Laser Quest!

For Owen's 11th Birthday we decided to do something fun with just a few friends. I ended up finding a great deal on Groupon. I bought 4 Groupon's for $10 each. Each of those Groupon's were good for two people to play 1 game of Laser Tag at Laser Quest. Owen had 2 friends from school come...Mikah & Jordan. The other 3 kids were Jackson and friends Andrew and Josiah. Micah...Andrew & Josiah's Dad also got to play as did Michael. Michael also got $20 in quarters so the kids could play arcade games. Of course they had a blast and of course Michael forgot to take one picture of them at Laser Quest! 

While the kids were playing Laser Tag Kim (Andrew & Josiah's mom), Michelle (Jordan's mom) and I came back to the house to bake the pizzas. Earlier in the day Kim had emailed me an amazing coupon for Papa Murphy's. It was 50% off....so for 3 family size pizzas I only paid $25! 

Once the kids got home they started eating pizza and then they wanted to watch a movie. 

They watched Captain Underpants and of course loved it! 

Present time!! 

Owen had asked Ms. Kim to get him a Minecraft LEGO set and she did not disappoint! 

Jordan got Owen this cool LEGO Star Wars set and...

a Zoom Boom rocket. It is so cool! You throw it up in the air and it has these caps you put in it and then when it falls back down it makes this loud crack sound from the cap breaking. The higher you throw it the loud the crack. 

 Owen's friend Mikah got him another Star Wars LEGO set...it's the Transport ship from The Last Jedi 

For his birthday party Owen wanted a Funfetti cake. I'm horrible with remembering to buy birthday candles. Poor kid only had 3 candles!!! 

I also forgot about the ice cream until Owen remembered we bought it. Better late than never I guess! 

Owen had a wonderful time celebrating with friends! 

Happy New Years!

For New Year's Eve we headed back down to Ga-Ga & Pa's to spend the day and night with them. We watched the Seahawk's horrible game that ended our season, played Catan and ate tacos for dinner. When people were first arriving Pa was taking pictures of each person making a sour face. He printed them out so they would be ready for judging after the game was over. 

Here is Papa's, mine and Michael's. Papa got second place, I got first place and Michael got third place. It's funny because I never make a sour face...even when I eat lemons, but I guess I do a good job of making one. Michael said it was my eyes that won it for me. 

Bill and Christina's were hilarious! I love that it looks like Bill's trying to kiss her and she's not having it! 

The kids were so cute and funny as well. Caleb won first place...Owen & Addison were the runner ups. 

Pa had cute gifts for all of us so no one was really a loser!!! 

We had planned to celebrate at 9pm when New York would be celebrating New Year's, but they weren't showing the ball drop live on TV...they were showing the recorded version so we could celebrate with them in real time here. Not so awesome when you have kids. We didn't realize this until it was 8:59pm. 

Pa ran into the laundry room and grabbed all the goodies they had gotten. Hat's and noise makers.

Oh how the kids LOVED the noisemakers. 

There were also those party blower that unroll when you blow in them. 

All those cute kids! 

Such a great way to ring in the New Year with friends! 

Cheers to a great 2018!

So fun to be with the Kuch Clan for two holidays back to back! 

Love getting to ring in the New Year with the man of my dreams!

2 Eyes!

A couple months ago I was researching Michael and I's 20th Anniversary trip to Hawaii. We have changed our original plans of staying on Kauai to staying on Maui. I was looking at a particular VROB that is right on the water and has snorkeling right outside. I got to thinking that would be fun, but in order for me to see the fish they would have to swim 5 inches from my face since I'm so blind. Then I remembered that Michael has a Veba account and it has been accumulating money for almost 7 years. 

On Wednesday, December 6th I went in for a free consultation at King Lasik. While I was waiting for the Dr. to come in after I had my exam and they were waiting for my eyes to dilate I was talking with God and told him that I wanted it to be all or nothing. If I was meant to have this surgery I wanted to be cleared 100% to have it. No....you're a good candidate, but you might have this afterwards. Nope....all or nothing. When the Dr. came in she said that my eyes were the prettiest she'd seen all day and I was a perfect candidate for Lasik. 

