LASIK and Hammock Beach (Again)

Last Friday was the big day!  The long awaited LASIK procedure.  My appointment was at 3:40 which meant Duncan was able to be home with the kids and Elaine was kind enough to meet me there and drive me home since for obvious reasons, I couldn't drive myself.  One of the first things they ask you after you check in is "Do you need a valium?"  And you're thinking to yourself, "Gee, I thought I was fine but do YOU think I NEED one?"  I said I was fine and really, after having four c-sections, how bad could it really be in comparison?!!  And the answer is...not even close.  The whole thing was anticlimactic, really.  You lie down flat on a bed in a sterile room so at first, it was pretty similar to the whole c-section thing.  They do the procedure in two steps.  The first step is putting some drops in your eyes...no big deal at all.  While the doctor was doing that, he had some James Taylor playing in the background and he was singing along.  He joked "Hey, you get a free James Taylor concert as an added bonus!"  To which I replied "If only I liked James Taylor."  I'm sorry but even though he's from Boston, I've just never cared for him.  Anywho, he then asked me what I did like and I said, "Oh, the Gaithers.  Do you have any of that?"  And he did.  So that is what I listened to during the second step.  I was so relaxed and it was just a no big deal kind of thing.  They put this plastic disk-y thing in the bottom part of your lids to keep your eye from closing, you look at a green light and 15 seconds later you're done.  Okay, yes, there was a smell but it didn't really smell like an eyeball burning up.  And even if it did, isn't it worth it for what you have in the end?  Perfect vision!

After it's all done, you have to wear these black "old lady" sunglasses for the rest of the day and put drops in your eye every fifteen minutes.  So that is a little tedious but again, a small price to pay.  Unfortunately it meant I couldn't take a nap when I got home either unless they were in 14.5 minute intervals.  But I was feeling fine anyway.  My eyes stung just a little but there was no pain or real discomfort.  After that first day, the routine is now to put drops in every two hours and put in an antibiotic four times a day for the first week.  Then it's just the drops every two hours after that for eight weeks.  Yes, you read that right.  EIGHT weeks!  Geesh!  Thats a long time.  BUT, I'm so happy.  My vision is now 20/20 and I could even read some letters on the 20/15 line.  Several times I've reached for my glasses first thing in the morning only to remind myself that I don't need them.  Such a great feeling.  I'm very fortunate in that my insurance covers the cost of this but honestly, even if it didn't, I think it's a worthwhile expense especially the younger you are.  Just think about not needing contacts or glasses for the next several decades of your life!  For a second though, I thought the timing of it was going to really stink because you aren't supposed to swim for the first week and here we are going to Hammock Beach but they assured me that just wading around in the water was fine but to keep my sunglasses on to prevent splashing going into your eyes.

I was very relieved that everything went so smoothly because I had big plans for Mother's Day weekend.  On Saturday night, I met Tangie, Jennifer, Amy, Leslie, Vasti, and Marlissa at Crispers for a late supper (which I had cheated on because I had made lasagna at home and couldn't resist it) and then went and saw a movie afterwards.  A great time with the ladies!  Then, Sunday morning, as anticipated, I had my Corey day.  I did my usual with the Goodwills and then also went to a couple of consignment stores too.  I was really dragging at the end, though.  I had drank some Mountain Dew at Crispers which clearly turned out to be a very bad idea because I had a horrible night of sleep on Saturday night.  Ladies, please cut me off if I have more than one!  Anyway, as things closed at 6 pm, I was so tired I headed for home but called Duncan to say I didn't want to cook.  He had the kids at the pool at the moment but we would meet at the house shortly.  I really didn't want to go out either at that hour so I had the bright idea to just order some subs from Publix and then pick them up.  Easy peasy.  Or so I thought.  They were supposed to be done at 7:05 (you just order it off an app and they give you a pick time) but when I arrived right at 7:05, they hadn't even started them.  I'm telling you this story so you can see how great Publix is.  They apologized profusely and without my saying anything negative to them at all, they said the subs would all be free.  Free subs...the perfect night cap on my Mother's Day!

While I was doing my alone time, Duncan took the kids blueberry picking among other things.  When they got there, Duncan told Brady "Make sure you pick one berry for every three you eat." As time went one, Duncan noticed that Brady wasn't doing anything.  He was just walking around with his bucket.  When Duncan asked him what was going on, he said "You said I could only pick ONE berry."

Colby, the super picker.  Yeah, right! I think he stole Grandma's bucket.

They ate at Winter Garden Pizza.  I discovered going through pictures this week that someone must have taught Brady how to wink recently since he's winking in several pictures.

Where you pick blueberries they have a free boat ride you can do out on the adjacent lake.

Tuesday afternoon it was time to head back to Hammock Beach.  The IT leadership at the hospital was convening there for a few days for some meetings and we were happy to tag along.  I asked Ron and Elaine to come too which was perfect because we love to hang out with them and the extra hands while Duncan was in meetings was greatly appreciated.  We were in the same exact three bedroom layout as when we were with my brother's family and mother in March but this time we were on the second floor rather than the tenth, much to my great relief.  Of course, I realize that if they fell from the second floor they would probably still be dead but when you're so high up, it's like I mentally panic every time they even go near a railing.

Our view from our room.

