Blind and Deaf

That would be me.

I am blind. Zeb has perfect vision which makes me sick. I know I should be happy for him and a part of me is but another part of me is extremely jealous. I am legally blind without correction. Honestly, if I stand 20 feet away I see the same thing Zeb sees standing 500 feet away.  Hello!!! 500 feet? Geez.

When we were first married Zeb wanted to play a game, "Let's see what Leah sees." Bad idea. When he realized I can hardly see a thing he was floored and vowed to get me lasik (?) surgery as soon as we have the money.  The sad thing is even if we do have the money I know I would wig out with someone trying to mess with my eyes. Sorry Zeb, I don't think I could do it.

I am also deaf. I started having problems with my ears when I was in junior high and high school.  I lost a lot of hearing in my right ear before I got tubes in. The tube fell out a few years ago and my ears have given me more problems. 

I went to the ENT on Thursday and found out I have to get surgery in both ears. Both ears have fluid and both ear drums are retracting. Fun times. I hear out of my right ear as though I have a hunting ear plug in. In this respect Zeb and I don't make a "perfect pair."  He can be a mumbler (shocking, I know) and when you add that to my "ear plugged" hearing it makes for lots of repetition. You know, things just aren't as funny when you have to repeat it 3 times. 

Thank goodness he has been very patient with me.

I must say that I am not truly blind or deaf and for that I am grateful.  Nor am I meaning to make light of people who are. 

I am grateful we can correct my sight and stop the hearing loss before I am 30 and totally deaf. 

So all of you in Waco, I will be back for a visit next week!

A New Experience!

We went to Claire's Kindergarten Graduation last night.  We have come to realize that they aren't kiddin' around in Texas. It is a big deal. 

They do the cap and gown pictures, DVD's of the program to purchase, and more. Claire was so excited to do the program and kept telling me about a song called, "Show Me How." They were told it would make the parents cry. I can't say I shed tears but the song was sweet and brought a tear to my eye. Good enough, right? :)

Apparently Claire's High School Graduating class is 2020.  Claire is front and center in the orange shirt. It still is a little surprising me that she is of the smallest in her class. 

Here is Claire's Teacher. 

Haven gave Claire a friendship necklace since her last day is today. We are leaving today for dallas. It was so sweet.

I can't believe how big of a deal Kindergarten Graduation is here in Texas. We went half an hour early for Claire to get in her cap and gown but me and the girls still had to stand. The cafeteria was already packed. People must have come an hour or more early to get a seat!

I can't believe Claire is done with Kindergarten..I still can't believe she is in school. She is really excited to start First Grade. 

The highlight of the evening was that Zeb surprised Claire and came to the graduation. His boss found out it was her graduation and told Zeb to take the afternoon off (the weekend if he wanted) and come down. So Zeb left work early yesterday and rented a car to come. Claire was way excited. I think she was a little confused. She just stared at him. She was happiest that Daddy was spending the night before he went back. He left at 5:30 this morning.

We can't wait to join Zeb today. This week has been  stark contrast to last week and I am so ready to have help again. Oh and of course we miss him! :)

We found out after Zeb couldn't get on the internet that the  "free high speed internet" at the hotel we are staying at you can only get in the club house. Nice. So who knows how often that will happen.

Late nights

Unfortunately when the days get longer it seems that even though the girls are put to bed at the same time, they don't actually go to bed until much later. It happens every year. In defense of kids I will say that it doesn't seem quite right to go to bed when the sun is still up. 

However, as parents we want our kids to just go to bed, get the rest they need, and enjoy a quiet evening. Why don't they just go to bed? 

At least it is always interesting to see where the girls finally fall asleep. On this night I found Hallie......

...under Audrey's crib. What a goof.

10 Things I loved about Mother's Day

10. I ended up having a "Mother's Day Weekend." Since Zeb was leaving early Monday morning for Dallas he was constantly doing things for me all weekend. He took all 3 girls shopping and told me to go shopping alone since I would have them the next week by myself. He would put them to bed by himself and say, "You'll be putting them to bed every night." He did things like this all weekend and it was fantastic! Thanks babe!

9. On Saturday Claire and Hallie played like little angels together. They honesty played for probably 5 hours wihtout a single word to us or fight. They played the whole 3 hours Audrey took a nap and stayed in my bedroom playing happily. Because of this I got to read my book and relax. I told the girls later how happy I was that they got along so well and they beamed. It was the best present ever! While they were playing Claire dressed up Hallie and I got the biggest kick out of it! She could not have had another necklace on!

8. Saturday night Audrey had a fever and at 4:00 in the morning it was 104. After talking to Zeb we figured we should take her to the ER. As a Mother's Day present to me Zeb took her. I got to go back to sleep. Happy Day. It was so nice.

