As our plane set to depart from Las Vegas yesterday, the flight attendant announced over the speaker that we had better enjoy our one last look at sunshine before we head back to cloudy, rainy Portland. How right he was. I’m back, catching up on work and looking forward to a little weekend family time.
I’m also dreaming of blue skies, if not the freaky, fake world that is Las Vegas. I’ll take my dreary skies and hugs from my babies over that any day.
More photos to come.
The perfect photo for one of those days where I feel as though I want to run but instead find myself going around and around in circles. One thing’s for sure though, the ride is always colorful.
Laser eye surgery is truly a miracle. I can now see more clearly than I could when I was a teenager. 20/15! Last night we went to an Ice Hockey game and watched from a box. I could see the expressions on the players faces – it was incredible.
The downside is that I can now clearly see how much I neglected my eyebrows over the past few months while I plucked blindly.
As for the surgery itself – I spent a lot more time waiting for the Xanax to kick in that I took for them to complete the surgery. It was weird and uncomfortable but painless. The worst part was the anxiety involved in having someone prop your eyes open and then place you under a large machine. They gave me a stuffed animal to hold to keep my hands occupied during the procedure and I didn’t realize how tightly I was gripping the poor thing until I was done. But they talked me through the whole process as it was happening and there were few in-the-moment surprises. I felt as though I was in good hands and, judging by the pace of recovery, I was.
Immediately after the procedure I was given some very sexy Bono-type goggles and instructed to head straight home to bed and go to sleep before the pain set in. Unfortunately we had a bit of a drive in front of us so the pain did begin before I was finally able to go to sleep. I slept well (could have been the medication) and when I woke up I could see perfectly without need to reach for my glasses.
So now I’m religiously following the post op instructions (eyedrops every hour!) and wearing goggles to bed to avoid eye rubbing during the night. Honestly, the goggles and fact that I can’t put my face under water are the most difficult side effects of this whole process – and they’re temporary. Brilliant!
So I’ll end this post with a photo that I took last night at the Hockey game. It’s my “slice of life” photo for this week’s I Heart faces challenge and one of my first opportunities to take photos without looking through the extra lens of my glasses.
Samuel wasn’t a fan of the noise that erupted each time the Winterhawks scored a goal – and with 7 goals in the game, that was a lot of noise.
The Portland sun came out for a full hour or so on Saturday – just enough to spur a burst of energy so powerful that I went for a run. Those who know me will be able to appreciate just how much of a big deal that is.
And it didn’t stop on Saturday. Each day since, I have been motivated to power up the Wii and spend 15-30 minutes with my virtual trainer to do a little yoga and a few toning exercises. It’s not as much as I would like to do, but it’s the most I can accomplish in the brief allotment of time that I have between walking in the door after work and when Kei brings the boys home. The upside of all this movement is that I feel a little more energetic and the stiffness in my joints has eased up. The downside is that it hurts when I sneeze and, thanks to Spring allergies, I am uncomfortably reminded of my new workout commitment many times throughout the day.
The emergence of Spring has also brought with it a few changes for the Ishidas. Samuel started at a new daycare this week – a big shift given he started at his other daycare way back when he was four months old. Thomas is also attending the new daycare for Spring Break and, so far, they both seem to be having a wonderful time making new friends and engaging in new experiences. I was told this morning that Thomas has quickly brought the other kids of his age up to speed on the full Star Wars saga and that Samuel is nearly up to full chatter capacity after a couple of shy days. Yes, it seems they’re settling in nicely.
And, finally, one more big change coming on Thursday. My date with the laser is imminent. I’m a little nervous about the whole CUTTING INTO MY EYE thing, but looking forward to some Xanax and the promise of 20/20 vision. More to come on that soon.
For the moment I leave you with a few photos from our brief, but wonderful, sunny Saturday. Oh, and note to the ice cream vendors of Portland – next time can you wait until the temperature rises above 50 degrees before you start trying to cash in on the families coming out of winter hibernation? I don’t need to hear Greensleeves while I can still see my breath.
This mischevous look captures my youngest child perfectly.
I like to think that Samuel was pretending to be asleep, but I think he was actually playing dead. The joys of role play with a two year old.
Thomas was just shielding his eyes from the blinding sunlight (OK, it wasn’t THAT bright). And, honestly, he looks a little uncomfortable lying on the sidewalk. What won’t a cruel mother do for a photo?
Just another of your everyday Sunday morning Light Saber battles.
“Mummy?”
“Yes”
“I love you”
Happy Friday
…the kind that could keep little boys entertained for hours.
I’m still working on my final “look back at 2010” post. So far I’ve shared favorites from the places I’ve been and the things I’ve seen. Next up I’ll share some 2010 photos of the people I love, but in the meantime I thought I’d stop by to share my favourite face(s) of 2010 for the latest I heart faces challenge.
I didn’t have to go far back to choose this photo. I took it on a train while we were on our way to Narita airport after a wonderful vacation in Japan. I just love the pure joy that you can see in their faces and this is the image I try to bring up in my mind every time they fight and cry and complain. We are blessed to have such happy children (for the most part) and I think this photo is the perfect reminder.
Part two of quest to share some of my favourite photos from 2010. You can see part one: the places I’ve been here.
Looking through my favourite photos for “the things I’ve seen” has been a great reminder that I need to take more photos of the everyday. Perhaps it was due to the amount of travel that we did, or the fact that I quit project 365 after just a few months, but I found that I wasn’t very good about documenting our day-to-day lives this year. Definitely something I plan to focus on in 2011.
Nicole Ishida Photography 
