Mowing in the dark

I HAD to mow the grass today. The back yard was a field (that's no exaggeration) and the front yard already needed mowing from just a few days ago. And it's supposed to rain, again, tonight. I don't mind the rain because then I don't have to water the grass, but when the grass is like 10 inches tall in some places, rain won't make it easier to mow.

So anyway, after dinner I ran outside and trimmed and mowed the front yard and then mowed the back but wasn't finished until well after dark. Honestly I need to go over it again in another direction to make sure it looks alright plus to make sure I have picked up all the clippings. But in the dark that isn't so easy, so it will have to wait.

Today Grace had an eye doctor appointment down in Glenview. We left around Noon and got into the waiting room at 12:45. Grace was very nervous about going. It seems that putting drops in her eyes makes her very anxious. They didn't put any in her eyes, but she knows they do sometimes and so it's all about the anxiety leading up to and during the visit.

The reason we were going was a checkup to see how her lazy eye and crossed eye (same eye) are doing. Through patching the good eye over the last year or so the lazy eye has gone away. The doctor checks that each time just to make sure. For the crossed eye, he checks how crossed it is to determine if he should still recommend surgery. Her crossed eye percentage has basically not changed over the last three months and so he is of course again recommending surgery.

As much as we initially didn't want to do the surgery, we've resolved that it is probably the best thing for her and have decided to go ahead and bite the bullet and get the surgery scheduled and get this behind us so she'll have some depth perception. Basically right now she has no depth perception and the sooner we do the surgery to correct the problem to better her long-term outlook for depth perception will be. Obviously this is the ultimate goal is to have the eye not be crossed and have her be able to have good depth perception. If somehow through all of this she doesn't need glasses in a few years (the doctor said usually around 10-12 years old they usually start to not need the glasses anymore when their muscles start to develop more as they approach adolescence) that would be great, but we aren't counting on it. Both Julie and I needed glasses as kids. I would still need them if I hadn't gotten Lasik surgery.

So while it's very scary to schedule a surgery for our 4 year old, we are both resigned to this and we know it's the right thing to do. It is outpatient surgery and it will take about an hour-and-a-half for the actual surgery. The doctor only performs them in Evanston on Wednesdays and they generally schedule about a month out. So in my mind that puts us right around her birthday in October, but we might try to schedule it a bit later around Thanksgiving or something so she doesn't miss any school because of it.

My last post was on Thursday and I've been quite busy since then. Friday was busy, but I don't remember why. Just a minute, let me look at my calendar to refresh my memory (it isn't great.) Ah yes, Grace and I went to the Chiropractor. I told him about Grace's stomach bothering her and how she didn't want to eat. He checked and adjusted her stomach (didn't know you could do that) saying it was much higher than it should have been which could have caused nausea, heartburn, gas, and a couple other things. I think she's had pretty much all of that. We'll see if or how much it helps going forward. She ate a big lunch today, but really no dinner. It's so hard to tell with her as she only likes 4 different foods and quite honestly I think she's tired of them all.

After that we went to see my cousin at his work (Ford dealer) as he had ordered me a part for my new car. You see, it's an Escape Hybrid 4WD model and when they put the badges on the back of the car, they only have so much room to work with and apparently have to decide which ones are the most important as all ours says is "Escape" on the left side and "Hybrid" on the right side. Nowhere on the car does it say "4WD" and I wanted it to say that. On the "regular" or non-hybrid Escapes the "4WD" badge goes on the right-hand side where mine says Hybrid. So anyway, long story long, I had my cousin order me the "4WD" badge that goes on the other '08 Escapes and it had come in so Grace and I went and picked it up.

Once we were there, Grace immediately went into our sales persons office and sat down and started talking to her. Considering we've completed our transaction with her, I didn't really want to bother her, but I think she likes Grace and is always really nice to her. As it turns out, I think she needed someone to talk to and actually having someone like Grace in her office helped her day be a little brighter. I had tried to call her earlier in the week as we were trying to figure out the whole paying off the money we owe them thing and they said she had an emergency and had to leave early that day.

I talked to her a couple days later and she said that her Aunt had died. So while we were in her office on Friday I said I was sorry about her Aunt. She said thanks, but that's not even the half of it. Come to find out her husband who is only 4 years older than me was diagnosed with Bile Duct Cancer on Wednesday. So her whole world has been turned upside down. As we talked I learned that they've only been married for two years. She's just the nicest person and I feel absolutely terrible that such a horrible thing has been placed upon her and her husbands shoulders. I just pray to God that everything will be fine and he can live a fairly normal life. They will be taking several organs out and it sounds very scary, but there is always hope. Please keep him in your prayers, his name is Karl.

