Art by Liam

A small sculpture by Liam.

He requested I post about this. In case the picture is too blurry, it is a horse/camel the head is on the left and the tail on the right. Amazing what you can do with a little trash! We look at this blog pretty frequently and have the book published by the author. Fun stuff!

Aha!

So we took the kids in for their yearly eye exams. Liam still does not need glasses. The doctor says he will either need them in the next few years or not at all. As his body grows taller (only another few inches, right? :) his eyes might also which will cause him to be nearsighted. His eyes are nice and healthy and the doctor had no concerns for us.

Abbie was diagnosed with something called Streff Syndrome. It is a problem with the communication between her eyes and her brain, brought on and aggravated by stress. Basically the more upset she gets, the worse she can see. She doesn't need prescription glasses, but she will get some good out of "cheater" or magnifying reading glasses.

What provided such an AHA! moment for me, was when the doctor started describing the symptoms. It is most common in girls 7-12 that have had something stressful in their their life (she was switched out of an unhealthy learning environment partway through this year.) She might be behind in reading and math. Her vision problems will come and go, so she might do fine one day and not be able to read a simple story the next. This syndrome is sometimes misdiagnosed as ADD because of the changeable nature of the problem. (Something that had been suggested by a past teacher.) On further reading on my own, I learned this is related to your fight or flight instinct. You brain can't decide which response is the appropriate one when faced with the visual stress of some tasks. Interesting, huh? Your brain is an amazing place! Unfortunately not a whole lot is written about this so if you care to do any further reading this article is the most comprehensive without being a medical journal.

So she has a very fancy pair of glasses to wear for reading or close-up work. These should be enough of a help to retrain her brain to see more clearly. It may take from 6 to 18 months, but hopefully over the summer we can also work on some stress management which should help also. If all of this isn't enough, there are some vision exercises that should correct it. Finally, an answer!

Cheese!!

Spring

I knew I had to bring something back for a treat from the goat adventure so with that in mind we stopped by Target in Wasilla. The kids have had fun with bubbles already this year so these seemed like a good plan. A bubble rocket and a bubble plane. Spring has come in a rush this year. With such little snow and some nice warm weather, the backyard is drying out in record time!

Goats!

I went with my friend, Zara to Wasilla this weekend to pick up her two new dairy goats. They were from a farm in Point Mackenzie, there were several different varieties of goats and lots of cute kids! I restrained myself and didn't come home with one.
We did bring back Zara's two new goats (a dwarf variety) in the back of her truck.

A great view of McKinley from the veterans memorial.

They did very well but were sure glad to get out and stretch their legs and have something to munch!

Happy Birthday to Stan!

A small story about birthday cake:
Abbie says: "You need candles Grandad!"
Lorna says: "I'll get the matches...."

Lorna says: "These darn matches never want to light!"

"I'll fix this!"

"Now they will light!!"

The cake was great (chocolate cherry with almond frosting) and the candles were more fun than usual! Hope it was a happy birthday, Stan!

Kids

Liam found a big sheet of ice at Gramma Cindy and Grampa David's house, it was too much fun even the breaking part!

I also had to put up an older one I found....maybe not quite what you had in mind for the doctor outfit? I promise she does fix her animals too!

Homegrown dinner

I have become a fan of the new "Homegrown Marketplace" in town. An awesome local goods store in town. Their newest feature is a tabletop mill. The owner gave me a free sample of the barley they carry from a grower in Delta. I used it to make some Irish soda bread to go with the cube steaks also purchased from the shop. Very yummy! Next on the list is some wheat rolls from fresh ground hard red winter wheat.....

Home again

We had a fun trip to Anchorage, to see the Star Wars exhibit at the museum and visit H20asis.

No pictures unfortunately, we forgot the camera. Another was almost purchased but it was decided that it was ridiculously frivolous.

At the museum everyone seemed to have a good time, however there were tons of people there so we had to wait in lines to play with the interactive exhibits. We went to one of the shows that they had about robot but Abigail didn't much care for the loud noises in it. The other show, about the Millennium Falcon, had a line that was long enough for a 1 hour wait. Needless to say we didn't do the wait. Instead we went to lunch at the Muse cafe in the the museum lobby.

Lunch was great, Abbie had the macaroni and cheese, Liam had the Nabboo Nuggets, Leigh had caprese salad with the Petite Petite - a Petite Verdot / Syrah blend, I had a BLT with smoked salmon lox and an Orval Belgian beer. Lunch was very good.

Actually dinner the night before, at Capo Bella, was very good as well. Abbie had Fettuccine Alfredo which she totally loved. Liam had spicy Italian sausage served with a marinara sauce over green onion polenta, which he actually ate up. Leigh had Wild mushroom filled Canollini with Alfredo sauce. I had Veal with mushroom white wine sauce, the side was asparagus which I actually ate all up. The wine for the evening was a Don Paulo Malbec, Leigh says it wasn't the reserve one it was the middle of the road one. apparently they sell three varieties. We brought some back with us to share eventually. Anyway it was all very good.

Moving back to Sunday, the day of the museum. After lunch we went back to the hotel and got our swim gear and headed out to the H2Oasis. I have to say this place is stupid expensive, $90.00, and kinda gross, the floors make me shudder. But we all enjoyed the time we spent there ... about 4 hours in the water. They have the river that flows around the outside, that Abigail loved, they have water slides that Liam and I went on at least 5 times more like 10. Then they have the wave pool. the kids had fun and got lots of exercise.

We spent Monday shopping around Anchorage and then headed out of town. We stopped in Wasilla and chatted with Lo and Murphy for a while then started the long drive home. As we left it was raining. As we gained elevation and moved farther north it turned to freezing snow. Basically from just north of Wasilla to Healy we averaged about 45 Mph. A trip that took 6 hours going south took 8.5 going north. Plus it was rather stressful, with low visibility and slick roads.

All is well that ends well. We arrived home late and slept late, but the kids still got in half a day of school. This evening the kids completed their homework and we are just resting up.

Leigh cooked some great dinner but she will have to make a post about that later.

Happy Easter!