About Me ... updated VLOG

I did an updated vlog about myself. This was for my new ASL friend Carissa, but also to all my ASL friends on YouTube.

I can definitely see an improvement in my signing. I love to practice ASL. I think though, that I do more of PSE than strict ASL... but I'm learning! Ha ha!

Click on the link to the right to go to my YouTube Channel and see my other videos. Send me an ASL video back, too!

God Bless,

ASL "How Great Thou Art"

This video is my addition to Brittany's Worship & Praise Sunday!


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I've wanted to sign this song for a while now. It took me 5 tries to do it with out messing up too bad. Ha ha! It's such a beautiful old hymn! One that I've sung many, many times growing up in church. And I love that I was able to do it in Sign Language. It's such an expressive language. I'm just learning and I hope you enjoy it. And yes, this is the same song that was playing in the background of my previous video (see previous post). I love this hymn!

Thanks to ktloveland on YouTube for his "how-to" video on doing the signs for this song. I changed only a couple signs to what I normally use, but it's very close to what he suggested.

Now, if I can just remember to adjust the focus on the camera...... Ha ha!

God Bless,

Lyrics:

O Lord my God, When I in awesome wonder,
Consider all the worlds Thy Hands have made;
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed.

(Chorus)
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!

And when I think, that God, His Son not sparing;
Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in;
That on the Cross, my burden gladly bearing,
He bled and died to take away my sin.

(Chorus)

When Christ shall come, with shout of acclamation,
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart.
Then I shall bow, in humble adoration,
And then proclaim: "My God, how great Thou art!"

(Chorus)

ASL Chat 02

This is a video chat for my friend Joyana. She's been a great help to me with suggestions on how to better do some of my signs.

I greet her using her sign name and ask, "How are you?" Then I tell about planting in my garden. We had nice weather with sunshine, but rain tonight. I explained how I've been learning sign, and the two websites I use mostly; http://www.lifeprint.com/ and http://www.aslpro.com/. LifePrint.com has free college-level lessons with pictures and some videos, and ASLpro.com has videos of all their signs. And they have a lot! I also sometimes reference http://www.SigningSavvy.com and the Sign Language Browser.

The song playing quietly in the background is How Great Thou Art by Carrie Underwood.
:O)

God Bless!

ASL chat 01

A video for my ASL chat friends on YouTube. I decided to make these public so others can give me pointers or help me with signing. I need all the help I can get! Ha ha! Any chats that need to be private will be kept private, but this is just general stuff. :O) This is after my first Deaf event that I attended. It was at a friend's church and everyone was so nice and helpful! I had a great time and I can't wait to go to the next event! :O)

Here's what I'm saying: Hi. My daughter and I went to our first Deaf event. We had fun. I was a little nervous but there were 2 friends I knew. They helped me. Everyone was friendly and very nice. I'm excited to go to the next event. I learned new signs. I practiced a lot of signs I know, but it's hard to talk in sign. I need to practice. [I picked up the dog] This is Beans. He's 4. He came at Christmas. He's very shy. [my son came into the camera view to say hi.] My son Chris. [then he wanted to do something onery. Ha ha] He's bad. Ha ha! My daughter learned new signs. She likes signing. You video me, okay? Bye.

:O)

A Little About Me

Okay, I'll periodically update this to keep it current. Here's a little bit about me & mine....

I've set up a blog to share my passion for learning American Sign Language. http://myhandsspeak.blogspot.com/ I find the language so beautiful and expressive! It's fascinating. I've known the manual alphabet since I was a young girl and read a book about Helen Keller. The book had the manual alphabet in the back and I've always remembered it. Now, I've decided to learn much more! I've been learning to sign songs, and I'm sharing the videos of that on this blog. Now I just need to get more practive in actually conversing in ASL. I have also started college to become a Sign Language Interpreter! I've started attending a church that has an active Deaf ministry as well.

I have another blog highlighting my crocheting and other little "stitches" of my life. http://crochetstitches.blogspot.com/

I'm married to a wonderful man, my hubby John, who is a Christian Apologist. We have a website that features a downloadable highlighted Bible with commentary, pictures, quotes, and more. It's cross-referenced and color-coded by subject matter, such as Science in the Bible, Spiritual Truth in the Bible, Biblical History, and even shows you where we get our Bible and which translation is the most reliable (and yes, there is a difference!) Our website is EternalAnswersMinistry.org. His blog is also linked from my blog, Eternal Answers Ministry (Blogger) We have seen so many blessings through this ministry and every day God gives us both the strength to do what He wants us to accomplish. Check out my article, A Little Miracle from God about a very special set of circumstances that happened to us, and was so clearly the hand of God working in our lives that we just have to share it!

