Lasik

This is not too terribly interesting of a post and I have been so busy lately that even though I have a bunch of things to post about…I just haven’t done it yet!

Anyway, I’ve been wearing glasses since I was 7 and contacts since I was 10. I’m waaaay blind (-9.5ish) but I’ve always been fine with contacts. Lately I have been having problems with my left eye that started in March. I haven’t been able to wear my contacts for more than a few hours at a time since then. So basically I’ve been wearing glasses and no make up almost every day with a few random times of wearing contacts and make up. I can’t wear make up on my eyes because I’m so blind that I can’t see my eyes to put make up on them even if my face is smashed against the mirror! I went to my regular eye doctor about it twice and he gave me multiple drops (holy expensive) that didn’t help. I finally went to another doctor closer to my house for a second opinion and some help. I saw him for the 3rd time last night and he finally determined that I really can’t wear soft contacts anymore. Are you kidding me?! I have inflammation and bumps on the inside of my eyelid and he said it could take years to heal and could come back.

I almost started crying when he told me that and although one other option he suggested was hard contacts, I have pretty much decided I’m going to get Lasik. I have always wanted it and dreamed about how it would be to be able to see all the time, but it was something we were going to do in the future. Now we will probably do it in January so I still have to deal with stupid glasses for a few more months.

But I’m really excited to finally be able to see without glasses or contacts and I know it will change my life and be awesome! BUT I’m also being obsessive and researching and reading everything I can about Lasik. I wanted to see if anyone has any opinions, suggestions, or recommendations for me about it. I have never heard any horror stories, but there are a lot out there online and I don’t want to be misinformed. I also don’t want to go to just any random doctor, but I don’t want to overpay for a name or something that is unnecessary. So I’m going to go to several places for consultations (armed with my list of 5000 questions of course). Please let me know if you have any information for me about this! Thanks all and I promise I’ll have more interested posts soon…I have several projects finished or in the works!

Bear Lake

 

We went to Bear Lake for a quick weekend with Steph and her boyfriend Andrew. We left Friday afternoon and found a camping spot on the east side of the lake. It was gorgeous and the weather was amazing. The water was super high so there was no beach and the water was just a few feet away from where we camped.

We cooked tinfoil dinners and they took waaaay longer than expected! Luckily we got in the water while we waited to cool off! The water was surprisingly warm and comfortable.

The sunset was beautiful! We really loved sitting around watching the the sunset and just relaxing.

The next morning we got up and enjoyed some swimming before packing up to leave. Dan absolutely loves the water and he was in heaven. It was a ton of fun.

We headed over to the west side of the lake and got some yummy raspberry shakes. For some reason, there was a covered wagon for us to enjoy our shakes in…

After shakes, we rented jet skis and played around on the lake for a few hours. It was so much fun and we had a blast riding around on the lake. The water was amazing and warm (weird for Bear Lake). I don’t have any pictures of that, but it was awesome!

Afterwards, we grabbed some lunch, and then we drove over to Preston for the Preston rodeo! It was a really gorgeous drive through tons of small towns and when we got to Preston, we grabbed a seat and watched the parade before the rodeo. Small towns are pretty awesome and Preston is a classic small town. It was great.

You may have noticed I have glasses on a lot lately or if they are off, I have a lazy left eye….I have been having major problems with my eye and I really haven’t been able to wear my contacts for more than a few hours at a time for the past 4 months! I think I finally got it figured out but my eye looks crazy in some of these pictures!

Dan went with the classic cowboy look…he kills me and I laughed every time I looked at what he was wearing. Funny kid. Steph found these awesome cowboy boots at D.I. for 12 bucks! Lucky!

 

Before the rodeo, we wandered around the carnival/fair. People watching was really awesome. Sometimes I just stare at people…

This was the only picture from the rodeo that I got! But the rodeo definitely didn’t disappoint and there were tons of famous and really good rodeo-ers there! The bull riding and bronco riding was really exciting and we had a blast on our little mini-vacation!

Life Changing

 

The title may be a bit exaggerated, but I was thinking of random things I have wanted to post about and it seems like the overriding theme of them all is that they have changed my life. Okay, only one really has (my great friends) but the others have definitely made my life awesome so I wanted to share!

Best.DI.Find.EVER. I love rocking chairs and have always wanted one. I came across this beauty at D.I. for 25 BONES! Are you kidding me?! Love at first sight. It is in awesome condition and extremely sturdy. And we were even able to shove it in the Accord without too much incident. Don’t worry, the gold grandma designs on it are just painted on so I plan on re-painting it at some point. Hopefully I will use it to rock my babies some day!

This is the only real life changer. I love these gals and always will. Shelley came to visit and her and Bre came over for dinner without their cute kiddos. I missed the kids but loved talking to them like we have since high school. It’s weird how much has changed in our lives but how exactly the same things are when we get together. I can’t believe how long we’ve been friends and they are amazing people and have truly changed my life. I love skyping with them too!

