3 more days to go. . . the list making starts!

It's Monday night as I write this (ready for Tuesday morning) and there's not really much to blog about. Kristen and I haven't been out of the house today! I started making a list of things to pack and got on top of laundry again so I can put clothes to one side that we'll want to take with us. I don't want to wear stuff this week only to have to wash them again near the end of the week to pack! I also got the big suitcase out and have already put Kristen's clothes in it.

Tomorrow (that's today if you're reading this on Tuesday morning) we're off to piano lesson at 10am. Nothing else is on the agenda for the rest of the day. Hmmm, with days like this it will feel like the week is dragging. But I really can't be motivated to do anything else other than pack!

The picture above was taken 3 years ago on my last trip home. I was trying to write Kristen's name in the sand but my sister was taking so long to figure out how to use the camera, the tide start coming in fast and was already wiping out the first letter 'K' :-)

Well as I said, not much to write about tonight so I'm off to bed.

Less than a week!

It's less than a week now! This time next week we'll already be in England, in fact we'll probably be asleep in England! Right now it's 8pm here in Texas. The UK is 6 hours ahead of us so it's 2am on Sunday morning for them :-)

The past couple of days have gone by fast. On Thursday night I went out to book club. This month we read 'gods in Alabama' by Joshilyn Jackson. This was a book I wouldn't have bothered picking up on my own, but it was a good read once I got in to it. The meeting was fun and lively as always. I really do love this club :-) Next month's read is The Maytrees by Annie Dillard. I went out and bought the book today so I can get started on it. It will give me something to read on the plane too. I find the hours can slip away when you're deep in a book, rather than just flipping through magazines.

Last night Kristen had her school friend Katelyn over for a sleepover. Katelyn is a very quiet (and shy) little girl and I wasn't sure if she would actually make it through the night without wanting to go home (it was her first ever sleepover), but she did and the girls had fun together. This morning I took them both round to the pool for an hour after breakfast. What I love about our community pool is it's never too busy (at least not at the times I go). There were just 2 women there when we arrived and they were just lounging on chairs chatting. They left after about 20 minutes and we had the whole pool to ourselves. We only stayed an hour then came home and the girls had a quick bite to eat for lunch, while I jumped in the shower. Then we took Katelyn home, and Kristen and I went off to the book store. I got a couple of knitting magazines and the book for bookclub, and Kristen got some Pokemon books and magazine for the plane next week.

It's been a lovely relaxing Saturday once again. Not an exciting post tonight but I just wanted to write something so as not to keep you all wondering where I am or what we're doing. I will try to make it a little more exciting next time!

One Week and One Day . . . . . to go!

I don't really have much to say about our upcoming trip today. I don't want to keep posting pictures of the places we'll visit or there won't be anything to post about when I get home! So, although the title is about our trip (the countdown continues) this post isn't really.

This post is about 'fashion'! (well it's about clothes/shoes, I can't say I'm that fashionable!) I just realized I never took photos of the goodies I bought while Jason was away and had the camera with him. And I also realized that most of you don't visit my knitting blog very much and I don't post here about when I add stuff 'over there'. So, to kill two birds with one stone I thought I'd add the picture here that I posted on my knitting blog this week. This way you get to see my handiwork (in the bolero I just finished for Moi) AND you get to see the Anne Klein jeans that I bought the other week.

My other goodies included a nice skirt and 2 tops plus a classic white shirt. But I haven't taken pictures of those yet so I can't post them right now. I can post pics of my VERY EXPENSIVE new shoes ;-) I splashed out last week and bought a pair of Coach Sneakers.

I say 'very expensive' because they are the most I have ever paid for a pair of shoes before. I've never really been in to shoes before and just stick to a few pair that are comfortable - but it's kind of boring wearing the same ones with EVERY outfit. So this year, because I'm taking the time to put a 'classic' wardrobe together for myself, I am aiming to build up my shoe collection so I can wear shoes that match my outfits. In saying all that, these shoes don't really match an outfit but I will be wearing them come the fall with my jeans and casual capris :-) I just think they look so cute and I love the peach color on them. They're not to everyone's taste I'm sure.... but I love them!

Today Kiki and I will be going round to the pool for an hour or so. Yesterday despite the heat it was very cloudy until later in the afternoon, so we didn't bother going. Today is bright and sunny with a high of 96!

