A friend’s mom came across this article the other day and when she told me I thought this was a fabulous idea! I’m not a wine person but I happened to have a few empty bottles around the house from previous parties. Tyler was aboard with this project since it required spray painting and it’s his favorite thing to do!

This was a quick & painless project that was done before we carved pumpkins & baked the seeds. If you do this project, do share pictures of your Halloween wine bottles!

I love it when our neighbors get into the holidays and decorate. We changed our light bulbs outside with orange light bulbs. We got cobwebs ready to add outside on the day of Halloween since it might rain later this week.

Have a wonderful Halloween week!!

Is Tyler deaf and how much can he hear?

He’s hard of hearing….but honestly I don’t know what he can’t hear. He can speak very well, talk on the phone and does not wear his hearing aid. When I wear my cochlear implant there are some things I probably can hear better & more clear than he can hear but still he can identify the sounds and where they’re coming from. A lot of times I find myself asking him what that sound is and he would tell me it’s the washing machine, birds chirping outside and et cetera.

Do you both sign all the time?

No, we don’t sign all the time. We both can talk and since Tyler can hear very well, I usually talk with him and he will talk AND sign with me. I love how I can easily talk out-loud in the dark and Tyler will understand me…but if he says something back to me, I usually don’t understand him. Sometimes we play a game where I’ll try to read what he is signing by putting my hands on his hands and usually that doesn’t work. If all fails, we use the light on our iPhones or just turn the dang lights on if it’s that important!

This is the same way with my parents too (they’re hearing). They both sign and talk with me but I never sign back to them since they can’t really read sign language opposed to being able to sign. I’m fortunate to have parents who know how to sign since there are a lot of parents that don’t know sign language at all. My parents learned sign language when I was younger and throughout the years some signs have changed and it’s my fault for not correcting them. So pretty much my sister and I have gotten used to their signs….they even made up some of them!

Your sister is deaf too?

Yep! We have the same hearing loss but she has had more practice with talking on the phone and lip-reading since she doesn’t really have any exposure to the deaf community. She uses an interpreter in school though.

She is totally the opposite of me when it comes to being deaf. She always has to have her hair down so it covers her hearing aids. She doesn’t sign that much and when she does…she complains that she can’t sign and talk at the same time. I’m hoping she will outgrow that phase and sign more and not be so ashamed of her deafness.

So you rely on sign language to understand people all the time?

No, not all the time. If i had a choice, it would be so much easier if everybody signed! I can still lip-read and hear when people talk to me. I may not understand everything that is being said and I will ask for clarification or to write it down. Some people I have no problem understanding at all since they’re easy to lip-read. It can get tiring sometimes since I have to constantly lip-read and hear to understand everything so I don’t do well in hour long group meetings.

With sign language, I can look away for a few seconds or think about something else while someone is signing and still understand what they’re signing.

Ask me any questions you may have or want to know about and I’ll answer them in my next post. Even if it’s something like, “can deaf people play sports? watch TV? sing?”

We’ve gotten a lot of rain this past week….which means we were all in a good mood because rain = happy Arizonians!

After work one day I was driving home with the option of going home a different way since the traffic was stopped on the freeway. I sent my Mom a text and she insisted I stay on the freeway since the streets were flooded. I agreed with her and came to a halt stop on the ramp to go on I-17 North. I was right at the split and had seconds to decide if I wanted to stay or go I-17 South and go a different way home.

So after making a decision I changed lanes and went south and got back on the freeway going north and there were cars backing up on the freeway!! I quickly got off the freeway and braved the flooded streets. 1 hour and 30 minutes later…I finally got home.

Later that night I learned that everyone who had stayed on I-17 North were completely stopped for hours because they had shut down the freeway. I’m so glad I made the right decision at the last second and was able to enjoy a cool evening at home.

I’m so excited that the temperature has dropped to the 80s now! This means we can leave the door and windows open in the evenings.

Lots to look forward to for the rest of the month — state fair, haunted houses and carving pumpkins.