Happy Birthday to You!

Steve just happens to share his birthday with Bradley, Kim and Bob's son. And Bob's birthday is the next day. Kim came up with the idea to have a birthday dinner for all of them together. It was quite a good time for all. Jennia got glasses for the "Birthday Boys".

The pictures show some of our crew. I think Taylor had already left for dance...and somehow Bradley wasn't in the pic with the kids. This must have been when they were blowing out the candles on the cake! Steve had quite a birthday week!

More Fun Stuff

Saturday, I rested my eyes and the rest of the crew headed out to a spring training baseball game. Indians vs. the Dodgers-the only sell-out of the year. Sorry to say, the final score was not in favor of the Tribe. Not that it matters, because it was only spring training. The pics are the gang before they left-all in Indians apparel, Maggie watching the game with the sold-out crowd, and Andrew in the train with Rick-AKA "Ricky Bobby".


Everybody at the game, Christine and Andrew hanging out, and the kids running the bases. After the game, they let kids run the bases. Christine got a ball signed by Bob Feller and Maggie got an official game ball. Andrew played on all the kids' stuff all day.


Sunday, even though it wasn't Steve's birthday quite yet, we headed out to lunch to celebrate. I don't think we've ever been at the Roadhouse for a birthday before-if we have, we didn't notice what they did. They had Steve sit on a saddle when they did the birthday chant. He was a good sport and it was entertaining. Thanks to the Orrs for a great day!

And this is our monkey children with the Gokeys. Hanging out in the trees has become one of their favorite past times. Grandma and Grandpa walked down to the end of the street to take a picture of them-I'm hoping if I don't go down there, no one will realize they're my children! I don't think I got a picture of the kids playing war and Clue with Grandma and Grandpa. They had so much fun-even Taylor is missing playing cards with Grandma!

Grandpa and Grandma Orr

The kids were excited for our second week of break because Grandma and Grandpa Orr were coming to visit! They arrived pretty tired after their three day drive, but the kids still kept them up for a few hours. It was so nice to have them here for the week.

Tuesday, Steve and the kids took Grandma and Grandpa (or as Andrew says "grandpa and grandpa") for a walk up to the club. When they got back they were hot enough to jump into our freezing pool. They warmed up in the hot tub for a while. Then we all got the privilege of watching a show put on by our two dancing queens, Christine and Maggie, in the evening...Andrew just watched the show, but got in for the picture.

Wednesday Tom and Donna got to meet everybody around our neighborhood. We headed to the park in the morning and then went up to the pool in the afternoon. I should rephrase that...before we let Tom head to the park we had him busy in the kitchen making us an apple pie...it was yummy.


Thursday, we headed out to Goldfield Ghost Town. It's right by Superstition Mountain-the most photographed spot in Arizona after the Grand Canyon...I was listening to our conductor on the train ride. We rode the train this time. We had never done that before.

Okay...time for eye drops...more later.

Lasik

I have finally joined the many people who have 20/20 vision without the help of contacts or glasses. Amazing what I've been missing all this time. My eyes are not looking that great right now, but I can see and have no pain. It was not nearly as bad as I expected. One of my friends told me that she could smell her eyes burning when they did the laser. I didn't smell anything.
There was no trouble with slicing my right cornea-I know everyone wants the gory details. My left eye they started and I knew things didn't feel quite right...Dr. Schwartz told them to pull me out and they redid the suction thingy-bob (that's truly the technical term) and started over. The second time was a charm. Then they slid me under the laser machine. The really weird thing was I could see him pull my cornea back and then put it back over my pupil. Then it seemed like he painted it with something green-must have been some type of eye band aid. Of course, this was all after having a valium and numbing-eye drops. I told the nurse/eye tech after that I just needed one Tylenol PM for the ride home...once my eyes started hurting on the way home I took the second one. I went home and slept for at least 5 hours.
When I woke up Andrew and the Orrs were already in bed. The girls had retreated to the loft. I was sitting on the couch and Jennia came over to check out my eyes. I had not looked in the mirror so I had no idea what I looked like. Jennia looked at me and told me I looked like I had been in a fight. I was a little shocked. Steve had failed to mention that to me. When I looked in the mirror I could not believe what my eyes looked like....the entire whites of my eyes were bloody. Real nice, huh? I guess it happens to some of the people that have lasik. It's getting better, but I still look like a vampire. Chuck-Jennia's husband-told me that I look like some character from the Warcraft game when they are in the bloodlust mode. Andrew got up Saturday morning and after studying my eyes for a little bit, told me that I didn't look good.
Today because I felt fine and because I didn't have a back-up plan, I had to teach Sunday school. I started the class by having them all sit in front of me and telling them why my eyes looked like they did. Like most things with kids, it was comical. They wanted a few details and then wanted to make sure my eyes were not going to stay this way...I told them I sure hope not!
So, now I am on a steady diet of eye drops every hour that I am awake. Also, no swimming for a month! I may have to ask about that when I go back in this week....Andrew will get lonely if I don't go down the water slide with him at least a couple times! Plus, it's boring just watching him have all the fun! Time for more eye drops....

Spring Break

One week of spring break down, one to go! I know it's not technically spring, but it feels like spring here. We have been busy the last week. We've had much less of a schedule, but still a lot to do. The kids still had soccer the last two weekends and practice. Christine had basketball practice. We've been playing at the park. We've had a few nights of hanging out in the culdesac. The kids love playing with all the neighbors. Andrew is crazy on his bike. He wants to keep up with all the big boys. The girls have been sleeping at friends and they have had friends sleep over. Andrew is dying to have a sleepover! He just doesn't understand that someone else's mom might not be quite as understanding with the 4AM wake-up for chocolate milk.

We had a pool day on Thursday...a little chilly to swim yet. Under 80 with the wind blowing a little is just not warm without the humidity. The kids had fun playing...but other than Andrew, they didn't go in the water too much.

Thursday started off like a usual spring break day. I went for a run with Hillary. Then Jennia and I were supposed to wash windows. I ran to Walgreens because we needed ammonia. Walgreens is less than 2 miles away and I was gone for 15 minutes tops. I come down the street and I see Dr. Craig-one of the neighbors-walking down the street and his wife standing in front of our house...and I'm thinking "What could my children have possibly done in 15 minutes?" Well, good news for me (not for Jennia), it was not one of my kids. Her little guy, TJ, had broken his nose and Jessica was just escorting her other kids to my house so Jennia could go to the hospital. They did a cat scan and everything. TJ is just going to look like a UFC fighter for awhile.

Andrew joined him in looking like a fighter on Friday. He had quite a spill on his bike. Luckily, he had his helmet on.

Saturday we went up to the club for a St. Patrick's Day party. We had a little pre-party at our house. The kids were excited about the whole thing. They got to go into childcare with a bunch of other kids. All the kids dressed up for St. Pat's day too. Of course, Christine is way too cool for that...her and Skylar, one of our neighbors, stayed home with TJ.

Now our kids are excited for a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Orr!

Birthday Party

We had a birthday party for Andrew at Bounce Jungle. We invited some of his buddies and the neighbor kids from this house and our other house. The kids had a blast! I joined them for a little bit on the slide. I think Andrew was a little overwhelmed by everyone being there.

Shea and Jaden getting airborne on one of the slides.

After bouncing in two different rooms, we went to the party room for pizza and cake.

After we got home, Andrew (AKA Boy Wonder) had his balloons attached to his bike somehow and was riding. He thought he was so cool.

The rest of the pics are on the Orr 5 Photo website.