Ben's Eyes

Ben was insecure about going to school on Tuesday. It was nice we had a 3-day weekend to give his eyes more time to heal. They were still really red on Tuesday, but we felt after missing 4 days, he just needed to get back to school. He said it was okay, but several of his friends and other people asked why his eyes were so red. I told him to reply that he's stoned. HA! But, he just said he had an eye surgery.

I didn't take a picture before today, but here are his eyes. And this is 10 days after surgery! You can only imagine how red they were a few days out. No white was visible and they were just all bright red. They were so swollen though that you could only see how red they were when we put in drops.

You can tell his left eye is still pretty swollen. We are grateful for the 2 snow days so that he didn't have to go to school and be asked about his eyes more. Junior High is hard enough, let alone going when your eyes are this red. He obviously can't put in his contacts until all the red is gone, and he doesn't even want to wear his glasses to school. So, he's just going without. He still has good vision without them, so whatever makes him more comfortable.

Here's hoping by Monday, his eyes look almost all white and he won't have to think about it anymore.

But, they do look nice and straight! (and I need to tweeze his unibrow again)

The New Home

I know...5 posts in one day. I'm making up for lost time. I'm just busy and then blogging is the last thing I seem to have time for. I thought things would get easier as the kids got older but nope.

Here's a few pics of the progress on the house.

I typically go by on Wednesday when I'm running errands. But, a few weeks ago, David and I stopped by. They had everything in and were ready to pour the slab. There are great views from the house. The power lines will be removed. They were just put up temporarily to provide power to a neighboring subdivision that is starting up.

I lucked out and went by at the exact time they were pouring the foundation.

 Then, I went by the following week to see that they are tarping it at night which is good if the temp is below freezing.

 And here's the slab. All ready for a house!

 

They typically let the slab cure for about 30 days before they start framing.  So, we won't see any progress for about a 3 more weeks, but it's exciting!

Snowpocalypse

When the forecast said we may get 18 to 24 inches of snow starting Thursday, I think we all laughed. They always say that and then we get nothing or a dusting of snow.  But, schools were taking it seriously and called a snow day before we even got a flake of snowfall.

We woke up to maybe 4 or 5 inches, so it was a good call to have a snow day. The problem here is that we are just not equipped for a big snowfalls. A lot of people are in rural areas. Buses can't get back there and I think our town has just a handful of snowplows that are dedicated to the major roads. Plus, let's face it...nobody here knows how to drive in snow.

So, the grocery stores were hit hard yesterday as people prepared for snowamageddon. We could live off our pantry stock pile for about 3 months, so we were good.

This was at about 8 this morning.

 Poor Rocko had to go out to pee. He doesn't mind though. He loves the snow.

 The boys went out at about 10.

 They decided to build a fort.

 Luckily, David didn't go to work this morning and worked from home. He took a break about noon and went to shovel off the driveway.

 

 The boys wanted cinnamon rolls this morning. Then, I made croutons out of old bread. Then, they wanted to make brownies. Noah doesn't like brownies, so I made him rice krispy treats. We all like peanut butter mixed in them, but Noah doesn't, so he has the bit on the left and we have the rest. There's something to be said about cold weather and wanting to bake and put on a fluffly layer of fat!  HA!

 This is about 2. The kids went back out for round two after a 30 minute break. I think they were outside almost the entire day.

 The snow is up to Emily's knees. We only got about 10-12 inches, but some parts were higher in drifts.

 She buried herself in snow. We will do this in the sand in Maui in two weeks!

 The boys waiting for Dad to throw snowballs. Their fort was perfect protection.

 Then, David went out around 3 to shovel the driveway again.

 He dug his way to our neighbors and helped them shovel their driveway since they are older.

 This is by far the most snow that we've ever gotten.

 The kids could jump over the fence since the snow was so high on each side.

 Then, they built an eskimo hut out of the snow David piled up.

 The kitties were happy to watch the snow from inside the warm house.

 More play time...

 Noah fit pretty nicely in the igloo.

Then, David and I took Rocko for a walk. Thank goodness a few big trucks drove around and we were able to walk in that path. Tomorrow is already declared a snow day, so we are just hunkering down. We are supposed to get about another 6 inches of snow before all is said and done.

And that's the snowpocalypse of 2019.

Renaissance Fair

My boss got a bunch of free tickets to the Renaissance Fair in Phoenix this year. She asked if we wanted to go. We've never been, so why not? The Suttons were supposed to come with us and they got free tickets too, but Alanah was sick. So, we went on without them. The fair is here for 2 months, every weekend, but we didn't have another open weekend.

We were all a little unsure of what this whole thing would be like. Ad first it was a little weird. People all dressed up, wearing fake pointy ears, and just genuinely being different. But, that's fine. We're good with different.

They have a bunch of different shows on stages all over. This was a daredevil show.

David got a turkey leg.

There was a jousting tournament.

The kids got pretzels and chicken on a stick.

David got corn on the cob.

This guy was awesome. He cracks a whip and it's pretty impressive.

Snorkel the pig promoting his show.

Emily was super tired at first. She had a festival the night before and I picked her up at almost midnight. This festival is over 2 hours from our house, so we left at 8. But, she perked up sometime after noon and enjoyed some lemon sorbet.

Noah, me and Ben being silly.

We had giftcards and free cheesecake, so we went to Cheesecake Factory for dinner. It was so good. Ben and David enjoyed the Reese's cheesecake and Em and I shared key lime. Noah had a sugar packet.

All in all, it was a fun day. Would we do it again? Most likely no. It was a fun experience, but a 4.5 hour drive is a long way to go. We are glad we went though. It's always good to do something different.