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.

Yard Work

Here is one of 2 flax bushes I removed from our backyard.

Here is the dwarf Eureka lemon tree I planted in place of one of the flax bushes. In place of the other bush, I planted 2 tomato and 2 basil plants.

Here is a Camellia bush I plan to move in a spot that might be shadier. Next to that is the Birds of Paradise I can't stand poking me when I walk by the pool fence to the backyard. We moved most of it, but there is one huge part that we are having a hard time digging up.

The previous owners left this wall decoration with cheesy fake flowers. I finally put real flowers in the pots. Unfortunately when we went out of town for a few days the flowers wilted and have never fully recovered.

Here are our front doors, I did spend some time sanding them down, but have a little bit more to do before I finish them.

Here is a very old Little Tikes playhouse someone gave us about 3 years ago. It was in really bad shape, rusted screws and faded colors. I decided to try painting it with that new Plastic spray paint.

It looks much better, although, the paint can be easy scratched off. Still, it was free, except for the paint.

Busy...busy...busy...

I have a bunch of projects I'm working on around the house which I'll post pictures of later when I get a chance.

Here's a list:
plant dwarf lemon tree
plant tomato plants
plant herbs
transplant birds of paradise bushes (which poke us when we walk by our pool fence)
remove "spiky" plants (I don't know their official name)
divide clumps of agapanthus plants in front and back
clean up and divide ground cover plants (forgot what they are called)
plant flowers
paint old Little Tikes playhouse
refinish front doors
touch up paint in kitchen
paint baseboards in kitchen
knit baby blanket

Then of course, there is the usual, cleaning the house, doing laundry, cleaning the kitchen, cooking, etc.

We also have agreed to host Japanese students again. We get 1 teenage girl in about a week, she'll be with us about a week, then we will get another teenage girl for about a week. Are we crazy or what?!

It will be a little more work, but it really is so much fun!

Splashing in Puddles in Napa

snowplay

We found snow in the mountains (in a national forest north of Los Angeles) about 1 hour and 15 minutes from our house. So we got bundled up and stomped in the snow for some snowplay. Don't the girls look cute?!

Olivia had a blast making snowballs and tromping through the snowy forest. We even slid down the small hills on our butts (since we didn't have any sleds). Claire had the most fun knocking down the tiny snowman we built, other than that, she didn't really seem to enjoy it. She had about 15 minutes of fun, then she was unusually quiet the rest of the time. We didn't stay too long, about an hour.

Culturally Impaired

My hubby came up with this description of the town we live in as we came out of the Spanish film, 'Pan's Labyrinth'. It was an excellent film, so different than other films out there. Since it is a foreign film, it is subtitled. I have no problem with that, I love foreign films. As we came out of the theater, we heard people grumbling about having to read the subtitles. I just love this description, it is so accurate of where we live and I so miss culture!

Happy Valentine's Day~

Here are pictues of the girls on Valentine's Day. Olivia had a small celebration for Valentine's Day at school. Claire and I met with friends and went to our local museum for fun.


A few weeks before, my hubby took Olivia to a Valentine's Father/Daughter dance. She was more excited about seeing her friend, E, there. She and E dissed their dads at the dance. It was special anyway.

New project

So I decided to try a new hobby, I was inspired by some very crafty moms on my mommy board so I'm taking a stab at knitting! Ha ha! I went to a local yarn shop where someone taught me to cast on and knit. It's very expensive yarn though so I'm going to have to do some learning on my own.

Here is the first thing I made. The lady helping me started me out with 40 stitches, but I started over a few times and ended up starting with 12 since I thought my first project could be a scarf for Olivia. I'm not sure, I might do it over again because I think it's still a little too wide for her. It's very plain, too. Maybe I should try with smaller needles, too.


Next I would like to knit a baby blanket. I have some friends who are having babies this summer so if I can get any done, it would make a wonderful gift.

I would love tips if any of you are knitters!

Long anticipated pictures...

Yes, I know it's been awhile, I just didn't feel like blogging...still don't, but thought y'all deserved some pictures!

We spent 2 weeks in Texas for the holidays. We spent most of our time in Dallas with my hubby's family. The girls were able to spend time with their cousins who they don't see much. We also went down to Houston to visit a few friends. We tried to get out to some museums, etc. while we were in Texas. I've included some pictures from Christmas, too.

This is from the Science museum in Dallas, they also had a children's museum. The girls had fun with their cousin.

And this is when we went to the Dallas World Aquarium. I was really impressed. When I first went there about 10 years ago they just had a few tanks of fish, they have so much more now.



Olivia's preschool had a little concert before the break, it was really cute. Olivia (in the middle with the bright pink skirt) was shy and hardly sang at all, but she was excited nonetheless. I don't see an entertaining career in her future!

This is from hubby's work kid's holiday party. The girls had a great time and even Santa and Mrs. Claus came...Claire was terrified, of course.

Tree Trimming

Sleeping Claire

Don't kids look so peaceful sleeping??

A couple of weeks ago, I took Olivia to see the local production of The Nutcracker. She absolutely loved it, she was on the edge of her seat enthralled with the entire show. I went with a friend whose daughter is in Olivia's preschool class. We went to lunch beforehand. The girls enjoyed having a grown up day.

2 guys from Ghana

Here are the guys from Ghana that are being trained at my hubby's work. We had them over for dinner. They had the opportunity to try some cajun cookin'. We made red beans and rice with sausage and chicken and sausage gumbo. In Ghana, they are used to eating a lot of hearty stews so hopefully they liked it.


They are really nice and friendly. As you can see, they were great about pushing the girls in the strollers. Saturday night after they came over for dinner, we took them to this light display that is famous in our town. The girls loved the mermaid and the undersea castle. You can also see Claire dancing to the Christmas music that was in one part of the display...the lights in the trees 'danced' to the music.

Claire with a full head of hair...

before she cut her hair. Here she is eating lunch. She also helped me make some shortbread cookies for the holidays.

"Oh my God!", I cried...

She cut her hair! Lesson learned: never leave a child unsupervised with scissors...I should have known better...





So I saw some strands of hair hanging down from the back of Claire's hair. I thought it was odd, then a few seconds later, I realized she cut her hair. I was thinking...well, I figured one of the girls would try this sooner or later. Then I went into the playroom and discovered the piles of hair by the scissors. I was so upset, yelling, "she cut her hair, oh my God"...Claire then got upset.

Oh well, at least she still has lots of hair and it grows fast!