Mountain Mama

Introducing Baby
Mountain Mama One of the things I find annoying when we go out as a family and people see three older girls and a baby boy, they assume that we were trying for a boy. Then they actually have the gumption to say it to us! Good grief people! I have an uncle that did that-- Told the wife that he wanted a son and they kept having girl after girl after girl. He finally quit trying after...
Thu, Jan 07 2010

Introducing Youngest
Mountain Mama Exactly 4 years ago today, I had Youngest at home with the help of a midwife. She was a surprise pregnancy and when I figured out the day she was conceived, it was on the very last night in our old house! We were too busy packing and painting and making moving arrangements, plus we had two little ones to care for, to have any fun but we made sure to have one last fare...
Wed, Jan 06 2010

Finding Myself
Mountain Mama Every kid goes through that period where they are searching for who they are-- their style, their signature, that thing that tells the world they are who they are. At 13, when I went into high school, I wasn't too sure of who I was, except that I was a deaf girl about to enter a school for the deaf, and for the first time, I would be equal to my peers. I hoped that I ...
Sun, Nov 15 2009

What Are They Saying?
Mountain Mama A friend on Facebook posted that the UP dvd movie did not have captions or subtitles. My heart skipped a beat as I ran to go check my copy and sure enough-- no captions or subtitles. There is French and Spanish subtitles, but not English. I went online to the Disney website and did some searching and I found they released 3 versions of the UP movie-- Blu-Ray, Digit...
Thu, Nov 12 2009

Ba-Ba-Ba!
Mountain Mama I like watching Glee on hulu.com. It's a musical comedy show and I've always had a thing for musicals, never mind that I can't hear!Anyway, on one of their recent episodes, one of the characters sang a shortened version of Neil Diamonds' 'Sweet Caroline'. I remember that song from when I was a kid and since watching that episode last week, I have Sweet Caroline st...
Sat, Nov 07 2009
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Let's Hear It For The Boy
Mountain Mama Sorry for the disappearance.. Baby has really been keeping us hopping! Of the 4 kids, he has the most curiosity and is more determined to get into things that he is not supposed to get into!On Saturday, the Husband had to take my Mom to the halfway point so my Uncle could take her back to their place, then he went to work afterwards, which meant I was home with the k...
Tue, Oct 13 2009

Hell Froze Over
Mountain Mama I finally gave in and joined that crazy thing called facebook. I had gotten plenty of invites from people to join in and I told myself that I never would. Well, I got curious... and signed up last week. Good grief! In the span of 48 hours, I went from having 2 friends to over 50 friends! I had no idea I was so popular! I realize though, that there are people who add f...
Wed, Aug 05 2009
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Memory Lane Mondays
Mountain Mama We will be going to a funeral tomorrow and we are taking the kids with us. We don't want to shield them from death, and we want them to know that someday, sooner or later, everyone dies. We refuse to mislead them into thinking that so-and-so is "sleeping" or "gone away somewhere".I went to my first funeral when I was 12 or 13. My Mom's mother died after a long (? wa...
Mon, Jun 08 2009
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What Goes Around...
Mountain Mama I'm a big believer in what goes around, comes around. Or in other words, karma.Like, treat people nicely and they'll treat you nicely.Or, be a jerk and people will be jerky towards you.Anyway, when I was driving the 2 hours it takes to get to my mom's place, my mind wandered and then put together the perfect example of karma for me. It really made me think and has ma...
Fri, Feb 06 2009

Cabin Fever?
Mountain Mama I'm feeling a bit frustrated these days.There has been much going on with our daily life and then add my mom's house fire and add home schooling, it certainly keeps us on our toes.I feel like I've been getting myself hurt a lot lately, and I interpret it to be my body telling me to slow down. Just in the month of January alone, I have sprained my ankle, dropped a log...
Fri, Jan 30 2009

"Tell Me More..."
Mountain Mama I am so tickled that my girls love watching 'Grease'! It's one of my favorite movies and it makes my husband laugh when I mimic Sandy at the end of the movie, when she says, "Tell me about it, stud." then drops her cigarette, stomps it out then uses her foot to push Danny over.My girls like to dance to "Summer Nights" and while I was cooking dinner, they were dancing...
Tue, Jan 13 2009

Good Fences Make Good Neighbors
Mountain Mama We are peaceful people, I don't like to rock the boat if it can be avoided. My husband will stand up for himself and his family, but will otherwise walk away if possible. That said, we had to talk to the neighbors for trespassing on our side of the property. Normally we wouldn't be too bothered by that, but it happened in a weird way...I was taking out our daily sc...
Sat, Nov 29 2008

