Friday, November 14, 2008

My week....the very long version

Well, you may remember that Dixon started getting sick while we were out of town for Aunt Myrtle's funeral. That was on October 30th. I know that due to his age, there is no cold medicine for him. I just waited it out hoping that everyday he would get better. A week went by and he was not getting better then suddenly on Saturday afternoon the poor little guy started having green gunk all over his eyes! I felt so bad for him....called the answering service for the Doctor on call....he said we needed to take him to the Emergency Room!! I was totally shocked and perplexed! He suggested St. Mary's would be faster than ARMC and that he would call ahead to let them know we were on our way. I still was not pleased with the thought of waking up Porter (who had started with a stuffy nose) and taking Dixon to the emergency room for several hours to pay $100 to hear it was a sinus infection to go home. So, I spoke to a friend who gave me peace of mind that all would be okay and just wait another day. (Whew...who wants the emergency room on a Saturday night?)

By Monday morning, Porter had a sore throat and off we went to the Doctor for both boys. I should have gone myself but....I was going to 'fight' it off myself!!! Dixon had started having less runny nose and no more eye gunk so we got a prescription but waited to fill it. Porter was checked for strep throat since his throat looked so bad but had pharyngitis with a cold. I have felt bad for about a week now at this point. Still wanting to trudge forward and knowing that getting to the Doctor would be a huge headache with trying to rearrange babysitting around a work in appointment I chose to try one more day.....that was my problem!!

Tuesday night driving home (very late) from BUNCO, I realized I was having eye gunk now!! My contacts kept getting covered up and were totally hurting me. On Wednesday, I called my doctor desperate for medicine. They are good to me and called something in. My next dilemma was that I couldn't wear my contacts and thus not see. I needed my glasses adjusted...they are only about 8 years old and at least 3 prescriptions back but work for seeing the clock in the middle of the night. When Matt got home from work, he was taking the truck up to Sam's for someone to look at it and think about buying it. We all went to Sam's in case he sold the truck and I would need to sign the title and drive him home so I was going to have them adjust them adjust my glasses. The lens folks did the job and as I was walking back out to the car I quickly realized that I couldn't see faces on people in the distance. I knew then that I would have to get new glasses immediately. This totally depressed me because glasses are totally not in my budget plan this time of year! I went back in to Sam's to get my prescription from file. I normally use LensCrafters for all of my vision needs but last time they didn't have appointments available when I had time available. They gave me the prescription and off we went to LensCrafters. By this time, Sam's optical was closing.

Once at LensCrafters, I looked at the prescription and thought it was wrong. I thought I wore -2.5 contacts and the prescription was for -3.5. I voiced my concern to the employees and they said that glasses can be stronger than contacts and I could trust Sam's. I still felt uneasy but picked out glasses. (well, the employee picked them out and then I chose between 2 pair....remember I can't really see at this point.) As we were putting in my order, the office employee from the doctors office is leaving and so I stop her, explain my problem and ask her to check my file. (They have about 8 years of records for my vision exams on file.) When we looked it up from 2007, my contacts were -2.75 or -3.00 and my glasses was -2.75. She told me that -3.5 was a huge jump and thought it unlikely that I had changed so drastically when I had remained the same for about 4 years. We decided that -3.5 would be too strong and then changed the order to the 2007 prescription. So, $300 and 30 minutes later, I have beautiful new trendy glasses and I can see.....or so I thought!!!!

Yes, you read that correctly!! The -2.75 was so much better than the old glasses, I thought everything was great as I left LensCrafters at 7:52 pm. As Matt drove us home, I quickly realized that I had made a mistake. These glasses were not strong enough and I had difficulty seeing and reading at distance. By the time we got home, I was sick to my stomach. I was so bummed out I started crying....I had just spent $300 on glasses that were no good to me. I knew that LensCrafters offers 90 days to change a prescription but that is 90 days from date of eye exam not 90 days from day of being made. I had such a horrible headache from a day of not seeing well and then the stress of the whole $300 that I just went to bed and Matt dealt with the boys and cleaned up from dinner. (Have I mentioned lately that I am married to the best husband ever?? WELL, I AM!!!)

