Lola has been having increasing issues with her eyesight since the beginning of 6th grade, although with each optometrist visit her sight was pretty close to 20/20. During this visit we were somewhat prepared for the inevitability of glasses / contacts, so it was no surprise when the doctor announced the time had finally come.
And so, with a mini-workshop from the doctor’s assistant, Lola learned how to insert, remove, and care for contact lenses. An order was placed for some disposable lenses, as well as a pair of glasses as back-up.
Later on while at home, Lola proudly came to me with a baby tooth she had lost. It was amazing, she said, because she was just sitting there watching tv and when she pushed the tooth with her tongue it magically disengaged itself from her gumline!! I teased her that the Tooth Fairy would have to come out of retirement to pay her a little visit during the night.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Sunday, July 12, 2009
4th of July in Iowa - Part 2
I love my home town. It’s Storm Lake, Iowa, population about 10,000 and it’s a place dear to my heart. Within recent years, there have been numerous changes to the town. Some group made the decision to tear down our beloved public swimming pool (where I would guess the admission price to be something like $3.00 per person) as well as other buildings and in their places construct a resort-style hotel, restaurant, conference center, indoor and outdoor pool / water park. The complex is now known as King's Point Resort. As a consequence, the admission to their water park ranges from $14.00 pp for either the indoor or outdoor facility to something like $22.00 pp for both parks. I noticed on their website that they even charge admission of $5.00 for people who do not wish to swim!
We decided to pass up that wallet-sucking experience and head to the lovely little town of Alta (5 miles away) to use their public pool. Lola was excited the pool in Alta has diving boards. She didn’t know how to dive, but within a couple hours she learned to dive off the side of the pool and then on to the brave move of diving off the boards!!
While swimming there three days in a row, Lola made a new friend named Izzy. Izzy (short for Isabel) is a year younger and lives just a couple blocks from the pool. We have her address so we can keep in touch, and hopefully we’ll have a chance to see her when we make a visit back to Iowa for the Christmas holiday!
On the morning we left Storm Lake to head back to the Minneapolis airport we stopped at my old elementary school, which I had heard was going to be torn down soon. I just had to take some photos of the poor old building before its demise. There are many memories from that school, and I'm a little saddened about the plans to raze it.
How things change! Storm Lake, at one time, had five public elementary schools. During the time I was in middle or high school, Hayes Elementary outside of town was closed. Now the remaining four - North, South, East and West, have all been replaced by a brand-new elementary school on the west edge of town, large enough to accomodate all. I remember the 1/2 day track meet that took place every spring, with participants from the third through the sixth grades. All five of the elementary schools would compete against one another in various events at the high school track. That is one of the fondest memories of my early school days.
We decided to pass up that wallet-sucking experience and head to the lovely little town of Alta (5 miles away) to use their public pool. Lola was excited the pool in Alta has diving boards. She didn’t know how to dive, but within a couple hours she learned to dive off the side of the pool and then on to the brave move of diving off the boards!!
While swimming there three days in a row, Lola made a new friend named Izzy. Izzy (short for Isabel) is a year younger and lives just a couple blocks from the pool. We have her address so we can keep in touch, and hopefully we’ll have a chance to see her when we make a visit back to Iowa for the Christmas holiday!
On the morning we left Storm Lake to head back to the Minneapolis airport we stopped at my old elementary school, which I had heard was going to be torn down soon. I just had to take some photos of the poor old building before its demise. There are many memories from that school, and I'm a little saddened about the plans to raze it.
How things change! Storm Lake, at one time, had five public elementary schools. During the time I was in middle or high school, Hayes Elementary outside of town was closed. Now the remaining four - North, South, East and West, have all been replaced by a brand-new elementary school on the west edge of town, large enough to accomodate all. I remember the 1/2 day track meet that took place every spring, with participants from the third through the sixth grades. All five of the elementary schools would compete against one another in various events at the high school track. That is one of the fondest memories of my early school days.
4th of July in Iowa - Part 1
We spent the July 4th holiday in Iowa at my mom’s and in Nebraska at my friend Dawn’s house. We had a blast cooking on the grill, watching fireworks over the lake, hanging out with “babushka” and swimming in Iowa, and spending a couple days in Omaha visiting Dawn and her dogs and cat.
The day we flew in we landed in Minneapolis - - the airfare was much less expensive than flying into Omaha, and I figured on the 4-hour drive from the Twin Cities to Storm Lake we could stop for an hour or two at Lake Okoboji so Lola could swim.
