April Goals

Whew! What a day! Here's a break down:

1) It's World Autism Awareness Day! I'm wearing the blue!

2) I went to eye doctor for a glasses recheck. The verdict: they kept my new glasses and I am getting new lenses. I was smart and took my old glasses with me, thank goodness. My old prescription was -3.75 both eyes with 0.25 prisms. The new ones that I had for the last week were -3.25 both eyes with no prisms. As of today, the new ones will be -3.75 right eye, -3.50 left eye with 0.50 prisms. We will see how this goes. I'm like a bad penny that keeps coming back. Ha ha ha ha! 

3) We have had a lot of wind today. Besides knocking over and relocating the garbage and recycle bins multiple times, we have a 40+ foot tree top (aka: widow maker) hanging horizontally over our yard from a neighboring property. We are going to give it a few days to see what happens before contacting them. Right now it is lodged on four scrawny trees. Oh joy!
 
4) We went with the kiddos to a friend's How to Train Your Dragon birthday party this afternoon. It was crazy, but fun.

5) I got to go shopping solo at a club store. I went for toilet paper and eyeglass wipes. I also came home with avocados, plums, tiny potatoes (oh, so cute!), frozen lasagna, canned fruit, kaiser buns, cranberry juice, and Pringles for the kids lunches. I had a plum and homemade chicken salad on a kaiser bun for lunch. Yum! I think we are going to have the tiny potatoes for dinner. I just need to figure out what to fix with them.

We are going to kick back and relax the rest of the day. Before I go, here are my April Goals:

Health Goals
- Eat more fruits and veggies
- Since I am limited in the exercise department, attempt to strengthen and tone my arms

House Goal
- Finish cleaning and organizing Pumpkin's room
- Organize and de-clutter at least two cabinets in the kitchen

Family Goal
- Go on a family adventure
- Have the kids each plan and help make a family meal

Self Goals
- Find a productive way to keep my sanity. ;-)
- Have a least one girls day adventure 

I leave you with a picture that I took of our pond earlier in the week. It was sunrise and the mist was rising from the water's surface. It was breathtaking!

Run For It

I meet myself coming and going quite a bit. I get myself turned around. I find myself upside down. Quite often I am overwhelmed. Life will get easier, right?

My sister got the front door painted lightening bug yellow a few weeks ago. She gave me a new wreath for my birthday, too. Isn't the combination pretty?

The kids have been playing in the leaves this weekend. Princess even sorted the leaves by color.

Last weekend, I carved the family's pumpkin. Somehow a deer bone is now sticking out from its mouth.

I won a free book a few weeks ago. It arrived last weekend: The Stress Cure: Praying Your Way to Personal Peace by Linda Evans Shepherd. Thank you Baker Publishing and Proverbs31. The book is fascinating and a down-to-earth. It centers on managing stress through prayer and scripture. I have only made it through three chapters so far, but I do enjoy the fact that information is related in easy to understand examples. Chapter Two was about being overwhelmed. That me, OVERWHELMED!

I have been taking some nature photography.

 

I have wrangled with the health insurance company about Pumpkin's specialist. Turns out that I was right and she is in-network. So the insurance company has five visits over the last year to correct. A sixty dollar co-pay is a big difference when it is a two hundred dollar (3) or five hundred dollar (2) per visit bill.

I had the opportunity to attend an ADHD & Special Needs training last week. I have gleaned some information that I can use with Pumpkin. I need to find the time to really sit down and read over all of the handouts. The speaker was very nice, informative, and engaging.

A few weeks ago we took Princess to a neuro-opthomologist in a neighboring town. We were sent by our eye doctor for a second opinion. Good news! Her eyes are healthy and there are no underlying causes for her atypically vision problems. Her glasses are within the acceptable range for what she needs right now. We were referred back to our eye doctor for a 6-month January check-up.