10 Days To Go!

Ok, so none of you seem to mind that I will keep counting down in my blog titles, so I'll keep doing it :-) Only 10 days to go and we'll be boarding a plane! I can't say I'm looking forward to the flights, there's 3 of them total! The one thing I hate about flying is the landing (I don't really like the taking off part either, but landing is worse).

As a child I suffered from motion sickness in cars and buses. Sometimes I just had to know we were going on a long trip and I'd feel sick before I even got on the bus! As I got older I could obviously travel better in cars, after all I was driving one by that time and I wasn't as bad on a bus either. But boats and planes (cos I never went on these til I was an adult) still posed a problem. The first few times I flew I threw up when we were landing! Then someone told me about wrist bands for travel sickness. THESE are exactly what they are like, but I bought mine over 20 years ago in England. I swear by these things! I have worn them every time I fly since I bought them and I have never been sick once. A couple of times I've felt a bit nauseous because of bad turbulence but for the most part I am ok, and I have never thrown up :-)

Here's what it says about them on that website. . . . The Travel Eze-Band is a knitted elasticated wrist band, which operates by applying pressure on the Nei Kuan acupressure point on each wrist by means of a plastic stud. Because the bands do not use drugs, they do not cause any of the side effects associated with anti-nausea drugs. They are suitable for adults and children.

From what I understand motion sickness is triggered by an imbalance in the middle ear, and putting pressure on your wrist (the place where you take your pulse) helps to alleviate this. Whatever or however, I just know these things work for me!

So, not much going on around here these days now that Connor is away! Yesterday I took Kristen to the pool for an hour and we swam about and played. We timed it just right. We were there for about an hour and a half and then came home for lunch. We weren't in the house for more than a few minutes when I realized the sun had gone in behind clouds and hadn't come out again. Then about 15 minutes later I noticed those clouds had gotten very grey! Then I heard thunder and we got a little bit of rain. Shame it wasn't more rain, we could really use it. . . . the thunder, not so much. I don't mind thunder, I quite like a big storm actually, but I always worry we'll lose power if it's too bad. We didn't, so that was a good thing.

This morning we went to piano practice then to Wal-mart for a few things, and that's been it really. Nothing exciting to write about. All that will come later after our trip;-) Oh and some of you have asked if I will be able to blog while I'm away? Well I will have access to a computer (my sister has one and also has DSL, so it won't be slow) but it's a matter of if I have time. I know for the first week I may just want to soak up every minute with my family so I won't make any promises about blogging. You'll just have to wait and see ;-)

12 Days . . . and counting!

Don't worry, my blog titles won't be 'so many days' and counting every time you check in here! But for today it is :-) Here's another castle I want to visit. Julie reminded me of this one in her comment. This is Bamburgh Castle (pronounced like Edinburgh, but with Bam in front instead of Edin - sorry if that was rather obvious to you, but I thought I would just mention it for those who weren't sure!). Doesn't this look gorgeous? Here is the website if you'd like to read/see more.

Despite the fact that I spent nearly 35 years in England (more than 20 years in the North East) I have to admit I haven't seen half of the sites there is to see there. It's usually like that wherever you live, or at least wherever I live! You just kind of take for granted what's on your door step. Sad to say really, but that's how it is. That's not to say I didn't visit any places, I've seen quite a lot really and vacationed in Wales, Scotland, Ireland, the Isle of White, Jersey and Guernsey. But I know there are many places that I haven't seen in the North of England where I grew up. That probably had a lot to do with coming from a family that never had much way back then and we never owned a car! So I am excited to do a little site-seeing this time around :-) And of course I can't wait to share it with you all too.

I told my sister today that I must remember to bring a journal with me when I come this time. We will be there for 2 weeks and I know from past trips that I tend to forget what I did on what days by the time we come home! That would happen especially so on this trip. One day will just roll in to the next, and the next and the next. Of course I'll remember what we did, but on what days did we do it will be the question! Anyway, I think it will be fun to keep a journal each day of what we did and record Kristen's thoughts of her first 'real' trip to England (one that she will remember this time). It will be fun too to make note of the good old British weather each day too. Which apparently is a lovely 61 degrees right now!!! (and I'm kidding when I say 'lovely')

Today we went to church with my inlaws then out to lunch with them. Next week they will be visiting friends in Dallas and the following week we will be leaving. We won't see 'Grandma' for nearly a month! But we'll see Papa just before we leave when he comes to pick up Boo :-)

OK, nuff from me today. We're having a lovely relaxing afternoon. I've been reading and knitting and Kristen and Jason are playing Viva Pinata! I hope you're all enjoying your Sunday, whatever you're doing.