*Luckily Zeb got a 2 and a half hour nap when we were at church!

7. After Zeb got back from the ER it was time to open gifts. Claire had so many little things she made for me. Hallie as well. Claire would bring in card after card. It was precious! She had made a teapot at school and after telling the teacher that I don't drink tea and her putting a tea bag on it anyway, Claire took the liberty of cutting off the tea bag before giving me the colored pot. It was adorable!

6. My favorite card was the one she colored of me with highlighs i my hair (see above, top right). Inside the colored picture of me was this little story about me.  She guessed I weigh 6 lbs and am 7 feet tall. She said I was as pretty as a princess and that a story about me when I was little was that I used to: "fit with her sistr." I got a really good laugh about that. Of all the things I have told her about when I was little she remembered that I would fight with my sisters. Love it.

5. Zeb took all 3 girls shopping for my Mother's Day gift. They bought me workout clothes. I was pumped. Zeb did a great job and has very good taste...but I already knew that! I love my outfits and shoes. I was spoiled!

4. After I opened my gifts the girls made me breakfast. They forgot to tell me it was ready so I went into the kitchen when I heard them in their rooms working on the next surprise. I found a bowl of life cereal that had milk on it for quite sometime. It was VERY soggy! So I quickly dumped it and got more before they noticed. When I poured the cereal I noticed a few pieces were already a little soggy. I asked Claire about it and she informed me she had to put some back since she had put too much in my bowl. So funny.

3. When we got to church the girls of course sang a Mother's Day song. It was so precious. They sang, "Mother Dear I love you so." I couldn't help but cry especially when they said, "I'm so glad He gave me you." Thank you girls.

2. Zeb made Dinner so I didn't have to cook on Mother's Day and it was so nice to not cook! :) He cooked Burritos and it was YUMMY! After dinner we had pie and ice cream and when I was getting Hallie her milk somehow when I went to set it down the entire cup tipped right in front of her and splashed milk all over her face, legs, and chair. We looked at each other with our eyed popped out and then burst into laughter. We laughed so hard and I of course grabbed the camera. The first thing Hallie said was, "Could you please get me more milk?" 

1. This Mother's day was so special. I am overwhelmed with everything my little family did for me to make it such a special day. Thank you, Zeb, Claire, Hallie and Audrey. I love you so much!

Going Private....

We have decided to take the blog private and want to make sure we get everyone. If you want to continue reading the blog and aren't sure if I have your email, leave a comment or email me at leahefish@gmail.com.

Here are some pictures we took at the Kids Expo a long time ago. 

We tried to get a picture of Audrey with Clifford. She LOVES dogs and I thought she would have fun. To our surprise I don't think I have ever seen her so scared. It was so sad. It surprises me that she will go to a total stranger but won't go on things that move, blow-up slides and wants nothing to do with Big Clifford. In her defense she probably thought he was real and yes, that is one BIG dog.

They had tons of things for the kids to play on.  Big swing sets and more blow up slides. The girls loved it.

Claire loved the fire engine but Hallie and Audrey were fine without getting in it. Audrey was pretty much scared after the Clifford incident so there aren't any pictures of her.  How sad. She is such a little sweetheart and it is surprising to find out all the things she is afraid of.

We did have a great time and took canned food which got us in free. Not bad! :)

Graduation Celebration!

We went to the jump up play place with the kids yesterday after Hallie's preschool graduation. It worked out great because Claire had the day off of school for a weather day they didn't use.  The girls LOVE that place and have such a good time. We found out thought that Audrey's phobia of moving things includes her moving on something that is stationary too. She cried down the slides even though we were holding her. 

She did find a friend though...meet Mr. Turtle.

She played with the turtle almost the entire time. We would try to get her to go on the blow up slides but she would always go back to pushing the turtle.

She would push this turtle all over, from one slide to the next. I found it rather funny.

Although I wasn't too happy about the six bucks we forked out to have her play there (last time they didn't charge us).

Hallie had her last day of preschool Monday. Emily made these darling graduation hats and I printed the certificates. Don't the kids look so cute?

Unfortunately we won't be doing the rotating preschool again in the fall. A few of the kids are doing Pre-K...Hallie missed the deadline by 8 days. I am so bummed out about that. And some of the other kids are doing other things. I did find a school in Robinson that someone has recommended. They meet twice a week. I know Hallie really wants to go to school and luckily this place's cost is very reasonable! A must for sure. Anyway, I am really hope it works out. 

FYI: When she found out her preschool this year was at people's houses she felt totally jipped. She wanted to go to a school like her big sister. But she warmed up to the idea after a bit. It was sad but funny. :)

Well Hallie, congrats on learning all your ABC's and graduating your first year of preschool!