Lasik

I've worn eye glasses since I was in sixth grade. In eighth grade, I got contact lenses and have worn them happily for many years. I even experimented with green, blue, and purple contact lenses. 

Last year when I was pregnant, I somehow contracted pink eye. The doctor gave me a prescription for eye drops. I used the eye drops, and at first it got better. But a few days later, I started having the symptoms again. I realized I might have re-contracted it from myself, by using the same make-up. So I threw all my eye make-up away. I also threw away my contact lenses, and put in a new pair.

I got a refill of eye drops from the doctor. Again, it got a little better, and then came back. I realized that I should have also thrown away my contact case, so I did that. It didnt' help. It didn't matter that I had brand new contacts, a new contact lense case, or new make-up.

Whenever I wore my contacts, the next day I would wake up with pink-eye. Consequently I had pink-eye while I was in the hospital delivering Sunshine. I think maybe I developed an allergic reaction to my contacts, so I stopped wearing them. I wore my glasses every day instead, unless I was onstage for Channel Z.

Since I could no longer wear contacts, and was having to wear my glasses every day anyway, I decided it was time to get Lasik. Then I got a piece of mail at work saying I could get an employee discount AND I could get automatic withdrawal out of my check. I was sold!

After my consultation I found out I WAS a good candidate. They asked if I would participate in a study they were conducting regarding the different numbing eye drops. If I participated, I could get my Lasik at 50% off. I agreed.

I didn't sleep at all the night before the surgery, but I was calm that morning as I waited for my turn. I asked if they were going to give me a Valium, but they said that it makes you a little TOO relaxed, and they needed me alert enough to track the light during the surgery.

Prior to the surgery, they put one kind of numbing drops in one eye, and a second kind of numbing drop in my other eye. The surgery would have two parts. First, they would put a giant suction cup on my eye to hold it still while they docked it to the laser machine. Then lasers would cut a flap in the corneal tissue. This part of the procedure is said to be the most uncomfortable, because of the pressure of the suction cup on the eye. However, it lasts only about 30 seconds or so.

Source:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LASIK

They "docked" my right eye, and began the procedure. When the laser began cutting the flap, I could actually FEEL it! It felt like pins and needles in my eye! I have never had laser eye surgery before, so I didn't know how much pain was to be expected, but it hurt! I started crying after they did the first eye, but I was trying to be brave. They thought I was crying because it was "scary".

When they tried docking my left eye, the suction cup kept losing suction. They had to re-dock my eye four different times! You can stand all the pressure on your eye when it's only for 30 seconds, but when they keep doing it 4 times, it's terrible!!! It probably lost suction, because I was inadvertently fighting it. I didn't mean to, but I was already thinking about the pain from the lasers. The laser pain was just as bad on the left side.

This is called a subconjunctival hemorrhage,
 which is the technical term for "bleeding underneath the surface of the eye".
Apparently, it's pretty common, harmless, and resolves in several weeks.

I cried after the flap procedure, and while I waited for the second procedure. I told them I needed more numbing drops, so the second procedure wasn't as bad. They put in a claw thing *not the technical term to hold my eyes open, and peeled back the corneal flap. Then I was positioned under the second laser for the actual cutting of the cornea. Luckily, this didn't hurt, on either eye. They then sort of squeegeed the flap back in place. I was still crying, even though the second procedure didn't hurt, probably from the trauma of actually feeling the first laser.

After the procedure, they wanted me to open my eyes so they could look at them through their magnifying machine *no, that's not the technical term. I could barely even open my eyes. My eyes were burning so bad! I kept them closed as much as I could. I kept right on crying.

Now, I thought I was one of those people who had a high tolerance for pain. Maybe I do, just not when it comes to lasers in my eyes. I also thought I was one of those people who rarely cries in front of other people. But a friend from nursing school tells me I cried A LOT. (It's all the pressure! Nursing school is HARD!) How embarrassing.

I was told to go home and rest my eyes, keeping them closed most of the day. My eyes would be sensitive to light, so I got to wear these glamorous granny glasses.

Leaving the eye center

All I wanted to do was sleep, but I wasn't allowed to. My eyes would dry out if I slept for longer than 30 minutes. I was instructed that I could sleep as long as I set my alarm for 30 minutes, and woke-up to put in eye drops. So for the next 5 hours, I tried to sleep in 30 minute intervals. I also had to wear eye shields for the first 24 hours. I still "get" to wear them when I sleep, for a week after the surgery.

