I know I seem to be lamenting about the loss of time a lot lately, but really it's the middle of November already! It didn't hit me until my husband was talking about work today and that next week is Thanksgiving. Really?! Every store I go into has hints of the holiday season, and I'm still thinking it's summer with a few surprised chilly days creeping in. I'm so thankful that I don't have to worry about holidays. Man, I'd be so stressed out all the time if I did. Seriously, how does anyone find money to buy so much stuff?!
Enough about that... I get to have an ultrasound tomorrow, along with that wonderful glucose test. Ugh. Well, yay for the ultrasound part, but boo for that nasty glucose stuff. I'm so nervous. I don't want to have gestational diabetes or placenta previa, mostly though I don't want to have a c-section. I've never had stitches in my life, and I'm none too eager to get them now. I'm a serious wimp when it comes to cutting someone open, and stitching them back up.
Monday I took my little sis to the ASL meeting in Raleigh. Wow what an experience! I had no idea what to expect other than signing and big screen tv's. I wasn't sure how the commenting or singing or prayer would work. I felt like I was in a different land. Can you imagine what my biggest fear was? Hearing someone fart in all that silence and hoping that I wouldn't crack up laughing. Thankfully nobody did, and I was able to maintain my appropriate maturity level :) So we arrived 30 minutes early and were some of the first few there. It was so quiet, it's kind of overwhelming at first. It's like my ears didn't fit in, such a weird feeling. The friends were very warm and inviting (of course) and my little sister interpreted for me. She has taken ASL in school for many years. I was quite impressed. She's the only one in the family that can speak another language. Surprisingly she found 5 friends from school that go to this hall, and 2 instructors. She was very excited. I'm so glad that I took her despite how exhausted I was. I know you're dying to know what the meeting was like so I'll tell you...
The songs are interpreted on a screen that shows images and then people signing different parts to the song. Even though you couldn't hear anything and I don't understand the language one bit, I was able to feel the emotions emitted from the songs and even know what song was being played. I didn't pick up my song book as nobody else used one. And yes, I did attempt to "sing" along by mimicking the signs given, it was crazy. So then we come to the prayer. The brother signs the prayer and everyone stares at him. His eyes were closed but he still gave facial expressions and it's incredibly strange to not bow your head when praying. Then the meeting started and imagine my surprise when they aren't studying anything we are! Thankfully a sister that we met before the meeting came over and shared her tablet with us with all of the material for the meeting. The reading of the paragraphs for the Bible study were recordings of brothers signing, and then it'd break in with clips of another brother signing the scriptures. It was all really neat. Currently they only have Matthew-Revelation and Genesis interpreted so their Bible reading was completely different, and the brother came up and mimicked a recording of a brother signing the scriptures that he was watching. The sister sitting with us said that they either do that, or they will take notes of the recording and sign those. It was strange that nobody had books to look at. They either had pieces of paper that they put notes on for the different parts or a tablet of some sort with the info on that. The last 2 parts on the KM were the same, and the sister interpreted the comments for me. Oh the comments! I can't forget that part! So there are cameras in the ceiling, you know the black glass domes that are in department stores. And the person working the "sound station" would zoom in on the person giving the comment and they would pop up on the screen and sign their answer. Some sat but the majority stood when they commented because somebody was blocking them in front. I would be so embarrassed to stand up and give a comment on a big screen like that!
The craziest part of the experience was how exhausted my eyes were. If you look away, you can't follow along, so my eyes were glued to the screen and my eyes really hurt afterwards. I mentioned that to another sister after the meeting and she agreed that you go through that when you first start coming. So I'm glad to know it wasn't just me being weird! We really enjoyed ourselves and it was really nice meeting the friends!
We had our SA this past Saturday. Man I really miss going to Salisbury! We get so spoiled here in the states that when things aren't perfect, it's easy to get negative, especially when we have something nice and it gets take away from us. The day started out really well, but after lunch I felt like I was dying. It was a sauna in there, and my feet swelled up like balloons, I couldn't even put my foot in my shoe to get up and walk around, because it was so hot, I got really claustrophobic with too many people around and the lady in front of me kept putting her hair on me. I couldn't breathe and nearly broke into flat out sobbing tears. Then I thought that I was going to faint. Fortunately I was able to keep my composure, but I'm a crazy, uncomfortable, hormonal pregnant lady - I can't control my emotions like I'd like to. Even the people sitting on the ice floor were fanning themselves, so I slept with a bag of ice on my feet most of the night, thankfully after 24 hours, my feet finally cooled off and went back to normal size. That was the first time my feet swelled during this pregnancy and hopefully it will be the last. I have such a crazy internal heater, my body freaks out when it gets hot, always has, and of course it's craziness gets amplified when I'm pregnant. Despite the personal discomfort that I was going through, the Spiritual Food was right on, and I really enjoyed the points brought out. I enjoyed the interview with our new CO and his wife, we don't get to have them until December, so it was like a sneak preview of what we'll get in a few weeks! And it was awesome seeing brother Ashe who was our CO many many years ago.
