Bowling Night

Everybody loves to knock things over. Now what if I said you could knock over some pins make a game out of it? Would you be interested? This game would be called bowling. Bowling isn't always as easy as it seems.

This evening, my sons joined bowling with their cub scouts for the first time. We have watched them lifted the ball up and and pushed it with all of their strengths down to the alley. The ball kept rolling and rolling until they had reached the pins. It was not an easy task for either of them. With the support of the rack and bumper in the gutters certainly saved them from feeling shatter.

Dylan had a challenging experience because he was the only person who is the left hand on his cub scouts. Lucky, one of the Cub Scout Assistance was also a left hand. He showed him the tricks. At the end, Dylan was in a third place. Not bad for a first timer!

Ryan was the last person to bowl. His dad, who was one of the leaders, helped Ryan at the beginning of the game. At the end of few games, he ended up winning in second in his team without assistance. That even included getting two spares!

Personally, I think this was a good start for the cub scouts. The boys are looking forward to trying something new activities. David and I thought it was a positive decision to place our sons in the cub scouts.

Flu Shot

Have you gotten your flu shot this year? If you haven't, your excuse is most likely feeble. Influenza is a deadly infectious disease that returns every year, threatening young and old alike. According to the federal Centers for Disease Control, the virus kills on average 36,000 Americans annually, a terrible toll—almost as many as die from auto accidents. Can you image that?

Personally, I don't like the idea of seeing my children being sick. It forced me to take both of my sons to have their flu shot. I did expect that they would be losing their control before they had their shot due to seeing the needle This turned out to be the opposite. Also, I don't like seeing them being sick a few days from the shots. Whew, neither Dylan or Ryan gotten sick.

Literally speaking of using needles, did you know the nasal spray vaccine is on the market this year ? This is the first time, could help those kids (and adults) frightened of needles, but the antivaccine sentiment is not easily quelled. Frankly, I would far much prefer to use the nasal spray vaccine despite of possible getting a sinus headache over than the needle.

Our Proudest Day

Pushing my two sons to go out for a run twice a week is tough! They often whined and complained that they have to run. I did for what I have to do for my family's health. Can a parent be wrong for feeling content with their efforts. I fought, struggled , everything an average parent, did.

It did not impact them to realize it was worth to run around the laps. During the Peace Circle, both Dylan and Ryan names were being called by a principal in front of the entire classes. She called them because they earned a reward: foot key chain for running five miles since they joined the Running Club. She also mentioned Ryan's name for "giving up his sand toys so others could use them." Boy, I wished I had a camera to capture one of their proudest moments.

Little I know, the four Deaf and Hard of Hearing staff, including me were asked to join inside of a peace circle for doing a fabulous job when we taught several hearing teachers about working with the deaf students in the classroom setting, using the interpreters properly and communicating with the deaf and hard of students properly. It sure felt so good to know that many teacher appreciated learning their new lessons from us.

Later on the same day, we were out to run walk and jog for Drug Free. Ryan said it out loud where my aide heard and interpreted what he shouted, "AHHH, I have to run AGAIN!" But he ran and joined with his brother around the lap. I too was involved with one of my little students who needed my aid. It felt so good to encourage us to walk and run around the lap except I did not wear the appropriate shoes: sandals.

During my lunch hours, two teachers approached to me. Dylan's teacher mentioned that he did very well reading the Flat Stanley story that my mother sent him out from South Carolina. During his presentation, he giggled the whole time. He was so proud to show it off to the class. Ryan's teacher also came up to me about his reading assessment. She was amazed that his reading is very advanced. It sure felt so good to hear enough to finish my lunch.

That was a nice way to end of the week, and start off my weekend with my family.

Storyteller

Don't you ever wish you had visit the other country? I sure do want to go back and visit Europe and few other countries.

When the boys and I came back from a two week of a Fall Break, many of the teachers approached to me. They all asked me, "How was the trip to England? Did you see Tower of London?" In reality, we didn't go during our Fall Break. Thus, it left me puzzled why the staff at the school site had asked me the repeating questions for the last three days.

