Yesterday, I took the girls to a new pediatric opthamologist doctor for a vision checkup. It is typically something that we do about 2 times a year. We really had a great experience with this new doctor. My girls both have the diagnosis of congenital motor nystagmus. For those of you without a medical dictionary, their pupils dart/jiggle back and forth under certain conditions- when they are focusing hard, trying to see distances, or especially tired or stressed. The biggest effect is that things can look very blurry. For example, if I am at a park Ari and Lily cannot see me from about 30 feet away. I have to use my voice and wave my arms to feel like they can find me. This may be perceived and not actual but I think it is accurate. Here are some of the things that I have learned about my girls vision. 1. Ari with her current way too strong prescription is 20/200. That is the beginning of a "legally blind" diagnosis. She will be getting new lenses and retest...

This year our primary is working hard to challenge the kids to learn the AOFs. I think one of the best ways to memorize is through music but I find it challenging to sing all the AOF songs in the primary book. When I was a kid we had the best songs to help memorize them. The music contained the AoF and then a little bridge that explained what it was about then repeated the AoF again. The songs were also fun and some were very upbeat. Does this sound familiar to anyone?? After scouring my mom's cassette collection several times, I have never come up with them just some really great other tapes. So I have searched for these songs online every year or so. Finally I hit pay-dirt yesterday on a forum online. (I guess all the time I spent online paid off) No one can find any info on the company so I guess they are long out of business. It is too bad because these songs are awesome. But someone has put the wav files online and jpg of the songbook too. If you are interested give ...

Yesterday the boys had a school holiday so Dave took a day off and we headed for the mountains. My awesome husband loves to ski and spent many hours on the slopes, but that was all before he married me. I would love for him to ski but life happens with a family and budgets exist and it makes skiing a hard hobby to maintain. Plus we spent about 3.5 yrs in Minnesota where you get lots of snow but not a single ski hill in sight-what a waste of snow. The last couple years, I have tried harder to give my husband chances to ski. We even went out about 3 years ago and purchased all the gear at a rental store going out of business. And I close my eyes as I see how much we pay, tell myself it is all worth it, and then smile. (Remember I am cheap so skiing just wouldn't naturally be on my radar.) This year for Christmas I gave my husband 2 lift tickets purchased for a great deal at Costco. First of all, I am used to spending lots of money at Costco and that way I wouldn't stress ...