Pumpkin went grocery shopping with me this afternoon. He decided to ride in the cart. Then he strategically stacked and built structures with the groceries as they went into the cart. Gotta love the quirks of autism at times.

I hope that everyone has a great weekend! Don't forget Spotlight Sunday is tomorrow!

Eye See You!

Princess finally got her new glasses yesterday afternoon.  We received her new prescription on November 25.  It then took 31 days to find frames her size.  Then it was another week and a half for her new glasses to arrive.  But FINALLY on January 7 we got the glasses!

Her eyeglass size is 39-17-110.  Say what???  The first number is the eye size which is the length across the front of the glasses, the second number is the bridge size which is the distance between the two lenses, and the last number is the temple size which is the length of the piece that goes back and over the ear.   These numbers are measured in millimeters.  Around here the smallest eye size frames that they carry is 44.  So needless to say, it took a while and a lot of time to order frames into the local shops.  Then they had to be tried on to see if they would fit or not.  We also decided to stray away from the cable temples that her first pair of glasses had.  She will start kindergarten in the fall and I figured regular temples would be best especially if she still has the glasses in first grade.  

Princess was a bit picky when it came to choose the glasses.  She definitely knew what she wanted.  "Too square."  "Too round."  "Hurts my ears."  "Hurts my nose."  "Not pink or purple."  We ended up with oval dusty rose colored frames.  The dusty rose has a lavender tint to it, so they appear more purple than pink.  Very lovely frames!

Her old prescription was:
OD: -5.25 sph, -1.50 cyl, 110 axis
OS: -5.50 sph, -2.00 cyl, 070 axis

Her new prescription is:

OD: -5.00 sph, -1.50 cyl x 110 axis

OS: -6.50 sph, -1.00 cyl x 035 axis

Princess was quite happy to show off her new glasses last night at family dinner night and today at preschool.  She is really happy with her new glasses!  Whew, good thing!  A mother's work is never done!

Time To Celebrate Glasses!

Yay!  It is Great Glasses Play Day today!  

Time to celebrate kids that need a little extra help with their peepers!

Did you know?

This is our second year celebrating.  Last year we wrote a poem and interviewed princess about her glasses.

Today, we celebrated by partaking in some of the suggested craft projects posted on the Great Glasses Play Day website.  I must remember to let our eye care provider know about this great site as well as the Little Four Eyes site (one of the groups behind the celebration).

First we made fun foam eyeglass cases for Princess (age 4) and Pumpkin (age 6).  Since Pumpkin does not wear glasses, we found a pair of fun foam glasses for him to wear for our fun craft time.

Princess is so excited to have a homemade eyeglass case to place her glasses in during nap time at daycare this fall.  Of course it is purple!  What other color would be fitting for such a statement of character and flair.

Next we made Princess a ladybug mask to go with her homemade ladybug cape.  Now she is really Ladybug Girl!!!!!! This was the best craft of the day. 

Pumpkin was so engrossed making an eyeglass case that he skipped making the mask.  We finished the craft session with a coloring page.

Currently Princess' prescription is:

OD: -5.25 sph, -1.50 cyl, 110 axis

OS: -5.50 sph, -2.00 cyl, 070 axis

We are definitely thankful for her glasses!  Well off I go to read Princess Fancy Nancy: Spectacular Spectacles by Jane O'Connor.

Happy Great Glasses Play Day Everyone!!!!!

Broke The Mold

Have you ever heard the saying "God broke the mold when he made you."?  I certainly hope that is true.  I seem to be a walking catastrophe at times and hope that others do not have my uniqueness. Being unique is a good thing at times, but other times it is just not fun.  Certain parts of my uniqueness I just refer to as being very special or unusually blessed.  So what about my mold is different?