During my lunch time, one of the teachers had asked me the same question. She finally admitted that my own child told her the story about the trip to Tower of London and so on about visiting in England for two weeks. My jaw dropped that the story was actually coming from RYAN !

I realized that he wanted to fill the exciting news about his Fall Break after he probably heard so many exciting news from his classmates. Also, he was able to describe the Tower of London after he listened to me carefully when I explained few pictures from a friend, who was also in Facebook, went to London. I didn't think he would take every detail seriously. We didn't do much exciting this time due to wanting to save the money for the next two big, upcoming trips: traveling up to Oregon and Washington during the Winter Break and going on a Disney Cruise in July.

But I thought it was FUNNY that many teachers fell for Ryan's exciting news to Tower of London. From now on, we will have to watch out whether to believe or not from Ryan.

My Magic Tricks are Broken

While I was folding the clothes, Dylan came up to me, " I have a secret news to tell you. My magic tricks would not work at all. " I then told him, "Oh, you will need to practice a lot of times until you get your tricks correctly."

He announced that he would need a magic wand and a magic spell book so he would be able to get his magic tricks working properly. It caused me curiosity what were his three wishes to get his tricks working properly. Getting the answers turned out to what I never thought he would say any of these wishes. Believe it or not, his wishes were:

1) to have my mom become hearing
2) to have my dad become hearing
3) (He was thinking of his third wishes.)

I then inquired, "What about Ryan?" I thought it was something interesting from Dylan's perspective, "Ryan is normal." (Seriously, our life would not be interesting if he was not for Autism.) I had to remind Dylan that Ryan is Autism. Know what he said? " Oh yeah, you are right. Now, my third wish is Ryan to be normal."

At the end of his thoughts for his tricks, it left me a lot wondering if he knows he comes from an unique family, "two deaf parents and an autism hearing brother." Would he regret if he turned us out to be hearing and his brother is normal? I am sure because he would not want us to know some of the secret conversations he has with his brother, Ryan.

No Patience

Just this morning, Ryan was SO ANXIOUS to show me of his game: Toon town from his computer while I was taking a shower. I told him through the glass shower, " I will be out of a shower in five minutes." He just stood and waited for me to get out of a shower.

Shortly after I mentioned, he then said, "Okay now, you have two more minutes to get out of a shower." Oh boy, not another bossy child in the house. Believe me, I have tried to stop them several times not to tell me what to do. But as soon as I turned the water off, he eagerly opened the shower door a, "Now, you need to put your clothes on."

He even tried to offer me to wear my matching clothes for the day. Isn't that sweet of him? " Hurry, Hurry, I want to show you the King Lollipop from Toon toon. " (He named King Lollipop) I could see his smiling faces when he was able to catch the cogs. Clearly, he was proud to show me of his achievement on his computer game.

Setting the Table

Coming home from work and start cooking can be stressful. Don't we all forget to teach our loved ones, especially little ones when it comes to setting the table? Having too many errands in our life tends to take our important away from teaching one of the important parts in young ones' life: setting the table.

Just this evening, I ordered Ryan to set the table for me while I was cooking turkey, roasted red potatoes, rice and toasted bread. He was learning to put the cup/glasses above the dinner plate. As far as for the fork and spoon, he did guess pretty good without help.

The next time, it will be perfect. I will print out the plate mat and have my kids coloring their own and two guest plate mast. My husband and I will do our own plate mat, so the boys will be able to identify which place we are to eat. Once they finish coloring the mat, I will have it laminate at work. It can be use it repeatedly. The best part is With their cute place mats, they'll never forget which piece of silverware goes where. Is that pretty clever?

Loving and Doing the Scrapbooks

Have you ever thought about when the scrapbook really began? It began to start out with the recipes, quotes, letters, poems, family tree, and more during the 15th Century in England. From there, it eventually added more pictures, newspaper clippings, letters and even yearbook. I honesty have not thought about this after I finished reading the History of Scrapbook. Then, I realized I still have my own personal album that I kept it during my childhood experiences such as Girl Scouts badges, needle points of Raggedy Andy and even get a signature of my favorite pop star, Shaun Cassidy.