::30 Days:: Day 4
Mountain Mama The husband waving good-bye as he walks out the door, heading to his new job. *!!!* Yeah, you read that right-- new job! Yay!! Someone finally answered one of his hundreds of job applications, interviewed him and hired him. This is his first official day on the job. We missed him while he was gone, but we know it's for a good thing. Baby took a nap and the girls pla...
Thu, Sep 25 2008

Meddling People
Mountain Mama Just as I feared, it happened this morning-- a visit from Child Protective Services.The morning began as it always does, our usual doings as we wake up and start the day. I was sitting in the living room nursing the baby and the girls were playing with their Barbies when Hubby came in and told me there was a guy here from Child Protective Services (CPS), here to see ...
Mon, Sep 08 2008

Exciting News!
Mountain Mama I have an article published in an online magazine! Kiss Fist magazine is a wonderful read-- full of gorgeous photos, bits of quotes and poetry, a few articles and stories. All of the contributors are Deaf and what's even nicer is I know a lot of them from school or other events, and one of the contributors is my cousin! For my hearing readers, 'kiss fist' is a sign l...
Mon, Aug 11 2008

The Birth Story
Mountain Mama Tuesday afternoon, I had a check-up at the ob-gyn's office. There was supposed to be an internal exam to see if I dilated any more than 3cm. What happened that day was nothing I could have ever imagined. The doctor inserted her hand inside me and proceeded to cause me all kinds of pain and I thought to myself that it shouldn't hurt this much to find out what the dilat...
Sun, Jul 06 2008

Doing What's Best..
Mountain Mama I would assume that when you have a child, you'd want to do the best you can for that child. You want to make sure that they are not wanting for anything, that they eat well and stay healthy, that they get a good education and grow to be happy and well-adjusted. That's how I feel about my own children. I want them to have the best without spoiling them and without ...
Fri, Mar 28 2008

Hi, My Name Is..
Mountain Mama Jenny and I am a Parrothead.Ok, I know that sounds strange coming from someone that can't hear, but I do like music and up until now, I used to make fun of those so-called Parrotheads, the Jimmy Buffet music lovers. How silly, I thought they were, to dress up in tropical shirts and put fake parrots on their shoulders and drink margaritas and sing along to the music. ...
Tue, Feb 05 2008

Life Lessons 101
Mountain Mama Since having to shop on a really tight budget, I've learned what we can live without and what becomes a necessity. I remember back in high school, in my Career Education class, they taught us how to create a resume and other life skills for the future and they touched briefly on finance. The teacher was saying something along the lines of figuring out what is a luxu...
Wed, Jan 09 2008

Everything Happens For A Reason
Mountain Mama I truly believe that things happen for a reason. The way the old lady in the car in front of you drives so slow and there is no passing lane may save you from speeding into a 5 car accident just up ahead. The way the weather turns foul and you end up staying home and catching an important phone call. The stranger you meet at the store ends up sharing information th...
Fri, Dec 21 2007

Interview
Mountain Mama I have agreed to be interviewed by the lovely Dj Kirkby over at Exquisite Dreams. I have come to enjoy her posts very much and she has become a good blog-friend to me. So I was curious as to what she would ask me. Here goes!1. What age did I lose my hearing and how did it happen? I come from a deaf family; Mom and Dad are both deaf, my sister is deaf, both [...]
Wed, Aug 15 2007

What To Do When You Meet A Deaf Person
Mountain Mama Unless I am surrounded by other Deaf people and we are using our hands to communicate in sign language, Deafness is a hidden disability. No one knows you're deaf until they try to speak with you and get no response. People can't tell you're deaf until you whip out a paper and pen and start writing to them. Unless your hearing aid is visible, they don't know you're [...]
Sat, Jul 07 2007

Music Challenge
Mountain Mama I've been issued a challenge by Dj Kirkby over at her blog-- Exquisite Dreams. She writes a lovely blog and also has a second blog for her stories, Adventures of a Hippie Child. Her challenge is a music one. Go to www.popculturemadness.com and pick out music from the year you turned 18. Get all nostalgic and then write a post about how this music affected you. Most [...]
Wed, Jun 20 2007

Deaf Girls Working At The Beach
Mountain Mama One summer, my friend and I decided to go to the beach for the summer and find work. We didn't think our deafness would make it too hard to find a job, considering there were all sorts of positions; house-keeping, restaurant type work, store clerk, amusement park ride attendants to name a few. We asked my friend's mom to drive us up there (it was 3 hours away from [...]
Mon, May 21 2007

