Birthday and Anniversary BAM 2 birds with one stone!!!

For the fact that I have been out of commission in blogger land, I will be posting more pictures than blabbing. For my birthday (which I demand we celebrate birthdays all MONTH long) we went to Chevy's on the river for happy hour...and had a BLAST!  I was a little disappointed in the happy hour deals, but most pleased with the company!  I think Mike had more fun than me~

For our anniversary we went to OUTBACK and it was so much fun.  I mean some of my most favorite things to do these days are eat out with adults...I love my kids, but never realized how great it is to dine without them.  My gosh sometimes silence is just as enjoyable as gossiping!  It's funny because Mike used to always tell me how different boys and girls are...how when "us girls" go on a road trips we talk the ENTIRE drive (which is true)!  But when he drives with his buddies they sit in silence and listen to the music or just enjoy the silence.  Well....I think I have changed as a "girl."  I am really, really enjoying silence these days.

Happy Anniversary to my best friend and the love of my life!!!! I hope I can make you feel as incredible as you make me feel EVERY day. I love you more than anything and on our Anniversary I just want to thank you for being you. I truly am the luckiest girl in the world! Here's to 4 and to many, many, more!

EASTER!!!!
Nate would not sit with the poor Easter bunny thus leaving Taylor to cry alone...

OKAY OKAY I am getting back on the band wagon....

I CANNOT BELIEVE I have not blogged since April.....we have done so much and the kids have grown so fast that I really need to update.  I have been avoiding blogging because I was so OVER WHELMED by my absence...so I vow here and now to slowly back track to April and update...hear hear!!!

Taylor's One Year Old Pictures

I just realized that I never posted these...These pictures were taken from her one year old birthday!!!! 2 months ago already, can you believe it?!?!

I just love this outfit!!! The tu-tu and bloomers were her birthday present from Uncle David and Aunt Michelle!!!

Oh the joys of parenting! It's all about Nate!

I am constantly laughing everyday.  My kids crack me up.  They might just be the funniest people that I know!  I try and remember things all the time and and rarely recall what cracks me up so much... But now, today I remember!

Some days I do feel like life is just a battle with my kids.  Trust me, I do not take being at home and raising my kids for granted, but I am constantly the BAD GUY.  No TV, no chips, it's bedtime, bath time, dinner time...eat all your dinner, it's bedtime---if you get up one more time----nag nag nag ---get me?  It is EXHAUSTING.

One of my favorite shows is Grey's Anatomy.  One recent episode really hit home!  If you are a Grey's follower then you'll know the exact conversation that I am about to recite between Callie and Bailey.  It started when Callie asked Bailey, C-"When is the best time to have kids? B- The best time to have kids is NEVER.  They cry all the time. NON-STOP.  They never sleep.  They're TERRIBLE conversationalist. And they take up all of your time, all of your focus, all your patience, all your sleep, EVERYTHING & you've got nothing left for you.  C-WOW."  Basically Bailey summed it all up.  She then added the pride and joy that they do bring into your life.  This really hit me because there are good days and bad days...but everyday could not have been as great without my 2 better halves!  I remembered 2 silly little things that Nate did that made all of the crying, whining, non-sleep etc. okay.  The simple pleasures of laughter!  Oh - how much he brings laughter into my life!

Now let me warn you first, this may be lame to you...not funny in the slightest.  But these simple things that I am about to share brought me great joy in an ordinary day!  The first thing is --- I have this mud mask that I apply on my face prior to my shower.  I will put it on while fully dressed and let it dry before I jump in the shower.  I did it like I do on any other day, but today Nathan actually looked at me and noticed it on my face.  He said, "Mom why are you having that on your face?"  I said, "Well this helps my face be healthy."  He said, " Yeah well it makes you look re-dic-you-wous mom, that is just silly, you take that off mom right now!"  I said, "Well Nate, I use this quite often.  i like it."  Finally he said, "I need you to pinky promise you won't do that again Mom, it doesn't look nice."  I thought this was absolute COMEDY!!!

The next thing is--- After dinner (which he ate a TON of) he asked his daddy for some chocolate milk.  Mike said, "Okay you ate good tonight!"  Mind you, Mike usually makes him this protein shake thing that is chocolate flavored, but since Nate has been sick I was giving him chocolate soy milk b/c it wasn't as bad for his phlegm.  He had been in a habit of having the soy chocolate milk.  When Mike went to go make him the protein one he threw a fit and explained that he wanted the soy one...Mike didn't like the idea, but he went along with it.  He poured him the soy milk in his cup and then went and added water to dilute it?????? Well, Nate saw this go down and freaked out. I don't want it like that blah, blah.  Mike was like okay well I guess you don't need anything.  Of course, Nate took it.  This is the funny part---He took it and drank it and said, "This is weird, dad, real weird (tasting the water).  I'll take it, but that doesn't mean I have to like it."  HAAAAAAA WHAAAAAAAAA?  Where does this stuff come from----oh the little joys of parenthood.  They all add up and make the bad days not so bad!  It's instance like this that I LOVE!