Another shout-out to Breanne for introducing me to Lemi Shine. My dishes have been looking pretty awful for quite a while now. They are grimy and have a film on them. I always end up re-washing them. I tried a few things but Lemi Shine was a game changer. No joke, this was incredible. My dishes looked brand new and I am so happy! I followed the directions (use without dishes first) and I will try to scale back and use the least amount as possible but wow, I am a happy camper now.

Along those same lines, I have been making and using my own laundry soap for a while now! I know it seems pretty hippie/granola/weird but I love it! I heard about it a while ago and dismissed it, but saw it again on a blog and decided to check into it. There are a lot of benefits including saving money and using less harmful chemicals.

The ingredients were all found at Walmart in the laundry aisle and I have made and used an entire batch and I can easily say that it does the job as well or better than Tide or Gain which I have used in the past. It cost about $8 for these and it lasts a while and then you just have to replace the Fels-Naptha which are only $1 per bar (the other ingredients will last forever). Here is how to make it:

1 cup Borax
1 cup Washing Soda
1 bar Fels-Napth soap (I’ve heard Ivory works as well)

The only hard part is grating the soap which takes forever unless you have an electric grater but it’s not a huge deal. Mix them together and use 1-2 tablespoons depending on the size and dirtiness of the load. I made one batch and I loved it so I’m going to make a triple batch which should last me several months. I feel hippie-ish doing it, but I love it!

I have mentioned perkstreet before and I really love it still so I wanted to share. I think everyone should go and get a perkstreet account IMMEDIATELY. Really. We first heard about it from Dave Ramsey and we have been using perkstreet exclusively since November. It’s an online bank (backed by the FDIC), and it’s not a credit card. You use the Mastercard for anything and everything and if you run it as credit, you will accumulate rewards and you get 2% back on EVERYTHING. Really, everything. When I say “you get 2% back”, you can get it back on a Mastercard giftcard which you can use anywhere you can use a Mastercard credit card. Groceries, gas, bills, shopping, etc! Sweet! We used it to pay Dan’s tuition which was awesome! We have earned over $600 back since we opened it in November!

It took a little while to switch over all our automatic bills to the new card, but most of our bills (except mortgage and few others) accept credit cards so we earn 2% on those. The only stipulation is that you have to have at least $5,000 in your account to get the 2%. But even if you don’t, you still get 1% back! Currently they only have a checking account, but they keep saying a savings account is coming very soon. I have my perkstreet account linked with my Zions Bank account so once in a while I can easily deposit checks to Zions and transfer money back and forth to perkstreet. We use our perstreet card everywhere and you can set a pin and run it as debit if need (but you don’t earn the 2% on debit). We set up direct deposit into perkstreet as well and it has been really awesome.

I HIGHLY recommend looking into getting a perkstreet bank account. It is a great idea and the people who work for perkstreet seem to be genuinely great people who want to encourage people to live within their means and avoid credit. There is also no annual fee or any fees unless you don’t use the card at all for a month (not a problem if it’s your “regular” card). They have a facebook page where they respond to questions within minutes and I’ve heard their customer service email and phone is also great. If anyone has any questions about it, let me know and I will be happy to answer them!

We are still really into Dave Ramsey and love his theories and overall philosophy about avoiding debt, saving money and living frugally and within your means. We are totally debt-free except our house and we’re working on building a comfortable 6 month emergency fund. Dave suggests waiting to contribute to your 401k until you have your emergency fund, but we are still each contributing a small amount to our 401k’s through our work because our company each has a good match that we’re taking advantage of.

I feel really strongly that people should take control of their finances, make a budget, and live within their means. Money isn’t everything, but having bills you can’t pay creates unnecessary problems and stress in your life. If you can avoid that, then why not? It’s hard to not get everything we want right now and not easy to drive old cars (harder for Dan in that department), but it’s so worth it to not have debt hanging over our heads and know that we have a good plan for our future. I also think that there are a lot of women who are completely uninvolved in financial decisions, budgets, etc and this is a huge mistake. I would die if something happened to Dan, but it’s important to think about the future and so many women wouldn’t be able to take care of themselves or their families if they lost their husband. This needs to change and women need to take control of their lives and become empowered by learning about their finances and making decisions for their futures. I’m not even going to get into the importance of getting an education but too many women rely on their husbands to always take care of them and this doesn’t always happen. You need to be prepared for any possibility and by sitting down with your spouse and discussing your budget, savings, and future financial plans is a great start. I also recommend looking into life insurance and making sure you have a term life insurance policy. Don’t just take your life for granted and think that it will never change. Being educated is the best way to be prepared for the future and the feeling of comfort that you have in knowing that you are financially secure and knowledgeable is priceless.