My surgery happened on Friday, December 29th. My mom came up to watch the kids since Michael had to drive me. I was super nervous in the morning. 

I took these last two pictures in the bathroom prior to leaving for the surgery. I posted them on Instagram and FB. 

Once we got to the office they talked with me about which laser I wanted to use. I went with the less expensive one....conventional laser because I don't have issues with glare or halos. Then they gave me an anti-anxiety pill and we waited. There was another guy in the waiting room and he asked if I'd like him to take my picture. This is my last picture of me wearing my prescription glasses. 

The surgery was fine and only took about 10 - 15 minutes, but over that the laser time was probably around 2 minutes. It didn't hurt at all...they had put a ton of numbing drops in my eyes. The only gross part was when I could smell the burning smell from the laser burning my eyes. Afterwards Dr. put some drops in my eyes, examined them to make sure the flap was doing ok and then I put my googles on and we headed out. 

When we got home I went right to bed. I slept from 12:30pm - 5:30pm and then woke up put some of my RX eyedrops in, ate and then went back to sleep until around 10:30pm. Then I slept until the next morning around 6:30am. I had my 1 day follow-up appointment at 9:30 the next day. We just had the kids come with us since it was only going to take a few minutes. At this time my vision wasn't the best. It was really out of focus....especially in my right eye. The Dr. checked out my eyes and said that there were some cells out of place in my right eye. Here's where I wish I had asked Michael to come back with me. I still felt kind of out of it so I wasn't thinking clearly. I wish I had asked more questions. Later on I couldn't remember if she said the cells would move back into place or if they could move back into place. 

After my appointment we had to run a few errands. We went to Sam's Club and then Wal-Mart.   

I took my first selfie after surgery at Wal-Mart. 

My first order of business in regards to my eyes was to get sunglasses. My eyes are normally super light sensitive, but after surgery they want you to wear sunglasses for 7 days even if you are in a bright room. I found these pair for only $5. Yay for being able to buy normal cheap sunglasses! 

Later that night I had a mini breakdown. I was really concerned that my eyes were messed up. I felt like I didn't ask enough questions. I felt like I should have paid the extra money for the wavefront laser. I felt upset for getting myself into this and for not just being okay with having glasses. I felt a lot of things. Of course Michael was there and he got online and started researching things. He found out that the only reason I might have to have another surgery is if those cell that moved started to grow. There were a lot of friends on FB saying that this was normal and that I would heal. It was nice to hear and also nice that people were praying for me. 

This picture was 3 days post op and even though my eyes still weren't super good...especially my right eye...there had been some improvement. My left eye was actually doing really well so that gave me hope that my right eye would catch up. 

At my 1 week post op appointment the Dr. was really great and reassured me that my eyes were doing amazing. I can see 20/20....I even got 2 of the letters on the 20/15 line. They still aren't super crisp, but I can read them. He told me that I was honestly being too hard on myself and that my eyes would continue to heal. In reality it takes up to 3 months to fully heal. After that if my eyes are still not where I want them to be we will go through the whole consultation process again and discuss if I should have another procedure or not. 

8 days after surgery I was able to wear make-up for the first time. During that last week it was still odd seeing myself in the mirror with no glasses, but this was the day that I finally started to feel comfortable seeing that lady in the mirror.

As I'm writing this I'm 2 weeks and 3 days post op and my eyes are doing SO much better. My right eye is still the one that gives me trouble. Someday are great and it's totally in focus and others it decides to act up. I've mainly figured out that it all has to do with dryness. If my eyes are dry they don't focus well. I've been really good about using my Refresh tears drops. I have had to use them less and less so that's nice. I'm looking forward to not having to use them at all. I know that will come with time. My next appointment is at my 1 month post op. 

