Reading Glasses? Seriously?!?

I have just done the unthinkable. I purchased my first pair of READING GLASSES!! Surely, I am WAAAAY too young to need reading glasses, right??

With summer here and all that goes with it ... swimming, sweating, sunglasses ... I decided to break out my contacts and start wearing them again. One problem ... now I can't see CLOSE-UP! In recent years, with my glasses on, I would just peer around or under them if I need to read something close, like menus, labels, the cell phone or the computer. I can't peer around or under my contacts so this method wasn't working for me. My arms aren't long enough to see these things and I've had to ask my daughter to read my text messages!! My contacts are quite old so I figured it was time for an appointment with the eye doctor to see what kind of new technology was out there. Surely there would be a solution to my problem.

So, what is the first thing this beautiful and YOUNG doctor says to me? "Oh, you're OVER 40 ... and it's just gonna get WORSE." Are you joking???? That's all you have to say?? I wanted to slap her!

I could try mono-vision contacts (my brain can't handle the confusion) or bi-focal contacts (if I want to sacrifice comfort) or ... I could just stay status quo and get myself a pair of READING GLASSES if I want to see something close-up.

So, here I am ... sporting my new pair of fashion blue reading glasses! And you know what? They work!!

Summer Snow

It looks like a flock of sheep exploded in our front yard! It "snows" at our house every year from May to July thanks to our neighbor's Cottonwood Tree. And every year my husband's blood BOILS when the cotton fluff starts to fall, flying through the air and landing all over our entire yard. It blows into our noses and makes us sneeze, blows into our mouths when we speak, spreads itself all over our garage making piles of fluff all over the floor, it sticks to our shoes and tracks into our house, it lands in our gutters, sticks to our air conditioner unit ... basically making our lives miserable to 2 to 3 months!

What bothers us the most is that this wonderful giant WEED of a tree is in our neighbor's yard. The wind blows in the direction of our house so we get all the glorious cotton fluff at our house while our neighbor's yard seems to happily miss most of this wonderful white fuzz! The tree is rooted in their yard, but grows over our yard, shading our beautiful pine tree and making it grow crooked toward our house while it looks for the sunshine!

This year my husband has decided that he's had enough!! He's decided that we're going to hire someone to stake our property to determine exactly how much of the wonderful tree is growing over our yard. Then we can break out the chain saw and re-claim our sanity!!

First Day of Summer Vacation

School's out! Today is the first day of summer vacation. Home with four children ages 8, 6 and 2 all summer long ... yay!! The weather forecast for the week is awesome ... 80's and sunny all week!! We started our day with a much needed trip to the grocery store ... our cupboards were bare! Hungry kids are not happy kids!

Then, I took the kids to one of our local parks ... the one with the big green alligator! There was something for everyone including shade for me. They all had a great time climbing, sliding, swinging and playing in the sandbox. Thankfully, there were other moms there who were more organized than me who thought to bring sand toys! I made a mental note to pack those for next time ... actually, I should put a bin in my van complete with sand toys, blanket, balls, sunscreen ... all that good park stuff! Moms were even there with picnic stuff ... now that would've been a good idea too! Well, it's only the first day of summer vacation so we have plenty of time to get organized ... as long as I don't over-think the process!

After the park, it was home for lunch then naps for the twins while Olivia and Nicholas played with neighborhood friends while I got busy planting the flowers I purchased 2 weeks ago! I can't believe it's already the end of June! It'll be my mission this week to get all my plants in so we can enjoy them before summer is over!

Last Day of School

Today is the last day of school for Olivia and Nicholas. It's BEACH DAY at school and you can see that Olivia is well prepared.

I thought that I would dread this day but actually, I'm looking forward to a summer of no schedules, warm and sunny days, and lots of smiles and laughter.

Potty Boys

It's official! Potty training the twins has begun! This has to be my least favorite thing about motherhood and an event that I have not been looking forward to. It was torture for Olivia and me, somewhat easier with Nicholas. From my past experience, I figured I would wait until the boys turned 3 to get serious about it, but they have forced my hand.

For the last month or so, each time one of them did something in their diaper, they would come to me and say "Stinky butt" ... even though it wasn't necessarily stinky ... and "stinky" sounded more like "sticky" ... kinda cute, I suppose! Then they would proceed to get a diaper out of their room and hand it to me. If they truly needed a change, I would oblige but many times this announcement would come in the middle of me doing something else ... like folding laundry, cooking dinner, etc. and I would tell them that they weren't "sticky" enough. Usually they were pretty insistent and I knew in the back of my head that I was missing out on a golden potty training opportunity, but I wasn't ready to deal with it just yet.

Today, I finally decided to get the old potties up from the basement and I presented the twins with their new potty chairs. I set them in the kitchen so they could be right in the middle of things and I don't have to sit for hours with them in the bathroom. They have yet to put anything IN the potties, but at least I can give myself a pat on the back for helping them move on to the next step toward growing up!