The Word of the Day IS...

Okay, so today I found a new word I was pronouncing incorrectly.

For those of you who are not hearing impaired or have never experienced it, this is a crazy thing. You've went your entire life saying a word a certain way, only to find out later that its not the way its pronounced. For me its VERY hard to correct. Either I misunderstood the word when I first heard it, or I read it, and have never actually heard the word spoken to know its pronunciation. A lot of times too, I will think there are alternate ways to pronounce a word and that is why sometimes even though I know the correct way, I think mine is okay too.
Some of my most common ones, and the ones my hubby and mom have corrected me on numerous times, are just plain funny to me, at this point I know the correct pronunciation, I just don't realize I'm saying the words wrong.

~Suite (I say suit,, Hotel Suit....my hubby loves that one...hey it makes sense to me, I mean, we have a suit of furniture and suit of clothing which is a group of items so why not a hotel suit?!?)
~Preference (I say per-fer-ance)
~Magnolia (I pronounce it mag-no-yee-a, this is my moms favorite...she has corrected me since childhood and I still get it wrong)

~Todays Word: Ter-tast-er-fee (the actual pronunciation is *drum roll please*........

Catastrophe !!! Thats right folks thats how I've been pronouncing catastrophe.

example: The party was a tertasterfee....)

Oh, the crazy, funny, life of the hearing impaired. You just gotta love it...
Its still kicking my butt at 31. Only now, I can laugh at it. I love being an adult, because its okay to like yourself and laugh at your imperfections when your a grown- up. Its a shame you're not allowed to do that as a kid.

If a Woodpecker Pecks on a Pine Tree and You Can't Hear it,,,,does it still make a sound?

Today we went hiking. We had such a great time. We always do when we're outside. Especially in the forest. We love to hike, swim, ride our bikes, explore, anything in nature really. So, today, we're out hiking and we find a beautiful resting spot by a little stream. It's the most perfect weather, the most perfect amount of sun and shade. I was sitting there being thankful for the beautiful day, while Cam and Lar were looking for "fish" in the stream. All of a sudden Lar had us all be quiet so Cam could hear a woodpecker.

Umm,,,,

Shhhhhhh!!!

Shshh!

Mommy can't hear the woodpecker...

Ohhhh, wait. It must be too far away for us to hear it.

"Hey! Cam, can you hear that Woodpecker?"

"Yep, its going peck, peck pe e e e e e e e ek"

WHATS GOING ON?!?

By now I'm irritated. I want to hear the stupid woodpecker. My hearing aids have different settings on them that my audiologist and I set up for me. I have one that I use that is basically just my normal hearing but REAL loud. I use it at College to hear the professor in a large, quiet room. So anyway I turned it to that setting....and BAM! It was like the world came alive! I could hear birds, the woodpecker, leaves falling, water trickling down a stream, and way off in the distant other hikers.ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?
I was living more in the dark than I realized! I felt so cheated!
When I first got the aids I'm wearing now, I could hear like that. Over time they have gotten weaker (I'm pretty sure its not my hearing.) and I really hadn't noticed HOW much I was missing!!!!
Grrr...
I hope I can find a woodpecker to peck on a money tree for me.
Because New Hearing Aids = MONEY
Its a double edged sword though,

Because New Hearing Aids = New Technology & Much Better Hearing, which = MONEY....

My biggest fear is money. That sucks. My insurance company should pay for them!

I needed to know that I wasn't hearing as well though...

So!
Thank You Woody Woodpecker!

Information Packet For Your Childs Teacher

This was the best site I found for how to present your childs needs to the teacher. I changed what I needed to and added somethings that my child needed. A BIG Thank you to Cheryl and Listen Up for putting this info out there!
I also listed it at the bottom in my resources and website section.

http://www.listen-up.org/edu/hand-out.htm

Mommy's got Strep Throat!

I've got strep throat! Uggg. This is horrible. Thanks TK for giving my strep... ;)

I can't get near my kid.

I can't eat.

I can't swallow.

I can't sleep.

But what bugs me the most, is that

I CAN'T GO TO CAM'S SCHOOL AND TALK TO HIS TEACHERS ABOUT GETTING HIM THE SUPPORT HE NEEDS TO GET AN EDUCATION!

However, after much, much searching I found a great resources for explaining and giving the info to the teachers. I desperately was searching for something that would help me explain the strategies and techniques that were needed to give Cam the best start in school that we could give him. I put many searches together and came up with a package I think might work.



Later when I'm feeling better I'll give you a better look at what I came up with.

Trying to Hear in the Dark, "Anyone Got a Flashlight?"

My life is a beautiful Life.
I have my joy all wrapped up in a little boy. My mom is my best friend ~ she's my rock. My mom is a huge part of mine and Cam's life. She has a very special relationship with my son. She has been there holding my hand and giving me courage form the moment he was born. (well before he was born really.)
I have a few friends that I call true friends.
My large family consist of 2 brothers and 2 sisters. 5 nephews and 2 nieces and one great~niece. (Non of which are hearing impaired, by the way.)
I'm happily married to my husband, Lar. We have been married for 8 years. We've been together for 12. We have one child, my son Cam. Cam is also hearing impaired. He has mild to moderate bilateral hearing loss. His is almost identical to mine in every way except his loss is less. Lar is very loving and supportive of the hearing impaired needs that Cam and I bring to his life. We are very lucky.
I work in the restaurant industry, I'm the Lead Trainer and part of the Management Team. I Love my job. However, it is insanely crazy that I work in the restaurant industry, and wear hearing aids. Gees, Could I have picked a more challenging and noisy environment to work in?
Its a great experience to help me get to my goal. which is to finish my business degree and go into business management or an executive position with my current company. Of course if the opportunity arises elsewhere that would be great too.
We currently live in a small town in Alabama, one that has hardly no resources for the hearing impaired. We lived in Atlanta for 8 years that's where Cam was born and had all the advantages laid out for him. Its been a huge change to come back to my childhood home town. I suffered greatly here growing up because the schools here are so backwards when it comes to accommodating the handicapped. The educational and medical opportunities here are a joke. We have NO accredited private schools that are less than an hour away, we have no "real" pre-schools, we have no hearing impaired advocates (they too are an hour away), we have no audiologist for children, we have no Auditory Verbal Therapy (which I'm a HUGE fan of, Cam is a graduate from the Auditory Verbal Center of Atlanta) We have no help at all here. Its unbelievable really. Hearing Impairment is completely over looked here and unimportant. Its not even as good in Birmingham as it was in Atlanta, its better, but still not as good.
We moved back here so Cam could have the joy of growing up surrounded by family. Even though we are still glad we made that decision the sacrifices has been huge. The challenges here are abundant. I knew this when we decided to move back. I just didn't realize HOW challenging it was going to be in the year of 2008! I mean, can we please get beyond where we were when I was a kid?!? NO! Nothing has changed here. Why?!!! Its been 25 years, WHY are they still resistant to mainstreaming our children?
Living here is like trying to read lips in the dark and no one around here has a flashlight...
I'm up to it though, were gonna change this town, one little boy and his pissed off mommy ~you better watch out Little Town.
All I can say is "Bring it on!!!".