Let's Start The Countdown!

Two weeks today (probably around this time, 3pm) we'll be boarding a plane to England :-) I am starting to get excited now so I thought I would start talking a bit more about our upcoming trip. First off, we are all making the trip this time. Last time I went home it was just me (3 years ago in September) because the prices of air tickets were so crazy. They are still crazy, in fact more so, but Jason having two jobs now means we can afford to make the trip together this time.

It's been 3 years since I saw my 'sweet Mam', and my older sister and brothers. But I did get to see my other sister last year when we went to Florida and met them at Disney World. My Mam hasn't seen my baby girl since she was 8 months old! It's going to be one special trip to remember, that's for sure. Here's my Mam with Kristen back then.

Unfortunately all the pictures I took from that trip are on my computer at this 'small' size. I somehow managed to resize them all and didn't save the original pixel size! They look ok on my blog but I can't have pictures printed off because they are just too small! I think what I did was delete the whole folder that the originals were in :-(

Anyway, we should have lots of opportunities to take a ton of pictures this time and hopefully not mess them up. Here's my sweet Mam and me back in 2005 when I went to visit for her 80th birthday. . . . .

One of the things I'm excited to do when we go this time is visit Alnick Castle. My niece's hubby just told me about it (when I asked him about some of the things we could do with the kids). This is the place where they film the Harry Potter movies, and even though I'm not a huge big HP fan (I've only read the first book and seen a couple of the movies) I think the place looks beautiful and will be a great place to visit. Here's a link to the Castle's website if you want to see more.

When I asked Steve what else we might do he replied . . . . "Well there's the beach, bowling, Alnwick Castle and Alnwick Gardens (we go there every year - where Harry Potter was filmed), cinema, swimming, a few play parks, the farm, picnics, depends what you fancy - and the weather of course!"

Now can you tell why I'm getting so excited?! Not only is all that fun stuff to do, and Kristen will love it, but we get to do it with THE best people in the world - my family :-) Oh, and for my US friends, 'Alnwick' is actually pronounced 'Ann-ick' !

So, 14 DAYS. . . . and counting!

Just a quick update!

I went for my one week eye check up today and everything is looking great. I can stop using the drops now, except the wetting drops. Which means my eyelashes should stop feeling so sticky, and I can start wearing eye makeup again too. Not that I wear much when I'm just around the house, but I do like to add a little even if I'm just going to the grocery store. My eyelids just look so 'white' without it! My eyes feel great and aren't even that dry now. I do still feel like they are a little vulnerable and I wouldn't rub them like I used to before the surgery, but over time the Dr said I would not feel like that and would be able to rub or touch them if I needed to. I use the wetting drops about every hour.

Connor (Kristen's little buddy from next door) left this morning with his older brother to go visit their Dad in CA. They'll be gone for 2 weeks! And the day after they arrive home, we will head off to England. Which means Kristen and Connor probably won't see each other for a month! And poor Kristen - I don't know what she's going to do most days now that she doesn't have Connor to play with. Emily (the girl 2 doors away) is usually at her grandparents house during the day because her parents both work. So if she does come over to play, it's usually after 6pm! Oh well, I'm sure we'll still enjoy our days. I think I might take Kristen round to the pool tomorrow, now that my eyes have been give the ok. You aren't supposed to open your eyes under water for at least a month after surgery. I had to laugh at that, I don't even put my head under water, let alone open my eyes - so I'm ok there!

Here's Kristen with Nan's two doggies Sugar and Bella. She really had a nice time visiting Jason's grandma (her great- grandma) and her 'GranPoppy' (Jason's Dad).

And here she is with 'GranPoppy' and Nan.

Oh, and I'm not excited or anything. . . . . but we leave for England in just SIXTEEN DAYS!!!!!!!!

Whoooooo Hoooooooo!

Let's Talk Eyes! (Long Post)

I said I would talk a little more about my eye surgery, the experience and answer some of the questions that were left in my comments.