Upon arriving at the lake, the water was COLD!! Lola was braver than I, and she jumped in excitedly. I soaked up some sun while she splashed and swam around. After about 30 minutes, she decided she had had enough and so we packed our stuff up to go. As I picked up my towel, the sand flies began attacking my feet and legs. I'm sure it was quite entertaining for those around us as I jumped, slapped my legs and danced around in pain from the bites. Once we got inside the car I counted five bites - - two on my foot, and the other three on my legs. Nasty little things drew blood, too! The ones on my foot began to swell almost immediately, and took many days to heal. Luckily my mom had an aloe vera plant and some hydrogen peroxide, and the combination of those did the trick to bring the swelling down and help keep them from itching. I'm quite thankful (and utterly amazed) that Lola never got even ONE bite!
We continued on to my mom's house and relaxed for the night and then the next morning we had planned to spend a couple days at Dawn's house in Omaha before returning to Mom's for the remainder of our visit.
The evening we got to Omaha we planned to meet Dawn at Surfside - - -one of my all-time favorite places to eat. It’s situated on the Missouri River north of the city and is famous for its chicken and catfish dinners. It’s quite informal - - jeans or shorts are allowed, but as the sign indicates absolutely no cut-offs or swimsuits, and one must be wearing shirt and shoes!
There are tables arranged on a long patio parallel to the river, and from what I hear it is not unusual for boaters to drive by and moon anyone enjoying their meal. For those who wish not to be mooned, there is an indoor dining room.
The highlight of the restaurant, aside from their to-die-for fried catfish and hush puppies, are the cute little raccoons who live in the tall grass by the outdoor dining area who come up for food. Lola was enamored by them, and took a fancy to the mama raccoon and her baby who came up to clean the chicken off the bones that were tossed over the railing. The mama would take the bones and disappear into the grass to the river, wash the bones, then eat the chicken from them, and return in a few minutes for more!
We visited the park at Standing Bear Lake, where there are several large metal tubes inserted upright in the ground on a small hill overlooking the park and lake. The tubes have holes placed in strategic locations, and with even just the slightest breath of wind, the tubes emit a beautiful but rather eerie harmonic moaning sound. I, personally, find it comforting and relaxing, but I do know some other people find it a bit disturbing. Unfortunately, there was absolutely NO wind that evening so we were not able to experience it this time around.
The next morning we went to the Henry Doorly Zoo (my personal favorite), checked in on most of the animals, went through the rain forest exhibit (Lola loved this), attended the Imax 3-D movie “Under the Sea” and rode on the aerial tram across the zoo complex. It was a total blast!
Dawn told Lola to choose a stuffed animal from the gift shop as her birthday present, so Lola came to the IMAX theater with a stuffed white tiger. She named it Scooter, after our dearly departed cat.
Scooter the stuffed white tiger made a trip to the Cat House, and Lola put him on the ledge outside the glass of the white tiger exhibit. A female tiger came up and pawed the glass as if to get to the little tiger - - we figured she thought it was a baby tiger!! It was amazing!
That evening we drove back to Iowa just in time for dinner and then down to the lake to see the 4th fireworks. Lola took her shoes off and sat on a dock with her feet dangling in the water while watching.
The day we flew in we landed in Minneapolis - - the airfare was much less expensive than flying into Omaha, and I figured on the 4-hour drive from the Twin Cities to Storm Lake we could stop for an hour or two at Lake Okoboji so Lola could swim.
Upon arriving at the lake, the water was COLD!! Lola was braver than I, and she jumped in excitedly. I soaked up some sun while she splashed and swam around. After about 30 minutes, she decided she had had enough and so we packed our stuff up to go. As I picked up my towel, the sand flies began attacking my feet and legs. I'm sure it was quite entertaining for those around us as I jumped, slapped my legs and danced around in pain from the bites. Once we got inside the car I counted five bites - - two on my foot, and the other three on my legs. Nasty little things drew blood, too! The ones on my foot began to swell almost immediately, and took many days to heal. Luckily my mom had an aloe vera plant and some hydrogen peroxide, and the combination of those did the trick to bring the swelling down and help keep them from itching. I'm quite thankful (and utterly amazed) that Lola never got even ONE bite!
We continued on to my mom's house and relaxed for the night and then the next morning we had planned to spend a couple days at Dawn's house in Omaha before returning to Mom's for the remainder of our visit.
The evening we got to Omaha we planned to meet Dawn at Surfside - - -one of my all-time favorite places to eat. It’s situated on the Missouri River north of the city and is famous for its chicken and catfish dinners. It’s quite informal - - jeans or shorts are allowed, but as the sign indicates absolutely no cut-offs or swimsuits, and one must be wearing shirt and shoes!