Enough about that... I get to have an ultrasound tomorrow, along with that wonderful glucose test. Ugh. Well, yay for the ultrasound part, but boo for that nasty glucose stuff. I'm so nervous. I don't want to have gestational diabetes or placenta previa, mostly though I don't want to have a c-section. I've never had stitches in my life, and I'm none too eager to get them now. I'm a serious wimp when it comes to cutting someone open, and stitching them back up.
Monday I took my little sis to the ASL meeting in Raleigh. Wow what an experience! I had no idea what to expect other than signing and big screen tv's. I wasn't sure how the commenting or singing or prayer would work. I felt like I was in a different land. Can you imagine what my biggest fear was? Hearing someone fart in all that silence and hoping that I wouldn't crack up laughing. Thankfully nobody did, and I was able to maintain my appropriate maturity level :) So we arrived 30 minutes early and were some of the first few there. It was so quiet, it's kind of overwhelming at first. It's like my ears didn't fit in, such a weird feeling. The friends were very warm and inviting (of course) and my little sister interpreted for me. She has taken ASL in school for many years. I was quite impressed. She's the only one in the family that can speak another language. Surprisingly she found 5 friends from school that go to this hall, and 2 instructors. She was very excited. I'm so glad that I took her despite how exhausted I was. I know you're dying to know what the meeting was like so I'll tell you...
The songs are interpreted on a screen that shows images and then people signing different parts to the song. Even though you couldn't hear anything and I don't understand the language one bit, I was able to feel the emotions emitted from the songs and even know what song was being played. I didn't pick up my song book as nobody else used one. And yes, I did attempt to "sing" along by mimicking the signs given, it was crazy. So then we come to the prayer. The brother signs the prayer and everyone stares at him. His eyes were closed but he still gave facial expressions and it's incredibly strange to not bow your head when praying. Then the meeting started and imagine my surprise when they aren't studying anything we are! Thankfully a sister that we met before the meeting came over and shared her tablet with us with all of the material for the meeting. The reading of the paragraphs for the Bible study were recordings of brothers signing, and then it'd break in with clips of another brother signing the scriptures. It was all really neat. Currently they only have Matthew-Revelation and Genesis interpreted so their Bible reading was completely different, and the brother came up and mimicked a recording of a brother signing the scriptures that he was watching. The sister sitting with us said that they either do that, or they will take notes of the recording and sign those. It was strange that nobody had books to look at. They either had pieces of paper that they put notes on for the different parts or a tablet of some sort with the info on that. The last 2 parts on the KM were the same, and the sister interpreted the comments for me. Oh the comments! I can't forget that part! So there are cameras in the ceiling, you know the black glass domes that are in department stores. And the person working the "sound station" would zoom in on the person giving the comment and they would pop up on the screen and sign their answer. Some sat but the majority stood when they commented because somebody was blocking them in front. I would be so embarrassed to stand up and give a comment on a big screen like that!
The craziest part of the experience was how exhausted my eyes were. If you look away, you can't follow along, so my eyes were glued to the screen and my eyes really hurt afterwards. I mentioned that to another sister after the meeting and she agreed that you go through that when you first start coming. So I'm glad to know it wasn't just me being weird! We really enjoyed ourselves and it was really nice meeting the friends!
We had our SA this past Saturday. Man I really miss going to Salisbury! We get so spoiled here in the states that when things aren't perfect, it's easy to get negative, especially when we have something nice and it gets take away from us. The day started out really well, but after lunch I felt like I was dying. It was a sauna in there, and my feet swelled up like balloons, I couldn't even put my foot in my shoe to get up and walk around, because it was so hot, I got really claustrophobic with too many people around and the lady in front of me kept putting her hair on me. I couldn't breathe and nearly broke into flat out sobbing tears. Then I thought that I was going to faint. Fortunately I was able to keep my composure, but I'm a crazy, uncomfortable, hormonal pregnant lady - I can't control my emotions like I'd like to. Even the people sitting on the ice floor were fanning themselves, so I slept with a bag of ice on my feet most of the night, thankfully after 24 hours, my feet finally cooled off and went back to normal size. That was the first time my feet swelled during this pregnancy and hopefully it will be the last. I have such a crazy internal heater, my body freaks out when it gets hot, always has, and of course it's craziness gets amplified when I'm pregnant. Despite the personal discomfort that I was going through, the Spiritual Food was right on, and I really enjoyed the points brought out. I enjoyed the interview with our new CO and his wife, we don't get to have them until December, so it was like a sneak preview of what we'll get in a few weeks! And it was awesome seeing brother Ashe who was our CO many many years ago.
So those are a few of the happenings my way. I will post the few pictures I took at another time. And I'll be sure to share the updates from my Dr visit tomorrow. I can't wait to see my baby girl again!!
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