Esotropia/Amblyobia and Some New Glasses

My oldest has an eye condition called Esotropia.  Basically, he is extremely far sighted in one eye, and his brain started preferring to use the other eye (also far sighted - just not as bad) to see.  As a result, the brain would stop using the bad eye and it would turn in when he was younger, which is Amblyopia.  He has been in glasses since he was four because of this, and we also had to patch the good eye to force the brain to start using the bad eye again.  Those pirate days are behind us now and he now just has really poor eyesight :)

It is time for new glasses and for this first time in his life, he was able to shop from the men section!  Who can believe he's turning into a man right before my eyes?  As most of you with glasses know, the men's section has so many more options than the kids section.  I can't wait to pick up his new pair next week, because he is going to be stylin' in high school next year!

Skechers BOBS?? And .... My Thoughts on Henny Penny

I would normally put something like this on my Facebook status; but since I'm on an indefinite FB fast, you'll have to deal with reading about it here.

I just saw my first commercial for Skechers BOBS.  As usual, I'm late finding out about things, so maybe everyone else has seen the the commercial or is wearing a pair right now.  If you haven't, though, imagine a pair of TOMS. 

Now, imagine that the little tag on the side said BOBS instead of TOMS, and you'd have a pair of BOBS.  Seriously!  I have no idea why this irked me so, since I am one of the few in this country who doesn't own a pair of TOMS.  Did they have to make them look exactly the same, even with a sort of the same name?

I guess in the end, Skechers is doing a great thing, also, as they are also giving away a pair of shoes for every pair of BOBS we consumers buy.  Actually, according to the Soles4Souls website, they give away two pairs of shoes for every pair you buy.  The statement below was taken from the site:

BOBS by Skechers

The philosophy is simple; the potential impact is huge. Buy a pair of BOBS and SKECHERS will give 2 pairs to children in need through Soles4Souls. First donations will begin Summer 2011.

A lifestyle footwear leader and a trusted brand around the globe, SKECHERS has taken this philosophy to heart. Inspired by the good deeds of others, SKECHERS believes they can make an impact that’s unsurpassed – reaching more children worldwide than ever before. 

 

So what do you think?  Ripoff or the more the merrier?


In other totally unrelated news:  my daughter checked out Henny Penny from the school library today.  Can you believe that I didn't know the story of Henny Penny?  I thought I knew it.  I knew the famous line, "The sky is falling, I must go tell the King!"  I even knew some of the characters like Turkey Lurkey and Ducky Lucky.  However, I did not know that all of the other characters get eaten by Foxy Loxy and to tell you the truth, I really didn't see that one coming.  So I guess in all my years, I have never read Henny Penny!  Can you believe it?  It's really not a good story, maybe that's why my Mother never told it to me as a child; or maybe I chose to block it out of memory.  My daughter loved it though, so much that we had to read it a second time.  And if I know her, we will read it another 30 times before returning it to the library next week.

Growing Up

I had my first born son just a few years ago.  I'm not sure where the time went, but he turned 14 this past weekend.  This week I am meeting with a counselor about his high school schedule.  Yes, high school!  He wanted to know if he could invite some friends over to celebrate his day; I agreed, but only his closest friends.  When I was that age I had three close friends.  I'm not sure if I was just not a friendly person (like I am in my old age) or if his definition of close is a bit looser than mine.  He had 9 friends over to spend the night.  With my kids, that was 15 wild ones staying up all night.  Well, one had to go home early, so it was really only 14.

I didn't want to put a clear picture of up the other kids, not knowing if their moms would appreciate that or not.  I do want to point out that the kid on the far right is the boy who fell out of our tree ... and his Mom actually let him back in my house!

It was a fun weekend, he had a great birthday, and he's already looking forward to getting his learner's license next year.

Pollen

The following pictures are for my good friend, who moved to Indiana a few years back; and who I know misses the Georgia pollen dearly.