So after that we went to Office Max because they were having a 15% off sale. I just love office supply stores. So Grace and I were going through every aisle trying to find some good stuff that we "needed." But she was just CRANKY to put it mildly. At one point a worker asked me for like the third time if I needed help with anything. I just pointed to Grace. He surprisingly said he couldn't help with that.

We spent about an hour in there and I ended up buying a web cam. We've been stalling on this for years trying to make sure we buy the "perfect" one. We want to use it to talk to my Mom who lives in Arizona since we can't afford to go out and see her as often as we'd like to, but we can also use it to talk to Grace's friend from across the street who is in France right now and will be for almost another month. --We got the post card on Friday by the way! And Grace loved it. We mailed you a letter today. Not sure how long that takes.

Then we hurried home because I needed to copy our vacation pictures onto my laptop to bring over to Julie's parents house so they could see our pictures of the Air Force Academy and of her Dad's sister having a good time with us. I think they liked them, but I think there were too many pictures. I do take a lot of pictures.

Copying the pictures took forever, and so we were late for our haircut appointments Grace and I were. Julie actually beat us from Schaumburg up to Fox Lake. Then we went over to Julie's parents for dinner.

Saturday we went to Lindenfest in Lindenhurst because Grace was dancing her dance from the recital. She didn't really practice it at all, but did really well. She pretty much did all the steps and looked great. I guess it's like riding a bike, once you know how to ride, you never forget how. After the dancing they have a "Mayor's Auction" every year. This year they had some stuff that I was interested in, but we were leaving. So I asked my BIL to bid for me on something I liked up to a certain dollar amount....and I won! It's a Coors Light Mirror that has the Chicago Skyline on it. It's very nice and it didn't cost much at all. Now if I can only figure out where it will fit on a wall somewhere... Now that I've been to the Coors Brewery, and since they're the official beer sponsor of the NFL, I'm getting into Coors Light!

After Lindenfest, we were going to lunch and couldn't decide where to go. We ended up going to Panera Bread, but the funniest thing happened. As we were pulling in the parking lot, we were actually pulling in to a spot right in front of my Sister and her family. So we all got to have lunch together. That was a surprise and it was very nice too. I should really call them more often, but I never seem to with any regularity.

Saturday night we were taking our niece and Grace to see High School Musical on Tour at the LaSalle Bank Theater in Chicago. We picked her up around 5 pm and took her downtown. We ate at Ed Debevics downtown and then had to hurry to the theater. We made it there with literally about one minute to spare; it was close. I haven't eaten at Ed Debevics in many years; probably close to 10-15 years. I have to say they used to be much ruder. I did get the classic treatment when seeing the host to put our names in: "What do you want?"

But quite honestly that was about the worst of it. I remember when I went years ago they were just horrible. If you don't know or have never been, that's their thing. They're supposed to be rude and whatnot.

Anyway, the play was awesome! I mean even I enjoyed it. The singing was incredible, the choreography was great, the music was excellent too. The only thing was they were selling CD's where the cast of the play were singing the songs on it and I'd like to get one, but they didn't have anymore and I can't figure out how to get one online. I guess the theater is the only place to get one. Grace and I might have to drive down there and get one before they move on to another city. They're here in Chicago until September 2. I'll definitely call first so we don't waste a trip.

So that leaves yesterday, Sunday. We went to church in the morning, then we came home for a while and I worked on stuff around the house. Grace and Julie went for a bike ride to the park and then to see a friend who recently had back surgery. I changed the oil in Julie's car, fixed the bookcase shelves that were a fraction of an inch too large, and started painting the next set of shelves. Oh and I took the oil pan off the newer Mustang® so my cousin can use it on his "new" 1969 Cougar. I don't know if that engine was running when they took this car apart, but if it was I'm guessing it wasn't running well. There was lots of sludge at the bottom of the oil pan and there were a few metal chunks stuck to the oil pickup. We're pretty sure it's a 302. It sure is nasty whatever it is. My 390 looks better than this engine and it sat in a field for over 10 years.

This morning I caulked the bookcases and the caulk has to dry for 24 hours before I can paint over it. So tomorrow around lunch time I can put the last little touch ups on the bookcase and it will be done. Except for the remainder of the shelves I haven't painted yet and for puttying and touching up the trim under the ledge.

That's about all I can stay awake for. I'll add some pictures tomorrow, good night.