This is my wedding ring.

No, it has not been run over by a car. Yes, it is suppose to be in the shape of a circle, not a hexagon. We were young, cheap, inexperienced jewelery purchasers when we bought this hunk of metal.

When we decided to get married, we went to the outlet mall in Leesburg, VA and stopped at a jewelery store there. I really could have had any pick of ring but I was looking for something unique. I was also afraid to buy a large, tall ring because I wasn’t too fancy of a person and thought it might catch on stuff.

So when I saw this dainty, previously owned ring, I thought it was quite the deal and just right for me. It had such a tiny diamond in it that the jeweler convinced us that we should buy an ugly solitaire with a larger diamond and swapped the stones. The total cost of both rings were sooo under our budget that we were quite proud of ourselves.

It didn’t take me long to realize that we had bought a lemon. I began to realize how small it actually was and felt some regret, but when the band started to become misshapen, I felt terrible. It was me that had picked it out and I’m sure Jer would have bought me something much nicer.

We took it to get reshaped a number of times and jewelers were stumped why the supposed white gold was so soft. Someone even said that maybe it was platinum. It was some mysterious cheap kind of something. That I knew. Either way it shouldn’t have bent so easily with every day wear.

At some point in our marriage I started to complain about it, especially when the prongs started breaking and the diamond became loose. I became naggy and would ask for a new ring for every birthday or anniversary. I wasn’t feeling too sentimental towards the beat up ring.

A little after our 4 year anniversary, I got a new ring. This time Jer picked it out and surprised me with it. It was gorgeous, sturdy and to this day is still shaped in a circle. Love it.

But that is not the point of my story.

Tomorrow is our 7 year anniversary and last night we planned a date to celebrate. The date was nothing fancy but perfect for us. We went rock climbing and grabbed a bite to eat. Jer told me he had bought me a little something and to look in the glove box. I pulled out this…

The picture doesn’t do it justice. It is the diamond from my first ring! I love it! I love it sooooo much. I can barely stand it. It’s such a beautiful, delicate little thing and I love it because Jer thought of it and did it for me. I never thought I would love something so much from him. It reminds me of the first years together… trying to be thrifty, learning how to love, not knowing much about anything. Not knowing how to communicate or make decisions. We’ve grown so much… together. It’s been great and I wouldn’t change it for anything.

Sometimes it feels like it’s been forever since I’ve become a Mrs. but other days it seems like it was yesterday that I was driving off to the east coast in a itty bitty Ford Festiva packed to the brim with our belongings. But here we are and I’m not quite sure how it all happened but it has happened… and it’s been lovely.

Thanks for the journey. Love you, hunny.

Yesterday, Isaac and I spent 3 hours at Primary Children’s Hospital. Don’t worry. It wasn’t anything serious. We went to see the  Ophthalmologist there. Isaac has an occasional wandering eye.

He has Intermittent Exotropia Strabismus.

To translate that: intermittent (sometimes) exotropia (wanders outward away from the nose) Strabismus (misalignment of the eyes)

I went in expecting to come home with eye patches but the doctor told us that it’s not a muscle thing, it’s a brain thing and patching the eyes wont do any good. Patches are only used when there is decreased vision in the eye, when it’s more of a lazy eye (amblyopia.) But strabismus can lead to amblyopia if not treated.

Isaac’s brain needs to tell the eye to focus. When Isaac’s eye wanders he needs to focus to snap it back into place. Doc said that we’d just monitor it, see him in 6 months.

If it gets worst, around the age of 7, we’d do surgery. If it wanders 50% of the time he’d need surgery. He said that 1/3 of kids grow out of it. 1/3 need surgery and 1/3 live with a mild case.

Surgery is only a cosmetic thing and doesn’t fix the vision. The child can loose total vision in the eye because his brain has been suppressing the double vision. Multiple surgerys may be needed. It just keeps people from saying “Hey, are you looking at me?”

So of course I came home and googled it. What the doc said seems to be right although there are a bunch of conflicting websites with all kinds of different stats. Doc didn’t say anything about vision therapy because of course he just does surgery. Depending on the severity depends on how aggressively it is treated. One site did say something about linking developmental delays such a speech with strabismus. Humm, sounds like Isaac.

Overall, the information seems a bit confusing. Do treatment. Don’t do treatment. It will help. It will do nothing or even make it worse. Hummm.

I went to bed with my eyes feeling quite achy.

ps. don’t look to closely at any of these photos of Isaac. His eye is not wandering in any of them.

This morning I sat down to feed Leah in one of the bedrooms. I could hear in the other room that Emma and Isaac were having a little tussle. Emma then called out for my help. Leah was peacefully eating and drifting off to dream land. There was no way I was going to startle her by calling out and revealing my location.

The kids then started searching the house for me. They needed a mediator. I heard them venture down stairs in hopes of finding me there. Isaac started to get worried and the tears and screaming began. “MOM, were are YOU?”

It only took one minute for them to find me. They opened the bedroom door and I quickly put my finger to my lips in a great big dramatic “Shhhhhhh.” They understood the message.

Isaac’s crying immediately stopped upon seeing me. They must have forgotten about their conflict and left me in peace. Just knowing I was home and around was comforting enough.

I’ve been thinking about my little job that I do every day. It involves hugging, feeding, washing, laughing, reading. I take if for granted that these little guys are all mine and under my care. I’m the most important person in their lives right now.

And for some reason, they need to know that I’m home.

This is what I wish I was doing right now.

We’ve completely worn ourselves out with all of our summer travels. Our summer has been a great one but I just can’t seem to catch up with sleep. Every morning I have a little boy voice whining in my ear, “Mommy, I’m hunnnee (hungry)” and I just want to roll over and bury my head in the pillows and say “Go feed yourself.” Besides feeling like a total slacker mom, I know that if I do that I will have to clean itty bitty bits of cereal up all over the floor. No thanks.

I’m finding myself looking forward to school starting.

Actually, I have pretty mixed feelings about it. Emma is starting first grade. Sending her off for a whole 7 hours seems a bit crazy. I wonder how long her excitement will last. I hoping that it’s last longer than 3 weeks. If not, I’ll be in trouble.

We went up to Lava Hot Springs last week and had a blast swimming until everyone was water logged. I’m officially crappy at remembering to take photos. I really wanted one of Emma coming down the curly slide but this is all that I have. Emma and her cousins made boats out of juice boxes. We had to make some major adjustments to the mass before they’d float but they finally worked.

Here is my wee one. She turned 4 months last week. She is such a squishy ball of fun. I can’t seem to kiss those cheeks and squeeze those appendages enough.

Sorry ya’ll about the private post. I was wanted to share a bunch of photos with my in-laws and uploading them to the blog was the easiest way to do it.

The busy summer continues… Our latest adventure was, yet again, another family reunion. This time it was Jeremy’s mom side. His cute grandma gets us all a nice condo up at Wolf Creek. It’s basically like the Park City of Ogden. There is golfing, swimming, lots of eating and a day at the lake. We had a great little trip. Here’s some pictures of us enjoying the lake.

This is my attempt to get a cute picture of Leah. She is such a doll but just wont cooperate for the camera.

Another big thing that has happened around out house is that Emma had a birthday and turned 6. It’s amazing how exciting it is for kids to turn one year older. Emma could barely stand it. I got tired of hearing the question “How many more days until my birthday?” The day I was able to say “Today!” was a wonderful one as she went screaming all about the house.

I threw together a little swim party for her. It turned out perfect and I think all the kiddos from the neighborhood had a blast.