Sorry for my little rant there, but it’s something I feel strongly about and something I want to share! It’s obviously my opinion only and if you know me, you know that I have a lot of opinions  

Yellowstone

 

Every year, we go with Dan’s family to Yellowstone and his family has ALWAYS rented a teensy tiny cabin. It’s fun, but very crowded. Last year was pretty rough with all 29 of us and a few newborns! This year, his parents were great enough to rent a big cabin that fit our huge family much better. It was really nice to have a washer and dryer, multiple bathrooms, and 2 kitchens!

We stayed in Idaho Falls on Friday night at Mark & Carrie’s house. Then we all drove the rest of the way to the cabin in Island Park. Lissie, Alex and Brigham squeezed into our car and we had a good time on the drive up to Island Park.

This is a good picture of the great room in the cabin. There was a lot of room for all of us and with 13 kids age 9 and under, we needed a lot of room! The mosquitoes were absolutely horrible this year with all the water so we didn’t spend much time outside at all and we spent a lot of time killing mosquitoes in the house and reapplying bug spray!

The kids had fun eating on the deck even though the mosquitoes were swarming!

Dan and Ben posing with their nurf guns…the boys had some fun shooting each other and getting nurf darts everywhere.

We were quite the caravan while we drove around Yellowstone. 5 vehicles and tons of people…we took over everywhere we went but it was a blast! This was at lunch in Mammoth and the kids were enjoying their sandwiches on the grass. There are still 5 other grandkids not in this picture! Mia, Katelyn, Emmy, Lissie, Sarah, Wellyn, Addy and Brigham. Love these kids.

     Lissie, Ryan and Emmy checking out the geysers and hot pots.

Wellyn absolutely adores Addy and this picture proves it! He follows her around everywhere and just loves her. It’s really cute. Mia is showing me her blue tongue from eating an airhead!

  Dan and I chillin’ with Everett while we were waiting for Old Faithful to start. He loves his Lightning McQueen jammies so much he wouldn’t let Julie change his shirt! So he wore it all day. This is a funny picture of him too, he’s a sweetheart. 

Grandpa and Everett. Marty loves his family and especially his grandkids so much and they love him! He spoils them and is so sweet with them. The little boys especially love him and are always asking for Papa! Everett is also helping Amanda push Ryan in the stroller.

The fam set up for lunch near Old Faithful and grandpa handed out treats and ice cream sandwiches.      Enjoying the rocking chairs with ice cream sandwiches. I love Everett’s blue eyes and chocolately face!

      I’m such a lucky girl…I seriously love this boy!

  Addy showing off her cute sunglasses. Brigham was the only injury of the week and he sliced his shin open on one of the bedrames. Carrie had to take him to Idaho Falls and he ended up with 16 stitches! But he was back the next morning and ready to rock. What a stud.

 

Dan with the newest member of the family (Matt). Dan was making him laugh really hard and it was so cute!

Dan and I had to leave on Wednesday evening because he had to work on Thursday. But we had a blast with the family and enjoyed the cooler weather and just being outdoors in Yellowstone! We already have plans to go back with just the two of us over Labor Day to celebrate Dan’s graduation. He loves it up there and dreams about having cabin there someday!

Summertime

 

I have a lot of catch up to do…we had a fun 4th of July, we went to Yellowstone with the ENTIRE (29 people) family, and I have been finishing some projects I need to show everyone! But here are some pics of our 4th of July weekend.

Dan and I wanted to do something on the 2nd, but didn’t know what to do so we found out West Haven was having “West Haven Days” so we went on over there to check things out. It ended up being awesomely awesome with loads of crazy redneck/white trash people roaming around, and we had a blast! We love living in the “country” (at least it’s country to us), and some of the people really make it interesting! We at some gyros and watched a FREE rodeo! It was a really good rodeo too and we ended up staying for a good fireworks show at the end and meeting up with Jon and Julie.

On Sunday, we had our usual fast Sunday dinner at Dan’s parents house but we stayed late and did fireworks. We ended up getting into a HUGE water fight and we all got pretty soaked. It was really fun and felt great since it was soooo hot, but none of us had dry clothes to wear. Luckily, Debbie came through with her incredible Mumu collection and we all borrowed one for the evening.

I think we ended up liking them a little too much and all of us kept them on the whole night! It was freaking out our husbands a little because they kept thinking each of us was Debbie. Sweet.

Let’s play “Find Julie!” She is blending into the quilt…amazing camouflage in her Mumu.

I have a lot of cutie cute pictures of Mia. She loves to make this angry face and does it a lot, but she’s really a sweetheart and smiles and laughs a lot.

Mia’s popsicle face and Addy with her sparkler.

Grandma and Grandpa with Mia enjoying the fireworks show. Dan and Jon bought TONS of fireworks and had a little too much fun with the new laws about aerial fireworks. But it was great and we loved it.

These last two pictures are the epitome of summertime for me. My adorable niece and nephew (Everett and Mia), barefoot, eating popsicles. Seriously so precious.