Update on Eye Surgery

For anyone wondering, the consultation went well and Dr Patel said I am a great candidate for the lasik eye surgery. I guess I have pretty "normal" bad eye sight, not much of a stigmatism, and healthy eyes. I have been wearing my glasses for over two weeks, which I despise because I have not gotten used to wearing them...okay, maybe I've gotten used to them a little bit, but I still don't like them. I have pretty nice glasses, but I can feel them on my face and see the rims, which bothers me and gave me a headache at first.

Anyway, my surgery is scheduled for tomorrow and I'm excited more than anything else at this point. We have someone to watch the kids tomorrow during the appt and possibly afterwards in case Max has to go back to work for the afternoon. They will give me 5 mg of Valium so that I get sleepy for both the quick surgery (not as much moving) and so that I rest and relax afterwards so that my eyes can heal better and quicker. They say sleep afterward helps. I'll report on how it turns out.

Today we are getting carpet replaced in the living room and master bedroom, so we are just waiting for the people to arrive and get to work.

Thanks to anyone who has been praying for me for this eye surgery tomorrow. I don't feel as nervous after the consultation, but I know that any surgery has its risks and these are my eyes! I may be able to see on my own tomorrow night!!

Consultation

Today I have my lasik eye surgery consultation at the Wichita Vision Institute in downtown Wichita. I didn't get much sleep last night because I was excited/nervous about the surgery in general. The surgery probably wouldn't be until Thursday afternoon if everything goes well at the consultation. If I'm this nervous before just the consultation, what am I going to be like before the surgery? I'll have to drink a lot of red wine and/or herbal tea to calm me down the night before. I could also pray about it...probably the best solution. Anyone out there is welcome to pray for good results and peace for me. I am excited about the possibility of corrected vision to 20/20 or maybe even better (maybe worse, but hopefully not!), but it is still scary having one's eyes cut!

Snow is Melting

Max was bird hunting this morning with some friends from the squadron, so the kids and I went out in the beautiful 50 degree weather and had some fun of our own. After pushing the wagon around for a while, JB and Gloria got in and I just had to take one of them in front of the house.

I pulled them in the wagon to a park about 1/2 mile away and then JB pulled Gloria much of the way back. I thought I had exhausted them outside enough to take good naps, but Gloria had a shorter one than usual and JB is still talking to himself. Oh well...

Gently Snowing

It has been gently snowing all day and this is what has accumulated. Not exactly a winter wonderland, but at least it's snowing! We like snow. It's 12 degrees here right now and windy...a lot like Grand Forks.

Wood Lot Last and The Tree

JB and Gloria (not as helpful, but cute anyway) helped me decorate the Christmas tree this morning with ornaments. JB had fun using the 3-step ladder to put ornaments in clumps. Eventually he caught onto the idea of spreading them out.

The bottom picture on this post is our last time at the wood lot in Colorado before coming back here to Kansas. Our friends, Stephanie and Nathan Bailey, helped us at the wood lot and were good company there too! We are glad to have a Christmas tree from there. It actually came from the top of a tall pine tree that had to come down because it was "ladder fuel" underneath a bigger pine tree.

A picture of a doe up at the woodlot. Lots of deer up there!

14 Foot Christmas Tree

I know, this is not a picture of the 14 foot Christmas tree, but hopefully we will get that on this blog once it is decorated. This is, however, taken on our woodlot where we acquired the Christmas tree. Gloria liked to watch us work from this rock.

I probably will not have a lot of time to write this post because the kids are sleeping in this morning and could awaken at any minute. We have not been taking any pictures lately because of the whirlwind of unpacking and also I have not seen the camera around since Colorado. Max might know where it is, but he's in the vault this week and I'm not able to contact him while at work.

We finally decided to bring in our 14 foot Christmas tree from our Colorado woodlot. We put it in the front hallway, so one can see it upon walking in the front door. It is a huge tree and one that would probably cost over $100 to buy. Since the ceilings in our staircase/entryway are high, it fits there and will look really neat when it's lit up and decorated because it can be admired coming down the stairs and from the windows outside. I think we are planning on decorating it this evening, which should be interesting with two little ones who will want to take things off the branches and play with the pretty ornaments...glass and sentimental ones at the top, cushy non-breakable ones toward the bottom. We will also strive to train them not to take things off the tree and not to pull on it so it doesn't fall on them or make a big mess.