There are tables arranged on a long patio parallel to the river, and from what I hear it is not unusual for boaters to drive by and moon anyone enjoying their meal. For those who wish not to be mooned, there is an indoor dining room.
The highlight of the restaurant, aside from their to-die-for fried catfish and hush puppies, are the cute little raccoons who live in the tall grass by the outdoor dining area who come up for food. Lola was enamored by them, and took a fancy to the mama raccoon and her baby who came up to clean the chicken off the bones that were tossed over the railing. The mama would take the bones and disappear into the grass to the river, wash the bones, then eat the chicken from them, and return in a few minutes for more!
We visited the park at Standing Bear Lake, where there are several large metal tubes inserted upright in the ground on a small hill overlooking the park and lake. The tubes have holes placed in strategic locations, and with even just the slightest breath of wind, the tubes emit a beautiful but rather eerie harmonic moaning sound. I, personally, find it comforting and relaxing, but I do know some other people find it a bit disturbing. Unfortunately, there was absolutely NO wind that evening so we were not able to experience it this time around.
The next morning we went to the Henry Doorly Zoo (my personal favorite), checked in on most of the animals, went through the rain forest exhibit (Lola loved this), attended the Imax 3-D movie “Under the Sea” and rode on the aerial tram across the zoo complex. It was a total blast!
Dawn told Lola to choose a stuffed animal from the gift shop as her birthday present, so Lola came to the IMAX theater with a stuffed white tiger. She named it Scooter, after our dearly departed cat.
Scooter the stuffed white tiger made a trip to the Cat House, and Lola put him on the ledge outside the glass of the white tiger exhibit. A female tiger came up and pawed the glass as if to get to the little tiger - - we figured she thought it was a baby tiger!! It was amazing!
That evening we drove back to Iowa just in time for dinner and then down to the lake to see the 4th fireworks. Lola took her shoes off and sat on a dock with her feet dangling in the water while watching.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Cat Parties
My house, I’m sad to say, has become what looks like a wind tunnel testing area. Clothes from both of us are everywhere, shoes line the hallway and wet towels from swimming adorn most of the downstairs doorknobs (Lola sometimes just drops them on the floor - - the doorknob option is a quick fix until I take the them upstairs to put in the dryer). In addition, there are several blankets moved from room to room (or level to level) and rugs bunched up at the end of the hallway, courtesy of the cats. So it appears I don’t pick up after just two residents, but actually four!
Here is just one example of a typical day at the house:
"Oh, are you leaving? We'll be good - - we're just going to take a nap."
"We promise we won't rug surf!"
"Oh, YES! We PROMISE!"
"ohhhhhhh, hi.....this is not what it looks like...."
Oh, yes, there are rug-surfing parties, litter box parties (where they see who can knock the litter scoop into the box and bury it first), slam-dancing parties (they usually have those while we are home), and massage parties (pictured below).
"Ohhhhhh, I am sooo relaxed....this head massage rocks!"
Here is just one example of a typical day at the house:
"Oh, are you leaving? We'll be good - - we're just going to take a nap."
"We promise we won't rug surf!"
"Oh, YES! We PROMISE!"
"ohhhhhhh, hi.....this is not what it looks like...."
Oh, yes, there are rug-surfing parties, litter box parties (where they see who can knock the litter scoop into the box and bury it first), slam-dancing parties (they usually have those while we are home), and massage parties (pictured below).
"Ohhhhhh, I am sooo relaxed....this head massage rocks!"
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Lola's 12th Birthday
Every few days since the middle of May Lola had reminded me exactly how many days there were until her birthday. As the big day approached it was interesting to watch her increased excitement. Strangely enough, this year she didn’t ask a lot of questions about her presents. I had sent her off with Kimmi one evening so I could stay home and do a little gift-wrapping, and when Lola came home she asked me if I had gotten her ‘surprises’ wrapped. The subject was pretty much abandoned after I assured her they were definitely wrapped.
And so, the big day finally came - - June 27 - - and it began just like every other Saturday with horseback riding lessons, lunch, then ice-skating lessons. Her party was scheduled for 3pm, with her invitees meeting us at the skating rink for a couple hours on the ice, then a short drive to Pizza Hut for dinner, cupcakes and gift-opening. We had invited about 20 people, including children, their parents and several adult invitees but when the day came we had only four children (Boris, Nastya, Nastya’s little sister Masha, and Natalie, a friend of Lola’s from horseback lessons) and their parents. The others whom Lola had invited were busy with summer vacation, church activities and other obligations. Even so, it was a fun day and Lola had a wonderful time spending time with the friends that were able to attend.
