Freda's Visit

This last week, my cousin from Arkansas came for a short visit. Only one other cousin has come to Phoenix, and she was here on a business trip, and I only got to see her when we had dinner, so this was a real treat for me. Other than Nancy making her visit, this is the only other relative Tommy has met. In the past, he has never wanted to go with me to my reunions, but he is now warming up to the idea.

Tommy took the day off and we drove to Roosevelt Lake via Tortilla Flats. We stopped and got a few pictures along the way.

You can't visit Tortilla Flat and miss getting your picture taken with the famous toliet lid!

Or the wooden Indian. (or should I say, wooden Native American.)

We stopped at the dam and as you can see, the desert was in full bloom.

We went shopping and bless her heart, she was a real trooper when we took my soon to be daughter in law. It was the night she arrived and we shopped for over 3 long hours. She was tired, but never complained. She was in hog heaven when we found a needlepoint shop. I don't needlepoint, but it was fun to look at all the beautiful creations others had made. Tommy had stopped at Ranch Market and bought some carne asada that we threw on the grill. We ate it with some beans, homemade flour tortillas from Superior, and Tommy's famous homemade salsa. The highlight was the blackberry bread pudding we brought home from Crackers.
We had a great visit and I hope that she can find the time to come visit us again!

What? What? What?

I can truly say that for the last 15 years of my life, the question I have asked the most is the one word question of "What"? I have not been able to hear well for a long time. I knew I had a hearing loss in one ear, but never thought it affected both ears, and that it is bad as it is. This all came about when I mentioned to Tommy that is snoring was very loud and that he often quits breathing when he is in a deep sleep. I would often not be able to get to sleep if I didn't fall asleep before he did, and I would spend many nights kicking his leg so that he would start breathing again. So we came to an agreement that if he went and had a sleep study done, I would go and have a hearing test. He was also getting extremely agitated at my constant "what?" questions. He found out that he has sleep apnea, and I found out that I have a hearing loss. I knew that a (one) hearing aide was in my future, but I didn't count on it being both ears. So now the question is; Can you see it?


When I got them, my hair was a little longer, and you really couldn't even see them, but yesterday I got a hair cut and now, well, there they are! I really don't want to be vain about the whole thing, but I really don't like that you can see them. Should I change my hair style? I was hoping that even with the hair cut, my hair would still be long enough to hide them. I love the fact that I can hear just about every thing; the material on my pants rubbing together as I walk, the loud clicking noise of the keyboard as I type, and even the dog's sighs when she is sleeping. Honestly, it really is nice to be able to hear. I however hate the fact that it is really difficult to talk on the phone. I usually end up pulling one of them out so I can hear the person on the other end of the line. They guy at the hearing center told me to hold the phone up high over my ear, but ya, that's not working so well. I also hate that I can't judge how loud or soft I am talking, and that to me I sound like I have fallen down into a well cause my voice echoes. By the end of the day, my left ear is so sore that I can't hardly wear it. I don't know if my glasses need adjusting, or if it is the position of the hearing aid.
Sorry that this is kind of a boring post about hearing aides, but who else am I gonna gripe to except to my blogging friends. Let's all hope that something drastic doesn't happen where I loose all my teeth and have to get dentures!