In regard to not wearing glasses....I still actually find myself either looking for my glass to put them on or trying to take them off. It's so funny how your body does so many things just from muscle memory. I love that I can see when I take a shower now! It's nice being able to see the makeup I'm putting on my face. The other day I was outside in the rain and I didn't have to deal with getting rain drops on my glasses. It's just a bunch of little things that all add up to freedom. 

Changes!

A couple months back I started realizing that Ella's room just wasn't working for her. First off it's the smallest room in the house and she a girl! When we first moved her into this room it wasn't such a big deal, but now that she's older there were certain things that were driving me nuts about it. For one thing now that she's old enough she is responsible for putting her own clothes away. However, her closet is so small Michael had to put in two dowels for clothes to hang on and even when she's on a stool she can't reach the top dowel. So that meant that she would always try to hang up all her clothes on the lower dowel which didn't work so half the time her clothes ended up in a pile on the floor. Also since there wasn't that much floor space or even space to move around her room was always messy! Always!!! 

Here's a post all about Ella's room when we moved it from the bigger room to the smaller room. You can even see a picture of her closet set up. 

At first we had decided that we would move her back into her old room...what was now the playroom, but we would probably wait another year or so. Well...if you know me you know that I don't like to wait to do things. I like to accomplish things....especially things that I know will make our home life easier. The only problem was when we moved Ella into the smaller room Michael had made it clear that he wasn't going to be involved in moving a room around for 5 years and it had only been 3 years since we moved Ella. So...that meant I had to do the moving all on my own. I'm nothing if not determined though! ;) 

On Friday, December 22nd I got started. The first thing I did was organized the current playroom since it was a mess. In doing so I was able to get rid of one whole toy bin. Then I moved most of the remaining toy bins out of the playroom and put them in the boys' room. I went ahead and vacuumed and steam cleaned the carpet so it would be nice and fresh for Ella Bean. I cranked up the heat and shut the door so it would dry quickly. 

That's where things paused a bit because of life. The following night we had Michael's side of the family over for Christmas dinner. Then Sunday was Christmas Eve and then Christmas Day and then we all were sick and so on. I think it was the 27th before I finally got around to working on it again. The next phase was taking things from Ella's old room and putting them in her new room. I did most of that in one day....the pretties on her wall came later. 

After getting her old room cleared out I vacuumed and steam cleaned it as well. After it was dry I was able to move the toy bins into the new playroom. 

Here is Ella's new room! This room is really odd because of the location of the space heater and the door and the closet. I didn't want Ella's bed up against the window at first because of the space heater, but there really wasn't another way to put it. I have the bed moved out from the wall a bit and she knows that she can never throw anything back there at all. I make sure I check behind there as well. It's been a couple weeks now and I've never found anything back there. 

Michael had built this indoor playhouse for the kids a few years ago and at first I thought I'd like him to take it out. It is huge and takes up space, but once he told me he wasn't going to help move things I knew I couldn't do that on my own. The more I thought about it though the more I realized it would be just fine....actually helpful to keep it. For one the playhouse holds all her Barbies...her Barbie dream house,  RV, car...everything. It's a great place for Ella to play Barbie's with her friends. 

Secondly it provides more square footage since Ella can use the area under the playhouse as a play area as well. I put 2 black IKEA end tables under there and this is where she has her Calico Critters, her tea sets and her Journey Girl Doll. 

Here's Ella's closet!!! Ahhhhh!!! It's so big! Now she has an area to hang up her shirts and then a separate area that's higher up for her dresses. Even though it's higher when she's on her stool she's tall enough to reach it no problem.  Michael did actually end up helping me with a few things....he cut and hung up the dowel bar for her dresses and he helped me hang up all her pretties on her wall including her full length mirror that you can't see behind her door. 

As for her old room....

It's now the playroom. It needs a new coat of paint now though. I really actually like the color that Ella's new room is. That fun bright blue really matches with a bunch of her decor so we are going to keep it. There are a couple areas that need to be touched up though. But pink for the playroom is a bit much. We are going to just paint the top the same color as the rest of the house. It will be a nice neutral color. I just noticed that we haven't moved Ella's curtains into her room. That will be something that Michael will need to help me with. I love how simple and clean this room is. I put all the containers that were the same height on the left. The odd ball sizes went in the corner. 