Thursday morning, I was waiting for LensCrafters to open at 9 am. The gentleman who was working had been there the night before for part of my saga. He asked what he could do for me and I quietly explained that I had the glasses made using the wrong prescription and that they were too weak for my eyes. I sincerely apologized and told him that I had not realized that my prescription had changed. He did look a bit frustrated but to my great pleasure, he asked for the correct prescription and ordered them to be remade. He smiled and did not give me any grief whatsoever!! I was so happy , he did not charge me for new lenses!! In case you don't wear glasses, the lenses are what is expensive not the frames! My lenses alone would have cost $325.00. They are running a special right now so that lenses are 50% off when you buy frames....thus my new Ray-Bans! Now, I can see perfectly and I am so relieved that I did not have to buy the second set of lenses. Thank you, nice LensCrafters Man!!!!

Dixon and I are getting better thanks to our antibiotics. Porter is feeling better with just an occasional cough and now....Matt comes home with a sore throat!! TGIF....

Welcome to my world!!!

Friday, November 7, 2008

Happy Birthday Dixon






Wow!!! It has already been a year! My baby is now 1. We try to forget those first 2 weeks of NICU and celebrate his wonderful year! He is walking and climbing and jabbering constantly. We are even giving him whole milk now. He doesn't seem to react to milk but he still reacts to cheese. If he has to have one or the other, I prefer milk so that I can stop nursing and not have to buy formula. (You know he does have 6 teeth!!)
He is doing great and LOVED his cake! Matt had been trying to teach him to blow out a candle but Porter was ready and waiting to take care of that job for him! Due to the funeral, we had to cancel the Ehlers' family party so we had a quiet dinner at home on his birthday and then we had some pals over for Sunday dinner to celebrate a little bit.

I will put together a slide show...if I get that figured out. In the meantime, here are some pictures of the dinner.




Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Trick or Treat

My brother, Jason, and I had a great plan....since we would be in South Georgia for Aunt Myrtle's funeral on Halloween, we would take the kids trick or treating at Aunt Mary's. Sounds like a good idea....we packed the costumes and pumpkins and off we went on our trip. Imagine our surprise when we learn that the town held Trick or Treating on Thursday night so that folks could go to the high school football games on Friday night! What a complete bummer for our little ones!!!

In an effort to save the day, we decided to create a 'Halloween Hunt'. We bought candy to stuff in baggies then hide them around the yard. The kids dressed in costume and off they went in search of candy.
Whew...that was close!!!



Porter went as a fireman and Amelia as "pink" tinkerbell.


Porter was all about finding those candy bags.

Aunt Myrtle's funeral

My mother's sister, Myrtle Johnson Waters, passed away late at night on Tuesday, October 28th. She had briefly battled a ferocious cancer that had ravaged her body. We are grateful for the gospel and the peace that comes in knowing she is no longer suffering for the pains of her mortal body. Her first husband died many years ago and she had been remarried for the past 11 years. In Heavenly Father's mercy and plan, her second husband, James, passed away in his sleep on Sunday, October 19th. We know that she is reunited with them as well as her parents. We know that we will see her again.
Here are a few pictures from the funeral.
Porter and Ameila outside the church. Porter was pouting.
Here we get him to cooperate.




Darren, Jason and Jay
Matt and Dixon





Trunk or Treat

We had a great time going to the primary's Trunk or Treat activity. This is the first year, in several years, that Matt has been in town for the event. Porter is big enough to go and play by himself and with Dixon walking, we had a fun time chasing him around the gym. Here are some pictures.

Dixon was a tiger. His hood was a little too big and he had trouble seeing where he was walking. Once we took it off, he would make a bee-line towards the bucks of feed corn! He just wanted to eat the corn....he wouldn't search for the prize.

Here is Porter with his pal, Cole. They are ready to take on the games and snacks! Watch out bad guys.... Mr. Incredible and Sheriff Porter are on patrol!