Things I Hate

Normally I have a really good attitude, and I don’t like for people to pitty me at all. This post is not intended to be that at all…I was conflicted about whether or not to write it but I also want to be real, and for others to understand what it is like to have this disability. I have my moments, I’m not perfect…so here’s to a post about things I hate about it…with a few praises at the end!

I hate……

When people think I'm a snob because I've unintentionally not seen the wave or offer of a handshake.

The poles in the middle of the isles of stores…Target gets me every time…

Running into little kiddos, especially my own, because I choose to look out, and not down…

Seeing my girls tears because I did knock them down….

That I haven’t seen the stars in years….And I forgot all about it until recently Chris mentioned it to Parker.

That I can’t see in the dark at all, having to constantly walk with my arms extended out to not run into anything and not seeing Chris lying next to me in bed..

Not being able to drive anymore, and having to depend on everyone else to help me with my errands, and losing control over the car radio!!

When people come into my office while I am on the computer and standing there waiting for me to notice them, but I don’t because I didn’t hear them come in.

On the flip side…

I am SO THANKFUL for my awesome family.

I LOVE it when friends call to ask if I have any place to go or errands to run, as they are going out too, Thanks Sarah, You’re the best!

I really like that I don’t have to walk the distance from the employee lot to the Club anymore, front door service is really great, especially in the rain or snow!!

I LOVE hugs and kisses from Chris and the girls, and how quickly the girls forget that I've just knocked them over!

I never half to go to the grocery store alone anymore, which is my least favorite thing to do on the weekends!!

I am also thankful for the close proximity to the mall…I had never thought about it, until my girlfriends mentioned it in bible study, and they were right, I’ve walked to the mall on a couple of occasions already and it’s not too bad. The exercise I will benefit from not driving anymore will do me some good…I was looking for a way to get in shape…not really what I had in mind, but it will work!

Spring Winter Storm

Its weird to have the words Spring and Winter Storm in the same sentence, but that is exactly what happened in Kansas over the weekend. We had hoped to take the girls skiing this winter, but that never happened, even though we purchased all the snow gear for Parker! Well, this weekend it finally got put to use. Here's a picture of Parker with her very small snowman! Nana asked this morning where Parker's snowman was, and I pointed to the very small pile in the front yard...he had melted already. Thank goodness it didn't last too long, as we are all ready to move on from winter, but glad we had the opportunity to use the winter gear at least once!! Brecken is fighting a cold, so she and I stayed inside..

Parker's Day Off

Yesterday Parker and I stayed home and enjoyed some one on one time in the morning. Jacob's Learning Ladder decided to close the toddler 1 & 2 classrooms to allow for the teachers to attend Harrison's funeral. Please continue to keep his family in your prayers. As I understand, his older brother Reagan is having a really hard time with it.

I thought it would be fun to take Parker to Exploration Place! We've never been, so I had Nana drop us off in the morning when they opened and after about 2 hours we had Chris come pick us up. Parker really enjoyed playing, specifically in the water area, and the castle area! On our way home we picked up Brecken from daycare, and everyone except mom took naps, and then afterwards walked to the neighborhood park area! We didn't stay long as Parker decided she had to go to the restroom, so we headed home. Daddy made it home early, so he was there to great us when we walked in the door! All in all it was a great day off! Below are a few pictures of Parker at Exploration Place!!

