Archive for February 2012
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EYE GLASSES!
Being able to see well is definitely NOT over rated. Apparently all this time poor Alanna has been struggling to see & we had absolutely NO idea. Parental fail? {{nods}}
Just before the holiday’s her teacher came to me & informed me that both her & another of the classroom teachers had noticed Alanna’s right eye seemed to be wandering. I’d never noticed it before but thanked her for telling me & then went about trying to arrange an eye exam for her.
The base said they couldn’t do pediatric exams & suggested an off base eye center to bring her to, but with all the baby mama drama we went through over Christmas & New Years, getting Alanna’s appointment scheduled got pushed to the back burner. Once things finally settled down again however, I gave the recommended eye center a call only to find they were scheduling a month out. I booked her into the earliest slot they had available, February 1st.
During the beginning of her appointment the technician was trying to have her identify pictures being projected onto an 8×10 mirror on the wall in front of her. Most of it, despite showing her various sizes, Alanna could not identify however. She just kept saying “I don’t know” & I informed the technician that she was a bit developmentally delayed & in an exceptional learning class at school. Still, the technician tried her best despite Alanna’s repeated “I don’t knows”.
A while later we were moved to another room where the actual eye doctor came in to check out the health of her eye & determine whether any sort of prescription was needed. She pulled the machine in front of Alanna’s face, made some adjustments & then asked Alanna to now look through the machine & identify the same series & various sizes of pictures being projected onto the mirror on the wall in front of her.
I almost fell out of my chair!
All in a sudden she was identifying everything with not a single problem. From a huge 8×10 size black & white silhouette of a cake & candle image to other tiny silhouette’s. It was unbelievable & I was completely blown away. The sudden difference a prescription made changed everything & made me question everything all at the same time. Is she really developmentally delayed or has she just not been able to see all this time?!?!
Apparently she’s seriously near sighted with a bit of astigmatism & we had no idea. She will need to wear glasses as I do full time from now on & to top it off the glasses may or may not correct the wandering right eye. The doctor said it’s not something a patch can fix either so she wants to see her back in about 4 weeks to re assess it & if the eye is still wandering she may require corrective surgery. I sure hope not!
What really gets me is that we had her eyes tested back in California shortly before we moved & the doctor at that time said she was a tiny bit far sighted but not anything that would require a prescription so we were sent on our way. Now just a brief 3 or so years later it’s the complete opposite & then some. So I have no idea whether the previous doctor just sucked or if it was just that difficult to really tell with an infant that couldn’t communicate what they could or couldn’t see. Hard to say….
Anyways, Alanna has been an excellent sport about getting her new glasses. She got to pick out a pretty pink pair of frames with flowers all up & down the arms & she was greatly disappointed when she found out she was going to have to wait over a week for them to make the glasses before she could wear them. She’s had them now for just about 2 weeks however & is so excited to put them back on in the morning’s & after her naps. She talks about how she get’s to be like mommy & poor Brooklynn is actually feeling a bit jelous that she doesn’t get to wear a pair. For now though I’ve been able to appease her by telling her that because she can already see so well she can wear sun glasses like daddy does while Alanna needs to wear glasses like mommy because we can’t see well without them.
TURKEY STUFFED PEPPERS
I absolutely love Pinterest. Especially for finding tasty looking pictures of recipes that I might like to try & it was there that I first stumbled across a delicious image of these Turkey Stuffed Peppers, which then led me to SkinnyTaste.com for the recipe.
Roy really enjoyed this recipe. Normally all I get out of him is “tasty” when I ask how stuff is that I’ve made for him but this particular recipe he raved about.
I made some minor modifications, mostly due to the fact that I didn’t have any tin foil or garlic powder on hand, so I’ll post the way I made it, which still turned out awesome, & you can decide for yourself which method you’d like to try.
Ingredients You’ll Need:
* 1 lb lean ground turkey meat
* 2 tbsp garlic, minced
* 1/4 onion, minced
* 1 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
* 1 tsp onion salt
* 1 tsp cumin powder
* Salt & pepper to taste
* 3 large red bell peppers
* 1 cup chicken broth
* 1/4 cup tomato sauce
* 1 1/2 cups cooked rice
* 1 tbsp Olive oil
* 1/4 cup shredded cheese
What To Do:
* Heat oven to 400°.
* Cut the bell peppers in half lengthwise, and remove all seeds. Place in a baking dish.
* Bake 20 minutes & while waiting do the rest….
* Heat olive oil in a medium pan.
* Add onion, garlic and cilantro to the pan. Saute about 2 minutes and add ground turkey.
* Season with salt, onion salt, pepper, and cumin.
* Brown meat for several minutes until completely cooked.
* Add tomato sauce and 1/2 cup of chicken broth, mix well and simmer on low for about 5 minutes.
* Combine cooked rice and meat together.
* Spoon meat mixture into each pepper half and fill it with as much as you can.
* Top with shredded cheddar cheese.
* Pour the remainder of the chicken broth on the bottom of the pan & bake for about 25 minutes.
* Enjoy!
This picture was taken last year just before Valentines Day ended when Roy got off his final plane, on the last leg of his journey, coming home from Iraq.
I don’t think there’s anything that can beat my hubby coming home, safe & sound after 8 months in Iraq, & on Valentines Day no less!
This year we actually decided to do our celebration a day early to avoid the chaos that seems to ensue on Valentines Day with trying to get a reservation anywhere. I booked us a morning at the spa together where we had a lovely couples massage, followed by a relaxing soak in a private jacuzzi, & then a pedicure where I got my toenails painted all pretty & Roy got his dry skin, caused by many hours spent in combat boots, taken care of. Then, to finish it off, we had a delicious steak lunch before picking the kids up from school & having a rejuvenating nap.
It was an absolutely wonderful day of pampering.