Where are the Deaf people hiding? Part 2
Mountain Mama A few posts ago, I talked about not meeting any Deaf people since I moved here 2 years ago. Just 20 minutes away is the State's Deaf school and I thought the small town would be bursting with Deaf people walking around, not so. I finally met a Deaf teacher there and she was very nice and helpful and gave me some locations where the local Deaf go. Turns out there [...]
Tue, May 15 2007

I Was a Deaf Fork-Lift Driver
Mountain Mama I used to work for the Post office, before Hubby and I decided to start a family. I started as a mail handler (sorting the mail before it gets to the letter carriers who then deliver it to you). Inside, there are huge letter sorting machines that read the barcodes on the letters and magazines and then people take those and plop them into bins or trays, and then into [...]
Wed, May 09 2007

Could have, Should Have, Next Time I'll Get an Interpreter
Mountain Mama My oldest is about to start kindergarten this fall. Since we live in the hills and hollows of the West Virginian Appalachian mountains, people are spread out far and wide. Some of these people are intentionally hiding, on the verge of becoming hermits, and others just dont want you to see their naked selves prancing around in front of the living room window. Back to [...]
Tue, May 08 2007

Lessons Learned From a Broken Hearing Aid
Mountain Mama My hearing aid broke a few months ago. The one I got from my dad because he got new ones and didn't need his old one anymore. I needed his old ones because I gave him my extra hearing aid that I wasn't using because I don't like wearing an aid in my left ear. I'm sure this sounds familiar to other Deaf people, the passing around of hearing aids to different family [...]
Sun, May 06 2007

Deaf School Dating
Mountain Mama I was never one of those types of girls that brought every boyfriend home for the parents to meet. I was also not the type that wanted to meet my boyfriends' parents. This was all made possible by living at a residential Deaf high school and our parents being far, far away. Going to Deaf school really made kids grow up a little faster. We were not able to depend on [...]
Sat, May 05 2007

Some Cheese With That Whine??
Mountain Mama Being Deaf, you'd think I would not have to hear all the whining and screeches that my children make. Agh!! I can still hear that and it is just as irritating to me as it would be to a hearing parent. I KNOW that I am not the only one out here that wishes I could put duct tape on their mouths and silence the whining! I could turn off my hearing aid and then my world [...]
Fri, May 04 2007

How Do You Say...Correct Me If I'm Wrong!
Mountain Mama I have hearing children, and they know that mommy is Deaf. In the beginning, when they were small, they knew to tap me somewhere to get my attention. When they got a little older, I felt like they knew I was Deaf, but they didn't quite comprehend what that meant. I had to explain to my children that mommy cant hear without her hearing aid and even then, I can only [...]
Thu, May 03 2007

Where are the Deaf people hiding?
Mountain Mama I live within 25 miles of the State's School for the Deaf and Blind, and you'd think that the place would be crawling with Deaf people. Not so. Since I moved here 2 years ago, I have seen only a small handful of Deaf people. I remember once, we were driving back home from our monthly shopping excursion to the next biggest town and I happened to see a couple outside [...]
Wed, May 02 2007

Can We Learn To Write Better?
Mountain Mama There have been lots of comments lately in the Deaf B/Vlog world about being pre-linguistically Deaf and perfect grammar and usage of vocabulary and so on. I must admit that one of my pet peeves is bad grammar. I was raised by parents who, when I asked what a certain word meant, I was told "go look it up." Agh! I'd have to get out the big, heavy dictionary and look it [...]
Tue, May 01 2007

Secrets? Not Here!
Mountain Mama I never realized how small the Deaf world was until I went to Deaf school for the first time. I knew my parents had gone to Gallaudet, along with too many aunts, uncles and cousins to mention. I just didn't put 2 and 2 together and figure out that so did many of my teachers from school!My freshman year was a tough one for me-- I had to adjust to a new school and a [...]
Mon, Apr 30 2007

Memories of school
Mountain Mama I was born Deaf to Deaf parents, and it is something I have grown up with. My parents did just fine in the Hearing world and never complained about not being able to hear. They set examples for my sister and I and showed us that deafness doesnt mean you cannot function in a hearing world.When I was little, I had some hearing and I didnt qualify for Deaf schools, so [...]
Sun, Apr 29 2007

Miss Me?
Mountain Mama As a Deaf person, growing up deaf also means being part of a Deaf World. It means going to Deaf gatherings and events, going to class reunions just to catch up on old classmates and learn who married whom. It means when you meet another Deaf person for the first time, you often ask, "Which school did you go to?" Doesn't so much apply nowadays for the younger [...]
Sun, Apr 29 2007