I am a giant . . . . now I know that I am not really a giant but that is how children and some adults see me.  I hear "Whoa, you're tall!" a lot from children.  Being 6'1" is not always easy.  Sure you can reach the top shelf at the grocery store.  Sure you can see over a crowd.  Sure you can be 9 months pregnant and only look like you are 3 months.  I like sitting in those super tall chair that you can sometimes find at restaurants so my legs dangle.  I like to sit in the back pew at church, so I can have some leg room.  But being tall comes with its own disadvantages, too.  My name is not "Jolly Green Giant".  My name is not "Big Bird."  I don't answer to "Hey, you up there."  Shopping for clothes is terrible. . . I have to special order my long sleeved shirts and my long pants and jeans (36" inseam).  Shoes . . . ha ha ha ha . . . I am wearing mens size 11, which would be about a 12 or 13 in womens.  I whack my head a lot in this world designed for shorter people.  The first two used cars that I owned I had to contort my legs and knees, cramming them at an angle under the steering wheel just so I could drive it down the road.  Glad I have a Mailbu now, plenty of leg room!  There is so many more disadvantages to being tall, but that is enough for now.  

I could be a bubble girl . . . . Oh, so many of my friends tease me that I should be inside a plastic bubble.  The older I get the more allergies I seem to develop.  My biggest allergy is to capsicum (peppers).  So that would include green peppers, red peppers, sausage, pepperoni, chili, salsa, paprika (which is in EVERYTHING), etc. . . .   It is one of those triple header allergies- food, airborne and skin reactions.  But according to the tests at the allergy doctor's office it is just an intolerance so it won't kill me, instead I get hives, feel like I have the stomach flu, loose my voice, get a headache, and I want to curl up in a ball and not move.  Oh the newest reaction to the list. . . . my cheeks and ears turn bright red.  But don't worry it won't kill me, it just will make me EXTREMELY miserable.  Within the last 18 months, I have discovered that I am allergic to SLS (sodium laureth sulfate) a foaming agent which was in my shampoo and toothpaste; peeling, blistering skin is always so joyful to deal with.  Like I said I am special.  I have discovered that Burt's Bee Balm has an amazing shampoo that is SLS free and Sensodyne Pronamel toothpaste is SLS free.  Oh my gosh, Tom's of Maine mouthwash is SLS free and is amazing!  Now you might be laughing at this point, go ahead.  I laugh quite often about all of my strange allergies.  I have a whole list more of allergies, but I'll stop at the big ones.

I have four eyes . . . . Yep, I wear glasses.  I have tried contacts, but I must have been allergic to the cleaning solution.  Glasses are a pain when it rains, when you go inside after being out in the cold they fog up, and you always have to clean them.  It would be cool if someone invented wipers to clean your glasses with, so much easier.  Something cool about wearing glasses, if I have a headache I can take the glasses off and the world blurs around me which can lessen the throbbing pain.  Nice!  Strange fact- the eye doctor has to leave the lights on for my eye exam because the difference in light changes my prescription.  I am nearsighted with astigmatisms, so my daughter comes by it naturally (although her vision is worse than mine).  Even though I got teased about wearing glasses growing up, it is nice to wear them now.  My daughter loves to wear her glasses because she gets to be like mommy and that I would not trade for anything.

If it is going to happening to anyone, it WILL happen to me . . . . I just have this wonderful magnetism for the strange and unusual.  Did you know that only about 30% of women have to have a c-section? Yep, this was me twice.  Have you ever walked into the edge of a screen door with your face as it is mid-way through closing?  Happened to me.  Have you woke up in the middle of the night with a mouse sitting on your shoulder?  Happened to me in high school.  Have you had a pheasant almost fly through the open passenger window of your car?  Yep.  Have you been surrounded by a flock of wild baby turkeys with an angry momma turkey standing right in front of you?  Why, yes I have.  Have you had one of those automatic check-outs at the store that calls for the attendant after every single action you take?  Oh yes!!!  Have you had your turn signals on your car short-out?  Yep, twice!  Have you had the head gasket blow on your car on Christmas Eve spewing antifreeze from the tail pipe?  Yep.  Have you had a baby pee in your ear?  Ha ha ha!  This one was actually my husband.  We learned that valuable lesson of covering Pumpkin with a wet wipe when we changed his diaper that day. Are you laughing yet????  That is what I do when something weird happens.  I figure you can either laugh or cry, so why not laugh!

