled for a bit. Finally, we figured out that a Metroplex is basically a HUGE collection of cities in and around the two big cities of Dallas and Fort Worth. So - all the suburbs around the area - we are still not so sure how far the Metroplex reaches - are included in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.
Anyway - my point is that while I live in Dallas, Texas, I live in the middle of a big, urban/suburban area with an astonishing number of very long and very high highway overpasses. A lot of people think that all of Texas is rural and crawling with cattle and cowboys. That isn't true. Yes, once in a while a "country boy" will drive into the "big city" in his pickup truck with his cowboy hat and you will see him driving around. However, that isn't a real common occurrence. And there are cattle here and there on empty tracts of land (BIG tracts of land) which are future shopping center sites. In Texas, if you use the land for agriculture, you get a really big property tax break - hence the cattle. If you drive out of the area for about 45 minutes or so you can start seeing real farms and ranches. Go a bit further and there you have the iconic Texas everyone thinks of - big stretches of ranch land with a house in the center. Horses and cows and stuff like that.
I do like to imagine what life was like in our area in the past when it really WAS covered with cattle and cowboys on horses. On my way to sign language class last night I passed one of the few farm/ranches hanging on in the outskirts of Dallas. It is bisected by roads and bordered on one side by a major highway. Normally I might see some cattle hanging out and one or two calves romping around. Last night, however, I saw horses. Beautiful horses. They were in a small cluster under some trees and made such a lovely vignette. One horse actually broke away from the group for a short time and trotted around the field before returning to his group. In that moment as I was driving by I was transported back to when this entire area was filled with fields where horses ran free. I could almost see a cowboy sitting on his horse watching his herd of cattle as they slowly moved towards a new pasture. I felt like I saw history.
Then, I was back to the real world of traffic and people who really don't know how to drive!
Trisha
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Phone Books
Hi All!
I know, I know - 3 posts in one day is bordering on neurotic but I promise I have been away from the computer since my first posts.
I am actually getting ready to head to my sign language class. There are only three classes left and two of those are test sessions! What will I do without my class to go to? It is really the only place that I socialize with people - true most of them are young enough to be my children (If I started young!) but, it was getting out and talking to people! I am taking the class and the lab aides some Buckeyes. They are peanut butter and chocolate treats that I normally make around Christmas time. However, I wasn't in this class around Christmas - hence the appearance of them now. I only made a quarter of a recipe so I didn't tempt myself to eat more than one or two (or three - they are REALLY good!).
No, where was I . . . oh yes! I am getting ready to leave for class and I popped out to get the mail. Where I live we don't have mailboxes at each house. There are community mail boxes on each block where each house has its own little mailbox - sort of like the post office boxes but out on the street (well, sidewalk). So - there I trotted to get our daily dose of junk mail, address labels, and bills. When I opened the front door there it was. Another phone book.
I don't know about your city but, ever since we moved to the Dallas area, we have been bombarded by phone books! Yellow pages, white pages, community pages, pages which we haven't figured out yet. Books and books and books. I am not talking one or two or even three. I am talking in the double digits. Hubby valiantly tried to control the phone book population by weeding through our phone book cabinet (yes, an entire kitchen cabinet is dedicated to the things!) each time a new book arrives on our doorstep. Personally, I think we should just throw them all out! After all - how many times do we actually use phone books in this day and age anyway? It is much easier to hop onto the Internet and Google something than to figure out which of the multitude of phones books to look in!
How do phone book companies (are there such things?) make a profit from this? I know that our area is a big area with a LOT of businesses and stores and stuff but, come on! How many places can each of those businesses afford to advertise? How many innocent trees are being cut down in their prime to manufacture these tomes? Why are they distributed without being ordered or asked for? Wouldn't it make more sense to only hand the darn things out to people who want them and who will (maybe, possibly) use them?
Thank goodness our recycling service takes phone books.
Trisha
I know, I know - 3 posts in one day is bordering on neurotic but I promise I have been away from the computer since my first posts.
I am actually getting ready to head to my sign language class. There are only three classes left and two of those are test sessions! What will I do without my class to go to? It is really the only place that I socialize with people - true most of them are young enough to be my children (If I started young!) but, it was getting out and talking to people! I am taking the class and the lab aides some Buckeyes. They are peanut butter and chocolate treats that I normally make around Christmas time. However, I wasn't in this class around Christmas - hence the appearance of them now. I only made a quarter of a recipe so I didn't tempt myself to eat more than one or two (or three - they are REALLY good!).
No, where was I . . . oh yes! I am getting ready to leave for class and I popped out to get the mail. Where I live we don't have mailboxes at each house. There are community mail boxes on each block where each house has its own little mailbox - sort of like the post office boxes but out on the street (well, sidewalk). So - there I trotted to get our daily dose of junk mail, address labels, and bills. When I opened the front door there it was. Another phone book.
