Celina Gets Glasses!

Celina had been referred a few months ago to see the pediatric optometrist in downtown Jacksonville so on Wednesday we went. Mapquest told me to stay to the right of the fork in the interstate and so I did but it didn't say anything about the second fork! So over the Main Street bridge we went into the land of one way streets. Miraculously I found our way back and I have concluded having driven in downtown Jacksonville many times now that Jacksonville drivers are the meanest!!!

The childrens clinic is very nice and full of interactive train sets and craft centres for kids to use. When it was Celina's turn I was amazed at how quickly she was having trouble seeing the shapes on the screen. I felt so bad. I had no idea her eyesight was that bad! Then they gave her 3D glasses and they opened a book that had a HUGE fly all fuzzy and full of eyes and attenae and asked her to grab the fly's wings. EW! Celina is a girl that actually likeds bugs but even she hesitated. I told the nurse there that they need to get a new picture and she told me that that is the only picture that has ever been used in the profession since she doesn't know when. Great, they have been freaking out children for over 40 years.

Then they had to dilate her eyes and that was when Celina burst into tears. She is always my brave girl but she'd had enough by now. I had to hold her down and the nurse had to pry her eyes open. *sniff!* Later, as we were looking at a book together, she said "Mommy, my eyes are being silly," She looked hilarious!

So then the verdict: She has stigmatism in both eyes and hopefully she'll grow out of them but for now she need glasses. So off we went to choose glasses.

How about these? Sort of toddler meets librarian.



Nope.



Better...



Uh-uh!



Stay tuned to find out Celina's new look!

My Horrendous Hair!

On Friday I decided that I would like to get some highlights and so I set off somewhere that should be called "Head Hunter's Hair Hut" or "Wack N' Hack". I thought that getting my hair done cheaply would suit me fine since highlight are highlights and how can you screw them up? Stupid me.

I walked in the place at 10:30 and explained that I wanted brown toned highlights and not blonde. We discussed the possibility of doing full colour and I opted not to since it would just cost me a whole lot more. The stylist (if she should be called that!!!) declared that she understood and then proceeded to do my hair. It has been quite a while since I have had it done so I was dumb enough not to realize what this woman was doing. I thought she was priming my hair when in fact she was doing full colour. She then did the highlights and when she spun me around I saw in the mirror that the foils were all crumpled. Had she not ever done this before? Apparently she has been working for 3 years....

After she rinsed out my hair and removed the towel I was appalled at my reflection. My highlights were orange!!! I asked her as she was drying my hair and making it frizzier and frizzier if the highlights were supposed to be orange and she said not to worry as they would get blonder after they dried. BLONDER? That's not what I wanted! Somehow in the course of this conversation I found out that she had indeed done a full colour (which was basically my regular hair colour) which was also not what I was expecting! Did she not hear a word I said?!!!

As she continued to dry my hair she suddenly decided that the highlights were indeed orange and that she could tone them so that they would lighten up. Well, I was resigned in having blonde highlights by now which I have had before but I couldn't go home with orange ones instead! So she toned my hair neglecting to tell me that by toning the highlights the all over colour would lighten too. When she was done I could not believe my eyes! My whole head was ORANGE!!! I was upset. This women then started to get a little attitude with me when I told her that everything was now orange. She told me that I could come in the next day and that she could tone it again and lighten it some more but that she could not guarantee that my hair wouldn't fall out! I didn't let her style my hair and she charged me 75$.

I was embarrassed. I still had errands to run! I picked up my girls from a good friends house 4 hours after I dropped them off. I had told them that I would be back in 2 hours max and they had been planning to go to the beach that day. A half hour after I left with the girls a torrential thunderstorm erupted so not only did my day get ruined but I ruined the beach for my friends! (Sorry Brittany!)

I did my errands with a hat on that day. Here is what I looked like:



I should have done a back shot too but I was in a rush as I had to get my money back and make it to another hair appointment. The manager actually asked me as I stood there looking like Hades with my head on fire what the problem was.
Too make a very long story short, my hair is pretty much back to normal (thank goodness!) thanks to a fabulous stylist/ miracle worker. She has cost me $200 so far but I learned my lesson! Here's one last look at me. These pics really don't do the orange justice. I was able to laugh at myself that night (after I cried) and Scott and my parents laughed at me too. There are advantages and disadvantages to Skype!

Scott's Birthday

Scott's birthday was a couple of weeks ago. I felt so bad because I thought he got shafted on his birthday. School was stressful enough with a presentation among other things but he thought he wouldn't get home until 10pm. With those kind of plans we decided to have his cake another day. Plans changed though and suddenly he was home for dinner and no cake! We put candles in his waffle (made in our new and fabulous waffle maker) and took the picture quickly since the candles were clearly top heavy and definitely posed a fire hazard!



