2010 September |

Officially a Mom of Three Teenagers

Today’s a big day. This is the day that Steven turns thirteen.

It’s official. I’m a mom of three teenagers.

How did the time go by so fast? I can remember his birth as if it was just yesterday…

When I was pregnant with Steven, I had the brilliant idea of ripping out our bathtub and putting in a large soaking tub so that I could labor comfortably in it. Joe went along with it. It was only a few hundred dollars for the tub and we figured we could do most of the work ourselves. Never mind that it involved removing half of our double sink and putting a toilet in that space. Such a simple job, we thought.

The work was moving along slowly. Joe framed the bathtub and we hired a plumber to do all the pipe work. A friend helped tear down the tile and we hired someone else to tile up the side of the tub and walls just days before the birth. When the midwife and naturopath arrived, Joe was working on the floor.

I was a bundle of nerves and I couldn’t quite get settled that week. I had no doubts about doing a homebirth, but there was an unease inside of me, a lot of it had to do with concerns that I didn’t recognize until much later after the birth. Someone had advised me to pray to St. Therese for this birth and I learned that this saint answers prayers with “a shower of roses.” As we got ready to take a walk that evening, the midwife casually mentioned that she received a beautiful bouquet of red roses from a mom who had homebirthed with her.

I knew that was my sign. From that point on, I was enveloped with an amazing, calm feeling. I simply focused on each breath and dove into the hypno-birthing from that point on. During the pushing, I was using Christie Lake as a focal point in my mind. At one point, the naturopath was applying fundal pressure and I saw a sparkle of blue lights. It was as if I was floating on the lake on a beautiful summer day and the lake was twinkling in the sun. I recently learned that it’s a sign of Mother Mary being present. There definitely was some divine intervention for Steven’s birth, because I was given Cytotec at the beginning–which can cause ruptures and is very unsafe for VBACs. I did not know this at that time. I later wrote an article about the dangers of Cytotec which was published in Midwifery Today and DON’T CUT ME AGAIN! True Stories About Vaginal Birth After Cesarean (VBAC).

The day that Steven entered this world was an amazing one and I do have lots of good memories of his birth. Despite the medical aspect, the midwife and naturopath tended to me well. They sang, they cooked, they did laundry, they soothed and they supported me. If I could do it all over again, without a doubt, I would have homebirthed all three kids. I was fortunate to attend several births since then, including a home waterbirth and a winter solstice birth.

So here I am, thirteen years later with a house full of teenagers. You know all those horror stories that everyone has about teens? Hogwash. The teen years are the best years.

“Mom? Can I go to Buffalo Wild Wings with my friends? I need some money.”

“Sure, honey. I’ll give you fifteen bucks. But first, mop the kitchen floor, clean the upstairs bathroom and do a load of laundry. Then you can go.”

Happy Birthday, Steven Michael!

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Tags: Raising Deaf/HH Kids by DeafMom
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Driving a 1952 John Deere Tractor

I was winterizing the jet ski when Dad came out of the garage. “What happened to your trailer?” he asked, pointing to the wheel crank. The handle was bent.

“I jackknifed two years ago when I backed it up for the first time,” I sheepishly explained. “I left the back door up on the truck and I couldn’t see the end of the trailer when I was backing up.”

He threw his head back and laughed. Because you see, I have a history of “accidents” with motorized toys. I once broke off the handle in the back of the snowmobile while whipping Joe on a sled in the middle of the lake. A couple of years ago, I backed the ATV out of the shed and forgot about the snow plow attached in front. The plow caught the door frame and I pulled the entire front of the shed off the foundation. Fortunately, Dad didn’t lecture me too much as we pounded the shed frame back into place. Another time, I was pulling the pontoon out of the barn with the ATV and forgot to put it in four-wheel drive and I snapped off the hitch.

“Let me go get some wrenches and I’ll fix the crank for you.”

In two minutes, he had the handle straightened out and the crank working again. He went back in the house as I continued to winterize the jet ski. I ran the anti-freeze through, fogged the engine and shut it off. I went in the garage to look for a socket wrench and after a few minutes, I found the size I needed to remove the battery cables. I went back in for an adjustable wrench to remove the battery from the housing. If there’s one thing you should know about my Dad, he has every tool imaginable. However, finding what you need when you need it is a challenge:

I went through every drawer, but I couldn’t find the adjustable wrench in the size that I needed. So off I went into the house. “Where’s the small, adjustable wrench?” I asked.

