My daughter has just finished up her drivers ed in high school. Having my daughter drive has always been a fear of mine. She has a tendency to be absent minded, a lot. When my son started driving, I had no fear with him. I know he is the methodical one. He will not put himself in any kind of dangerous situation if he can help it.
During the four day holiday, we were down in Pismo Beach. The whole family decided to venture out to the dunes. We brought our dunebuggy with us, while the rest of the family rented quads. My daughter really surprised me. Not only did she do a great job driving, but she also concurred a stick shift. I am hoping my fears of her driving out on the public roads are gone. I know they will never completely disappear, but the terror, I believe is gone.

Carpeting again!

Tomorrow is the big day again. Over the summer my husband and I added on to our house. Instead of having the two living room thing, which I have decided I can't stand, we turned them into other usable rooms. Now we have one huge room. I wanted to do bamboo on the flooring. You know go green and all. I was out numbered by the rest of the family who wanted carpet. So we got carpeting. We researched what would be best with the traffic we have in our house. There is always teenagers all over and then the other four legged kids too. July, the new carpeting got put in. Then I noticed a new pattern in the carpet that wasn't on the display. Oh well, I went with it anyways. As time went on, that different pattern turned into flaws. The more I vacuumed the more they showed up. I finally decided to call and let the company know what was going on with the carpet. Luckily, I still had a large piece of remnant that I was able to bring in to show them. Turns out the company wasn't able to see any flaws in the remnant. A carpet investigator came out to look at the carpet as well as an employee from the carpet mill. Both acknowledge there was a big problem. Odd. Once the investigator showed the company his proof there was no going back. Apparently, carpet is supposed to be in the shape of a V when it is pulled up and also double threaded. Ours in spots was in a long V on one side which was causing a frayed look throughout the carpet. Also, some of it was single threaded. So pretty much the whole carpet is garbage. So this week between everything else in life is moving week. We have to remove everything in the room. It wouldn't be so bad, but we have lots of gym equipment in half the room that has to be broken down. Then we have our three pieces of exercise equipment, like a treadmill, eliptical and bike to shove somewhere. Thankfully, Friday is not supposed to rain. So the outdoors is where the couches and chairs will be going. So tomorrow is the big day again. Hopefully it will be the last time for another ten to fifteen years. What a pain!

My Dogs

My family unit involves a husband, two teenagers, three dogs, two guinea pigs, a rabbit, and a fish. My kids know all to well that the dogs come before them. When something gets broken, the kids know they are the ones who are going to get blamed. That's just how it works in my house. Actually, I think I have the sydrome where my kids are getting to that age where they just need to move on. They are no longer at the cut stage. They are at the, everything they touch gets dirty stage.
Everything my dogs do is cute. Really everything. Even when it's not cute, I still find it cute in a sick kind of way. One of our dogs is smaller and more compact. She is also a hefty forty five pounds of solid muscle. Because she is small we baby her more. She gets away with things the other two don't get to do. She works us and we know it. All she has to do is bat her green eyes at us and we give her anything. If she wants to sit up against our backs in the chair while we are eating dinner, that's OK, because she's cute. She get's the other two going just by getting into the play stance. The only problem is when she does it in the house, all three of them start running full speed through the house. They run up and over the couches, chairs, between legs, and banging into walls. As I scream at them to get outside, they keep on playing. I can see the look in their eyes and I know they are laughing their heads off.
Our older dog is our singer. She goes through the house with her hound dog songs. Once my husband or I get up for the day, then she is up and giving us her best. We can get her to sing on command usually, but it is always followed with a sneeze. She is our most expensive dog by far. Two summers ago, she had her knee replaced. That knee works like a gem. It's the other that needs some attention now. The surgery is pretty traumatic for the dogs and their people. They have to stay in a pen for three long months. Not fun for anyone involved.
Our middle child dog is a goof ball. He is in his own world most of the time. We have taught him to put a ball in his mouth when he is out front. Our property is all fenced in and the front yard has all the excitement. That is usually where he gets in the most trouble with barking. He is a definite boy when it comes to having the balls laying around to play with. He is our soccer player. He is better than some kids I have seen on teams. He has learned to hit too.
My kids do have their strong points too, but my furry kids don't talk back usually. They give me serenity.

Since starting back to school, I am able to make one of my dreams, hopefully, come true. That is learning to sign. What I mean by that for those who don't know what I am talking about is sign language. It is the ability to talk to the deaf.
I have learned so much in these past three weeks about the language, as well as the cruelty that the deaf have faced. One of the things that they have had to deal with is being labeled dumb. I remember as a child the phrase "deaf and dumb". I thought that saying had gone away. I recently saw a video of a judge cupping is hands over his mouth and screaming at a deaf man in court. As I was watching it, the flow of emotions for the deaf man just broke my heart. What an arrogant man, I have other words for him but I won't use them, to think that by screaming at a deaf man that he would be able to hear. I am sure he could of understood some words if the judge didn't cup his hands and hide his mouth. I have learned that the deaf see more things that the hearing are unaware of. The only way I can describe it would be to say the hearing have tunnel vision and the deaf see the whole world. We play a lot of games in the class to make us aware of our surroundings and the movements that go on around us. As a hearing person, I am not always aware of people moving around me.
To say that a deaf person is dumb is by far incredibly ignorant. I truly believe they are brighter than the hearing. They don't have all the hearing commotion going on around them. They are able to stay much more focused on things. Which leads me to wonder if they have ADD in their community of people. They are constantly having to move limbs in order to communicate. I wonder if it keeps kids calmed down to focus better on their school work. It was just a thought.
One of the other little tid bits I have learned is that the deaf put their whole body into saying something. The face has the most expression. The face and the hands tell a story. For the hearing people, if you just stop and watch a deaf person sign you may actually pick up what they are saying. It all makes sense. Oh yah, I forgot to mention my teacher is deaf.