Living & Loving, Autism & Deafness
Our Journey with our loved ones and our lives
Ryan went to a baseball game and did great! He went with Papa and Dad. We also visited his new school, and went to an outing with Chris’s school mates. And Ryan went to a birthday party, and so did Colleen. I tried to put some of these pictures in sets to make it less confusing and more organized – lots of work to do!!
Today was Chris’s last day of school. Unbelievable. He is now a 10th grader!
More soon —
(Weight journal)
Hello everyone!!! I’ve been off-track for over a month after losing 9 pounds from Feb. – April. Luckily I’ve only put on 2-3 pounds from what I’d averaged in April (depending if it’s that time of the month or not) but I need to take control TODAY. I am going to try and get back to South Beach Stage 2 today (not quite up to the 2 weeks on Stage 1 I did in February and hope it’s not necessary at this point).
I’m sure I’d feel less tired if I wasn’t cheating on real pop, chips, too much candy, too many carbs, and skipping making my healthy salads. I’m not going to cut way down on carbs right now, and may make the pancakes this morning I’m thinking of, but am going to make SURE I eat a salad today! I’m eating an orange right now :cheer:
2/3/07 – 4/6/07 – had lost 9 pounds (less 2/10ths of a pound). Now am 4.4 pounds heavier than that low but about 2-3 pounds heavier than my average after that.
180/175.6/120
Ahhh, another work break. I had had one briefly before then worked another week. Now I’ve been off since Thurs. morning and am only working Tues/Thurs. morning this week.
The kids are doing okay – Colleen had a book report due this weekend and she DID do it though I don’t think she completely finished it, OR the book. She was supposed to review math equations with me but unfortunately I feel asleep on the couch with Ryan downstairs so kinda missed my chance. She was very busy this weekend and tired out with a water safety course she’s taking that will go into the summer. I think it’s important for her to have some rewarding summer activities but I wish they wouldn’t start the major portion of the training during the SCHOOL year- GRUMP!!
Ryan is making a lot of gains – he writes his name! – but I am so tired of cleaning up where he can’t get to the bathroom. He IS pee trained Thank Goodness! It’s just I’m so tired of finding poop on the wall or on the floor. I got up this morning half asleep and went to the couch to get my glasses and stepped in it YUCK! We keep telling him where the poop goes but he is not listening. I know it will happen – the pee training happened- but this is just getting gross.
Chris is staying up all night more often for some reason – I think it’s spring allergies. He did the same thing last spring. he’s totally switched over to Abilify now from Geodon and seems okay with it. He’s just very congested. He is still taking Loratadine (generic Claritin) and sometimes I give him Sudafed in the morning.
It is hard for us to bear all these things lately; Chris dumped ANOTHER bottle of dish soap down the shower drain. We buy 2-3 bottles a week because he finds them all the time where we hide them. He dumped all my shampoo last night when he stayed up all night. We hope he sleeps tonight -I am very tired and would probably be asleep on the desk right now if it weren’t for my falling asleep downstairs for about 20 minutes a while ago.
On to some surveys, then a web site I am making for someone that I want to finish by tomorrow 🙂
Ahh, just remembering the days when Ryan laid on a boppy pillow and napped while I typed. When he was three weeks old I began my legal trans again, just a little, and I remember how I reached my arms around him to type on the keyboard. Now he’s starting kindergarten in 3 months. All day kindergarten.
Continue reading “Craving order, and Chocolate Cake”
5-11-07 (have to figure out how to change dates on these after the fact!)
–“My Headphones Sound Like Crap and I Didn’t Know It.” And this is why the transcription company I failed should give me a second chance!
Oh my. As any reader (hello out there 😉 ) knows, I was upset that I failed a test for a transcription company that is spoken of as the cream of the crop. I just accepted that I must have messed up a portion of it and thus was not chosen.
Lo and behold, my headphones broke last night. I had bought them in February, high-falutin 😉 noise-reducing RCA headphones. Then I plugged in the old ones I used before that (that have no pads on them – uncomfortable) and was amazed at how suddenly the audio was clearer. I relistened and found ALL KINDS Of errors and omissions and corrections that had to be made to my document.
