So long, old friends

I've worn glasses or contacts since I was in the seventh grade.  It started as a bit of trouble reading signs in the distance.  Sixteen years and three kids later I'm about as blind as a bat.  When I take off my contacts at night, everything is a blur.  I can make out forms but not faces, objects but without details.  Even colors blend together into an unrecognizable mush.  It's a very strange thing to be in such a fog.  

On August 31 I hope to be rid of the fog and the contacts and the glasses forever! (at least until I get old and need readers)  I'm undergoing laser eye surgery and I'm thrilled!  What fun it will be to wake up in the morning and be able to see, to go swim and not lose a contact, and to get to the end of the day without contacts drying my eyes out.  It's going to be great.  Getting to that greatness, however, is a little daunting. I watched a video about the surgery that had me squirming in my seat.  The procedure is quite disgusting!  The nurse assured me that with a little valium the 15 minute surgery will be over in no time.  I'll then spend the weekend resting my scratchy eyes.  The doctor told me that he'd write a prescription for me that included no cleaning, laundry or preparing meals! :)  I'm actually quite looking forward to sleeping for a few days!  --- until then I'll be going back to my junior high days of wearing glasses full time in preparation for surgery ... good times!

Update on Cooper

Cooper has been cast-free for almost 3 weeks now! (as usual I'm a little behind).  He is doing great and we are almost out of the danger zone - the doctor told us to be careful with his arm for a month.  He told us that it was very important not to let him fall during that time period.  I wanted to ask if we could just keep the cast on for another month because trying to keep a 3 year old from falling for a month is absurd!  But thankfully he's had no major spills and everything seems back to normal.



The day of the cast removal was pretty traumatic.  Jeff went with him to the doctor and said he was very brave.  He wasn't bothered at all by the loud saw cutting next to his arm (maybe because he's used to living in a construction zone!).  He did get upset when the doctor started using scissors to cut off the cloth.  Cooper said that part hurt.  He came home upset and spent the rest of the day resting on the couch.  He did not want anything to touch his arm.  I think it was pretty sensitive but by the next day he didn't even seem to notice it anymore.


I am so very proud of Cooper!  He did not complain once about wearing his cast.  That thing looked heavy and annoying and hot but he never let it bother him.  He learned how to do lots of things one-handed and got pretty adept at eating and coloring with this left hand.  In fact, he might be better at coloring with his left hand!  Here's one of his left-handed Spider Man masterpieces ...

At lunch the day after he had his cast removed he asked me if he could use his right hand to eat.  I told him he could use either hand - whatever he wanted.  He smiled, looked at his hands and started eating with his left hand. :)  Sweet Cooper! So glad the "hulk arm" experience is behind us! 

Cast Buddies - a friend at church with a similar injury

This will just sting for a minute ...

We've started renovating the boy's bathroom.  We didn't want to start.  We've been dreading it.  The last renovation is still too fresh on our minds.  But it's like a bandaid, you just gotta rip it off.  It'll sting for a minute then it's all better.  And this time it will so much better because ... wait for it ... this is our LAST project!!  Don't get me wrong, we still have things that we'll want to do to our house.  But this is the last renovation.  No more ripping down walls and rebuilding!  I'm ecstatic!  At least I will be when it's done.

Renovating with 3 small children is no picnic.  And this is probably the hardest one because it is right between the boys' bedrooms.  All week the kids and I have been nomads, spending our days and one of our nights at other people's houses to avoid the hot, dusty mess that is in ours.  I stuck the pack-n-play in the back of the suburban and each day set off to find activities for us to do and a place for the boys to take a nap.  Thank goodness for family in town!  But Jeff and Evan have been working hard on it and it's going fast.  The demolition is complete, termite-ridden studs have been replaced, electrical work has been done.  It's already time to start rebuilding.

Here's what I'm most excited to get rid of during this project ...

This door.  Who designed this door?! It bangs against the cabinets when you walk in.  In order to open the cabinets you have to go all the way in and then close the door.

This horrible, nasty potty.  It leaks water from the tank.  We have containers under it to catch the water that drips every time it is flushed.  It makes the bathroom smell like a gross, musty locker room.  So sick!

The tile.  Blue and pink.  Definitely not my favorite.

Preparing for surgery ...

Scalpel, please ...

The hallway looking toward the bathroom ...

And now the bathroom looking out toward the hallway ...

This picture makes me feel like I need to cough.  I can taste the dust and feel like I'm inhaling insulation just looking at it.  Ick!

Wimberley 2012

As soon as we got home from San Francisco it was time to pack up and leave again for our annual Beard Family Vacation.  We traveled to Wimberley, TX where we stayed last year and had a blast!  It's always so much fun getting everyone together ... all 20 of us!  Hudson and Cooper loved all the time with cousins and Garrett had a posse of babysitters all clamoring for his attention! We swam, we ate, we shopped and enjoyed hanging out!  It was great!  

Here's everyone this year ...

It's amazing to see how much the kids have all grown since last year ...

San Francisco

In mid-June Jeff had a work function to attend in San Francisco.  Lucky me - I got to tag along!  We had so much fun hanging out together, eating yummy food and seeing the sights of San Francisco!  

The first night we went to a Giants game.  We had awesome seats and enjoyed a fun game.  Unfortunately for Jeff, we missed the PERFECT game that the Giants pitcher threw the following day ... missed it by that much!

Let me tell ya that SF fans are serious about their baseball.  Don't even think about standing up when a batter is in the box.  Some people in front of us made that mistake and all the people behind them made sure they heard about it.  The ushers even hold up signs when you are returning to your seat that say "Batter in Box."  You may not pass until the batter has completed his at-bat.  I'm pretty sure the people that sat around us went to every home game.  We were a little out of place in our non-orange attire!  

It's hard to tell in this picture, but towards the end of the game seagulls swarmed the stadium, ready to clean up any leftover food.  It was like a scene out of The Birds!

The next day we went to Muir Woods to see some massive redwood trees.  It was beautiful!

Ahhh ... how nice would it be to live somewhere pretty where baby's breath grows on the side of the road?

We also ran a 5K while we were there.  Thankfully it was by the bay, so no hills for us flat-landers!  It was awesome watching the sunrise with the Golden Gate Bridge as our scenery!  Not so awesome was that we had to get up at 4:30 am to participate (yes you read that correctly!) Luckily it felt like 6:30 to us and the cool weather and beautiful view made for a fun race.

We also had lots of fun hanging out with our friends, Daniel & Lisa.  Daniel's dad got us tickets to the US Open one day which was yet another amazing experience on our trip.  I can't actually prove that we went as I was not allowed to take any pictures while we were there.  No phones & no cameras ... stupid golf rules.  But even without pictures of the picture-perfect golf course (grr) we had a blast and so enjoyed our week away!