Eye shields will be on this summer's fashion DO list.

So maybe my surgery didn't go exactly according to plan. Still I had 20/15 vision the very next day. I could see my alarm clock when I woke up, and the numbers on the scale. It has been almost a week since my Lasik surgery, and my left eye is still red, but getting better. My eyes feel almost back to normal. I can't WAIT to throw those blasted eye shields away. The tape is itchy, and it leaves adhesive all over my face, that is difficult to get off.

Don't let my story scare you into not getting Lasik done if that's what you want to do. Usually, people who don't participate in the study get BOTH kinds of numbing drops in BOTH eyes. I think perhaps I hadn't had enough of the drops, or enough chance to let them start working. Nobody else that participated in the study experienced the laser pain. And I really can't complain, I can see perfectly and I got a 50% discount. Can't wait to start wearing eye make-up again!

Winner of the One Year Anniversary Blog Contest

And now to announce the winner of my One Year Anniversary Blog Contest.

Brittany Bailey

Congratulations Brittany! She is the proud winner of either an Olive Garden gift card, or a Texas Roadhouse gift card.

A big thank you to ALL of my readers! I appreciate that you are reading, even if you choose not to comment or enter my contests!

I was rather puzzled to note that only one-fourteenth of the people who read this blog, actually entered the contest! Should I even keep doing these contests? Does anybody care? Are my prizes lame?

Business Is Booming

I woke up Sunday morning and went outside to see what Spitfire was up to.

She had gone to the basement and dug out our card table and folding chairs. Then she mixed a big batch of Koolaid, and organized all the neighbor kids into helping with a Koolaid stand. 

They even made posters, and all the kids contributed something for the stand. The girls across the street brought their seashells from Mexico to sell. The twins who live kiddie corner brought some Girl Scout cookies and Hershey kisses.

They sold cups of Koolaid for $1, with free refills. There was a lot of traffic on our street: people jogging, walking home from church, walking their dogs, or out and about in their cars. The kids waved their signs and shouted to the cars. I was surprised how many customers they had. They even offered drive-thru service.

The kids were out there about 4 hours, and made quite a lot of money! At the end of the day, they made $36.00 ($6.00 each)! I'm so proud of Spitfire for her entrepreneurial spirit, her organizational skills, her creativity, and her leadership skills!

Chore Jar--Reward Jar

Recently, Spitfire has been acting so entitled, and so disrespectful, blatantly telling me no, and talking back. Though, this is not really a new thing, it's gotten progressively worse. I realized I was failing as her mother, and that it could not continue. We were having screaming matches several times a day, and all that accomplished was making her upset, and me angry. Spankings (don't judge me), time-outs, and taking her phone away wasn't working either.

Source: http://counselingatheritage.wordpress.com/

She would also waste all afternoon watching t.v., so we would spend all evening doing her homework. Then, she would be too tired to read, or would fall asleep reading. She is responsible for reading a certain amount each month, and hadn't met her monthly reading goal all year.

Then, I came across an idea from my friend Stephanie's blog. Because of a blended family, she and her husband have 6 kids, and she did a blog post about how they handle chores.

Source: http://circusofmine.blogspot.com/

Source: http://circusofmine.blogspot.com/

I liked the ideas she was using, but she has 6 kids to do all the chores, and I only have 1 (of chore-doing age). I wanted to incorporate some of what she did, but felt I needed something to motivate Spitfire too, because I was also having trouble getting her to do her homework and reading.

I knew from working with troubled teenagers, that doing chores helps to teach them discipline, responsibility and respect. When I was growing up, my sisters and I took turns doing the dishes, and we often had to scrub the bathtub. On Saturdays, we couldn't go anywhere until the whole house was clean, and the laundry and yard work done. I would never have dreamed of speaking to my mom the way Spitfire speaks to me. Assigning her chores was clearly the answer.

Now, please don't judge me. I know, as her mother, this shouldn't have been the first time my 11-year-old has been made to do chores. I don't know why I haven't before. Maybe because I HATE cleaning myself. (All the more reason, I should make Spitfire do it, because then I don't have to...hee-hee.)

I really liked the detail that Stephanie put into each chore card, but she only included two rooms in her blog. I did a Yahoo search for "chore cards" and found Organic Families, another mom's blog, where you could print her chore cards for free!