We have 3 children; 2 boys and 1 girl, and 1 granddaughter. God has blessed us with a wonderful family and opportunities to pursue His will in our lives. Our oldest son, and daddy to our granddaughter, is 28. Our second son is 15, and our daughter is 14. We homeschool the two youngest. Every Friday or Saturday night we have "family night" where we watch two old sitcoms (such as The Honeymooners) followed by a good family movie, or once in a while a movie that has to do with what the kids are studying. For instance, we watched The Right Stuff since they were learning about the 1960's and the beginning of space travel, the Apollo missions, etc.

Our daughter is teaching herself to draw Japanese Anime', loves crafts, art, reading, writing and plays the flute! She also is a HUGE Jonas Brothers fan. I enjoy their music as well and we share a lot together through this interest. She will tell you that I'm obsessed (LOL), but I'm not. My "Jonas Brothers" was the Bay City Rollers in the 70's. Both groups have similar fun, pop/rock kind of music that I really enjoy. Okay, okay, I WAS obsessed with the BCRs at the time - literally wallpapered my room with their pics and posters, had every album, knew every lyric, knew all the facts about each member of the band, etc. Oh boy, what fun I could've had if we had the internet and YouTube back then! LOL! My daughter and I both keep track of JoBro television appearances and fun, new videos of them that we send to each other. I have to say, I enjoy that the most - the fun that we share together with this music. When I was a teen and into the Bay City Rollers, I wasn't able to share my "obsession" with my mother since my mom wasn't at all into that kind of music, so she really didn't get what I was so excited about. Now though, my daughter and I can share that fun! I love it! And I totally understand her excitement. :O) And now my daughter is learning a little ASL with me.

Our 2nd son is very much into military aircraft, paintball, and medieval weaponry. Wow! Hard thing for me to get into, but I do try. He's also into programming 3D animation and computer graphics and has created some amazing things! My husband understand's that stuff better than I do... I think it's a 'guy thing'. LOL! I do love to watch the aircraft; we live near an airport (though I don't at all want to fly in one, they are fun to watch.) Our son amazes me that he can look at any plane flying in the sky and immediately tell me what kind of aircraft it is! He knows his stuff! And speaking about the Bay City Rollers, I had the chance to totally embarrass him in the grocery store the other day. LOL! Well, isn't it a parent's prerogative to embarrass their kids once in a while? *wink* The song "Saturday Night" by the BCRs came on over the loud speaker and I, of course, got all excited and started to sing along (quietly) and dance (a little). He just wanted to crawl away, but I grabbed his shirt sleeve so he couldn't go anywhere. LOL! Gosh, I love those moments.

Our first son, and oldest, works in sheet metal. He is a wonderful Daddy who loves snowboarding and sometimes paintball. We don't get to get together as much as I would like due to our conflicting work schedules but we talk on the phone regularly. He has blessed us with an adorable little 4 year old granddaughter who is just such a joy!

Well, now you have a little "peek" into who I am. :O)

God Bless!

ASL "A Little Bit Longer"

I did this for my daughter who is a HUGE Jonas Brothers fan. We both love the song. It was written by Nick Jonas, about his Diabetes (he has type 1). My husband also has Diabetes (type 2) and I see the day to day struggles he deals with from this disease. But we have faith that in God's timing... he'll be fine.

I think it's a beautiful song for anything that you might be going through or struggling with. Lean on God and trust that, just a little bit longer and you'll be fine. :O)

Here's the lyrics:

Got the news today
Doctors said i had to stay
A little bit longer and I'll be fine

When i thought it'd all be done
When I thought it'd all been said
A little bit longer and I'll be fine.

But you don't know what you got 'til it's gone
And you don't know what it's like to feel so low
And everytime you smile you laugh you glow
You don't even know, no, no.
You don't even know

All this time goes by
Still no reason why
A little bit longer and I'll be fine.

Waitin' on a cure
But none of them are sure
A little bit longer and I'll be fine

But you don't know what you got 'til it's gone
You don't know what its like to feel so low.
And everytime you smile you laugh you glow
You don't even know, no, no.
You don't even know, no, no.
You don't even know, no, no.

And you don't know what you got 'til it's gone.
Don't know what it's like to feel so low, yeah!
And everytime you smile you laugh you glow,
You don't even know! no, no.

So I'll wait 'til kingdom come.
All the highs and lows are gone.
A little bit longer and I'll be fine.
I'll be...fine