So first off, I have needed glasses for distance since my early 20’s. After a year of wearing glasses I got contact lenses and I’ve worn them ever since, but I always had a pair of glasses that I wore at night when I took my contacts out. I always said I would NEVER have corrective eye surgery because….. well, I figured it must hurt like h!@# and I have a VERY VERY low pain tolerance! Just the thought of the procedure put fear in to me. And I would never have considered the surgery if my contacts had not become so uncomfortable over the past year.

When Jason mentioned a couple of months ago that I should maybe check in to Lasik, for some reason it sounded reasonable to me and not something I immediately disagreed with. After all, over the years I have heard that the technology they used now was so advanced that you hardly felt a thing, and recovery time was literally just a few hours. In fact you walk out of the surgery with immediate results, if a tad blurry, you can definitely see things pretty clear.

I didn’t think my insurance would cover anything like this, but turns out that they do in fact give a ‘discount’ if you go to certain doctors. I didn’t have to file a claim or anything, I simply used the nearest doctor on their list and when I showed my insurance card they gave me 15% off the price of the treatment. I actually later got another discount of $500 because the doctor wanted to reschedule my appointment!

There are different prices for the treatment depending on which lasers are used. The range at this office (LasikPlus Vision Center) was between $899 - $1,999 per eye! I have astigmatism in both eyes and after all the tests I was quoted $1850 per eye (inc tax, and minus the 15% discount). This was later reduced to $1600 per eye. So my total procedure cost $3200 with a lifetime guarantee so long as I get regular yearly eye tests.

Right now, they can only correct nearsightedness (called Myopia, where you can see close up but not things at a distance, which is what I had), farsightedness (called hyperopia) and astigmatism. They cannot correct blurred vision due to age (when you need glasses for reading etc, which is called Presbyopia). Presbyopia happens usually in your early 40’s. I have found in the past year that I needed to use reading glasses on top of my contacts in order to read things clearly or to do knitting. I was told I would probably still have to use reading glasses after the procedure. That is true now to a certain extent. Since getting my eyes done this week I’ve found that I can still read without the glasses but when I’m knitting (because I hold the needles pretty close to me) I still need to put the reading glasses on. This doesn’t bother me at all. What’s wonderful is getting up in the morning and not having to reach for glasses or put contacts in to see.

As for the procedure itself, some people have told me they would give you a sedative, but you could refuse it if you wanted to. I honestly didn’t want to take anything because from past experience (at the dentist) I find stuff like this makes me pretty dizzy and nauseas. On the day of the procedure I was offered nothing anyway (which was a good thing for me). I thought I would be very nervous, but I kept reminding myself that there was no pain involved, and I started praying too. Praying really helped me, I just felt so calm and peaceful that I knew I would get through the procedure and be ok.

And there really wasn’t any pain! There was NO PAIN at all. I was told I would feel a pressure on my eye for a few seconds, but in my experience the pressure that I felt was not on my eye at all. It was more on the bone below my eye. I’ve marked on the picture below where I felt the pressure, and it was a warm kind of feeling. Like someone was pressing their finger on that part and their hand was hot?! This only lasted a few seconds.

Then I had to focus on a red flashing light above me. When the laser was working I could feel nothing happening. There was just a clicking noise, but no feeling of anything touching my eye. Even when the doctor seemed to be using a swab (to smooth back the flap) I could feel nothing. Everything is over with in about 10 minutes! You sit in a darkened room for a few minutes afterwards and the doctor checks your eyes before releasing you and telling you to go home and take a 3-4 hour nap.

When I got home and went to bed, I couldn’t get to sleep! I lay there for an hour with my eyes closed and goggles on (that they give you to wear for the first week incase you touch/scratch your eyes as you sleep) and sleep would not come. And by this time the numbing drops were wearing off and my eyes began to sting and water a lot. After an hour I got up and took some Nyquil! (I was told to take either Tylenol PM or Nyquil if I thought it would help me sleep) and it worked. I napped for about 3 hours. At 4pm I woke up and got up and my eyes felt great. No pain, no blurriness, just a little sticky from the drops I was using and had to keep on using every 2 hours that day.

All in all, it was an amazing experience with very little ‘down time’ and a very fast recovery. My eyes have felt great every since, just a little dry (which to me is the same feeling I had every day at the end of the day with my contacts) and I just have to keep taking drops 4 times a day to fight any infection that might occur and to keep my eyes moist.