Our house is still coming together slowly, but surely. Now it's just a matter of organizing clutter and getting the pictures on the wall, which should be a fun task. I still am planning on painting the kitchen and taking the border down in the living room. It's not a bad border, it just doesn't go with our stuff. We have a lot of blue, green, and red, which does not really go with a pink and purple border. I look forward to decorating the kids' rooms too, but that could be a while.

The Tornado of Unpacking

Just as an update...unpacking is still the main activity of every day around here. We are trying to get rid of all of the cardboard boxes. Some rooms have piles of things in them that have been emptied from the boxes and still have yet to find a home and/or be put away. The kids are usually not very helpful in the unpacking. I say "usually" because sometimes JB helps to unwrap the items. It doesn't seem to matter to him if it happens to be stuffed animal, a pot, or a small kitchen appliance...it's all exciting to him if it's wrapped.

Christmas should be interesting this year...it's going to be the first year that JB actually has an idea of what is going on both on his birthday (the 23rd of Dec) and Christmas. Candles and cake are the big excitement for him on his birthday. We got a Christmas tree from our wood lot up in Colorado, but it is still outside in its stand because there is too much clutter in the house for now. It's all coming together, just seemingly slowly.

I will post more pictures both of the woodlot and of our home coming together after the tornado of unpacking passes by a bit.

Beautiful Colorado

A view from the Colorado Bremer backyard.

And a curious mule deer looking at our clearing of the wood lot, three acres of wooded property Max and I bought with his parents. It is part of a mountain in Palmer Lake, CO, about fifteen minutes from Max's parents' place.

Horses and Chainsaws

Gloria likes looking at the ponies and horses. She has not ridden a pony like JB yet, but I bet she would love it. JB likes to chainsaw (with a toy chainsaw) whenever his Daddy is chainsawing. There was a tree down at the Bremer place from high winds last week so Max gladly cut it up to use for firewood. Speaking of chainsaws, we have a bunch of pictures from the wood lot where we worked on clearing brush and dead trees, which I will post another day.

More Fun on the Farm

This was Thanksgiving morning, a beautiful morning here in Colorado. The kids had a blast playing outside and petting the farm animals. Stephanie Bailey, mother of Ian (in the red jacket) and long-time friend of the Bremers, captured the rabbit for Gloria to pet.

Gloria enjoyed riding on the back of the tricycle with Ian although they couldn't really go anywhere, except backwards, on their own.

JB is very good with the animals and loves catching the cats around the farm. He goes out to the barn area and says "hi sheep", "wow, you're a big horsie!", and "let me catch you kittie!"

Outdoor playpen

Gloria spent quite a while in this box as JB and others played outside at the big Bremers in Colorado.

We're in Colorado for Thanksgiving Week!

After having our house about 1/5 unpacked, we headed off to Colorado for some cool down time. It is actually pretty warm here during the day with the bright, warm sun, but gets pretty cold at night and early morning. As always, it is beautiful here and we are all having a good, relaxing time and are looking forward to stuffing ourselves with turkey tomorrow!

We are thankful to God for wonderful grandparents for the kids both in Colorado and Boston, for a vacation to relax and have fun, and most of all for the sacrifice of His son on the cross, which has made us free for His glory.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Farm Fun and Hard Work

There was some serious loading of hay going on when we first got here at the Bremer Ranch (farm). JB was eager to help by loading the hay into the wagon, then pulling it over to the stalls. Gloria just watched and fell on her tush a lot. Max and Duncan were sore and tired from moving eleven tons of hay from out of the elements into the hay barns.

Grandparent Fun

The kids are having a lot of fun in Colorado with their grandparents. JB loves making pancakes and Gloria loves doing anything with her Granddude. Gloria has been modeling her winter wear.