I don't know about your city but, ever since we moved to the Dallas area, we have been bombarded by phone books! Yellow pages, white pages, community pages, pages which we haven't figured out yet. Books and books and books. I am not talking one or two or even three. I am talking in the double digits. Hubby valiantly tried to control the phone book population by weeding through our phone book cabinet (yes, an entire kitchen cabinet is dedicated to the things!) each time a new book arrives on our doorstep. Personally, I think we should just throw them all out! After all - how many times do we actually use phone books in this day and age anyway? It is much easier to hop onto the Internet and Google something than to figure out which of the multitude of phones books to look in!
How do phone book companies (are there such things?) make a profit from this? I know that our area is a big area with a LOT of businesses and stores and stuff but, come on! How many places can each of those businesses afford to advertise? How many innocent trees are being cut down in their prime to manufacture these tomes? Why are they distributed without being ordered or asked for? Wouldn't it make more sense to only hand the darn things out to people who want them and who will (maybe, possibly) use them?
Thank goodness our recycling service takes phone books.
Trisha
Equal Time
Hi All!
In the name of fairness, I thought I would show you what my other kiddo was doing yesterday while I was blogging . . . Yep - Miss Cleo is such a sun worshipper. Her position under the table is a vast improvement over her first spot for sun bathing - ON the table. It took a couple days but she now likes this spot. The carpet is softer than the tablecloth anyway! Of course I don't know about the table leg pillow!
Trisha
In the name of fairness, I thought I would show you what my other kiddo was doing yesterday while I was blogging . . . Yep - Miss Cleo is such a sun worshipper. Her position under the table is a vast improvement over her first spot for sun bathing - ON the table. It took a couple days but she now likes this spot. The carpet is softer than the tablecloth anyway! Of course I don't know about the table leg pillow!Trisha
Katherine and More Garage Organization
Hi All!Well - I finished the cover less book! It is Katherine by Antonia Van-Loon (which just HAS to be a made up name, doesn't it?). This is yet another of Grandma's books. I don't think her pile will ever diminish! I keep reading and reading and the stack doesn't ever seem to get shorter. I wonder if Hubby is replenishing the supply? Nah - he wouldn't know what books to put in the stack! Sadly, he isn't much of a reader!
Anyway - this book is set (wait for it!) in the late 1800's- early 1900's. This time it is a mill town in Massachusetts and a woman who foolishly marries the handsome but very cold mill owner thinking that she will change him into a feeling, loving husband! Ha! How many people have learned over the years that you CAN'T change a man once you marry him? Sure, you might be able to change his clothes by throwing all his old ones away and buying new ones. You might be able to get him to eat more veggies by slipping them into his meals. But real change? I don't think so! By the way - while I have encouraged Hubby to eat more veggies and sometimes resort to camouflage, he vehemently rejects any input I might like to have on his wardrobe - even going as far as disliking everything that I like. It is getting a bit better but . . .
Luckily I love Hubby just the way he is! He is such a wonderful man!
Speaking of Hubby, he told me yesterday that he was considering adding even more of the Gearwall panels to the garage so that he can organize the rest of his stuff! You could have knocked me down with a feather! I had suggested such a radical idea on the day of the initial installation and was met with the protest that it would cost too much money! Last night Hubby even checked the Internet and found out that he can get the panels on sale! Wow! I am getting good at making him think my ideas are his - aren't I? Seriously, I am very proud of him for mulling this over and making plans on his own - I may have originally suggested it but Hubby would never agree to it unless he had thought it through himself and saw the merit of such a suggestion.
Soon I will have more pictures of our organized garage. Of course it might be a while as Hubby will wait to find all of the material on sale - for which I think he is very smart. Those darn panels are expensive!
Voice update - the voice is a bit better today but when I raise the volume too much those darn h,w, and p sounds cut out on me. The volume is more than it has been lately but not "normal." Of course - who wants to be normal? I am still plugging away on the exercises. I have speech this week!
Monday, April 28, 2008
While I am Blogging . . .
Hi All!
I was posting my last blog and had "company" who was really whining for attention. I had to stop and pet the little bugger. He was happy for a while - this is what he was doing while I finished up my post . . .
That is my "little boy," Q-Tip. Isn't he funny? Gotta love him!
Trisha
I was posting my last blog and had "company" who was really whining for attention. I had to stop and pet the little bugger. He was happy for a while - this is what he was doing while I finished up my post . . .
That is my "little boy," Q-Tip. Isn't he funny? Gotta love him!Trisha
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