Oh What A Day

Yesterday was one of those days...It started off normal, with the exception that Chris drove us all to our destinations before heading out for some male bonding/basketball watching couple of days. All was going well until I received a call at work from Parker's school at around 3:00 or so. The teacher called to let me know that Parker had something in her eye, it was really red and they had washed it out. Since I wasn't picking her up, she wanted to let me know...well that was easy I was thinking, she has such long eyelashes, I just assumed one fell in her eye and she would be fine, no big deal right?!
Then the teacher went on to tell me that there was an accident with one of her classmates today, and that he has passed away....WHAT!!..Apparently he was home on spring break and was climbing in a tree and fell out and fractured his skull...This little boy had just moved into her classroom a few weeks ago, so I didn't know him yet. Please pray for this family as I can't imagine the devastation that they are feeling right now. His name is Harrison. Sara wanted to know what I was comfortable with, in them telling Parker...That was NOT what I was thinking about or prepared to answer right away...She's three, how do you handle this with a three year old?? I told them if she asked to be honest, and that I would handle it when we got home..She told me that their response would be that Harrison went to heaven....
When we all got home, and my dad pulled in the driveway with the girls, I wasn't sure what to expect from her. I had totally forgotten about the eye comment, until I opened the door. She wouldn't move, looked like she was sleeping, and wouldn't respond to me at all. I started to panic, here I am, Chris is out of town, my parents have dinner plans, and Parker has an eye issue....and I can't drive if we need to do something...we get her inside, take a look at it finally, and determine she has a stye in the middle of her eye lid. I called her Dr. who is on spring break vacation, and he suggested a warm compress until it goes away, and that it should go away on its own. At this point I'm still panicked, and still thinking I can't drive if something becomes an emergency, Parker needs my attention, and poor Brecken is running around the house looking for attention. My parents leave for dinner, and I'm left to handle both girls. We did just fine, but it was a little stressful! On top of all of this, we had workers in the house working on the master bathroom remodel, and then this friendly guy rings the doorbell to see if I want to buy steaks!!! As politely as I could, I told him he came at the wrong time!!
Brecken and I had dinner, Parker laid on the couch holding her warm compress, and then my dad came back to help me get the kids down for bed. I was SO thankful that my parents were available to help me out in my moment/hour of panic and helped me see the night through. I guess on the positive side, Parker was so involved in her eye, that she never mentioned Harrison, or that the teachers were sad today, so I haven't had to go there with her on that issue. Hopefully this will give Chris and I an opportunity to discuss how to handle this with her, if we have to address it at all! Oh what a day!!
Hopefully today and tomorrow go well, and we'll be really excited for daddy to come home!! Have a great weekend.

We're Ready For SPRING

I love when the weekends come around, especially when it is nice outside, that we can all enjoy being out in the fresh air. We had a full weekend of activities, but the best part was playing outside. The girls LOVE it!

We all went to Church yesterday and Parker made this "hat". I just loved it, so I snapped a photo of the girls together after we got home! If you can't read it, it says "I Love Jesus"

I Loved this photo of Brecken. She's looking at something else, but I thought it was precious of her. She was so excited to be outside, and kept standing up, sitting down and smiling. Have a great week.

Good News!

Well, all last week and this week I've been waiting for a letter to come in the mail from my eye. dr. It still hasn't arrived! I called the office today, and just received a call back. They apologized for not getting back with me, but the good news is that I'm not legally blind yet!! I have 22% of my central vision left....legally blind status would have to be 20% or less....so, I'm within 2%. I have mixed feelings about this. For a moment, I'm thinking we jumped the gun, and I can still drive! Then thinking a bit further.. this particular test was with the brightest of lights, and I took it really well they said, not clicking when there wasn't any lights, thank goodness for that! Being within 2% is still pretty close, and its still probably the right decision to do what we are doing...with that said, we'll keep monitoring it, and when we get to the point of wanting to discuss disability opportunities, then we'll talk more with him about it and get retested to see where we stand.

I've had several people ask me how my first week went with no driving? All in all it was a great week! Parker and Brecken enjoyed seeing Nana in the mornings, and grandma joined us one day! We spent Saturday with Papa while Chris tore apart our master bathroom. It was a fun day, and for the 1st week and a half, everything has gone great! I can't complain, and pray that this arrangement continues to go smoothly and that everyone is happy and content with it.

On another note, other sounds I've noticed with my new hearing aids: The golf shop, where I work apparently has been playing background music for quite some time and Target is very noisy!

That's all for now, I hope everyone is having a great week.

Daylight Saving Time

Normally I am counting down the days to daylight saving, it usually meant that I would have more time at night to run errands if I needed. This year it came a little early, and to be honest, I hadn’t thought anything about it, which wasn’t good for our Sunday morning routine! We got up as usual; everyone took their baths, and got dressed for Church and headed out the door. We pulled into the parking lot, and I thought it looked strange that no one was in the lot walking into church…or cars pulling in to park….I thought for a moment, and asked Chris if it was daylight saving? A moment later, he replied, “Yes, yes it is.” We both just laughed when we realized what we did. Trying to explain to Parker why we weren’t going to Church was interesting, and all day she kept saying, “we didn’t go to church today?” “Why?” We kept explaining, and finally just said that someday, she’ll understand! Chris hadn’t had breakfast yet, and was hungry, so we headed to Jimmies Diner, for breakfast and a chocolate shake…yes, a shake at 10:30 in the morning…The girls LOVED it! Have you ever forgotten about daylight saving?