At the Beach

Piano Duet

Here's a video of Solomon and I playing "Alouette". It's near perfect!

Solomon the Photographer

Solomon received a camera for his birthday and he hasn't stopped taking pictures. He has become quite the photographer. Some of the pictures he has taken are really amazing, and you can see he has a different view point of many things in his 8 yr. old world.

Unfortunately for me, he is also capturing me at the most inopportune times! I didn't even know he took this picture . . .

. . . and I promise: I SWEAR: Jerricho was NOT begging me to get off of FACEBOOK -- he just loves climbing on things!

Hearing or Deaf? Video Art

I am just so proud and impressed by my good friend Sherri's artistic ability that I just have to share this. She is a wonderful artist, and one of her projects in her art class was to make "video art".


See below at the bottom of the page.

In her words: "This is a video made from 1400 pictures taken as I drew and smudged..This video shows my conflict as a child trying to fit into a deaf world and a hearing world but being forced to choose between one or the other instead of embracing both cultures. Being told I have a great voice for a deaf person, or that I am not hearing enough. I am me and I am OK ."

Trip to Cally

We are home after a vacation to California. What a trip - figuratively and literally. My sister Allie, her son Coltin, myself and my two boys, Solomon and Jerricho all piled in the car and heading to Fresno to see my grandma. Allie and I met up with my older sister Rachel and her boys Jimmy, Jacob and Zachery, as well as our parents in Fresno, so we could all visit g'ma together. Seeing grandma was rewarding and challenging.

I have always felt a special bond with my g'ma. She was so musically talented and influenced music in my life. I remember when I was five years old I called my g'ma on the phone to see if she'd drive down to Southern California to play the piano for me while I sang "You are My Sunshine". This is a song that g'ma always sang to me, and to all the grandkids. It's a very special song. She did, and I sang on stage at a church talent show while she accompanied me on the piano. G'ma couldn't read a lick of music but was phenomenal on the piano - playing by ear. She could jazz up any song you wanted. If she didn't know the song, you could just humm part of it, and she'd be able to play it in no time. I also remember once when I was about 13yrs old, we visited my g'ma. I remember sitting at the piano playing the duet "Heart and Soul" with her, improvising throughout trying to get each other to mess up. The song lasted 20 minutes! How fun.

The challenging part of the visit was seeing grandma struggle with her dementia. She remember many things, but mixed up the facts, and added bits and pieces of everything together. Very confusing. She did remember all of us at some point. She remember that I played piano and was a music teacher, and we sang "You are my sunshine" together. But, the things she would tell me were mixed up facts about her past and about the news, or other people she knows. It was hard to see my strong, and very smart and talented g'ma be so confused. But she still could sing! I wonder if there was a piano around, if she could still play.

The rewarding part was to see her again, and to have the opportunity to tell her the things I've wanted to for so long.

I'm glad I saw her even though it was difficult.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
While in Fresno, Allie and I also met up with our Ex-step-cousin/friend Christine, and her mom-our ex-Aunt Lynn. It was fun to see them.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Then, we traveled down to Rachel's house in the San Bernadino Mountains. We stayed there for a few days visiting - good chats, lots of laughs and kids playing. I haven't gone down to see my sister in years, and going there this last week has made me realize how much I miss her! Wish we lived closer together.

While I was in Southern California, I was able to go see a very good friend (the one friend I've known the longest too - 2nd grade), Karrie. I was able to see her at her home with her two boys Conner and Owen, and her husband Patrick. It was so good to see her. It had been 12 yrs since I saw her. We had lost track of each other which was hard for both of us - but thanks to the blessing that FaceBook can bring - we found each other again! (Go FB!) That was great to catch up and see that we are just as close as we've always been.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Allie, the kids and I piled in the car again and drove up north back to Idaho. It was also fun to go on a road trip with my sister Allie. We had good chats and laughs as well.

All in all it was a much needed, good little vacation. I need to get to Cally more often!

Solomon's Award!

Solomon was chosen for the "Positive People Award" at his school for the month of February. He was given the award by his teacher who said " Solomon is receiving this award because of his kindness. He cares about others and it shows in the classroom and on the playground. Solomon is always ready and willing to help another child. If someone asks to play with him, Solomon always says 'yes'".