The table is nice and clean and ready to use and the bookcase is awesome! 

The books used to be in the bookcase that's under the playhouse in Ella's new room. I knew that I wasn't going to take that bookcase away from Ella since she'd need it for storage. So....I put an ISO on the FB Buy Nothing page and a lady responded saying she had one. It's the perfect size. I didn't want one that was too tall and could possibly fall over or one that was so small it didn't fit all the books. This one was absolutely perfect! 

The only other thing that Michael had to help me with was cutting a few boards and putting them in Ella's old closet. This is where all the Imaginext toys, Army Toys, Stroller and Nerf Guns are. They are around the corner and out of sight. 

Now that the playroom has been simplified it's SO much easier to keep clean! I have the kids help every night and we make sure everything is put back where it goes. I do the same thing with Ella's room. If I let it get a little bit messy it will just get out of control so keeping on top of it is best. Even if she gets a little frustrated with me about always making sure her stuff is where it goes before bed. 

Christmas Day!

Once we got to Ga-Ga & Pa's we waited a bit for Papa Martin to come and then it was time to open more presents. 

Zeke man got a hug container full of dinosaurs, trees, volcanos, cavemen and bridges. It even came with a playmate to make prehistoric scenes on. 

Ella's big gift was her Calico Critter house. 

Jack's big gift was his Jungle LEGO set. 

Owen got a cool Nerf dart gun! 

Zeke got a couple Pokemon Lego sets.

Ella got even more Calico Critters...she got the Sandy Cat family, a living room set, a baby bedroom set and a bathroom set. 

Owen big gift was his Angry Birds Castle LEGO set. 

Zeke got another Switch & Go Dino to add to his set. 

Jack was so happy to finally get a Pikachu plushie! 

Owen got the 2 movies he loves...Maze Runner and The Scorch Trails. 

Zeke had been wanting a Pokemon sandwich container and water bottle for a long time. All the other kids got water bottle as well. They also all got electric toothbrushes which have been the best thing ever!!! 

Michael got a $100 Amazon card....as did all of us older kids! He also got this HUGE Reese's peanut butter cup! 

From Ryan & Steph Michael got a STEAM card to purchase more computer games. I got a beautiful scarf and a homemade coaster made out of Scrabble tiles with the kids names on it. 

We got Stephie This is Us season 1. We got Uncle Ry some mini-figures he wanted. 

We got everyone the traditional calendar...We got Papa Martin a gift card to Regal. We got Pa a gift card to Black Angus and Ga-Ga 3 cute bendable snowmen.  

Later on when Bill & Christina got there we exchanged gifts with them as well. They got Ryan and Steph these fun aprons since they entertain so much. They got us a couple family games and we got them Ticket to Ride: First Journey. 

As for my sickness....I wasn't sure if I even wanted to come to Christmas, but mom said that I couldn't miss Christmas. Thankfully I wasn't throwing up. I did sit with everyone at the table, but I only ate one small bite of a potato. After a while I couldn't take all the smells at the table so I had to go into the family room. Later on when I started to feel better I did eat about 15 black olives. The salt tasted really good. Of course later on Jack said his tummy hurt and then he ended up puking. An hour or so later he puked again all over the floor right outside the bathroom since it was occupied at the time. I felt so bad exposing Kuch clan to our germs. They were so amazing about it and thankfully Caleb was the only one that came down with anything and I don't think it was even that bad. Owen did say his tummy was hurting so when we drove home on Christmas night the boys both were holding huge bowls in case they puked in the van. Thankfully that didn't happen...I might have lost it then myself! By the next morning Jack was fine, the next day Owen threw up and then was fine the next day. It took me a few days to feel right. Michael and Zeke were the only ones to avoid getting sick at all. Germs don't care if it's a holiday or not!!!