I am going to put some pictures in here of course...
Nathan and I finger painted out back today while Taylor napped!  Enjoy~

We also decorated the sidewalk...it was ART DAY!!!

Here is a picture of our first tomato plants in the ground. I plan on doing a before and after (as they grow)!!!

Oh MY GOODNESS---as Nathan likes to say! We have a new PALMER arrival and couldn't be happier or more excited!  David and Michelle had their baby!!! And it is a BOY!!!!  Preston Champion Palmer!  4/7/10  We are so excited for David and Michelle and are counting down the days until they get back from Japan!!!  Congratulations guys--we love you!  Nate and Taylor are so excited to meet their newest cousin!!!!  I managed to get my hands on some pictures!!!  Mike is so excited as this is his first nephew (well blood)!!!

Perfection at its best!

A tisket a tasket

Good bye Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day...hello Easter!  

Time is just a flying.  Taylor is well on her way to "expert" as far as walking goes.  I found myself feeling like a new parent again.  I forgot how hard it is to buy the first pair of "walking" shoes.  There are so many decisions to make. I went with good old Stride Rite...they never let you down.  This is such a luxury to go from having her walk in her slippers to real shoes!!!  Watch out world here comes Taylor ---thank you Grandma and Grandpa Palmer.  

Taylor also got a new swing for the backyard...it is soooooooo cute!  

And of course PINK!!!!  Now while we are gardening Taylor can be with us outside.  I have a feeling she was starting to feel like a caged monkey watching everything from the glass window inside.  Nate also got some new shoes.  He got new Crocs and some flip-flops and then of course the weather changed for the worse...so he hasn't got to sport either of them yet.  

Oh exciting news....we booked a mini vacay to Disney Land!!!  YAY!!!!!!  This will be our first family trip to Disney Land.  I have never been a fan of Disney Land.  Here is why-

~I am a Magic Mountain sort of gal.

~I hate crowds and never ending lines for non-thrill rides

~I have been so many times b/c of softball, every time we traveled down there EVERY team had to go---Can you say OVER KILL

BUT---I do look forward to going and seeing it in a new light, through my kids eyes!  Also, Mike has never been so he is excited...maybe even more than Nathan!

We are flying down there and staying at the Sheraton.  We are going to the park 2 days in a row----SPOILED!  Best part ever---my parents are going.  This means I will have an extra helper and Mike and I can go out and have some "us" time at night WOOOOOO HOOOOOOO!!!!  Party time!!!!  We are not going until May.  

It is going to be a busy month.  Mike's brother David and his wife Michelle are expecting their first baby any day!!  Not only will it be a surprise whatever day the baby decides to come, but we don't know the sex yet either!!!   We are so excited!!!! Go Michelle (and David)!!!!  We can't wait for Baby P's arrival!

Also this month we have our Anniversary and my birthday!!! 

I have a feeling Mike and I will be celebrating our anniversary at downtown Disney! Busy, busy, busy!!!  Hope all is well with everyone!

LASIK the good. the bad, and the ugly

I woke up this morning and could see crystal clear for the first time in my life. It is the strangest sensation to have "naturally" perfect vision when you are used to waking up and stumbling through your morning semi-blindly until you pop your contacts in.

Less than 24 hours ago I had LASIK eye surgery and I couldn't be happier. I'm supposed to be resting my eyes for 48 hours but as you will learn in a few minutes - my body decided to do just about everything opposite of what it was "supposed" to do.

For those of you that don't know what LASIK is, it's a laser surgery that corrects your vision so you don't have to wear contacts or glasses anymore. I've worn contacts for about 12 years and have struggled with the hassle of them. Beyond the fact that they are a pain in the butt I was also sensitive to contact solution, so I had a case of constant red eyes. Over the 12 years I tried different solutions but finally succumbed to the fact that my eyes were never going to be crystal clear as long I was wearing contacts. It has also crossed my mind that the twice a day pulling of the eye area to put the contacts in and take them out can NOT be good for that delicate eye tissue. Hello premature wrinkles!

Not everyone is a candidate for LASIK; you have to be over the age of 18, have stable vision (not more than a half a point change per eye per year), and I don't think you can have a major astigmatism. They also can't guarantee to get you to 20/20 or better if you have really bad eyesight starting out.

I got to my appointment and they immediately took me back to have a few tests run - nothing major, just looking at the "layout" of my eyeballs to help them get the coordinates right (like an eyeball map!). Then they put a hair cap over my head to keep my hair out of my face, plopped two yellow stickers on my forehead, and gave me a Valium to help me relax. The Valium was supposed to calm my nerves and make me a bit sleepy, or as they put it, put me in a "I don't care" mood.