Without missing a beat, he said, “Second drawer.”

It took a bit of digging, but sure enough, I found the wrench buried deep in the second drawer. I finished up with the jet ski and drove it up to the barn to put it away. The neighbors had put their boats away earlier and I slid the jet ski in the empty slot in the back. I noticed that Dad’s tractor was sitting outside. The neighbors had dragged it out of the barn but there was no way to put it back without starting it.

“Hey Dad, the tractor is sitting outside,” I explained when I arrived back at the house. “I think it’s time for you to teach me how to drive it.” Dad raised one eyebrow, but he agreed to teach me the next day.

Dad received this 1952 tractor as a gift from Tom Pursley, a local builder who built my parent’s house. The tractor was one of the first two-cycle diesel engines with a gas pulling motor. The pulling motor stopped working, so the only way to get the tractor started was to tow it until it kicked into gear. I hooked the strap up to the hitch and hopped into the truck. “Put it in low,” Dad reminded me. “Tow me toward the road and when it kicks in, you can take the strap off.”

I moved the truck forward and tightened the strap and then gave it some gas. Nothing. I tried again, and the wheels spun. The tractor stayed in place. I backed up a bit, gave it some more gas. The strap tugged the truck back.

Turns out, Dad left the brake engaged on the tractor. Score one for me! At least it wasn’t me messing up this time! I pulled ahead and the tractor rolled forward. We hit the road and the tractor started. But I celebrated too soon. I had moved the truck to the side and put it in park and jumped out to release the strap just as Dad let the clutch out too fast. The wheel ran over the strap. The strap was too tight to remove. Dad ended up putting the tractor in reverse to release the tension and I unhooked the strap.

I parked the truck and hopped on to the tractor for my lesson. It turned out to be pretty simple to run a tractor. Put it in gear, release the clutch and off you go. Pull the clutch along with the brakes and you can stop the thing. I had fun driving it around with Dad hanging on. I think I’m ready to chop some corn down in a field.

Well, kind of ready. I let Dad put it back in the barn.

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Tags: I Can Take Pictures!, Inspirational Stuff, Uncategorized by DeafMom
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From Waterskiing to Barefooting

Ann C wanted to know, how does one go from water skiing to learning how to barefoot:

As a kid, I’ve water-skiied and slalomed on water to the point I could do a quick turn-’round and jump the wakes, also slalom with eight other ppl on ski’s, weaving in and out under and over the ropes. The latter stunt required a boat with a lotta horsepower. Also powder skiied on slopes for several years. I’ve had my share of flat-facing both on water and snow, heh.

Gotta ask ya, how does one start at a barefoot, off a dock or pulling outta the water literally? Hey, pulling outta water on slalom ain’t easy, takes a lot of balance and knowing if the boat has got enough horsepower. If one were to go from skiing to barefooting, how’d one start?

I gotta tell ya, Ann, the easiest way to learn barefoot water skiing is off a boom, from an experienced teacher. When I went down to the World Barefoot Center this spring, I used a boom for the first time and my first thought was, “Wow, this is a lot easier than behind the boat!”

You can move from the boom to learning a deep water start off the five-foot rope extension strapped to the boom. To do a deep water start, you grip the handle near your hips, place your feet on the rope and lie back in the water. As the boat picks up speed, you sit up on the water, place your heels gently and stand up. Once you master the extension, you can move the deep water start to the long line behind the boat. Take a look at Joann O’Connor (61-years-young!) doing the start:

To learn to barefoot behind the boat with a 75- or 100–foot-rope, you can either start off on a wakeboard/kneeboard or by kicking off a ski. I learned with a kneeboard and I never really mastered barefooting off a ski– I face planted half of the time!

I highly recommend the World Barefoot Center if you’d like to try barefooting for the first time. The WBC team is great to work with and they even have a swing to sit in off the boom for first-timers.

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Are You Chained to Your Videophone? Get a Z Life!

