Scenes from September

Here's a little more of what we did in September.  First, I turned 35.  Booo....  But I was lucky enough to have my parents come up for a visit that weekend!  And I got to eat cake, so of course, that always makes for a good birthday...

While my parents were here, we all (minus the kids) went to the Sox-Rays game.  The Sox won, and it was a little chilly but we all had a good time anyway!  Here we are up on the Budweiser Pavilion.  I like the guy to the right making that creepy face...

One of Todd's co-workers went to Afghanistan for work for a few months.  He brought back presents for everyone, including this interesting hat, which we put on Grant!

Lastly, I caught this cute moment between Todd and Natalie while they were working on putting together a fairy mobile at the dinner table.  They looked so cute working on it together!

Trip to the Cape

Every year, Todd and I make a point to join our friends Cooch and Karen at the Cucci family beach house in Wellfleet for a fun weekend away from the kids.  This year, it happened to coincide with my eye surgery, and this turned out to be a VERY good thing, since I could barely keep my eyes open all weekend.  (Warning: Unattractive sunglasses featured below!)

KK so graciously watched the kids for us while we went to my recovery weekend away.  This is how I spent Saturday.  With a shirt over my head.  Note the sunglasses on TOP of the shirt.  Dude, I'm really white.  More trips to the beach next summer, please!

This is how Todd spent his Saturday.  Practicing handstands on the beach in Wellfleet!  We spent the day at the beach, drinking cold beverages, as prescribed by my eye doctor.

We ate a nice dinner outside on Saturday evening.  Lobstahs, steamers, corn on the cob, yum.  This is me, in my awesome granny glasses trying a steamer for the first time.  Not bad, but kinda chewy. 

Hail hail the gangs all here!  It took everything I had to keep my eyes open in this picture.  Mmm, non paleo corn on the cob!  After dinner, we enjoyed the bonfire, some s'mores, some more drinks, and then I promptly enjoyed 12 hours of sleep!  That is the first time in YEARS that I have slept that much.  It was really good for my eyes.

Sunday, we went after breakfast to pick up the kids at KK's house.  We spent the day there as Todd did some outdoor chores for KK as a thanks for watching the kids.  I kept my eyes closed.  In the evening, we ate outside.  The kids were thrilled to eat outside, especially Natalie.  Then we made s'mores in KK's fire pit.  I thought Natalie would go wild for the s'mores, but not so much.  She hasn't been a huge chocolate fan lately.  Look how big my kiddos look in the picture below with cousin Seth!  So cute in their jammies...

Grant loves ribs

This post reminds me of my Uncle Harry, and how he can perfectly imitate the "It's McRib time at McDonalds!  CHOMP" commercial!

Laser Eye Surgery

I FINALLY had laser eye surgery! 

Long story... After 7 and a half years, I left Dewberry for a position as the Flood Hazard Mapping Coordinator for the state of Massachusetts.  However, before I left, I had about $1700 in my flexible health spending account that had to be used before I left, otherwise it would have been taken from me.  NOT COOL.  Thankfully, the hubs purchased a "Buy With Me" for laser eye surgery with Dr. Leibole at Newton Wellesley Eye Care and Laser Surgery.  Dude was AWESOME.  I mean - I have never quite had the level of customer service ANYWHERE that I have with this place.  His office was amazing, and I thoroughly recommend them!

Here I am saying goodbye to my glasses for the last time!

The surgery was really quick, maybe 2 hours tops from the time I got there to the time I left.  So afterward, we went to Morse Tavern for a Pumpkinhead Ale!  I asked Dr. Leibole about taking Advil or Tylenol, and he said neither of those would do much for me, given I had exposed nerve endings in my eyes!  So I said, "How about whiskey!?!"  And he said, "That is probably the best thing for you!"  Sweet.

It was difficult for me to even keep my eyes open after the surgery.  I had this one beer, an appetizer with Todd, and went home and slept for a few hours!

When you sleep, you have to wear these awesome eye patches.  They are hard plastic, with terribly sticky tape that never comes off of your face.  Plus, you have to take about a million eye drops for many weeks after the surgery.  I was in a good amount of annoyance/irritation after the surgery- not so much pain as it was just generally irritating to the eyes.  I compared it to a cat licking my eyeballs.  Ewwww...