This week...
...I was bullied into Lasik eye surgery. Hahaha! That's what I call Jason promoting and prompting me to get this done. He loves the aftereffects of his surgery so much, he wanted me to have the same great experience and luxury of not having to wear glasses or contacts any more.
I
have to say that getting this done wasn't something that I had thought a
lot about and planned for like Jason did with his. He was determined to
get rid of his glasses/contacts. When he first started talking about
it, I would turn away in squeamish disgust. I couldn't take the thought
of people working on my eyes and being awake while they were doing it. I
didn't like the idea of the whole cutting into the eye part of the
whole procedure...wait, that is the whole procedure. But after some
time, a great discount deal that we wanted to take advantage of, plenty
of testimonials that the procedure involved sedatives and an overall
lack of concern for all the things I was concerned about, and more badgering persuasion from Jason, I reconsidered.
I used to wear contacts full time, and no one was used to seeing me in glasses. Then after quite a few eye infections in college
and my eyes changing so much when I had kids, contacts just didn't work
any more. That's when everyone got used to me in glasses. Lately, I did try buying some contacts for sports and working out at the gym, but they still didn't feel right. Glasses have been a pain at times over the years, but I was resigned to wear them for the rest of my life because that's what I needed to do to see. This is a miracle and benefit that I never thought I would ever have.
After Surgery - The first two days were filled with lots of sleep and eye drops when I was awake. The next two days were full of more eye drops, dry, scratchy eyes, and lots of wondering when the clear eyes part was going to kick in. Then Monday morning hit and all the inspirational phrases I've ever heard about sticking with it were true for me that day-like, It's always darkest before the dawn, or Everything looks better in the light of day. Choirs sang and light burst forth across the sky originating from our house. My vision cleared and the extreme dryness was a thing of the past.
Even a few days later in the week, my eyes cleared even more and I felt more relief.
After Jason's surgery, Lainey started asking him if she could see his lasers, meaning his eyes. It was so cute and so funny. That's what we call our eyes now - our lasers. We could be superheroes.
Me trying to sleep - Jason (behind the camera) trying to document this experience
...we attended an eagle court of honor. Two of my nephews received their Eagle Scout Award and they did the Court of Honor together. We are so proud of them. Austin (right) is 15 and Brennan (left) is 13. That's a lot of hard work in just a short amount of time.
These guys passed the time by playing rock, paper, scissors during the event. It was hilarious.
...Ben was being silly with his cousin Keaton while they ate cereal at Grandma Zirker's house. They are good buddies, and for the most part they play so good together.
...we tried out the restaurant Fat Olives in Richland. We liked how they had a whole ton of games for you to play while you waited for your food. We played Handy Manny Uno. We had a gift card and Emma and Paul were with their cousins in Selah.
...Jason helped Amber make a loft bed like Emma's for her daughter Taya. Here's his paint booth in the garage as he painted them. It's so nice that he can paint in the garage, but that it doesn't get all over everything else.
...Lainey learned a new trick for opening the sliding door. She uses her weight as leverage against the door frame. It's so funny.
...Emma played dress up with Lainey. Lainey was a willing participant this time. She let Emma dress her in several different dresses and do her hair. Lainey sure enjoyed her special time with Emma.
...we worked on blankets at mutual to benefit children with cancer. We had Mckenzie Fish, along with Washington's Distinguished Teen Janae Calaway, come and talk about a non-profit organization that Mckenzie started called Fancy Feet. Mckenzie had cancer when she was 15 and wanted to do something to help others that suffered like she had, or may have had it worse. Janae uses Fancy Feet as her platform for her Distinguished Teen reigning year. Normally they add tulle and ribbon to flip flops and give them out to children with cancer in the hospital. This time they tried something new and had us tie some fleece blankets to be used as lap blankets. We made six that night.
...Paul has been teaching Claire how to make different kinds of bears in their habitats. They made a polar bear. a brown bear, a panda bear, and a spectacled bear. Danica was here one day and got to make a couple bears as well. It was so cute to see Paul facilitating an art project for others. Emma has always taken on that role. But art at school had him all excited and he wanted to recreate the projects they'd been working on. (He was using even more skills at home because our printer wasn't working. So they cut the bear and background all out of construction paper.)