I got a lot of other really good ideas from Organic Families. One thing she does is hold items for ransom left out by her kids in a bin. Then they have to pick a chore from an envelope, and complete the task in order to get the items back.

She also uses a "Polite Plan", which is essentially consequences for things like yelling and disrespecting parents.



Source: http://organicfamilies.blogspot.com/

 I LOVE the idea of consequences and this reminded me of something I saw browsing Pinterest called the Uh-Oh Jar. This comes from another blog, Happiness Is....

Source: http://hilaryishappy.blogspot.com/

Another idea I got from Organic Families is a reward system. She does a point system, and then at the end of the week her kids get to cash in their points.

Source: http://organicfamilies.blogspot.com/

I knew Spitfire would think points were dumb, so I had to come up with something similar that would motivate her. Now it was time to take each of these elements, and make them work best for me and my family.

Spitfire and I talked about this new plan. I explained that there were going to be some new rules, and that it would be a bit of a transition while she learned them, but once she knew what was expected, it wouldn't be as hard. She asked if Sunshine would have to do chores, and I assured her that she would, when she was old enough.

Involving Spitfire in the whole process was key to getting her on board. First we went to the craft store to get some supplies:

Chore Jar/Reward Jar supplies

First we made a Chore Jar. I changed the name from "Uh-Oh" because when you're 11, your mistakes aren't really uh-ohs anymore. I had Spitfire help me come up with some of the chores/consequences. I allowed her to have 3 "Free" squares, meaning if she draws that, she gets out of doing a chore...this time.

Chore Jar chores

She must draw from the Chore Jar whenever she:

• yells at her parents
• tells us no
• doesn't do what she's told
• argues
• is disrespectful
• leaves an item out that I have "confiscated"
• slams doors
• doesn't do her daily chore

Next we made the reward jars. She also got to help me come up with the rewards. That way I knew they would be something she could get excited about.

There are small, medium, and large reward jars. The small jar has simple, inexpensive items that we will try to reward her with the same day, when possible. To earn a medium reward, she must work a little harder, but the rewards are bigger. These things she will probably have to wait until the weekend. The big reward jar has really big ticket items. She may have to wait until a pay period for those.

The rewards inside her small jar are:

Small reward jar

To draw from this jar she must complete her homework, her daily reading, and her daily chore before I get home from work, for 3 days in a row. NO t.v. or playing with friends are allowed until they are done.

To draw from the medium reward jar, she must do the same, every day for two weeks. The rewards inside the medium reward jar are:

Medium reward jar

Then, to draw from the large reward jar, she must complete her homework, get her daily reading done, and do her daily chore, before I get home from work, every day for a month.  The rewards inside the large reward jar are:

Large reward jar

Here are the finished jars:

Finished Chore jar/Reward jars

I use the white board to post her daily chore, any rewards earned, and to help her keep track of how many days she has completed each task.

White board for daily chore assignment

Here are the daily chore cards:

Chore cards

Sometimes I assign her a daily chore that is not on the cards, like bathe the dog, or take a shower, or wash the towels on the laundry room floor.

At the end of each day, I gather up anything Spitfire has left out, and put it into a bag. She cannot have these confiscated items unless she does a chore from the chore jar. Now she puts her things away at the end of the night.

I'm sure a much craftier Pinterest mom could make jars a lot cuter, but I wanted to implement this a.s.a.p., so I didn't spend too much time making it looked finished.

As I expected, the first couple of days were rough. I believe Spitfire earned herself 5 chores from the chore jar for talking back, yelling at me, throwing a fit, telling me no, refusing to do her chore, etc. You would have thought it was the end of the world! I heard, "It's not fair!" and "I want to go live with Grams!" (She doesn't seem to realize, that I lived with Grams--my mom for 18 years, and was expected to do chores ALL THE TIME!)

The second day was better. She only had to draw 3 chore jar chores. By the third day, she drew one chore. Now there are several days when she doesn't draw from the chore jar at all! It is like I am living with a completely different child!

Source: http://best-of-web.com/pages/101122-148277-992042.html

I come home, and her daily chore is done, her homework is done, and her reading is done. She is pleasant to be around. There is a lot less screaming and yelling, and she is helpful.