We are so proud of him! (too bad he doesn't always act like this at home *wink wink*), but glad he is a sweetie everywhere else -- as it should be!

Deaf interpretation of songs

This is an awesome website called D-Pan, "Deaf Performing Artist Network"





Also if you go to D-pan.com to the video section, you can see their interpretion "Beautiful" by Christina Aguilar. It's my favorite.

Church- when? Brain lapse

Now a funny about me: So, while I was on facebook and typing the previous post early this morning, I should have been in church! Our church time in 2008 was 11:00 a.m. It changed in January to 9:00. So, I set my alarm last night at 9:30 like last year, but I woke up before my alarm went off, 7:30, irritated that I couldn't sleep in, thinking I had plenty of time to get ready for church. So I got on the computer. Then Solomon wakes up and comes to me and says "Don't we have church?" I said, "Not yet, we have time before we have to get ready". Continued on the computer, heard Jerricho wake up, got him out of bed. Then, Solomon told me he didn't want to go to church because he felt sick. I took his temperature (at 9:00 a.m.). Just as I finished taking it, and telling him he does have a temp. and he can stay home, Andrew comes out laughing at me. (Andrew just waking up). He said, "Jen, it's 9:00" AHHH, I just realized that church was at nine. I'm still in my pj's. So what's the big deal aside from just missing church??? Well, I CONDUCT the music for the first meeting - sacrament meeting! Totally missed my job. Didn't plan on this so I had no sub for me. I can't believe I did this! I'm not going today. By the time I get ready, sacrament meeting will be over, and I don't want to show my face right now! So embarassed. That means the music started, and someone had to get up and conduct for me! Everyone in the congregation knowing I'm not there and obviously thinking I am very irresponsible for not getting a sub.

I still can't get over this. I had all the time in the world this morning to get up, and I thought church was later. Even last night I thought so because I set my alarm for later.

Andrew is not going to let me live this one down I'm sure! I even facebooked about how irritated I was that I couldn't sleep in when I had the chance to.

Funny things about my boys

My boys are characters.

Solomon - On day we were walking down the hallway at my school (he goes to the same school I teach at). Everyone seems to know who he is. Mr. Popular. The other day I saw him walking in the hallway ahead of me and Solomon passed a 5th grader and say "Yo man, what's up" and flashed him a peace sign (you know, at the chest) and gave him a head nod. The 5th grader did it back and gave him a high five. Funny because I can't believe that he did that. He's only in 2nd grade. Even more unbelieble . . .

My boss, his principal told me the following story. Let's see if I can explain it well and give it any justice: First of all, Solomon is very comfortable at my school, for obvious reasons -- his mom works there and he's there a lot. Well, Solomon walks into the principals office one time and sees all the pennants he has up. There are all different teams - football, baseball, hockey. Solomon points to the Greenbay Packers pennant and says so confidently "That has got to go. That should not be up. Why do you have it up there?" The principal said, "Well, my boss likes the Greenbay Packers so I thought I would impress him with that." "No, not good enough, it's got to go" Solomon replies. Solomon begins to walk out of the office, turns back around to the principal and one more time says "Cover it up or hide it, it's gotta go fast!"

When the principal told me the story, he explained that 2nd grader Solomon made him feel like he was the student in trouble and Solomon was the boss. He thought it was so funny. I was going to apologize on behalf of my child, thinking he was being a bit disrespectful, but my boss said "wow, I wish I was that confident when I was a kid". So what did we do that weekend? Solomon insisted that we buy a Seahawk pennant to give him. We did. He brought it in the next Monday, and gave it to him. The principal laughed. It is now hanging up in his office -- NOT covering the Greenbay Packers. (I think Solomon also mentioned that the Steelers needed to go as well).

Jerricho -- We were in the car driving, listening to Michael Jackson's Thriller C.D. (Solomon's favorite right now). The song "Pretty Young Thing" came on. There is a part in the song where Micahel grunts and pants "Uh, huh huh huh". That part came on and all of a sudden we hear Jerricho laughing histerically. He thought it was SOOO funny, so every time that part repeated, we heard Jerricho laughing in his famous belly gut laugh. We kept repeating that part over and over just to hear it. We repeated it so much that Solomon was getting irritated because he wanted to hear the rest of the song. HA!

SNL Skit on Pampers

HAHAHA

Video Recaps | Full Episodes | Webisodes