Fast forward, the scrapbook activities began in Utah by going out to someone's else house. This still goes on all over the United States. Just two years ago, I was introduced to attend a workshop by a wonderful and helpful deaf hostess where there were other guests in the house for a full day. On my first day of attending the workshop, I had the envious of others for doing SO WELL and AWESOME job. With all of the supporters and encouragement, it had kept me going to complete my first 50 pages album: "MY FAMILY." Believe it or not, it took me over a year to complete the first book.

I then started out completing my "WEDDING" book that my thoughtful sister in law, Deby started on the first few pages. The book cover matched to our wedding color and the pages along with the pictures. It turned out the most beautiful book. This shall treasures my marriage to my wonderful husband.

On Saturday, I was at the workshop for straight 13 hours without kids on my third album. Without having kids around were blessing for me in order to concentrate on my top secret gift. It took me thirteen hours to finish 14 pages. I am hoping to complete at least fifty pages by this Christmas. Certainly, I hope I will do because I wanted to make this special person smiles for a life time. That is if Santa Claus grants me.

While I was at the workshop, I was one of the luckiest guests. In fact, I won TWO prizes. One was guessing the numbers of corn kernel candies (I'm not fond of eating this candy.) I only was two points lower from the actual corn kernel candies in a jar. The prize was getting leaves punch cut. Later on that evening, I also won a mini auburn scrapbook. This is a perfect way for me to make my "Friends in Old Days." It has fewer pages because I did not take lots of pictures back then. Now, it is a different story. Instead of leaving old pictures in a large plastic bag, I will put everything in the book which is one of out of my many projects.

Besides of being lucky, I felt so good that I had improved so much over the last two years. Now, I started wanting to have everything. This time, I had eyes for die cutters, tool kits, punches and Sizzix. Once I get lots of practices by playing with these tools, I will do more like becoming one of the expert in making scrapbook just like from the Scrapbook Memories magazine. Will this dream of mine become a reality?

Now, it is worth loving and doing the scrapbooks because it is not a complete waste. Looking at the albums can make anyone smile or even feel special. That is a far cry better than going out gambling and lose all of the money.

Getting a Pedicure

Don't we all love going and getting ourselves some pedicure and manicure? I do enjoy sitting on the plush bench and rolls up my trousers, takes off my shoes and socks or sandals.

This wonderful person sits, almost kneels, on a tiny chair just a foot off the floor and gazes up, stretching out a hand.

Reaching.

For . . .

His . . .

That's right, this man is getting a pedicure. It was my husband, David ! He admitted he enjoyed getting all of the attention from the ladies at the shop. They all were smiling at his bravery. As a wife, I have to say that I MUST applaud David because only 20 % of the men are willing to take good care of their feet. I have seen many fungus growing on men's feet. EEEWWW !

Believe it or not, the pedicurists can tell about the person's feet. I wonder what about mine. But I bet that they know about the negative and positive sides when giving men a pedicure.

The negative side of men's toenails that they often have ingrown toenails. It takes a a lot of times fixing their nails from " "ugh' to "wow.' " They will feel good about taking care of their feet when seeing other men don't take care of their feet. If you know someone you care, then encourage them get a pedicure. Trust me, it is worth!

Another interesting thing, the pedicurists admitted that they don't have to polish their toenails. Ahhh, that's too bad. It would been fun if see our loved ones having coloring on their toenails. How about if we try on our loved ones while they are asleep? Does that sound fun?

And there's something more , the pedicurists mentioned men are often good tippers. I did see David giving the tipper a five dollar. I guess I am more cheaper than him!

The best result is men often hooked when wives forced them to take care of their feet. It is true! David admittedly wanted to go back every other month. Hint: Perhaps, we can give him a gift certificate for Christmas and Birthday.

Reaction from Pumpkin Patch

Having a two week off from school was a perfect excuse to go to Pumpkin Patch. When we got there, there were FEW people at Pumpkin Patch. One was that the schools were still open in our home area. It was nice not to have to wait in a long line during the torrid sun (two days ago.) The boys were able to go on few rides even feeding the animals.

