Woo hoo!!!!!

i'm finally back at school after a very very long break..... lets see, where to begin.???

well last year i moved out in dec and got my own place.. seemed to be much happier.. well it was short lived i'll tell ya... my (at that time ) boyfriend turned out to be psychotic...lol. so i ended that relationship very quickly.. and then a few short weeks later my grandpa passed on..

he was 80 years old and the greatest man i ever had the honor of knowing. He was gentle in spirit but firm in discipline. He always made me laugh and snuck me peppermints when my grandma wasnt looking. then in Jan we had several weeks of terrible weather, tires needing replaced, hot water heaters breaking, pipes freezing and then to top it off we had the house fire


i learned real fast that if the house ever catches fire again call from the burning house... aparently if you call from your cell phone the signal goes to another county and they have to transfer you... so in the amount of time to actually get someone on the phone to help the kids and i watched everything we owned burn to the ground..... not a good site to see. we spent two weeks split between hotels and houses of relatives while trying to find a new place to live.. i was just thankful that we all got out alive.... almost didnt happen. It only took 3 min and 6 sec for our house to burn to the ground.. and did you know that a washer and dryer can actually melt??

i didnt until that day....lol

then two weeks later my grandma passed away . It certainly has not been an easy year thus far but by the grace of God and some very good family members and friends we are doing better...
we now live in my grandmas house which is a mixed blessing but a blessing just the same.. and im relieved that the kids are all happy....

laura and sam are starting a new year with lots of hope that the schools will do what they need to do for them... hopefully (if not) romney here we come......

melissa is now living on her own as well so that is two of the five kids leaving the nest.... also mixed feelings on that one as well.... who knows maybe i'm actually doing an alright job as a mom after all.....

have a new guy in my life now as well.... hes great.. and we are taking things very very slow.... almost at a snail pace......lol

thats it for now.. hope everyone has a great year....

wow life just keeps moving huh

well here we are back at school , well at least some of us. I havent been able to make it to school for the beginning week due to samuel haveing surgery. Things seem to keep moving along even when we have to stand still.. I am worried that ruby might think that i dont care about the goals i had set for myself in the beginning of the school year last year but i do. since school let out, i have successfully moved into a small two bedroom trailor and made it a home, met a guy named joe, got evaluations on samuel and laura completed and yes they both have in addition to their hearing losses and issues emotionally, Auditory Processing disorder.. When will it ever quit. ?

it has gotten to the point that i dont even want to go to the doctors anymore, seems like they keep finding things to stand in the way of every bit of progress we make with the kids. Christmas was ok, but then on Dec. 28th my grandfather lost his battle with luekemia and went home to be with the Lord, and then 2 days later my aunt Dessi joined them.

life has gotten difficult for me right now with the loss of my family members and then to have samuel go in for surgery tmw is frightening. It is a simple procedure but because of the conditions of his lungs he is at a greater risk.. I will keep you all in informed of how he is doing. Please pray for a speedy recovery.lol

thank you to all who have been so supportive.

sincerely,
shannon

WOW!

i am so thankful for friends that i have made through classes.. life seems to be getting more chaotic than ever and i am ready to let go.. I am currently looking for a place to move to because my mother is driving me insane...

Sam and laura are doing better although, they are full of energy it is relaxing to sit with them in the evening to spend time with them.. Right now they seem to be my therapy.. I wonder if that is a good thing...

Recently had a birthday.. turned 37 which i didn't meet with grace and greetings..lol.. however if believing that three years from 40 are not enough to throw someone over the edge, hearing the news that i am going to be a grandma was.. I who dont usually do anything crazy, actually had a drink or two and peirced my nose.. wow.. boy not only were my parents shocked, i was shocked.

i actually didnt mind it..

to those of you who have patiently lended a listening ear to me thank u so much for ur support.. it means so much.. hope to have better news for all in a couple of weeks..

till then have a great week..

overwhelmed

yep i think i am seriously losing my mind. lately i seem to be a magnet for incredibly weird ignorant people. It seems like it doesn't matter where i am at, there is always at least one in the stinking crowd that has something stupid to say. The worst part is they don't want to view anyone elses opinion on the matter, they just say what they want and then leave in a tuff.

this week started off really horrible. Right now i can't wait till it is over.
my parents have a friend visiting from ny and now melissa is in laura's room for the week and although i have known him since i was a child and i know he means well, but i am really getting tired of peole trying to fix me and my kids.

i am tired of explaining about my childrens condition and why there is no father in the home, of all things i guess i expected my parents to put a stop to all the questions but no, they just sit there looking the other way, and then wonder why i keep to myself.

i go to my room to do homework and they want to know if i am angry at them, because i have always taken part of family time! News flash, i have responsibilities and it doesnt always fall in the catagory of sitting in front of the television watching reruns of the waltons. UGHHHHH
does anyone else have the same trouble?