After settling in and a quick swim, we ended up at Bob Evans for supper and it was Kids Eat Free.  What could go wrong?! Ugh.  Everything.  They brought all the kids food first so they were finished eating by the time we got ours.  Then we finally got it and they had put bacon in my grilled cheese and they forgot Ron's biscuits.  We had told the waitress we wanted separate checks and I specifically said that the girls would go on their check since it was one kid per adult.  Some other dude, let's call John, brought the check at the end and I told him we were supposed to have separate checks.  He comes back eons later and he put all the kids on our check.  Okay, I thought. I'm sure it won't matter.  Obviously we're all together.  So this same John is at the register as we pay.  He rings up Ron and Elaine and then he rings me up.  "Yeah," he says, "it's one free kids meal per adult."  I"m thinking "Are you kidding me, dude?" But I say, "This is why I had said to the waitress that we wanted the girls on their check."  "Well," he says, "I"m going to have to separate things out again."  He fiddles around on the machine looking bewildered and then mumbles to another employee what the problem is and she says "Just deduct them all off that check."  Wow!  What a thought.  As he's ringing it through I say "This has really been a disappointing experience all around here."  Of course, I wasn't really expecting him to do anything because he clearly wasn't the sharpest crayon in the box and he didn't disappoint.  "Sorry," he says not even looking at me and that was that.  But all was not lost!  I used this experience as a teaching tool for customer service on the way back to the hotel.  What a comparison between them and Publix!  Bob Evans...you're fired!

Wednesday morning Duncan had his meeting and Ron went up to Jacksonville to meet with a client so it was Elaine and I and the kids.  We hit the pools at about 10:00 am.  The water temperature had gone up considerably since we had been there nine weeks prior so we could do all the pools including the lazy river.  There's a water slide there as well and Calleigh was quick to grab Grandma so they could go up together.  Grandma came down with a big splash, going completely under water and we all got a chuckle.  She came out of the water exclaiming how fun it was and says "You have to try it, Corey!"  So I grabbed Aubree who was very reluctant to do it by herself and off we went.  Darn if that thing isn't super fast.  We were all over the place going down, water splashing up on us from the sides.  We got to the bottom and I tried to hold Aubree up but she went under as well.  I'm not sure that I did but it seemed like there was a lot of water spraying around.  As soon as I started walking out of the pool I panicked, "OH NO!  WHAT HAVE I DONE?? MY LASIK!!!!"  I am such an idiot.  In such a short amount of time I had forgotten that I wasn't supposed to be getting my eyes wet.  Arghhhh!  Fortunately they felt fine but I ran back up to the room to immediately put my antibiotic drops in.   After that, I didn't let my guard down.

Saw this typical sign at the elevator as we headed for the pool the first time.  Now that Aubree can read it she says "Why would you go down the stairs if there is a fire right behind you?  You should take the elevator instead!"  Excellent point!

The next instance of me losing my mind would come later that afternoon.  After some lunch back in the hotel room, Colby went down for his nap and Elaine took Calaubra out to the beach.  The ocean had also warmed up a ton and the kids had an absolute blast playing in it...especially Brady.  Anyway, as I was lying there relaxing, I got a text from Duncan saying "Our door is open."  I had no idea what he was talking about.  The van door?  Oh no.  Much worse.  He had just gotten a text from Allen who had stopped over our house to pick up some wood from the garage and Allen had found our front door halfway open.  He looked around inside and didn't see anything amiss.  So yeah, I was the last one out, 24 HOURS EARLIER, and had my hands full including a mug of tea in one hand.  How I would possibly have forgotten to shut the front door, I don't know, but I guess it was a better option than the alternative having happened.  But still! This 40th year of mine is really turning into a doozy.

He loved to just run on the beach and look at all the footprints he was leaving behind.

Love these two.  So glad they came with us!

Took a lovely evening stroll down the beach.

If you read my blog from last week about the church retreat, you will recall that the whole Colby sleeping thing was a nightmare...him sleeping with me in the bed, fiddling with my hair all night, and rolling off the bed even.  The first night at Hammock Beach, I put him in his pack-n-play and left the room.  He didn't utter a peep or wake up the entire night.  When it was nap time, I repeated this and again, nothing.  Could this really be happening??!  I could feel the excitement mounting.  Or was he just toying with me and the second night would be a living nightmare?  Believe it or not, the same thing happened the next night and nap.  I am beside myself with glee!  I don't know what to attribute this to.  Did he recognize the place from the last time?  Was it because he was by himself in the room (Caluabra had their own room this time)?  I don't know but we will be testing it out again soon enough.

Calaubra's room.  The second night Brady said he didn't want to sleep with them anymore.  He had some lame excuse why not which I can't remember.  So we put him the doorway of Ron and Elaine's room with the intention of moving him later. He fell asleep in 30 seconds.  

The second day was pretty much a repeat of the first except Grandpa was there this time.  That was a good thing because Calleigh had a few "I'm bored's" going on the first day.  She loves to swim but apparently she needed a friend or something to play around with in the water.  I told her the alternative was to go home and do school work and I think that put her in her place.  In the afternoon, Duncan and I each got a free massage which was soooo nice, obviously.  Duncan's meetings were going until Friday noon but I preplanned for a variety of reasons to head back after supper on Thursday night.  We ate at Ruby Tuesday (much better than Bob Evans) and then I headed out with the kids.  I was thanking my lucky stars that Allen discovered the open door as it would have been awful to get back Thursday evening after dark and been faced with that situation.  Thank goodness for good neighbors...even ones who root for football teams who haven't won a championship in decades.

Good to have Grandpa around!

A few more random pictures before closing:

Loving my boy trying on some sunglasses!

Kids working on various crafts.  Colby was probably mad that Brady wasn't playing with him.

We did food trucks last night.  I had an awesome black bean burger from a new truck.  

Can you say "Awwwww!"

Colby in Sabbath School this morning.

Aubree in hers.  They sang happy birthday to her.  Calleigh was SO mad because they didn't sing to her in her class even though we went to her old class for that very purpose.

This may look like an ordinary letter "B" but ladies and gentleman, I present to you, Brady's first B that he wrote himself!! He did this in church and no I wasn't having him practice letters in church (or any other time for that matter) so it was all his own idea!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!