Thus, I bought 28 tickets so each boys was able to go on 14 rides. Wasn't that grand for going on rides repeatedly without waiting in a long line ? The first thing they started off wanting to go on a Pumpkin Jumper. This did not last long. They hopped for another ride: Sliding down at 50 feet high. They loved it. My best guess was that they enjoyed more of this rides than the other kind of rides.

Ryan wanted to give himself a try to go on a mini train. Believe it or not, he was getting tired of riding on this train even after he only went on once. That was nice because it completely changed his point of view. He used to obsessed to go trains repeatedly. Now, he would rather to go onto different rides.

Dylan and Ryan chose to go on a Vehicle Merry-Go-Around. Dylan wanted to go on Harley Davidson. Good thing it was not a real Harley Davidson It reminds of my father in law who loves to go on a real Harley Davidson. Ryan chose to "drive" on a Jeep just like his dad's car.

The next thing was feeding the animals: goat and kids. There was one goat liked to shove out the innocent kids. (A young goat is called a kid.) Good grief, he was born with small ears but had to remove his horns otherwise, he would have hurt or even kill kid. I can't even think about this. While we were there, Dylan pleaded me to get the goat and kids some hay. It had scared Dylan a little bit because the way the bully goatee cried out for the hay, so he dropped the hay. I had to pick the hay up for the kids to eat. This mean goat tended to knock over the kids, except I had to shoo him out of the way. Ryan had a real soft heart for the younger ones: kids.

As soon as we finished feeding the goat and kids, the boys were pleading to have a lunch. I couldn't argue with them because it was lunch time. I did make an attempt to take them back after they had a lunch. But they didn't want to especially at this heat.

So, I thought we would be going back because I still have fourteen tickets left to use it up before October 31st. This will NOT happen again for two reasons. One was that I could see that the boys are getting too big to go the Pumpkin Patch. Second, two days after visiting the Pumpkin Patch, it clears to me that Dylan has an allergic reaction to the Hay and Pumpkin. He did get bad rash all over his chest and back . I felt bad for Dylan because he is not able to touch the real Pumpkin; only a fake one. With the left over tickets, I am planning giving the tickets to one of my co w0rkers with children to use it up for us.

Cooling Off

Is it weird to think about the Fall at hundred degree in Southern California? I find it odd to see some of the colorful trees while there is a hot air. While not being able to renovate our front yard, the boys and I took off to cool ourselves off to a nearby community pool.

Just an hour before lunch, the boys were all ready to hop in the pool with their colorful goggles, boogie board. Know what I found it odd? We were the first people at the pool. Frankly, it was so nice to think about as if it was our backward with no one telling us what to do.

As soon as we got in a pool, the pool was COLD ! We were brave to stick it around the pool for an hour before we had a lunch. Soon few other people came to join the pool. Being in the cold water they did not stay for an entire time. Thus, the boys decided to warm themselves under the sun: either covering themselves with a stripped towel or lying on a chaise.

Once the boys finished drying themselves off, we headed for lunch.I eventually asked them if they wanted to go back to the pool an hour after they ate their lunch, they did not want to go. It was due to that the water was so COLD. Too bad, otherwise, it would have cool themselves off especially living outside at a hundred degree in October !

Magic Tree House

As a deaf mom, I just read a person's opinion about reading a book, "Magic Tree House" with Autism. I did the experiment because my older son enjoys reading this book-- he is now on Book 36 out of 40. So, I thought to give a try with my younger son, who has PPD-NOS known as Autism, is in a first grade class but reads at second grade level with a first grade reading comprehension.

For a starter on Book 1, I read the first chapter to him. After I read a first chapter to him, I asked questions. He got the answers right. On the next chapter, I inquired if he wanted me to read it to him. Yup, he was interested. So, I let him try reading this book-- he did good. At the end of Chapter 2, I questioned him. He did get some right and some wrong.

From my personal view of reading this book together, I think it is important to go through each chapter, ask questions, and show a picture. The more you practice on asking questions, any autism or other disability will gradually build up on able to answering questions. Not only building up able to answer the questions, the vocabulary words and images can gradually enhance on a child's critical thinking. Did you know that you don't have to create the questions? There are websites for the child to practice on reading the questions. That's what I eventually will do for my younger son. So he can do better whenever there is a reading comprehension questions or CAT-6 (California Achievement Tests.) Let's keep my fingers crossed that I make difference in Ryan's reading comprehension.