Okay, i know it is going to be hard putting two families in one house, but i try to mind my own business where their lives are concerned. Do they do the same? oh no, lets fix shannon up with someone because she must be lonely, lets rearrange her room while she's gone to help her or how about lets undermind her infront of her children and insist that our way is the only way to raise children...... Can anyone say breaking point!

i don't know but maybe i am going crazy, i just know that if i hear one more person say that sam and laura need to have a chance to be NORMAL i'm seriously going to hit someone and i won't be sorry for it either. Could it all be just an october type of thing? Like maybe really nice people lose therir senses temporarily during the month of october or something. I wish someone could shed some light on the subject because i am really feeling hostile right now .

oh well, maybe i'll lock myself in my room and pretend i'm in another world for a while, hehe.
i feel like buggs bunny in the cartoons, must have taken a wrong turn at alberquerqe

big hellos from kids

Anyhow, i bombed both exams the past two weeks. I don't know whats' wrong with me, but is it possible to study so much that your mind turnsto mush? that is what i feel like right now and i am getting so frustrated with myself. I am too slow on reading fingerspelling and everyone seems to be picking it right up. I can't seem to turn my brain off and just read the sounds of the letters together. i don't know what it will take for me to get past this point but i don't feel like i am getting anywhere.

I am visiting the asl sites but do fine with them so why can't i get it straight with ruby or others.

oh i don't know, maybe i permanent memory loss when it comes to reading what we've all learned. Go figure.

Sam and Laura has a new pass time

well today is monday and i just finished taking the quiz for the online class. Right now things are pretty quiet here because david and melissa are at a young life meeting. I am updating the blog and sam and laura are watching ice age 1. I know it is an older movie but i can't help but laugh at it. Some of the things they say are too funny.

Anyhow, i didn't make it to the cochlear workshop. I have been tirelessly dealing with sinus and ear problems. I am doing better but have to see an ent on my birthday of all days. From what i have heard about the workshop i think it is good that i didn't go because i may have ended up hitting someone.

Saturday i was in bed all day and trying to relax when sam and laura wanted to watch the videos from signing time. They love them, well i put one in and sam started yelling no!!!!!!! He was very persistent and i thought laura was going to jump on him to keep him quiet when i finally figured out what he wanted. He has watched me review Rubys videos from vocabulary and wanted to watch them. So i dragged myself out of my warm comfy bed to sit at the desk and let him watch them. He and laura repeated every sign she did. IT was't always perfect but it was fun to see them try them.

Then when he got tired of them i found some youtube fingerspelling videos on line and there was one with a baby in it and he loved it although he kept saying she was wrong. Since we came to the deaf games he has litterally blossomed in using sign. I can't get him to usually move from one sign to another very easily but since last wed. he has been running around the house asking for sign . I think it's great!! Right now, laura wants to know if she is better than him and if we have competition in class to see who is better than the other person. I just tell her no, and that we try to help each other, and that she should try to help him as well since she is older than he is.

She said she'll think about it but i depends on how many of his toys he shares! LOL

I have been fingerspelling everything at home so that i can get familiar with it more and trying to get ( parents and kids) to fingerspell back so i will get better at reading it as well. Needless to say david just turns around and walks away. I guess 15 yr old boys are above the helping mom thing. Melissa however, says mom will you just stop and sign because it takes you way to long to figure out what i am asking you. Usually she is very patient with me, but i guess her limit of being asked to repeat herself is 25. LOL

any how, better get back to studying.
shannon

P.S. new sites i found asl.ms , fingerspelling practices ( takes you to youtube) they are pretty cool and i will definately keep visiting them.

FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!THE SCHOOL LISTENED

Okay today was an alright day. Earlier this week i attended an sat meeting for laura. I sat with her teachers and special ed director. I listened to them tell me how she struggles and isn't paying attention, and how she needs help. I gave them all my paperwork and showed them what the doctors have said. would you believe that the special ed director tried to blame laura's condition on the thought that it is because everyone did everything for her. NOT SO.. i am vy adamate about laura doing her own work. She would learn absolutely nothing if everyone did the work for her.

Then this morning before class, i attended sam's iep meeting. Finally a year after starting, they are giving an aid who is certified in sign to help in his room. They still insist that Sam has to speak, but i just smiled and said great, but don't expect perfection. He can't repeat consistently what he isn't hearing. How many times does a person have to explain before the people who are supposed to be specialists in their field actually get the point?

when we went to game day, i was thrilled to see sam trying to play with maddie, even though he couldn't get his mind off his trucks. She actually is the first girl besides laura , that he has even considered playing with. He had a good time, because when we got home he kept signing play girl to his poppy. I kept showing him her name sign, but he still called her girl. I am sorry for the noise he made during the test, though. I hope he didn't upset anyone. Towards the end i think i saw him mimicking ruby's hands. He was sitting on the desk top looking at her and i could see him moving his hand, but i was really trying to pay attention to what ruby was signing.

I hope all did well and thanks again for being so good to sam.

I also think i have to brush up on my chess playing skills, because next time De brings her set, i plan on winning a match. LOL