Lasik Eye Surgery

The other day, Glenn had Lasik surgery to fix his vision. 

 

After a brief eye exam, he was given a couple Volume to relax and prepped for surgery.

 

The operating room has a viewing window and I watched all 7 minutes of the procedure.  Yes, it really is that quick of a surgery.

 

The monitor on the top, showed a close-up of his eye, and the cutting.

Glenn was awake the entire time and told me the worst part was having his eyelid held open with a suction device.  He experienced very little discomfort.

Immediately after the surgery, the doctor examined his eye again.  Glenn noticed an improvement in his vision right away.  They gave him sunglasses and asked him to go home and sleep.  The next day, he was allowed to drive and return to normal activities.  Excluding swimming for two weeks, and anything that could rub his eye.  No rubbing of the eye!  The doctor also prescribed eye drops to aid in comfort and healing.

The next morning, he awoke with a black eye, but no real pain, only some slight discomfort.  The doc did a routine examine for him and everything looked good. 

I am amazed how far technology has came over the past decade.    Eye surgery in the evening and able to drive the next morning-- how about that!

Sugarbush

Sunday after church I took a drive out to North Salem, Indiana to visit the McCloud Nature Center with family.

The drive was full of picture perfect Indiana landscapes.

 Heading down the road to the sugarbush:

We packed a lunch and had a winter picnic in the sirup shack.

It was a building with one open wall, and a nice place to picnic.

The lunch fixins were not anything fancy: salami sandwich, apple slices, carrots, and snack mix; enough food to fuel our hike. 

The McCloud Nature center was small, but quite charming.  

I'm definitely planning to return for a fly fishing trip here.  As the Black Walnut creek winds through the park and looks to be very wade-able.  Also, I noted they have a canoe launch-- Yay!

 We had a guided tour of the maple sirup making process.

Our guide told us all about collecting sap and boiling it down.  He mentioned how they found a dead mouse in one of the sap buckets, then he offered us the maple candy made from the sap.  :/  True story.

Next, we went into the actual nature center building.  They had snowshoes by the door for people to borrow, but there wasn't hardly any snow on the ground, so we didn't get to try em out.

We looked around the nature center and I liked the display of Indiana bird eggs. As Troy and I posed for a pic, the snake in the cage across from us came out and said, "hello".  Don'tcha love the expression on Troy's face!

After leaving the nature center we went on a brief hike.

I didn't find any critters, dead or otherwise, or even any sap in the collection buckets.

 I did find a fire, which felt great to my cold bones.

The campfire was part of the wigwam display.  I always thought a wigwam in my woods would have been cool.  When I was a kid I remember trying to make one, but never got very far with it.

 I think the main reason the sugarbush allows visitors is to have free labor haul the full buckets of sap. JK

Not sure, but I thought I was seeing fish in this pic of a small tributary creek of the Big Walnut:

McCloud was a nice place to visit and hike.  I can't wait to get to know those fish in that creek a little better.  :)

Monday evening I surprised everyone, and took Taekwondo (tkd) class at the Y with Jean.
 

Since it has been forever and a day since I've worked on my form, I needed some refreshers.  The others students helped my memory to kick in.

By the end of class, I was nearly halfway through camo belt form.

Sparring is my favorite part of Taekwondo, but due to space issues at the Pendleton Y, (they are in the process of expanding) it wasn't happening.  Jean and I practiced board breaking instead.

When I got home from tkd class I went for a RUN!  Yeah, it was my very first time since the surgery that I actually ran!!!  I'm not counting the 7 minute treadmill run in physical therapy.  Before and after my run I stretched thoroughly.

Ironically, right as I completed a mile, it was time to go pick Glady's up from Girlscouts, and her cookies.  So, I go for a great run and then pick up a truck load of Girlscout cookies-- nice.      

 

Before Troy went off to bed that evening, he lost a tooth.  Lemme tell ya, these kids are making a killin round here off teeth lately!

Tooth Fairy Night!

Snowboarding

 I've had this song, Let her Go, by Passenger stuck in my head for awhile now.  

 

All day long, I'm singing it--"only miss the sun when it starts to snow"...  catchy tune. 

This weekend, I had planned to show off my snowboarding skills.  The winter Olympics had me totally psyched up.  Just one prob, not enough snow down here.