Yes... you are awake for this surgery. Are you queasy yet?

I waited for the valium to kick in and all of  sudden…I felt DRUNK!  Not like wasted, just a little tipsy, couldn’t quite find my footing.  A lil giggly too!

So after about 10 mins they called me back, they told me to lie down on a chair/bed and the doctor put a patch over the eye he was not working on. He put numbing drops in, taped my eyelashes back to my lids so they were out of the way, and stuck in the little thing that keeps your eye propped open. All of this sounds worse than it was. He talked me through the entire process, saying things like, "okay look at the green blinking light, a shadow will come towards your eye, you're doing great". It was all dandelions, rainbows and sunshine.. until the flap cutting part happened. In order to treat your eye they have to cut a flap on the surface of your eye, peel it back, and then laser treat the surface. The only bad part of the whole procedure was the flap cutting. It didn't hurt, but it was a lot of pressure and scariness and then your sight goes completely black and you feel like you have gone blind. It comes back after about 3 seconds though, and you can see that green blinking light again (I was so happy to see that little light). Then the laser comes on and you hear some clicking and you can't feel anything at all, but you can smell your eyeball flesh burning (sounds horrible but it is really quick!). Then they lie the flap back down, put a few drops in your eye, take off the tape, and voila! Perfect vision! Then they move on to the other eye.

It takes literally under a minute an eye, and the laser is only on the eye about 15 seconds. Piece of cake! They numb your eyes up first and give you a relaxant to help calm your nerves (not that mine worked, lol)

I then waited about 20 mins and the Doctor came and looked at my eyes to make sure the flaps were lying flat and then sent me home with goggles. I kinda love my goggles - I was allowed to take them off this morning but I still am wearing them proudly. The goggles give me confidence with the kids both of them seem to have flailing arms and Taylor is learning “nose” and I could just see her missing my nose and pointing in my eyeball…so I think the goggles are here to stay, for a while! I am also going to sleep with them for a few more nights so I don't rub my eyes and dislodge my flaps (which doesn't really ever happen but I am convinced it can).

I was told that I would come home and immediately want to go to bed. Apparently the Valium normally makes people very sleepy so when they go home they just pass out, but he said I could also take a Benadryl if I needed it, which is an over the counter anti-inflammatory that is known for causing drowsiness, and then sleep it off. He also gave me a prescription painkiller in case I needed it, but said patients rarely do. So I went home, got in bed... and nothing happened.  It was the perfect sleeping weather…rainy…dark in my house…and NO KIDS…I couldn’t believe it.  I was like what is wrong with you SLEEP!!!!

7 hours later, I was still wide awake. As soon as the numbing drops wore off I started to feel uncomfortable so I took some Tylenol with codeine thinking it would help me sleep - nothing. After all that, eyeball cutting and all, my body was wired to the walls and wide awake, wanting to do anything except sleep it off like I was supposed to. This was the hardest part - it lasted about 2 hours and there was nothing I could do to distract myself (like read or YouTube) because I had to keep my eyes closed. I had to sit under my blanket with all the lights off because of light sensitivity and my eyes were watering like crazy - not pleasant. That was the part I believe most people are SUPPOSED to sleep through (bad Leah).

I finally fell asleep at 9:30 and slept through the night, waking once at 2:30 for about an hour but then falling back to sleep. I woke up with crystal clear vision - it is amazing! I have a checkup appointment Monday to make sure the flap is healing correctly, but considering I am on here writing a blog post and not lying in the dark with a killer headache I think I am doing alright.

I would totally recommend this to someone who is considering it, and I would do it over again if I had to. I encourage people to do research and make up their own minds though - I had a lot of people emailing me scary stories about how they know people who have gone blind, etc., but that rarely happens. In fact... according to most research there is not a single documented case of someone going completely blind from LASIK. Also, there is a chance I will have to wear reading glasses after I turn 40 - that does not worry me in the slightest.

So anyway, cheers to naturally good vision, no more red contact eyes, and if I get stranded in the wilderness it will not be my eyesight that inhibits me from surviving :) Time to get rid of my glasses!

Fun in some Sun!

Finally...a BEAUTIFUL weekend.  It has been so dreary around here lately with all the grey skies and rain...so bring on the sunshine!!!  We took the kids to the park today.  We told Nate that we were going to go to the park, play, and have a picnic.  We asked what he wanted to bring in the back of daddies truck...he said he wanted his John Deere tractor, bike, b-ball tee with balls, his lawn mower, and he said Taylor needs her "walker!"  We thought it was so cute how he wanted to bring all of that stuff so we did!  I have been waiting for nice weather and the sun to shine so that I could test out the old Nikon camera and I had a blast!  I think I have a new hobby---just what I need right?!  I'll post some photo's with the fancy camera!!!