Looking Sharp

Thanks for the new clothes, Gramma!!!  The girls absolutely LOVE them--and it was cool enough today to wear the whole ensemble.  :-)  As you can see, they look adorable.  Anna wanted to be sure I fit the shoes in the picture, since those are her favorite part.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!

School Days

It's only the third day back at school, and it's all craziness around here:

We tie dyed these outfits (plus much more) this summer, and this is what the girls chose to wear to school today.  And this is how they pose when I tell them to just do "whatever they want."  :-)  

School is going well for both of them.  Grace's teacher is every bit as wonderful as we anticipated she would be, and she seems to have a nice class.  She has found friends to play with at every recess, some old and some new.  We have learned, though, that she and her best boy friend from last year have been KISSING on the playground...  Eie Yie Yie!  I suggested that they find other things to do with their time instead of kissing each other, and Grace replied that they're "only kissing on the cheeks, Mom!"  I said it would still be a good idea to have something else in common.  And, she told me that she likes to call Conner "Connie" and he calls her "Gracie."  I can only imagine this--and it scares me half to death!  She also likes to play with her friend from preschool, Will, and our neighbor, Sam.  I can only hope she's not kissing them, too...  She's been playing with some new girls in her class, too, but can't seem to remember their names.  I don't think she's kissing them either.  :-)

I'm getting less information from Anna about school (although she definitely isn't kissing anyone, because she is completely appalled by Grace thinking of kissing boys).  Her class is enormous: 34 kids.  The whole school actually is completely bursting at the seams.  The principal is currently working things out, and I'm trying to trust in her, although I admit to waking up with panic attacks and worrying about the chaos that has become the girls' school.   Letters may have to be written; board meeting may need to be crashed, but it will work out in the end.  I hope.  

Anyway, Anna likes her teacher and comes home telling his funny jokes or doing silly tricks that he showed them.  I can only hope she's learning something in there, too.  No homework has come home yet, so I really don't know.  She is still playing with a lot of her friends from last year.  Apparently they have a meeting place on the playground, so they can all find one another.  Anna is talking about some nice new girls in her class, who I'm sure she'll befriend soon enough.  

And, here is a funny picture of Grace that my Uncle Mark took with his camera while he was here on Sunday:
Hilarious.  Thanks for sending this to me, Uncle Mark!  Grace brought in a copy of it to school for show and tell today.  :-)

First Day!

Here are a few pictures of the girls' first day at school (Anna: 3rd; Grace: 1st).  This morning went well--no crying from Grace!  She only said she wanted to go home twice after entering her classroom... But then after a good hug, she sat down at her desk and was very brave.  She's come a LONG way since last year!  Once I helped Anna find out where to hang her backpack and she found some friends, she was fine to walk down the hall into her class without me.  

I can't wait to find out how their first days went!  I'll be sure to report...

P.S.  I have had a GREAT day.  I've officially declared the next two days my vacation days.  It's been a mighty long time since I've even been alone, much less spent a whole day on my own, so I'm giving myself some time to enjoy it.  I know I'm going to get busy soon enough, so for now I'm just letting myself relax a little bit.  The joy of it all! 

New Things

Sorry for the lack of posts lately.  Adam has been gone A LOT lately and it seems any time I try to get anything done, the girls start fighting.  So, I'm getting very little done.  I think we're all missing having him around.  I know many of you are parenting more alone than I am most, if not all, of the time.  I can honestly say I so honor what you do.  It is such hard, hard work.  

I took a few pictures today of some new things that have happened lately:  bangs for Grace and a retainer for Anna.

Grace looks adorable anytime, but she looks very cute indeed with bangs: 

And, her hair stayed out of her face during MP without any clips (great for Grace who hates having her hair done or having it styled--simple is best with her).

Anna can't believe what I asked her to do:
Show off her new stylish retainer!  :-)  She's doing great with it.  She should have it out around Christmas.
Already a pretty smile...

Adam gets back Saturday night.  He and the girls start school on Monday morning.  I have a list started of all the things I'm hoping to get done when they're gone.  I cannot believe both girls will be gone all day.  I'm going to miss them so much!  But, I have to say, this summer has felt pretty intense, so I'm excited to get back on top of things and have time to think and figure out what I want to do with my life.  Wish me luck!