Boris & Lola begging Boris' dad to skate
Nastya
Nastya & Natalie
Lola practicing her lunge
Lola & Nastya
Just Goofing Around
The pizza party (opening gifts)
Nastya, Masha, Lola and Boris
Later, after the party, Lola opened her other gifts with Petie and Sebastian's help.
Friday, June 26, 2009
The Need For Speed
As usual, we went ice-skating last Sunday - - - it was Father’s Day and the lack of attendance at the rink made skating a wonderfully private event. As usual, I had to have a few fast laps around the rink - - and as I was happily speeding down the ice I noticed a patch of water at about the same time I touched it with my skate blade. The presence of the water created somewhat of a braking effect and I didn’t have time to adjust my balance for it. However, rather than land face first on the ice I did manage to shift my weight and bend my knees a bit so as to land properly (or so I thought). Even so, I landed squarely on my rear end and at that moment a feeling of both extreme pain and a wash of intense heat inside my lower trunk took place. I then crawled out of what seemed to be about a quarter-inch of water standing at the end of the rink! Lola came over to see if I was ok and I sat in the bleachers for about ten minutes, all the while fighting nausea and light-headedness that accompanied the pain and numbness in my butt and tingling in my hands! I do hate that when I’m injured my body betrays me by acting ill!
So there I sat, scolding myself for having a need for speed, and gradually the light-headedness subsided. So what did I do? Why, I got back out there on the ice and skated some more, of course!! I didn’t hurt as much at that point, although I knew that pain-free feeling wouldn’t last.
When we went home the reality began to set in. I couldn’t bend over, couldn’t sit in a chair without looking startlingly akin to Tim Conway in his famous “old man” skit, and had a hilarious time crawing (literally) into bed, all the while muttering “ow, ow, OW!” under my breath. Lola, of course, was thinking this was quite entertaining, but was maybe just a LITTLE sympathetic.
Getting up the next morning for work was an adventure in itself. I knew it would take longer than usual. I called the doctor and set up an appointment to see what she could determine. I had x-rays taken at lunchtime. The doctor asked if I was taking anything for the pain and I was literally surprised, because it never occurred to me that I could have done that. Why? I don’t know. I guess I just figured it was my own fault for going too fast and therefore I felt as though I was pretty much destined to own the pain. The option of taking an Advil or whatever was not even in my realm of thinking!
After the x-rays I went back to work and by late afternoon felt ok enough to attend my first official ice skating lesson. My instructor was very understanding and I had a good time in spite of hurting!
I didn’t get the x-ray results back until today, and per the radiologist, nothing is broken! HOORAY!!!!!! So all I need to do is relax and chill out and wait to heal whatever got scrambled around in there. And yes, it still hurts! But it’s getting slightly less intense each day…
So there I sat, scolding myself for having a need for speed, and gradually the light-headedness subsided. So what did I do? Why, I got back out there on the ice and skated some more, of course!! I didn’t hurt as much at that point, although I knew that pain-free feeling wouldn’t last.
When we went home the reality began to set in. I couldn’t bend over, couldn’t sit in a chair without looking startlingly akin to Tim Conway in his famous “old man” skit, and had a hilarious time crawing (literally) into bed, all the while muttering “ow, ow, OW!” under my breath. Lola, of course, was thinking this was quite entertaining, but was maybe just a LITTLE sympathetic.
Getting up the next morning for work was an adventure in itself. I knew it would take longer than usual. I called the doctor and set up an appointment to see what she could determine. I had x-rays taken at lunchtime. The doctor asked if I was taking anything for the pain and I was literally surprised, because it never occurred to me that I could have done that. Why? I don’t know. I guess I just figured it was my own fault for going too fast and therefore I felt as though I was pretty much destined to own the pain. The option of taking an Advil or whatever was not even in my realm of thinking!
After the x-rays I went back to work and by late afternoon felt ok enough to attend my first official ice skating lesson. My instructor was very understanding and I had a good time in spite of hurting!
I didn’t get the x-ray results back until today, and per the radiologist, nothing is broken! HOORAY!!!!!! So all I need to do is relax and chill out and wait to heal whatever got scrambled around in there. And yes, it still hurts! But it’s getting slightly less intense each day…
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
People-Watching
No matter where I am I love to watch people - - - in their cars, walking, waiting for the bus, it doesn’t matter. People are simply fun to observe! This morning while driving to work my point of interest for the day was to make note of how people walk. I find it fascinating that everyone has their own unique gait. Some are fast, or slow, choppy, smooth, slinky, loping, lazy or agitated. I have never thought about it, but I wonder if a person’s gait belies or agrees with their personality? Hmmmmm….I wonder if government grants are given out to study such things? I’m sure they have been awarded for stranger studies…
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