Awhile back, I got the privilege of volunteering for a Burton's sponsored snowboarding event.   Basically, if you had the skills to make it down the hill without wiping out then they stuck an orange vest on ya and recruited you to help teens learn to snowboard. 

The main thing I recall is goofing off and making sure the kids had a good time.  Usually that meant helping em make there way from the bottom of the hill over to the tow rope, (it's not always that easy to get around strapped onto a board), like I'm being helped in the pic below:

Snowboarding was fun, and after volunteering, I was feeling confident enough to try some tricks.  I crashed a lot.  Many times, the only thing that got me down the hill without a wipe-out was pure luck.  Snowboarding is a thrilling way to spend the evening and the next day I always felt the sore muscles even though at the time, it didn't even feel like exercise.

 

Well, looking back, maybe it's best I did my normal Saturday routine of going to the Y for basketball and swimming instead of hitting the slopes.

The high today was 47 degrees F.  What little snow left hanging around is melting fast.  So fast, in fact, that Fall's park is once again badly flooded.

The day started off with a doctor's appointment for Glenn.  He is considering having Lasik eye surgery preformed.  Like his new shades? 

 

Next, was Gladiators basketball game.  I tried to get some good actions shots, but they didn't turn out so hot.

They lost, 15 to 10, but it was good game.  

We went for a swim after the game.  I tried out some new goggles that worked great!  My old ones had weak elastic and would not stay tight after diving. 

I did plenty of laps today.  Usually, I keep track of both distance and time when swimming for exercise, to monitor my progress.  I find it motivating.  

However, the kids and I did a lot of diving, so I decided not to be concerned with tracking today. Troy is really making progress with his actual diving technique.  (Before he was mostly just jumping into the pool from the board.)

We had the pool all to ourselves for the majority of the time, so it was a good day to take it slow and practice diving.

By the time we left the pool, we were thoroughly wore out, naturally.

 

 After we got back to the house, Glenn grilled out steaks for supper:

And I made salad:

 

 After supper, Sophie and I went for a walk around the neighborhood.  Good Day!

 

Chicken N Noodles

Spring is right around the corner and I will be welcoming it with open arms!  As I watched the sunrise today, I cracked the kitchen window to hear the sounds of dripping water (music to my ears) from the ice melting off the roof. 

Today the high, here in Pendleton, reached a lovely 59 degrees F.  The front yard still had a blanket of snow as of 8AM.

 

However, by 2PM this afternoon the backyard was a lake.

  
 I have missed this "no hat" weather and couldn't resist spending the day outside.  After a long hike through the trails at Fall's park, I went to the quarry to see how the ice was holding up.

I noticed puddles forming near the boat ramp guide posts.  

I drilled a test hole off the dock.  The ice was thin, very rotted, and easy to cut through.  I did not see any signs of fish. 

What did catch my attention was a pesky mosquito that tried to land on my eyeball.  Yes, really, a snow mosquito.  Guess I know what fly to break out first.  :)

Sophie went to the quarry with me, but she refused to leave the porch of the cabin.

When it was time to head out, I carried her to the truck.  She was so funny, because she kept dog paddling in my arms, like she had to swim her way. 

 

At home, supper was in the slow cooker.  Man, I really like using that thing! 

This morning I tossed in chicken, cream of chicken soup, a lil' butter, and a few shakes of garlic power.

 Then I come home to the aroma of garlic and chicken.  The chicken comes out just right and I can practically cut up with just a fork.
 

I cut all the chicken into bite size pieces, added chicken broth and noodles, for one delicious supper.

  
Usually, I serve Chicken N Noodles over mashed potatoes as I did tonight, but it's good over anything. 

Chicken N Noodles

Ingredients:

4	boneless skinless chicken breasts (I used frozen)
2	cans cream of chicken soup
1/2	stick of butter
2	15 oz cans chicken broth
24	oz. frozen egg noodles

 1/4 tsp. garlic powder

Directions:

Cook chicken, soup, butter, and garlic powder in crock-pot on low for 6-7 hours. Take chicken out and shred. Put chicken back in; add broth, and noodles and cook on low for 2 hours. Stir a few times while cooking.