My eyes are doing pretty well.  I'm on two different drops which are keeping my pressure down.  I go back to the glauc. doc. in a couple of weeks and see how I'm doing.  Thanks for all the kind thoughts and words!  

Maine

Pictures of our wonderful trip to Maine are posted on my SmugMug site! All 315 of them! :-) (narrowed down from 700...)

kjohnstonphoto.smugmug.com

We had a fabulous time visiting with family, swimming in lakes, tubing, kayaking, canoeing, going to the beach, eating lobster, jumping off docks, tramps, and paddle boats into lakes, hanging out in a really cute town for a day, jumping in puddles, knitting on the deck, and reading--and I had a blast taking pictures of it all! The weather was perfect the whole time until the last two days when it poured and thunderstormed, but even that felt perfect, too.

Enjoy the pictures!

Gramma and Poppy: You can print any pictures you want directly from that site and they will mail them to you within the week. Let me know if you have any questions or if you want any of these in black and white. Thank you for a wonderful time in Maine! We are all looking forward to seeing you again in the fall.

sweet, sweet sight

What a week I've had... Ended up with an emergency visit to the ophthalmologist on Saturday after the symptoms I'd been having on and off since April (a hazy film coming over my eyes, rainbow halos around lights, sensitivity to light, contacts slipping off my eyes easily, nausea, and headaches) got more persistent and worse.

Turns out those symptoms are not good. The pressure in my eyes was incredibly high (48-50, normal being between 10-20) and I was diagnosed with glaucoma. No, not good at all.

The doctor prescribed two different drops to get the pressure down and I spent a sad, stressful weekend at home with my glasses on reading horrible things online about glaucoma.

Monday morning, I headed back to the doctor to check my pressure again and take a battery of tests. That appointment ended up being the best-case scenario, really. I do have some damage to my optic nerve in my right eye, but the left is okay and now that we've caught it and are treating it, there hopefully won't be any more. My pressure was way down (11 in the right and 27 in the left), so I'm continuing the drops and it doesn't look like I'll have to have surgery for now.

Thankfully, the doctor said my chances of going suddenly blind are very, very slight (definitely my worst case scenario) and I found out I can't do anything physically to make glaucoma worse, so photography, working on the computer, knitting and reading are all okay. Thank God.

I go back to see him again on Monday. And I have an appointment to see my dermatologist to try to get off the topical steroid meds I'm on for my psoriasis, which could have brought on the glaucoma in the first place. Unfortunately, he could "fit me in" until the end of August. What gives with the dermatologists? I've had this problem before; I need to get in, but he's booked for months, and they can "squeeze" me in a month from now... Gee, thanks for fitting me in your schedule... I don't get it.

But, anyway, I wasn't even sure I was going to write about this here, but I started a post about Maine and couldn't NOT write about this first. This is definitely forefront in my mind. Even though the news I heard yesterday was all pretty good and I know it's all going to be okay, it's still scary and depressing and exhausting to think about. I really like seeing...

Merpati Putih Grace

This week, Grace's anticipation to take karate (or more specifically, "Merpati Putih", or just "MP" (pronounced em-pay), an indonesian martial arts) was finally fulfilled when she took a three day "try-it" camp, culminating in earning her white belt today. It would be an understatement to say she enjoyed taking MP... She absolutely loved it. She took to it with confidence and an excitement she doesn't often have for new things. It was exciting to see. She came home each day bursting to show off what she had learned: punches, kicks, and blocks. The only bad part for her was having to wait until 6:00pm every night... Needless to say, we signed her up to continue taking MP, where she will be part of the larger class and begin earning her yellow belt (and then orange, then purple, then blue...). I have a feeling it's going to be a long, long wait until her next class on Monday... She rather liked going every day! She was very tired tonight (the girls are going to sleep Utah-time, but waking up Maine-time...), but pulled through for me to snap a few pictures of her in her cool outfit and NEWLY EARNED white belt!