Don't get me wrong, she wouldn't be my little Spitfire if she didn't occasionally revert back to spitting fire. We had a few days where she decided to be defiant. She decided she would not do her daily chore. She screamed and yelled, threw a fit, told me no, slammed cupboards and doors, stomped her feet, and threw herself on her bed. She earned 11 additional chores from the chore jar, in addition to her daily chore. 

Source: http://looneytunes.wikia.com/wiki/Katie_Ka-Boom
If you don't understand this reference, YouTube Katie Kaboom

She screamed that she was the only one who ever did any chores, and that her dad and I don't do anything. I explained that we both work to make money for her food, and clothes, and toys. Dad does dishes, the yard, the garbage, laundry, the cooking and takes care of Sunshine. I do cooking, feed the dog, laundry, keep the house picked up, and take care of Sunshine. We all have chores.

I will admit that I lost my cool that day, and went back to my old screaming habits. Nothing was working. She simply refused to do her chores. I had to get creative. I took her phone away, but she didn't care. I finally had to erase a weeks worth of tick marks she was saving up for the two week reward jar.

I told her she had 30 minutes to pout on her bed and feel sorry for herself. I set her alarm clock and told her that while she was there, she could think about how much extra work she just made for herself. She could have only had ONE daily chore, but instead she threw a fit, and earned herself a daily chore AND 11 more chores from the chore jar. I told her when her alarm clock rang, I expected her to get up, come downstairs and get to work.

When her alarm went off, she actually came downstairs and got to work. I could tell she was still very angry with me and I wanted to lighten the mood, so I got creative again. I told her part of her punishment was to hug me for 5 minutes. She said no, so I increased it to 10 minutes. She still refused. I kept increasing it until she was up to 20 minutes. You can't stay mad when you're hugging someone, right? And it was a punishment, because she didn't want to do it. She wanted to hold onto her anger for me.

Source: http://busemd.edublogs.org/2011/04/04/a-hug-a-day-will-keep-the-doctor-away/

Overall, I would say that these new set of rules and chores are working. This plan works more days than it doesn't. I just have to stick with it! Maybe it will work for you too!

Not A Triple Threat

In March I heard about a 10 week dance class, called "Dance for Musical Theatre", taught by Repertory Dance Theatre. The invite on Facebook said it was for "anyone who'd like to brush up on their skills, who'd like to have a comfortable place to begin exploring, or anyone who'd just like to come in and have fun making art!"

I've known for a long time, that when it comes to musical theatre, dancing is not my strong suit. It's not really that I CAN'T dance. I can get it eventually, but I'm sort of a slow learner, and it doesn't come naturally to me.

The class was to be held on Sundays from 11:00 a.m. til 12:30 p.m., to accommodate people who are involved in local theatre productions, on weekdays and Saturdays. This worked out perfectly, since I am in a play, and also have band. I could pay per class, or buy a punch card for the whole 10 weeks. I figured, I might as well jump right in, so I paid a pretty penny for the punch card.

The next Sunday morning, I set my alarm, (hey, 11:00 a.m. is early on a Sunday), and arrived promptly for the first class. At first, it was just me and the instructor staring at each other. I asked if the class was for all levels, he said yes. I asked if he could give me a private lesson, if no one else showed up, but he wasn't allowed to. He said that the state requires there to be 6 people in order to hold class. But finally, more people arrived.

We started by warming up our bodies for a whole song. Then, we did ab crunches for a whole song. Despite recently having a baby and not working out, I was able to do crunches for the whole song, without stopping. I was very pleased with myself. I noticed some of the other dancers DID have to stop to take breaks.

Next, we did things like chassés, leaps, and pas de bourrées. I was only vaguely aware of these terms, and pretty much had no idea how to do them, but I did my best to follow along. 

Here's a little bit of background information on my own dance history. I took a dance class from a neighborhood lady when I was about 4 or 5. I have no idea if she had any actual dancing experience herself, but I did learn plié and relevé.

Then, in Jr. High, by some miracle, I made Dance Company. Maybe they let everyone in who auditioned, I don't know. They usually put me in the back row, not because I was tallest, but because you couldn't see me as well back there.

I think I may have taken a beginning dance class in high school, to fulfill my PE credit. Since there were a lot of football players in the class, I wasn't the worst one, but it did take me a while to learn the dance. I also signed up for Beginning Dance for Non-Majors in college, thinking that since it was for non-majors, it would be more my speed. WRONG. I couldn't keep up, so I dropped the class. And that's basically the extent of my formal dance training. Pathetic.