He decided for his birthday that he wanted a hamburger cake. We saw some in Publix (grocery store) and they looked kind of cute. His cake had to be made out of red velvet so that when you cut into it it looked rare. Nasty! I decided to try something different and make it with fondant and it did not turn out as well as I had hoped. Not only that but I had heard that fondant is supposed to be rich but this stuff was really gross. Most of us ended up pulling off the fondant and eating the "rare" cake which really did look nauseating when we cut into it. Scott was thrilled. No decent pictures of it though.

Sea Turtle Nests

There has been a lot of excitement lately on the beaches as it is nesting time for sea turtles. They usually come up on shore at night and lay their eggs close to the sand dunes, cover them up and go back into the ocean. A friend of ours told us about one night when she was walking along the beach that it appeared as though a dodge ram pick up had been doing doughnuts on one part of the beach except that the beach was now closed to all vehicles. She later found out from a sea turtle expert that was also there that the mayhem had been made by a 7 foot wide Leather back turtle that had made a nest and she had just missed it! Wow! I can't imagine that! I think that would be incredible to see but really if I had been minding my own business talking a relaxing stroll along the shore and something that HUGE had emerged from the water I would have probably run away screaming. I like to think that I would keep enough of my head to remember Madison and Celina and then run away screaming. I asked Scott about it and he says that leather back turtles are not tall just flat. That makes me feel a little better. (How tall would a 7 foot wide turtle even be?!!!)





We don't usually let our kids run in the middle of the road...







This is a smaller nest. It takes about 45 days for turtles to hatch. Pink tape means that the 45 days aren't up yet.



They are very serious about staying off the nests!



This is the nest made by the leather back turtle. Yes, it is big. This was taken about 2 weeks ago and it now has green tape around it which means that the turtles will hatch any day. We have checked a few times and no such luck yet. After the 45 days are up there are people that come and rake the beach all the way to the water so that the baby turtles have an easier time reaching it. They also do their best to keep opportunistic hunting from the birds etc down. These little guys need all the help they can get!



Just some pics of the sand dunes in bloom. It is home to mice and snakes and ugly bugs. I'm grateful that there are bridges leading to the beach because you couldn't pay me to walk through there! Actually if someone did they would have to pay a huge fine since erosion here is a big problem and the sea oats hold the dunes together!

Celina's Haircut

I decided that Celina could use a haircut a few weeks ago. My girls' hair gets kind of straggly when it gets too long and besides they look so cute with short hair when they are little. Celina was NOT excited about it and was worried that it would hurt. She was very brave though and everything went just fine. I learned my lesson from the last time I took a little girl to the hairdresser to not go somewhere that charges more than 10$. That was Madison and she decided that she could do a better job than her stylist and cut her own hair afterwards. It over a year to get it all one length again.






I asked Celina if it hurt to have her haircut and this is her smile of relief that it doesn't. :D



And we're all done! We brushed out the 80's inspired feathered bangs and that was that!

Work, work, work. Or is it?

While school is out, I have the girls do a few things in the morning and then we play. This particular day I thought it was time Celina learned how to fold socks. I love how stuff like this improves their motor skills too so we got out the MIA Sock Basket to see which socks suddenly had their matches again. Sure enough there were a bunch so Celina played the sock matching game first which she loves to do ever since she found a sock matching page in a Friend magazine. :o) Then I showed her how to take a pair of socks and fold them together etc and voila! The folded socks. Celina, however, was confused.

Celina: Where did the other sock go?

Mommy: What sock? They are both right here.

Celina: But where did the other sock go?

Mommy: They are both right here.

And I unfolded the socks and held them both up.
Celina was thrilled. "Waaaaaaooooooooowwww!!! I wanna do it! I wanna do it!"

I was amazed at her until I realized that I had just shown her a magic trick. This is great!!! She happily folded a pile of socks and then just as happily put them away.



She has also been sorting small and large forks, spoons and knives which for some reason is also fun.



Anytime I am using a spritz bottle Celina MUST help. I try and steer her towards something that won't have its finish destroyed and she cleans and shines to her heart's content. I need to buy more windex.



If no one reads this post and just sees the pictures they will probably think "Wow, what a mean mom to make her kids do all the work!" Well, yes, that's the plan eventually. Just kidding!

This is what happens when we fling a cup of dry Rice Krispies into the air - for fun. We get to find out how to use Dyson the vacuum cleaner and admire its awesome suction capabilities!