Life is really what you make of it, but I am still hoping that the mold was broken when I was born. We have a lot of blessings in our life, but everyone often has challenges that lay hidden too.  So if someone if having a bad day, give them the benefit of the doubt because you never know how much they are going through unless you travel a mile in their shoes.  I know that I cannot shrink my legs, that my allergies will run amuck, that I have goofy eyes, and that the weird and unexplainable WILL happen to me . . . . but that is what makes me unique.  That is what makes me who I am. . . . Me.  And who better to be than yourself?   What weird quarks do you have?

Spectacular Spectacles

Princess got a new book for Christmas; Fancy Nancy: Spectacular Spectacles by Jane O'Connor.  This is our second Fancy Nancy book.  The first book (Fancy Nancy: Elegant Easter) was given to Pumpkin for Easter 2010 by my mom.  It was one of the last gifts that he received from her before she past away.  Mom seemed to have an usual fascination with the book.  Maybe it was a way to leave a special legacy for her grandkids.

Anyway, Princess seems quite taken with the book.  She begged me this evening to read her the book about the silver case and glittery glasses.  I can see the wheels turning as I read her the book.  I can see her saying "Hey, that is like me." She can see that glasses are special; glasses are useful; and most importantly glasses help. 

So to the story:  Fancy Nancy's best friend Bree is having problems with her eyes hurting so she visits the eye doctor.  Next time Fancy Nancy sees Bree she is wearing the most marvelous lavender glasses that glitter.  Besides the spectacular spectacles, Bree has a beautiful silver case and a silky hankie that is pink with purple polka dots to clean her glasses with. Fancy Nancy is so enamored with the glasses and apparel that she decides that she must need glasses herself.  So she tries various ideas to convince herself that she needs them.  Her all knowing mom, who also wears glasses, has a heart to heart with Fancy Nancy.  Fancy Nancy's mom tells her that she is a very lucky little girl because her eyes work so well.  Fancy Nancy's mom helps her to pretend by popping out the lenses from a pair of fancy sunglasses, so Fancy Nancy can be like her friend Bree.

The story is really cute.  It has a page where Bree tells her classmates about her visit to the eye doctor's office and about reading the chart of letters.  Princess even agreed, I can read small letters too with my glasses.  I think the last page is sort of neat.  It is called Fancy Nancy's Fancy Words and lists more advanced words found throughout the book and their meanings.  
      
     Here is that list: 
     Becoming- pretty  
     Challenging- hard
     Distressing- very upsetting
     Lavender- light purple
     Spectacles- eyeglasses
     Spectacular- great

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone with a young child that wears glasses or wants to understand why a friend may have to wear glasses.  The author explains and uses the story to illustrate it in a way that makes sense to younger children as well as older.

Apple of My Eye

Princess is a smart little girl.  She is active and happy and such a girlie-girl.  Last Tuesday we went to the eye doctor for her six month check up.  She gets the dubious honor of going every six months to the eye doctor.

I just finally got around to getting a copy of her prescription.  You know it is not a good sign when the new eye doctor (like the first eye doctor from April) asks, "Was you daughter born pre-mature?"  Nope, she was full-term.

I had a better chance to interrogate this eye doctor than the other.  He was a lot nicer and a lot more friendlier.  Apparently Princess has very large eyes for the ripe old age of 3 1/2.  She has both myopia (near-sightedness) and astigmatisms.  The previous eye doctor said that she has probably had eye problems since she was a few weeks old.

We got our first set of glasses in May (it took a while to find some frames).  The prescription was not full-strength then.  So now she is going to get the full strength lens.  

