Monday, July 15, 2013

Preparing for Special Guests

Preparing for Special Guests
Monday,  July 15, 2013

Today was another "stay at home" day for me, not because of physical problems, but it was to get things ready for our special guests who are coming this week.  Still, the physical problems, are ever present and limiting.  For example: at our house the main guest room is also called The LEGO Room for our grandchildren.  The older children can go in there and lock the door to keep the younger ones out of the LEGOs.  Our guests have a son at the age where he might enjoy LEGOs.  He will be staying in the  room across the hall from The LEGO Room (he will be in the room his Dad lived in when he was living with us when he was a foreign exchange student).  So it seemed logical to move the LEGOs across the hall.  I could do that by dragging the box, but I couldn't lift it one-handed to the place I wanted it.  Oh, well...

Henning came to Brownsville about 25 years ago, to live for a year while attending an American high school and living with an American family.  His home was in Denmark and this very tall, blond young man adapted well to life in hot South Texas.  He was living with another family when the father had a heart attack and the family was spending a lot of time at the hospital, so Henning needed to move to another home to finish the school year.  We volunteered and he moved into our home in March of that year and stayed until the end of June.  What fun we all had!  He and our son Jeff were the same age and had met at school but didn't really know each other.  Our two youngest sons enjoyed adding another older brother since their oldest brother was off at college.

We had lost touch with Henning and it was with great delight that we received a letter from him a few months ago saying he and his family would like to visit this summer.  When we got his letter, I had lost my hearing and was in that time of not knowing if I would qualify for the Cochlear Implant.  I couldn't imagine him coming and me not being able to hear, but we still wanted him to come.  What a joy that I have adapted so well to the implant and I am hearing so much better than I had even hoped at the time for this visit.  God is good!

When I am home, I do "bird watch".  It has been fun the last few days as the young woodpeckers have been venturing out of their home in an old dead tree trunk in the front yard.  Today, the adult male came to the orange I had placed out on a stump for them.  He ate his fill and then filled his beak and headed for the nest to feed the family.
 
I also finally got a photo of one of the Green Jays.  He (or could be a she - they look the same) came to the birdbath while I was trying to get photos of the Golden-fronted Woodpecker.
 
 
After the woodpecker took off with his load to feed the family, the Green Jay headed over to the stump to have a healthy snack.  Have I mentioned that I love my backyard?
 



Another thing that happened today is that I registered for the International Quilt Festival in Houston at the end of October and early November.  Last year I went as I often do, and took some classes.  But when I left to come home, I decided that I would not ever try to take any of the classes again because my hearing was just too bad (and that was before the additional loss suffered with the Sudden Hearing Loss in January).  It had been hard to do the classes for several years, but a friend had gone with me sometimes and would sit by me in class and help fill in the blanks when I couldn't hear.  I had decided it would be the last time to take any of the classes with or without my friend.  Even though I have a long way to go to get the full benefit from the implant, I am hearing so much better than I could last fall, that I decided to try to take a couple of classes!  I have requested the classes of my choice, but they are very popular, so there is no guarantee I will get them.  Plus, my friend is going with me this year, at least for a couple of days!  I am so excited!  God really has been answering Rachel's prayer: "God, please let Grandma hear!" 

Today I had the TV on and did better on understanding what was being said on drama and comedy shows.  The news was fairly easy from the start, but the others weren't.  Voices are still very high pitched.  I know my husband appreciates the fact that I don't have the volume all the way up on the TV anymore!

After my husband got home from work, we went shopping: Wal-Mart for bird seed; Sam's Club for a few food items; and then to the grocery store to stock up for our company.  I hope they arrive hungry!

It has been a good day.  It is good to see progress such as being better able to understand TV shows.  I also listened to a speech on the computer.  I could understand it and it was a blessing to listen to it.  The speech was by Texas State Senator Eddie Lucio, Jr. who represents our area in South Texas.  He is the only Pro-Life Democrat in the Texas Senate.  He gave an outstanding speech about the value of the life of the unborn.  I was so proud of him and glad that I could "hear" him give the speech. 

2 comments:

  1. Great pictures. I do miss the birds in the Valley! All we have regularly are the Grackles! However, there were a couple of Blue Jays in the sprinkler Saturday and I heard a Mockingbird earlier tonight. Hope you have a wonderful visit with your company!

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    1. Thank you, Tiny! I do enjoy the birds and would miss them if I couldn't see them often. The Green Heron keeps hanging around but I haven't gotten a good picture in a while. Maybe soon. I think my neighbors may be feeding the birds, because I keep seeing a flock of sparrows fly up and over the fence from their yard to mine.

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