As I mentioned in my last message, November hit us upside the head. Honestly I can say that I was really dreading the start of November, but also looking forward to it. I specifically titled this entry the count down, because that is what this is all now. The countdown to going to HKNC.

To begin the month, hubby’s mother and step father came into town on Friday. Pretty much as soon as they arrived in town, we were off shopping. My sIL joined us and we did a marathon shopping trip to Kohl’s. My MIL had already picked out a few pairs of pants, and had brought those along. After our shopping trip, I was the new owner of 7 shirts, one sweater, two pairs of pants, 2 underclothing’, and one mattress cover. I say it was a marathon because within several short hours we found the items, tried them all on, checked out and was on our way. Just to describe the scene, of doing this shopping. So we got all of the clothes, I needed to try on, which were like half of the store. My SIL and MIL joined me in the huge, room like dressing room. My SIL stood to my right and MIL to my left. My SIL would hand me a shirt, I would try it on. They would say, yes it looks great; no it doesn’t do anything for you. This was a fairly fast process, as soon as I would take off a piece of clothing, I was handed one more, and then the process would start over. MY SIL and MIL are into this show on TV where they do clothes makeovers, and they said later on that they were sort of playing that with me. I worked up a sweat, trying on all of those clothes. My MIL would put everything I wanted to consider in one pile, the other things that didn’t fit or I didn’t like in another pile. Occasionally she would leave the room to take them out to the reject rack. Luckily I am not that modest, because boy was I showing everything to the whole world, well not really but it seemed that way. It was the only time my MIL had set aside to shop for the few things I needed to go to HK. I wish there had been more time, and that it had not been so rushed. Oh well. After our clothes shopping we did a quick trip to Costco. Of course this did not finish the few errands that I needed to go to HK; I guess they will get done at some point. By the time we headed to dinner, I was exhausted and hot. We had a nice dinner at a place called Metropolitan. After dinner, with SIL along, we all headed to hubby and my house. We hung out for a little while, but all of us were tired, so went to bed fairly early.

Saturday November 2nd, we were very uneventful. Hubby’s mother and step father went up to BIL house to see the grandkids. And they would go home the next morning. Hubby and I spent this day, what else? Getting ready for the convention we would have on the next weekend. Although it seems like you have all day, all day to get everything you need to get done done, and then when that day comes, and you only get one or maybe two things done on that day when you thought you had all of this time, it’s frustrating.

Sunday November 3rd was an extremely busy day. It was up early to get ready for the day. We were off to church for worship team practice at 8:15am. I was supposed to be in the nursery, but at the last minute someone wanted to trade with me, so that I could be in the service with my hubby. It was a nice thing to do as the worship team was playing all of my favorite songs. So we had church service. Before the service was over I quickly changed my clothes, into more fancy ones. Our ride arrived at 11:20am, and we were off to the DeafCAN luncheon. Unfortunately we got a tiny bit lost, so we didn’t arrive as early as we had wanted, but in the end it all worked out.

The DeafCAN luncheon was a fundraising meal, with many of the CTK church members, with many of the Deafblind members from the SEPADB group, and many interpreters, and SSP’s. Hubby had brought all of the equipment to try the induction loop system, but the hotels audio system was not compatible with what we needed it to do. So instead of using my hearing aids, to hear the Keynote speaker, I used my sign. The meal was good, and there was alot of just talking and socializing. The Keynote speaker was a deaf lawyer who is the president of NAD. The luncheon ended at 5pm. Yes for several hours I was receiving all of my communication through sign language. I understood most of the signs, but of course there were others I didn’t get too or didn’t know. One of the SSP’s tried to do some teaching, with some finger spelling, but that confused me even more. It seems my ability to finger spell has gone down, mainly because we don’t finger spell for everything now, but we use actual signs. We got home around 7, tired mostly but I was drained from concentrating so hard. My arms were tired too. Plus I just didn’t sleep well the night before. We ended the day with some nice relaxing, with a nice quiet dinner and reading a bit.