We would of had them by now, but there was a little goof and the lenses company cannot find the order.  So they have been reordered with a rush added to them.  I started laughing when the local tech told me over the phone.  Which of course shocked her and she said that that had never happened to her before (which I am sure is true).  I keep laughing anyway and told her that stuff always happens to me.  Hopefully Princess will get her new lenses on Friday.  

So her new prescription is:

OD: -5.25 sph, -1.50 cyl, 110 axis
OS: -5.50 sph, -2.00 cyl, 070 axis

So does that make sense to you?  Didn't think so.  It did not make much sense to me either.  So I went to the Little Four Eyes site and found a link that broke it down into simpler terms.  I also visited the link to Wolfram Alpha that described how far she can see.

Prescription Translation:  

Princess' left eye is moderately near-sighted, with a moderate astigmatism.  The left eye can see up to 0.55 feet without blurriness.  Princess' right eye is moderately near-sighted, with a severe astigmatism.  The right eye can see up to 0.50 feet without blurriness.

Sort of scary that a child's eye sight can be that bad.  The fact that it will get much worse as she grows is even more frightening.  The first doctor said that she would need bifocals by the time she is in kindergarten, so we will eventually see if the second doctor agrees.  For the time being, we will have to keep an eye on Princess and hope for the best.

I Am Princess . . .

. . . I am three!

I wear glasses, one, two, three.

Glasses help me as I see,

I am as cool as cool can be!

"Princess, what do you like about your glasses?"

Pink. Hmmmmm pink.  Playing with my glasses.  The glasses they help me . . . . see. 

"What are fun things you like to do?"

Play.  Race.  Having so much fun.  Giving everyone a hug.  And giving my own friend a kiss.  Watching cartoons.  Playing with friends.  Color.  

"What are your favorites?"

Purple.  Yummy food.  Fish sticks.  Zebra.  Light bug.  Purple square.  Chalk.  Bubbles.

"What do you want to tell the computer?"

One more thing, I like to play having fun.  That's enough.

"Happy Great Glasses Playday!!!!! "

Princess Finally Gets Her Glasses

On April 10th Princess was diagnosed with nearsightedness and astigmatisms.  It took 17 days to find frames for her narrow face and another 7 days to get the lenses.  Yesterday we picked up her finished glasses.  So, it took a grand total of 24 days to get our little 3-year-old daughter a pair of glasses.

She was really excited to get her "princess" glasses.  

Below you will find a simulation of what her vision would be like without the glasses.  It is based on her prescription, which is accentually 3/4 of what she needs.  We will be returning to the eye doctor's office in October to strengthen the prescription a bit more. 

 Normal vision on the left.  

Princess's vision simulation on the right.

http://www.billauer.co.il/simulator.html 

  

At first she was not too sure about the glasses.  She wanted to show them off, but was not sure that she wanted to wear them all the time.  

We stopped by the cemetery and showed grandma and great-grandpa the new glasses.  Then we went by daycare and showed our glasses off there to the other kids.  Then we saw auntie and daddy at home and great-grandma drove over to see the new glasses.  Hopefully later today, we can model our glasses for a few more family members.

Last night we went back and forth with wearing the glasses.  She watched Cinderella and Peter Pan last night without standing in front of the television screen. We have yet to try to read a book, but hopefully this afternoon.

This morning there was no trouble getting her to put the glasses on.  We have had a few revelations today.

1) At breakfast:  "Mommy!  I put water all over my glasses!"-  Ugh, out came the cleaning cloth.  "Princess, try to not get your glasses wet.  If they are wet you cannot see very good."

2) Grocery store:  "I want CINDERELLA!"  "No, that is cake gel.  We don't need that today."  Lots of tears, poor great-grandma pushing the shopping cart.  A little later:  "I want CINDERELLA!"  "No, that is lip gloss.  We can't get that today."  Kicking and screaming and lots of tears on the way to the check-out.  Well, to look at the bright side at least she is seeing better. Hahahaha

3) In car after grocery store:  Screaming from the back seat.  "Take it off!  Take it off!"  What is it????  Pumpkin placed a banana sticker over one of the lenses.  So we had to pull the car over and get the sticker off.  Then I had to talk to them about why we do not put stickers on Princess's glasses.