Then I realized today that I took my tests last week or two on those awful headphones that broke last night (I would never recommend RCA noise reducing headphones now!). I thought they were so great and didn’t realize what I was missing.
Well, I had the whim today of checking my test file and lo and behold FULL of errors and inaudibles I should have caught. The other headphones must have inserted some kind of wind into the files. I emailed them (it probably won’t work) but explained that I just found out about a huge problem with my old headphones and would it be possible to look at my resubmitted, re-proofed files again.
I’m just so grateful I caught this before I turned in a terrible file today – I’m doing my first project for a company I worked at last year – what a bad impression THAT would have been.
Now I’m sitting here thinking about the conference I did for the local guy a few months ago and how I was complaining about the poor audio – maybe it was all the headphones then too.
The life of us entrepreneurs (is that what we are?) — always seeking to do the best with our contracts yet keeping an eye on what else is out there. Sometimes there is enough variety in one contract to keep you going strong (Rog is kind of in that position now with his company, thank the Lord!) and really I am very lucky too with the places I work for that I can do a variety and get a lot of work. I am mostly doing insurance transcripts now just recently, which I love, as I was getting burned out with some other stuff I had been doing but it was later in the day and I just couldn’t keep up with it.
My eyes are always open though – there is a company I’d heard ravings about so I tested with them last year, and to my disappointment I failed the test (didn’t know why at the time but later looked it all over and saw where I’d missed two directions). Then I passed like 4 after that and one was the insurance one which I am enjoying greatly.
So then I hadn’t tested in almost a year. When I heard that this place had opened their testing doors again after 10 months, I was nervous. I missed the first round of testing in March, but when they were ready in late April I was like the first one to test. I went over this test with a fine tooth comb. I relistened 4 times. I re-read the direction at least 5 times. Held on to it an extra five minutes before mailing, looked at it again. And finally sent it out, on April 26.
I had been waiting all this time for a reply, but kept busy, helping one company through her really busy week (then burned myself out and got sick and couldn’t do any more of that at this point), then got back with the morning insurance calls – much easier on me and the family – and applied at 3 other places to do some legal trans (hopefully just in the mornings!). Then tonight – the green Eprompter light was on. The GREEN one. The email my test results come to. I had been looking for it for 11 days. Had been looking for invitation to test for a month before that. The green one. There It Was.
So then I hit the wrong button and opened my real player or something — grrr. Got that closed. Opened the email finally –
Rejection. I was so disappointed. Even though I know this particular contract only accepts 10% – I was very sad. I actually cried. I didn’t cry last year, but last year I figured was a fluke. I ALWAYS pass tests. I actually do. I’m very determined and usually pass them. I go over them with fine tooth combs. I’m a perfectionist nitpicky OCD freak when it comes to transcription testing.
Well – I take that back, in 2000 I DID fail a test but it was a HUGE one (like 6 hours long), it was a “paid” test, and I over-scheduled myself and did that test along with a huge back-load of other work AND my computer crashed – I didn’t get that job — but I digress.
HOW CAN I FAIL THIS TEST TWICE?
Then I start worrying it’s my hearing. Is my hearing going more? But that’s silly – I added a contract last month and got a good score – and my other contract (insurance) keeps giving me work and added me on as a proofer too – if my hearing was going would I still have these contracts?
I hope my hearing loss is not quite as progressive as the boys. I don’t know if there’s going to be a day when I can’t transcribe any more – but so far it seems the headphones enhance my hearing greatly, and I always clear up most of my inaudibles on my second listening. I have had no complaints, usually. But, it is a fear.
I have one hearing aide – can’t remember if I ever wrote it in here. I don’t wear it often (should wear it more). I got it last summer. I do have a “high pitch” hearing loss in left ear and a less severe one in right ear no aide in that ear). I just have trouble in large groups pretty much. Otherwise I hear fairly well.