Monday November 4th, begin one of many busy days. On this day I had a to do list a mile long, but got some of it accomplished, and other stuff not done at all. I had previously made a grooming appointment for pup, so we took her into Petsmart around 10am. She was done at 2. After picking her up, I did a quick trip to the grocery store with my FIL, for potatoes, cheese and milk. That night for dinner I made ultimate baked potato soup. I will tell more about that in a bit.

Through going back and forth to pick and drop off the pup, I was working on a resolution for this convention. A resolution that would sort of guide the PA affiliate on SSP’s for the deafblind. I finally finished it late Monday evening.

To make the ultimate baked potato soup, we started at 5:30pm, and finally ate at 8pm. Of course there was the normal, telephone calls and other interruptions. The recipe I used was not specific enough so we sort of winged it. In the long run the soup turned out delicious. By the time we did eat I was starving, as I had not had lunch. It was a lot of fun making that soup with hubby, as he is a great chef.

Tuesday was a little lower key, less busy. Still more work on that resolution in the morning. A blog entry to catch up. And other odds and ends. In the evening I finally got that other bit of shopping done that I had been lacking.

I wish I could say the same for Wednesday as I said about Tuesday. Hubby had decided to work a half of a day, for several reasons. One I had a follow up appointment to find out the results for all the breath testing I had undergone. And Two to get more convention things off of our list.

The doctor’s appointment, took a lot longer than it has ever in that office. It was a good thing that hubby had not planned on going back to work after all. So the good news first, the breath tests did not show any intolerances or over production of bacteria. Rats! The bad news, that means us, I have no answers. *sigh* At this point they are wanting to say that it’s IBS. But want to do some more tests, yes more! I schedule an upper GI to be done while I am home for the Christmas break. And then some other tests can be done during one of the weekends while I am home in December.

After the doctor’s office, we came home and worked on that to do list of convention items. Around 6, we went out to dinner with FIL and SIL, to chee Chee burger. Oh my word, did I pig out. Salad, hamburger, and fries. And if that wasn’t enough, milk shakes. I didn’t finish the whole salad, or the fries, so maybe I wasn’t that much of a pig. Chee chee Burger has the best milk shakes, mainly because they have a list of; oh I don’t know 30 different items or flavors that you can put in your shake. I have tried others before, but my most favorite, and if you know me at all. Know that I love Peanut Butter, chocolate and banana. So that is my shake, double chocolate, PB and Banana. Yummy! It was hard to go home and then get back to work, as I wanted to just crash, no time, too much to do.

Which that brings me up to today. As of today, Thursday, I have 4 days, if you do not include the rest of today and Tuesday, left until I go to HK. To be completely honest, the thought of being away from my husband, my family, and my church, brings tears to my eyes. Even though being seriously busy as we have been, there are times I just cry and cry. If you were to look at me you would see a very strong and determined person. But I am here writing, it’s only on the outside. I am both dreading going to HK, but also wanting to get this over with, so that I can get the skills, the training and then go on with my life. Being away from my husband will be the hardest by far. I am going to be home sick, and not having him there to give me hugs, cuddles and kisses…I do not know how I am going to get through this training, to be away, not to just cry all the time for my best friend, my husband. Even though this is a great thing that I am being given this opportunity to get this training, it feels like I am being sent away, sent to prison, being put into isolation. It feels like my heart is going to break into a million pieces, is being pulled from my body, stepped on. I am absolutely terrified of this effecting my marriage in a negative way. Those are just the surface emotions. So if in the weeks to come, if I am much more emotional, please just bear with me. Like I said, I do not have a clue how I am going to do this and one some days I am not entirely sure that I can. If you’re a praying person, who is reading this, please do pray. Because that is what I will be doing a lot of, I will be relying on God, somehow I know he will get me through this, he has too.

Today, Thursday we are of course getting ready to leave tomorrow for this convention. Just knocking off the items on the to do list. My SSP is coming to stay the night so that we can get off in the morning early. I will write in later posts about the convention and our adventures. I might even write while there..Guess you will have to read and see.

Take Care…