I didn't capture the yellow sidewalks and porches and cars before our big rain over the weekend; but I did snap some photos for you afterwards, when the waters "washed" the pollen away.

You might be enjoying pollen-less days, but our azaleas and dogwoods are in full bloom down here.  Be jealous.

In my carport

On the hood of the truck

In the driveway

Why I Left Facebook, and Why I Came Back

I've known for awhile now that Facebook was slightly creepy, and also that I was addicted to it.  I faced the fact that is was, indeed, really creepy when I saw a little boy at church (I am FB friends with his Mom) and when I said hi to him, he replied with, "How do you know my name?"  I told him I knew his Mom.  What I really thought was, boy ... I know what sheet set you sleep on and what your working on in school right now because yo mama post everything you do on FB!!  Then two weeks ago I saw a stranger - well he didn't know me anyway - but I knew his name and things about him, all because of FB friends who post things about this guy.  I then declared that enough is enough, life is better with a little mystery; and FB was a time sucker anyway. 

Let's face it, even though I know it's strange to know everything about some people, I couldn't get enough.  Just like the covers of magazines in the check out lines, I would log in to see what the latest gossip was.  I would look up my kid's teachers.  I would hear something about someone I didn't know and I'd look them up just to have a face with the name.  Pathetic.

The first couple of days without FB were kind of hard.  I was addicted to logging on, just "to see" if I had any notifications.  I sat at night watching TV with the iPad in hand with nothing to do.  However, after the 4th or 5th day, I realized I didn't really care anymore.  Goodbye FB, goodbye drama, goodbye teenagers posting poetic lyrics to songs.

But then .... yesterday I got a sweet card in the mail with an unexpected gift.  Guess what the only way I knew how to get in touch with the lady who gave it to me; yup ... Facebook.  I seriously didn't have her number or her email address.  So today, I caved and reactivated my account.  Be proud, I went straight to her wall and wrote a thank you, then straight to my account to change my email settings.  Now, I will get an email if someone friends me, messages me, or writes on my wall.  I will not log on just to snoop.  I will not post stupid statuses anymore.  We'll see how long this lasts.

The Book 7

Through a blog post I was emailed, I found this book 7.   I picked it up last night and I am loving it so far. I'm only on page 30 and already am convicted about how much I waste.  I won't bore you with a description, if your interested you can click on the link to read more.  But I did want to share it with you, because I have a feeling I'm going to love this book and it might just be a life changer.

Such a Funny Video

I happened to look up Field of Dreams on IMDB the other day, and Field of Dreams 2 popped up on the auto-finisher.  I scoffed and couldn't believe they would even try to make a second one.  Then I realized it was just a short and a spoof - and a funny one at that.  Check it out.

I'm Older

I know this isn't a good picture, but I wanted you to see what laziness looks like.  Do you see how my boys put patio chairs on a see saw?  I guess it's just too hard to sit up straight for too long.

It's also been a crazy mild winter.  The azaleas are already in bloom, the AC has had to be turned on upstairs, and the younger ones have been begging to go swimming.  While it's not quite warm enough for a pool, Derek did concede to let them wash his motorcycle and get a little wet.

In other news, I turned 36 a few weeks ago.  It was probably the best birthday I've had in at least a year.  I had a facial, a massage, a steak dinner cooked by my wonderful Mother, my favorite cake - a pound cake, and a date with my man to Avenue Q.  However, two days later, I found a long hair on my chin and it all went to pot.  This getting older is for the birds.

Bye Bye Puppies

It was time to give the puppies away this past weekend.  Ole Blue Eyes (pictured below) was such a beautiful boy that I just knew he'd be the first to go.  Can you believe he was the last to be picked?  Even the runt with a bad back leg was chosen before him!

It only took an hour and a half to give them away sitting in the Wal-Mart parking lot.  If that's all it takes, then why get Tippy fixed?  I think we should just let her have a few more litters because it's so much fun.  No, I guess we'll make Bob Barker proud and do the right thing by controlling the pet population.