Monday, February 27, 2012

Eye did it!

I admit, I have been thinking about that title for days....

This past Friday I had lasik eye surgery.
 I have worn glasses every day for the last many, many years.
My sweet husband gifted me lasik for Christmas this year.
I didn't want to know anything about the surgery before it happened, I just wanted to lay down and let it happen.

My husband went with me for the surgery, thank goodness.  It was A LOT of waiting around and eye drops until the big moment.  I do mean moment, it only took my Dr. seconds to fix each eye and I was out of the laser room in minutes!

The first thing that made me a wee bit nervous about the surgery was that the doctor put numbing drops in my eye and then took a sharpie looking tool and drew blue dots on my eye balls!  I had to go to the bathroom to check out the dots, they were there and stayed on through all the eye drops they gave me before the surgery.
The next thing that was a bit alarming was the weepy eyed boy who had just had his surgery and kept saying "it's so bright in here..." over and over again and holding his head down.  My husband had to calm me down and reassure me that I would do great.
The last thing I had to do before the surgery was put on a lovely hair cover, get a green dot placed on my forehead so they knew what kind of surgery to perform ,and put on these medical things over my shoes.


Once I went into the laser room I grabbed my husbands hand and kept repeating "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." I also repeated this over and over again when I had a 6am college class and to pass the final I had to run a mile, my how things have changed in my life....

Anyway, I was repeating this because even though it was a short surgery it was bizarre.  The metal eye retractor was less than comfortable and I had the kind of surgery where the doctor cuts the flap with a blade.  Long story short I could see the flap being cut and lifted and the laser part was completely painless but strange because I could smell the laster. Then the flap was put down and onto the next eye.

I spent the weekend at home with sunglasses on inside and hanging out with these sweet boys.


The other part of my recovery was spent eating, or should I say indulging? 

On the way home all I wanted was a cinnabon and luckily my mom ran out and got me one.  Once I woke up from napping after the surgery it totally hit the spot.

My sweet friend Kristen went to Flip Burger and brought me back a Captain Crunch milkshake....

The husband and I love Egg Harbour Cafe and he went and picked up my new favorite brunch item, get this....sweet potato tots, caramelized onion, bacon, white cheddar cheese, and eggs.  I may or may not have eaten this twice in the last week.

I can't exercise, wear make-up, or touch my eyes for a full week but I can see clearly. It is AMAZING. 
I can't tell you how many times I have pushed up my non-existent glasses in the past 4 days. 
I think it will take a while to get used to this!







Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Superfoods

 Eating healthy is not so easy.  Especially when all you want to eat is pasta and chips.
My husband and I try to eat really well which is a challenge in our house because I don't eat meat and my husband doesn't eat carbs, tricky business.....

Tonight I tried a new dinner with barley and brussel sprouts.
I had never cooked barley before and was a little nervous about how it would taste.

Here are the ingredients:
1/3 cup toasted pecans

1 pound of brussel sprouts with olive oil and salt

1/4 cup fresh cranberries

1/3 cup crumbled gorgonzola cheese
(next time I wouldn't put that much)

1 cup of barley

This stuff was great because it is a little over $1 a box and cooks in 10 minutes!

1 tablespoon maple syrup and balsamic

I roasted the brussel sprouts for about 30 minutes on 350 before adding in the cranberries

Cooked barley.  The texture of this grain is so yummy- kind of like oatmeal and risotto.

Once the brussel sprouts were mostly cooked I turned on the broiler and added in the cranberries.
This was the fun part- I sat on the floor with my puppies watching the cranberries broil and they were popping one by one!  I kept making noises each time they would pop open, good thing no one else was around...

It was a very earthy and healthy meal that I will definitely make again.

For those of you that freak out at the sight of brussel sprouts I encourage you try them again.
They are my favorite veggie right now.

Joy

It is Wednesday morning around 10am and I am still in my pj's with a cup of coffee and my puppy sitting on my lap...I don't have school all week and it has made me the happiest teacher around.  
I have been working on projects around the house, planning for a baby shower, cooking, and relaxing.
I better enjoy my last few days before the chaos begins again.

This year for Valentine's Day I got my husband and I copies of Max Lucado's devotional book called GRACE- For the Moment.  I love it because there is a little piece to read and respond to in the morning and evening. A few nights ago I came across a beautiful passage from A Love Worth Giving
It has reminded me that I am always too busy focusing on what I don't have that it puts up blinders for me to see what I do have! 

You have a ticket to heaven no thief can take, 
an eternal home no divorce can break.

Every sin of your life has been cast to the sea, 
Every mistake you've made is nailed to the tree.

You're blood- bought and heaven-made.
A child of God- forever saved.

So be grateful, joyful- for isn't it true?
What you don't have is much less
than what you do.

I keep going back to this page in the book because these words really stand out to me.  
This is a great little devotional if you are looking for something.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

A lot of love

We have a great thing at school we call LOVE WEEK. It makes the days a little more exciting with sweets, treats, and contests. The negative to this week filled with love is that you can't eat healthy. It is Tuesday and I have already failed miserably. 

Monday started off with a brownie bake off....
I don't want to toot my own horn but I was the winner of the last bake off with my apple pie.
Sadly I didn't go into this contest with high hopes.

I made the salted caramel brownies.
This was my first and last time to make caramel from scratch, no thank you.

I also made the slutty brownies because I was intrigued. 
They turned out to be a mess in my opinion, I could not figure out how long they needed to bake.







 On Monday we also decorated our boxes for valentines.









Monday night I baked some cranberry bread for some sweet friends at work.
The tags have little lemon faces.


I could gobble this bread up all day long. 
It has this amazingly sweet lemon glaze on top.


 Each year I try to create cute valentines for my class.
Last year I made them birds and owls on my cricut.
I think I enjoy making them for my kids more than they like getting them...since this morning I had their cards on their desks when they walked in and the first reaction from a little boy was "Whaaat no candy?"
This year I used my rick rack scissors and cut around cupcake liners to make two different sized circles.

Using my cricut I added stems and grass.


I made an exception this time to use glitter.  Normally I don't like to have glitter anything in my house because it lingers....
I cut out the hearts on my cricut and used Martha Stewart glitter in three different shades of pink.



Today was a busy day at school! Each year I have the kids send in jars full of valentine candy and write the amount in the top of the lid. We have the class estimate how many pieces of candy are in each jar.  The student that guesses closest gets to take that jar home- everyone ends up with a new jar of candy and it is so fun!





 We also had our Valentine's Day party at school today. 
We had festive food and punch and made a cute handprint card.







The kids had a great day and went home with hands full of love!
I on the other hand went home and took a long nap.  
They wore me out!

The husband and I cooked a special dinner and are catching up on the bachelor. 
The perfect night at home...

Happy Valentine's Day!

Tomorrow is candy day at school for the teachers- I think I will stay out of the work room tomorrow.