I highly recommend for any child with or without autism read this series books because it starts out from second grade reading to the end of fourth grade with full of imagination. It works because my older son, who is second grade, reads at third and write beautifully with descriptions! It will amaze my or your child's teacher.

Spooky Diving

Would you would dare go diving in the ocean after the sunset? NOT me, I'm chicken. David, my gallant husband, dared to go out and dived down to 100 feet after the sun had gone down. Even, he and other 15 divers dived during the showering season from 2:30 to 8:30 P.M. They all even went down on on a "perfect" mini-storm waves. Weren't they nuts?

He and other divers decided to visit the Yukon Wrecked (click this) in Mission Bay Area. The boat is the largest ship, 366 feet long, ever intentionally sunk off the California coast as an artificial reef. Some of the divers, especially the advance divers, were able to go inside of the vacant boat. Can you image yourself as if you were in Titanic Boat especially at night? David and his partner were able to go inside of a boat only for a SHORT moment due to indecent visibility. He only could see at least up to three feet. That' s not normal. The normal visibility should be at least 65 to 80 feet at a good weather. How spooky would that be with the poor visibility?

Since it was an unstable weather, he barely was able to see anyone, sea animals or take any good pictures. He knew he was in a hazard zone where there were lots of sharp objects around the Yukon ship. Yet, he barely was able to see the propellers and cannons. Believe it or not, there were toilet seats that he could not see. Too bad, he or others were unable to use them.

Once he came out of the water, the co-captain and captain of the boat all were looked at David and asked for David's opinion whether the divers should stay or leave. David made a wise decision by telling them it would be safe for all of the novice divers, including master divers to go home. Thus, he was unable to bring his smiling face but hungering for more. . One thing is for sure; you will see him again soon on the wreck of the Yukon with good pictures.

At the end of leaving an hour early, the owners decided that it would be fair for the divers to get their tickets back. It means that he gets the chance to return to visit the Yukon. Let's hope for the next visit would be a better visibility for my husband, who deserves the best experience.

Jellybeans

How much do you know about the history of Jelly Beans ? I didn't until I researched about Jelly beans. It occurred in the late 1800's as the earliest recorded advertisement was made by William Schraft in which he promoted sending these treats to Union Soldiers engaged in the Civil War.

In the early 1900's, Jelly Beans became a staple penny candy item and were one, if not the, first confectionery items to be sold by weight hence the claim that they were the first bulk candy.

The peak season for Jelly Beans is Easter and it wasn't until the 1930's that they became part of the festive tradition. It was around the time of our former President Reagan born. No wonder why he LOVED Jelly beans.

As the egg shape represents fertility and birth, the jelly bean serves as a perfect holiday metaphor. The fictional and beloved Easter Bunny is believed to deliver eggs as a sign of the coming of spring and spiritual rebirth. Isn't it interesting?

Jelly beans continue to be an American favorite and approximately 14 billion were sold last year. If you lined these end to end, they would circle the globe three times! Can you image that? It would have upset my stomach.

One afternoon, David decided to buy Jelly beans from Costco out of blue. He wanted the boys to get the experience of tasting many different flavors. Good thing, they only tried few and were not in the mood for the Jelly beans.

While we still have a jar of Jellybeans in our home, Dylan wanted to be in a ham. Truthfully, he pleaded me to video him which I did.(He is still learning how to use the video appropriately on one topic only.) He used his voice and sign at the same time, while I only signed. Thus I am challenging for hearing people to figure it out what did I say... Enjoy !

Resembles and Mannerism

Who ever thought about having a child look so much like you? Not only looking so much like you, I discovered that Ryan and I have similar mannerism.

The pictures of us were taken when we were 4 years old and were in pre-school.

The positive sides about us are: 1) like to play mischievous and 2) hard working people.

OH, I know that you wanted to know what is our negative side about us. We only can tell you is that we are a strong-willed people. So, watch out for your back. But we guarantee you that we can make you laugh.