Oh, I also forgot the surprise from yesterday.  Princess could see so well last night with her new glasses, that she took pruners from their shelf in the garage and cut the sensor wires for the garage door opener in about four places.  So until we replace the wiring, we will be manually opening and closing the solid wood garage door.  Well, I guess I should be happy that it was not anyone's hair. 

I can not wait to see what happens this afternoon.  Hopefully when the newness wears off, things will calm down a bit.  Until then, I'm sure we will be having quite a few laughs.

What's Up Doc?

"What's Up Doc?" as Bugs Bunny would say.  Well like Elmer Fudd, that would be a loaded question.  At times lately, I am not which end of life is up.

We have yet to find frames for the Princess.  Although I hope by next week, we will find some small enough for her narrow toddler sized face.  The tech at the eye doctor's office said that once we find a pair of frames to actually fit her face, that it will take only two or three days to get the lenses.  We have been to Princess's eye doctor's office four times now and Princess is heart broken each time we leave without "her" glasses.  This afternoon we did check out my eye doctor's office, and have possibly found the winning frames.  Maybe Friday we will know for sure.  So hopefully before the month is out I will post a picture of Princess in her new glasses along with an interesting vision simulation of how she would see without the glasses.

My dad is now home from his bone marrow transplant.  He was hospitalized for a total of seventeen days about 2 1/2 hours away from home. We are very excited that all went well and he is in his home sweet home.

My paternal grandma has had some health issues and spent eight days in intensive care at the local hospital.  A few of those days were real rough, but she is on the mend and will be in a rehabilitation nursing home not far from our house.

Pumpkin and Princess have missed me a bit this month.  Usually we have the evenings and weekends to spend together, but quite a few of those have been spent checking on dad's house, visiting grandma, and one 5 hour round trip to see my dad. 

I'm hoping that May will slow down a bit and maybe we can do some fun stuff with the kids.  Maybe play at the park, go to the zoo, walk on the bike trail, teach the kiddos and hubby how to fish, have some play dates, or have a picnic.  Oh, maybe finally get a family portrait taken.  Well we will see what adventures await us.

The Eyes Have It

Both kids have been to the eye doctor in the past few weeks.  

Pumpkin had to go for a kindergarten exam and passed with flying colors (20/20).  He was so big and would tell the nurse what the letters were.  "A", "lower case b", "G", "B", "lower case d".  It was quite entertaining.  He definitely has his daddy's eyes.

Princess has been to the eye doctor twice in the last two weeks.  Unfortunately, she has her mommy's eyes.  Today they dilated her eyes during a cycloplegic exam.  We were at the eye doctor's office for two hours.  She did not complain much, just had light sensitivity.  The night before we ran to the store and got a pair of kid sunglasses and a cute little hat to help shield her eyes, which really helped during the visit and the following car ride.  

The doctor conducted a couple different tests.  The diagnosis is astigmatisms and nearsightedness (over a -2 refraction), which he said is rare for her age.  The doctor thinks she probably has been nearsighted since she was a few weeks old.  He said by the time she is fifteen her eye sight will probably be worse than mine (-4.75 with astigmatisms) and her vision could eventually reach -9 or -10.

So my little princess at the age of three will need to wear glasses.  The doctor is going to start her out with 2/3 of the prescription that she needs to let her eyes adjust more slowly.  Then six months down the road he will strengthen the prescription again.

We went to get fitted for glasses and of course all of the glasses were way too big.  So they are ordering some glasses in for her to try out.  Hopefully Friday we will get a pair of frames picked out, then it will be two to four weeks before the glasses arrive.  I told the tech the Princess loves purple and pink, so we will have to see what color Princess decides to chose.