If you are thinking of having this procedure done and are scared or worried, I can reassure you, there is nothing to be scared about (a little nervous is natural) but there is no pain to be scared about – so, JUST DO IT J It is SO worth it.

OK, I know this is probably the longest post I’ve ever written so I better end it there. That’s all I’ll say about my eyes for now, so if you have any other specific questions, please leave me a comment or email me and I will reply privately to you and try to answer them.

******Happy 4th July*****

Jason and Kristen left yesterday for a little trip to Amarillo to go visit Jason's Dad and Nan. That's why I didn't get to post. I spent the day doing whatever I wanted, and of course you know that included shopping.

It also included giving myself a little pedicure, putting new nail polish on my toes, drinking some bubbly, watching '27 Dresses' and eating sushi! The movie was just ok, not one I would add to my favorite 'chick movies' that I own though.

So what shall I do today? More shopping? Perhaps! This time I think I will shop for house stuff, like picture frames for our "still not quite finished off" game room (I only just got Jason to put the curtain pole up this week so I can now hang the curtains)! and maybe some plants or garden stuff for my balcony. My shopping trip yesterday was rather successful. I got some lovely things at Anne Taylor at the outlet mall. Unfortunately I can't take pics yet as Jason took the camera. So you won't be seeing all my 'wares' until next week.

Now, about my eyes. Many of you have left questions in your comments which I really would like to answer, so in my next post (hopefully tomorrow, or even later today) I'll try to answer those and tell you more about the experience and the cost/insurance etc. My eyes are feeling great, the only thing I'm having to put up with right now is 'sticky lashes' from using 3 different kinds of drops 4 times a day. But everything else is great. They aren't sore, I can see great (although I do have to wear reading glasses to see things up very close, but I'll go in to detail about that tomorrow). It's just amazing. The funny thing is, I don't really think it's sunk in yet. I kind of feel like I am still wearing my lenses. My eyes are a little dry, but really only as dry as my eyes used to be at the end of the day when I wore my contacts. Yesterday I kept thinking to myself "ooh I must go take these lenses out" but then realized I couldn't, and that the dryness was there to stay - I couldn't make it go away by removing something from my eye! But I use the wetting drops and that helps for a little while. They really aren't as dry as I thought they would be.

So, as I said, we'll talk about more of that tomorrow (for those who are interested in reading more about it).

I do wish you all a very Happy and Safe 4th July. Jason and I have been watching the mini series about John Adams this past week, I have the last one to watch tonight, because I was too tired to watch it the night before, but Jason wanted to see the end of it before we left for the weekend. I think it was produced (or directed, not sure which) by Tom Hanks and was on HBO. I love watching stuff like this because of course I didn't get any lessons on American History when I was at school in England.

******Happy Independence Day!******

Can You See Me Now?

Hi everyone, I'm here and all is well. All went well at the surgery yesterday too. It is AMAZING! For the first time in over 20 years I didn't reach for glasses this morning as I got out of bed. And I'm sitting here now (on my laptop on the sofa) looking around the room and can see everything clearly :-)

I was amazed at all the comments I got yesterday, I only checked my blog first thing this morning, so when I saw so many of you had wished me well and were wondering how it went, I wanted to write just a quick post while coffee is brewing.

Everything went great. What I liked about yesterday was that I didn't feel half as nervous as I thought I would. Actually I was hardly nervous at all, and I give praise to God for that because I prayed for an inner peace and to have no fear, and He answered those prayers. And I just kept asking Him to be with me throughout the surgery, and I felt like He was. I told Jason that he and Kristen could leave and go eat breakfast or something because I had to be at the appointment at 10am and my surgery wasn't until 11am. I didn't want them just sitting around bored waiting for me. But I didn't feel alone. While I was on the table getting my eyes done I would hear a comforting voice in my head saying "I am with you my child". :-) I couldn't believe I was actually lying there getting laser surgery. It was all over within about 10 minutes.

OK, so coffee is ready, I'll be back later with another post.

BSE and EYE day!

I think it's been a couple of months since I added a reminder for a BSE. So I'm doing that today. Ladies, take a few minutes today (probably just 2!) and do a BSE. I did mine last night, because as you know today I'm having eye surgery.

Have a great Tuesday and I will post about my procedure as soon as I can.