I can't believe...
....that I haven't written anything since Thursday night! Believe me, though, I can explain!
I got up at 6:30 Friday morning and went to work at 8....got off at 5. I won't work those hours every day, but I did Friday. I was EXHAUSTED by the time I got through the day! However....I loved what I was doing and met a lot of new people (and saw some friends)...so it was a FUN day. When I got off I picked up a few groceries, ran home, and was going to soak in the tub for about 20 minutes but ended up jumping out in about five when I realized that the hot water had been used up by the rest of the family (brrrr!)...so, no relaxing there! Got dressed in holiday colors and we headed out to a Christmas party. We didn't get home from that until 11:30 PM...and I got in the bed and think I was asleep before I pulled the covers up. I was SO tired!!!
Saturday I slept until 9 and then got up and started cooking...I made a corn casserole and a batch of Gooey Butter Cakes and got ready for another Christmas party. We were out the door at 10:30 and in Nashville for the HLAA Christmas party at noon. Hubby and the kids came with me this month and ate with us, then they went downtown to a car show while the meeting went on. My surgeon, Dr. Haynes, spoke to us on the topic of bilateral cochlear implants. He shared a lot of information that I hadn't heard before and I learned a lot. If I remember correctly (and I probably didn't, so don't hold me to these numbers...I will try to back that up with proof in a day or so) he said that around 150,000 people worldwide have one CI (unilateral)...and only about 1300 people in the United States have two CIs (I forget the "worldwide" number of bilaterals, sorry). Of those in the US, about two-thirds are babies and children (that sounds about right!). So we bilateral users are still pretty rare, although I think that's changing and those numbers will skyrocket in a few years :). Dr. Haynes was nice enough to pose for a picture after. I showed it to my mom and she said, "My hero!" Since I feel the same way, I thought I'd share with y'all, too, so you can see the man behind it all :).
In all fairness, though, I need to point out that it takes the whole team to make it work...that my audiologist, Susan, is the one who does the programming and the fine-tuning, and she does it well. Without audiologists these implants wouldn't do a thing...so she is my hero, too :)!
This month's meeting was a great one...in addition to Dr. Haynes being there, there was a much larger crowd than usual, the food was yummy, and I was delighted to see one of my favorite couples, Tommy and Judy, there. I met them for the first time last year at a CI meeting in Nashville. I mainly talked to Judy that day...she is a warm, friendly lady and easy to talk to. I ran into Tommy several months later in the HLAA CI chatroom and was delighted to hear from them again! They live in Kentucky so I haven't seen them in over a year...and was delighted that they made the trip down to the meeting this month!!
After the meeting we met my parents for dinner at Jim 'n' Nicks Barbecue (no website, sorry). I have been wanting to try it out for several months now and it was really good. We picked up a few Christmas tree ornaments and then headed home...got home around 9 PM. I spent about an hour uploading pictures to the computer and e-mailing a few of them out, but was too tired to write much...was asleep by 11 PM that night.
Yesterday morning I overslept (I usually get up at 7 on church mornings but woke up at 7:40!!) and started the day off on the run. After church and lunch we came home and worked on the Christmas tree...I didn't particularly feel like it but we're running out of time to get it done....so it was then or never. I did get in about a 45 minute nap before heading back out to church last night. After church I was determined to blog, but just when I logged into blogger.com, the cable froze up. It was down for a couple of hours and by the time I finally got it working again, I was too tired to post anything. Computers...wonderful when they work, worthless when they don't ;). The work week starts today :). I will work Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday this week...from 1-10 PM. I still have a lot to learn on the job and am excited about it! I need to get busy now and make up a menu for this week...I have decided that being gone 40 hours a week will require a lot of planning to make the rest of the hours in the week run more smoothly! Wish me luck!
HLAA party and tree-trimming pictures are here! :)
Have a great Monday, everyone...love y'all...
I got up at 6:30 Friday morning and went to work at 8....got off at 5. I won't work those hours every day, but I did Friday. I was EXHAUSTED by the time I got through the day! However....I loved what I was doing and met a lot of new people (and saw some friends)...so it was a FUN day. When I got off I picked up a few groceries, ran home, and was going to soak in the tub for about 20 minutes but ended up jumping out in about five when I realized that the hot water had been used up by the rest of the family (brrrr!)...so, no relaxing there! Got dressed in holiday colors and we headed out to a Christmas party. We didn't get home from that until 11:30 PM...and I got in the bed and think I was asleep before I pulled the covers up. I was SO tired!!!
Saturday I slept until 9 and then got up and started cooking...I made a corn casserole and a batch of Gooey Butter Cakes and got ready for another Christmas party. We were out the door at 10:30 and in Nashville for the HLAA Christmas party at noon. Hubby and the kids came with me this month and ate with us, then they went downtown to a car show while the meeting went on. My surgeon, Dr. Haynes, spoke to us on the topic of bilateral cochlear implants. He shared a lot of information that I hadn't heard before and I learned a lot. If I remember correctly (and I probably didn't, so don't hold me to these numbers...I will try to back that up with proof in a day or so) he said that around 150,000 people worldwide have one CI (unilateral)...and only about 1300 people in the United States have two CIs (I forget the "worldwide" number of bilaterals, sorry). Of those in the US, about two-thirds are babies and children (that sounds about right!). So we bilateral users are still pretty rare, although I think that's changing and those numbers will skyrocket in a few years :). Dr. Haynes was nice enough to pose for a picture after. I showed it to my mom and she said, "My hero!" Since I feel the same way, I thought I'd share with y'all, too, so you can see the man behind it all :).
In all fairness, though, I need to point out that it takes the whole team to make it work...that my audiologist, Susan, is the one who does the programming and the fine-tuning, and she does it well. Without audiologists these implants wouldn't do a thing...so she is my hero, too :)!This month's meeting was a great one...in addition to Dr. Haynes being there, there was a much larger crowd than usual, the food was yummy, and I was delighted to see one of my favorite couples, Tommy and Judy, there. I met them for the first time last year at a CI meeting in Nashville. I mainly talked to Judy that day...she is a warm, friendly lady and easy to talk to. I ran into Tommy several months later in the HLAA CI chatroom and was delighted to hear from them again! They live in Kentucky so I haven't seen them in over a year...and was delighted that they made the trip down to the meeting this month!!
After the meeting we met my parents for dinner at Jim 'n' Nicks Barbecue (no website, sorry). I have been wanting to try it out for several months now and it was really good. We picked up a few Christmas tree ornaments and then headed home...got home around 9 PM. I spent about an hour uploading pictures to the computer and e-mailing a few of them out, but was too tired to write much...was asleep by 11 PM that night.
Yesterday morning I overslept (I usually get up at 7 on church mornings but woke up at 7:40!!) and started the day off on the run. After church and lunch we came home and worked on the Christmas tree...I didn't particularly feel like it but we're running out of time to get it done....so it was then or never. I did get in about a 45 minute nap before heading back out to church last night. After church I was determined to blog, but just when I logged into blogger.com, the cable froze up. It was down for a couple of hours and by the time I finally got it working again, I was too tired to post anything. Computers...wonderful when they work, worthless when they don't ;). The work week starts today :). I will work Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday this week...from 1-10 PM. I still have a lot to learn on the job and am excited about it! I need to get busy now and make up a menu for this week...I have decided that being gone 40 hours a week will require a lot of planning to make the rest of the hours in the week run more smoothly! Wish me luck!
HLAA party and tree-trimming pictures are here! :)
Have a great Monday, everyone...love y'all...
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