Fall is on the way #laryngectomee, #laryngectomy

YAY! YAY! YAY!

Autumn is my most favorite season. 
Cooler air!!  Football is making it back to the TV line up!  Cooler air!! 
God is the creator of all things and part of that is the seasons. Not every part of the world gets the benefit of temperature changes, but I live in Oklahoma, and I LOVE FALL!

Autumn! 
That's when I start putting up decorations for the holidays! I usually put up Fall decorations in September and leave them up until after Thanksgiving. I don't get tired of them. I love the colors! And did I already mention I love the "cooler air". 

School is starting for the kiddos and....get ready.....school is starting for me! OSU-OKC

Just one college course, ASL 1. I'm just auditing it so there's not a lot of pressure but I still want to do well. I know some sign language. I'm able to communicate using ASL a little as long as I'm around someone who knows sign language also. But I'm not smooth. I'm jerky and slow and mess up signs so that things get confusing so I REALLY need to brush up on my skills for the times when I'm around people who know signing. 

I've been thinking about this for a few years but one of the main reasons I finally jumped in to do this is that I've been wanting to go for counseling.  Being a laryngectomee is hard. Being the caregiver for my husband is hard sometimes. And I just really need to talk to someone about my struggles. I could talk to friends, but I really want to talk to someone who doesn't know us. Someone that has no pre-conceived ideas of who we are. When I talk a lot my TEP voice prosthesis gets clogged up and it's difficult to talk. Either that or my equipment gets messed up. I frequently use my white board to communicate when my "talker" won't talk. But that isn't very effective if I want to get any benefit from counseling. SO, I want to be able to "speak" in sign language and have an interpreter speak for me. A friend came to my dad's funeral to do that for me. It was hard because I kept messing up signs. I was able to speak a little so I didn't need her ALL the time. Even though I was very appreciative for the times she was able to help, I'm afraid she felt it wasn't worth her time.  

So I plan to settle in this fall, watch me some football, decorate the house and travel some.  

I hope you have some great plans ahead. School anyone?
Go Pokes!!!


Blessings,
Mary



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