Waiting for Water

Communication is vital to my life. My marriage depends on being able to communicate despite long physical distances, iffy Internet service, varying time zones, and hastily written emails. My husband and I are constantly trying to improve and become more effective at communicating so that when we can only hear that the other one is talking on Skype, we can glean enough information from playing "fill in the blanks".
When I was pregnant with Anna they cautioned that because of my illness at a certain point we ran the risk of Deafness...I actually sighed a huge sigh of relief that that was "all" because I know ASL...I could communicate, we could bond and get to know each other.
When we were in the hospital they cautioned the same with Nolen because of the antibiotics he was on...and I sighed feeling relief...once again this was the "devil that I know". What they didn't say was that his hands wouldn't work...or that a lot of Encephalitis survivors can't connect spoken words with meanings or figure out how to produce a word with their desired intent. They didn't warn me that he could be trapped and I could spend my days searching his sweet face trying to "see a connection". That I would sign "eat", "more", and "all done" for months and not see any desire to reciprocate (even though the girls were signing already at this age). So I sign, repeat verbally, babble incessantly back at my little man hoping that something starts chipping away at that wall barring our ability to communicate. Oh how I live for our "water" day...



*reference to Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan in the Miracle Worker*


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How many military spouses does it take to change a flat tire?

Remember how I mentioned Murphy's Law of Deployments, If it can break, it will break.... Here is a shining example... My new (as in that is a BRAND new tire) flat tire. Thankfully I had my fellow military spouses there to help out (Thanks Julee, Laura and Tiffany) and Dunkin Donuts to occupy my children.

And it takes 0 Military Spouses, we just call a man in green to come do it for us ;P In all seriousness....I did learn a lot! 

Tips to Change a Tire:

1. Unload all the tools. We glanced over the tire iron (or lugnut turny thing as it was called until we remembered the proper name) and attempted to use a Jeep Tire Iron. No they are not universal....which proves that a man makes them.

 

2. The lugnuts are screwed on tight (and this is the step where a man in green came in very handy)...like super tight...so put your parking break on and JUMP onto the Tire Iron. Viola!

 

3. Put the jack on the shock thingy (go ahead and laugh, but I know EXACTLY what I'm talking about)....and lift it up, take the old one off and put on the new one.

 

4. You can only go about 50 miles on a spare, and about 50 mph at that...which is why I am driving the beat up chevy that is my husband's until I can garuntee Toyota can work on my car.

 

A very special thanks to all the guys who helped and the ladies as well!

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