Back to "Dance for Musical Theatre". After our floor exercises, we start learning the choreography. The dance was relatively easy to learn, though the details were surprisingly technical. I was able to keep up with the others...barely. But that mirror! Not only did it accentuate how much bigger I was than everyone else, it also made it apparent how much better than me they were. While the rest of the class looked like this,

I looked like this,

which made me feel like this:

Clearly not a dancer

I felt like I should be in the Remedial Dance class. If only the other dancers were bad beginners like me, I wouldn't feel so stupid. I haven't had the courage to go back, even though I paid a lot of money for it.

Plus, you know, 11:00 is EARLY on a Sunday morning. I think I'll sleep in.

One Year Anniversary--Blog Contest

Today is the one-year-anniversary of my blog! I wasn't sure anyone would be interested enough to read it, but I'm so glad you are!

To celebrate, I am doing another contest/give away. This time, I would like to treat you to dinner. You could win a $25.00 gift card to your choice of Olive Garden,

or Texas Roadhouse.

To enter, leave a comment here, or on my Facebook page telling me:

1. What is MY life philosophy?
2. What is YOUR life philosophy?

Hint: I have a blog post about it.

You will have one entry, per item. Drawing will be held Tuesday, May 22nd. If you win I will mail you your gift card.

Happy Anniversary!

Winner announced here.

Spray Tan Party

I used to be a big fan of tanning. Not in a tanning salon, though I've done that too, but just plain, good old fashioned, laying out in the sun. I used to spread baby oil on myself when I was 12.

Even in my 20's, I would lay out on my lunch break, or come home from work and lay out. But then I hit 30. I started to notice little fine lines, and a lot more moles. And a friend of mine convinced me that white skin could be creamy, milky and sexy. I decided I had better start taking care of my skin. I started wearing spf 30 or higher, staying out of the sun, and wearing hats. I figured white was the new tan.

But then I saw an old picture of me with a tan...and DAMN if I didn't look good enough to eat!

My friend Heidi told me that her sister-in-law does home spray tan parties!

That's not me, but I WISH I looked that good in a bikini!

I thought that sounded pretty fun, so I contacted her sister in law, Sara. Sara owns Glow Skin and Beauty, where she offers a wide variety of services, such as waxing, facials, and nails. She usually charges $35.00 for a spray tan, but for guests of the party it's only $25.00. My friends in the know say, that's a really good deal. Plus, if I had 5 guests or more, I got my spray tan FREE!!! (Ladies, you know you totally want to host a spray tan party now, so call Sara!)

First Sara set up something sort of like a one-man tent in my basement, to prevent getting the color all over my house. Gina was excited to get some color, just in time to go on vacation to California.

My mom and Gina had already been sprayed, so we compared their legs to Amy's pre-sprayed leg. Amy was kind brave enough to be the tent model, provided I made her look skinny in the picture. Can't mess with perfection.

Sara sprays Amy
"I'm sexy and I know it."

One friend (that couldn't come to the party) said, when she had gotten spray-tanned at a salon, it turned out splotchy. In a salon, the spouts randomly squirt at you, while you slowly turn. But as you can see from the photo, Sara has complete control of the gun and the color, to ensure an even glow.

Another friend who couldn't come, said her experience in a salon was that there wasn't enough air pressure to completely dry. This was not a problem for Sara. Her color gun was hooked up to a mini air-compressor, so you dried instantly!

As hostess, I provided cheesecake and drinks. Heidi was super sweet to offer to bring something, so I had her bring a vegi-tray. Everyone had a really great time, and we LOVED our tans!



Pre-tan Heidi, Spray tanned sister Skinny, Pre-tan Me with Sunshine



You get the best results if you exfoliate, shave, and moisturize 24 hours before. Then, you should come with clean, dry, make-up free skin. And you're not supposed to be wearing any lotion, perfume, or deoderant. The color should last about 3-4 weeks, particularly if you moisturize well. I'm planning on doing it again soon, it was a blast!

Here is what I looked like the day after:



Does this tan make me look skinny?



It's hard to see a difference in the photo, but in person you can really tell! No Jersey-Shore orange tan for me! Maybe I'll even have her go a shade darker next time.