I sat in the airport yesterday and chatted with my mother-in-law. The two folks sitting on both sides of me sat and watched, trying not to look at the interpreter signing away as I talked about my bumpy flight to my mother-in-law. I’m used to it. When I finished my call, the guy next to me asked a bunch of questions. I explained that I was deaf and that I was talking to my mother-in-law but watching the interpreter so I could understand everything she was saying. “Wow, that is just amazing!” he said, shaking his head. The Z4 videophone always piques the curiousity of people when they see it in action for the first time. Sometimes I use the VCO Plus feature with a plugged-in headset and other times I use American Sign Language on my calls.

This video explains more about how you can use your voice with the Z: VCO Plus.

But the best feature of all with the Z videophones is simply this: I’m not chained to the house, I’m not stuck with one videophone option. ZVRS is the only company that offers choices when it comes to videophone options. Whenever I travel, I know who calls me on any of my videophones as I get a Z-Alert telling me that my videophone is ringing. I don’t have to run into another room to see who is calling me. If I’m taveling, people can leave a message and I can view it via email.

ZVRS is leading the way with mobile phone options and there’s a lot more to come! The iPhone4 app is out and the Samsung Epic is next.

Every single one of our ZVRS interpreters is certified. Sometimes people yawn when I tell them this but then I ask them if they’ve ever been stuck with an unskilled interpreter on their VRS/VCO call and I find out they have– and I wonder why they continue to deal with that. Why select a VRS company that allows inexperienced, non-certified interpreters on their staff? In my free time, I work as a writer, so I interview people from all over. The ZVRS interpreters are the key to my success, because they skillfully keep up with the conversation and allow me to focus on the interviewing. So if you’re experiencing frustration with your VRS calls perhaps it is time to explore your options. I invite you to try a ZVRS interpreter on your videophone today. Simply call 888-888-1116 and see for yourself.

And yes, here’s my big, bold disclaimer: I work for ZVRS and I’m proud of it. Nearly 70% of the company’s full-time employees are deaf and hard of hearing and we are one of the fastest growing VRS/VCO companies today.

So if you’re tired of being chained by your videophone, experience some freedom with ZVRS.

I can be reached at kputz (at) zvrs (dot) com or 630-405-6263.

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Missing More Than Just a Conversation

Today’s post is a guest post by The Hearing Company. I asked them to share some funny stories and they did not disappoint. Read on!

MISSING MORE THAN JUST A CONVERSATION…

Guest article for DeafMomWorld.com from UK based high street hearing aid retailer The Hearing Company

As hearing aid retailers in the UK for more than 50 years, The Hearing Company is well versed in the need for crystal clear hearing.

But for an example of someone ‘learning the hard way’ look no further than Brazilian Valdemar Lopes de Moraes.

The 39 year old was suffering from ear ache but ended up receiving more radical treatment from his doctor – a vasectomy.

As reported by news agency Reuters, staff at the clinic had really called out the name Aldemar, who was actually scheduled for the snip, but hard of hearing Mr de Moraes headed for the treatment room instead.

When asked later why he didn’t complain, the father of two said he thought his ear inflammation “must have spread downwards.”

Travel a bit closer to home and quirky cases still prevail, though perhaps with slightly less significant consequences.

A favourite of staff at The Hearing Company comes from the casebook of one of its hearing aid dispensers.

It is standard procedure to follow up any delivery of a brand new hearing aid with a visit to monitor the customer’s progress and to offer advice and help if required.
This particular customer used her visit to express real concern over losing her hearing aid. She concluded that the dispenser must have mistakenly taken it with him when he had met her the previous week.

Calmly he confirmed that he did not have her hearing aid and perhaps it would be a good idea for the lady to retrace her steps to see if the device was nearby.

As the pair checked the kitchen, the customer recalled a recent and particularly upsetting encounter in the room with “the biggest snail ever”. A morbid fear of snails had led her to stamp on the offending creature and throw it out of the back door.

No prizes for guessing what the plastic debris outside really was. We are only grateful the customer didn’t find an actual snail and pop that in her ear instead…

The moral of the story? Take good care of your hearing and act quickly (and with caution) if you encounter a problem. And for those who do wear a hearing aid, take good care of the device that helps you hear…and perhaps consider taking a sight test as well!

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Officially a Mom of Three Teenagers

Driving a 1952 John Deere Tractor

From Waterskiing to Barefooting

Are You Chained to Your Videophone? Get a Z Life!

Missing More Than Just a Conversation

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