Randomness

Just some random things that I've made notes of over the last few weeks as they've popped into my mind :)

1. Blessings of service come in many unexpected ways. An unexpected one for us was when Marriner drove a long way to visit a branch member who  lives waaaayyyy out there. His dad works for...um...some company related to Tostitos, because they gave him some Tostitos Chipotle Salsa to take home, and it is now our favorite food. It was gone in one day. We cringe to think of what would have happened if Marriner hadn't gone!
2. People frequently ask me how I taught my kids ASL. In the beginning, we watched some videos done by a woman with a deaf daughter who wanted to teach her nieces and nephews to sign so her daughter wouldn't be isolated. It turned into a big business, and they teach children really well. They're called "Signing Time" and they are quintessential kids movies - super cheesy. And my kids loved them. I would check them out from the library until last year, when I borrowed my sister's collection. And I still make my younger kids watch them, because little kids learn and forget so fast. So the other day, the kids were watching a movie while I was paying my bills, and I was suddenly overcome with a feeling of how lucky Marriner is that he's not listening to "Signing time with Alex and Leah, come and play..." every day while he works. Let nobody say that I'm not sacrificing for the cause! :)
3. I taught Martha the sign for "Oh, I see" one day, and a few days later, the kids learned the sign for "owe." For the next couple of weeks, Martha would sign, "Owe, I see...." It was maybe the cutest and funniest thing I've seen.
4. One of the funniest (ASL related) parts of General Conference was when they were sustaining all the new people who were called as Area 70's. It was a long list, and the interpreter was flying along spelling alllllll those names. We weren't even trying to follow along. Then we noticed that his fingers were still flying along, but his face changed to a "wha??" face. We started looking at what he was spelling, and it was different than what the speaker was saying. After a couple of names, he got back in sync and stayed there the rest of the list. A few minutes later, President Oaks announced that he'd missed 2 names. Aha! I laughed at the picture of all 93 interpreters simultaneously saying, "wha?!?" at the same time. But only one language actually saw it on his face :)
5. I was standing in line for lunch during our stake Relief Society meeting a few weeks ago and struck up a conversation with the girl in front of me. She asked which ward I was in, and I said the ASL branch. Without any awkwardness or hesitation, she asked, "Oh, are you deaf?" I just didn't know whether to laugh, because I was clearly talking to her like a hearing person...or whether to just be impressed that she was refraining from assumptions so thoroughly. 

Well, that's enough of that.