Bye Bye glasses!

I finally did it! I finally had laser vision correction surgery yesterday. It is amazing to be able to see without glasses.

I was really nervous about the actual surgery and recovery. I was to have Lasik in my left eye and PRK in my right eye. This was the safest option for the shapes of my eyes. The PRK is more painful and the recovery is longer, but it is so worth it.

Thank God for valium, though. They gave me a valium to take a half hour before my appointment and when it was time to get on the operating table, I didn't care that they were going to cut my eye and laser on my eye.

Anyway, I just wanted to share the excitement I am feeling of being able to wake up and see!

Host Family

For the past couple of weeks we were a host family for 2 teenage girls from Japan. We had H the 1st week and M the 2nd week.

Here is a photo of the first group of students at the Sayonara party they put on for us.

Here I am with 'the girls'. H was really hard to get to know, her English was really limited and being only 14, she was a bit immature. She was more interested in shopping than looking at the majestic Giant Sequoias, including the General Sherman tree (the largest tree in the world). Nonetheless, we all had fun.

Here is the 2nd group of Japanese students. We had M for a whole week, she was 16 and had a better command of English than the other Japanese students we have hosted.

Here we are making pizzas. M loved helping the kitchen and learning about American foods. She was very enthusiastic about being here and one of her first questions to me was 'Can I call you Mom?' I loved that she really enjoyed her stay and she didn't seem very homesick.

We took her to the beach in Ventura where we built sandcastles, the water was too cold to get in.

M's last day, I took them to the local museum and we had a picnic for lunch.

Later that evening we had to take her to the bus that would take her to the airport and then home. I had to literally put her on the bus, she was sobbing and so emotional about leaving. This was the first time (out of 4) we have had a student cry so hard about leaving.